While I’ll admit that I’m not the biggest Bush fan, this album really deserves more credit than it’s given. Maybe it didn’t redefine a genre or put the world on its head, but it accomplished a lot. I feel like whenever a song from this album comes on the radio I have to defend it, and that doesn’t seem right to me, and it’s actually the reason I thought about writing this article.

Bush will forever be known as the band that showed up to the party late. Kurt Cobain was already dead, Pearl Jam was trying to stay relevant, and Soundgarden was either broken up or on their way there, and then in comes Bush. And they weren’t bad. Most new grunge bands would have been mocked and shunned, but Bush was actually so good that the genre most people were tired of became interesting again. “Machinehead” and “Glycerine” were GIANT hits and are accepted as such today.

The band kind of disappeared after this album. They released that song “Mouth” and kept trying to reclaim their former glory while changing their sound, but it wasn’t happening. Today, people kind of seem to think they’re a joke, but let me run some info by you. The album contains 6 songs that charted higher than number 4 on the Billboard music charts. The album itself peaked at #4, and has sold over six million copies. This was all AFTER grunge was popular. This is like someone coming out and releasing an amazing Rock/Rap album right now. Making old hat into new hat is pretty impressive, so my hat is off to them.

Ixnay on the Hombre by The Offspring

Before they went off and got kinda poppy and funny, The Offspring were kinda punk. Their first major album, Smash, was pretty high octane and didn’t pull any punches. It contained all the hits you likely remember, “Self Esteem”, Bad Habit”, and “Come Out and Play”. When their second major album came out, a lot of people were excited to hear where they would take their sound.

The album was still kinda punk, complete with a disclaimer at the album’s start, voiced by Jello Biafra of The Dead Kennedys. The album is a just as loud and charged as Smash and really kept their tempo up and their fire burning. The singles from the album, “Gone Away”, “I Choose”, and “All I Want” were pretty great and didn’t get as much attention as they deserve, especially “Gone Away”.

Today, when people look back on their career, people remember Smash, and then they remember “Pretty Fly for a White Guy” and “Why Don’t You Get a Job”, leaving Ixnay on the Hombre out of the picture. Their new stuff is cool, but it has more meaning when looking at it in context of a band with punk roots who took their message into the mainstream. Ixnay on the Hombre is a great album that many fans of outspoken, raw music should look into.

Fashion Nugget by Cake

In 1996, Cake got some recognition based on the success of the single “The Distance”, but their fame was sporadic at best from there. They have experienced spikes in popularity in their career after Fashion Nugget with hits like “Never There”, and “Short Skirt, Long Jacket”, but most people did themselves a disservice by letting this gem pass them by.

The album opens with “Frank Sinatra”:

and delivers track after track of fun, witty, catchy, well written, and downright enjoyable songs. There isn’t a track on this album from the somber “Sad Songs and Waltzes” to the cover of the 1947 song “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps” that under-delivers; the album really shows the band’s range and writing styles in a powerful way.

Any Cake CD deserves your attention, but the most underrated of the group’s catalog is Fashion Nugget. While other albums show an evolution of their trademark sound, this album is as close to perfect as many might hope for. In a time when the music world should be begging for a fresh, fun, and outspoken group like Cake, the mainstream seem to keep letting them slip by. It’s nearly criminal.

Girlfriend by Matthew Sweet

I know you might think I’m crazy for putting this cult classic in here, but my point is that this album deserved much more than cult classic status. I bought this album without being too sure what to expect, but after the first few songs it’s hard not to be impressed. How so many people had never heard of Matthew Sweet before Guitar Hero featured “Girlfriend” is beyond me. The man has immense talent.

The guitar work of Matthew Sweet is something very special, and his songwriting ability is tremendous. The first 6 songs on this CD is one of the best beginning to any I’ve ever heard. From “Divine Intervention” to “Evangeline”, the album starts off with a showcase of talent and passion for not only the music he’s writing, but for the topics he addresses within each song.

While the album has been called one of the best power-pop records of the 90′s, today it is often overlooked and deserves a lot more attention than it gets. The videos for the songs “Girlfriend” and “I’ve Been Waiting” are made from a blend of Japanese animation and music, and was pretty cutting edge for the time.

From the harmonizing to the crazy guitar solos, Girlfriend offers up a lot more than many people might imagine. I listened to this album many times, and every time I listen to it I feel like I hear something new. It’s a beautiful album.

High Voltage

I’ve said for a long time, if someone asked me to show them what rock music was all about, I’d give them an AC/DC album. But let me clairify: I’d give them an album before Bon Scott died. After Bon Scott died, things changed, but ask any casual listener today and they might not even know about it. Brian Johnson came in after the tragic death of Bon Scott and did a great job with Back in Black and subsequent records as well. Bittersweet as it may be, Back in Black was so big that it’s easy to forget just how amazing the band was before the change.

