Friday Music: Lloyd Cole Knew My Father

Last week, I promised that I wouldn't discuss an album this week, but rather a show about music. This is a show that I would not have ever heard of if it was not for the power of the Internet.

I first found "Lloyd Cole Knew My Father" in the binaries section of Usenet not long after getting broadband at home in 2003. Before I talk about the actual show, a little bit about the state of radio programming.

Most folks my age in the US are not familiar with the genre of proper radio comedy. That type of radio went away here in the US around the time that TV started to take over from radio in terms of attention received from the public. Now, most of our radio is focused on maintaining a good rating in the latest Arbitron statistics, and making money from advertisers - mostly to stay afloat.

This has led, of course, to most AM stations relying upon a cadre of talk (or if you an Aussie, talkback) shows which, for the most part, cater to an audience to the right side of the political spectrum. I have no problem with this personally, as I like to listen to the local talkers in my area, but the national shows aren't much to my taste anymore.

In fact, if you were to go through the AM dial at night, when all the clear channel (not to be confused with the company) stations are broadcasting at full strength, and the local candles are out for the night, this is a general representation of what you'll find:

- many stations carrying the Art Bell show (or whomever is hosting it nowadays)
- re-airs of talk shows which had aired earlier that day
- "trucker" shows
- all-news stations giving you the news that you've heard ten times already and traffic and weather for someplace hundreds of miles away
- foreign language stations, generally French or Spanish
- sports talk
- the rare live local talk show, featuring either a dyed-in-the-wool veteran or a complete neophyte to the radio
- music - from country to Frank Sinatra to 60s music to current music on Radio Disney
- a few preachers condemning you to Hell for listening to said music

On the FM side, apart from public broadcasters (which are allocated 88-91 MHz) you'll generally hear a variety of music, from modern country, to hard rock, to the all easy-listening music featuring a song about a monkey that cried.

Certainly, you could say almost the same thing about the state of radio in other countries like the UK, however there is a key difference. There, you have a major public broadcaster which is ingrained in the lives of the people of that country from the beginning to the end of their lives (including at tax time thanks to the licencing fees which are compulsory).

The image of a public broadcaster here in the States is one which has mostly talk shows, some variety programs (like Car Talk, Prairie Home Companion and Whaddya Know?), also the occasional classical music station. However in the UK, the BBC has radio services running the gamut from local radio stations, to national stations with such diverse missions as playing R&B and hip hop (Radio 1) to classical music (Radio 3), talkback and live sport (Radio 5 Live), comedy (Radio 7) and even an Asian Network.

In the first weeks of 2003, the BBC commissioned a program for the country's most popular radio station - Radio 2 - called "Lloyd Cole Knew My Father". The show originated as a stage performance put on by the show's hosts - Andrew Collins, Stuart Maconie and David Quantick - at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2001, adapted into a six-part radio series featuring "real-life actress" Amelia Bullmore and a special musical guest to provide a song each week.

Here, then, is a somewhat short synopsis of each of the episodes:

Episode 1
Episode 1 covers the story of early rock, including the story of how each of them wound up working at the New Musical Express (alternatively, New Morrissey Express or Not Much Erasure). Quantick goes on to ask why people would be enticed into a world of "sex, drugs, travel and free records"; simple - sex, drugs, travel and free records.

We then get a glimpse into a skit where early blues musician Robert Johnson (who is tagged as not having a fruit nickname or a disability) is tempted by the devil to sell his soul so that he can have the ability to improve his musical skills. After a musical interlude by Edwyn Collins, we then move the story along from US rock over to Liverpool, which was, according to them, was Britain's only port at the time, home of the Titanic, which sank as a result of the lookout laughing at a droll wisecrack by the purser. Anyway, the story of the Beatles is told, including about a performance in Germany, who are out of the story until reunification.

The episode concludes with the story of the NME, including a period where it incorporated "Accordion Times", followed by why music jounalists are important - they tell you what you should like, otherwise people would all be going around saying "Oh, I like a little bit of everything really".

Episode 2
Episode 2 covers the world of live music, taking a Picasso-style look at the genre. The discussion starts with a discussion of the NME's Gig Guide, which was always wrong, but the only thing people bought the magazine for. Included is a story about how in 1986, the news editor inserted a fake listing into the guide, which led to a thousand fans of two very different bands - The Pogues (with fans who wanted blood) and Everything But the Girl (whose fans wanted cappucino and Espidril).

