http://blogcritics.org/ A sinister cabal of superior bloggers on music, books, film, popular culture, politics, and technology - updated continuously. en Copyright 2005-2007 by the authors Wed, 25 Sep 2002 22:34:15 EDT http://backend.userland.com/rss Blogcritics.org custom software http://blogcritics.org/ Phillip WinnSunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding. Administration0@blogcritics.org Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2002/09/25/223415.php David V.To contribute to the big Blogcritics posting festival, I thought I'd drag out this old ditty. Anything to help! I went to see The Stereo MCs, Live, and Jane's Addiction in concert. I learned much. I thought I'd share: Today's prevailing fashion trends include: leather pants, open back shirts, nonexistent shirts, and Halloween-esque black cat ears. (I wore jeans and a gray T-shirt. Me so trendy.) When you buy a "general admission ticket," you've just bought a ticket to be in The Mosh Pit. You must sign a release when you get to the stadium to participate in The Mosh Pit. (The very idea of a Mosh Pit is vaguely illegal to me, anyway.) A signed release stipulates that you, your family, and your estate will not sue. Black cat ears? The Mosh Pit is "not advisable" for pregnant women. Box office folk will exchange your Mosh Pit tickets for way-far-away tickets to accommodate your pregnant wife, but only if you grovel. As legally nervous as the place might be with their Mosh Pit waiver, they will serve alcohol to anyone, no questions asked. Any girl wearing black cat ears might as well be wearing a sign that reads "Hey Guys, Come Hit On Me!" You would think that a concert featuring a band that broke up in 1991, a band whose biggest album was in 1995, and a band no one ever heard of would have a slightly older crowd. Old Man Dave will tell you that's not true. There. My life is but a experiment for others to learn from. Lucky you. Lucky me. Music: Alternative Rock905@blogcritics.org Wed, 25 Sep 2002 22:34:15 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2002/09/15/070231.php David V.I loves me my free concerts.A week ago, my friend JP and I went to see a festival of free shows sponsored by the city of Pontiac and its merchants. We saw a few small acts ranging from amazing to horrid, but the most bizarre exchange took place with a band that I'd rate somewhere in the middle. I'll call this band Sista Cletus. (That's not their real name. I'm using a pseudonym so as not to offend that fraction of the world that is Cletus-loving, thin-skinned, and Google-proficient.) After a likeable upbeat folk number, Sista Cletus' lead singer took the opportunity to tell a story to the audience. She started by asking the audience, "Have, like, any of y'all evah done a juice-fast?" A juice-fast? She went on, ending every sentence with an upward voice inflection that made it seem like she was talking in questions: "Like, a juice-fast? It's like, when you, y'know, squeeze all these vegetables down? So it's all, like, liquid? And pure vitamins? Then you eat nothing? Just juice? For, like, days? Any y'all evah do that?" I had the biggest grin on my face, and I was about to make a wise-ankle comment to my friend when I saw all these hands fly up. A vast contingent of her audience HAD juice-fasted, and were now raising their hands to testify! Their expressions were either that of relief, as if thinking, "Finally! Finally, she brought up juice-fasting. I thought she NEVER would. I mean, after the first song, I thought, okay, she'll SURELY bring up juice-fasting NOW, but instead just sang another song. At a concert. How odd. But now, NOW that juice-fasting has been justly mentioned, I am complete. Now I can sit back and take another hit of peyote," or the person was hopping up and down as if to say, "Yes! You've just read my mind! I HAVE juice-fasted in the past, and spent untold minutes suffering in ridicule for it! But you! YOU! You have, right here, just now, at this very moment, validated me, my existence, my very BEING! Now I can sit back and take another hit of peyote." The lead singer went on to say that she juice-fasted for days, then gulped down a pot of black coffee. The resulting metabolic ricochet gave inspiration for a rambling early morning email, which comprised the lyrics of their next song. (And you thought she didn't have a reason for mentioning the juice-fasting, did you?) When the song began, the ridiculous gave way to the absurd as we were smacked with two disturbing