coutesy of Obamicon.me
Friday, June 26, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
don't forget...
...at monster music and movies in west ashley across from target, in the shopping center with bed, bath, and beyond. it should be an amazing day full of great live music and great sales. support your local independent record stores. please.
Sunday, April 05, 2009
'cause i love 'em, that's why - installment 2
for the second installment of my ''cause i love 'em, that's why' series, i will write a bit about bjork's album debut. i bought this album when it was released in 1993 based on hearing the song 'human behaviour' and seeing the video on mtv at ron r's house. we both fell in love with her quirky lyrics and voice, and loved her accent. and it certainly helped that she was so easy on the eyes.
her music was a lot different than other things i was listening to at the time. less loud rock sounds, more dancy beats, with a few tear-jerking ballads in there as well. i spent a lot of my time sitting alone in my room listening to this album that year. i also got my first car that year, so i dubbed the cd to tape and cruised around town with the windows down, speakers blaring. i included a few songs from the album on mixed tapes as well, whether for myself or for some lady friend (at age 15, i made lots of mixed tapes). this particular album opened my eyes to a different kind of music, added more to my musical intellect, let me feel that there was amazing music out there that could be made without distorted guitars. which led, i am sure, to me seeking out bands like cibo matto or portishead or morcheeba years later.
songs like 'violently happy', 'crying', 'venus as a boy', 'come to me', hell, everyone of them mean something to me for that time in my life. and everytime i hear these songs, it takes me back to those days. no matter how down i felt back then as a teenager living in goose creek, sc, this music always made me happy. not to say that this album has only nostalgic value to me. if i were to hear it for the first time today, i know it would sound equally as amazing to me as it sounded 16 years ago.
when i talk about my respect for bjork as an artist and how much i love her music, most people refer to videos they have seen where she is talking about how her tv broadcasts images through to her mind or that music awards show where she was wearing the swan thing around her neck, and just talk about how they can't stand her because of how weird she is. i find it hard to believe that many of these people have ever sat down and actually listened to her music. to me, all of the 'crazy' things she does makes her that much more endearing to me. she is a unique artist, and is not afraid to stand out as an individual.
now, i am not writing this to try to convince anyone to like her music. if you've made up your mind, ok, good. i am writing this to let anyone who reads this know that i (and my wife, coincidentally) love her music, and this album got me started on a whole new world of music, including her future albums. so there you have it. more installments to come in the near future, so if you give a crap, and read this blog occasionally, keep coming back, because this will hopefully bring me back here to write a little more often than usual.
her music was a lot different than other things i was listening to at the time. less loud rock sounds, more dancy beats, with a few tear-jerking ballads in there as well. i spent a lot of my time sitting alone in my room listening to this album that year. i also got my first car that year, so i dubbed the cd to tape and cruised around town with the windows down, speakers blaring. i included a few songs from the album on mixed tapes as well, whether for myself or for some lady friend (at age 15, i made lots of mixed tapes). this particular album opened my eyes to a different kind of music, added more to my musical intellect, let me feel that there was amazing music out there that could be made without distorted guitars. which led, i am sure, to me seeking out bands like cibo matto or portishead or morcheeba years later.
songs like 'violently happy', 'crying', 'venus as a boy', 'come to me', hell, everyone of them mean something to me for that time in my life. and everytime i hear these songs, it takes me back to those days. no matter how down i felt back then as a teenager living in goose creek, sc, this music always made me happy. not to say that this album has only nostalgic value to me. if i were to hear it for the first time today, i know it would sound equally as amazing to me as it sounded 16 years ago.
when i talk about my respect for bjork as an artist and how much i love her music, most people refer to videos they have seen where she is talking about how her tv broadcasts images through to her mind or that music awards show where she was wearing the swan thing around her neck, and just talk about how they can't stand her because of how weird she is. i find it hard to believe that many of these people have ever sat down and actually listened to her music. to me, all of the 'crazy' things she does makes her that much more endearing to me. she is a unique artist, and is not afraid to stand out as an individual.
now, i am not writing this to try to convince anyone to like her music. if you've made up your mind, ok, good. i am writing this to let anyone who reads this know that i (and my wife, coincidentally) love her music, and this album got me started on a whole new world of music, including her future albums. so there you have it. more installments to come in the near future, so if you give a crap, and read this blog occasionally, keep coming back, because this will hopefully bring me back here to write a little more often than usual.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
'cause i love 'em, that's why - installment 1
so, for the last few days, while driving in my car, i have been listening to an old classic in the musical library of layne, and was inspired to begin a new series of installments entitled ''cause i love 'em, that's why', in which i will discuss albums that helped shape me into the dude i am today. the album that prompted all of this is none other than shonen knife's let's knife.
i first got wind of this band back in 1992 because i was a huge fan of nirvana, and kurdt cobain talked about them in interviews often and had them open up for nirvana on one of their tours. i thought, in my 15-year-old mind, 'if they're good enough for kurdt, they're good enough for me!', so i went out and purchased let's knife, which was their most recent album released, and the only one i could find locally.