We then catalog the world of a novice, or tyro, journalist's first reviews - the first review they go at it whole hog, including headlamp and large notepad; the second, a cigarette pack and some scribbling, to David recounting how he reviewed 3 concerts in one week having only listened to three songs - all by Elton John. Stuart then mentions his review of Jefferson Starship in 1989 at the Reading Festival, where he attended the festival but left before the band actually came on stage, made a comment in the magazine about Grace Slyck (who had left the band 2-1/2 years prior), but kept his job because the editor didn't bother to read the result.

After a discussion of passes and being on the guest list (which, surprisingly, is not like you would expect), we have the first of two I-Spy guides, this to the dressing room of a headline band. Included on the list of items you may find are aggressive student posters advising that you should not flush the toilet, the brother of a band member who has a demo, here ya go mate, and a slim girl with a poster.

Edwyn Collins performs Graciously and then we're led into a discussion of roadies and their language; here is a quick guide to their language:

All the following mean "unload": load out, load in, tear down, derig. However, de rigeur means "compulsory".

Now, we go onto the tour bus (which sounds like a Robin Reliant), and another I-Spy guide, featuring 2 18-year-old girls who aren't dressed for Chicago in November and a video collection featuring "This is Spinal Tap", the scariest pr0n film you've ever seen and a film about a boy's sexual awakening in Canada in fall.

The last important thing to take from this episode is the difference between US and British live albums - US live albums have some moron whooping during the quiet parts.

Episode 3
Episode 3 takes a look at the one item, which if it did not exist, we would have a music industry. Drugs. Songs.

After a segment where a game of "musical genre joke tennis" is played, we then have a discussion of what is and what is not allowed in the blues. Good places to have the blues include the porch and a southbound train; bad places include wine and cheese parties and Guildford. The true origins of Rock 'n' Roll are then revealed as just the blues having been stolen from Unwell Cantaloupe Jackson's porch when he went to answer the phone in rural Tennessee. Unfortunately for him, his woman who done gone left him on the southbound train wasn't calling. It was Staybrite Windows, who were in the area offering free, no-obligation estimates.

The musical interlude is provided by Roddy Frame, who is courageous enough to sing in his own accent - something you never see happening with British rockstars, who all aim to sound as American as possible. However, we do hear what famous songs might sound like if Sting and Robert Palmer actually sung in their native dialects. It's not pretty ;)

There are a couple of other types of songs that deserve mention - instrumentals and rap. Instrumentals are just songs which have had the desperately poor lyrics removed, for example Telstar by the Tornadoes which had an unknown B-side featuring the famous lyrics "Telstar / Telstar / Telstar / Telstaaaar", and Popcorn by Hot Butter, where the lyrics are, not surprisingly, "popcorn popcorn popcorn pop...popcorn popcorn popcorn pop .. corn". It is one of the best moments in the series, if you ask me.

As far as rap songs are concerned, if it is a rapper crossing over to traditional music, that works out well, but as dramatized by Amelia, if it were the other way around, i.e. Dido doing a rap song, it wouldn't turn out as well. Just an aside, Robbie Williams' "Rock DJ" is labeled as "bloody awful" by David.

Episode 4
In Episode 4, we take a look at the world of the rock star and the pop star. It is said that a pop star, dressed by a "mad gay man called a stylist" and a village idiot or simpleton might be easy to confuse. Luckily for us, a cut-out-and-keep guide to separating them. Two key elements:

Interview technique: The popstar says "I love being in a pop group, dancin' singin' and rehearsin'" while the village idiot just says "I drink the rainwater off of rose bushes".
Fashion: The popstar comments - "I have these Nikes which aren't even out in the UK yet, and my dress is a custom Versace" and the village idiot observes that "my smock says potatoes on it. Only backwards".

We then have a discussion of the rock star - including the ultimate star, Keith (or Keif, as if using all 5 letters would take away from valuable illusionist time) Richards, who annoys Mick Jagger to no end. Mick's nightmare, according to them, is to wake up one day to find an overweight Mrs. Jagger next to him complaining that he has to get up and get breakfast ready for their guests.

The last type of star is the Diva. Diva is, apparently, Italian for "crazy" (actually I think it's just the feminine version of Divo, which I believe stands for god, but don't quote me on that). Divas make outrageous demands and then balk at them when someone comes to fulfill those demands; the example given is Mariah Carey being delivered a parcel of 1003 puppies; she begrudgingly signs the package, then exclaims "1003! Get them out of here!"

