Give Up the Wings

????

I had a hard time figuring this one out (obviously) because I had a tough time understanding the lyrics. I do remember this one being featured in a commercial awhile back, probably Intel with the guys in the clean suits. This one is distinctive in the guitary sounding key riff, which has a half-note trilly thing going on which is hard to use without sounding cheesy. Also notable are the string synths, and that the chord structure is quite simple--only 3 chords, and mostly one.

"Smooth Criminal" / Alien Ant Farm

Aha, a cover that improves on the original. This song is too hard rock/punk sounding for Michael Jackson. AAF does it more appropriately. They should've also lost the high harmonies, which remind me of MJ's version.

"Give Up the Funk" / Pariliament

You can always tell this group because they have a chorus all singing the same melody in every voice--bass, soprano, tenor, etc. Its neat that the brass part is for once one of the more subtle parts--brass usually stands out. Instead, the string synth line is really separated from everything else and the bass line is mixed heavier than normal.

Going to SXSW

SXSW had a lottery for tickets for local residents today, and I was one of the lucky winners! Not a total winner, the ticket wasn't free--just discounted. I'll have to go see shows every night to make even the discounted price worth it, in my opinion. It seems that this is the year I am in the mood to see music, so I will probably go every night. All of the Madison bands are playing at the same place on the same night, so I'll make a point to check them out. Beyond that, I have no plans yet, and maybe won't make any. I am the ideal local recipient as I won't be pissed off that I can't get in to see the most popular bands as the venue is already full of badge holders. It'll just be cool to see a whole bunch of unknown, good up and coming bands from distant places.

Black Lips

I had a great time at Emo's on Saturday. For once I went with friends, and that means that I expect pictures will be posted somewhere! After dinner with Trojan, @G CWW and I went down to Emo's and saw three bands. The first one, The Strange Boys, I remember liking and we only saw the last few songs of their set. The second, White Denim, I remember getting bored with, and we also only saw a few of their songs. The last band, Black Lips, kicked ass--the crowd was so into it that it didn't really matter how they sounded, but they were energetic and the music was fast and loud. Everyone was moving around, moshing, crowd surfing, etc. which was so nice to see after being to so many shows where everyone just stands there. I haven't been in this sort of crowd regularly since I lived in Jacksonville ten years ago. So I felt ten years younger for part of the night.

Motorcycle

Finally--I took my motorcycle to the shop to get it looked at. I am one week away from riding it regularly again! It's amazing that it still starts up and the engine runs great, but who knows what might be close to breaking or falling off after sitting in the parking lot for a year. It's going to take a chunk of change to get in good shape as the 16K maintenance is due which involves checking and/or replacing everything on the bike, and I need a safety inspection and have to renew the registration, but it'll be worth it. I may even ride it to work since the toll road is safer than the route I used to have to take.

Wing Extravaganza

"We Don't Have to Take Our Clothes Off" / Jermaine Stewart

I do like "lesson or command in the chorus" songs (like "Don't Talk to Strangers") and especially the longer title of this one, but isn't this totally against everything R&B/Pop music is about? Yeah we could have a good time without taking our clothes off, but it would certainly help and it definitely wouldn't hurt. I could almost understand a girl singing this song. Until tonight I thought this was sung by a girl--this guy certainly sounds like one. I can only justify the existence of this song now is by thinking that he's just singing this to keep her from leaving immediately, and the clothes WILL be taken off if he ever gets his game on.

"It's My Life" / Bon Jovi

Geez not this song again! Just proving my previous entry

"Can't Get Enough Of You Baby" / Smash Mouth

Wow, when I'm in the middle of eating wings I actually don't think of the Pizza Hut commercials immediately. I was getting into the keyboard intro riff and I/IV chords for a good five seconds before I reminded myself how the commericals ruined this song. Maybe there's still hope.