The older albums had something the new stuff just doesn’t. Bon Scott added lyrics to the music that fit. He was a bad ass and he let everyone know it. Songs like “Live Wire”, “The Jack”, and “Rocker” cannot be recreated by any musician with the same amount of truth. The newer stuff feels too much like Brian Johnson is just trying pretend he’s Bon Scott. It makes sense to try, but none of his lyrics really come close to the badassery that was Bon Scott.

And of these older records, I feel the most underrated is High Voltage. For a debut album, it is simply amazing. The raw power of the band, and the in-your-face lyrics push this album to the front of the line when looking at some of the best rock albums of all time. From the very start with the song “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock’n'Roll)” to the very last song “High Voltage”, AC/DC paints an accurate picture for the world of just what kind of power they’re unleashing.

I know the US version of this album went platinum, but today it’s one of the last albums a casual listener or new fan might pick up. Songs like “The Jack” have been retooled by and rewritten by Brian Johnson, and some people might even hear the (better) original versions after they’ve heard the new stuff. It’s a shame.

The most popular song on this album is “T.N.T.” but every one of these rockers could have been hit singles. In my opinion “Live Wire” is one of the best songs the band has ever written. Between the screaming classic guitar riffs and the bad ass lyrics that proclaim the power of AC/DC, it’s impossible to deny that this album should be the starting point for any new fan and should go down in history as, quite possibly, if not THE, then one of the very best quintessential rock albums ever made.

I was torn on this question. Tracks like “Old Pine Box”, and “Can’t Keep Johnny Down”, are great, catchy songs. Songs like “The Lady and the Tiger” and “Canajoharie” contain wonderfully written lyrics that just beg to be dissected. Then there are songs like “Dog Walker” and” Spoiler Alert” that just fall flat.

(The song in this video starts at 3:40)

Most the album kind of falls flat, really. While I feel the content and spirit of the album is something from the days of Flood or Lincoln, the album’s power and energy falters. It’s kind of bizarre that I’m taking this stance because the last album they released, The Else, had a sound that seems overdriven and pushed into territory that didn’t flatter their song writing style. On Join Us, it’s almost the opposite. I feel like they’re holding back a bit.

This might be because of their time spent writing children’s music, but song styles that rocked in the past that included stuff like “I Palindrome I”, “Damn Good Times”, and “Twisting” are just not present. Every TMBG album has some songs that really peak the momentum. Listening to Join Us brings you close to that point, but only brings you close enough to realize that it’s missing. I feel like a lot of songs could have been turned up a notch, and I have a feeling they are played that way live, but on the albums, they fall flat.

Join Us contains some really awesome songs, and some really bizarre songs. If anything, this album does hold on to those conventions. I enjoyed listening to it more the second time because I focused more on what they were doing and not what I wanted to hear. The first half of the album seems to be more straight forward, catchy songs. The second half is a bit more creative and reminds me a lot of their first two albums. Songs like “2082” and “Protagonist” are just as perplexing as “Where Your Eyes Don’t Go” and “32 Footsteps”. I didn’t get “Protagonist” at all until I read the lyrics a long with it. There are two sets of vocals in this song, basically reading a script, one being the lines and the other being the stage direction. Very cool.

So, while this album does fall flat, and seems kind of like a “lite” TMBG album, it is still fun to listen to and still something that I’m sure will make its way into my CD player again and again. For the fans, check it out. For those of you who are looking to try out the band, stick with Flood, Mink Car, Lincoln, or Apollo 18.

I read an article on CNN.com the other morning titled “Who’s winning the debt debate?” It mentions a few things like Obama’s approval ratings during this whole mess and how people are starting to see him as more responsible.  Also, it focuses on how the GOP is losing touch with mainstream America. It would seem the democrats are winning, according to this article.

In truth, we’re looking at a stalemate and we have been since these talks started. And we’ve been in a stalemate for a long time. No matter who we elect, we seem to be running into the same issues over and over again. The economy is garbage. Our country is getting stupider and stupider. The middle class is disappearing. Oh, and the whole war and terrorism thing, too.

I know I was just on my soapbox about parties and what they’re doing to America, but I thought I’d chime in once more. Reading this article on CNN.com, it’s obvious something is going on that is really taking its tole on our country. It seems like the republicans are standing tough on their proposal in order to appease voters so they will have something to brag about in 2012 when they hope to take back the White House. It looks like the democrats, on the other hand, are trying to stall things and put things off so that way they will look better in 2012 as well, trying to win our votes. No one wants to lose their job, and so no one is willing to compromise. And so here we are, coming pretty close to defaulting on our loans. I’m not even sure what that means,but I know that in the financial aid office at my school there are tons of signs that say “I will NOT default on my loans” and I figure if defaulting on MY loans is bad, this must be pretty horrible.

