Head east young man, head east.

Well, it has certainly been a while since I have even looked at this page, let alone write a music related blog. Life has been busy, as it is from time to time. The main suck of my time for the past few years has been the pressure of trying to finish a dissertation, and all things related to that. Good news though, the dissertation was defended, successfully of course, and the majority of the nails have been pounded into its coffin.

I am also on the verge of a big move, east to Pennsylvania for a new job. So, I a gratefully leaving the west Texas town of El Paso soon (and I even was able to visit Rosa's Cantina, which was made famous by the Marty Robbins song a few weeks ago, so I can cross that off my list of legendary locations with musical affiliation to visit).

Undertaking this big move and change of scenery has got me thinking about this blog again. It never left my mind since I last posted, rather there was just never time for me to sit and write a post every once in a while. However, hopefully this move will be a good restart point for some more musical musings on a regular basis.

In thinking about this big move across the country, I have been preparing the old ipod for a lot of musical juice for the drive. So, I just wanted to share some of this driving music here in the first new post in quite a while. Some of this is tried and true driving music that I have listened to time and again on such long drawn out drives. Some is music fairly new to me, which I am looking forward to giving a good road test. As I may or may not do some write-ups on these bands in the future, I will just leave you with a sample of each. Enjoy the ear candy!

1. Camper Van Beethoven:



2. Cracker:



3. The Melvins:



4. The Who:



5. Kyuss:



6. Red Fang:



7. Mastodon:



8. Clutch:



9. The Lusitania:



10. Menomena:



11. The Dead Kennedys:



12: Frank Zappa:



13: Fantômas:



14: The Diablo Swing Orchestra:



15: Big Business:

Blog post title goes here

Well, its been a while. A long while. And this still is not a proper update. Just an acknowledgement that I need to update this again, and soon.

Anyway, I am working on it. Thinking about what to write about is working on it, right?

"Honey, it’s ok I said at the end of a day, we’ll find a place to go, somewhere there’s no one we know"

It is nice to see someone write a good blog for a prominent media source about the overlooked music scene in your home town.

Enjoy.

(also, to give some input of my own on music, since its been so long, the blog title are lyrics from the Sleepercar song 'Wednesday Nights' from their album West Texas. Check it out, it is excellent.)

"Took a trip to California, to see where those old days had gone and the girl that went with them. Curiosity, thats all. I swear, I swear."

If anyone would have told me 10 years ago that I would be an avid listener of anything that sounded like or even influenced by country music, I probably would have punched them in the ear, called them a filthy liar, and would have followed all that by saying  something derogatory about their mother.  

And then, about 5 years ago, at the beginning of my first senior year of college, I randomly picked up a Cracker album - Forever (2001) - as I had heard a little of them as an alternative band, and was desperate for some new music. I should have known, I mean the band's name is Cracker after all, and the album cover had a picture of the band with two mid-aged ladies in curlers and bathrobes standing in front of a trailer:

At that point in my musical life, what was I thinking?  Was I absolutely delusional given my previous preference to even pseudo-country music?  I mean, what the hell did I think this band was going to sound like with an album cover like that?

I listened to the album off and on throughout the year, and the more I listened the more I was impressed with the music, and the more I realized that I may have been a little close-minded in my musical preferences.  But I was still skeptical that this had anything to do with country music, as it had great keyboard parts, and songs that were of a very intensely depressing variety and some songs were pretty heavy, and I could comfortably classify it as alternative with an americana influence.  I was blissfully ignorant.

And at some point that first Cracker album lead to buying another - Gentleman's Blues (1998) - and that lead to purchasing Uncle Tupelo's Anodyne (1993).  That in turn lead to checking out Camper Van Beethoven's Key Lime Pie (1989).  Then things got a little fuzzy after that, and I think I may have blacked out for a portion of my life.

I'm not ashamed.  I can look back on my life, and say that I was prejudiced against country music because all I heard was the horrible popular country, which really is just crappy pop music.  And what self respecting music lover would like that?

