Music and the crap the call music on the radio

Music has always been a very personal thing for me.  I’ve kicked people out of my car for changing the song or putting in a CD that was such crap I wanted to vomit.  When I hear a song it takes to an event or place that I had a certain emotion about.  I judge people based on their musical taste.  I firmly believe that if your main listening enjoyment is to the “hits” station of any genre then you are a moron.  Seriously, you’re stupid.  If 80% of what you listen to is found on the billboard top 20 then you are really are uneducated, uncreative, and lack the ability to be opinionated about music at all.  The radio plays the same junk and recycles it 30 times a day.  There are some good songs thrown in here and there, but for the majority of the music in rotation it’s shit.  Think about it…  more than half of the music that was popular during the 90’s is bashed to no end now for its complete lack of substance.  Milli Vanili won a Grammy, Vanilla Ice amassed a fortune, and Hanson has platinum records.  All of them are crap that spent umpteen weeks on the billboards top 25.

I listen to a lot of different genres but I don’t feel you have to listen to different types to be educated.  It helps though; you don’t have to like something to appreciate it.  I can’t stand radio head.  I never cared for their music nor do I really like Pearl Jam.  I know this is blasphemy coming from someone who grew up at the height of their respected best albums but I don’t.  I liked Ten a lot, not so much to everything that was after it.  I went to the first Lollapoloza concert series thanks to a friend name Matt Duran whose father was a big shot at 94.5 the edge (now 102.1 and very much commercial).  By the way his sister Nicole, Nico, was hot.  Crazy, fun, and always mischievous, if somehow she happens to read this I’d love to reconnect with her.  Since there mom was hot I think she’d still be a looker.  Sorry, got off track there…  Anyway, When MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice was rocking people out I remember listening to Soundgarden, Nine Inch Nails, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Public Enemy, and Anthrax.  Once the grunge factor became mainstream Soundgarden and NIN got popular on MTV but it really blew everyone’s mind that these local bands from Seattle were actually getting airplay.   

Most Memorable Music Times:

Listening to Pat Green live at Billy Bob’s always reminds me of driving from Kansas to Dallas when I was in the Army with my good friend Stephen.  It was 1999 and I had just bought a brand new black Z28 with T-Tops and leather.  This was the very first brand new car I had ever owned.  I added exhaust and did a few more bolt ones along with swapping out the speakers and head unit.  We would see how fast we could get from Ft. Riley to Dallas maxing out the speedometer along the way.  When the needle hit 152mph the governor would kick in and the car would slow down.  Sometimes my dad would come up to meet up on his ZX-11 and drive back with us.  We’d find one of the straight always on the route and he’d give us a head start.  Right about 130ishmph he’d fly past us on his bike, He said that when he got to around 180 he would be blowing from one side of the road to the other side of the road due to the cross wind.  Pretty much the whole drive to Texas we would rotate Pat Green, The Toadies, Hellified Funk Crew, and a few others.  Any time those songs come on I’m right back to the feeling I have when we were going upwards of 100mph flying through the flatlands singing.

Right around the same time a few local bands were coming up around the Denton/ Trees Dallas scene.  Hellified Funk Crew, Drowning Pool, Pimpadelic, and Flickerstick were becoming regulars on the music scene.  My friends Nathan and David were both in College and living together.  Every so often I would come in for a weekend when we got a 3 day pass.  We’d pile in my Camaro and head to Texas as quick as we could.  Sanders (RIP), Stryker, Pegon, and I would be hauling ass across the US to get to Denton, Texas to see a local band.  Along the way we’d stop at each Military bas we could to use our Army ID’s to buy gas.  Back then on base you could get gas for $0.79/ gallon since there wasn’t the $0.33/ gallon federal tax on base.  I think we spent just over $100 to get from Bragg to Denton one time.  The four of us would sing to the top of our longs and get into frenzy.  About 20 minutes out we would put on the CD of whatever band we were coming to see.  When we walked in Nathan and David would have shots of Jager and Budweiser ready for us.  Singing those songs and then getting in the mosh pit releasing steam was great.  Nothing like getting out of a 30 day field problem, driving cross country with 3 other guys cramped in a Chevy Camaro and then listening to loud energetic music such as “Bodies” from drowning pool or “So Damn Tough” from Pimpadelic.

Times such as these are why I have so much passion for music.  I just can’t see someone saying they have such found memories singing Ace of Bass or “Like a G6”.  Side note here, Gulfstream doesn’t make or has ever made a G6.  They make a G650; singing about a private jet that costs around 58 million is Ludicrous.  I’d bet 90% of people had no idea what a G6 was when they heard the song and had to Google it.  These people listen to this crap they are force feed by a company that pays hundreds of thousands of dollars to get most of this junk played.  Do you really think “Rubber Ducky” would ever have become a hit if someone didn’t pay money (a record executive trying an experiment) to make it a hit.  As long as you force feed someone a song that has a repetitive tune they will buy it.