"Ebony Eyes" / Bob Welch

This is one of those sorta obscure songs from a one-hit wonder that I downloaded from Napster or Limewire or something when they were free and had no risk of legal action. I had a great group of songs but I lost them all due to a hard drive crash a few years back. This is great 70's stuff: the vocal is in "soft guy voice," we have duelling guitar vs. strings riffs, and lots of harmonies in thirds. Also notable are an ending bridge that kinda catches you off guard, and the chorus being in a different key than the verses.

"I Think We're Alone Now" / Tiffany

It's sad that I quite possibly might have heard this cover before the original by Tommy James & the Shondells. She completely destroyed this song, though she was probably just a puppet and some anonymous, soulless producers are truly to blame. Instead of galloping bass, punctuating guitar chords and vocals, and an organ that cuts through everything, we get bells, emotionless synth drums, and a melty smooth vocal track. The short synth solo is a joke too--someone noticed the mod and pitch bend wheels and HAD to use them, excessively.

Huh?

I really don't know what to think of the set I saw tonight. I don't know if it was the act or other circumstances, but I was less than impressed.

First of all, I didn't think I would actually go, having gone to the full moon hash earlier that night. But, since we were done by 10 and the advertised time of the show was 10, I made it. I didn't get to Stubb's until 10:20 or so, but I was immediately surprised that Mark Olson was playing already. Every other show I've been to lately had a start time in the paper of at least half an hour if not an hour before they actually start playing. But this was an indoor Stubb's show and I'd never been to one there, so this could've been normal for the locale, I wouldn't know. I was also surprised by the size of the audience, only 20-30 people (I counted at one point). Next, why was there a 10 foot buffer between the front of the stage and the audience? Maybe that's another Stubb's thing.

The music sounded good, very professional, but it didn't grab me at all. I know I'm not very interested when I'm actually trying to understand the lyrics instead of paying attention to the music. The line-up was Mark on acoustic guitar and vocals, one guy trading off between violin and keyboard, and one gal trading off between bongo and keyboard and singing back-up vocal. At one point she was supposed to play guitar, but after a minute or so of trying to tune to Mark's guitar Mark said "you're way off" and realizing it would take too long to fix, she was demoted to bongo. Another strange thing happened a song or two later, when Mark stepped out into the audience, exchanged a few words with someone, and upon returning to the stage said something like "this is weird, man" back to the guy. I wonder what he was referring to? He ended the set before 11:00 and in some way left the impression that it was the end of the show--again, not knowing how Stubb's exactly works, maybe there could've been another set. But I was happy to go at that point, being a work night and having been worn out by the hash earlier.

That Sucked

I lifted weights at the gym tonight for the first time this year. That sucked!

Carrots

Last night I made it down to Beerland as planned. The weather cleared up so no problems there. I showed up for the last few songs from Pataphysics and enjoyed them enough that I wish I got there earlier. Unfortunately I didn't write down anything specific about their music, just that I liked it.

The Carrots were great. Four girl singers, one of them also playing keyboard, and three guys on bass, guitar, and drums. Lovely 60's girl group harmonies. They weren't always perfect, but even when they were off a bit they were pleasant sounding. I also loved the super-clean guitar sound. It seems I never can get enough of that. I don't have a feel for their music of covers and originals, but there were a few covers I recognized.

At first I thought maybe they were too high maintenance because after every song they would have to tell the sound guy to put more of this or that in the monitor, etc. But I revised that opinion when halfway through the set they got through half a song before the sound guy raised the lead vocal (which had switched to a different singer) enough so that the audience could hear it. So the sound guy was either sleeping or just stupid.

I may have not given the headlining band, Alright Tonight, a fair shake because I only stayed for a few songs of their set. It became obvious that everyone was there to see The Carrots as the crowd really thinned out after their set, and that sorta made me want to leave too, no matter what the band sounded like. They didn't immediately grab my interest so I went to get a Kebabilicious before it got busy.