Want to know what I think? I think they want to default on the loans. They meaning both sides. This way they could blame one another for it, saying they weren’t willing to compromise and that this whole thing could have been avoided if they would have been civil. But we’ll know the truth, right? That both sides were too busy worrying about their party getting more powerful than doing the right thing and finding middle ground that representatives from both red and blue states can agree with? I hope so.

Who’s Losing?

When we vote, what are we voting for? A party or a person? I’m so tired to listening to political news and having it sound like sports radio. With all of the “positioning” and “jockeying” and “power plays,” it sounds like these people are playing a game, and they’re not. They might think they are, and that winning is the ultimate goal, but it’s not. The game of the Democrats V. the Republicans should not exist. If it was supposed to be team v team, then we shouldn’t even be voting. We should just have the team captains and have them pick and choose who they want to fill seats all over the nation (which it basically what is happening, but that’s a discussion for another time).

This game mentality is more frustrating today than ever before, as politicians are proving time and time again that they are unable to run their own lives, let alone a country. Judges and politicians are being voted in simply because of their affiliation with a party and many of them stay in office long after they have displayed their incompetence. How is it that every Governor I remember in California has been late with the budget and I’ve never heard of any state senator of Governor getting in trouble for it?  Where I work, if I turn in something late I’m in trouble, especially if it has to do with a grant or other monies, so why do these crooks get to keep collecting pay (outrageous amounts of pay) without doing their job?

Now we have these idiots sitting in a room stomping their feet and storming out and into the media to complain, while Americans sit on the brink of economic collapse, worrying about what they’re going to do if the government has to stop providing them services they need to survive. Maybe the question shouldn’t be who is winning this fake battle where people are more worried about their own jobs than the jobs of the people they were elected to represent. Instead, maybe the question should be “Who is losing?”

With unemployment hovering between “thank God for the dollar menu” and “let’s sell the baby”, and with schools failing, and with those in power standing up for their party before they stand up for the people, I think it’s obvious who the real losers are: the tax payers and voters.

When I was in middle school and the Power Rangers came out, I was faced with a moral dilemma. My favorite color was red, but the blue Power Ranger had a triceratops robot, and the triceratops has always been my favorite dinosaur. Also, the red Power Ranger was the leader, and I just always had a thing against flavoring the lead and most popular. I weighed my options and opted to have my favorite Power Ranger be Billy.

On the playground, people chose their favorite Power Ranger by their favorite color. It was the obvious, superficial choice, and I decided to go with the flow. It wasn’t a big deal to make the switch, but it is worth noting that to this day, my favorite color is blue.

What does this have to do with anything? Well, according to an article written by 3 fancy pants psychologists in 1990, Hogg, Turner, and Davidson, (and many other articles) this is an example of a pattern seen throughout time in which people conform to a group which is becoming most popular or is most popular. People like to be in with the in crowd, and often times to be part of that crowd they will alter their own perceptions or opinions to match that group.

Obey.

Obviously, people want to fit in. Even if you’re a punk rock, fuck the world, anti-conformist, you’ve conformed. Do you think every punk rock anti-conformist was born a punk rock anti-conformist? No way they were. What happened was they have a few things in common with the punk rock crowd, they got together with them, listened to some cool music, dissected the lyrics, and rewrote their own philosophies accordingly.

And I’m not here to call one group of people hypocrites. At least, not without calling everyone a bunch of hypocrites, too. Look in the mirror and ask yourself what makes you “you” and where that stuff came from. Many of us are familiar with the onion theory in which we are all like onions, with layers and layers of what makes us unique. But what about you haven’t you learned from someone else, someone with their own biases? Even your most intimate and unique qualities are just mutations of ideas and gestures picked up from friends, the media, or parents.

And as you peel these socially acquired layers away and move closer to the middle, you expect to find something uniquely yours, but all you find is one last layer that came from when you were a baby and your mom and dad taught you to talk the way they talk, and think the way they think. And after that, there is nothing. You are the onion, but you did not make the onion. You are a composite of ideas and values that have been taught you through family and friends and the media. Every “unique” idea you have can be traced back to something someone else told you.

So in a way, we’re all living by conventions that were given to us by other people, which makes us conformist in at least a small way. In a large way, we just conform. You conform to fit in at work, to fit in with friends, and we conform to fit in with ideals that surround us everyday. For example, anyone out there buying loads and load of “green” crap? Recycling? Anyone bringing their own bags to the super market? If you do anything to follow the green movement, have you done any research beyond Recycle Rex?

