Before today, I made an 8 hour (7:59:59 to be exact) playlist of songs with words associated with Halloween. So, I’ve got Nature Trail to Hell, Skeleton Key, Monster, Ghosts, etc…
Anyway, here’s a few tracks in celebration of Halloween. Hope you enjoy!
Bloodbuzz Ohio by The National
RE: Your Brains by Jonathan Colton
Friend of the Devil by The Grateful Dead
Ghost on the Canvas by Glenn Campbell
and of course
I Put a Spell on You by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
Hope you enjoy!
This video shows an elementary school production of 2001: A Space Odyssey in 4:40. The movie itself is weird, it certainly won’t ever be on my list of greatest movies, but this video is pretty cool.
I first discovered this band in 2011, put on hold randomly at the library because I liked the name.
I was given this album as a free download this week from noise trade. American Aquarium is an americana revival band along the same lines as Mumford and Sons or The Head and the Heart.
Their 2013 album Burn.Flicker.Die, is solid from start to finish.
This is the strongest song from that album.
In 1999, when the mass shooting at Columbine High School happened, I was in college. That quarter, I was in an English class where we had to write several papers revolving around a topic of our choice. My choice of topic for the quarter was “individuality”. Anyway, I was in the middle of writing one of the papers to turn in later that week when the news broke.
Yesterday’s shooting at Marysville-Pilchuck High School is what makes me want to tell the anecdote I’m about to tell. I know people who live in Marysville and one of the 4 people I rank among my best friends graduated from that school.
Anyway, as I was writing my paper for English class, news reports were coming in about what may have been going through the minds of the shooters. Already people were blaming the music the shooters may or may not have been listening to as a possible explanation. Essentially, there were people trying to blame a mass shooting on music like Marilyn Manson.
Now, Marilyn Manson may not be one of my favorite artists, but he does happen to have a time and a place in my musical likes. As an early adult, I happened to gravitate toward some of the heavier music that was popular at the time. I was a young father trying to get through school and trying to be happy in an unbalanced relationship. That meant that I understood Marilyn Manson’s place in the popular music of the day. And those who know me would never suggest that I was anywhere near a risk to anybody for anything similar to what was happening at Columbine that day.
I wrote my paper about a short history of blaming music for horrible acts. I spoke about the Parents Music Resource Council and they’re filthy fifteen songs they felt should be banned from radio. I spoke about the Senate hearings surrounding said list and problems associated with freedom of speech issues surrounding banning songs from radio play. I also spoke about the erroneous correlation between people hearing angry music and people being violent people. As an example, I drew a connection between the incredible number of people who liked Marilyn Manson and the smaller subset of people who were involved in mass shootings.
The paper was turned in within days of the shootings at Columbine. I’d like to think I had the first academic paper about the Columbine shootings, playing my own little part in defending the rights of free speech, even speech that people may find abhorrent, evil or spiteful, from those who wish to curtail their right to say it.
A few years later, Michael Moore interviewed Marilyn Manson in the movie Bowling for Columbine. Both of them made this point better than I ever could, but it felt good to have essentially the same idea I’d had portrayed not just in any old movie, but one that won an Academy Award for best documentary.
First off, as a thank you to somebody who clicked on my website from an internet search, I even remembered that TWIABP & IANLATD had a new album coming out this fall.
Second, welcome back guys!
I have yet to digest this song, as I just looked the album up, but after last years Getting Sodas track, I am very much looking forward to see what more this band has to offer. When a band amazes me I generally follow them until they have an album without any good songs on it. This band is officially on my radar and I will continue to follow them as their career progresses.
In 2009, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum celebrated 25 years of inducting rock and roll artists, bands, sidemen and influences into the museum. See, a person becomes eligible for induction 25 years after their first material was released. This meant that simultaneously, they were celebrating 50 years of Rock and Roll history.
They celebrated with a pair of concerts and each night, the indomitable Jerry Lee Lewis opened the evening. Some may not know, but Lewis got his start at about the same time, in the same recording studio as Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley and Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison. Over 50 years later, he’s the last man standing among that group.
So, enjoy two performance of the same song from approximately 50 years apart:
1958
2009
I remember seeing the cover of the Run the Jewels album, a collaboration between two rappers, El-P and Killer Mike. What I just found out was that their new single, titled Close Your Eyes (and Count to Fuck) features a guest verse by Zack de la Rocha of Rage Against the Machine fame.
The verse comes last in the song, which seems to be about people paying more attention to what’s in fashion than American industry. Zack’s verse also features two references to Miles Davis albums, Miles Ahead and Bitches Brew.
I’m still not sure what to make of the track, but it is good to hear the lyrical flow of Mr. de la Rocha again.
This is a song about a couple of young people from Denton…named Brad and Janet.
The Mountain Goats were originally the project of singer and songwriter John Darnielle. He wrote for an acoustic guitar, but he made beautifully lo-fi songs with lyrics that told engaging stories. One of his better albums was titled All Hail West Texas, which is of course where Denton is located.
The funny thing about the video above is that Brad and Janet of Rocky Horror fame were from Denton. But that’s not why I’m writing this blog post. I’m writing for the next song he performed in Denton that evening.
This is a song about a couple of young people from Denton…named Jeff and Cyrus.
For those who may not remember, I like this song more than every song written by The Beatles and beat out only by two other tracks. If you like his track, I recommend their tracks Tallahassee, Cubs in Five, This Year, or Dance Music.
This version was recorded at a BBC radio session in November 1991, about 2 months after the release of Nevermind. I love it because before the 20th anniversary deluxe edition of Nevermind, I had no idea this version even existed. It’s electric for one thing, whereas the original is acoustic. It also has some amazing feedback guitar at the end of each chorus.
20 years after Cobain’s suicide, I’m wary that anything else of this magnitude will ever be released under the Nirvana moniker, but there is still a version of my favorite song by them that hasn’t seen the light of day.
Dear Nirvana-
Please release the Sound City studios version of Sappy. I know we’ve been given 6 versions of the track through the years, but if there’s any justice in the world, this version should also see the light of day.
Best Wishes,
SeattleMusicNerd
An update on a post from a week or two ago. Some people have begun receiving their Sleater-Kinney vinyl re-release box sets and they seem to come with a one sided 7″ single featuring a new song nobody’s heard before.
http://consequenceofsound.net/2014/10/sleater-kinney-release-first-new-song-in-nine-years-bury-our-friends-listen/
The site link says it’s fueling rumors of a new Sleater-Kinney album, as the only marking on the single is 1/20/15.
Dear Sleater-Kinney,
Please make this happen. You would make one Seattle Music Nerd very happy.
Thank you.
seattlemusicnerd 