Thursday, August 12, 2010

Oh no, tears are falling!

      Erik and I were looking through the XBOX netflix stream, and they had a KISS dvd on. So we watched it, and it was shot at Nissan Pavilion in 2004, I thought that was amazing! The place I saw KISS the last 2 times, and they shot a video of the concert I missed! It was a dream come true! They played songs they never play anymore, off of their older albums, even "love her all I can." (which was remade where Gene and Paul backed up Anthrax...but that's a later blog all together.) On the video, they had little snippets here and there on how they get ready, meet he fans, rehearse...it's mind blowing. I mean hey missed out on some of the finer things...like Gene eats a piece of red candy to make his tongue red...which they did show on Gene Simmons family jewels, and I think he talks about it in his book. Anyway, it would be nice to see KISS at Jiffy Lube Live (that Nissan Pavilion place under a new name,) but we did not get tickets in time.
      Now on to other things, my friend sent me the video to fight for your right to party. She told me she used to love that song, I told her "I used to like the Beastie Boys too, before they sold out." But as the song was done, I saw "Party Hard" by Andrew W.K...so I listened to it, and memories flew back of how...though not a bad front man, all his songs are the same thing. I think the thing that got him noticed was his charisma. We saw him in Toronto once when he was with a side project called "To Live and Shave in L.A" He looked so depressed to be there...he did not look like himself, and the vocalist looked like he was trying to keep his balance while doing handstands on the ceiling...though he was standing...might have been the Canadian beer. Anyway, you don't hear much from him anymore. One of the things about musicians, you're here for a year, and then sent off to Japan just to keep your name alive.

     On a personal note, I am picking up my bass again. First time in three or four months, and I don't suck as bad as I thought I would. I still suck, don't get me wrong. I always wanted ti do something musically, but have even lost my way with writing. I would say it's the critic in me, saying even my old stuff was bad...but some of my friends like it, some of them rip me a new one. I will hopefully get new inspiration soon to write again. When I explained to my friend, who was a musician, she told me "it happens." None truer words spoken. I just listen to the positive, and don't send to the naysayers anymore.

     Well my first ever special edition is coming up soon. I am going to see CSN open for Tom Petty. I will give a review on it, personal and otherwise. I saw Tom last year (I think...) and was astonished at his performance. When I first moved out, I bought Erik a Rolling Stone magazine with Tom Petty, and he said he would cut down performances a drastic amount due to his age, and looking at his tour, I would love to see what his tours were before! This is one tour I can say I hope he plays new stuff! I haven't said that since Boston, (again, KISS does not count, because psycho circus came out the tour before I saw them.) But all in good time.

     Well that will be all for this week, until next time, keep hitting the high notes!

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Genesis (not Phil or Peter... )

Ah yes, the beginning....Where does one start? Most would say the beginning is a good place to start, so I will tell you my reason for this blog. One is for opinions on music: There are many things I feel about music, and a lot of other people have opinions to. I want this to be a learning and sharing experience. I want you to learn, and I want to learn too. Facts: another thing I want this to do is share facts. Birthdays, song/band meanings, you name it, I will do my best to regard it. From birthdays and so on. Concert/CD reviews: I will do concert reviews on special editions, depending on the popularity of this, I will try my hardest to make it weekly. Since I am doing this for free, I guarantee nothing. Though there may come more reasons and topics (discussion/communication, future releases, etc.) these are just the basics. I am doing this for something that my friends can enjoy, learn and talk about. If there's anything you want me to touch up on, let me know.

Alright, let's start this thing. One of my favorite things in music is the mondegreen (from the ballad "the Bonny Earl O'Moray") someone misheard: "They hae slain the Earl O' Moray, And Lady Mondegreen." When in fact it was and "And laid him on the green." (Don't worry, Lady Mondegreen lived a full life.) So you can use that tidbit of info to impress your friends. Now I have been known to come up with some of these myself...but my favorite I read in a book called "scuse me while I kiss this guy." Was BTO's classic song...not "Takin' Care Of Business," but "Bakin' Carrot Biscuits." In fact that and "Our lips are sealed" (Alex the Seal) are ones I sing along to regularly. I know I probably get looks from people, and those artists will one day read this and sue the pants off me, but it's fun to hear what people thought was said in a song. Sure it's embarrassing if it's you, here is an example...Bruce Hornsby's "Across the River" when I was 11 or so, I thought he said "we will find a way, fossarilla!" I had searched high and low to find what fossarilla was...sounds like a cheese. Come to find even Bob Dylan had a situation that he thought The Beatles "I wanna hold your hand" instead of "I can't hide," he thought the words were "I get high." Now I won't lie, I thought that too...but I was 6, and always associated being high as happy, or love. See, not even Bob Dylan is perfect.

If you're wondering, yes, I am listening to "Fossarilla" as I type. Off the subject of mondegreens, there are other things in music like rewrites, if you watch Metallica's some kind of monster, you will see the different compositions of "Frantic," but also some record producers have their artists change the lyrics to accommodate sales. The band (The) Sweet who did "Ballroom Blitz" and "Fox on the Run" made a song "Love is Like Oxygen." The line says "Love is like oxygen, get too much you get too high, not enough you're going to die." I love that lyric, but I found the original song was going to be "Butt love is for Lots of Men." Given they were a band that consisted of homosexual men, it's hard to say what came about on that one. I love the published lyric, but it took away the artists licensing to do what they wanted. But on a lighter note, there are songs out there that came about on accident. Gary Newman's "Cars" for example. Someone left their equipment in the studio, and all he did was play around, and got his biggest hit!

Well I hope you liked the first edition, I hope to make more soon, including more special editions. Feel free to e-mail me (please put Cito's notes in the subject) for any questions, comments, things you want me to write about, etc. Until next time, keep hitting the high notes!