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Saturday, January 26th, 2008
Since Tiff headed out to Watkins Glen for the day for her cousin’s cheerleading competition, I was left to my own devices this morning/afternoon, and after running errands, I did what I do best, went used CD shopping. Today’s crown jewel comes courtesy of FYE at Eastview, where among the throngs of used CDs they had in the special section, I uncovered the CD to your left. An original copy of Chimaira’s first EP, “This Present Darkness”, which had a limited run in 2000, and naturally, is nowhere to be found now that the band is world famous. Except at FYE for $6.99. (Sorry suckers, of course it was the only one!!) Considering it goes on Ebay and record collector sites for about $30, I think I got a steal on this one!
The Best Song Ever Made
Friday, January 25th, 2008While surfing Wikipedia, I came across the page for the T-Pain song “Buy U A Drank (Shawty Snappin’)” (don’t ask, just… don’t ask). This is generally unremarkable, except for the fact that due to the nature of Wikipedia, anyone can edit the pages to say anything they want, and unless someone catches it, funny, goofy, and just plain wrong information can sit there for awhile. Such as with this page. It just struck me as funny, and it’s been there since the 12th.
“In 2008, Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin’) won the Grammy for Best Song Ever Made, thus leading to the abolishment of both the Song and Record of the Year awards. T-Pain has since been granted the title “Pimp General of the Republic of Congo.””
I believe everything I read on the Intertubes!!!
The Music Mix Challenge
Tuesday, December 4th, 2007A large group of us recently put together a mix of the music we’ve been listening to as of late, a little bit of a soundtrack to 2006-2007 if you will. Naturally, since I usually put forth way too much effort into these things, everyone else has to stick it to me a little bit, and as such I received a couple of CD’s full of the most hysterically bad stuff everyone could conjure up. Only Dan would think to put Charlene’s “I’ve Never Been To Me” on a CD (seriously, that song shouldn’t be on any CD’s… ANYWHERE), Karen + Jeremy saw fit to make a CD chock full of Britney, Jessica Simpson and Indigo Girls songs, Kelley found some acoustic songs with worse singers than the local karaoke bar, and Adam just repeated the same shitty 5 songs as many times as they’d fit. Thanks guys! My faith in your taste still hasn’t wavered!
Anyway, Matt threw his list up on his site, so I figured I’d do the same, just for fun. Of course, I actually remembered to put the liner notes in with my CD’s 🙂
1. Vanilla Ice – Yo Vanilla! (from To The Extreme, 1990) – Um, gotta kick this off right!
2. Burden Brothers – Buried in Your Black Heart (from Buried in Your Black Heart, 2003) – I saw them in March, and have been listening much more regularly since then. You may recognize the voice… Todd Lewis was the lead singer for the Toadies.
3. Cake – Mahna Mahna (from B-Sides and Rarities, 2007) – Everyone loves Cake, so everyone should love Cake covering the Muppets!
4 Pride Tiger – Let ‘Em Go (from The Lucky Ones, 2007) – Pride Tiger is a Canadian band that I saw as the first opener for Finger Eleven, and they blew me away with their live show. The album’s pretty good too.
5. Alter Bridge – Ties That Bind (from Blackbird, 2007) – This is off the 2nd album by the other 3/4 of Creed and the singer from The Mayfield Four. Sorta Creed-like, but a little harder, and way less preachy!
6. Will Hoge – The Man Who Killed Love (from The Man Who Killed Love, 2006) – Tiff saw him open for Edwin McCain a couple of years ago, then got all the music, and now I really like him as well. He’s a great rock/blues/country singer/songwriter.
7. Eric Hutchinson – You’ve Got You (from Sounds Like This, 2007) – We saw him open for Toby Lightman in Geneseo, and he’s another one of those pop singer/songwriters you’d see on VH1, except he’s not famous yet. But he should be.
8. Sevendust – Grasshopper (from Home, 1999) – A goofy little filler track.
9. Killswitch Engage – Holy Diver (from As Daylight Dies (Special Edition), 2006) – A cover of the Dio classic, which KsE make sound like their own. Yay Massachusetts metalcore!
