The Jukebox Is America

One of the reasons I loved going to this bar in the first place was the jukebox. I put in dollar after dollar after dollar after dollar into that machine. I am insane about music and I would drive people crazy with my domination of the jukebox. People would complain again and again about my selections, but I did not care. Sometimes, I'd play new music that I really liked, while other times I would just play guilty pleasures. A major complaint against me was that I too often played sad and depressing music. Yet, I never thought of things that way. I look at a song and say, I like it. I don't think of whether it is fast or slow. I think of whether the song is good or not. Yet, guilty pleasures were the fun nights. Do you know how fun it is to hear Hall and Oates in a pool hall at midnight? Boy, did it piss people off, but sometimes you would see people dancing to it. After a while, people would just ask me how many songs I played because they wanted to know whether it was even worth popping any money in the damn thing. I usually played a few Strokes songs a week and it would drive people crazy. Quit playing the fucking Strokes, no Strokes! They would yell at me. I even got into a fight with a waitress once over the jukebox and I had to run to the bartender for officiating. Sometimes, my love of music on the jukebox got me in trouble and I felt bad. I simply could not see through my thick glasses that the way I hate their selections is the way people felt about my selections. I don't even want to think about how much money I put into that jukebox over the time I spent there. The amount was probably biblical. Yet, the one thing I could not play was rap. This jukebox filtered out all hip-hop, which was fine by me because I only liked probably 3 rap artists anyway, Kanye, Jay-Z, and the Beasties. The Beastie Boys were originally a punk rock band, anyway. If I was in the house, you would hear almost every popular movement in music over the past 50 years, except country. I played it all. The owner did not want any fights started over rap, which always seemed to happen at other places. I didn't care that much. Too bad they could not put a filter on Country music. That would have made my year. Take that ya Tim McGraw loving bastard. I think in the end many people respected my love for the jukebox and the fact that I was willing to pay and play dj on nights when eerie silence would have filled the place. Why would they always give me money when the place was quiet to pop in some tunes? Man, I used to love and play that jukebox. The other place I went to down the street only played the radio. The owner did not want the wrong type of music playing because he wanted to control the atmosphere. Only God can control atmosphere. To me, this may sound crazy, but the jukebox symbolized a kind of freedom. Play whatever the hell you want whenever the hell you want to and if somebody complains, fuck 'em. Tell them if they don't like the music, go play their own fucking music. The jukebox is America!

Kanye West: The Man or the Music?

I am here to talk to you today about one Kanye West. He is probably one of the biggest douche bags on the planet. I do not deny this fact. I will not try to refute this fact. All of the names and Internet jokes out there do you have an element of truth to them. He is egotistical and self-centered and only in it for himself but there's the rub. The rub is he is a musical genius. I do not take the word musical genius lightly and and do not bestow the term on anyone easily. The man has taken wrap to new levels with his ability to be both producer and rapper and singer at the same time. Have you ever noticed like I said before that Jay-Z has crappy songs when Kanye does not produce them. Tis true, tis true. Now I will not go into the elements of why Kanye's Music is so much better and for that he has my utmost respect. I did so in another post. Here I would like to ask the question if you do not like I musician as a person can you still like their music? This is a tough question to define and to answer simply because some will take the lyrics very seriously while others will not. So I'm simply will turn off a person's Music because of their personality or their previous actions. I don't know if this is an ethical thing or if it is just completely pointless to turn off someone's music simply because you do not like the person. People will say oh Kanye I hate his music he's an asshole. I will always argue wait a second is his music bad because he's an asshole how can that be? I guess the question comes down to can you separate the person from the music. Now if you argue that Kanye the person and his lyrics are completely related that I can see your point. But most people I talk to about this really have no idea about the content of his lyrics. I just say is the world of rap and hip-hop a better place with or without Kanye? I would say with Kanye simply because his musical contributions transcend any part of his personality. He not only defines the cutting edge the trends in hip-hop today, he is hip-hop. Kanye is telling everyone where to go as far as music goes but as a person he needs a little work.