After the musical interlude, once again by Roddy Frame, we finish with a guide on how not to interview Lou Reed, a right curmudgeon. Some tips - don't correct him, get the names of his famous mates wrong, treat the interview as an interlude in a TV game show (where Lou loses out on a lovely speedboat), take advantage of his hotel room, including using his toilet and ask questions whilst using it; have only one question and keep going back to it, or end the interview with a large bearhug of Lou.

Episode 5
With Episode 5, we take a look at the music industry, including the story of over-manicured and, surprisingly, gay pop singer George Michael's wish to remove himself from his contract with CBS when they were purchased by Sony, along with how Prince, when he was known as that strange symbol, put "SLAVE" on his forehead.

We then have the history of the record industry (or, as we Americans say it "recerd"), which apparently started in a backwater general store in Kentucky which sold wax cylinders out the back, to the modern era with the mega-conglomerates such as Time Warner, Pew Pew & Barney McGrew and Sony (Japanese for "Remember Pearl Harbor?" - not really ;)).

The next subject of discussion was the Crayola payola scandal and how Alan Freed was made an example, or pastie patsy when he was brought down for being the recipient of payola.

Music in this episode comes from Ian McNabb. After that, we have a glimpse into the growth (and death) of a band, including all the courses they take at various universities, books they read and how they proclaim that they will not be taken advantage of by some unscrupulous manager.

Nevertheless, they get a manager and follows this general "family tree" (with no thanks to Google incidentally) - Alan Olderbloke (who gets them gigs in Dullich, but nothing else because he can't cross rivers); Jimmy Tourjacket (the first proper manager who gets them demo tapes, and a record deal); Leon C. Yankbastard III (a fat American who's managed everyone, who then goes on to take the band's money); The Band (who are bad at managing even after five albums and many tours, getting dropped by their record company); Reg Death (the band's drug dealer who doesn't get the band any gigs); and, lastly, the break-up (out of money and cursed with the can't-cross-rivers disease).

In another skit, we take a glimpse into a meeting between Hitler and Goebbels, where Goebbels advises Hitler to go onto some reality TV shows, such as "I'm a Dictator, Get Me Out of Here".

The episode ends with how a band gets into a support role on tour. It's not the dream of Thom Yorke calling you up and saying that they'll pay you £1,000,000, pick you up and make full arrangements. The reality is that support bands usually have to pay the headliner to be a part of the tour, featuring a phone call from the manager of Mr. Big Band and the Headliners, who has to cut the call short because Hitler's on What Not to Wear.

Episode 6
In the final episode, number 6, we take a final look at the world of music, including a discussion of the life of the pop group. According to the trio, although Take That were the hottest thing going a few years before, nobody can remember anyone from the band - Alan something (Amelia does name all the members though); they've been replaced twice over by Boyzone and Westlife.

Pop groups are not real groups - they're just manufactured, ordinary people who need to take advantage of their fame now - do the drugs, have fun with the "night-ladies" and buy fast cars before you go down a road that ends in death.

Next is a look at the band on tour, including the tour manager who speaks a variety of languages, all at once, the per diem (the one piece of Latin any group will know), and the difference between a truck stop and a Motorway Service Station (truck stops have hats that say "Keep America Free! Kill a Liberal", Motorway Service Stations have barley sugars in a tin with a west country terrier on the front.

Another skit takes us into the world of Kraftwerk, imagining our wold as wild dreams; it's a very funny bit, trust me. Ian McNabb performs as the special musical guest, including doing an imitation of Bob Dylan. That is followed by a look at festivals including a clip about an Acid brownout that went around at Woodstock, and how David and Andrew reviewed the 1991 Glastonbury Festival, on their own. It would have worked well, if it weren't for one of them drinking a lot of alcohol...

The series ends like any music magazine - with a generalization of the letters page. There are 5 types of letters - 1) Optimistic and Lazy Student, 2) Mad Person, 3) Lonely Hearts, 4) Cheery Foreigner, 5) The Letter of Complaint (most popular).

Why you should listen to it
If you're a music fan, you will love this irreverent look at the world of music, with stories about many main figures over the history of the genre (all of which are true, but the lawyers have advised them to say that none of them are true).

The show was taped in front of a live audience, so you have the unscripted moments, such as whenever U2 is referred to as "80s band U2" leading to a laugh in the audience. There are also a lot of skits that are performed by the crew, some of which I've detailed above, but there are some true gems out there that I haven't.

I rediscovered this series when I was going through items to listen to while walking, and I have listened to it quite a few times and find it quite addicting to listen to, so much so that I can recite bits of the show, a la Monty Python.

Another great album you've likely not heard of...

