All things circular

If six were nine
I don't mind
But it seems more like eight is 00s
So that's how it goes





As a teenager in the late 80s and early 90s the 1960s were the rad thing that retro and cool . . . man. Girls dressed is semi hippie garb as did some boys and everybody listened to the music. It may have been a reaction to the 80's superficial and materialistic or that's what the people who market such fantasies of their own youth would have us believe. They would have us believe that the question "Are You Experienced?" was still a relevant one but let's face it a 16 year old in 1989 was quite a bit more "experienced" than a 16 year old from 1969 we even got to study that era in class. I can only imagine the wistfulness of any teacher having to dig up their own youth or younger days and try to explain it without going into some nostalgic breakdown. I suppose there's some chode of professor who gets misty eyed over the 80s but that's because they feel sorry for themselves . . . or maybe I'm wrong.
Let's face it, the decade of decadence where we our senile, B-movie star president forfeit the countries future and converted us into a debtor nation, awesome! The reality is the 60s were more commercial than we talk about and the 80s were more conservative than we like to admit. (the 90s was the decade we sold out, we had no choice)

Here we are though in the year 2009 and eighties styles are in and keyboards have made a bit of comeback on the music scene. Naturally I think it's weird to see all this stuff on the kids who I guess were born at the tail end or just after the 1980s but really It's just the way of things.
I wonder how it will all look a hundred years from now, will the decades all blend into one, the subtleties lost?

The there's the myth of the eighties floating out there and not the Wall Street version but some hip and awesome version that only existed in an amalgam of high points.
So what the heck does it mean that we're looking back to the decade that began looking back? Actually that may have started in the 70s with "Happy Days"
Anyway, onward and upward!

My First Mix CD

So I gave up my first Mix Tape to you and it was embarrassing but that won't stop me from sharing my first Mix Cd with you. I think it's a lot better than the tape but the reasons . . . I guess it's the whole older and wiser thing. What really matters is that I love to make a mix of songs after all these years, yeah? This mix Cd was created in 1998 a year that was well after anything intersting happened in music and before ... Eminem?, The Strokes?, Kid Rock? It's all the same to me in that era of stuff that didn't move me too much.

Play List:
1 Good Times Roll, The Cars
2 Special, Garbage
3 This is a Call. Foo Fighters
4 Big Bang Baby, Stone Temple Pilots
5 Fake Plastic Trees, Radiohead
6 Morning Glory, Oasis
7 I Am The Walrus, The Beatles
8 Beatles And The Stones, The House Of Love
9 Miss You The Rolling Stones
10 The Spy. The Doors
11 The Phoenix, The Cult
12 Big Balls, AC/DC
13 Planet Of Sound, The Pixies
14 Hate Your Friends, The Lemonheads
15 Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John
16 The Man Who Sold The World, Nirvana
17 Death Defies Me, The 360's
18 Do The Evolution, Pearl Jam
19 The Ocean, Led Zeppelin


In actuality this mix is some of the better moments of the many tapes I put together such as "The Spy"'s segue into "The Phoenix" or "Fake Plastic Trees" into "Morning Glory". I guess "The Ocean" remains as the song that remains the same on both tape and CD.

My First Mix Tape

I recalled today as I walked around and listened to my little iPod shuffle the point in my life I would like every other kid make mix tapes. some were iffy while others are classics of the genre. yes, classics because friends used to ask me to make them mixes after hearing mine . . . I should have been a DJ, right?
Anyway, after much digging I found my first mix tape that I created on August 1st 1987 just a month before I started High School and less than 6 months before I discovered Gins n' Roses



Here is the track list:
SIDE A
1 What you Need, INXS
2 Message In a Bottle, The Police
3 If This Is It, Huey Lewis and The News
4 Walk of Life, Dire Straits
5 Best of Both Worlds, Van Halen
6 Sledgehammer, Peter Gabriel
7 Can't Stop Rockin', ZZ Top
8 The Ocean, Led Zeppelin
9 Take My Breath Away, Berlin
10 To Be A Lover, Billy Idol
11 Keeping The Faith, Billy Joel



SIDE B
1 Last Child, Aerosmith
2 Twistin' The Night Away, Sam Cooke
3 Some Like It Hot, Power Station
4 New Religion, Duran Duran
5 Mighty Wings, Cheap Trick
6 In Your Eyes, Peter Gabriel
7 Rock and Roll, Led Zeppelin
8 If I Could Only Flag her Down, ZZ Top
9 Every Breath You Take, The Police
10 Sweet Sixteen, Billy Idol
11 Get Up, van Halen


So I'll let you be the judge on whether or not this mix was any good. There are a couple songs here that I still listen to but most of them are pieces that I'd leave off of any list at this point in my music listening life. I think I still have about 20 or so of these tapes in a nice carrying case from years ago; where was I bringing these tapes?
Enjoy!

I Love Pants

At one point in my younger days I wore a pair of green, no pleat, twill pants that were for whatever reason pretty special. I liked them because they fit very well and could be worn with just about everything I owned, T-shirts, button downs with long sleeves or short, my vintage, black, leather car coat. I guess it would have been in the mid 90s when they were prominent, before I got snagged on some sort of sharp edge or barb and was left with pants I felt couldn’t be worn any longer.
The pants seemed to impress the ladies as I recall; on at least two occasions did they become a major player in the circumstances that came to be. One young lady even wanted to seal them.
I can’t deny that they made me feel more slick and fashionable. People have questioned my taste when I mention green trousers but they never saw them and just don’t know how good they looked and how comfortable they felt.