I’m not knocking you if you recycle. There is a lot of info out there that makes recycling make sense. There’s also a lot that does the contrary, so I don’t take part in the “green” movement. So, here’s what the conversation is like when I tell people I don’t recycle:

“Dude, why don’t you recycle!? That’s stupid.”

“Because studies have shown that you waste more energy than you save when you factor in running the factories, transportation, and all that, than you would spend if you just made a new bottle.”

“…whatever.”

Which leads me to believe that most people just recycle because all their lives they’ve been told it’s good for the planet. People need to start thinking for themselves. This statement, that we need to think for ourselves, is making a mountain look like a mole hill, I know. Basically, it’s like telling everyone we need to stop killing each other. This whole problem of people not thinking for themselves is so old that we see throughout the history of civilization. We see entire countries being taken over by one philosophy like in Nazi Germany or Caesar’s Rome. We see laws in countries that embrace democracy which encourage fair voting and public participation in government matters (responsibly, they hope) to try to boost the public interest in government affairs. Free thinking is the pillar that holds up democracy, and its absence has been the downfall of many a society.

Labels in American Government

Looking into American history, we find a quote from George Washington, warning against his country forming two rival factions. He expressed a great concern that two dominant parties would be intrinsically vengeful against one another and unable to work together, while citizens flock into each party looking for security and affirmation. This, he warned, could lead to the destruction of liberty in our country and promote a prevailing party member as a dictator.

After Washington’s second term, he died, and what was made of this country was just what he warned of. Today, we have Republicans and Democrats. You are one or the other. We get little books sent to us with just enough info to form an opinion, and off to vote we go. When voting it’s all spelled out for us: This guy is a republican and this guy is a democrat, in case you still didn’t know who to vote for. And when these people get put into office, we see little progress, and they still get paid.

It’s a joke.

People seem to think that they have to be one or the other. When I confess I am neither, most people don’t buy it and listen to my point of view so they can pigeonhole me.

“Well, if you’re pro-choice, you’re a democrat.”

“Well, if you don’t agree with the teacher’s unions and don’t want to invest more in public education, you’re a republican.”

No, I’m not. I’m a freethinking individual, the kind of person who started the Revolutionary War and made a country where freethinking people would be able to think for themselves and be rewarded for it with a powerful nation represented by those who agree with the majority and speak on their behalf. I know it’s easy to say I’m with them and just adopt and adapt until you fit the mold. It’s easy to not have to think for yourself and just vote for all the D’s or all the R’s on election day. I know this. But I’m not looking for an easy way out, and you shouldn’t be either.

Look around you. Turn on the news. There’s enough crap hitting the fan to make you want to duck, I know it. The national debt that is out of control with a president and a group of representatives that cannot come together to find a way out. We have elected officials making corrupt and immoral choices in our names daily. In California we’re dealing with a government that hasn’t been on time for a budget for as long as I can remember. I know there’s a lot going on and it’s hard to follow, but the more we conform to these labels of D and R, the easier it is going to be for these “representatives” to take advantage of us, steal our money, and not have to answer for it.

What is your triceratops?

What would make you change your principals, your philosophies, or in any other way alter your point of view? A favorite color is one thing, but you opinion on abortion, the death penalty, the budget, the environment, or anything else going on in the world around you shouldn’t have to be thrown aside because it doesn’t fit an existing mold.

Sure, all of us are who we are because of a little bit of conformity, but there is a line where human nature ends and horrors begin. The two party system has divided our country; our governments, both state and federal, seem to never be able to get anything done. There are no more Great Compromises being made, as party lines have grown so defined and so infected with hate that progress is being slowed to a crawl. And to make things worse, these labels have infected the system so deeply that no one, no matter how liberal a republican or how conservative a democrat, can vote the way they want to vote nor say what they want to say.

The idea of this article is not to make a point about the government as much as it is to make a point about your ability to think freely. When we bend to fit labels, we stop being individuals and start being part of a greater problem that I feel is ruining life all around us. I’m not a democrat, I’m not a republican, I’m not an environmentalist. I’m an individual with a lot of opinions that I would be happy to share with you. And if you’re not too tied to your labels and can speak freely, then maybe we can both learn something. But if you’re tied to some group with their own agenda, save it, because chances are you don’t know what their real agenda even is.

About 2 years ago I went to see the movie Where The Wild Things Are with some friends and my girlfriend. We were sitting in the theater and trying to enjoy the movie, but there were people behind us making a lot of noise, talking, and just being obnoxious. Now, we’ve all endured this, I’m sure, but I take serious offense to people who cannot behave in a movie theater. To me, there is no better way to tell the world that you’re a low life than to ruin a movie for 50 or more people at once.