This week, we look at another of my all-time favorite jazz albums: Arturo Sandoval's Hot House. It's an album that I always depend on to allow me to focus on whatever it is I'm doing. In fact, of all the tracks I've played that have been transmitted to last.fm, Arturo comes in 7th overall.

The album is one of the first albums that I had bought on my own (as in I got it based on it appealing to me without having had a taste of it in the past). I've had it ever since May of 1999 when the school jazz band I was in for the year took a trip down to Chicago. One of the things that the trip involved was a visit to the Jazz Record Mart which was still at 444 N Wabash St (and no, I didn't need Google to remember that address ;)) at the time.

All this time later, I don't remember exactly what hooked me on buying the album, it might have been the color on the cover, with the pastels, though I seem to remember there being a sticker on the shrink wrap that said something about being a Grammy-award nominee or winner.

Anyway, whatever the reason I bought it, the album is still worth paying full price for.

If you don't know anything about Arturo, the important thing to know is that he is originally from Cuba, but has been a citizen since 1999. In fact, in 2000, HBO did a movie about him called For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story. To this day, I have not seen the movie*, but from what I've heard, it was done really well.

I've actually had the chance to meet him in person. It was November of 1999, and we were attending a jazz clinic at a college up in Appleton. The first event we went to was a clinic and Q-and-A session he held for all the participants of the event. However, the bit that I still remember to this day was the concert.

He had flown in from Denver on that day, but thanks to some foul-ups in luggage, he didn't have his usual equipment with him. That didn't stop him from putting on an amazing show, with the major feature in the show being his performance of "Sandunga" where he did solos on just about every instrument available to him - the piano, trumpet, flügelhorn, drums, timbales, and even making rhythms on his stomach.

To top it off, some of us stuck around after the show and he came out to chat a little bit, while enjoying a cigar, and I was fortunate enough to have my copy of Hot House signed by him. Looking back, about the only thing that wasn't perfect was that I didn't have a camera with me, but I have my mental camera and I can still see the stage that he was on, and that's all I need.

But I do digress back to the topic at hand. Hot House is one of my favorite albums, partly because of the history I personally have with it, but also for the fact that the music is just great to listen to. Interestingly, in my Senior year in High School, we played two of the songs from the album, partly as a result of us petitioning the director to let us play them.

The album starts out with "Funky Cha-Cha" - I think that if every album started out like this one does, you'd have people enjoying music more, but you'd probably have a lot more deaf people because right out of the gate, you have a trumpet glissando up to an approximate high-C and a pop! sound. It's hard to describe in words what the song sounds like because of its just overall "poppiness". If you have a listen to the Amazon sample of the song, you will hear the first 30 seconds of it.

The second track, "Rhythm of Our World", is one of those songs that, for me, sets me in a good place. It starts out with the trumpet again, this time there's no popping, but rather a very smooth flow, with minimal backing from the piano. It is some of the cleanest playing you will ever hear, with just an amazing vibrato when a note is held. Luckily, this is one of the songs that you can listen to in its entirety on Arturo's official site - it's well worth the five minutes.

Both of these songs are the ones that we played in my Senior year. I didn't play the feature part on Rhythm, but I can tell you that the person who did play it gave it justice.

Then we head back into the driving jazz with the title track, "Hot House". It's in the style of almost power rock, but done with the Latin beat. Next up is the first of the two vocal songs on the album, "Only You (No Se Tú)". It's a love song performed in both English and Spanish; I don't remember exactly who the singer is, but she has a very rich voice that perfectly fits the role that is necessary for this song.

The fifth track is the aforementioned "Sandunga" - again, it's another powerful song, with a lot of the popping you find in Funky Cha-Cha. It features the late Tito Puente on the timbale, and some excellent solos by the house band. This is the other song from this album that is available in its entirety on Arturo's site, another five minutes well worth the time.

Next is the second voice track, simply titled "Tito". It's an homage to Tito Puente, sung in Spanish by Ray Ruiz, and again features Tito on the timbales. It's another excellent work that features lyrics such as this -

Para tocar al timbál
Tito tiene la llave
Si tú quieres aprender
Tienes el vida de saber

Translated:
To play the Timbal
Tito has the way(?)
If you want to learn
You have the life to know

Later on, the song goes on to say that he is the king of the timbál - which is a very true statement.

