Category > The Road Most Traveled
| I was watching the Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial a couple days ago on HBO.com. Though my internet doesn’t seem to allow “moving pictures,” the audio came in fine and I was able to hear a stirring Denzel Washington speech and a solid acoustic version of “The Rising” sung by Bruce Springsteen and a backup gospel choir. Things got interesting, however, when the band struck up “A Change is Gonna Come.” Soul Singer, Betty LaVette, strutted out and …
It’s that time of year again — the end of it. With only a couple weeks left until 2009 takes over, there’s nothing left to do but reflect on the year that was. Oh, and to take whatever happened in the past 11-plus months and compile it all in various numbered lists. Be it the best dressed or biggest news items of ‘08, there is a list or Yahoo! News photo slide show available to capture it. The most prevalent, …
Winning awards is easy. Name an award. An Oscar for best picture, you say? If you want to be taken seriously, you’ve got to give your movie a one word title. Titanic, Gladiator, Braveheart and Chicago all did it. Nominees like Traffic, Babel and Chocolat all had the right idea. If you want people to see your film as important, get Paul Haggis to write horribly memorable lines like “Girlie, tough ain’t enough” from Million Dollar Baby, or “I’m the …
What were you doing ten years ago? I was an 11 year old wearing a “repeat three-peat” Chicago Bulls t-shirt while listening to the Godzilla soundtrack on repeat. From Puff Daddy rapping to Zeppelin to The Wallflowers covering David Bowie, the soundtrack of the 1998 monster movie remake was excellent in so many ways. That pop music collection, however, couldn’t compete with another compilation released that year, NOW That’s What I Call Music. The NOW series debuted in the United …
How is it that two bands that sound so very different can completely suck in equal amounts? One band is from the shiny happy suburbs of Chicago, the other is from decidedly less shiny Kansas City. One band’s name conjures images of filth while the other’s name makes one think of a Tide commercial. One band uses heavy distortion to make their power-chord driven songs sound interesting, and the other uses heavily auto-tuned vocal harmonies to make their power chord-driven …
A couple years ago I had the opportunity to see one of my favorite bands, Saturday Looks Good to Me, at the Canopy. Their modern take on 1950s pop served a lot of great purposes as a high schooler and I was really excited to see them as a freshman in college. Unfortunately, their set was disappointing. The beauty of SLGTM was their boy-girl harmonies, their use of horns and bells, the aesthetic created by drowning all their songs in …
Will Sheff, songwriter and frontman for Austin’s Okkervil River, can see two sides of the coin. Before he took on Okkervil duties as a full time endeavor, he was also a music critic. Still, he often writes songs from a journalistically objective view and the music is clearly examined and perfected before it’s put on a record. But how does that affect his view of his own music? Does that affect the songs he writes? Does he think he tried …
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Big Blue will actually be on 6-9, despite what is posted elsewhere. Then, hightail it over to Bentley’s!
Ahh - good point - I will plug them in the appropriate sections.
Yeeee! This sounds so fun! Any word on covers for any/all of these? Maybe SP could spring for punch cards and some discounts if we make it to all, eh?
...and given the lack of smiley emoticons i chose to employ, that reads far more sarcastically than i ever intended (my apologies). i actually find this to be a great article and an interesting discussion, seriously : )
Once it leaves the basement, it is then called what? hmmm…....could it be mainstream? accessible? appealing on a mass-level? POP??? Quickly it will become a fad, over-saturate the media, and piss people off. Then everyone can write articles based on how that shit sucks, too. chickens are…
In general, I think music is much more interesting now than in 1995. I definitely am very glad contemporary music has expanded beyond the four-piece rock lineup that dominated much of the 90’s. The point of the above isn’t so much about a sound or an instrument…
2010 is not 1995. I’m not sure why anyone would expect a music scene to remain stationary as the world of popular music moves around it. Also, today, making popular music with mainstream appeal and being innovative and cutting-edge are usually exact opposites.
bhrama- thanks for the promo. it is true, crane and badger will be playing on friday at mike and mollys w/ the chemicals and tractor kings. we will be playing first. show starts at 10pm. come on out. rock will be had.
Heard there is a new rock band (Crane & Badger-2nd show) playing @ Mike’s this Friday night. Certified rock-styley.
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Kaiyo was decent for a sushi buffet, but it definitely isn’t as good as KO fusion. I thought it was better than any sushi I’ve ever had at a chinese buffet, but was not as good as my least favorite sushi item at KO fusion. However, I…
What is an antibiotic-free egg? And how can you tell?
Great article. I’ve always found that by making it in the blender, I can be my typical impatient self and pour tons of oil in at once. It’s very forgiving that way, though not fool proof.
I will be at Danu this evening. And seeing as tomorrow - St. Pat’s - is my birthday, I will be celebrating with tons of green and fun!
Big Blue will actually be on 6-9, despite what is posted elsewhere. Then, hightail it over to Bentley’s!
Ahh - good point - I will plug them in the appropriate sections.
Yeeee! This sounds so fun! Any word on covers for any/all of these? Maybe SP could spring for punch cards and some discounts if we make it to all, eh?
Ok, just tell me when I can exhale - Just curious, since all the globalists, carbon traders, and pretty much anyone with copious amounts of wealth have weighed in on population reduction in recent years, i was wondering what yer magic number was. Some of the more…
ESPN360!!!!! For those that don’t know, you can watch the ESPNs’ games on your puter.
...and given the lack of smiley emoticons i chose to employ, that reads far more sarcastically than i ever intended (my apologies). i actually find this to be a great article and an interesting discussion, seriously : )
Once it leaves the basement, it is then called what? hmmm…....could it be mainstream? accessible? appealing on a mass-level? POP??? Quickly it will become a fad, over-saturate the media, and piss people off. Then everyone can write articles based on how that shit sucks, too. chickens are…
So John is seeing all comments as being authored by John. I am seeing all comments as authored by me. The first comment was Mysterious McDade who evidently acquired an Optimism Hat and is now seeing how it fits.
No, everyone is me! Muahahaha! I so didn’t make that first comment so I thought maybe someone was trying to get my goat, adding me to the staff. I hope jumping to that conclusion is forgivable. Yeah, uh, I guess I should say that I swear I…
I have reached Nirvana, I guess. Everyone is me.
Something weird is happening.
WTF guys? Does impersonating a user in the comments section run afoul of your commenting policy?
In general, I think music is much more interesting now than in 1995. I definitely am very glad contemporary music has expanded beyond the four-piece rock lineup that dominated much of the 90’s. The point of the above isn’t so much about a sound or an instrument…
2010 is not 1995. I’m not sure why anyone would expect a music scene to remain stationary as the world of popular music moves around it. Also, today, making popular music with mainstream appeal and being innovative and cutting-edge are usually exact opposites.
I didn’t know that the LED was created here. That’s awesome.
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I will be at Danu this evening. And seeing as tomorrow - St. Pat’s - is my birthday, I will be celebrating with tons of green and fun!