Here are some bands that i consider good.  Obviously this list is subjective, and some of it is crap creatively but decent musically. 

Rock/ etc: Led Zeppelin, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Soundgarden, Taking Back Sunday, AFI, Bullet for My Valentine, Saves the Day, Miles Davis, BB King, Eric Clapton, 311, The Killers, Weezer, Chris Botti, John Coltrane, Muddy Waters, Sarah Mclachlan, Mazzy Star, Michelle Branch,

Country: Turnpike Troubadors, Wade Bowen, Jared Nieman, Johnny Cash, George Strait, Randy Rodgers, Pat Green (Pre-Nashville), Dirks Bentley, Jared Aldean, Nickel Creek, Alison Krauss,

Rap: Tupac, Biggie, Slim Thug, Nas, Drake, Eminem, Swollen Members, Dilated Peoples, Evidence, Del, Grouch & Living Legends, Alicia Keys, Ericka Badyu,  

Do you think in the afterlife (if you believe in that) Janis Joplin, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Miles Davis, and Bach sit around jamming to Ke$ha?  I bet they throw up in their mouths.  Does anyone really think Keith Richards (who I firmly believe actually died years ago) and John Lennon walk around singing “I Kissed a Girl”?

Flame on!

Time- Why Running Late is now the Norm

As I was sitting on my sofa watching sports center this morning waiting on the repair man to come fix my range fuming it got me thinking.  It was 17 minutes past my scheduled time and I had not received a call from him.  I was recently watching a documentary HBO aired on Vince Lombardi and it reminded me of the time I spent in the Military.  They were interviewing Bart Starr about “Lombardi Time”.  It was pretty much the same as Military time: 

“If you’re 15 minutes early, you’re on time.  If you’re 10 minutes early you’re 5 minutes late and if you’re 5 minutes early then you better have called or be in an accident because the meeting has started and the doors are locked.”

You may not think 17 minutes is much, but I called him and he returned my call at 24 minutes late to say he was on his way.  He finally showed up 36 minutes late.   He came to the door and stated “I’m here to fix the oven”, my reply was “You’re 36 minutes late”.  This started a semi-heated exchange where he threatened to leave and I reminded him that as a business man your reputation should be paramount and with the state the economy is in I highly doubt he can afford to lose the business of not just my unit but the building as a whole.  After thinking this over he begrudgingly stayed.  While he worked he asked what I did and we made small talk.  I explained to him that one of my biggest pet peeves is tardiness.  It happens to us all and things do come up, but where I think people have gone wrong lately is not informing the party they are meeting they are running late.

All too often I’m waiting to meet someone at 8:00, I get a txt from them at 8:05 they are running late and on their way.  They usually show up 30- 35 minutes late.  Depending on the circumstance this could be a non-factor, but if I’m in a time crunch and I planned 45-60 minutes for the meal and have another 30-35 minute drive to X place to meet someone else then I’ve now become this person.  I think the polite way to go about situations like this are to call them and honestly tell them what time frame you will arrive.  How often have we said we’re on our way to a lunch/dinner when in fact we are just getting in the car and we were supposed to be there in 5 minutes?  I have friends that when they show up on or near time it’s a miracle.  When I make plans with them I usually try and trick them by telling them the event starts 30 minutes before it actually does or I arrive 15 minutes late since I know they won’t show up.  Sometimes they try to put too many things on their plate and other times they have no real concept of how long certain things take to get completed.

The cable company and doctor’s offices are by far the worst at not holding up on a scheduled time.  When I had Time Warner they gave me a window, a 4 hour window of when they would be there.  Since I worked 5 blocks from my job at the time I asked if the service rep could call me when they were on their way.  She said that since they were so busy they couldn’t; I told her that if the company wants my business then they can take 30 seconds to inform me they are leaving from the last job and coming to mine.  After escalating this to 2 levels above her I finally got what I requested.  The cable guy at 3:50 and my window was 12-4.  This allowed me not to miss a ½ day of work and they still had a new customer to gauge.

I think with the me-first society that we live in being on time or even giving courtesy calls fell to the wayside.  It’s no longer the norm to adhere to an agreed upon meeting time or to even tell someone truthfully when to expect you.  They want to do something with you so they are on your schedule, its kind of like being at the post office.  The line is 15 people deep, 1 person is working, 1 person is talking to her, and 10 people are in the back standing around.