Entries Tagged 'Music' ↓

A good buddy of mine has been reluctant to get on Facebook since Day One. He finally did. I’ve gotta laugh at the first three things in his Facebook history (letters have been loosely rearranged and joined by an extra vowel to protect the shrewd opposers of having one’s existence acknowledged on the Internet):

Barney joined Facebook 2:31pm

Barney and Jace Daniel Albao are now friends. 2:46pm

Barney joined the group Petition for Led Zeppelin United States Tour –
1,000,000,000 strong. 5:03pm

Missed STP in Vegas a couple weeks ago for last minute reasons. Ended up doing a school night rally the other night here at the Hollywood Bowl. Beautiful night. Wish I had more pics. This is the only one I’ve got, courtesy of Big J.

Decent show, but I have two complaints:

1. No beer poured after 10PM???
2. NO STILL REMAINS???

The man who brought the the 3/2 Son Clave to rock and roll, commonly known as the “Bo Diddley Beat”. You know the groove. Think “I Want Candy” by Bow Wow Wow, “Faith” by George Michael, and “Desire” by U2. Yunk a-dunk a-dunk, a-dunk-dunk. Yunk a-dunk a-dunk, a-dunk-dunk.

RIP

From 1964, an interview with David Jones (Bowie) on BBC Tonight. At the age of seventeen, Bowie was already busy fighting the good fight as, get this, the founder of The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Long-haired Men.

On a convenient whim, I took up my neighbor Roy’s offer to tag along with him and Mare up to the Rush gig at the Nokia Theatre last night. The Nokia’s a great place to see a show, and I figured the Rush/Nokia combination would be one I’d regret missing. I saw Tool there a few months ago.

Glad I did. Within about fifteen seconds of parting ways with Roy and Mare for the evening out in the Nokia courtyard, a guy who was upgrading to the box offered me a single ticket down in the thirteenth row on Alex’s side. Face value was $154.50. He took forty bucks with a smile and and a gracious knuckletap, wishing me a happy show. Score.

I got into Orchestra section and found my way down to a few empty seats in Row D, fourth row. The band opened with Limelight, and we were off. A few minutes later a couple enthusiastic dudes without tickets came rushing down, sneaking into Row D with me. They were standing there bouncing up and down, cheering the band on, particularly Neil Peart. It wasn’t entirely surprising to notice these two dudes were Chad Smith and Taylor Hawkins.

Great show. The band went on at about 8PM, playing until 11:20 with an intermission. What I found inspiring was how you could tell that the reason these guys are touring right now is because of the simple reason that they want to jam. It was all for the love of the game, not out of obligation. They’re players. It’s who they are. It’s what they are. Playing is what they must do, even if they’re in their mid-fifties.

Rush. A drummer’s band. I ended up running into B-Load and Jerrence while I was in there, who each were on solo missions and stuck in Loge. With the help of Roy’s stub during the intermission, we all ended up down near the front. A couple good shots from B-Load. Click each for a larger version:

Three lame shots from my cell:

And speaking of Taylor Hawkins and Rush:

I don’t need no
Education.
I don’t need no
Home Depot. Pulled
Up the floorboards
In the main room.
Gonna count to
Thirty-two.
Hey!
Teachers!
Feel that binary!
All in all, it’s just a
Nuther board in the floor.
All in all, you’re just a
Nuther board in my floor.

Remember this one? I just stumbled across this classic from the Norwegian band a-ha, from 1985. I wasn’t a bona fide waver, but I remember being totally blown away by this video. Way ahead of its time, both mechanically and conceptually. The comic book metaphor, the alternate reality thing, the worlds-colliding love story, all of it. Created before digital tools; eventually taken to entirely new levels half a generation later with films like Waking Life and The Matrix.

Great stuff. Twenty-three years later, and the thing still holds up. Easily one of the coolest things ever to come out of MTV. Well, you know, that and this.

A short clip of Swiss drummer Jojo Mayer playing a typically steaming groove, followed by the same clip in slow motion. A clinic!

Jojo’s famous for his one-handed roll, which is arguably the fastest in the world.

I’ll be enjoyably droidless for the next several days for the induction, so there won’t be a whole lot going on around here outside of the usual tweets. Until next week, I was backing up some media and stumbled upon 26 of my letters from Honolulu recorded by my grandfather on October 15, 1972. The kid could hit a note, right?

Aloha.

“No, his mind is not for rent to any God or government. Always hopeful, yet discontent, he knows changes aren’t permanent. But change is.”
– Rush, “Tom Sawyer”

Yes. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova rightfully won Best Original Song at the Oscars last night for “Falling Slowly”, one of the excellent songs in their little gem, Once.

Just as steam became blowing out of my ears when they cut Marketa off before she could say a word, they decently brought her back after the commercial break and gave her the floor. It was my favorite Oscar moment since Cuba Gooding Junior’s speech last decade. Honesty always appears so much brighter when set against a backdrop of plastic.

Talking tubs and six-word memoirs with drummer Joel Taylor after the February 2nd jazz gig.

With the great Morrie Louden in October of 2007 at what looks to be the first of many intimate jazz hangs in down here in San Pedro, California. It’s always a pleasure to hear Morrie play, along with the select cats he happens to have along with him for the gig. They’re, um, how do we say it? Oh yeah: KINDA BAD-ASS.

With saxophonist Walter Smith III after February 2nd’s jazz gig. Great times. The real thing. We eventually ended up in a joke telling session out in the backyard. Walter has a few doozies that I won’t repeat here.