10. Breaking Benjamin – Topless (from Phobia, 2006) – I’ve seen them three times already this year, and they’ve been great every time. A great radio hard-rock band.
11. Matthew Good – Born Losers (from Hospital Music, 2007) – Another Canadian, another artist I’ve seen live this year. I’ve liked MG since 1997, and his new stuff is still good.
12. Emerson Hart – Ordinary (from Cigarettes and Gasoline, 2007) – You may know EH as the lead singer of Tonic. His solo album just came out, and it’s a bit mellower than most of Tonic’s stuff.
13. Psychostick – BEER! (from We Couldn’t Think Of A Title, 2006) – Karl and I found this song within a week of each other, and we laugh our asses off every time we hear it. “Uh, I think you’ve had enough…” “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
14. Seether – Like Suicide (from Finding Beauty in Negative Spaces, 2007) – First song on Seether’s new album, which I like a lot better than their last one. More radio rock, but hey, not that there’s anything wrong with that!
15. Stone Sour – Made Of Scars (from Come What(ever) May, 2006) – Saw ’em twice this year. You’ve probably heard “Through Glass” enough times to stab yourself in the ear when it comes on, but this is more what Stone Sour actually sounds like, and is a way better song. Fun Fact: lead singer Corey Taylor and guitarist Jim Root both perform those same duties in Slipknot.
16. The Tragically Hip – The Kids Don’t Get It (from World Container, 2006) – I’ve loved the Hip forever, and this is my favorite from their new album. Saw ’em twice this year, front row the 2nd time!
17. nine inch nails – capital g (from Year Zero, 2007) – Trent came back with a noisy album that sounds a lot like most of his Downward Spiral-era remixes. It’s cool. So is this song. So are song titles with no capital letters (see what he did there?)
18. Maroon5 – Wake Up Call (from It Won’t Be Soon Before Long, 2007) – Yes, I like slickly produced, well crafted pop. Like Maroon5. No, I’m not ashamed. Yet.
19. House of Pain – Commercial 1 (from House Of Pain, 1992) – “He who breaks the law, goes back to the House of Pain!”
20. Mudvayne – Dig (from L.D. 50, 2000) – I dismissed Mudvayne as useless nu-metal when they came out, mainly due to all idiot kids that liked them. Turns out, as far as nu-metal goes, they’re pretty good. It only took me 7 years to figure that out though. Their first album is easily the best, and this is one of the more accessible songs on the album.
21. Sevendust – Clueless (from Alpha, 2007) – By far and away, Sevendust is the best band to come out of the nu-metal era, and they’re still going strong. This is one of my favorites on their latest album.
22. 36 Crazyfists – Bloodwork (from A Snow-Capped Romance, 2004) – A co-worker in Tioga introduced me to these guys, and and it took me almost a year to finally really listen to the three albums he gave me. I like these guys a lot, and this is from the album I listen to most often, their 2nd.
23. Nothingface – Error In Excellence (from An Audio Guide To Everyday Atrocity, 1998) – I heard of these guys back in 2000, and had their latest two CD’s for awhile. I dusted them off earlier in the spring, realized why I bought them in the first place, and went and found albums 1 and 2. This is off their 2nd album, and I’ve been listening to all 4 of their CD’s practically all summer.
24. Black Light Burns – Lie (from Cruel Melody, 2007) – This band is fronted by Wes Borland, who was better known as the guitar player for Limp Bizkit. This band/album sounds nothing like LB. At all. This is a good thing, and a really good album.
25. Chimaira – No Reason To Live (from Resurrection, 2007) – Pure American Metal from Cleveland, Ohio. I’m sure most of you won’t care for it, but A) I wanted to be as representative as possible with what I’ve been spinning lately, B) I’ve already gotten Adam to come over to the dark side, so I may get another one of you! and C) It’s awesome and you should just accept it. Seriously.
