music

Folk covers are the new punk covers

Entertainment, music

Back in high school when I was a rebel rollerblader I loved punk music. But my friends were not the well versed music hipsters that you see today. So I didn’t know where to find new music. So I bought all of those Fat Wreck Chords compilations from Hot Topic … [W: Fat Music for Fat People], [W:Survival of the Fattest], [W:Physical Fatness], [W:Life in the Fat Lane], [W:Short Music for Short People]. That was back when Hot Topic was a scary place to go into and was dedicated to music, not to nerdy goth japanese import t-shirts.

Later I really loved the [W:Punk goes] series of CDs where each album would have a genre of music covered by punk bands. As I’ve grown up and my taste in music has evolved I find myself listening to punk and punk covers less often. My teen angst must be getting replaced by late 20’s fattness. A while back I posted a link to cover of “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air”, but I didn’t do any research beyond that. Today I found a link on Boing Boing to a folk cover of NWA straight outta compton, but sadly the link was down.

But what I did find in that post was solid gold… Coverlaydown.com. Which is a blog dedicated to Folk covers of songs. It’s fantastic! Maybe these make such good covers to me because, just like the punk covers, they are so different from the original style of the songs. I just can’t say enough how much I love this site and the music. It’s like they took all the pop songs and ran them through some kind or emotion amplifier and they came out the other side even better. A lot of them are so different that you might not even realize what song they were originally. I really like the way the site is run, giving credit to the original poster while providing links to the covering artist for purchase of new music.

Here are a few that I really like.

YouTube – Buckethead – I Like It Raw (ODB Tribute)

Entertainment, music, The Interweb

YouTube – Buckethead – I Like It Raw (ODB Tribute).

I love Buckethead. He never ceases to impress me. His music is one long guitar solo. When people started break dancing they just took the break beats from rap songs and looped them over and over. Because they thought that was the best part of the song. It’s like he got tired of playing rhythm and choruses and just said “Fuck it, I’ll just play a 7 minute solo, deal with it”

This mashup with ODB is killer.

IT’S LIKE PSYCHO KILLER NORMAN BATES!

All Good 2008

Life, Trips

I’m going to try and avoid the obvious phrase… All Good 2008 was the sweetness. I’m not sure if it was really bigger than last year, we didn’t camp in the same area, but it felt big. The people we camped with and around were the kind of people that I expect to be there, good people.

The Line:

We got the early admission tickets for Thursday and I’m glad we did. We got into the line around 4:30 and then hit traffic, it actually turned into a moving party. We would all jump in our cars, move 20 feet, then get back out and open up the coolers. It was fun to walk up the liine and back to see what kind of music the different folks were listening to. Four hours later we reached our parking space (side of a hill) there were still people in that line at 2am. The Stage seemed to be about a 20 minute walk (at least) from where our car was packed so we decided to hike our camp closer to the stage.

The Spot:

We had planned for this event by bringing a wagon this year. But we also brought about 10 times more stuff. We’re good planners, not good packers. We took only the essentials on the first trip, tent, bookbags and “The Spot Claimer”. When we got up there we found that it was pretty packed in. We spent a couple minutes looking for a spot big enough to plant the shade tent when a nice bearded guy said that there was some room by his group. They seemed like nice enough people and they were really excited by all the crap we brought (who wouldn’t be!). They seemed to be running the “We’re in college and all we brought was beer” Camp. The spot was in the Dogwood neighborhood, pretty close to the stage, About as close as last year without the giant hill (good). The neighbors were good people, the “Boy Scouts”, the “Really prepared Sisters”, the “Jam Band Junkies”, and the “Nice people who brought games”. No trouble from any of them, just good vibes.

The Music:

Like every year, I really wish I had seen more music. But waking up after a long night and then it’s hot outside the shade tent… I really didn’t want to go sit in a hot field. So we only saw a couple of daytime shows. We heard them from the camp, but that’s not really the same. My favorite show was by far Michael Franti and Spearhead (Last show of the Fest) I thought they really rocked it out and I really didn’t want it to end. Second would probably have to be the Widespread Panic set. I’ve been listening to them a lot before the fest so I was really excited to see them live. Phil Lesh was surprisingly good (I’m not really a Dead follower and didn’t like Ratdog last year) That Bassnectar guy ripped the place down, AWESOME! BOOOOM! and then BOOM! The crowd was so intense during that set and the glowstick rain was killer. Laurel loved the Dark Star Orchestra late night set on Saturday (Even though I’ve been trying to tell her that she would like it since last year). The music at the campsite was really awesome too, we had some guys that could really play the guitar and drums. Plus random “Mandolin Man” who came by on the last day. My plan for next year “See More Music”.