Up next is "Closely Dancing" (even though for some reason Amazon have dropped the C of the front...). This is a ballad-style tune, which shows off really how sensual the trumpet can sound, along with the amazing range that Arturo and his band have. However, the range that has been shown up until now doesn't match the range that is used in the next track - "Mam-Bop". Being another tune with quite a bit of 'popping', it fits right in with the rest of the album and has some amazing sounds in it, not only from the winds, but from the percussion section as well.

We then go back to another ballad with "New Images" - it starts out with the fluegelhorn, transitions to the alto sax, then builds more layers starting with the trumpet, followed by a guitar interlude and then concludes with the whole group playing their hearts out, led by the trumpets again.

Next is "Cuban American Medley" which, as the name suggests, is a medley of American "standards" played in a Cuban style - the first two are instantly recognizable as "Back Home Again in Indiana" and "Take Me Out to the Ballgame". Another tune performed is the "Little Lulu" theme - I'll admit that I had to look that one up on the Amazon reviews as I don't know where the sleeve booklet went for the album.

The album ends on a lighter note with "Brassmen's Holiday", which could almost be mistaken for the I Love Lucy theme music with other tunes mixed in, but it is its own piece and a fitting end to the album, with a final display of amazing range from Arturo and winds up getting you moving to the beat in the end, wanting to hear it all again.

That is one thing about this album - it never seems that once is enough. I know that I'm prone to going back and listening to it over and over again, just because it is such an amazing piece of work and worth listening to.

Should you get this album? Absolutely - even if you're not a jazz fan, it's worth listening to at least once. Of course, my opinion might be slightly tainted by the fact that I've met the man and seen him play in person, and that I've actually played songs from the album. Though you never know, listening to this album might change your mind. :)

Lastly, a mention needs to be made of his version of A Night in Tunisia. For years I'd had heard only the first half of the song, but recently have heard the full version. While it isn't the most famous version of the song ever done, it is one of the best; it goes for 15 minutes, but it doesn't feel like that long when you're listening to it. Below is a clip from the Montreal Jazz Festival where Arturo played a version of Night In Tunisia.

Be forewarned though, that it gets cut off right before the end, and that there is synth playing involved.



Next week, I'm not going to feature an album, but rather a radio show about music...

*Actually, I did see the movie, but it was scrambled so I could only hear it (anyone else remember the days when you could watch the scrambled feeds of the premium channels? ;))

The Best Albums you've Probably not Heard

This is the first in an occasional series of posts about some of my favorite albums, and chances are that you have not heard these albums before, as they are in a bit of a niche (mostly Jazz) that obviously isn't the most popular these days; at least if you weren't involved in the art when you were in school. ;)

The first album that I'm going to highlight is one of the most famous live albums in all of jazz - Ellington At Newport, recorded in July of 1956 at the Newport Jazz Festival and released shortly after, it revitalized the fledgling career of Duke's band, one of the last big bands that were still touring at the time.

The version of the album that I own (the 1999 re-release after discovering a "lost" tape of this concert) starts off with one of the best renditions of the national anthem out there. Coming in at a scant 1:14, it should serve as a lesson to anyone performing the song that you can do it without a lot of fanfare and make it sound amazing. The secret is that you just can't have someone signing the words to the song since that is the cause of the time loss.

After some introductions and a few more songs, the band leaves the stage and Father Norman O'Connor discusses the goings-on at the festival, mentioning one Quincy Jones who would become famous a few years later as a composer.

What had happened was that half of the band were off on their own, so when they were all found once again, they retook the stage and performed what is Duke's signature tune - Take the A-Train. With the concert finally back in full swing, they then get into the meat of their performance - the three part piece especially written for the festival. This is also where you start to see massive differences between the live album and the "studio" album.

Since I've heard this album too many times to count, I know the specific markers in some of the songs that will tell you if it is the live version or the recorded version. For example, in the first segment of the performance, Festival Junction, there is a point in the live version where (this is about 1:30 into the track) you hear grunting in the background. The studio version removed this grunting, which takes away a bit of the character.

The part that I really dislike about the studio version is that, since solos are what they are - meant to be different every time - the solo at the end of the production track just doesn't have the same feeling as the solo that was done live (the production version's solo is, for the lack of a better term, bland).

Taking center stage for this album, though, is the 14-minute rendition of Diminuendo in Blue and Crescendo in Blue, with a long solo in the middle by Paul Gonsalves, which leads to pandemonium in the crowd. It starts out pretty serenely, but as the track progresses, the momentum builds as you experience the solo going on and hear the background noise of the audience just build and build.

