Recently in Music Category

First off let me just say yesterday just plain sucked.  It was one of those days when you wake up feeling bad and things just keep getting worse.  Monday, however, is over so it is on to other things.  Let's all hope for a better Tuesday.

I want to briefly go over my concert going experience Sunday night.  It was interesting, fun, annoying, and boring all at the same time.  It was nice to have a rare night out even if it caused some of the trouble I had Monday. 

We went to see Ingrid Michaelson and Matt Nathanson Sunday.  The show was sold out but I didn't know what "Sold Out" at Workplay meant.  You see, the only shows I have ever seen at the venue were smal, intimate shows where everyone was seated at tables in a very relaxed and laid back atmosphere.  As soon as we made it to 5th Street I knew something about this show would be different.  People were parking blocks away and there were cars everywhere.  I knew the venue couldn't seat that many people, but I assumed that maybe there was something else going on in the big sound stage.  What I found out was that all of the floor table had been removed and the floor was standing only.  No big deal.  I wanted that relaxed atmosphere, but standing would be cool too.  Of course we were not their early enough to get one of the booths.  The next striking thing was the make-up of the crowd.  It pretty much looked like a casting call for a J. Crew catalog shoot.  I am talking this crowd was white. The only way the group could have been less diverse was if everyone came in pointy white hats.  Again, not a problem but the monochromeness of it all was striking.  Obviously the music played to the suburban white kid crowd.

Now, when I say kid, that's not a joke either.  There were plenty of young, mostly girls in the crowd.  There was no doubt that my wife and I were in the top 5 percent age block.  I wasn't so much uncomfortable as I was just out of place.  I had strong tendencies to tell these jokers to get the hell off my lawn, but I resisted the urge.  Things changed as the night moved on, but we will get to that later.  I just want to kind of set the stage a little.

Now, I am familiar with the music from both artists.  Nathanson more than Michaelson, but I got to listen to Michaelson's album over the past few weeks thanks to my friend Matt.  I liked it enough to be interested to see how her set went and seeing a full band setup on the stage was encouraging.  Michaelson, however, didn't use all that equipment.  It was her on keyboards and a partner on guitar.  Very much a coffeehouse vibe.  The set was fine, well played, well sung, plenty of banter and completely not my cup of tea or coffee I guess.  Plenty of young girl love songs.  The kind of stuff affluent high school girls listen to when they grow out of the boy band phase and graduate to something more "real".  That is when I realized why the crowd seemed so young.  This was their "jam" and they were digging it.  Again, the music was good but I found myself looking around the room inspecting the lights as often as I watched the stage.   I couldn't really relate to the music and I really hoped for a fuller sound.  Again, for the type of music she was delivering it was well executed.  I'd like to hear more maybe after she gets a little older and has a little more to say.

When Michaelson finished her set the youngest parts of the crowd disappeared.  That left me dealing with a few typical concert goers to deal with as Nathanson got ready.  On the left was the drunken frat boy tool trying to get laid.  Behind me were the two girls that had to work out all their relationship problems right then in the loudest voice they could muster and to the right where the "got keep getting closer to the stage" people constantly stepping on my foot.  And sadly, in front of me, were the 8 foot tall mongoloids.  So here I was stuck in an annoying sandwich right as the artist I came to see took the stage.  We shifted right a little and bettered our situation some, but we had to wait until the "get closer" people accomplished their task before really getting a good look at the stage.

Nathanson brought a full band and I, for one, was relieved to hear some drums for once.  I originally became interested in Nathanson when I heard that Glen Phillips had done some backing vocal work on his 2003 album Beneath These Fireworks.  I have really enjoyed that album over the last couple of years but didn't really keep an eye out for new stuff.  Therefore, I only purchased his latest album, Some Mad Hope, last week.  I have enjoyed the album, but the previous album is still my favorite.  During the show spent a lot of time on lost love but I enjoyed the rock presentation of his themes over Michaelson's stripped down approach.  They played a little more of the back catalog at the end of the show and I especially loved the acoustic version of Suspended as the encore.  There is something special when an audience connects with an artist and that happened during this quiet number.  Nathanson played parts of some 80's classics like Michael Jackson's Beat It and Duran Duran's Hungry Like The Wolf which was fun but I couldn't help but wonder how many people in the audience were alive when those songs first hit back in the 80s.  The songs of my youth have finally become classic rock and I am not sure what to think about that.  Overall I really enjoyed Nathanson's set and hope he comes back to town again soon.   I certainly recommend his last two studio albums and I hear his live recording is great as well.