Aging Myself

I've had this conversation with friends before and nobody has quite disagreed yet I would like to meet the people who will challenge the idea and mean it; I mean mean it so much they start throwing things. I would suppose the challenger would be about 10 years younger than I am or maybe only 5.
What the debate concerns is the fact that "Nevermind" by Nirvana isn't as good as Alice in Chains' magnum opus, "Dirt". Before you start to go all agape or feint like some old lady in a 1930's comedy I need this point to be clear: Nevermind is a more important album than Dirt; it's just not as good. While Nirvana's grunge classic changed the face of Rock n' Roll form pretty to pretty ugly, from glamorous to gutter and eventually gave birth to The Foo Fighters who are making adult oriented rock that even my 60 something year old mom enjoys, Dirt which was released just a year later is a comprehensive story from beginning to end as opposed to a collection of songs that are more self deprecating barbs than anything else.

Both Albums have a raw power and a desperation while keeping their pop melodies accessible for radio play which can be said about many great rock albums and is in many ways the great trick of hard rock. With Dirt I can listen to the whole album from beginning (Them Bones) to end (Would?) without wanting to skip any songs, granted the music and lyrics have sometimes left me in a depression for a bit but it is an album that keeps one interested. Nevermind on the other hand loses me after track 5, "Lithium"; it seems to get to heavy for it's own good. Don't get me wrong those first five (Smells Like teen Spirit, in Bloom, Come as You Are, Breed and Lithium are all solid but by the time "Polly" is done so am I and I want to move on to something else.
Alice in Chains also has some lovely/haunting harmonies going for it, especially in "Down In A hole" and "Hate to Feel" (these harmonies got better on their follow up EP, Jar of Flies but that's a side note because Nirvana's next release, Incesticide which was B-sides had some cool stuff too)

Listen, Dirt maintains throughout the whole album while Nevermind sags and loses focus and this isn't a battle between which singer did more heroine or who's death was more tragic or that I would like to listen to "Would?" more often than "Smells Like Teen Spirit" just about any day it is about the quality of the whole album not just iconic imagery and Mtv airplay.

Saw my reflection and cried oh well, whatever, never mind . . . Black Sabbath and the Pixies couldn't ask for better tributes.

The Suggestion Box

So I've been advised by my people to make this blog an all music venture which isn't a bad idea but I don't know if I can focus that long on one topic without getting scared of the commitment. The only thing I can promise is this, I have compiled my top 100 songs from the 70s, 80s, 90s and the 00s . The idea of this nearly gave a friend of mine an aneurysm . . . actually it wasn't the idea as much as the songs I told him that were in the top ten; he's easy to mess with. So we'll start with 00's because the other decades are so, so analogue. Here's the start with #100-91; try not to get too bent out of shape or laugh too hard:

100. United States of Whatever by Liam Lynch
Stupidest/awesomest song to come out the whole decade . . . Whateveh!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz7_3n7xyDg

99. I Don't Wanna Stop by Ozzy Osbourne
Ozzy goes for it and proves that with some help of Zack Wylde he can rock
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt_Bu1r-Ovg

98. Flavor of the Weak by American Hi-Fi
Props to the Heavy Metal Parking Lot refernce. This song came out and got me ready to rock. Also I like to give props to Boston bands
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n87oD8E98MM

97. Boyz-N- The Hood by Dynamite Hack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNDMBfyO2ww
It's just funny!

96. Milkshake by Kelis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ-FAV9fBII
Sex sells and I buy!

95. Entertain by Sleater Kinney
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gkiYkqGU6Y
I love a group of chicks who can rock! This song does not back down!

94. Sex On Fire by Kings of Leon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHhhcKxflMY
Kings of Leon learn to write a melody and score a hit


93. There is An End by the green Hornes and Holly Golightly
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwq_sksL_6o
This is one to shake your fist at but it's a great little gem from the Bill Murray movie where he's looking for . . . I don't remember anything but this song and the naked girl.

92. Prepare to Fight by The Lovemakers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6jWUeyb7X4
Melodious and retro

91. Playground Love by Air
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAgX1jO3No0
Let the dreaming begin. I don't think I ever heard this song anywhere but the movie

So there's the first part of this list, there will be more coming up at some point but don't count on it being too soon. Think of this list as something that just happens and you're stumbling upon it

Stupid memories

So it’s prom time again and this makes me think in weird nostalgic embarrassment about my own senior of high school year gala. I wore maybe the most ludicrous outfit worn to the event consisting of a white button down shirt with a bolo tie, a tuxedo jacket with tails, charcoal dress pants and some saddle shoes. My hair for some teenaged reason was in braids, a bunch of them bearing red and black beads and silver clasps for some pizzazz! My date, a blond with a pair of beautiful blue eyes and healthy bosom both of which I spent hours staring into like puppy wore a simple black dress; I was more done up than she was. In my hyper fantastical mind she would have been braided up as well as rearing the nose ring she got at a later date. I’m not telling the year of this but at the time it would have been the coolest thing ever. The prom it’s self was held in a hotel with glass elevators which I spent much of my time riding up and down in, trying to make time with my date/girlfriend who was suddenly shy like she had to behave for my school mates. There was a salty meal from the hotels banquets and there was a DJ and dance floor both of which I glared at in hatred and fear . . . not really. Anyway it seemed like everybody was having a good time, nobody was noticeably drunk, nobody was fighting, everyone more or less seemed like they were there just because they had to be . . . but not in an ironic way the kids today do. In the end I had a little fun and some memories. A friend of mine who works in a hotel told me that they were going to be hosting a prom for several hundred kids where there would be three chaperones, five police officers, a breathalyzer testing station and a metal detector. Good times!