Cheevyjames’ Musical Roundhouse

I just found out that Clifford Antone died yesterday. Horrible news. I’ve been to Antone’s more times than I can remember and I saw some fantastic shows at that club. In addition to Steamboat and Liberty Lunch, other fantastic Austin music institutions, Antone’s was probably my favorite place to see live music. Whether it was blues (usually) or not, there was always great music at Antone’s. Clifford Antone’s passing is not just awful news for Austinites, but it’s really just a horrible loss for music in general.

Here are some good stories from the Austin American Statesman:

http://www.austin360.com/music/content/music/stories/2006/05/24antone.html

http://www.austin360.com/music/content/music/stories/2006/05/24artists.html

http://www.austin360.com/music/content/music/stories/2006/05/24quotes.html

His memorial starts in less than 2 hours as I type this. I wish I could be there.

Current Location: work

Current Mood: sad

Current Music: nothing

Hi! I’m still a bit tired from last night, but I know I’ll wake up in a bit. Had a fun night last night. Julie and I had “the group” over for Movie Night and this was the first time that all 6 of us have been able to hang out together. Since we hosted, we picked the night’s movie: The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Julie and I had seen it in the theater, but no one else had so we thought it was a good choice. Man, I forgot how funny that movie is. We all laughed heartily throughout. We finished off our foreign cheese from Friday Night (with Jenn and Eric) and J&E also brought some cake as well as some good Italian wine, with us providing the Spainish wine.

I really like hanging out during the week and not just confining it to the weekend. It was a late night for everyone, but that’s OK. I’m sure tonight will be low key and then of course there’s the practice with Jenn on Thursday…with Friday bringing the drive to DC for the weekend. Yay DC! I can’t wait to get back there; such a cool city.

The other recent movie that we have seen is the Da Vinci Code, which we saw Saturday night. I really, really liked that movie. I went in with no real preconceptions and I enjoyed it. I’ve never read the book so I wasn’t sitting there comparing it, which is inevitable when one reads a book first and loves it. I know when I watch the Harry Potter movies I’m always comparing them with the books…seeing what’s there, what isn’t and what they changed. So at least I could say that I went into Da Vinci Code paying full attention and I wasn’t just some idiot making verbal agreements when things would happen in the movie that were important points in the book. That was the woman next to me. She was really obnoxious. I love watching movies in the theater, but it’s the other people in the theater who always ruin it for me. Thankfully no cellphones went off.

So yeah, the movie was really cool. I don’t understand why it was getting bad reviews, because I really liked it. It’s a very intelligent movie, and you really have to pay attention, because otherwise you can get lost/confused. So many great plot twists and turns though. I think that maybe a lot of people want to see movies that make them go, “huh huh, that was a cool explosion” and not much else.

Explosions rule! Rule!

Anyway, very good movie and I definitely recommend it. I can see why Catholics would get pissed off about it, but the idea of anyone banning the movie or suing to prevent from playing is STUPID. It’s a movie! It’s definitely an interesting idea and there’s always the possibility that all of it *could* have happened, but I think it’s unlikely. Still, *I* didn’t get my panties all in a wad over it.

The other recent viewing has been Undeclared, a fantastic TV show that only lasted for 1 season. Judd Apatow, who did 40-Year-Old Virgin, also did Undeclared and Freaks & Geeks (also excellent).

Mavs & Suns game 1 tonight. Kick ass. Go Mavs!

Current Location: work!

Current Mood: content

Current Music: buncha launchcast stuff

Released: 1977
Tracks: Detroit Rock City; King of the Night Time World; Ladies Room; Makin’ Love; Love Gun; Calling Dr. Love; Christine Sixteen; Shock Me; Hard Luck Woman; Tomorrow and Tonight; I Stole Your Love; Beth; God of Thunder; I Want You; Shout it Out Loud; All American Man; Rockin’ in the USA; Larger Than Life; Rocket Ride; Any Way You Want It
Best track: probably Detroit Rock City
Tracks to skip: Ladies Room, Shock Me, Tomorrow and Tonight, I Stole Your Love, Beth, All American Man, Rockin’ in the USA, Larger Than Life, Rocket Ride, Any Way Your Want It