So, now, in the present day.  I can't get enough alternative country.  And it fills me to the brim with joy that Cracker is still making great albums.  I listened to their most recent release - Greenland (2006) -  while driving this past summer.  In fact, I've made it a point that whenever I take road trips, no matter how short or long, to listen to at least one Cracker album along the way.  And lately Greenland has been the Cracker album of choice (they're all excellent though).

There has always been something to me about the lyrical style used in the music of Cracker.  Its really more of a story telling style than anything else, and is very reminiscent of Lou Reed's lyrical style.  There is something about the lyrics and the tone of the music in alternative country songs - especially in Cracker songs - that blends so well, and settles just right for some reason.  Its hard to explain, but I can always identify with something in the songs and lyrics of Cracker, sometimes its even just the tone and texture of the song, not necessarily the words in the song.  Somehow Cracker (and alternative country music in general) just cuts deep to my soul - or whatever the atheist equivalent of a soul is - and it sticks with me.

And my final note on Cracker:  it amazes me how diverse their music is, how much it branches out from just being an underground alt-rock version of country, how it truly is influenced by more than just country and alternative rock music.  In my opinion (after this is my blog for my musical opinions) Cracker has come up with some the best and most creative songs from different musical genres than have been written by artists of those genres.  One of the best reggae songs I've ever heard - Better Times are Coming Our Way - is from the recent Cracker album, Greenland.  Also, one of the best best hip-hop/pop-rock songs I've heard - What You're Missing - is from their previous studio album, Forever.  And there is so much more that could talk about here about the diverse nature of the band, but I'll let you find out for yourselves.

I don't really have a final point to make here.  Just felt like talking about Cracker I guess.  It happens.  Enjoy.

3 months, 10 states, and worn out...but I return

As many of you have probably determined, I've been away from this blog for a while.  Call it a hiatus I guess, actually a hiatus that was out of my control, that comes around in the summertime, what with traveling around the countryside of the western U.S.  doing field work in areas that lack those modern conveniences of the city.  For those of you who thought this blog was dead - partial credit, I guess - but it is certainly not deceased.  

All the travel time in the summer allowed a lot of quality music listening time while driving, enough to fill a few blogs I think (hopefully).  Maybe it will be a temporary segment of good traveling music.

However, I will keep this to just being a status of the blog type post.  So, stay tuned, more coming soon.

"Sometimes I feel like I am leaving life behind, my hands are moving faster than the moving of my mind"

So, I am a teenage by-product of the 1990's.  I love the mid-90's music.  However, I must admit that my first musical love was music that my parents despised when they were the youth.  That's right...I was so popular in high school that I actually shunned the popular rock music of the day, and listened to psychedelic 1960's rock'n'roll (yes, all the popular youths were just clamoring to hang out with me, and I was invited to oh so many parties in high school...and that's sarcasm).  My first two loves in music was Jefferson Airplane and the Who.  I don't even remember how I came across  this style of music first prior to grunge, alternative and nerd rock, and really its not important.  All that I know is that a lot of these songs (often times complete albums) have stuck with me for almost 13 years now.

However, in the past about 4 years, I haven't been listening to Jefferson Airplane nearly as much as I used to.  However, thanks to the 'shuffle album' function on itunes, these albums have been in my music rotation for the past few weeks.  Its been refreshing in a sense to listen to these albums that are responsible for starting me on my 'powered by satan music' trend.

This evening I listened to Jefferson Airplane's second to last studio album, Bark (1971) prior to disbanding.  And honestly, the two albums after Volunteers (1969) aren't that great, and really just diminish to the end of Jefferson Airplane.  Who knows why.  But I must say that one of my favorite songs on Bark (and one of my favorite Airplane songs period) is Third Week in Chelsea.  

