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Those are the words of Dave Matthews. I have no idea if he wrote them, or is just singing someone else’s. I’m listening to an Angelique Kidjo song, Iowya, that features Dave. Decent song. I like her significantly more than him.
So, the below journal entry, about the myspace site. It’s a strange thing. Why in the world would I have two dumb journal things on the web when I can’t even discipline myself to type in my personal journal? Music thoughts as I go along…now we’re onto a new live version of Yours is No Disgrace by Yes. They sound old and sluggish. I normally like this song, but that’s when they were 30 years younger. The tempo is too slow, even though Steve Howe still sounds great. Skip. And NOW we’re somewhere: Sting’s Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot. I’ve loved this song ever since I first heard it. Such a beautiful song and it always fills me with warmth. I feel like I’m the only one who reacts to this song. Are there other Sting songs that fill people up with warmth? Or anything like that? I don’t know, I’m sure there are lots. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m just typing whatever I feel like. It’s 1 in the morning, and I don’t have to be at work until 11 so I feel like typing. I’ll get back to my previous thought, I promise. So, I have noticed recently that my handwriting is getting tougher to manage. I honestly can’t write more than a few sentences before my hand starts to hurt and cramp up. How in the world did I write essays in college? Well, I’m referring to the exams mostly. Oh, I remember one final during my…freshman year, 2nd semester…that I got severe cramp o’ the hands. It was an RTF class, about Narritive Strategies. That was the actual name, by the way. Fun class, but very intense even though there were almost 300 people in there. The final, which was something about writing about all the classic, modern and post-modern aspects of all these different movie and TV shows, was extremely time consuming and it took me the full hour and a half writing at FULL SPEED to finish. My hand HURT after that.
And now, the music is on to James Taylor, Fire and Rain. I shall not skip because it’s a nice tune. I’m not usually enthralled with the whole “early 70’s singer/songwriter” thing, but, yeah, it’s a nice tune.
So, back to the journaling thing. I don’t type in my “diary” enough. And then when I do, I type for a while and then get either distracted or sometimes bored and I actually type “I’ll finish this later/tomorrow” and then I don’t. I’m weird like that. But now I have *2* online journal thingies. I really don’t think I’ll use the myspace one for too much typing. I mean, if I did then I’d be a hypocrite. See, I got on to Sister Jenn about having *4* different online journals. She probably has more that I haven’t found yet. I had to question her when she started a WHOLE NEW journal all the while not updating the main one on her website since June. She likes to type things, in different frames of mind, so there ya go. Music is now Edwin Starr. Not interested. I mean, this song’s OK, but I want some RAWK. And we get Peter Gabriel. Shaking the Tree from Secret World Live. I like this album. It annoys Julie though. OH! I just found out by talking to her the other day that she doesn’t like Peter Gabriel! All this time, and I never knew. I’m sure it’s more of a “he’s annoying me right now” thing as opposed to always not liking the guy. I mean, the dude wrote Solsbury Hill. That was the song that was playing the other day! I love that song. You know what I love about this song though? Besides TLev, I love Paula Cole’s vocals on here. Whole album actually. I think her solo stuff is horrible, but she sounds amazing on PG’s stuff. She wails on this song, esp. in the part that’s about to come up. This song rocks and I just get the biggest smile from it.
I wonder if I’ll ever get the chance to see Peter Gabriel live? I’m sure I’ve missed my chance. I don’t go to as many concerts as I used to, unfortunately. Live music keeps me going, and I’ve been severly lacking. Although, the shows I have seen this year have rocked my world. Adrian Belew, Umphrey’s McGee, California Guitar Trio…all awesome shows. Oh, and that Dah-veed show I saw a few months ago. That was great stuff too.
So, speaking of music, which is something I LOVE to do, this is something I have wanted to do here for a while. So, here it goes:
Some of my favorite bands and how I’ve gotten into them:
8 ½ Souvenirs - Olivier Giraud the guitarist played with my cousin Lisa Pantratz in 47 Indians and I think this was his band after that one. I noticed they were doing a free show at Tower Records in Austin (which was right next to my dorm) so I went and was blown away. Juliana Sheffield was the singer. She made me float. Still does.
47 Indians – Cousin Lisa was the drummer and I was probably in 8th or 9th grade first time I saw them. They were the first live band I ever saw. Blew me away. Lisa was an awesome drummer back then, and she was only in her early 20’s. Even after Lisa and Olivier left and Brent was doing it on his own, they still sounded great and I used to see them almost weekly my first year of college.