I’ve always liked the idea on live albums to include some studio tracks as an added bonus, but that’s always on the contention that they’re actually good songs. Unfortunately for this album, the original side 4 was all new studio tracks which are just *bad* songs. Horrible songs. As for disc 1 and half of disc 2 (the album’s original first 3 sides) some bad songs populate those areas as well. Besides skipping half of this album (bringing it to 40 minutes of listenable material) the thing I hate about this one is how obnoxious the overdubbed crowd noise is. Listen closely and you can hear “song-ending applause” nearly the entire way through every track on here. It’s to the point where it just becomes silly because you *know* those people weren’t cheering constantly, during the entire show. Let’s pick on the band members! Ace sounds drunk on Shock Me and his guitar playing in his solo isn’t too much better. I do, however, like that riff at the end of the song…the one that leads into his solo. It should have gone on longer. Peter Criss, who was never a very good drummer anyway, is given another solo on this album, this time in God of Thunder. Makes me ask, why is this there? It’s short, which is good, but it has no reason to be there in the first place. Further picking on Cat Man…the idea of him singing to a freaking tape during Beth is the cheesiest and lamest thing EVER. He still did this when I saw the band in ‘96. Why not just make a band arrangement of the crappy tune so that it’s not the Peter Criss Karaoke Show? I know they wanted Kiss to be like the Beatles where all four of them sang, but they really should have just kept it to Gene and Paul.

I originally listened to this album and started to write this review like 6 months ago, but I stopped for whatever reason. I know I could have just slapped a grade on here since I did listen to it back in December, but I thought I should give it a shot and re-listen to it again. It’s funny, I actually like it less today than I did 6 months ago and it’ll probably get a lower grade. So much for integrity! OK, there are parts about this album I like. The songs I don’t skip are definitely tolerable and a lot of cases these “live” versions are much better than the studio ones (like Makin’ Love). What they should have done is recorded the basic tracks live and then overdubbed like they did for this album, clean up the singing/crowd interaction a bit, and take out the stupid crowd noise…then have those be the initial studio albums. Just go and play the new songs in front of an audience and record the basics and use that as song beds and then they’d have better studio albums. Ah, but that’s not how Kiss works. Another thing I like about this album, but also Kiss in general, is that Gene Simmons comes up with some cool bass lines. He’s not the best bassist in the world, and that’s fine, but he uses his talent and ability in creative ways. I’ve always liked his bass lines.

So, how to grade this? Half of it outright bites, the crowd noise is awful, and when you actually listen to the lyrics of these songs…whew, they’re bad. This album is nowhere near as good as Alive, but parts of it are fine enough. Personally, I’m over this album. I really don’t need to listen to it anymore. If they had better songs (live and new studio) and took out that crowd noise, it would probably be better. Since it’s not, it’s not an essential purchase.

Rating: 70

Released: 1990
Tracks: Time’s Up; History Lesson; Pride; Love Rears Its Ugly Head; New Jack Theme; Someone Like You; Elvis is Dead; Type; Information Overload; Under Cover of Darkness; Ology; Fight the Fight; Tag Team Partners; Solace of You; This is the Life
Best track: Solace of You
Track to skip: Someone Like You

And that right there is where my complaints about the album end!

Everything else on here is just absolutely perfect and totally kicks my ass. If you thought the eclecticism on Vivid was great, then Time’s Up definitely shatters all that. What else do they do here, besides the hard rock which they do so excellently? The title track sounds like thrash metal to me; there’s the weird-blues of Love Rears Its Ugly Head, the industrial-sounding New Jack Theme, the freakin brilliant Under Cover of Darkness that’s a total genre on its own (Queen Latifah’s rap is great). I have no clue what style of music Ology is. All I know is that it’s one of the coolest bass-things I’ve ever heard. I do not get tired of hearing it. It’s SO damn cool. Muzz Skillings is freakin’ phenomenal. And my favorite on the disc (my fave LC song in general), Solace of You, is absolutely kick ass afro pop. These guys are sometimes considered a metal band…and they do afro pop? DAMN RIGHT. I love this song in so many ways. Vernon Reid’s guitar playing on here is beautiful, even if he’s not ripping up the fretboard one bit.

This album is just full of fantastic songs. The first 5 are classic, and Type (right in the middle) was such a great single for this album. My favorite part of the album is definitely the last 1/3; from Under Cover of Darkness through This is the Life. These tracks aren’t as popular as stuff like Type, Pride & Love Rears Its Ugly Head, but they really define this album. Stellar sequencing, songwriting and originality that just floors me. What else can I say? I have no idea. They’re just awesome in the truest sense of the word. When I reviewed Vivid I had a different idea in mind of how good the album was. It actually jumped a few degrees for me. Time’s Up is the same way: it’s even better than I thought it was. Phenomenal album.

