We hear the playback and it seems so long ago.

     I was thinking tonight, I thought "could you imagine if Facebook was created in the 50's?" There is a song by a group called Friend and Lover, it's called Reach Out of the Darkness (yes, the song says reach out in the darkness...but the title is R...actually, I think I covered this before.) Anyway the lyric is "I knew a man that I did not care for, and then one day this man gave me a call. We sat and talked about things on our mind, and now this man, he is a friend of mine." Could you imagine changing the lyric to this man sent me a friend request? Kinda creepy if ya think about it. If that were to happen, what sort of creepy things would we be singing about today?

     I'm kind of in a 90's mood tonight, but I regress the decades every once in a while, and one of the things that is weird is I was listening to Ugly Kid Joe, and how that song seems...forgotten. I like the big forget you song...yes, even C-lo! One thing I haven't messed around with on here is rap. I am not the biggest rap fan, but I like the rap songs that are actually rap songs, not this mumbly random beat stuff, I like Naughty by Nature's Pin the Tail on the Donkey for instance. Anything by Run DMC is good too, but I tell you what absolutely amazes me still...the crossovers, Run DMC and Aerosmith's walk this way for one, they both knocked down the door of the rock rap border. Next people like Anthrax and Public Enemy go together and make Bring the Noise. it's just nice to hear both styles in tune with each other. Don't get me wrong, I like Anthrax by themselves, but when they collaborated with Gene and Paul for Love Her all I Can, it was cheesy. I just think this lead to bands like the early 311, and the like.

     Now a  collaboration I am not to keen on is Lionel Ritchie doing all his old songs with country stars. I don't mind country, but I like Lionel better. I was happy to see he did a new CD, just to find it's stuff I can get off my CD...if I can find it. I lose CDs all the time. Now a lot of people ask me "why does someone your age like and listen to these old songs?" Well it's simple, I grew up with them. Mom always played the 80's/90's mix, Dad was stuck in the 50's, 60's and sometimes 70's, and well my stepfather is...crazy, so I was always around that. I had to discover new music by myself...which wasn't easy because in 6th grade my radio occasionally got DC101, which is/was the grunge/punk 90's stuff and they still keep pretty true to it. So I just find it funny when someone is confused with my music tastes...

     Oh well, If anyone has a subject they want me to cover, feel free to email me or comment, or check me out on Twitter or Facebook (not Myspace though...that's lame.) Till then keep hitting the HIGH NOTES!

LACK sabbath

So it seems my excitement was misconstrued, as the four members of the original Black Sabbath will not be doing the CD and tour. Bill Ward has pulled out because he was not given a "signable" contract that made him look respectable as an original member. They do not give any more detail on specifics, but it sounds like they were given separate contracts, and if this is true then that was a bad idea. I don't understand who would think that was a good idea, this is what breaks bands up in the first place. I believe KISS had the best contract idea of splitting everything straight down the middle, Equal divide, yet I understand why the contracts happen, if Bill or Geezer writes a lyric, and/or the music and no one else pitches in, then all the other members get paid just as much, it's unfair. Though it's hard to live with a band that you have been dealing with for years, and have someone you fired in the 70's rejoining it can get flustering. I guess as a Sabbath fan I was just excited, and this got to me. I just wonder who they are going to get to replace him on drums. I would hope it's not someone who doesn't fit the bill, or can't do the job, or a studio drummer...I don't know what would be worse. Now what I would like is having Ward to sign the contract, but I guess the fans can't have everything. When I saw Sabbath, it was an amazing experience, I was thinking (as I stated in a previous blog) I was seeing a band that many had not received the chance to see, or lied to their parents to see...or even (eww) people were conceived at their concert (people that were may have even been at that same concert I was.)  Oh well, we will see, and only time will tell.

     Anyway I have been cursing new music, a lot of boy bands (speaking of which, the boy band One Direction is being sued by another band with the same name) and stuff that doesn't reach my interest (Lionel Richie singing his classic songs with country singers, or Nicki Manaj, Train or Keane.) I finally broke down and bought (along with some classic music) Pighammer by Wayne Static. It's a solid album and I like it so far, wouldn't expect anything less from Wayne. Hard core fast guitars, booming bass and vocals, and drum sounds, it's like sadistic, evil disco. It's a concept album about a guy who kidnaps women and attaches pig noses to them. As Wayne said in an interview,

"The 'Pighammer' concept conjures up bizarre images," Static explains. "It's about a mad plastic surgeon, with a pig fetish, that likes to convert hot chicks into pigs. It is the total opposite of what a plastic surgeon would do. He has this crazy hammer device made from a pig foot. The images of the surgery in the CD package are only a dark comedic visualization of the real theme of the album, which is my transformation."

     If you like Static-X, or that style of music, I suggest checking it out. It's quite interesting. Until next time, keep hitting the HIGH NOTES.

Hard for me to say I'm sorry...

     I notice a lot of people saying things about certain bands losing their touch. One of the most notable being one of my favorite bands, Chicago. I see people saying they lost their unique sound when the 80's hit. I would like to say I disagree. I do agree they lost a lot when Terry Kath died, I mean come on. His style was the 70's in a nut shell. Him and Peter Cetera together were amazing. Yet, the 80's slowed Chicago down and made themselves a ballad band (though Along comes a Woman  was a great upbeat song...) but we forget one of Kath's best songs was Colour my world...hell even KISS did "Beth," and that's one of their best known songs. It's interesting the way the full transition went, but honestly...who even thought two of the guitarists from the Yardbirds would do "Forever man" and "Kashmir?"

     It's like in the late 80's when Boston started to fall apart. When third stage came out (the album with Amanda, Cool the Engines, and a lot of Tom's solos) and the band was really starting to crumble, he forged on and they didn't lose touch, they filled the gaps and when they lost Brad to other projects, they forged on with Fran until Brad came back. Now what worries me is the new album coming out, the last of Brad's vocals. They only finished 80% of the album when he took his life. Even INXS finished Elegantly Wasted before Michael killed himself, yet I think here what it will sound like. We all know Tom Scholz isn't known for piecing together albums in a timely manner, yet some of these comments about these bands being "sellouts" worry me. It's like when people said Metallica sold out. I still feel they were hard driving riffs with "we won't take it" lyrics (given low man's lyric kind of destroys that last sentence,) Cyanide is a good reference to my point. I think that song gets to the core of the meaning of this blog, and drives into your soul and lays a nest.

     So in conclusion, I can't wait for the next Metallica album, Black Sabbath album and still listen to stuff like Paramore and Wayne Static. Until then, stay diverse in taste and keep hitting the HIGH NOTES.