Bell of the Governor's Ball

I recently returned from governors Ball in New York City. In this article I would like to compare that particular concert festival with lollapalooza. At this festival the focus was on Music not electronic music. Not to say lollapalooza does not have its share of regular in the rock folk music but increasingly lollapalooza has become a haven for all the DJs in the entire world. One of the first things that struck me during the music festival was the fact that you were in fucking New York City. The location was on an island which made it 10 times cooler then lollapalooza has grown to be. It was not as huge as lollapalooza, but that could turn out to be a blessing. You did not have as many miles and I mean miles to walk to see one headlining band versus another headlining band. Yet, as the crowds got larger over the weekend, that fact it was a smaller venue did come back to bite you. There seemed to be less and less space available as the days went by and on Sunday at night you could barely even move. Maybe I am biased,  but there was a stronger emphasis on indie music which some of this EDM stuff actually is, but you are not overwhelmed by it as at lollapalooza. You got the sense that the crowd was a little bit more intellectual and savvy towards music as well. Lollapalooza in contrast has become a place for these bratty douche bag tools who are into DJs that are 14 years old and annoying as fucking possible. Another thing that I liked was the fact that this festival brought a couple of hometown acts back, Interpol and the Strokes. This made for an awesome show because the crowds were going nuts while in contrast lollapalooza has never catered to the Chicago music scene. They are so inconsistent as to who plays and when and on what day. VH1 might as well put on lollapalooza and you would never think that perry Farrell is the promoter of lollapalooza. I will talk about the Strokes at this festival in another post because it pretty much deserves it's own post. Yet, I will ask over and over again the question why doesn't lollapalooza try to bring in some of these hometown heroes. where are the smashing pumpkins? where is Kanye West?where is Wilco?. Now you get a slightly lesser amount of bands to go see at Governor's Ball but you do not get the sense that it is one huge cash grab like lollapalooza is. The tickets are cheaper and they do allow for a payment plan while lollapalooza tickets or at least $75-$80 more and you have to pay it all at once. So is lollapalooza still worth going to? Yes I think it is still worth going to simply because it is the only festival in America where you are not completely isolated from the city. Even at this music festival you were on an island and had to take a bus to get off the island. You get on the bus back into the city, then you're in the middle of not a very nice part of Manhattan. New York City can be very problematic because the damn town is so fucking spread out. The other bonus for lollapalooza is the fact that they have after shows all over the city. Hypothetically you could skip all the festival and still have a great experience going to three different clubs or bars every night. Yet in the end what I think it came down to was when I looked at the New York festival lineup I said to myself holy shit that is probably one of the best lineups I have ever seen. In contrast,  lollapalooza lineups almost every year seem to disappoint even worse than the year before. There just has not been one must see experience at lollapalooza since probably 2010 maybe. And finally one of the things that I noticed about the New York festival was the fact that the bands and musicians that I had no idea who they were seemed completely awesome. At the airport I was on iTunes downloading 4 to 5 new artists which has never really happened at lollapalooza. Lolla will give you maybe 1 to 2 new artists that you would be interested in but for the most part I was amazed at how good the people on the under cards were. Yet that's just my opinion and somebody probably out there thinks I'm wrong.

The New King of Music...Newness!

I would like to take a little time to discuss something that is bugging me. This has been annoying me for some time. The Internet has created so much media content for us to consume that keeping up is pretty much impossible. I can remember earlier this year when I couldn't believe the number of really good albums coming out in consecutive weeks. I could not buy enough blank cd-r's. They say that the rock band is dead, but the amount of content coming out, rock bands included, is mind boggling. There is so much new music being released that you think long and hard about a piece of music for a week, then forget about it or remember the songs you really liked upon your 2-3 listens. U2 had an album and you forgot about it within 2 months. Before you would tour and that would keep your album going but that does not work so well anymore. Arctic Monkeys had a perfect album in NME and now that album seems a couple years old. There is just too much noise out there for someone to keep up with. The albums that stay at the epicenter for a year are no more. Radio is dead. Concerts seem to be dying. The answer as I see it is that artists need to release more singles and EP's, less albums. This way you are always coming with something new and shiny. Albert Hammond Jr. said he would only make ep's in the future. For example, I had heard the best songs on Kid Cudi's album save one before it was even released and not through a bootleg. Sorry Radiohead the album is dead. iTunes fixed that. Music may want to go to a model of comics, single issues before the omnibus is ever released.

Kings of Leon Vs. The Strokes: An Assessment

I was recently asked about how the Kings of Leon overtook the Strokes. Let me highlight the key differences in these two bands and weigh in. As stated many times before, Kings of Leon went all U2 and they have not stopped being all U2. I think one of the worst things that could have happened to them was to have mega hits. Kings of Leon is over the top now mainstream, the Strokes took the less is more strategy. The Strokes, in contrast, went all...let's see who our fans really are. They made an album steaming with 80's pop sounds absolutely alienating any fans of Is This It. The next difference is that Kings of Leon wants to be big, famous, popular, loved, adored, interviewed and so on. I never get that vibe about the Strokes. They take their time with their music, are never rushed, and never give the media anything resembling a story. They keep everyone guessing. Once again, there is the less is more mystery to the Strokes. Do they hate each other, do they not? I am absolutely intrigued by the fact that they did not do any publicity for the last album. Uhh, what channel and piece of media did we not see Kings of Leon saying they had a new album out. Here is the thing about album comparisons too, Kings of Leon's Only By the Night is completely overrated. Beside the two hits, the album is complete filler besides maybe 17. They then go on to make an album that makes them sound even more Southern. Kings of Leon just never changes. Always the same pretty much, but the Strokes simply said to hell with that idea. They changed everything about themselves to save the band. Contrary to any ignorant opinions, the Strokes are together, will do more music, and not breaking up. Get some new information next and perhaps something a little more accurate. The best comparison I can say is that as far as the Eastern seaboard is concerned the Strokes are Radiohead, while Kings of Leon are U2. I guess you could say that yes the Kings of Leon did surpass the Strokes as the bigger band, but I cannot say they did so artistically. The Strokes have taken two steps forward in that regard, while Kings of Leon seem to be running in place.

