Cranberries: Revisited

hmm... I blogged about how I would "hope to hear something new from them and if they tour I would be there."

and here we are... Click-y.

Sublime will be at Smokeout: Cool , Dude!

Click-y. But, you may get a contact high and the munchies.

Are you Gay?

My coming out story with my mom was awkward, for both of us I'm sure. I was wondering how I was going to approach my mom with this giant revelation. But what if the parent is wondering? How does a parent ask if they think their teen is gay? I found an interesting article about how to approach a touchy subject.


Click-y.

It's refreshing to see this article. It goes to show open-discussion helps in education and acceptance.

Black Eye Peas, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Sheryl Crow, De La Soul

Besides the fact that these are bands I enjoy, what do they have in common?

THEY ARE ALL GONNA BE AT BUMBERSHOOT *scream of glee*

Every Labor Day Weekend, Seattle has a celebration of music and arts at the Seattle Center. You know the place with that needle. I just gave a sample of musicians going to be there. It's a three day festival. Rain or Shine, it IS Seattle after all.

More info at www.bumbershoot.org

*scream of glee*

The Toadies are wrong. So listen to them already!

There’s a certain uneasiness to the Toadies,” says Vaden Todd Lewis, succinctly and accurately describing his band—quite a trick. The Texas band is, at its core, just a raw, commanding rock band. Imagine an ebony sphere with a corona that radiates impossibly darker, and a brilliant circular sliver of light around that. It’s nebulous, but strangely distinct—and, shall we say incorrect. Or, as Lewis says, “wrong.”

I must admit I only have the Rubberneck CD and by that alone I should not be called a fan, but the whole CD is good. Can I not be called a fan if I enjoy the entire CD? Many songs from that album are in my ipod and if it comes on, since I have it permanently set to random, I do not skip over. The CD itself is not stashed away in its jewel case but in the cd carousel of way too much music. When I'm working out, I got pumped up listening to the stuff - it's not necessarily high velocity music, but I do get an adrenaline charge out of the raw emotion I get from the songs.

Just recently I blipped/tweeted three Toadies songs and I declared it #toadiestuesday. Prior to that, the Toadies started following me (@thetoadies.) I'm lame like that but i embrace my lameness, do you?

I found this from @thetoadies tweets where the guitarist from Sleater-Kinney mentions the band. It's a bit mocking when someone calls you middle of the road and obscure, it has the connotation of unknown and glossed-over.

Most of the middle-of-the-road bands are virtually forgotten on an everyday basis, on account of them being neither consistently wonderful nor consistently awful. For instance, unlike Warrant's "Cherry Pie" -- a terrible song that elicits a collective groan immediately followed by a sing-along -- a band like Tesla usually inspires nothing more than a shoulder shrug. Therefore, even if we think an artist or song is particularly heinous (as with Warrant), there's still a passion behind the sense of disgust; so not only does our distaste for the song keep it memorized and memorialized, but it also elicits just as much sentimentality and nostalgia as those songs and bands we consider our favorites.

An average band, on the other hand, is remembered only when one of its songs comes on the radio; while rifling through our old CDs, cassettes or LPs; or when we stumble upon a discounted compilation album. Or maybe this list might help to jar your memory: Toad the Wet Sprocket, Live, The Smithereens, Gene Loves Jezebel and the Toadies.

-Carrie Bowerstein, NPR.org

But its those that are obscure that make them all that more great. It is the obscure and little known that gets the "cult-following," where those in the know can enjoy a band quietly and share with others by word of mouth these musical gems that we later realize only seem forgotten. Of course, Sleater-Kinney is rather obscure in themselves so hopefully it was more of nod to a contemporary, rather than a dis.

I've been checking out the Toadies website recently and saw they put out a new album, No Deliverance. As with all things I need to catch up on, this is among my ever expanding list of albums I intend to get on Itunes. I have found blip.fm a good way to listen to music to see if I enjoy, luckily Toadies web page samples "Song I Hate" and I think No Deliverance just rocketed to the top.

Biggest Win and Biggest Fail ( 09/05/09)

Well it seems like it's attack of the 90s in the Alternative World. Weezer has been around banging out the records and now AIC after so many years coming out with a new one! Might I say Alice in Chains still sounds good. It sounds rough and raw, just my style. But then again the nerdy rock sound of Weezer is my style too. Call me schizophrenic. 311 is also around although failing and Pearl Jam and Green Day are holding there own. Is it weird to think of them as "old bands?"

There is way too much volatility in the Dance Charts this week, I can barely keep up. At least Shakira is still rising in that chart.

Biggest Win

• Weezer - (If You Are Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To
• Alice In Chains - Check My Brain
• Breaking Benjamin - I will not Bow
• David Guetta - Sexy Bitch
• Shakira - She Wolf
• Felix Da Housecat - We All Wanna Be Prince
• Beyonce - Sweet Dreams

Biggest Fail

• 311 - It's Alright
• Shinedown - Sound of Madness
• Anberlin - Feel Good Drag
• Erika Jayne - Give You Everything
• Wynonna - Sing
• Deadmua5 - Attention Whore
• The Pussycat Dolls - Hush Hush
• LMFAO - I'm in Miami Trick
• Lady Gaga - Love Game