My Band

As a little bit of a side note, i'm going to post the link to my bands page for a little bit of free publicity. Keep in mind when you listen to it that it's all self produced, so it's not a professional recording by any means. I'm really interested to find out what you really think, so be honest with me.

http://www.purevolume.com/thisibelieve

Them Crooked Vultures

What do you get when you take a little Nirvana, add a cup of Queens of the Stone Age and a whole lotta Zeppelin? You get Them Crooked Vultures, the latest supergroup. Them Crooked Vultures is composed of Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age and Eagles of Death Metal on vocals and guitar, Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters on Drums and John Paul Jones of Led Zepellin on Bass. I was literally bouncing in my chair when I first read about this. Seriously. Those are 3 of my favorite bands of all time and they just had a child together.

Supergroups often make me nervous because they don't always turn out as good as the original bands the people were a member of. Just because all of the members of a band are good, doesn't mean that they can effectivly mesh together as a group. Despite that, I was exstatic when I first heard about this. This is probably one of the best, and more unlikely combinations that I could even think of, let alone actually exist.

One of the things that you might be thinking is "how did this even come to be?" Dave Grohl drummed on the Queens of the Stone Age album "Songs for the Deaf." Also, John Paul Jones (JPJ) played bass with the Foo Fighters at one of their concerts at Wembly stadium, since then JPJ and Grohl have been good friends. They decided to put something together, and Josh Homme's name came up and he accepted the gig.

I would of course, reccomend listening to the whole album, but I'm just going to hilite some of my favorite tracks.

My favorite song on the album is Elephant. I really like the intro of the song, it gets me so pumped up. Even though you can easily hear the influences from all of their bands, the band still has it's own "brand" and this song really shows it. I also like how many different riffs and styles there are in the song, and how it still flows together very well. I almost hear some punk influences in the intro with how fast it is. Overall, it's an awesome song.

Another awesome song is "New Fang" which is the first single off the album. It has a sort of shuffle feel to it that drives the song.

Overall, I really enjoy this band and I look forward to their next album (which they have already started!).

My rant.

Every so often, a new way to listen to recorded music comes about. First it was vinyl, then it was cassettes, and on it goes. But recently, the way people have been getting music is by downloading it for free on the internet. For the most part this really bothers me, but i'm sort of on the fence when it comes to this issue. I'm going to present a couple of the different ways that I think about this issue.

First of all, writing and recording music is a very long and painful process, and you really put yourself into the music you are making. It's every serious musicians dream to be able to make a living off of their music, and when you steal it, you are essentially denying them that dream. Just think about what it would be like if spent days and days working on something, only to discover that someone else was giving away your hard work for free.

But on the other hand, some bands choose to give away their music for free. I can't think of any specific bands right now, but I do remember hearing that a well known band was going to be having their newest album available to download for free. This brings up another point in the argument.

Music is by far the highest paying of the fine arts. Everyone can name at least one famous modern musician who is filthy rich, but I'm willing to bet that the amount of famous painters, or dancers who we can easily name that are filthy rich is a lot less.

The other fact you have to consider is that a good percentage of the money that you would be spending on music is going to be going to a record label. A lot of people justify downloading free music by saying stuff like "the artist isn't going to be getting most of my money, so why should I give it to some greedy record label?" For a good portion of musicians, that is the case, but you have to factor in the smaller record labels that are more about music, and the fact that some musicians operate without a record label. In those cases, it is more like stealing from the artist than it is when there is a large corporation involved.

The other problem that I have is that I love music, and I am always looking for more, but I don't have the kind of money it takes to fully satisfy my appetite when it comes to music. Here are some of the solutions that I have for getting my fix.

The first is borrowing a CD from a friend. This way, the ratio of how many people that have downloaded an album is less than it would be if I got it online. This works a lot of the time, and I also get exposed to music that I wouldn't be listening to otherwise.

The Second is iTunes. Buying an album on iTunes does cost money, but it is a lot less than it would be buying an actual CD. Often a CD that would cost $20 at a retail store, will cost only $10 on iTunes, and then you can burn it onto a CD for use. This way is a lot cheaper, and I don't necessarily have to buy a full album to get one song.

Another option is the various online radio stations and playlist builders like Pandora.com or playlist.com. I like these because I am not actually downloading the music, but I can listen to it all I want.

My last resort is the library. When I need a fix of music, and I am short on cash, I will go to the library and grab anything that looks even moderately interesting. This has yielded some good results for me, introducing me to a lot of bands that I wouldn't normally listen to. The catch is that I always feel dirty after doing it, more like I stole something. But, like I said, this is my last resort.