While I never felt I was experiencing one of those classic "rock" moments like I did when I saw Pink Floyd on their last concert tour but the night was enjoyable nevertheless.  I would have liked to have spent more of the evening around other people I knew rather than the inconsiderate jackholes that always seem to gravitate toward me, but if the music is good enough I can forgive those transgressions and it was and I did.

Finally, the lesson learned from the evening...If a show starts late on a Sunday night and you, your wife, and your daughter all have to be up before the sun on Monday...go ahead and just take that Monday off.  Everyone will be much happier for it.

For about a month my wife and I looked forward to going to the Crawfish Boil here in Birmingham. For those of you that may not know, the Schaeffer Eye Center Crawfish Boil It is basically a two day outdoor music festival and crawfish feast. I have not paid much attention to the show in the past as I am not a fan of large crowds especially when alcohol is on the menu, but this year's festival demanded that I make an appearance. My wife and I are both solid fans of Barenaked Ladies and they just happened to be the closing act of the festival on Saturday night. As a good fan will often do, I went out of my way to buy VIP tickets for the event while my wife set about finding a babysitter for the evening. That issue was taken care of in short order and all seemed to be set. One little detail, however, escaped notice, but we'll get to that in a moment.

Saturday night came quickly enough and by about 6:00 we found ourselves heading north anticipating an exciting evening full of music we have come to love. Parking, of course, was bad but that little hiccup could not ruin our evening. We park about 5 blocks away and took a stroll through the streets of Birmingham. Soon after leaving our car behind we made it to an entrance onto the festival grounds. I pulled out the tickets I printed from Ticketmaster and we got in line. The incoming crowd was light as it was already later in the day and we quickly made our way to the ticket taker. He scanned our tickets and allowed us entrance.

Here is where the story takes an ugly turn.

He grabbed our passes and put them on a barrel beside his station. Of course we asked for them back as we had paid to get access to the "VIP" area. $60.00 each in fact.

"Let me show you something buddy." he said as he reached for the tickets.

"These are for Friday. Since they have not been used I let you in." He stated.

My heart sank and I saw the horror spread across my wife's face. She was looking forward to this much more than I was and she was completely devastated. I looked at the tickets and sure enough they said Friday. There was no way I could have made such a mistake. Could I really have bought tickets for the wrong day? No, TicketMaster must have screwed up. Not me. Panic was setting in and my heart was racing. We walked over to the ticket both and asked for help but all we got was the standard "There is nothing I can do" response. We walked to the main entrance and got the same response. Someone suggested we go over to the VIP area and see if anyone would help us there. I decided it was worth a try and we went.

The crowd streaming into that area was large so I hung outside trying to figure out what to do. I could buy more tickets but that seemed ridiculous. We were given access to the show so that was good enough right? Then Papa Roach started their set and I looked at the crowd in front of the stage. No way I could deal with that and certainly no way I could ask my wife to do the same thing. I stood there stunned for some time. I know my wife was talking to me and telling me it was going to be ok but all I could hear was the disappointment in her voice. Finally the line into the VIP section slowed and I decided to take a shot at talking to someone.

I walked up to a man that looked like he was in charge and asked him if he had heard of any problems with the tickets. Of course he said no. My first attempt at finding hope failed, but I pressed on. I explained what happened. I explained how I paid my money for tickets that I thought were for Saturday but which appeared to be for Friday and then something unexpected happened. This person handed me two tickets. He did not say much, maybe "Go Ahead", but it was enough. We said "Thank You" and walked in. We got our wrist bands and everything was fine. I don't know if he felt I was being honest or didn't want to deal with me. Either way, this person made my night.

It took about an hour for me to get over the stress of those events. It may not seem like a big deal to most people, but for someone who does not get to go out much, Saturday was a huge deal to me and even more so my wife. It was important to me that she had a good time and I saw all of our plans falling apart. I was so upset that the world had gone blurry around the edges and it took some time for that to go away. However, it did and eventually I calmed down enough to begin to enjoy the evening.

And now, the rest of the story.

After my nerves settled and my wife had a drink we decided to go back out into the main festival area and look around. We wandered around for a bit mostly people watching and found ourselves standing between a climbing wall and a mechanical lift used for the spotlights and cameras. Suddenly, I hear my wife yell at me to "LOOK". I look around and see the lift. Big deal, I see those all the time. She says "NO, LOOK!" I still don't see what she is talking about. She can hardly speak, but literally grabs my head and turns me to the left.

"LOOK WHO IT IS!" she says.

