No one ever said that Album of the Week had to be a new release, so this one is coming at you straight from 1986. Night Songs is the debut album from Philadelphia’s own Cinderella, and unlike the hilariously dated photograph that graces it’s cover, the music itself holds up far better than one would expect over 22 years past it’s release date.
The production in general is on par with albums from this period in time, which is neither good or bad in my opinion. No, it isn’t the most modern sounding album, but it also doesn’t suffer from all the issues that modern albums do (artificially tuned vocals, over-mastering, etc). Without question, what makes Night Songs such a great album is the strength of Tom Keifer’s songwriting. He wrote every song on the album, and each one is great. Trends in music come and go pretty quickly, but at the end of the day a great song is what transcends all of the temporary boundaries caused by genres, image, marketing, etc. In this case, proof lies in the fact that the album was certified TRIPLE PLATINUM well into 1991. Yes, the same 1991 that saw Pearl Jam and Nirvana ushering in the new school of Rock for a whole new generation that had no interest in the spandex and sprayed-high hair of the 1980’s.
Tight pants or not, this is one of the most well-written albums that you could ever be lucky enough to have in your music library.
PS. Seriously, tell me you don’t wanna hear Fiona Apple sing “Nobody’s Fool” while playing it on piano.
Friday August 29th 2008, 10:24 am
Filed under: Music
I had an epiphany last night as I was blasting music through the PA into a mostly empty room at Sal’s on 12th. I realized that I’m too fucking old for this shit. I’m just not able/willing to do what it apparently takes to convince the people I know (and all the strangers of the world, I guess) to come support the shit I do. And really, it must be shit, because if it had any value at all I can’t imagine that I would need to twist peoples arms like I do.
What I’m saying is certainly not limited to ‘Get Hurt Thursdays’ at Sal’s, but that’s a fine example to look at. I got this night lined up well over a week ago, and since then I’ve worked to promote it a bit online. I made the dumb flyer, emphasizing the “FREE DRINK” line, rather than something like “spend a fun time getting to know what makes your pal Joseph Rose tick!”, because I know what people are really interested in. I set up events on Facebook and Myspace, and invited everyone within a reasonable distance to come to it. I posted and reposted the links and bulletins like 10 times to make sure everyone had plenty of reminders. I sent out mass text messages to everyone, to have yet another way of making sure they knew what was going on. Needless to say, it bombed. At the height of the evening there were maybe 20 people in the place, and half of those were trannies from the neighborhood and some out of place college students that just wanted to hear “I Kissed a Girl”, which I don’t have, and most certainly would not play.
As for my friends, don’t think I don’t notice you. I totally appreciate the fact that a couple of you showed up and toughed it out even though you probably could have had more fun elsewhere. There was a small handful of other people that I knew, but once they saw the scene, they bailed pretty quickly, in some cases without even a word. In the end I just end up feeling bad for the people that do stay, pissed at the people who don’t show, and just generally humiliated by the whole situation. So why do I do it? Well, I do it for the shitty $30 that I got paid for my 5 hour shift. That’s a whole $6 per hour for anyone keeping score at home. Let’s not forget the $10 in tips I got from the one gay dude who liked a few of the 80’s jams I played. But it’s $40 more than I would have made otherwise, and I am so fucking broke that I guess I’m willing to do that. And honestly, I would do it for free if there was a room full of people dancing, rocking out, just having a good time fueled by the music I push through the speakers. But that shit just isn’t happening. The plan was to have this continue every Thursday night, but I just don’t know how long I can endure that kind of embarrassment and frustration. Maybe I’ll do it again this coming Thursday, but I can’t see this continuing for very long.
Like I said, this episode at Sal’s was the most recent example, but that isn’t the whole story. I’ve also been slowly working up to some new musical endeavors (DDC), which would surely result in me having an album for sale and shows to play. And the reality is I just don’t have the energy. People don’t want my fucking album, and they sure as hell don’t want to come see some random version of “my band” play live in some shitty club. Some people who have never waked in my shoes are surely thinking something like “don’t you just do it because you love it?” or some similarly naive hippy shit. Well the answer is no. Do I love music? Yes. Do I love spending countless hours crafting recordings for no one to hear? No. Do I love spending countless hours rehearsing in some room as my hearing deteriorates and my throat bleeds to play a show that no one comes to? Hell no. If there’s no audience for it, the art doesn’t exist. Therefore, I basically don’t exist, so fuck it.