Alice in Chains – There used to be a heavy metal show on the Edge late Sunday nights I think. I remember the DJ playing Man in the Box. This was 1990, before “grunge” was a word. I liked it.
Anthrax – Comes from Brian Forbes. Once I was into Maiden, Anthrax came soon after. Still love ‘em.
Barenaked Ladies – From Bryan Dunn. I remember him playing Grade 9 for me fairly soon after Gordon came out. It made me laugh, what can I say.
Beatles – Again, Bryan. Somewhere around my junior year of high school I was starting to get intrigued by them and so I had Bry make me 2 tapes worth of their “best stuff”. I still have those tapes, by the way.
Adrian Belew – Uh, this comes from his involvement in King Crimson, so go there for the story.
James Brown – History of Rock ‘N’ Roll class (Yes, I’m serious) in college. One of our listening tapes had Sex Machine on it. I FLIPPED OUT. Never in my life had I heard something like that.
Dave Brubeck – In college, while trying to write lyrics to Space Boy (huh, still not finished!) I put Time Out on the turntable. I took the record from my mom’s collection having no idea what it was but figured it looked interesting enough. So, once I popped it in I immediately loved it (Blue Rondo a la Turk…hell yeah!) and after a few minutes I dropped Space Boy and was inspired to write a whole new set of lyrics, called Those Blue Eyes.
Jimmy Buffett – From Forbes. He used to listen to Buffett all the time, but it was one specific time when we all were hanging out by his pool, drinking beer and listening to Buffett. That was when it clicked.
California Guitar Trio - I ordered a King Crimson VROOOOM poster and at the bottom it advertised these guys, who were on the same label. I gambled on it and I wasn’t disappointed. Seeing them live cemented it.
John Coltrane - From being a DJ at KVRX in college. I think Sun Ship had just been released so I played it and liked it a bit. It wasn’t until I bought My Favorite Things that it clicked.
Chick Corea – My friend Kory had an extra ticket for his show in Austin and invited me along. Extremely blown away.
Dah-veed Garza – Another Bryan Dunn creation. He took me to a DG show in early 94 and I was hooked immediately. Amazing fun.
Miles Davis - The Daily Texan newspaper ran some article about essential Jazz albums and they recommended Kind of Blue. I had never heard of it. There ya go.
The Doors - that would be from Sean, the old Cheevy singer. He worshipped these guys, and Bry and Dave also liked them so they kinda seeped into my subconscious.
Dream Theater - hearing Pull Me Under on the radio and then hearing the album. Wow, chalk one up for radio!
Bryan Dunn – Ha, funny. Bryan was my first guitarist so I guess I could say that he also got me into his music! He’s fantastic, by the way.
Extreme – Hearing Decadence Dance on the radio way back in California in the summer of 8th grade.
Ezra Thomas – well that’s easy, ET is Matt Talbert’s band so once I saw them live, it was obvious.
Flat Mass – Ben Gallman all the way. He brought Matt and me to a FM show at Trees and we were SO blown away. Very few groups I’ve ever seen still can compare to Flat Mass.
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones - A friend of mine in college, Brandon (RIP), said “there’s this group coming to town…they’re supposed to have a good bassist…wanna go?”. Still cracks me up. Calling Victor Wooten a “good bassist” is like calling the Rocky Moutains “some hills”.
Robert Fripp - since he plays guitar in Crimson, that’s obvious
Bebel Gilberto - when I worked at B&N in Austin, her Tanto Tempo album was an instore. I got the instore copy after it wasn’t in rotation anymore. I used to listen to it every day at work and never got tired of it. Her voice also melts me.
Grumpy – I think Grumpy opened that first Dah-veed show I saw. If not, it was the next one. Either way, Dah-veed and Grumpy will always go together for me.
Iron Maiden - Ha, the story. I blame Forbes for this whole mess. He got into the band, got my brother into them and they worked on me (playing Live After Death every day) until one day I caught myself singing their songs when the music wasn’t playing. I thought, hey, I actually like them!
Journey – Thanks to brother Alan for this one. He wanted some tapes of theirs for his…15th birthday…and that first listen of Frontiers was all it took.
Mike Keneally – heard his name tossed about since he played with Zappa. Heard some clips of Hat online and it connected with me. Saw him live and had my head ripped off.