So these guys kept talking and kept ruining the movie for everyone, and about 20 minutes into the movie people start shushing them. They’re response wasn’t to check their behavior, but instead was to shush people back. Of course, this pushed me to the edge.

While I am not a very big person in a way that would frighten someone (unless you’re made of chocolate), I know that I have a temper and at times I can be intimidating, and after looking around and noticing that a lot of the people watching Where The Wild Things Are on opening night at midnight were hipsters, I thought I had the upper hand. I figured I could stand up, and in my most angry tone tell the hipsters to “Shut the fuck up” and all would be scared into being right in the world.

I gave them a chance to shut up, and they didn’t, so I mustered up the courage to confront them, balled my fists, stood up, and yelled out a strong and loud “HEY!” as I turned and saw what was not hipsters. They were thugs. I was shocked, and thrown for a loop, but I was, at that point, committed to finishing my sentence. I couldn’t sit back down. That would have only made things worse. I still had a chance, I thought, of being intimidating enough to get my way.

“Shut the fuck up!” I said, and sat back down, fully expecting a fist to crack the back of my skull at any moment. But the strangest thing happened. There was some banter at first from the thugs, but after a few seconds they shut up. They shut up and stayed shut up for the whole movie. After the movie they exited the theater without any issue and people around me started to thank me for doing what I did. I felt like a hero. I had won.

As I walked out of the theater with my friends, the situation changed. Two of the young men from the group were waiting for me in the hallway leading to the lobby. I was trying to defuse the situation by walking away. Admittedly, I was making a few comments like “Get out of my way” and “I don’t fight with trash” but mostly I was trying to exit the theater without conflict. In fact, most the comments weren’t coming from me or the thugs, they were coming from on my friend’s date. A very small woman, she was saying things like “you’re not going to do anything” and basically calling their bluff. I was the only person telling her to shut up.

My only hope, I thought for a moment, was that these guys would kick her ass instead of mine. I made my way outside and my friend’s date finally shut up. These are my last thoughts before getting sucker punched in my face:

• Good, she shut up.
• Where’d those thugs go?
• Where’s my friends?
• What’s going on?

Getting punched in the face is strange. It hurts like you think it would, but the sound is funny. I’ve been punched in the face a few times in my life and it always sounds like a four square ball being bounced on a trampoline. I immediately tasted blood. Looking around, I couldn’t find the guy who hit me. He was backing up steadily, almost hiding behind my girlfriend if I remember correctly.

My friends were MIA for the most part. One of my friends picked my glasses up off of the floor and handed them to me. I wanted to fight, but I would have lost and my girlfriend was already scared pretty bad. I walked to my car and we drove to a 7-11 where my bloody face gave the employee there a scare. His reaction was the first sign that sunk into my head that I might have to go to the hospital. I was cleaning the blood off of my face and I found it kind of hard to breath out of my nose. My shirt was ruined. My bottom lip was busted open.

The Myth of the Karma Bank

I’ve always liked the idea that good things happen to people who do good things, and bad things happening to people who do bad things. So, that’s how I justified this in my head. These guys would get what’s coming to them. I didn’t get to kick this guy’s ass, but someone else will some day, or maybe he will just be a thug forever and never have much money, or whatever. I don’t know. I’m not sure exactly how it works, but I just rested on the fact that he would get his in the end

But when something like this happens, it forces you to really think about what you dismiss in your personal justification. The event lingers and it makes you try to figure it out. I walked through the scenario over and over. From my perspective first: I was in a movie theater. I told some loud people to shut up. I got punched in the face outside while I wasn’t looking and none of my friends said a word. Then from his perspective: Some asshole told him to shut the fuck up. He followed him outside and kicked his ass. My friends didn’t get a license plate number. They didn’t get a description of the people or vehicle. They didn’t get anything but ice for my face when I got home.

I’m not mad at my friends. They’re not the kind of friends who would get in a fight for me. I have friends who would, but these aren’t those friends. What really made me write this is something I came to realize a few months ago. See, I was content to think that these thugs were never going to be as happy as me in the future. I’m going to school, I’m getting a masters degree and I’ve decided to devote my life to helping others get a better education. These thugs would find some bullshit job somewhere, slave away for shitty pay, live in their broken down neighborhood, where ever that may be, and would live the lifestyle that they chose for themselves, as thugs, possibly gang affiliated and on drugs.