visuals. The first was an elderly hippie woman near the stage. She had shoulder-length gray hair and skin resembling beef jerky. She was dancing in a wrinkled dress, waiving a burning shaft of incense in her right hand and shaking one of those rain walking-sticks in her left. Creepy. The second disturbing visual was the bongo player trying to dance. Let me just say that if you are a bongo player, even though you may feel dejected because the bongo doesn't afford you the freedom of moving around and shaking your grove thang whilst performing, do not -- I repeat, DO NOT -- try to "wear" the bongo drum between your legs as if using some ill-fitting baby harness. It's just not a good look. I likened it to a drunk trying to walk while holding a bowling ball between his knees. My friend said it looked like a pregnant woman carrying low -- carrying very, very low. I don't think I'll ever be able to see Ricky Ricardo play "Babaloo" in an I Love Lucy rerun without cracking up. We saw better concerts that night, but I don't think I'll see many more memorable. Music: Folk610@blogcritics.org Sun, 15 Sep 2002 07:02:31 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2002/09/01/100905.php David V.When at their best, Martly is what you would get if you took The Smashing Pumpkins' onetime front man Billy Corgan and crazy-glued him to the members of Oasis (which is to say, the Beatles). You would end up with some decent hooks, a mostly-serviceable rock voice, and a space-age polymer strong enough to suspend a man in mid-air!Oh, I tease, but I'm not writing them off. No, Martly's latest album hits its stride perfectly with the song "Strange Fascination," a catchy ditty far better than most pop songs found on the boy-band-infested radio dial. The guitars are tight, the harmonies perfect, and their half-smiles/half-sneers are positioned just-so. (This is an "Enhanced CD" that comes complete with a Quicktime video of this song, so you can judge their smile-to-sneer ratio for yourself. The Enhanced CD is a nifty little bonus Martly gives to their fans, and it has yet to crash my computer, which is a gift in itself these days.)"Her Story" is also incredible -- truly great. It's the kind of pop song that will make you bludgeon your head against a brick wall repeatedly because no matter what, you just can't get it out of your head. But I mean that as a compliment. Really.Not all the songs find their mark, however. The lyrically-intriguing "Columbus," a song bemoaning getting stuck in Columbus Day vacation traffic (seriously!), has a fair grove to it, but isn't extraordinary. Menacingly named songs like "Stop" and "Scream" are just okay, but mostly resemble filler. In final analysis, of the nine songs on Fascination, two are truly great and maybe three others are likeable enough. Uneven, perhaps, but the highs overshadow the lows. It's worth a listen.---Buy on CDBaby.com Music: Alternative Rock338@blogcritics.org Sun, 1 Sep 2002 10:09:05 EDT http://blogcritics.org/archives/2002/08/23/235030.php David V.If I were a college-aged lad interested in buying an album for the sole purpose of impressing college-aged women, I would buy Mara's It's Who I Am.Of course, when I was a college-aged lad, I was under the misguided impression that dressing like a lumberjack and going months without a haircut was the secret to wooing the fairer sex. Riiiiiight. So, hey, what do I know?Actually, now that I think about it, these tactics did ultimately help me snag my wife, so take note, youngsters! Uncle Dave knows that of which he speaks!And just as it took quite a while (oh, quite a while) for my quirky, offbeat charm to impress The Lovely And Talented One, Mara's album took me a few listens to warm to it. I originally thought that, while engaging and meticulously arranged, It's Who I Am lacked a consistant lyrical punch and a diva-esque voice to propel it. A few listens later I was convinced Mara's voice wasn't regrettably thin, but sweetly delicate -- and when needed, strong enough.By then, I was totally onboard with the Oprah quality of some of the lyrics (here's where the college-aged women would be impressed, presumably) and really enjoying the way Mara (pronounced like "marathon," according to her website) alternates between poignant and perky.It took a few spins, but now I can't find a single fault. It's nearly perfect.And if you asked The Lovely And Talented One about me, I'm sure she'd say the same.---Buy on CDBaby.com Music: Alternative Rock213@blogcritics.org Fri, 23 Aug 2002 23:50:30 EDT