3 Concerts in 2 nights (what?)
Sunday, November 4th, 2007Friday was two concerts in one night! I had planned the Hip show well in advance, and when I saw Sevendust was coming, I jumped on that ticket as well, not bothering to check what day the show was. As luck would have it, it was the same night. My only hope was that since the Sevendust show had four bands playing, and the doors were at 7:30, it’d go long, and Sevendust wouldn’t start until 11pm, leaving me time to see the Hip (which ended at 11) and then book over to Water Street. My plan actually came through for once, and worked like clockwork. I busted out of the Aud Theater, didn’t encounter any resistance in the parking lot, and the biggest miracle of them all, actually found a parking spot on Andrews. I ran down Water Street to the club, and only missed two songs of Sevendust’s set.
Enough CD’s To Fill A Catalog
Tuesday, September 11th, 2007In other news, I’m in the process of being my usual anal self and cataloging all of my CD’s with a nifty program called ReaderwareAW, which lets me use my old CueCat barcode scanner (the freebie from Radio Shack that got hacked in like 2 hours) to scan the barcodes on the backs of the CD’s, and then grabs the info from Amazon and stuffs it into the database. Of course, with all the promos, imports, and other crap I have, it took awhile, and there was a fair amount of manual entry involved. The good news is, all of the CD’s are in there, in one form or another. The bad news is now the tweaking begins. Getting record labels, track listings, covers, and all that stuff correct is going to take some time. Be right or don’t be. The neat thing about the program is that it allows you to make custom HTML “reports”, so I’ll have something really nice to look at once I’m done, rather than the simple list I have on the site now. Don’t hold your breath though, I’m sure it’s going to take awhile!
200 Shows
Tuesday, August 21st, 2007While ten years was a bigger deal to me, it almost escaped me that the Lamb of God / Hatebreed show last Friday was #200 of my “career”… all the stuff from the ten years of concerts post still applies, but another milestone is always cool!
Speaking of concerts, after three in one week, thankfully they’re getting a little more spaced out… I have three upcoming in the next two months, feel free to let me know if you’re going:
Tuesday, Sept 18 – Finger Eleven @ Water Street
Friday Oct 5 – Matthew Good @ Club Infinity (Main and Transit)
Tuesday Oct 30 – Three Days Grace, Breaking Benjamin, Seether @ Erie County Fairgrounds Agri-Center
Run For It Marty!!!
Friday, June 29th, 2007“Oh, my God, they found me, I don’t know how, but they found me.”
Apparently, somehow, someway, my crappy little website caught the attention of the fans of Dir En Grey, and since I pretty much blasted the band in the review from the Deftones show awhile back, they’ve been trying to critique my review in the comments. I tried to reason (ha!) with one of them, and then another popped up. And I just don’t have the time or energy to debate my opinions of a forgettable opening band with overzealous fans of said band. So I figured I’d just close out the comments with this:
Wow, I see the “Dir En Grey Shitty Review Rebuttal Team” has been deployed in full-force. I get it, my review wasn’t terribly detailed, and you all are trying to point out the error of my ways. Thanks, point taken. I don’t care how “grossly disappointed” anyone is in my reviews, because the reviews are primarily for me, and my personal recollections of the show. Period.
I guess I’m grateful that anyone even found my site, let alone decided to comment on it. But seriously, no one reads this site besides my family and friends, which is about 15 people, tops. I’m sure your collective energy could be spent for far greater gains elsewhere on the internet. Debating opinions with someone who just does this for my own concert recollections just isn’t an effective use of your time.