Finally I see who she is talking about. It was Jim Creeggan, bass player for Barenaked Ladies. Now, I am not one to get excited about fame. People are people to me, but Cindy insisted I speak to him so I did. I tapped him on the shoulder, introduced myself and my wifeand asked if he would be willing to take a picture. He couldn't have been a nicer guy. We talked for about 5 minutes and I sent him on his way. The band had been to Dreamland earlier in the day and it seemed like a big hit. I don't think he was too impressed with the festival activities, and I agreed with him, there really wasn't much going on.

After that, the rest of the evening was gravy. We made our way back to the VIP viewing area right as Collective Soul started playing. We staked out a spot on the second level of the viewing platform and waited through Collective Soul's set. By the time BNL started playing we were at the front of the platform. The set was good, but not great. The audio was horrible which completely took me out of the moment. I did make a new friend though. I hope you and your wife made it home safe Kevin.

After all of the initial drama, the evening turned out great. I probably could have done without the stress though. Next time I guess I need to pay more attention to what I am ordering.

The other classic band tour in which I had some interest was the reunion of David Lee Roth with Van Halen. Sure Michael Anthony was off the bill and replaced by Wolfgang Van Halen, but who really cared about Michael Anthony right? Anyway, it looks like this circus has been shut down yet again.

Van Halen Challenge Spinal Tap As Most Ridiculous Band Ever

I just loved the headline so much I had to use it here. What I also just found hilarious in the article was the statement that Wolfgang Van Halen now holds the distinction of being in the band for less time than Gary Cherone. That feat, my friends, was hard to beat but by god Wolfgang did it! Way to go junior!

I honestly would like to go to a full Van Halen reunion show if only for the stage experience, but alas, tis not to be. Roth is too bat-shit crazy and Eddie is way too crotchety. Seriously! Look at the guy!

Ummm, probably best to leave the past behind you on this one guys.

The Police Tour was announced recently and I was all excited, for about 5 minutes. Then I discovered that you have to pony up one hundred bucks just so you can maybe, possible, get access to the pre-sales for a single venue. Thank you for making my asshole bleed Mr. "I Own a fucking castle but I still need to suck $100 out of every one of my fans" Sumner. May I please have another? What's worse is that if you want to sign up for the fan club you can get the free "membership" but only if you give them your credit card number. WTF???!!! Here is the supposed reason why:

Why do you need my credit card for a free subscription?

As part of thepolicetour.com's attempt to confirm the legal age and identity of all new members, your credit card information will be verified before registering this offer. Verification involves our system interfacing with the bank's system to confirm that the provided card details are valid. In some instances, your available balance or credit limit may reflect the authorization. No charges will be made against the provided credit card unless you do not cancel prior to the end of your offer's term. You may cancel your offer at any time from within the My Account section of thepolicetour.com. The cancellation will take effect on the date of your offer's expiration.

This is a $0.00 membership and you still want a credit card? OH HELL NO!!! I have seen a lot of shitty tactics before, but this just about takes the cake. The good news is that apparently they have not exactly thought out the whole process because if you cancel out of the form at the point it asks you for a credit card number, the system still writes your information to the database and you can log in to access the members area. All I wanted to do was watch the video from the press conference and they wanted my credit card for the privilege. Not a chance fellas.

I later came to find out that Best Buy customers who are part of the reward zone program can get access to the pre-sales WITHOUT shelling out the 100 dollars. So, I MIGHT still buy tickets, but I am getting the feeling that they will be so overpriced that I will have to sell a kidney to accomplish the feat. I know for a fact that all of these guys have had very successful careers after the band broke up even if Stewart and Andy have been more behind the scenes than Sting. I am pretty sure they don't need a little cash to put hot dogs on the table like some of their fans might. If tickets go on sale below $150 each I will be surprised. I don't think I can stomach such a thing. At least I have my cds. I may just have to put on the headphones, close my eyes, and let my imagination do the heavy lifting.

The buzz is building around a possible tour by The Police this year. One things seems guaranteed, The Police will open the Grammy's this year. Assuming the band does tour this year, you can bet the tickets are going to be outrageous! I may have to sell a kidney to afford to see the show.

Anyone out there need some tech support? $500 an hour, payable in cash. All services guaranteed. No refunds.

One of, if not the, very first cassette tapes I ever had that was not of the kid's music variety was The Police's "The Singles". That tape is long gone now, but it started a life long love of the trio's music. While I have followed Sting's career after the band broke up and enjoyed much of his work, especially the first couple of heavily jazz influenced albums, nothing has been purely as enjoyable as the material he produced with The Police.

