WELL - HELLO THERE - STEP RIGHT IN BUT, PLEASE, MY MIND YOUR FACE
Music That Will Eat Your Face is designed to introduce you to bands that you may have not heard before because there is no room for them on the airwaves with all that trash that they play. Well - here's your chance to listen to this great music and see or hear for yourself.
And if you like what you see don't be afraid to check these artists out further - which you can do on the right panel. Thanks for dropping by.
Man - I don't know about you but every famous musician that's up in the forefront - if that - is African American, Hispanic, or Caucasian. What the hell is up with that? Where are all the Asians at? Are we to busy dry cleaning, doing nails, teaching people the secret ways of the ninja to grab a mic and guitar and rocking out? mean - what the hell - again?
Oh - yeah. The same goes with acting. It seems like if we're not throwing a punch or a kick we don't get any love, either. Maybe everybody is scared of our big penises.
So - it's got me thinking. There has to be some musicians out there trying to make their way. And so here I start my quest. After some searching I found a pretty fun, poppy group that is sort of in the same vein as Broken Social Scene in energy and dynamics if not talent. They hail from San Francisco, California and our fronted by the very cute Thao Nyguyen. The rest of the band are Adam Thompson on bass, Willie Thomas on drums. Check them out.
This theme is dedicated to videos that kind of make you go - "What the hell did I just see?" Either that or it's going to be something that is visually striking, a bit that is sweet, sweet, cornea rotting eye candy. Though, I will try to put stuff that comes along with great music not all of it will have great music to it if I find it brilliant enough to be put up here. For now I'll give you two videos.
The first one is for a pretty good song by a group called Coma Cinema, who are new to me but put out some pretty good music. You might want to check them out.
The second video is from an older group that's been around called Depeche Mode. They don't put out a lot of stuff I like but they do pull it off every once in a while. I love their song "Personal Jesus". Anyway - here's there newest video, which is BAD ASS.
When I think about Michigan - however misguided I may be - I don't think post-hardcore music when I think of the music scene up there. What I think about is country music if I think of it at all - which I don't really. I mean - I guess you have Kid Rock and Eminem in Detroit - well - that proves I don't know shit about the Michigan music scene. But I don't concern myself with those two anyway so it's not like they are on the forefront of my mind.
So - to get back to what I was talking about.
Once upon a time there was this bad ass band named Bear vs Shark. They got tired of touring and they quit. But before they did they put out some of the best post-hardcore music of recent years. And it's just beautiful - something you wouldn't think to describe any kind of hardcore music with. Though - I wouldn't say they were the only ones you can assert that adjective to they - in my opinion - fit it more than anybody else. The music though loud and raucous comes together in fits and starts and jumps and twists but it blends into a beautiful melange that is like rainbows for the ears. The singer - though - he tends to yell a lot does it right unlike so many people - he know not to go overboard with it and when to scale it back. Listening to him sing is akin to watching a tennis ball bouncing back and forth from a wall - yelling to melody to yelling - but it works without being grating and it's almost as glorious as the most melodic music you've ever heard.
His lyrics are pure frigging heaven. They actually make statements without shoving anything down your throat. Hell - you'll probably learn shit and not even know it listening to them. It might not even be what they meant by the song but you'll still pick stuff up - it's all very open to interpretation. I mean even their song "I Fucked Your Dad" isn't a childish juvenile song despite its title.
How can you pass a singer by that sings one of the most beautiful lines ever, "This is a poem/ A combination of a sentence broken up to form a rhythm/ You are a poem little pieces of my senses broken up to form an image".
Well, this isn't that song but after you hear it you won't be disappointed.
Man - who doesn't like to sit back and chill while listening to some truly mind twisting music. Letting the music twirl through the air - float into your noise mitts - and sink into your brain causing your thoughts to wander into that far off place that is anywhere but right here, right now? I'm talking about music that makes you feel like your on drugs - music that probably enhances them if you're into that kind of thing.
I - myself - love it. This type of music just fills your senses - all of them - and makes you want to sink through whatever you are sitting or lying on and soak yourself up into sky on the other side of the planet. There's nothing like it.
Since longer than most of us remember there has been many bands either fully into this style of music or bands that just dip there toes into without rocketing off and beyond the aurora borealis.