I am however, proud to say that I have never downloaded any music online for free, and I don't ever plan on it. If you are someone who does illegally download music, I really think that you should at least consider stopping. That's all I have to say about that topic for now, but I really would like to hear what you think on the topic, so feel free to comment, whether it's positive or negative.

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While I have your attention, I would like to say that you need to tip the people that serve you food. That includes bus boys and deliverers. Their wage is calculated INCLUDING tips, so in other words, part of our pay is from the people we serve. We count on that part of our pay, so it really helps if you do tip. It doesn't even have to be that much, something is better than nothing. You'd be surprised at how many people don't tip, and it's always the rich people...

The Black Keys

This week I am going to salute a lesser-known but awesome band, The Black Keys. When you hear them, you are probably going to think that this is some obscure band from the late '60s. That's why I was so confused that their first album came out in 2002. That right there is the main reason I like them: the fact that they are a current band, but they sound like they could have been a band 40 years ago.

I have always been facinated by the blues, but I also love a nice heavy guitar. The successful combination of the two has been very hard for me to find, besides the obvious masters such as Jimi Hendrix. I was very exited when I first heard this stripped-down, hard-driving, blues-inspired modern music, and also that I wasn't the only person that didn't grow up in that era that really enjoys that kind of music.

Now, something else that you might notice on their songs is a sort of thin sound. That is because of two main reasons: first that they have no bass player, it's just the drummer and the guitarist. Second is the recording methods that they use. The reason that they sound so old is because they are using the recording techniques that were used 40 years ago, which is similar to what the White Stripes did on their album "Elephant."

The two songs on the list are "Your Touch" and "Just got to be." Now, I hate to group these two songs together, but I don't have enough to say about each one on it's own. They are both a basic riff-based blues tune, as most of their songs are. I really like these songs a lot, but it bugs me that there is no bottom end to the music (no bass player). I always think about what the bass line would sound like on these songs, and it would improve the songs so much.

The next song is "Have love will travel." The guitar is extremely heavy on the chorus, and I really love it. It seems to make up for the bass line a little more than the other songs do. I really hear a sort of Cream/Hendrix thing going on in this song, but with a little more soul.

"Strange Desire" is the next song I picked. I really like how the guitar sounds in the verse on this song. That echo sort of feel on the guitar is called "reverb" and normally when there's that much of it, it doesn't sound good, but it does on this song.

The next two songs "Strange Times" and "I got mine" will probably sound a lot better to you, and that is because they are both on their newest album where they actually let a producer come in and help them out. That is why there is a bass, and why it sounds tighter. I find it easier listening to these songs because they have a full range with the bass line. "Strange Times" is more of a departure from their normal sound than "I got mine" is. I think of "I got mine" as one of their older songs with a bass line, and that makes me feel better.

"Set you Free" is not off their new album, but it seems to hold up better without the bass than all the other ones. I really love the drums on this song, even thought they are very simple. I've said this before, but I really admire it when a drummer knows how much is just enough.

In short, I really like these guys as a band, but I wish they would have added a bass player sooner than their newest album.

Eagles of Death Metal

This week i'm going to spend some time defending a band that I like a lot, Eagles of Death Metal. Now, when ever I bring these guys up in conversation, people always bash them. I think the biggest problem is that people are misunderstanding what the purpose of this band is. Their main goal isn't to be the most technically proficient band, or too write heart-felt lyrics, it's to mess around and have fun. You have to come at this music that way or you probably won't get it. That being said, let the reviewing commence!

There isn't much to say about each specific song, so i'm going to generalize. When I hear these guys, I either start driving faster, or feel the strange urge to dance, which doesn't happen often with me. Now, their lyrics are pretty sexually vulgar a lot of the time, and I would never say more than half of the stuff that they are saying in the songs, but it's still fun to listen to for the most part. Some of their songs go over the line and I don't listen to them, but for the most part it's tolerable.

Eagles of Death Metal remind me of a modern version of ZZ Top. They really have a cartoony vibe when you listen to them, it really feels ridiculous. I always picture a loser trying to pick up chicks in a bar when I listen to them, I guess that's how I justify listening to some of their disgusting lyrics.

Now, in no way are they my favorite band, I just think that they get a bad rep, and they have some good songs. You should at least listen to a few of their songs before you make up your mind.

If you haven't already figured this out, most of the time I'll put the songs from a review on the side bar of the blog so you can listen while you read.

So, here is my list of songs to listen to by Eagles of Death Metal.

1. I want you so hard (Boy's Bad News)

2. Wannabe In LA

3. Secret Plans

4. Speaking in Tongues

5. Miss Alissa

6. I Only Want You

7. Cherry Cola

I hope you can at least enjoy these guys a little bit, but if you don't, i'd really like to hear your arguments, so please comment!