You missed my birthday. Even after the long post on my birthday about my birthday. It’s probably safe to assume you didn’t get me a gift, huh? Even after dropping a little hint about what I might want. You can still make it up to me. Get me one of these t-shirts:
Or even either of these:
You can get them at bandgeekhero.com. There’s a bunch of them.
I prefer American Apparel t-shirts. I’m a small. Flexible on the color.
I’ve never even played Guitar Hero.
She’s back! I featured this girl playing Kansas’ “Carry On Wayward Son” in a previous post and she has now graced us with her rendition of “YYZ” by prog rock legends Rush.
Bow in her presence, unworthy knaves! Bow!
She’s still playing for that unresponsive crowd! Fuck those people!
Nice shirt though. Looking good sister.
I’ve heard a couple three or four songs from this album by M. Ward and actress Zooey Deschanel and find it all fairly charming. According to the mental midgets that spend their time posting comments on YouTube, their new video sucks. In the real world, where we would never use screen names that openly proclaim our love of marijuana, it’s super great. But my opinion is skewed because I love vintage dresses and morbid humor. And wacky animation. And cowboy boots. And Zooey Deschanel. Did you see her on Weeds? Great stuff.
I like this Billy Joel tune well enough, but doesn’t it seem like a strange choice for a 7-year-old to perform? Espescially in front of other 7-year-olds and their parents? A crowd-pleaser for sure, but it still seems a bit weird.
Regardless, this kid fucking owns it, so I guess maybe it’s the perfect choice. Dig.
I would also like to point out the three ladies at the front of the stage who are completely enraptured by our young performer. Take note fellas.
So if you’re anything like me you saw that iPod Nano commercial with Feist’s “1-2-3-4″ so many goddamn times you swore if you heard that song again you were going to punch her in her shiny pants. And maybe you wrote an angry letter to Steve Jobs demanding he stop trying to tell you what’s “hip” and “cool” and ruining songs that you might have kind of otherwise enjoyed even though you didn’t really care for Feist all that much to begin with.
Well, all my displaced rage faded away this morning when I saw this video. Leave it to Sesame Street to take a song that made me want to jam icepicks into my eardrums and make it totally enjoyable. Check it out.
That was great! But I’ve always said “Show me a chicken wearing sunglasses and I’ll show you the most awesome thing ever.”
Now, lest you believe that the healing powers of Sesame Street were just a one-time thing, I will offer another example and up the ante a bit. See “1-2-3-4″ has a catchy hook, a great arrangement, lyrics that aren’t totally awful, and is performed by a strangely attractive woman with a good voice. So what if we took an horrendous song with inexcusably bad lyrics sung by a hideous troll-man and let The Street do it’s thing? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you exhibit B: James Blunt.
That made it almost listenable, didn’t it? I mean the music and delivery still suck, but points are definitely gained for the dancing triangle and using the terms hypotenuse and Euclidean.
And, for the record, I wrote the thing about the chicken before hearing Telly’s comment at the end of the second video. Just wanted to note the strange serendipity.
No no no, not that cancer. The astrological sign. Today’s my birthday so we’re going to celebrate all the bitchin’ musicians who share it with me.
Firstly, my personal favorite: Johnny Thunders. And while part of me feels like I should post “You Can’t Put Your Arms Around a Memory”, you’re getting “Personality Crisis” by The New York Dolls ’cause it fuckin’ rules.
Next up is Johnny’s fellow punk pioneer Marky Ramone. I know “Blitzkreig Bop” is another uninspired choice, but it was the first Ramones song I ever heard (in National Lampoon’s Vacation) and I remember that even at the age of five I thought it was the best song ever. It’s still pretty high up on my list.
I found out a couple weeks ago that Ian Curtis of Joy Division was also born on this date. Hate to admit I’m not a huge fan but I highly recommend Anton Corbijn’s Control if you haven’t seen it. Let’s forgo “Love Will Tear Us Apart” for “Atmosphere”, shall we?
And let’s not forget Linda Rondstadt. She was the one who always came up as “Person You Share a Birthday With”. Her and fucking Brian Austin Green from Beverly Hill 90210. No way I’m posting that goddamn video Green made! Maybe if he had worn an adorable babydoll dress like Linda does in this clip. Nah, fuck that guy, he sucks.
Another half-assed choice for song but a great version. Dig the tambourine breakdown.
A quick cap-doffing to some other celebs having a birthday today: Jesse Ventura, Lynyrd Skynyrd drummer Artenis Pyle, Arianna Huffington, Brigitte Neilsen, Forest Whitaker and Joe Satriani.
Now I know this may seem really “square” to some people, but I love when a band infuses their music and/or videos with a little something educational. I think it’s a great way for people to learn something they may not have otherwise known.
Take the video for “Gorbachev” by Russian metal band ANJ for example. After watching the video I now know that Mikhail Gorbachev was a barbarian warrior who used his battle axe and laserbeam eyes to save the heavy-chested workers of the Soviet Union from zombie Stalins so they could feast on Twinkies and soda and wear yankee blue jeans. See what I mean? I didn’t know I even wanted to know that. Watch the video below.
Didn’t think learning could be fun, did ya?
I have momentarily taken down the “No Stairway” sign in order to pay tribute to the greatest of all the bloated seventies hard rock songs that may of may not be about a girl starting her period; Stairway To Heaven. (Seriously. “If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow?” Think about it.)
So let’s get this on, shall we?
First up is Rolf Harris’ wacky-ass version featuring digeridoo. I love the digeridoo!
Next is the Australian Beatles tribute band The Beatnix with a Fab Fourified take on the song. Groovy!
And what the hell? Here’s the Butthole Surfers circa Hairway To Steven on Snub TV.
This has gone on for more than long enough…
I finally found some Dream Theater videos I like.
Dude made a bunch more of them and they’re all pretty funny. There’s another one that I think someone else made that’s also pretty awesome.
But if you want a real laugh read all the comments for these videos on YouTube. I know that YouTube’s comments section is the absolute sub-basement of human thought, but hearing some thirteen-year-old claim that this guy is not only superior to Jimi Hendrix in guitar playing but songwriting as well is certainly worth a belly laugh. Go read a fuckin’ book, junior!
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