The other outlet I have is my art. But of course that requires people to buy it, or to at least come to my stupid shows when I have one every 9 years. I’ve been working on my art a bit more in recent months, and I’ve been offered a little show in Center City in December. I haven’t quite decided to do it yet, but I feel like the only way to avoid the inevitable disappointment is to just skip it altogether. I should probably drop all of this stuff that is about ME, and just focus on being an old frumpy dude, and being a Father.
Let me start out by making one thing absolutely clear. I like Chird, and consider him a friend. We share some common interests, have similar passion about some issues, and I just find him to be a generally decent guy who even helps me out when he can. Now that that’s out of the way…
Chird (birth name: Richard) is without question the weirdest dude I know. He’s the type of guy that doesn’t mind his story being told, so I won’t feel bad about talking about him here. We met in 6th grade at Ridley Middle School and initially bonded over our mutual appreciation for bands like Dangerous Toys and Guns N’ Roses. Throughout High School, and later I think, he got pretty heavy into drinking and drugs. Needless to say, it took over and fucked him up in a serious way. For many people, drugs fill a certain void in someones life and personality. If/when a person manages to get off the drugs, there needs to be something else to fill that void. In Chird’s case, he fills it with recovery programs, and Jesus. Yes, he is one of those. In some ways, that makes him pretty much the opposite of what he used to be, but in other ways it is very much the same; he found one, completely dominating thing that fills his thoughts and actions every single day.
See, with Chird there is no middle ground. As I tell him all the time, he lives on the extremes. Totally thrashed on drugs passing out on a railroad track, to saying prayers on people out loud as he works on his masters degree in Divinity, none of it is “average Joe” type of stuff. Lots of people do some drugs or like some religion, but few do it with the all-encompassing tenacity that he does. And that’s fine, but at least one area of his life where I find that to be a negative is the effect that his job has on his whole life. Without having the official job description in front of me, he basically evaluates people with problems. Drug problems, sexual abuse, mental issues of all kinds, stuff like that. To be clear, 100% of the people that come to see Chird at his job have serious problems going on. That’s his full-time job, but it doesn’t stop there. It also fills his personal life as well. I would go as far as to say that 99% of the people he spends time with are current or former drug addicts and/or people with other serious issues going on. Now when I say “serious issues”, I mean that if my shit is a 4 on the serious-issue-meter, these folks are an easy 10. The effect it has, is that it severely skews his view of society in general. Imagine if 100% of what you experienced all day was deeply damaged people with horror stories to tell. It doesn’t take long before it feels like that’s all there is.
When an issue like the “adult entertainment industry” comes up (which it has recently), his view is that all of it is bad, because the entire thing is abusive and comprised almost entirely of weak-minded women that are merely victims. Men who view it or support it in any way (porn, exotic dancers, etc) are basically committing a crime against these poor souls. No bullshit, he went as far as to compare it to actual slavery! My stance is this: yes, there are strippers with drug problems and other problems. And YES, there are grocery store cashiers with drug problems and other problems. And McDonald’s burger-flippers with histories of sexual abuse, and every other combination of fucked up shit you can imagine. Does that mean ALL strippers, actresses, models, etc. are damaged this way? Of course not. People are so diverse, it’s just impossible to oversimplify that way. Well, Chird disagrees.
He also claims that he “doesn’t understand” the idea of sex before marriage, and finds it “stupid”. But for the sake of complete reporting on the issue, let me say that Chird has had sex before marriage, looked at pornography and visited strip clubs. I know this stuff is more than common amongst Christians, but I just wanted to get the facts in there to more completely understand the source of these views.
If he were being honest (which he usually tries to be, I think), I’m pretty sure that Chird would agree that he’s led a sheltered life. All that started with his parents as he was growing up, and it just sort of lends itself to where he is now. He’s branched out a little bit in his search for further education, but his sphere of experience (both emotional and geographical) remains very small. I wish for his sake (and my own) that he opens up to some new experiences and some new people. Since I’ve not limited myself to any one faction of the population, I feel like I’ve come across a pretty good mix of what modern day folks can be. And yeah, we’re all damaged in our ways, but shit man, we’re not all that friggin’ damaged. I know he’ll never admit that, no matter how obvious it can be, but I’d like for him to experience it anyway. I would LOVE for him to hit it off with a strong woman who’s never been a drug addict or been fucked by an uncle, and loves having wild pre-marital sex with her current boyfriend. I’d love for him to see the amazing metropolis that sits just 15 minutes away from his apartment. The friggin’ BIRTHPLACE OF OUR INDEPENDENCE is a stones throw away, and when he wants some culture, he hits up open mic nights in Media! It kills me.