Rating: 97

Inspired to write by reading Jenn’s recent entries. It occurred to me a few minutes ago while loading clothes in the washer than I have all this time at work, and yet I don’t do any livejournaling from there. I need to remedy that. I have an interesting job. I deliver computers to various offices around campus and in those times before the deliveries come, and after I’ve delivered everything I received that day…I have a lot of free time. I like this. A lot. I have no problem with having HOURS of time to myself. Wish I could just be at home with time on my hands. I like being able to surf the net during the day (less time spent at home surfing after work) and I love having the time to be able to work on my website, which I have been doing. I’ve been doing a lot of cleanup on various sections. It’s all probably subtle if you look there, but I know there are lots of small things that need to be fixed. For instance, I’m a pretty good speller, but as I typist I make a good number of mistakes. So, I now have time to go back and re-re-re-read all those album reviews and correct whatever is messed up.

Last night was spent seeing live music, which is one of my favorite ways to spend an evening. Normally Thursday is the night of practice for Jenn and I, but last night was a bit different. After a lot of lateness (the blame lies with Mark and that one idiot on the road who caused a 3 car pile up) Jenn, Eric & I finally arrived at Tir Na Nog in Raleigh where Julie was waiting EXTREMELY patiently for us. She waited quite a long time. The beer at said Irish pub was excellent (is Guiness ever not? No.) and the food was freakin great. I had some tasty fish and chips which I just loved. After the meal we walked 2 doors down to the Pour House and each had another round and watched the Greencards play. I don’t know what Jenn & Eric thought (I’ll talk more to them tomorrow about it), but Julie and I had a blast. I thought they put on a great show and played a good number of songs from their new album they’re about to record. They’re such a great band.

Wednesday I started to compose a new song. I’m feeling a little bit better with it now, moreso than I was feeling on Weds. My problem with it is that is sounds too much like me. It sounds like a “typical James song”. I like my sound, and I like that things can sound like “me”, but I want that to change. I guess it seems to me (since I’m the primary one hearing all of my music) that I’ve been in this certain song-space for quite a while (years) and I Want to Break Free (thank you, Freddie Mercury). Like I said, I do like it, but it feels like it’s all been done before. I want to *progress* (imagine that!) with my songwriting, but I’m unsure where to go. If I leave it to my fingers/brain I end up writing what I wrote on Weds. Now, it’s not even close to being completed, but how it already sounds is a very familiar place to me.

I really felt that Surrounded by Trees (the proper name) was a great breaking-out of my previous stuff. Not 100%, but part of it was. It feels to me like that song is one foot where I was and one foot where I’m possibly going. With the new one, I moved my right foot back to where it was before.

Maybe I’m being a bit harsh. I’m definitely always my toughest critic and I always know when I’m repeating myself. That first section in Surrounded…that’s fresh to me. I want fresh. I want new. I don’t want to repeat myself. I know it’s not repeating in that I’m just re-writing G-C-D over and over again (thank you 95% of songwriters!), but even in my left-field version of songwriting I still have patterns that I rely on. It may not be normal to most people, but it’s normal to me. It’s too comfortable.

I need to practice piano, maybe that’ll freshen me up or even write something on it. Ha, I haven’t written anything on piano (I think) since Amen WAYYYYYYYY back in the day. Well, the piano solo on Larry, but I’m talking songs here.

I’ll figure it all out.

My listening for this typing is the fun toy, my iPod. I made a playlist that is my top 1000 songs. I must say, it’s enjoyable! This isn’t the definitive list, because there are a lot of cassette things that need to be xferred before it can be “definitive”, but it’s a good start. I actually had to trim it down from 1150 or so, which were my initial picks of “essential songs”. It’s interesting thinking about the songs I _love_ and those that I just _really like_. It’s not as eclectic as my whole collection, but it makes me happy. Of course, there’s a lot of rock stuff since that’s where my heart’s at.

Tomorrow is Jenn’s 2nd gig with her other group, Shades of Winter. I’m really excited for it. She’s my bandmate, but I’m still her biggest fan and love hearing her sing. Hell, bring on the phone book, she’d make that thing ROCK.

On the menu tonight is a walk to Franklin St for I Love NY Pizza, Ben & Jerry’s, maybe some beverages, and then home to watch the Eddie Izzard DVD (Circle) that came from Netflix the other day. Yay, a fun night!

Current Location: the desk, as always

Current Mood: happy

Current Music: My Top 1000: Frank Zappa - RDNZL

Just thought I’d go ahead and post it.

My band:

http://myspace.com/proteanmean

More content will come soon, but for now…WE EXIST

Current Mood: musical

Current Music: King’s X in my head