Here are two bands that definitely go full throttle with it. One from the way back and one that is a little bit more modern.
The first band - Country Joe and the Fish - didn't - at first -record this song the way it turned out. But one day on the influence of LSD - which was legal back in those days - they played around and came up with this result.
And many years later the Black Angels gives us their take on psychedelic rock. Whereas not all psychedelic rock.
I've mentioned before how disappointing it can be for a beloved band to go the way of the dodo and fade away into obscurity. And despite how awful that can be sometimes - every once in a while you get good things that come from it. I don't have much time to get into it today but for now I leave you a pretty damn good example.
The first group is a from Huntsville, Alabama. They lead singer is Nick Torres - who evidently got tired of playing the music that he felt that record companies only wanted because it was what was popular instead of letting him do his own thing.
But, alas, him and guitarist, Tyler Odom, also from Northstar became Cassino. Notice the very different sound that this new band takes on compared to the one that predated it.
Fuck. This is addicting. Post one blog and then you're hammering them down. All this after months and months of saying that you're going to start a blog - one day. But I guess I can safely say that this is just me trying to find my ideas and themes. I mean for a monkey to evolve into one of us it had to evolve from somewhere, huh? Creationists be damned.
Well - this here is for - you guessed it. *puts finger on nose, points at you* Electronic music - or electronic-ish music. Either/or. Which is funny because I use to hate any type of music outside of Nine Inch Nails that was anyway near electronic. But that has changed to an extent; I still can't stand techno, you can give that shit to the birds and scare them off or whatever.
Well - I might as well - since I'm keeping with "firsts" themes here; first favorite bands, first group was disappointed in disbanding, etc. I might as well give you something from the first "electronic" band that I fell in love with. Though, I should say "electronic-ish" before some elitist asshole jump down my fingers' throat. Ha! See what I did there.
Any - welcome - to the stage...Radiohead. Yes - Radiohead - who are - by the way - my favorite group ever. This group - man - is to be the embodiment of never do anything twice and true to that they have never released two albums that are remotely the same. You can argue that Amnesiac and Kid A are separate albums and you'd be correct but seeing that they were recorded together I'm counting them as one. Anywho - if you're also saying Radiohead is not an electronic band or even electronic then I say you've missed out on a bunch of songs from the Kid A/Amnesiac era. And even if they aren't to you they are to me and they are what opened my mind to electronic/electronic-ish bands like She Wants Revenge (who are good but on the bottom end of the spectrum of it), Cut City, Death From Above 1979, Les Savy Fav, and El Ten Eleven.
Here it goes:
And just because I love it so much I'm going to put a cover song done by a madman name Jack Conte, who made one of the best covers PERIOD let alone a great Radiohead cover. Here's his rendition of National Anthem.
You know what I hate? I hate people that bitch about movie remakes and cover songs. What the hell are wrong with these people. They act like these redo(s) - evidently there isn't a plural form of redo - are those little fish that swim up their urethra and take all the fun out of having genitalia. I mean mention one word of somebody remaking somebody else's "art" and they go into all kinds of hissy fits complaining that these folks are raping their childhoods. As if the very existence of the new project will erase any worth - if any - the old material by had just being - well - what it is. It's fucking ridiculous, sorry.
Well - I'm here to honor the cover song and I'm doing it here. My first foray into this is a little gem I found the other day from one of my favorite groups called The Flaming Lips. They aren't alone in this raping of childhood, though. They have accomplices in the form of the band Stardeath and White Dwarfs - who are - in fact - one band despite the "and' up in there.
The song? Borderline by Madonna. And yes, it is the rare song that kicks the original's ass. If you don't like my opinion you can go read another post, blog, or go for a swim - I don't care.
To me there is almost nothing worse than losing a great band for whatever reason - be it an unfortunate death of a band member, the group no longer getting along and later separating ways or they were just to damn tired - whether it be from touring or just the whole frigging scene all together. I mean it's like losing a fucking pet. These bands are the bands I will explore with the theme that this very post - no not that one over there - is about. Not to be confused with the direct opposite of the other theme: Damn We're Out of Money - Let's Make a New Record (Do You Think We're Still Any Good?)