At this point, the crowd were totally out of control, so Duke goes straight for another song, I Got it Bad (And That Ain't Good), featuring Johnny Hodges (of whom is said, "If you've heard of the saxophone, you've heard of Johnny Hodges"). If it wasn't for discovering the "lost" tape of this concert, one of the best-sounding mistakes would likely have been lost forever.

In the opening of the tune, Hodges (pardon the technical term here) "fracked" a note as he started to play. He did it twice and then got it right on the third try, yet the studio version cleans all that up in the name of a good sounding album. In my opinion, if there was ever a time when you could get away with a mistake, this certainly was it.

After a couple of more tunes, the album then has a track simply titled "Riot Prevention." How can anyone resist an album that has a track with that title? It starts with someone yelling "That's it!", but Duke persuades this person to let him just say good night.

As it so happens, saying good night means announcing that there's a heavy request for drummer Sam Woodyard and Skin Deep - which lasts for almost 10 minutes. They finally do say good night to a crazy crowd who are disappointed to see them go, but I suspect that if they did go on, you'd have heard stories about arrests.

Like I mentioned, the album then has the rerecorded portions of the concert, mostly as they were released in 1956, including the noticeably fake crowd noises interspersed into the comments by Father O'Connor and Duke; you also hear the crowd inserted into the songs, mostly during solos. While there are a few people who say that the studio version is the better version for a variety of reasons - less mistakes, I've always preferred the live version of the songs, and will do so for as long as I listen to it.

If you're interested in checking out the album, you can find it on Amazon, where they do have clips of each of the songs available for you to listen to. This is one of the albums that I think anyone who is studying jazz should definitely listen to over and over again. I have to admit that I'd not listened to it for a while, but have been listening to it during my walks lately and it is a truly remarkable work that everyone should listen to at least once.

Are there any albums that you can think of which would be considered essential listening for everyone?

Summer's coming

Seeing that it's almost the end of May, that can only mean one thing - Summer's on its way. Something that is new this summer is the availability full-time of an air conditioning unit. We got it last summer after it was so hot in the latter part of July and basically we reached the breaking point; and now it's just been re-installed today after sitting in the garage over the winter.

The one thing that I had forgotten about the unit was that (as it sits in the window right next to me) it really blocks a lot of the light. It's not a lot, but it is enough to be noticeable. Look at it this way - it's better to have a little light taken away for being able to survive a hot summer day without a fan blowing full blast on your face. :)

Also, the US Blogs community on BumpZee is growing quite nicely - we're up to 16 members now, and I think know that it'll be on the first page of communities within a couple of days. Not too shabby if I say so myself. :)

And to close, a musical interlude -

Warning: This video is addictive

You don't have to listen to the whole video, but make sure you listen to the first part - it's not in English, but I dare you to not get it stuck into your head. And that backing track, it's something else :)

I think that the name of Palito Ortega started to be known in Spain first as a writer. I want to remember now the first song Palito Ortega song that was recorded here in Spain. It was recorded by a friend, a singer of the time named Ricard E. And this first song, from 17 or 18 years ago already, said:

Al lado
Al lado
Justo al lado
Justo al lado
Vive
Vive
La que me tiene un amorado
ilusionado, trastornado
yo la tengo de vecina por desgracia
está viviendo justo al lado
bien el lado
justo al lado

Or, to say in English (very roughly):

At the side
Alongside
Lives
That I have a lover,
I'm disillusioned, upset that
I have an unfortunate neighbor alongside
well the side
alongside (and it repeats)

So, without further ado, Al Lado written by Palito Ortega and performed by some random Spanish guy on TV -

200th post

Well, this is something that I should have hit a long time ago, but like I had said a while ago, I've been busy with a few other things, so the blog's been on the back burner for a while. Actually, if I had kept myself to the one post a day theme, I would have hit this mark in March, but it's May and I've made it! :)

I'd like to take a look back for the benefit of those of you who haven't been reading since the beginning, with some of my favourite posts over the last few months.

When I started, the main posts on here were my Tuesday & Wednesday posts about Rockstar Supernova, with my unique insights into the performances of the show. One such post that sticks out is my commentary on the 10th week's results show, where I got, shall we say, a little annoyed at the constant plugs:

And we see the rockers coming into Television City in a bunch of H***a E*****t S*s, surrounded by throngs of people there for the show, including one person who had their hands in the shape of a heart. I guess I missed that memo ;) Back in the studio and Brooke announces that the encore performer gets the car they came in! Whoa! Free pub baby!

Of those people, how many do you think were there for this show, and how many were there for The Price is Right?