But then, a few months ago, something struck a chord with me. I couldn’t tell you what it was, but it made me reexamine the situation. These thugs chose that life style. They like it. They want to live in that shitty neighborhood. They want to drink and gang bang and use drugs. They don’t want to be anyone else, or live any other kind of life. They will be content making bullshit money at a bullshit job and living a bullshit life, making the world a miserable place and being obnoxious in movie theaters, teaching their many children to do the same.

The worst part is that after I get my degree and after I start working in education, I might not be making much more money than these guys, if I make more at all. I will probably be more stressed out since I will have a career and these guys will simply be working jobs that they could take or leave when they see fit. So, in the end, there is a much better chance that these mother fuckers will be happier than me at any given time in our lives.

This, of course, was a tough pill to swallow, and made me really look long and hard at my life choices. Maybe I’ve been in the wrong business. Maybe I’ve been living my life on the wrong side of the tracks. All my life I’ve done what I considered the right thing. I’ve never partaken in any illegal drugs, my first drink was when I was 20, only a month before my 21^st birthday, and I’ve always taken my education seriously. I drink and, while I’ve had my nights, I’ve kept things under control for the most part. I have made some bad choices, but I think I’m a pretty good friend and I always try to be there when people need me. Bottom line, I’m responsible.

Why did I do this? I suppose a better question would be “Why didn’t I (fill in the blank)?” Why didn’t I make more moves on women? Why didn’t I take a hit? Why didn’t I stay out later? Why didn’t I go to more parties where I knew there would be drugs? Why didn’t I hang out with a riskier crowd? I thought about all that, and I started to regret a lot of the choices I had made in my life because it looked like I had invested in something that didn’t exist. It was something I had been lied to about for years by my parents, teachers, the media, you name it. This thing that isn’t real is what I call the Karma Bank.

The Karma Bank is simple: Put in a good deed, and a good deed will come back to you with interest in the future. Put in a bad deed and something bad will happen to you in the future, with interest as well. It’s bullshit. Bad things happen to good people all the time and good things happen to bad people even more often. The trick here, and what stings, is that this very famous outlook on life is basically telling you that you will be rewarded for your good deeds. The universe is watching, and you’ll get yours, good or bad!

Not only is this bullshit, but it creates a sense of entitlement that really made me flounder when thinking of the guys who hit me in the face. I kept thinking that these guys lived their lives on the edge, had way more fun, ended up punching me in the face, and are going to end up being happier than I will ever be. When am I going to win? When am I going to get what’s coming to me?

It took a while, but what I realize now is that I’m not going to get anything that’s coming to me, and neither are they, and neither are you. There is no Karma Bank, there is no one in the sky keeping track of my good deeds.  I will not be cosmically rewarded or punished for anything I’ve done. The question then becomes, “Then why do good things?” and the answer is simple: “Because I’m not an asshole.” I don’t do drugs, I’m a good friend, and I treat people pretty well. I have my regrets, but all in all I think I’m an upstanding and responsible person. And while I don’t claim to know what happens when you die, I know that there is one afterlife we can all be sure of, and that’s how people will remember you after your funeral. So, you can go around being a dick and talking in movie theaters so that people might tell their children that they once knew a terrific asshole, or you can not be a dick and try to help people through this shit storm we call existence and maybe have some people talk about how they once knew a pretty cool dude who told some a-holes in a movie theater to shut the fuck up.

The Spine

An interesting track on the album is “Thunderbird” because of its connection to a song from Long Tall Weekend, “On Earth My Nina.” I’ll talk about that connection a little more in another article, but this “Thunderbird” is a really fun track that was written by the band years before the release of The Spine.

Some other high velocity tracks include “It’s Kicking In” and “Damn Good Times.” These two songs are two of my favorite from the band’s entire catalog, and are two of the most amazing songs to see the band perform live because of the sheer energy involved. These songs really helped reassure me as a fan that TMBG was not becoming strictly a children’s band. They would continue to write fantastic music geared toward its adult fans as well.

Really, the band says a lot with The Spine. TMBG shows us that they can still write adult music, that they can still be as catchy and witty as always, while still remaining smart and progressive. Songs like “Au Contraire” and “Excremental Film” are fun listens with strong and fascinating lyrics, while “Prevenge” and “I Can’t Hide From My Mind” carry the tradition of smart and witty subject matter wrapped in carefully written and crafted music.

I really suggest this album for a first CD. It’s just weird enough to get you ready for early stuff by the band, but it also features a more contemporary style that might make it more accessible for new fans. You can find The Spine on amazon.com used for about $3. I suggest you do.

The album is such a mix of children’s themes and the signature style of TMBG that it is easy for the average fan of the band to enjoy and for their kids to enjoy as well. Songs like “No!” and “Bed, Bed, Bed” are totally geared toward children lyrically, but the music is still catchy and well written.