The first band I'll explore is one that I cannot understand the lost of. This is a band from Champaign, Illinois that should have been as famous as their other peers from Chicago who you might have heard of called the Smashing Pumpkins - who are kind of lame now and really only consists of pretty much Billy "I'm the Master" Corgan. Anyway - this isn't about them. This is about the wall of sound building - getting into your head - making sounds into color band called Hum.
The latest incarnation of the band was Matt Talbott (vocals, guitars), Tim Lash (guitars), Jeff Dimpsey (bass), and Bryan St. Pere on drums.
And I'll tell you what - St.Pere could play the fucking drums like a maniac. Not to take away from all the other members of the band but St.Pere is one of my favorite drummers and is terribly underrated. But so was the whole band.
Hello, how are you? My name's Larry - what's yours?
So - where to start? Well - hell - I might as well start with music - that's what this blog is about, right? I'm asking you. *rolls eyes* I'm the one writing this sucker - not you. How are you supposed to know? So - anyway - music. Mother effing music. Got to love it - though - there is a lot to love and even more to hate. This blog here is to bring music to the forefront. And no, not just any old music. Good music. Nay - great music. GREAT music. Music with teeth - music that is hungry. Music that will crawl from out of your closet or from under your beds and render you useless for most everyday functions. Music that will eat your face. What does that mean? No - I'm not psychic. I can tell by the look on your face - I am after all - watching you. By the way - you really need to do something with these bushes - they're kind of itchy and wash your windows while you're at it -they're pretty dirty - I can hardly see you.
Where was I? Oh - yeah - the music...that will eat your face. This is music that will force it's way into your ears and it will do good things - things so good they're bad. The music will dance against your eardrums making all your other senses jealous that they weren't invited to the party. They will become so jealous that they will migrate with a vengeance off of their place on your head and trek across your face to get into those sound catchers of yours. Then the music will lie there in it's hole and wait like the trapdoor spider.
And not just any old music. Great music. Both old and new. And knowing what I do about most people's musical taste whether the music I present is old or new as far as how long it's been in existence - it'll probably be new to you regardless. If it isn't then kudos to you. Perhaps, you can join in this journey to get the bands that deserve to be heard actually heard. Poo poo on all these radio bands like Nickleback and Creed...and whatever. I haven't listened to the radio for years - I don't know what's popular or not anymore.
If you're looking for bands like that - I can't help you there. But if you want to find out about bands that actually try to break the mold and bring things that are interesting to the table this is the place for you.
So - what band will I use to break this site's cherry? Which band will be the champagne bottle smashed against it's helm to set it afloat on the sea of information out there? I'll give you two bands and it makes sense to me that I use these two bands.
The bands are Sonic Youth and Violent Femmes. These are the two bands that after ten or so years having my ears subjected to sorry ass hair bands told me that there is much more to music than guys in make-up that sing about shit I couldn't care less about. Thanks to MTV for many years I thought that hair bands were all that existed and that I was doomed to not liking music forever. My town wasn't very progressive when it came to the music scene. But someway - somehow I found these two bands. And here is a taste. Enjoy.
First of all Sonic Youth. A band from New York that you cannot simply pin down a sound to. They defy categorization. Noise rock and experimental rock will be the closest you can get to describing it - even then description remains elusive. The band members consists of husband and wife lead singers Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, who also play guitar and bass respectively. Then there is Lee Renaldo who also serves on guitar duty and they all sing, though, most of the time you'll find Thurston and Kim taking over that chore. Rounding them all out is Steve Shelley on drums and Mark Ibold on bass. Yes, that's a lot of instruments but none of them go wasted.
The next group is the Violent Femmes. The Violent Femmes over the years have consisted of singer, guitarist and singer Gordon Gano, bassist Brian Ritchie, and two different drummers, Victor DeLorenzo, who left in 1993 and Guy Hoffman, who holds drumming duties until now. They hail from Milwauke, Wisconsis - home of some of the worst beast, er beer ever.
So - that's it for now - this Asian is taking his ass to his floor mat. I've got some rice tending and a whole lot of nails to manicure on top of the dry cleaning and ninja assassinations. Peace, knuckas.
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