Like I said, I really like the dude and if I have it my way we’ll hang out more in the near future, and meet some of the interesting characters that inhabit my world. Just not in Media.
Anthony, Tricia, Kelly, Vicky, Kate, and Srp have all helped me in various ways with this fucked up Batcave situation. I really, really appreciate it. Batcave aside, I appreciate it when anyone helps me. At this stage in my life, I’m a person that kinda needs help sometimes. More often than I’d like, actually.
Honestly, if I had 3 wishes in life, one of them might be to exist on a level that simply allowed me to get by without ever needing anyone’s help. I don’t know if it’s something specific about me, or something specific about some of the people in my life, but I swear to god I think I’d be better off (mentally) without the help. I feel like some people offer help for the karma it may bring them one day, but then they negate the act by hounding my ass to death over some petty shit or reminding of just how fucking altruistic they are every chance they get. It makes it really really hard for some genuine appreciation to shine through with that shit going on.
Now, if you’re sitting at your computer feeling like I might be referring to you, it seems like you’ve already answered that question for yourself. If you’ve been less than sensitive to the unbearable amount if bullshit and stress that I’m dealing with, well, stop being a douche. If you can’t even understand why I’m feeling such unbearable stress then you’re pretty far out of my loop and might not be a friend to begin with.
On the other hand, if you’ve been cool to me, understanding of my flaws, and eager to listen to what’s going on in my life… thank you. Seriously, thank you.
I should start by saying that Death Magnetic isn’t out yet, and it isn’t going to be released until September 12. It might leak ahead of that date, but so far it has not. In fact, the only full song anyone has heard is “Cyanide”, and that’s because the band played it live. I think it’s a really good song, and a sign that Metallica is on the right track. In case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s a video with soundboard audio of that song:
The importance of this album simply can not be overstated. Metallica has proven themselves to be one of the biggest, best, and most influential bands of all time, certainly within the realm of Heavy Metal. However, recent years have seen them falter a bit. The Load and ReLoad albums, while decent, simply strayed too far for a band with the word METAL in their name. After that there was a live album (S&M) and a covers album (Garage Inc.). Then in 2003 came the long awaited St. Anger. Oooohhh St. Anger, that god awful atrocity of sound. I tried so very hard to like St. Anger. I even tried to defend the album at first, but truth be told, there is no good excuse for that disaster. From the contrived lo-fi production, to the out of key vocals and the complete lack of guitar solos, they just really did it all wrong.
But hey, it’s five years later. The band finally dumped Bob Rock and replaced him with Rick Rubin, and from what I can tell they’ve steered back towards the Metallica we all knew and loved. The bits I’ve heard so far have great potential. The stuff sounds riffy, aggressive, and has guitar solos! Am I expecting an album that rivals Master of Puppets? I guess not. But it could definitely rival Ride the Lightning if they do it right.
I’ll post part 2 when I actually get to listen to the album.
The official track list for Death Magnetic:
That Was Just Your Life
The End Of The Line
Broken, Beat & Scarred
The Day That Never Comes
All Nightmare Long
Cyanide
The Unforgiven III
The Judas Kiss
Suicide & Redemption
My Apocalypse
Let me just put this out there right off the bat… you all need to come to this and drink heavily because I get paid a percentage of the bar.
Now, aside from a few one-off gigs here and there, I haven’t had a regular DJ job since the nudie bar back in the day. Therefore, this is very exciting. Sort of. I know Thursday nights aren’t the coolest thing around, but what the hell, it could be fun. I’ll play a bunch of awesome and retarded music with zero attention paid to crossfades or beatmatching, and it’s in the Gayborhood! What more could you want!?
I don’t think I’ve ever posted about this directly, but for those of you who don’t know, I’m an avid fan of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). I originally started seeing ads for UFC pay-per-view events in the early nineties, but I was completely turned off by them. It was quick images of brutal knockouts and a bunch of talk about how it was this crazy no holds barred bloodbath type freakshow, which I didn’t really want any part of. It just seemed barbaric and excessive. I enjoyed boxing for many years, and I’ve always had an interest in martial arts. In fact I studied Tang Soo Do when I was a child, and much later, Seven Star Praying Mantis Kung Fu, which is the original form of Praying Mantis Kung Fu. Anyway, as some time passed I grew curious about the UFC events and decided to watch one. For years I had this funky illegal black box attached to my cable that let me watch any PPV events for free, so it was pretty easy to tune in.