King Crimson - From Ben. At first I thought it was “weird, Ben-music”, but it was really when he played Frame By Frame (esp. the last bit) that knocked my butt off and that made me buy Discipline…and truthfully that album completely changed the way I thought about music. Nothing has been the same since.
Kiss - I’m not so much into Kiss anymore, but I think it was hearing Unholy on the radio that really caught my attention. I bought Revenge, which was OK, but it was really Alive! that got me going. I still love that album.
Led Zeppelin - radio, radio radio
Living Colour – Matt, actually. He played them all the time and eventually I was persuaded to borrow all his LC CD’s and make a comp for myself. And then I got into them so much more.
Lyle Lovett – from Bryan, who played Her First Mistake for me. Fantastic song.
Mahavishnu Orchestra – Ben had the Birds of Fire album and it was probably the title track that did it.
Bob Marley – Forbes again. Same feeling as Buffett.
Megadeth - Forbes, I’m sure. I don’t remember hearing something for a first time, but once I did I liked them.
Metallica - from Forbes also, but Alan had tried to get me to like One when it came out. It took me a year or two to get it.
Mr. Bungle – hearing a lot of them on an old internet radio station
Ozzy - All we knew about Ozzy was that he bit the heads of doves, made audiences rip apart puppies (false, of course) and he pissed on the Alamo. In metal circles, we had heard the album Tribute was supposed to be amazing so my brother sprung for it and all of us were blown away by it.
Pantera - hearing them on the same metal show on the Edge back in the day
Jaco Pastorius - I took the chance on his first album since he was the self-proclaimed best bassist in the world. At the time I’m sure he was. His first album rocks.
Pearl Jam – radio
Steve Perry - he sings for Journey, enough said
Phish - friend in college named Clay let me borrow Picture of Nectar. By the time I got to the 4th song, I was (har) hooked.
The Police - took me a long time on these guys. My bro had the Best of album for the longest time, but it wasn’t until college and I was in Audrey & Christina’s room and I heard Stuart Copeland’s drum work on Message in a Bottle and I flipped. I know they got so tired of me always wanting to hear that disc!
Queen - a radio program Rockline. Brian May was on there and I was blown away by the tracks I heard.
Radiohead – recommendation from Johnny Hi-Fi, saying that OK Computer was incredible. Once I got it he was proven right
Red Hot Chili Peppers - my friend Bill bought this tape and we listened to it and it was Magic Johnson that made me take notice
Sonny Rollins – recommendation from Kory that I needed Saxophone Colossus. He was right, I did.
Rush – Took me a few years to get it, but Rush made me look forward to Triple Shot Thursday on Q102 more than anything else. Forbes buying Chronicles sealed the deal.
Seal – Matt’s enthusiasm + radio
Paul Simon – I used to listen to Bryan’s copy of Graceland all the time, firstly for You Can Call Me Al, but the rest of the album set in almost immediately
Stereolab – probably heard them at KVRX, but it was really hearing Ping Pong on my Launchcast station.
Sting - I think he sings for some group
Tripping Daisy – someone, maybe Gary, wanted a bunch of us to go see them play at Trees. Great show.
Twang Twang Shock-a-Boom – Dah-veed’s old band. Another point for Bryan.
U2 - radio!
Umphrey’s McGee – lots of hype about them in Relix magazine so I checked out a show. Awesome.
Stevie Ray Vaughan – probably seeing him on the Tonight Show (I think) way back in the day
Stevie Wonder - I bought Music of My Mind after seeing him on the Grammys or something. Superwoman kicked my ass
XTC – Dave Cloyd in college had their posted all over the place. I heard Grass, from Skylarking, on my Launchcast station and that was it.
Yes - I bought Classic Yes for some reason and really dug it.
Frank Zappa – I was originally interested since I was a Belew fan and I knew he played with FZ back in the day. Around the same time 3 different people recommended Skeik Yerbouti to me and since it had Adrian on it, I went for it. I liked it, but it didn’t move me. So I got Joe’s Garage and that was decent. Then one day at KVRX I played Titties & Beer from Lather and I laughed my butt off. So I bought Later and it was a major experience hearing that song.
WHEW! that was long. Hopefully interesting to you. I heard some good stuff while listening (obviously I wasn’t going to comment on each one!). I heard Green-Tinted 60’s Mind by Mr. Big (don’t laugh) and I love that song. A nice surprise. So, now we have King Crimson’s Discipline and it’s time to go to bed.
Nite!
Current Mood:  tired
Current Music: King Crimson - Discipline + lots more
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