Today I read that a reunion tour MAY actually happen. Sting has scoffed at the idea for decades, but now maybe that he has done just about everything he could do musically he is finally ready to return to his roots. I can only hope a tour would be accompanied by an album of originals, but I find that unlikely. However, you can bank on one thing, if The Police actually go on tour and make it to the south, I will be there. This would be one case where the cost of a concert ticket would not bother me in the least.

One finally note...this is not an invitation to start the classic "My band is better than yours!" argument. I don't go to your site and say how much I think Nickleback sucks so don't start that kinda crap here!

That is all.

Yes, I do. Actually, that is not entirely true. I love 80's pop music. I can really do without the jelly bracelets, JAMMS shorts, and pegged jeans. A lot of the music, however, I can't seem to get out of my head. I am not going to argue the quality of the work, but some of that stuff is catchy.

I have been listening to a lot of 80's compilations while driving around town lately. Songs like "Our House" by Madness, "Tempted" by Squeeze and "Wang Chung" by the ever popular Wang Chung have been drifting through the speakers in my truck. I only get in an 80s mood on rare occasions, but I have been in that frame of mind for a few days. Must have been something I heard on the radio or on TV that jogged my memory and made me seek out my compilation CDs and rip them to my iPod. It was worth the effort. I have about half a dozen with various songs on them plus some full cds from artists like The Police, Crowded House, Men at Work and Tears for Fears. Taken as a whole, my 80s pop music collection is fairly comprehensive.

All in all it has been a nice change of pace from my usual folk rock tastes.

One unrelated note:

I had to shut down the comments on a few of my previous posts. I am loath to do this, but I have no other choice. There is a group of people out there that feel I have wronged them and have decided to take their beef with me public. While I continue to try and settle this situation privately, I will shut down commenting for the entire site if necessary. This website has been a welcome respite from the daily grind for me since 2003 and I hope to see it continue in much the same open forum format as it has these past three years. I welcome all comments and try to respond with dignity and tact. Therefore, I will not make any changes here unless I am forced to and for the time being only certain entries will no longer allow comments. Finally, if any of my friends feel like they need to contact me, you know how to do so. I may not be able to give you the answers you want to hear, but I will tell you what I can.

As always, thanks for reading

I am a gadget fanatic by nature. Some days I think it is in my DNA. I just can't avoid drooling over the latest technology and much of my financial troubles are caused by an extreme addiction to electronics. Lately, however, I have been considering the consequences of letting all of that go. Turn off the computers, cancel the hosting accounts (and thus this blog), sell the stereo and home theater equipment, and just get back down to basics. Focus on things like reading (which I am doing exactly none of at the present time), playing with my daughter, and spending quiet evenings with my wife. I think after the initial shock I would settle into a more relaxed way of life. However, the problem with this strategy is that much of my current career hinges on my ability to at least be knowledgeable about current trends in consumer electronics and computing technologies. So, to make such lofty goals viable, I would need to shift careers and although it seems like a good idea in theory, complications exist that make such a move difficult at best. Therefore, the drive to "unplug" as it were must be satisfied in another way.

I was speaking to some friends after class last night and discovered that one of the guys did not have a cell phone. I was late to the cell phone bandwagon, but this shocked me. He said he basically did not need the distraction and I think he is right. The majority of us do not need them and we certainly don't need them for surfing the internet or watching TV shows. We have become slave to the cell phones. This is just one case where we as a society are letting technology own our lives. Maybe it was "Fight Club" that vocalized the idea that we no longer own our possessions, but our possessions own us. Nothing truer can be said and my generation and the generation behind me has become even more burdened by the things we thought would make our life better and easier. We spend our time worrying about cell service, cable outages, backing up our digital pictures, fretting over email, etc., etc., etc. We need to ask ourselves..."Do I really need this?"

The solution for me would be to take a vacation away from it all. My ideal trip would be to go backpacking for a week. I would be completely out of touch with the world and I can't imagine anything more relaxing. I know some people who do similar things and the impression I get from all of them is that it recharges them and actually refreshes their interest in the technology that has become so much a part of our lives. I am thus more enamored with the idea than ever. With all of that in mind, I would love to plan a backpacking trip during some of the cooler months of the next year. There are some logistics to be worked out of course with number one being my daughter, but nothing is impossible. Plus, there is always just camping and she can go with us that way, but backpacking will always be my preferred choice. So, who wants to go with me?