Rain

It may be time to start working out as soon as I get up again. I got a 30 minute run in today and getting it started was more painful than the run itself. The whole day was full of should I or shouldn't I thoughts. I don't mind running in the rain, or the cold (love that!) but it doesn't seem right to start a run in a downpour. So, I didn't start when I got up, debated it for a few hours, then got a haircut. Then I drove down to Zilker cause it seemed to be clearing. As soon as I got there, downpour again. I drove back home and it stopped so around 5:00 I got out for a run. It started raining again while I was running, but not too bad. I saw the most awesome rainbow I've ever seen on the way back, a full-semicircle and hints of a second concentric rainbow at one of the ends on the horizon (never seen that before). It didn't last long or I might have taken a picture once I got back.

I didn't end up seeing any music last week which bothers me. Maybe playing a gig last Friday was enough? Tonight there is a benefit for KOOP at Beerland and one of the band's descriptions included the words "pop" and "60's" so that's where I'm headed.

Wing's My Life

Wow, that was weird.

"It's My Life" / No Doubt

It is just strange that anyone decided to cover this 80's song. I think its important that if a group puts out a cover that they need to add something to the original, except of course if you're in a cover band and must sound EXACTLY like the original. No Doubt did a good job with their version, so much that I probably think of this one more than the original now. Also I would like to mention that I love everything No Doubt and Gwen Stefani has done, and I'm surprised I don't own any of their music.

"It's My Life" / Bon Jovi

As I was googling "It's My Life" to verify I was remembering the original artist of the above song correctly (Talk Talk), this song came up first. What's weird is that this song played here about half an hour ago, I debated blogging about it, and decided not to. It didn't even cross my mind that these two songs have the same name. Anyway, now that I've mentioned it I'll include my comments which are: I hate this song, probably because it never goes away. It came out in 2000 and doesn't seem to ever have left the airwaves. I was thinking this before I started bowling a few years ago and it was on that same damned mix CD they played every week.

Hey Did You Notice

Wisconsin beat the higher ranked Indiana AGAIN last night! Those questionable recruiting techniques don't seem to be paying off well for the Hoosiers.

Wings in the City

"Hot in the City" / Billy Idol

I'm thinking, oh yeah, a cover by Billy Idol, but who did it originally? I can't think of who did it, or what it sounds like. Hmm. It turns out that no, I'm wrong, it only sounds like a cover. It's a Billy Idol original, on the same album with the bigger hits "Dancing with Myself" and "White Wedding." It must be the alternating tonic major and relative minor chords during the chorus that gives it an oldie type feeling.

Super Bowl

I'm not excited about the Super Bowl this year, obviously. I don't really like either team but I'll have to root for the Patriots since the Giants beat the Packers. I'll just be watching on and off at home.

Super Furry Saturday Night

My continuing urge to explore more music continued last night as I went to Emo's for Super Furry Animals, a band from Wales. They were already my most likely choice, but flipping through channels Saturday night, I landed on MEtv and listened to the end of a song that caught my ear called "Runaway," which just happened to be one of theirs. I listened to their songs from their myspace page and liked most of those too. I have no complaints about their set, it was great. Melodic, poppy. Also the first time I've seen anyone sing while wearing a motorcycle helmet. The faceshield was very small--he had to hold the mic up to his eyes, which was amusing.

I really wanted to like the opening band Holy F*** more, as they were doing weird keyboard/effects things, but the lack of vocals and repetitiveness made me bored. I was also sitting on the bleachers, so I wasn't "aborbing" all of their music directly. Maybe I would've liked them more if I was up front.

I also caught a few songs by the Yuppie Pricks inside. They were having a lot of fun and the punk rock music was strong.

Emo's free week in January has really worked on me, because I hadn't been there much before and now that it's on my radar I'll be going there more often. Lots of good things about this place: They have sets of bleachers indoors and out so that old people like me can find somewhere to sit for awhile, they have many bars so waiting for drinks doesn't take long, they have an outdoor area away from the stage if you need quietness, and with several stages you can sample more music. I don't know if they ever seperate the stage areas so you can only go to one show, maybe someone out there knows?