Dio and Appice Carmen join forces... To take over the World!
If I had to choose the songwriters of the moment (for me, anyway, and you all are very welcome to disagree) I would have to say:
Bob Pollard
Ryan Adams
Jeff Tweedy
Elliot Smith (even though he is dead. The way I figure it, everytime an ear hears his work, his music comes alive. So I am counting it.)
These people have unique voices and the amazing ability to balance simplicity with subtlety. They can string together elements of song that are so stripped down and bare that they can make us smack ourselves with palm-to-forehead, and (in a moment of Homer-like reverie) say to ourselves: ‘D’oh! Why didn’t I think of that!’
To counter this, we have:
Fallout Boy
Nickelback
Trapt
To name a few. I am in a state of musical renewal right now. I have checked out many artists in the past few days, but among the most noteworthy:
Belle and Sebastian, A LOT of Guided By Voices, Wilco, Brian Eno, Cat Power (that’s right, you heard me), David Bowie, Johnny Thunders, The Beach Boys, Nick Drake, Spoon, and The Verve, to name a few. If you are a geek, I would recommend any one of the aforementioned bands.
I wrote the following intro to a paper in a class. I will post it here only because I am not smart enough link it to elsewhere:
The public bathroom wall always provides a "colorful" reading experience, and one Monday morning the reading and artwork was especially vivid. Apparently, I was not the first one to notice; another unnamed aspiring '’Che Gueverra’(sp?) had scribbled a short expose on the current state of graffiti. He wrote, in an angular and harried prose (and I quote): "We should be using this space to advocate change and to start revolutions, and start acting like we actually give a (expletive deleted) about our voices and stop waisting it on intellect devoid advertisements" (italics mine). And I found myself pondering what a friend had told me some years before, when asked why he had chosen education as his field of study. "I am going to teach," he said, "because revolution, it begins in the classroom." Now I may be taking this men's room 'call to arms' a little too seriously, but I found the emotional fortitude of the anonymous as much a 'waist' of space as the other colorful-metaphor-laden proclamations and various ‘art’ works. How, I asked myself, does one expect to change the government when one has a difficulty spelling it? Luckily, I too had a pen handy and quickly decided to add my own two cents to the freedom of speech rally: "Somebody get this 'radical' a spellcheck!" I wrote, briefly rifling through my bag and only half rationally hoping to find my 7th grade Lit Teacher’s big, obnoxious red pen.
Anyway, I think we are playing 4 shows this weekend. If anyone is in town, come check us out at Kraftbrau. Also, pray to the Gods of Rock ‘n Roll for the Hell or Highwater boys as they make their long and arduous trek across these here United States in order to bring the Rock.
Oh, I almost forgot: I am now employed at WMU’s Writing Center. Finally, I am working somewhere in the vicinity of what I want to do with my life. The movies were right after all: There is light at the end of the tunnel.
Seriously, I need to never post on sleep deprivated, mainlined night of caffeine pills. Or, maybe I just need to rock out to more Dio. Whichever happens first.
PS: Keep your friends close. Keep Chuck Norris closer.
Bob Pollard
Ryan Adams
Jeff Tweedy
Elliot Smith (even though he is dead. The way I figure it, everytime an ear hears his work, his music comes alive. So I am counting it.)
These people have unique voices and the amazing ability to balance simplicity with subtlety. They can string together elements of song that are so stripped down and bare that they can make us smack ourselves with palm-to-forehead, and (in a moment of Homer-like reverie) say to ourselves: ‘D’oh! Why didn’t I think of that!’
To counter this, we have:
Fallout Boy
Nickelback
Trapt
To name a few. I am in a state of musical renewal right now. I have checked out many artists in the past few days, but among the most noteworthy:
Belle and Sebastian, A LOT of Guided By Voices, Wilco, Brian Eno, Cat Power (that’s right, you heard me), David Bowie, Johnny Thunders, The Beach Boys, Nick Drake, Spoon, and The Verve, to name a few. If you are a geek, I would recommend any one of the aforementioned bands.
I wrote the following intro to a paper in a class. I will post it here only because I am not smart enough link it to elsewhere:
The public bathroom wall always provides a "colorful" reading experience, and one Monday morning the reading and artwork was especially vivid. Apparently, I was not the first one to notice; another unnamed aspiring '’Che Gueverra’(sp?) had scribbled a short expose on the current state of graffiti. He wrote, in an angular and harried prose (and I quote): "We should be using this space to advocate change and to start revolutions, and start acting like we actually give a (expletive deleted) about our voices and stop waisting it on intellect devoid advertisements" (italics mine). And I found myself pondering what a friend had told me some years before, when asked why he had chosen education as his field of study. "I am going to teach," he said, "because revolution, it begins in the classroom." Now I may be taking this men's room 'call to arms' a little too seriously, but I found the emotional fortitude of the anonymous as much a 'waist' of space as the other colorful-metaphor-laden proclamations and various ‘art’ works. How, I asked myself, does one expect to change the government when one has a difficulty spelling it? Luckily, I too had a pen handy and quickly decided to add my own two cents to the freedom of speech rally: "Somebody get this 'radical' a spellcheck!" I wrote, briefly rifling through my bag and only half rationally hoping to find my 7th grade Lit Teacher’s big, obnoxious red pen.
Anyway, I think we are playing 4 shows this weekend. If anyone is in town, come check us out at Kraftbrau. Also, pray to the Gods of Rock ‘n Roll for the Hell or Highwater boys as they make their long and arduous trek across these here United States in order to bring the Rock.
Oh, I almost forgot: I am now employed at WMU’s Writing Center. Finally, I am working somewhere in the vicinity of what I want to do with my life. The movies were right after all: There is light at the end of the tunnel.
Seriously, I need to never post on sleep deprivated, mainlined night of caffeine pills. Or, maybe I just need to rock out to more Dio. Whichever happens first.
PS: Keep your friends close. Keep Chuck Norris closer.