Finally, I wanted to post some song lyrics that relate in some way to my post. I don't often do this because most people just ignore such things anyway, but if I can get one person to maybe seek out this song I will be happy. It is from the last studio album, "Coil", from Toad the Wet Sprocket. It is an album that I did not connect with as a younger man, but one which now I understand and have come to really appreciate.

"Throw it all Away" - Music by Glen Phillips and Toad the Wet Sprocket - Lyrics by Glen Phillips

Take your cautionary tales
Take your incremental gain
And all the sychophantic games
And throw 'em all away

Burn your tv in your yard
And gather 'round it with your friends
And warm your hands upon the fire
And start again

Take the story you've been told
The lies that justify the pain
The guilt the weighs upon your soul
And throw 'em all away

Tear up the calendar you've bought
And throw the pieces to the sky
Confetti falling down like rain
Like a parade to usher in your life

Take the dreams that should have died
The ones that kept you lying awake
When you should've been all right
And throw 'em all away

With the time i waste on the life i never had
I could've turned myself into a better man

'Cause there ain't nothing you can buy
And there is nothing you can save
To fill the whole inside your heart
So throw it all away

Won't fill the whole inside your heart

Help me empty out this house
The wool i've gathered all these days
And thought i couldn't do without
And throw it all away

There is a good debate going on in the previous thread about the future of digital music. I found the following link today during lunch and I think everyone should read it. The article concerns what happens when the RIAA decides to sue you. The article is lengthy, but gripping. If you love music, take some time to go over this and understand why the RIAA is the embodiment of the problem with the music industry.

A laypersons guide to file sharing lawsuits.

I worked late into the night on Saturday ripping discs from my cd collection. I am trying to get everything ripped so I can move the cds into storage somewhere and get a little more space in my closet we call a house. The problem I am encountering now, however, is that some cds are scratched and the rips do not go well and I get songs full of fits and starts. Oddly enough, this seems to be happening more often with Barenaked Ladies cds than anything else. Two of the three disks I ripped on Saturday had errors that I had to find a way to correct. After trying 3 different cd drives on two different computers, I was able to get everything ripped correctly without problems. What a big pain in the ass!

While working on this project, I have been thinking about how the RIAA says we, the consumer, are supposed to be able to use music. If I own a cd, I really don't own much of anything except some pressed plastic and metal substrate. I don't own the songs and it is illegal to share that music in many of the ways that technology has made available. Also, the RIAA would stop the resale of used cds if it could. Thank goodness that the first sale doctrine and fair use laws have forced the RIAA to stop trying to shut down used cd sales. The RIAA's position is that when you buy a cd you are really buying a license to listen to certain recordings and that license contains the provisions under which you can listen to the music. So, if I only own a "license" then shouldn't the RIAA be REQUIRED to provide a new copy of the MEDIA if the cd becomes unusable? I should be able to contact the publisher and exchange my bad cd for a new one at a nominal cost for shipping and manufacturing. If a cd normally costs $15.00, shouldn't I be able to exchange my disc for $5.00? I have already paid for the license to the music right?

In fact, I should only have to buy a song or complete album ONCE in my lifetime. Then, the record company should be obligated to provide the music that I have purchased the license to at any time I request it. That means in any format available. How about this for a solution to the music problem? A person has an account with the RIAA. That account gives them access to "license" any recording registered with the RIAA for a price. Let's say a full album is $30.00. Sure you would pay more than you do today, but you can have the music for the rest of your life. So, once you license the tracks, you can download them in several different formats and do whatever you want with them. Put them on an MP3 player, burn a cd, etch them into glass, whatever. Let's go one step further. Suspend belief with me for just one moment and assume that all record companies and hardware manufacturers could get together and create a unified DRM scheme that protects artists rights and still allows users to control their music collection. This scheme would be based on the RIAA account information and would be built into anything that could play recorded media. This includes MP3 Players, computer software, cd players, dvd players, whatever. A simple user interface where the device/software verifies the user and allows playback. If everyone accepted this standard, fair use would not be infringed. Technically this idea is complicated, but as an idea it could work. Imagine NEVER having to buy the "White Album" ever again. $30.00 up front for the rest of you life. I think I would buy more music than I do now because I would never have to worry again about format changes. If I want to listen to "Appetite for Destruction" when I am 60 then I just connect a cable to the back of my head, access my account and, Welcome to the Jungle!

I have more to say about DRM and how it helped bring the ability to pick and choose single recordings to the market. It is flawed in many ways, but without the technology you would not be able the LEGALLY purchase single tracks today. More to come.