The Vibe:

Half the fun of All Good is the people. This year I think I heard that 18,000+ people were there. There were some sketchballs but not any more than last year. I only saw a few people that I know were not there for the music (there to make money). Laurel and I tried to make the fest fun for anybody and everybody around us. I think it makes us both happy to care for others. I wish I could find some other people like us before we go next time, I want to bring a little bit of the Burning Man art vibe out to the mountian next year. I think I’ll try to hang out on the Jambase forums and spread the vibe out for next year.

Next Year:

We’ll definatley be there, hope we can bring out some of our friends instead of just making new ones (that we may never see again) Laurel and I have already started thinking about what to do for next year. I have one plan… PERSONAL PARTY DOME.

If our new friends from VA TECH ever search for all good online I hope this post brings us back together.

Thanks for a GREAT time. (I’m not good with names)

Annie, Scotty, Matt, Jager, Coco, Desi, Jess… There are a couple more, but my mind is blank now.

Later!

Musical Gauntlet 02

Entertainment, music

Songs that are awesome, part 2.

White Zombie – Thunderkiss ’65 – Laurel and I were just talking about this album the other day. Not so much about the songs but about the fact that it’s the only CD my parents ever made me throw away. To their credit it did have demons and 666 drawn all over the cover. (as I’ve grown up I realize that this is mostly for marketing purposes) Anyway this might be my favorite Hard rock song of the 90’s. It sort of has a 60’s vibe to it, can’t really say why, it might just be because they (ninteen- sixty – five – yeah) over and over. If a song can make you drive faster this is the one.

Mindless Self Indulgence – Bitches – This section of the list should be titled “Songs my mom would hate”. But it’s not, these songs are awesome. With a song like this it helps to get introduced to it with a well timed pokemon fan video. I’m not going to say that i’m a fan of all this bands lyrics/imagery, but this song is the sweetness. It contains the line “Bitches love me cause they know that I can rock”… it’s like my theme song.

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Under The Bridge – This song always makes me remember summer. The real summer when you didn’t have to go to school, not this bastardized summer where you get to wear short sleeved shirts to the office. The song is so simple that I could probably play it on the guitar, it’s all about delivery. It follows the trend of Hard rock bands showing their sensitive side in a ballad, but they’re singing about drug addiction… so suck my kiss.

Musical Gauntlet 01

Entertainment, music

So a while back Laurel asked my what my all time favorite band was, I didn’t have an answer. I still don’t really have an answer, but that’s probably because I’ve never really thought about it.

I was making a play-list for Dave to listen to while he was at ju jit su. I was searching my library for all the hard rock songs that I could find and I came across some good songs. I’ll classify these songs as “Songs that never get old” I would say that these are the cream of the crop in my musical stew.

They are not all hard rock songs… it’s hard to search the library and be exact with genres. They’re just songs that came up and I made a snap judgment that they were awesome. Since I’ve been reading “Fargo Rock City” I’ve been thinking like a amateur music critic. (which just means I know enough to argue) I decided to share some of my favorites and why. Judge not lest ye be judged.

Redman / Methodman – Da Rockwilder – seriously do I have to say why? This has got to be the best beat of the 1990’s. And unlike most hiphop songs, I actually know most of the lyrics. I’d have to say there is no better song to bump down the street in a hunter green chrystler minivan (with the infinity sound system).

Johnny Cash – Hurt – I know most people will say that Cash’s best songs are “Walk the line” and “Ring of Fire” etc. But to me this is the way I want to remember someone that I really don’t remember. I mean come, I was born in 1981, I think it would be pretentious of me to say that he hasn’t made any good music since the 60’s. I don’t judge the man, I give him credit for covering a song made famous by an industrial rock group in the 1990’s. Plus it kicks the originals ass.

Digital Underground – The Humpty Dance – Pronounced with an Umpty! Yo ladies oh how I like to funk thee… This Shakespearian lyrical masterpiece will get the asses on the dance floor like no other song in the history of the world. As we know from the lyrics, it’s your only chance to do the hump, and who in their right mind would pass up a chance like that? Seriously you can’t help but like this song. I like my beats funky and my oatmeal lumpy!

that’s a start. When I come across some more I’ll post it.