Featured Rappers Showing Up Everywhere Except on Their Own Album

I have a made a universal observation about rappers, hip-hop singers, and their albums. This fact cannot be denied. They perform on almost every album released in any given year. Jesus, it seemed like every other album had Rihanna or Beyonce doing a solo on it. Jay-Z was supposedly retired to run Def Jam, but you heard him more on other people's albums than you probably did on his own albums at the end of his so-called active rap career. I mean what are you to make of Kendrick Lamar going on another guy's album and basically calling him out. If I were Big Sean, why in the hell would I even want to put this on my own record? I know there is a history here of mixtapes and collaborations and rap battles, but can you say overexposure? The Beastie Boys did not make an album for 5-6 years, but you never heard about them making numerous guest appearances on other albums. I am not singling out rappers alone because sometimes this has happened with rock stars like Dave Grohl. Do we actually need another side project from him? Yet, in rap, it seems to be part of the culture. Their albums are always thought of as solo kinds of projects, but are they really that solo? Are you really making a true solo artistic piece of work when you have 8 other guys on it? Hell, the only time you don't hear from a rapper for a while is when they go to prison like Lil Wayne. In comparison, you really do not see this in rock and pop music. What do you attribute to this? I really could not provide a true answer. Perhaps, it is because rappers are like Lebron James and need a little help from their friends. Perhaps, it is the culture in that rappers just invite rappers to partake in their albums. I find it hard to believe that with this collaboration that goes on everywhere that violence ever erupted anywhere over rap lyrics. Perhaps, it is the artform itself. Singing, playing guitar, playing drums simply does not lend itself to the enormous amount of collaboration that we see in rap on a consistent basis. For me personally, I think that not enough attention is paid to the concept of the album. Too many rappers see the album as less of a cohesive concept and more as simple a group of multiple tracks. For whatever reason, the incredible amount of guest appearances is pretty staggering. I will sit there and say to myself: don't these guys want to keep any credit for themselves? Don't they ever want to work on something without anybody else? Or is this simply not a realistic scenario in today's rap and hip-hop world? Go out and get as many big names as possible before starting because that sells records. What if the Killers brought in Julian Casablancas for guest vocals, Dave Grohl for guest drums, and Jonny Greenwood for guest guitar on their next album? This not be unheard of in any sense, but it rarely happens in rock. My running joke is that I don't need to buy a rapper's album because he will just make some guest appearance next week on another album. Also, they may make a mistake and forget to rap on their own album or list themselves as guests on it. I simply find it as a bizarre trend in popular music and I do have a theory about it. These rappers want to be in a band. They all want to join together and be in a band. I say, why not...I say, more power to them.  Let's start an NYC band  called the HOVA West Boys and it will be Jay-Z, Kanye, Mike-D, and Ad-Rock.  I know there have been rap groups or bands before, but there have not been that many. I am talking about 50% of the current rappers joining bands. This all makes perfect sense. How about a band called Emimar with Kendrick Lamar, J Cole and Eminem. Watch the Throne was only the first step because rappers need to start bands as soon as possible, which will rid the world of these silly guest appearances on every other album, except their own.

When Saying You Made a Good Album Goes Wrong

I just finished skimming the new Arctic Monkeys review on NME.com. It brought an interesting conundrum when it comes to album reviews. I have not heard this album yet and I like the Arctic Monkeys overall. Thus far, I have only focused on how reviews can negatively help influence how one objectively perceives a listening experience. Yet, this can work the other way around as well. This particular review gives the album a perfect 10 saying it is pure genius and the best album to come out in the last ten years. I highly doubt that. The comments following the review are near unanimous in this diagnosis. This is not the greatest album of the last ten years. Most people who have followed this band say it is a great album, but they will not say it is a perfect 10. This brings up a couple of issues with me as a serious music fan. This review has somewhat diminished or partially ruined the album for me. Previously, I was comparing this album primarily to Suck It and See, but now they are going up against Kanye, TV on the Radio, The Strokes, Queens of the Stone Age, The Killers. The reviewer has created heightened expectations that will be hard to compete with and the Arctic Monkeys don't deserve that because now the band must live up to such expectations. It will be impossible for them to surpass those expectations because they are not new. Arctic Monkeys have been around for a few years, which always means you will have critics. Bands always have critics. The only ones who don't have critics are the ones who have not been around long enough for reviewers to actually care two shits about them. Throwing around the term genius is for writers analyzing the legacy of someone who rocked 20 years ago like Bowie. You don't use that term in the present because that can be misinterpreted so easily. The other issue at play here is a serious question that threatens the credibility of the article itself. Is this reviewer just a fan boy? Is he worshiping at the altar of Arctic Monkeys? This needs to be answered before we start to look upon this album as the greatest thing since sliced bread. Now, I saw this band in 2009 and I have heard their other albums, so next week I will listen to this album and see if it the best album of the past ten years. If I had known 5 years ago that this band was genius about to create the greatest album this side of 1999, then I would not have done all that Vicodin that night.