3 mentions of the name of the car so far before the break, then we see the adboard for it, then we see the AD for it

After Rockstar was over, I had to search for stuff to post about. So I discussed some of the more interesting things that I have been doing. I also discussed some of the things that I've discovered in my continuing quest to make it down under.

Something that I haven't done for a while is watch some movies. I'd intended on actually getting a list of the movies I haven't watched but need to watch, but that's gone to the far back burner, especially since I've discovered The West Wing. ;) I would definitely encourage you to go through my posts labeled movies for some reviews I did in the past. I think you'll like them :)

You'll also notice that I've changed the look of some things here, including adding a widget for BUMPzee, which I joined a little while ago, and don't really have much of an idea of how to get things going there. I'm also thinking of putting a thing for MyBlogLog on here as well.



This is my current settings for my site feed. I used to have it as a full feed, but after discovering that there may be sites out there (aside from legitimate feed readers such as Bloglines and Google Reader) which take your content without your permission and make money off of it, I switched to a partial feed.

The other day, I read in a list of tips to become a better blogger that you should have a full site feed to become better. They don't exactly explain why it's better to have a full feed, though there are some good arguements towards publishing a full feed, and I'm inclined to agree with their viewpoint - I know that I prefer to have a full post in my Google Reader - it makes things easier for me because I'm not juggling tabs to view different posts with it all there for me to see. I've turned the full feeds back on for the blog now and restored the little message I had on the bottom of my posts (you'll see it only if you subscribe via RSS).

So, here's to the next 200 posts coming quite a bit faster than the first 200, and for those that keep looking, here's a picture of Dilana's nude face

Year-End Lists

This is always a fun time of the year for someone who, like me, is a fan of lists; especially those lists that chronicle the year that has passed. Some lists of this type are the ones that Yahoo have put out with the top searches of the year. What's interesting is that all ten of the top searches here are somehow celebrity-related, while in the other ones that they provide internationally (Australia, Germany, Spain, Canada, Italy, UK/Ireland, France) there are only one or two celebrity searches listed.

Some tidbits from these searches -

• Rockstar Supernova wound up on the Canadian list - number 4 overall, number 2 in entertainment. It didn't appear in any other list


• Of all the sports figures, the only racers that made the list were: Michael Schumacher (Germany - #4 Male Star), Fernando Alonso (Spain - #2 Athlete) and the late Peter Brock (Australia - #1 Sport, #2 Male Celebrity). Honourable mention for this goes to the Bathurst 1000, which wound up as the #10 Sport search Down Under.


• Germans love porn. The number three search overall for 2006 there was "Erotik". Shockingly, it doesn't appear anywhere else in the world.


• The UK are just about as celebrity-obsessed as we are, with the number 1 search overall being Heather Mills (McCartney), and numbers 2 and three are Big Brother and this year's winner, Pete Burns.

Don't be surprised to pop in here one day (or if you're using RSS, for an item to appear in your feed list) and find me fleshing out the significance of some of these search terms around the world. If anything, it will be a way for me to find out who "Chris Brown" is (#8 overall, USA). Also, maybe an insight into the habits of non-english users of the web (considering that the number 1 search in Germany is Weather, this should be interesting) ;)

Rockstar - The Album

Well, I've finally had a chance to hear the album in full, as you might have noticed in my little last.fm box. Overall I like the work that they've done, and I definitely think that Lukas Rossi (for those who might not have heard his last name before; I'll certainly say that it's a better fit than Robicheaux or however Dilana spells her last name) was the best choice to make. So anyway, just some thoughts on the tracks on the album:

1. It's On - A good start to the album; the lyrics are solid, and hopefully they're foreshadowing good things ahead with the lyrics "I don't ever want to fade away". Let it shine on. :)

2. Leave the Lights On - This is one track that you heard clips of somewhat often on TV and on the MSN site, but for the life of me I can't place where it was in the broadcasts. There are some neat sax riffs in there. Some of the lyrics might suggest that it's about making a certain type of film that certain members of the band might be somewhat familiar with....

3. Be Yourself (and 5 Other Clichés) - This song has been in my head for the last couple of days now; specifically the chorus; again, a good track and very listenable.

4. It's All Love - The first thing is that there's a lyric that says "never felt enough call it hate", but for some reason I keep thinking it should be "Colin Hay". I guess it's one of those mindgames that you play on yourself... This track shows a bit of the softer side of the group, but it still has a "rock" feel to it.

