I’m expecting two killer albums from two incredible bands this year. What do these bands have in common? Well, almost nothing I guess. (It’s 11 whole steps at BandToBand.com!) They’re both punk bands, but they really sound nothing alike. They are, however, in my all-time top favorites.
My wife tells me all the time that every band that I talk about is my favorite. But that’s how I am, I guess. If I like a band, I really like a band. I try to acquire all of their music. I get into side projects & related bands. I sometimes even look for live stuff & bootlegs. Snuff & Ann Beretta are bands that have that hold over me.
I got into both of these bands right around the time I started playing in my first real band, AiXeLsyD. I was really into buying punk compilations some time after 1995… and whenever ’98 or ’99 rolled around and AiXeLsyD was writing and playing shows, I was absorbing everything and these bands just lit me up.
I’m incredibly pumped for this, or anything that Duncan Redmonds puts out.
Ann Beretta
With Ann Beretta, I can pin it all down to one song. I heard “Bottlecaps” on Fueled by Ramen‘s Year of the Rat comp, and that was it. These cats are incredible. Hearing their songs is like being dropped right into the middle of a story, situation, or town that you know every inch of despite having never been there. I’ve seen them more than once in the ‘Burgh, and have even road-tripped to Cleveland to see them. I helped make buttons for them, and they crashed at my buddy (& fellow AiXelsyD bandmate) Andy’s place after a show one time at the Rex. The music is not unlike Rancid… without so much ska & snarl, but with honest Willie Nelson-like storytelling. These guys wear RVA on their sleeve, and certainly make their hometown proud. Their cover of All‘s “Long Distance” is incredible. (The original is of course flawless in its own right.)“Love’s Easy Tears” is one of the catchiest songs ever, and I love the chaotic ending. “Russ’Song” always gets me going, too. Inquisition, Sixer and Foundation are worth checking out too.
The major update on this front comes from the driving force behind Ann Beretta and Foundation, Rob Huddleston…. via Twitter:
Heh. Alex seems like a cool cat. I’ve read countless guitar magazine articles that he’s written, and saw him perform once with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Damn, he’s good.
You read about the Backallie Music Rock Music Awards before, and Ernie has been nominated for best “oh shit moment”! Thank you all for your help, we hope to see you at the awards show. We won’t be performing, but many other awesome local bands will be!
Check out their flyer…
Backallie Music 2nd Annual Rock Music Awards!
Buy your tickets now! We’ll see you there! Wish Ernie luck & hit up the Backallie Music Facebook Page and show your support for all of the nominated bands!
I got a bajillion birthday wishes on Facebook today (OK, only over 140, but it’s still a hell of a lot), one on Google+, and even a happy birthday wish over the radio airwaves thanks to the ever-awesome Whip!
I just wanted to say thanks to all my friends & family for the birthday wishes. I’m glad to each & every one of you, through the many interesting facets of life! I had over 130 people say happy birthday and the day’s not over. I’m glad I’ve made so many cool friends over the years, through school, work, camp, family, other friends, playing in bands, and even through social networking.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 29,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 11 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
So, thanks to all of you for being the top commenters this year! Most of my blogs are meant to encourage discussion. Hopefully here, though more likely on Facebook or Twitter. (These numbers may be skewed, if you didn’t login to WordPress or use the same Gravatar email address, Facebook, or Twitter to comment consistently.)
I really feel that this is a great outlet for me. It helps calm me down, & give me something positive on which to focus. I really do appreciate all of the people out there taking the time to read, comment, and even subscribe. Most of you are my friends in some capacity, and I’m glad that you continue to be interested in whatever I happen to be ranting about.
I finally watched Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and I realized that I really like movies involving apes. Especially if the apes “win”. When I was a kid, I checked the Dian Fossey and Jane Goodall books out of the library quite regularly. My favorite Zoobooks were the ones about chimps, gorillas, and orangutans. I remember when WPTT22 existed and they played movies like King Kong or one of the Planet of the Apes series regularly.