the front and back covers made me very curious. three petite japanese women on the front (at the time, and still, i was very much into female-led rock groups), wearing bright crazy multi-colored outfits surrounded by psychedelic cartoon-y flowers. the track listing on the back made me even more curious, with titles such as 'flying jelly attack', 'twist barbie', 'get the wow', and 'tortoise brand pot scrubbing cleaner's theme (sea turtle)', i thought, this has to be good! i got home from the record store (i am almost positive i picked it up from manifest discs and tapes, now monster music and movies), and went straight to my room to crack open the cd. when i put it in my boombox, my mind was blown.
seventeen tracks of perfectly crafted pop music, innocent child-like lyrics, rockin' guitars, good guitar solos, tight drumming, vocal harmonies that made me weep (i have a thing for good vocal harmonies), and the list goes on. at age 15, i had never heard anything else like it, and i devoured it, listening constantly and trying to learn all of the songs on guitar. come to find out, they had quite a back catalogue of albums, so i had some work to do tracking them down through special orders, mail orders, etc (no home internet access back then, kiddies, at least not in the harvey household - i had to order though the mail (!)).
i pushed the album on all of my unsuspecting friends, and a few of them were equally impressed, most notably ron r., oscar r., and charles r. (none of them related, and not the charles r. that i currently associate with). three years later, i discovered they were playing in atlanta, where, coincidentally, ron r. was going to school, so charles r. and i made the road trip and saw them at the masquerade. we were like a gaggle of prepubescent girls staring at a joey mcintyre poster on their bedroom walls, except this was way cooler. we were right up front within reach of naoko yamano, the lead singer/guitarist. they were amazing and larger than life up on that stage. we thought, how can these three little ladies make such an incredible mind-blowing sound? after their set, they came out and signed autographs and stuff. they were very quiet when it was our turn to chat - they were probably a bit freaked out by the 6'3" ugly pimply white dude towering over them. we stood there like idiots, not thinking of anything cool to say. they signed a setlist and a ticket stub for me and i was in heaven.
anywho, on that note, i will leave you with some thought-provoking lyrics from one of my favorite tracks on the album 'i am a cat':
i discover whiskers of a cat
in a timeless zone
and i put them on my face.
in a moment i become a sweet little cat
and i dance on a flying saucer.
so, so cool.
more of this type of thing to come, so stay tuned, if you wanna.
i first got wind of this band back in 1992 because i was a huge fan of nirvana, and kurdt cobain talked about them in interviews often and had them open up for nirvana on one of their tours. i thought, in my 15-year-old mind, 'if they're good enough for kurdt, they're good enough for me!', so i went out and purchased let's knife, which was their most recent album released, and the only one i could find locally.
the front and back covers made me very curious. three petite japanese women on the front (at the time, and still, i was very much into female-led rock groups), wearing bright crazy multi-colored outfits surrounded by psychedelic cartoon-y flowers. the track listing on the back made me even more curious, with titles such as 'flying jelly attack', 'twist barbie', 'get the wow', and 'tortoise brand pot scrubbing cleaner's theme (sea turtle)', i thought, this has to be good! i got home from the record store (i am almost positive i picked it up from manifest discs and tapes, now monster music and movies), and went straight to my room to crack open the cd. when i put it in my boombox, my mind was blown.
seventeen tracks of perfectly crafted pop music, innocent child-like lyrics, rockin' guitars, good guitar solos, tight drumming, vocal harmonies that made me weep (i have a thing for good vocal harmonies), and the list goes on. at age 15, i had never heard anything else like it, and i devoured it, listening constantly and trying to learn all of the songs on guitar. come to find out, they had quite a back catalogue of albums, so i had some work to do tracking them down through special orders, mail orders, etc (no home internet access back then, kiddies, at least not in the harvey household - i had to order though the mail (!)).
i pushed the album on all of my unsuspecting friends, and a few of them were equally impressed, most notably ron r., oscar r., and charles r. (none of them related, and not the charles r. that i currently associate with). three years later, i discovered they were playing in atlanta, where, coincidentally, ron r. was going to school, so charles r. and i made the road trip and saw them at the masquerade. we were like a gaggle of prepubescent girls staring at a joey mcintyre poster on their bedroom walls, except this was way cooler. we were right up front within reach of naoko yamano, the lead singer/guitarist. they were amazing and larger than life up on that stage. we thought, how can these three little ladies make such an incredible mind-blowing sound? after their set, they came out and signed autographs and stuff. they were very quiet when it was our turn to chat - they were probably a bit freaked out by the 6'3" ugly pimply white dude towering over them. we stood there like idiots, not thinking of anything cool to say. they signed a setlist and a ticket stub for me and i was in heaven.
anywho, on that note, i will leave you with some thought-provoking lyrics from one of my favorite tracks on the album 'i am a cat':
i discover whiskers of a cat
in a timeless zone
and i put them on my face.
in a moment i become a sweet little cat
and i dance on a flying saucer.
so, so cool.
more of this type of thing to come, so stay tuned, if you wanna.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
neko case - new album and single
neko case has a new album coming out on march 3rd called middle cyclone. she also has a new single, people got a lot of nerve, to promote the album that her label, anti-, is offering for a free download on their website. additionally, for every blog that promotes the new single, neko case and anti- will make a cash donation to best friends animal society. download the new track for free here.
to find out how to promote this on your blog to help a good cause, check out this link.
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