5. Can't Bring Myself to Light This Fuse - Here's a song that shows a definitely softer side of Lukas, and shows the versatility that he has; it is interesting to put these songs back-to-back, but I think that it works; it's almost a good idea as it gives an 8-minute break from the real "hard" rock (though I think it'd have been cool to let the rock stick together with itself as well).

6. Underdog - This track is one that you should immediately recoginse if you've seen the show, as this was the main theme for the commercial bumpers and the closing titles. I think it's a good track, and the lyrics are fairly solid; it's another song that is quite listenable.

7. Make No Mistake...This is the Take - I find that I don't remember much of this track, even after listening to it; I think that the title makes it somewhat difficult to get a grasp; generally when you put an ellipsis into a song title, there is a bit of difficulty in picking up on it.

8. Headspin - When I had first heard this version of it, I thought it was quite good and had loved what they did to it, but after quite a few listens to it, I think that there was definitely room for improvement in it - least of which is the fact that they seem to have really slowed it down. It's still a great song though. I forgot to mention this, but the one thing that kinda bugs me is the pronounciation of the word "paradise". It sounds like he's saying it as "pair-ee-dice"; it just kinda rubs me the wrong way...

9. Valentine - To me, this is one of those songs that seems to just go on for a while then stop; another track that I don't remember much of. I have to say that it is somewhat disconcerting that the fade-out starts with about 20 seconds left in the song.

10. Social Disgrace - Another track that is admittedly not the greatest, but there is are some good riffs on guitar in there. :)

11. The Dead Parade - I haven't heard many rock songs that start out with a choir singing. I think that it does work for this song, because I think it makes a cool effect, especially when they come back in and sing as backup.

Overall, it's a very good record, but there is room for improvement. The tracks are quite short, with the longest one being just over 5 minutes, and 5 of the 11 tracks being shorter than 3:30. I don't know what the exact reasoning for that is; it's not like they're doing them to perform on the TV show or anything. However, when they were on Jimmy Kimmel's show, they performed at least two songs, but since they showed 6 minutes of ads between the performances, the second one got cut off in the middle with viewers being pointed to a site where you could view the video, but there was only one problem: it wasn't there when I looked.

I hope that they do decide to do a second record after this, and this time have enough time to invest so that they have some longer songs and maybe be able to do some of Lukas' older works from Cleavage and Rise Electric (it'd also be interesting to hear what they could do with some of the Crüe or Metallica as well).

If you're interested in reading another review of the album, Snoskred has posted her thoughts on the album.

Rockstar - Back Again

It's been a while since I've mentioned the folks from Rockstar: Supernova. In fact, the last time I mentioned them was the Grand Final night, when Lukas won the spot as the lead singer. Today was the release date (for the US and Canada; Aussies and Kiwis had the release back on Thursday night US time) for their CD. I haven't heard any of it yet, but I hear that what's on there isn't bad. You can listen to samples of the music on the CD at the Official Site.

They're also appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight on ABC; I'll be recording the program so that I can extract the segments where they are performing, and possibly (though I'm certain that there will be others out there nice enough to post the video) put it up for y'all to see, though my local ABC affiliate loves to stick their logo on *everything* that they broadcast. I'm just thankful that the Packers aren't playing until Monday night; otherwise there'd be a green-and-gold opaque version of the station logo on screen during all program content.

A musical query

I was listening to the radio today, and the person who was on-air at the time made attributed a comment to one of the members of the All-American Rejects which said that sometimes people confuse them with the Crash Test Dummies.

Actually knowing something about music, I thought to myself, "hmm, maybe, but I've not heard any of their music so I can't make much of a comparison". Unfortunately, the guy on the radio commented on the fact that they didn't look like them (obviously in reference to the full-scale human models). And to think this guy is the program director of the station; then again, this is a station that claims to play the hits of today, yet they only recently started playing Beyoncé and the Black Eyed Peas.

Top 5 on Friday

One blog that I found is Music Memoirs where they have occasional memes. This week's Top 5 on Friday are five (or if you want, seven ;)) songs with a day of the week. Here's my list, in no particular order -

• Sunday Morning - Maroon Five


• Friday I'm in Love - The Cure


• Saturday In the Park - Chicago


• Manic Monday - The Bangles


• Sunday Bloody Sunday - U2

Heh, this is a reminder of how limited my musical knowledge still somewhat is. I spent time trawling through CDDB to find Sunday Bloody Sunday. Ah well, I'm learning more about music, and that's a good thing. ;)

What do I listen to?

Well, you can find that out by checking out my last.fm profile. You'll also see the most recent songs that I've played in the sidebar, just below the links :)