Anyway, we caught Will Hoge at Thursday in the Square yesterday, so that review will be up shortly. There shouldn’t be any controversy about this one, since it will be a glowing review, and there were no other opening bands. Unless, of course, the Joan Osborne fans come out of the woodwork and slam me for not staying. 🙂
Ten Years of Concerts
Monday, June 11th, 2007It has been an even ten years since my first rock concert. June 11th, 1997. Our Lady Peace, Cool For August, and Puzzle Gut at the Tralf in Buffalo, NY. Accompannied by my friend Christine from the Harrison co-op program (and driven by her mom, Thanks Mom!), we managed to be right up front the whole night. For some reason, the experience of the show stuck with me. Singing along with the CD in your bedroom is fun, but singing along with the band right in front of you, sometimes in places no bigger than your bedroom, with 500 other people who are also singing along with every word is usually even more fun. I whipped together a little retrospective for myself on the past 192 shows over 10 years:
Over these past ten years, I’ve driven way too far to get to shows far too early, only to wait in far too long of lines for far too long in far too cold (or too hot) weather, to be one of the first in line. This led to running to the barrier to be right in front, and then pinned against said barrier for 3+ hours. I’ve been helped off the ground, helped people off the ground, been kicked in the head and/or slammed by crowd surfers (and I’ve subsequently yanked them to the ground), gotten in shoving matches and fights (*usually* not instigated by me); I’ve jumped, moshed, sweated, screamed my lungs out, lavished praise and bitterly complained more than my share about openers and headliners alike. I’ve met lots of band members, some cool, some not-so-cool, some famous, some not-so-famous; met a lot of interesting fans, some cool, some not-so-cool. I’ve gotten autographs, guitar picks, drum sticks, drum heads, setlists, posters, flyers, stickers, promo CD’s and videos, and anything and everything else I could get my hands on. I’ve won contests to see shows, I’ve ridden other contest winners’ coattails to see shows, I’ve gotten into “exclusive” shows by talking to the band. I’ve seen two different shows in one day. I’ve seen great bands, good bands, OK bands, and absolutely terrible bands. I’ve had some of the best times of my life, and some of the worst times of my life at concerts. I’ve celebrated my birthday at shows (1998 and 2005, and within a day in 2000 and 2001). I’ve celebrated New Years Eve (2000/2001) at a concert. I probably should have worn earplugs at more of them, but I’m doing what I can now. I’ve immensely enjoyed these last ten years of concerts, and I look forward to the next ten years (albeit at a far slower pace I’m guessing!).
Naturally, it’s fitting that on the 10th anniversary of my first concert, I’ll be attending a concert. I’ll be seeing the Deftones for the first time in seven years, in Buffalo tonight. Here’s to another 10 years!
Keep Those Updates Coming
Thursday, April 19th, 2007So as you can see, I’m trying to be a bit more prolific on here, compared to months past. As per usual, I don’t have a hell of a lot to say though. Work is work, home is home, and the Sabres just keep winning… 🙂
Concert updates:
There’s a couple more shows that I may or may not be going to, depending on interest, cash, timing, etc.
Friday May 11th, Mike Doughty @ Lilac Festival, Rochester, NY ($Free)
Friday May 18th, Breaking Benjamin, 3 Days Grace, Puddle of Mudd @ RIT Fieldhouse, Rochester, NY ($35)
Monday June 11th, Deftones @ Dome Theater, Niagara Falls, NY ($30)
Apparently Godsmack is in Buffalo at Shea’s on Sunday, May 27th, but no openers have been listed yet. If the openers are good, I may consider that one too. The Tragically Hip are going to be at Artpark on Saturday June 30th and Sunday July 1st, but I just saw them and unless I get free tickets, $35 for lawn seats just ain’t happening. Warped Tour is Friday August 10th at Darien Lake, but considering that I’d only want to see Killswitch Engage, I don’t think I’ll be doing that one either.
Coming up on 10 Years of Concerts
Thursday, March 1st, 2007I did go to see Killswitch Engage, DragonForce and Chimaira last Sunday in Niagara Falls, which had it’s share of fun driving coming home. I’ll save the show review for the review, but as far as the people? Gotta love seeing that random dude that has tattoos all over his face. He looked to be in his mid-twenties, and the only thing I could think of when I saw him was, “And you’re going to find meaningful employment WHERE?“. Unless you work at a tattoo parlor or something similar, not too many places are going to hire you. Talking with one of the IGT guys at work here, who has a multitude of tattoos (none on his face, mind you), even he agreed that getting them in places that are hard to conceal isn’t going to work if you want to work. And as for the rest of the crowd, it dawned on me that I’ve been going to shows for about 10 years now, and aside from feeling old, I still look at these kids like, just what the hell are you trying to prove with your dress, attitude, etc?! Of course, I wondered it back then too. I guess it boils down to this: I like the same music you do, and go to the same shows you do, but I don’t dress/act like a retard to do it. (For more on this subject, see the corollary to this statement: Nothing is any good if other people like it.)
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