Netflix has weird genre splits & sub-genres. Why don’t I see an “ape movie” category? Someone over at Netflix, after you’re done burning all the Qwikster proposals, get on that.
Here are some of the ape movies I really like. In the comments below, let me know some of your favorites. (You don’t have to login, you can use your Facebook ID, Twitter handle, WordPress ID, or just leave a name & email address.)
King Kong | The best of ’em all. This is a two way tie though, as I dig the 1933 & 2005 versions. (There are lots of them, but these are the best.) From Stop Motion to CGI, you get a great story no matter what the effects.
King Kong Lives | This movie was ridiculous. When I was a kid, I totally accepted that after the events of the original Kong, they could have built him a giant pacemaker. No problem.
Gorillas in the Mist | This was the Dian Fossey books come to life. Incredible. People really are bastards when it comes to some of our closest living relatives on this planet.
Project X | Top Gun meets Planet of the Apes. Sort of. It’s sort of funny, too. Crazy movie, further proof that people are horrible horrible creatures.
Congo | The book was a little more thrilling, but the movie was still pretty cool. Also, if Ernie Hudson is in your movie, it rocks. Ancient ruins, intelligent apes, genetic memory… exciting stuff.
Band names have always been fascinating to me. They’re rather important for many reasons. They need to be memorable. They represent the band on flyers, album covers, in reviews, on T-shirts (& other merch), and anywhere else they can be printed or spoken.
This is why I’m continually surprised by local & national level bands choosing some inconceivably stupid monikers. (Especially local level bands.)
I realize that it’s a difficult thing to do. You’re sort of stuck with it once it happens. (Although, I’ve seen a few bands morph & rename themselves several times.) A lot of the good ones are already taken. Metallica is probably the best band name ever as it’s catchy, it’s not something else, and it describes the music. When you Google Metallica, there’s no mistake as to what you’re going to get.
Some friends & I like to think up band names. Sometimes we hear a phrase or sentence or word & think (or remark) “…that would be a cool band name.” It’s important to brainstorm. Throw all of your goofy ideas at a wall. See what sticks.
With the internet age upon us, I urge you to use all of the tools at your disposal when naming your band. Primarily, Google. Once you have thought of a band name or two, go to Google and type it in the search bar. Hit search. Have the idea?
If something comes up & a band is already named that, don’t name your band that. Seriously. It takes 3½ seconds to Google something. You can even use Bing or Yahoo. If you’re signing up for a website like Reverb Nation or Band Camp or Facebook or even Twitter… and there’s another band there already named what you wanna call your band, change the name of your band rather than having a goofy unmemorable and not even remotely cool url like one of the following:
reverbnation.com/[bandname]rocks
reverbnation.com/[bandname]1
reverbnation.com/[bandname]music
reverbnation.com/[bandname]_Pgh
I don’t care if you want to be a hit recording artist, or if you have resigned to just rocking out cover tunes in bars from not until the end of time. This has been happening since the days of the old MP3.com, MySpace and PureVolume …and it must stop.
Avoiding these things makes your band easily searchable online. People will give up if they don’t find you right away. We’re lazy as a species, apparently. Or we just have short attention spans.
Your band name has to be easily remembered, and your band should be easy to find. I was in a band called Gasoline Dion. Google that and nothing comes up except stuff about the band. Like the name or not (& “get” it or not), it’s easily remembered & easily searchable. That’s what you need to shoot for.
Maybe later I’ll blog about band name categories & give some examples.
The Clarks’ lead singer gets schooled at Shaler. I found it rather amusing, so will a bunch of my local musician friends because we’re all haters. No idea if this is real or not, but Mr. Madden was talking about it at the beginning of his show today.
Some people just need a swift kick in the ass, even if it’s only figurative. So, please, read the post, enjoy, & add YaJagoff.com to your reader or follow them on Facebook or Twitter something. You won’t be disappointed!
World (and Lunar) Domination 