Hearing that song again for the first time in approximately 3 or 4 years was good reminder for me of checking out a band's entire catalog.  By the time of  Bark's release, Jefferson Airplane hadn't really had a well selling single since White Rabbit and Somebody to Love and so the albums following Surrealistic Pillow (1967) are not so well know (in theory).  However, there are all these great hidden gems of beautiful songwriting and musicianship amongst the mediocre in their final albums.  If I had stopped buying Jefferson Airplane albums after I had picked up Surrealistic Pillow, I would have missed out on the three awesome albums that followed - After Bathing at Baxter's (1967), Crown of Creation (1968), and Volunteers, and yet because I did seek out these other albums in the catalog, I found that I love these three albums more than Surrealistic Pillow (nothing against the album, its great too, but just personal preference I guess).  I would have also never heard the beautifully depressing Third Week in Chelsea, nor the excellent kick-to-the-groin/fight-the-man Eat Starch Mom.  So, go bust out the vinyl LPs from the storage shed and re-listen to Jefferson Airplane.  Its always good stuff, and appears to get better with a bit of age.  

On a separate note, I decided to change the title of the blog from 'Shit You Should be Listening to' to 'Love Notes from the Mosh Pit.'  Because, who doesn't like a good mosh pit?  thats it.

"I align myself to New England winter, and I give myself unto you. Drag it out, walk it home. San Diego!"

Burning Brides - Hang Love (2007)

There I was, sitting in the local coffee house, drinking my regular cup of tea and hanging out with my friend, urban explorer and fellow music-aficionado, Alex.

 

It was the week before the Thanksgiving pseudo-break at the university, and not a whole lot was planned for it.  I glanced over by the cash register, and the beginning of my Thanksgiving break was planned (well other than that damned isotopes take-home exam, but this is a blog about rock music, and I'm sure none of you care about thermochronology).  Over by the register at the coffee house, was a poster advertising a show for the following week in a little hole in the wall club headlined by Helmet.  For $10.

  

Ok, at this point, the little voice that represents my long-term memory gently reminds that "You fucking love Helmet!" Anyway, after calming down a bit, collecting my thoughts, and explaining who Helmet was and what type of music they play to Alex, our upcoming Tuesday night was planned. 

 

But this isn't about Helmet...

The big musical 'find' and 'surprise' of the evening was the band that played right before Helmet: the Burning Brides.  At the instant they started playing, its was a wall of sound filled with blazing hard rock guitar riffs and noodles, absolutely tight and creative rhythm section work, and vocal stylings often like a mix between Iggy Pop, Kurt Cobain, and Saturday Night Live-era Jim Belushi rolling around on the stage yelling into the microphone, but a voice that can also hold its own in death rock circles.  Add in the constant onstage head-banging, moshing, and general flailing of limbs of the three flannel-shirt and converse-shoe clad band members, and the all-around energy of a Stooges, Ramones, or Who concert.  The Burning Brides came to play at full-capacity, and there was not a point in their set that they failed in doing so.  It was, without a doubt, one of the best representations of what rock 'n' roll band should be that I have ever witnessed.

  

And their latest album, Hang Love (2007), does not disappoint for those who have seen them live as well.  The wall of sound is preserved beautifully on the LP, and the heavy guitar riffs and all-around tight performances are plentiful from the beginning of track one to the last second of the album.  The album also has a great dark texture, and full, broad, 3-dimensional sound throughout.  

And for those of you who unfortunately have not attended a Burning Brides show, the album is very adequate for provoking living room head-banging and moshing.  If you aren't convinced yet, I recommendation for an initial listen,  the songs "Ring Around the Rosary," "San Diego," "She Comes to Me," "Your Nation Will Die," and "Unglued."  (Hopefully, those of you reading this are fortunate enough to live close enough to a good record store that might be able to let you listen to an album you're contemplating purchasing.  If not, then check out the myspace link at the bottom.)

Thats it for this blog.  Check out the Burning Brides of course, they will not disappoint.  Until next time kids, enjoy the rock music.

Burning Brides (Official site)

Burning Brides (Myspace site)