Needless to say, once I watched it I was hooked. By that time it was probably around 1998 or so, and the sport had already evolved quite a bit from UFC 1. Since then it has continued to grow by leaps and bounds and it no longer resembles the no-rules “human cockfighting” that fucknut John McCain described when he tried to have it banned. Instead it’s jam packed with some of the worlds finest athletes and the most exciting moments in all of professional sports.
In the last few years I’ve taken to ordering most UFC (and some others) events on PPV and having a few folks over to share the love of the sport and the cost of buying the event. It’s good fun. As a side note, there is a guy named Brock Lesnar who’s pretty new to the sport (only 3 fights), who seriously has the potential to be one of the scariest fighters ever. And for you wise asses, yes, I know what his last job was, but whatever. It has as much to do with his MMA career as his job as a paper boy when he was 12, so get over it. Here’s a video of his last fight (for as long as it stays online):
So if any of my peeps are interested or curious about this stuff, hit me up and join us for some of the live events. There’s usually about one per month.
No, this isn’t about the remix album. This is my life, and it is a complete fucking wreck.
The Batcave has been a total disaster. I haven’t even had it for two weeks, and just about everything has gone wrong with the place. Yesterday I sent my landlord and email outlining all the problems, and explaining that I plan to move out. I signed a lease, so we’ll see how well that goes. But really, the place is fucked up and I shouldn’t have to keep it. And if I do manage to get out? Well I guess it’s back to the fucked up house in Woodlyn with no privacy, no sanity, constant bitching and nagging, and no good room for Darwin to romp around. But hey, it’s rent free! =P
And man, I’m not sure if I saw this one coming or not, but sometimes I miss being at the other apartment. I’ve been over there only for very short bits of time, usually just long enough to pick up Darwin or drop him off. Yesterday I was there a little longer. I gave him a bath before taking him with me for the night. I really enjoy giving him a bath, and that is where I’ve always done it. It’s comfortable that way, and all of his things are there. Then after the bath I took him out to the spacious-enough living room and he played with all his cool toys that he has there. He’s familiar with the space and seems to enjoy it much more than anywhere else. Even without seeing all that, I’m lonely. I start to think that maybe that life was the right choice after all. Did I make a mistake in leaving? My emotions fuck me with so much, it’s impossible to know what the right move is. I wanted to hold my family together soooo bad, but I felt like all my attempts had failed, and so leaving was the only option. Did I try as hard as I could? Was my head fully in the game? Is my head ever fully in the fucking game?! I don’t know. All I know is that I second guess my self a whole lot, and having Darwin in the middle of all of it doesn’t make things any easier. Of course my interactions with his Mother haven’t exactly been the most pleasant, so I do get reminded of why I left. But still, it’s very hard. I guess if I had a stable job, a car, and a nice apartment (like she does) it would be easy to look at my life and see how I’m better off now. But, I don’t. I don’t have any of those things, and none of them seem immediately within my reach. I’m too salty to continue, but you get the idea. Fuck everybody.
PS. my post today was supposed to be about UFC 87 and how I now have some kind of man crush on Brock Lesnar, but whatever. Now the moment has been ruined.
Over the last few months, Coheed and Cambria have completely dominated my iPhone (and iTunes, and Apple TV, and everything else). I seriously can not stop listening to them. The band has four albums, each one better than the last. The newest album (2007) is actually called Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow. It’s a fitting album title for a band who’s been striving for grandiosity since the very beginning. Without getting too deep into all of it, the band has planned 5 albums to tell the tale of a fictional married couple (Coheed and Cambria Killgannon) and their son Claudio. Four albums have been released so far, and the upcoming fifth is expected to act as a prequel and tell the beginning of the story. To call it ambitious would be quite an understatement.
Regardless of the underlying storyline, this album is seriously amazing. The songwriting and musicianship is among the best you’ll ever hear. This band, and surely this album, fits into the “progressive rock/metal” category, but it never gets pretentious. And yeah, you’ll be able to compare Claudio’s voice to that of Geddy Lee, but don’t be turned off by that statement. Trust me. The songs range from acoustic brooding (The Reaping) to ultra-catchy (Feathers) to a total wild west shred-fest (Gravemakers & Gunslingers). Had I caught this album when it was released in 2007, it would have surely given Saul Williams a run for his money for Album Of The Year status. The only thing keeping it from getting an A+ is the fact that it sounds slightly over-mastered to me. But that isn’t even the bands fault, and most people would never even notice that or give a shit. It’s a great album, go get it!
