Rock Snob Blog

Marge: You know, Homer, it’s very easy to criticize…
Homer: And fun, too!
- The Simpsons, “Bart Star”

Marge is right. It’s easy for people to slag off Coldplay for being boring but how often do you hear people try to give constructive criticism so they can actually be less boring?

Well, I would imagine that a lot of people would find the music of Low to be slow and boring. After all, people call their sub-genre slowcore. However, on disc 2 of their compilation box set A Lifetime of Temporary Relief: 10 Years of B-Sides & Rarities, there are three hidden tracks where the band apparently dressed up like The Misfits and played in that punk band’s style and with their speed.

Best of all, they really cut down the length of their songs dramatically:

Ultimately, wouldn’t everyone be happier if when their significant other forces them to go to a Coldplay concert, the whole ordeal is over sooner?

Visit here to listen to Low in Misfits mode.

Well, the murder trial against Phil Spector has started. There’s nothing that interesting happening with the trial other than Spector’s hair. Yuk! Anyway, here’s the article.

I’m not sure if this article but apparently The Rolling Stones are having a gig at hippodrome (ie a huge horse track) in Belgrade and there’s 300 horses for various equastrian clubs who won’t/can’t be moved. Thus, they are going to be sedated so they don’t go nuts from the fright of rock ‘n’ roll.

The article further clarifies things with “The sedative would be diazepam. In Serbia it trades under the name Bensedin, a very popular drug during the 78 days of NATO air strikes in 1999, when much of Belgrade’s adult population was on tranquilizers.”

Once again, I’m not sure if the article is serious but it’s certainly a good time to get some one liners in:

• So why don’t the people attending the show get some free drugs?
• If I had to see those old farts on stage ever again, I’d want to be sedated too
• Any other sort of comment about using horse tranquilizers as a recreational drug

I was at a party on Friday night when I decided to put a CD on. The CD that I wanted to put on, wasn’t actually in the case of the pile of CDs near the stereo.

Someone suggested I put on Metallica’s Black Album. At that point, I wanted to flex my rock snob knowledge amongst my friends and said “You know… there is more than one black album”. He made a snort of denial. Then I launched into mentioning Smell the Glove by Spinal Tap and the one by Prince.

What made things most gratifying was that one of the women in the room listening chucked with recognition at the mention of the Spinal Tap one.

Anyway, there’s a disambiguous page on Wikipedia for Black Albums. Judging by the information on that page, Boyd Rice may have come up with the first all-black album. Wikipedia doesn’t actually have a page about his black album but on Rice’s discography page there’s a picture of it… up against a black background… Similarly, there’s a picture of a black album in this post but the blog has a black background.

I still haven’t bought the latest Low album Drums and Guns.

I didn’t know they have their first single out, “Breaker”. I found it on a list of the strangest music videos ever.

A day after saying that he once snorted his dad’s ashes with cocaine, Keith Richards has stated that it was just a joke.

I’m just really disappointed. I thought Keith had uncovered the secret of zombie mortality.

Is there a Ralph’s nearby?

EW.com has a photo quiz where you have to guess the name of hair-metal bands from a photos where their faces are blurred out… sort of implying “Can you guess which band is which from their hair?”

I scored 9/10. I thought the last one was sneaky. Based upon the size of Gene Simmons‘ ego, would he wear one of his own band’s shirts in a photo? I still got the last one right.

Thanks to my iPod, my gym sessions are only physically excruciating. However, I still occassionally glimpse the latest videos on Channel V.

Each night, they play the top requested videos or whatever.

That includes the latest Nickelback song If Everyone Cared. Yes, for Nickelback, this is a special video and a charitable cause rolled into one.

Here’s info from Wikipedia:
Donations: It was announced that 100% of all digital sales for the song will be donated to the charities of Amnesty International, and the International Children’s Awareness Canada.[1] This ties into the theme of the song and video of caring about something to work towards the improvement of human civilization.

Video: The band worked on the video for it with director, Dori Oskowitz. The video for “If Everyone Cared” is not like most videos, or any other video the band has done. It begins with Nickelback in the studio playing the song. Scenes of this are intercut with images and videos of past social justice and human rights events, essentially when an individual “cared” and ended up changing the world. Some of the people shown are Bob Geldof starting up Live Aid, Peter Benenson igniting what would become known as Amnesty International, Nelson Mandela leading South Africa to its first democratic election, (which would end the racist apartheid regime that had divided the country for 46 years) and Betty Williams leading people. The video ends with a quote from Margaret Mead that reads “Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

So when everyone hates your band, you try to become more like Bono: give and hope that karma works.

Anyway it’s still undeniably Nickelback - that means absolutely the same crap sound and stupid lyrics. Check out the chorus:

If everyone cared and nobody cried,
If everyone loved and nobody lied,
If everyone shared and swallowed their pride,
Then we’d see the day…when nobody dies.

If all that really happened, human beings would cease to be mortal. For real! If was a humanist, I’d seriously take up a mainstream religion after hearing that crap. If this was true, I’d kill myself because an eternity of listening to Nickelback or seeing their videos is a fate worse than death.

On the weekend, the NSW state election was held. In the seat of Barwon, an independent Les Paul deserved to win just because he has the coolest name.

Unfortunately, there were a bunch of squared who voted National .

Hüsker Dü’s Live at The Camden Palace has been rereleased and is now on DVD in Region 4 (I’m it’s not on Amazon USA but is on Amazon UK). The original recording was done on 14 May, 1985.

I have to admit. I haven’t actually watched the entire thing yet. For much of last year, I watched many clips on YouTube. Whoever uploaded those clips from VHS missed a few songs.

Until just now, I never realised how much I enjoyed Bob Mould’s all-purpose backing vocal lines of “on and on and on”. This is particularly evident on songs written and sung by Grant Hart (eg “Terms of Psychic Warfare” and “Books about UFOs”). However he sings “on and on and on” to a different melody on “New Day Rising”. Sadly, I do like his backing vocals on the studio version of “Terms of Psychic Warfare” better.

Now just to continue my “I suspect there’s an anti-Grant Hart” conspiracy… all the faces on the cover of the Camden Palace DVD aren’t that clear but Grant’s just white.

I probably should do some half-arsed attempt at reviewing this. It’s a really awesome set. There isn’t much filler but I bet listening to “Recurring Dreams” live would suck. Up until that point, all the songs are really fast paced and if you don’t like it, it’s over within a couple of minutes. Isn’t that how music should be? Can I make a comparison to It’s Alive by Ramones? It’s my blog and I can critique if I want to.

Damn it’s good to see Greg Norton jumping around like he is on speed… which he probably is