Listening to No! pretty much still feels like listening to a standard TMBG album. The music is interesting and fun, and the lyrics are smart and witty. There are only a couple of songs that seem a little too childish to look beyond and accept as a song for adults AND children. The songs “Violin” and “In the Middle, In the Middle, In the Middle” are not subtle in their intentions to simply be silly or to teach children to cross the street at the crosswalk. This would be fine if the music was more accessable to a larger audience.

A couple of songs, “I Am Not Your Broom” and “The Edison Museum” were actually written a long time before the album was released, and “The Edison Museum” was actually released on Long Tall Weekend years before. Also, the song “Robot Parade” was written earlier in the band’s career as well, only it had more adult lyrics:

Also, No! features the song “Where Do They Make Balloons?” which is sung by Danny Weinkauf. It is simply amazing. I love the fun lyrics and the song is the best example of fine music that adults can enjoy with lyrics that play with a child’s imagination:

Unlike later children’s albums that the band would create, this album truly can be enjoyed by the whole family. You can get No! on amazon.com for $2! Do it!

The CD cover colds out into a poster that looks like directions on putting together a model of a guy and a car.

(You are reading a music review which was reposted for TMBG Month [June 2011])

Anyone who knows as much about me as they say they do wouldn’t expect to see a list of A+ albums without a They Might Be Giants appearance.  While they are my favorite band, I’m trying to be fair here, and I’m putting them at #3.  I’ll admit, the next two albums are better than this one, although I still prefer their catalog as a whole to nearly any other band’s.

Anyway, Mink Car came out when I was in high school and I didn’t like it much at the time.  After listening to it again and again, I’ve come to accept it as one of their best.  They Might Be Giants have been around for nearly 25 years now, so they have gone through a lot of different sounds.  You can tell what songs are from the 80′s for example, and which are from the 90′s, but they always have a certain quality that separates them from other bands. This album was released in 2001 and was their first of the new millennium.  It was released just after their single “Boss of Me” (the theme song from “Malcolm in the Middle” which won the band their first Grammy), although the song does not appear on the album.
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The album is different from their other albums in that it is the first to really cover many different genres of music on its own.  If you look back over their previous albums, each had its own sound and identity.  Mink Car is an eclectic assortment of dance music, power pop, and TMBG’s trademark bizarre.
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One of the biggest reasons to respect this album is because it was recorded mostly on the road at different studios and with different producers.  Still, it stands out as one of their greatest efforts.
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The album starts out with “Bangs” which is one of my favorite songs by the band.  It’s about a guy who is with a girl because he loves her bangs.  And I quote, “And although I liked you anyway, check out your haircut./A proscenium to stage a face that needs no make-up.”  I tried to find the song on youtube, but this is the best I could do…

He does a pretty good job though.  Maybe he can play my wedding.  (Steph, you should probably get some bangs so this will make sense.)  More from him later.

Anyway, you might know one or two of the songs from various appearances they made in TV spots or on other stuff.  Like this ad for Chrysler.
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Ok, I couldn’t find it.  The song was called “Yeh, Yeh” but every time I searched it I kept getting videos for that band the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s.  It’s a good song, though.  And it’s a cover…anyway, let me see what songs I can find…
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Ah ha!  Here’s a good one.  They used to play Conan a lot.  This song is called “Man, It’s So Loud in Here.”  How great is this song?  A dance song about not being able to talk in a club because it’s too loud.  Genius.  The chorus is great.  “Baby, check this out, I’ve got something to say./Man, it’s so loud in here./When they stop the drum machine and I can think again/I’ll remember what it was.”
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The song “Drink!” is great.  It’s a waltzy kind of drinking song.  Very fun live because they get the whole crowd involved.  On the album it ushers in the final seven tracks and a kind of lul in the tempo of the album.  This is the best video I could find of the song.  Enjoy:
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Alright, you know what?  Here are all the best videos I can find for the songs off the album.
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A+.  You can find the album for $7.50 on amazon.com, but I suggest buying it from their e-store at tmbg.com.  Stay tuned for more awesome albums you think you don’t need to know about or do not know about and you should know about.  Thanks.

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Interesting Fact: This album was released on September 11th, 2001.  Just like the KGB’s album reviewed on this list. (I didn’t do that on purpose)

Long Tall Weekend

(You are reading a review written in the month of June, 2011, which was dedicated to the band They Might Be Giants and the task of reviewing many of the bands most popular material.)

They Might Be Giants have the distinction of being the first band to release a full studio album online. This came after the fallout between the band and Elektra and may have been an attempt to move into a DIY situation for the band. Released on Emusic, the album Long Tall Weekend lead to TMBG becoming the most downloaded band ever on the internet. This continues today through their website, theymightbegiants.com, where you can download full length albums and concerts from all over the world.

The album as a whole is decent. Songs like Operators are Standing By and Luliby to Nightmares are great and well written, but the album as a whole feels like something that was either thrown together from moments throughout their career. Really, it doesn’t feel like a TMBG album as much as a collection like Miscellaneous T. In fact, a lot of these songs were rejected from the Factory Showroom album.

Couple that with the fact that 8 of the 15 songs were released either later or before the album, either as the exact same recording or rerecorded versions of the same song, and you might understand why going back and listening to Long Tall Weekend feels like less than what it should. “(She Think’s) She’s Edith Head” and “Older” later appear on Mink Car in rerecorded versions (I prefer the later version), and “Token Back To Brooklyn” appeared on Factory Showroom as a hidden track. Its release here may be because the song was unacceptable on some CD players. Also, the exact same recording of “Edison Museum” was later released on their children’s album No!.  

Even the song, “Maybe I Know” is a cover that they used to perform as early as their Self Titled and Lincoln era.

The other songs, such as “Rat Patrol” and “Certain People I Could Name” would be released on a compilation titled They Got Lost, named after another song taken from Long Tall Weekend. They Got Lost is a bit easier to find, at least on CD. You can still get Long Tall Weekend off of Emusic for about $5 (50 cents a song), but finding the few hard copies that were sold (mostly at shows in 1999) is a bit more difficult.

The album met pretty strong reviews and on Emusic where it was mostly downloaded it received 4 out of 5 stars. This was released right around the time I became a fan and I had no idea what was going on. These songs are mostly considered rarities to me.  Also, the album seems to have little continuity which is something that could be expected following the solid and polished Factory Showroom album.

On this album is “On Earth My Nina,” which is a song (“Thunderbird”) sung backward by John Linnell. I will be covering this in its own article because it’s a pretty awesome idea with pretty amazing results.

All in all, this is one of the most obscure albums the band has released due to it containing song that were mostly either rereleased later or released prior to the album. I don’t know how fondly the band looks at this album, but to me it is hardly a major release by the band. Still, it deserves some credit, as it contains some very impressive music.

You cannot find Long Tall Weekend used or new on amazon.com. You can find it at emusic.com for about $5. If I were you, I’d just buy They Got Lost used on amazon.com for $5, then buy the following tracks for 50 cents off of emusic:

1. “Drinkin’”
2. “Maybe I Know”
3. ”Operators are Standing By”
4. “Dark And Metric”
5. “Counterfeit Faker”
6. “They Got Lost”
7. “On Earth My Nina” 

(Since I couldn’t find ANY tracks, other than Dr. Worm, from this album on youtube, the live videos featured here are the closest things I could find to the album)

When I bought Severe Tire Damage, I didn’t know I was buying a live CD. It was the second CD I bought by the band, and I noticed it contained a lot of hits, so I went for it. The first track, “Dr. Worm” is a studio track:

The next track, “Sever Tire Damage Theme” is also a studio track. But the rest of the album is live, taken from a number of different shows following the release of their album Factory Showroom. One of the tracks was actually recorded in a hotel room. The song is called “Meet James Ensor” and was originally on the album John Henry. This live version features an acapella solo, which is a lot of fun to listen to.

There are two tracks on this album that were unreleased prior to this album. The song “First Kiss” was slowed down greatly and became “Another First Kiss.” Also, the song “They Got Lost” would be released on their next album, Long Tall Weekend, it would also be slowed down and retooled a bit. I honestly like the live versions better.

They Might Be Giants are an amazing live band and I’m really happy I picked this up by accident when I did. It let me hear that this oddball band actually puts on a great show. After seeing the band live about 10 times now, I can say that Severe Tire Damage really does showcase the energy and entertainment of a TMBG show. Though it came out before a bunch of my favorite songs were written, and though it omits a lot of great hits from They Might Be Giants and Lincoln, it does give us some fantastic versions of “Birdhouse in Your Soul” and “Istanbul” as well as “Till My Head Falls Off” (my favorite track on the album):

The album also features for the first time on a full CD the song “Why Does the Sunshine? (The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas).” The song, which was originally a PSA, is a cover that was released as an EP. The single contains the studio version, which is much different. The live version is fantastic, but the song would be released on their children’s album Here Comes Science! In 2009.

The last seven tracks were all written as a kind of homage to the Planet of the Apes movies. They’re pretty interesting, and kind of weird, especially since they’re not listed on the album at all. All the songs were apparently improvised, which is pretty impressive. Here’s one:

You can find Sever Tire Damage on amazon.com used for $1.25.