Falling on Deaf Ears?

An open letter to Dan Snyder has been posted by Grantland, the super cool sports/pop culture blog headed up by the immortal Bill Simmons.  Changing culturally insensitive, and mostly outright racist Indian mascots is something I've supported for quite a while, so... this is a repost?  reblog?  something?

click me to go to the article

I do find this interesting, as it is the first time I've seen professional (semi professional?) sport writers make any sort of public statement regarding this issue in support of American Indians.  Most of the time writers, the NFL, and fans play the "too much history" card, or the "dignified honor" excuse like the franchise is doing the Indian people a favor by naming themselves after them.

Anyway, I doubt this will change Snyder's mind, if he even sees it at all.  More importantly, many other sports fans will see it and this will go far to changing the mainstream opinion concerning American Indian imagery in sports, and hopefully pressure the NFL to change it's stance concerning this.  The part of this article that made me the most angry was learning how Goodell feels about the issue.  Clearly appeasing the owner of one of his franchises is far more important than doing the right thing.  

Snaaaaaake! Snaaaaaake!

I almost stepped on this little guy the other day.  He was nice enough to sit still so I could take a picture.

Milk snakes are one of the 14 snakes found in my area.  Milk snakes, like most of the other 14 snakes, are mostly harmless.  Usually the snake of choice around here is the boring garter snake, but sometimes more interesting snakes show up, like the very long black racer, or even a copperhead or eastern rattler if you aren't so lucky.  This post can be filed in the "cool shit I see at work" category.

If Only There was a Band More Emo than Billy Corgan...

Silversun Pickups

Neck of the Woods

2012. Dangerbird Records

produced by Jacknife Lee

Brian Aubert - guitar, vocals

Nikki Monninger - bass, vocals

Joe Lester - keyboards

Christopher Guanlao - drums

Singles- 

• Bloody Mary (Nerve Endings)
• The Pit
• Here We Are (Chancer)

I like this band.  Pitchfork, of course, gave this album a bad review.  But, in true Pitchfork fashion, the reviewer comes off as just another music snob, hipster douche who only gave the album one, half-ass listen.  Not every album can be Like an Aeroplane Over the Sea, or Jeff Buckley's Grace.  Get over yourself.

This album is their third release.  I discovered the band after hearing their single Lazy Eye somewhere, and thinking, "wow, that chick can sing", and then realizing that it was a dude the whole time.  They have a sound very reminiscent of Billy Corgan when he's being depressed.  The similarities don't stop there, either.  They also have a female bass player.  If you enjoyed the Smashing Pumpkin's "shoegazing" melancoly sound made famous by songs like 1979 and Disarm, the Silversun Pickups fully explore their own airy, eerily creepy desperateness on this album.  

While Bloody Mary is a good track, and definitely a good choice for a single, the band missed an opportunity to showcase Mean Spirits as a single.  It is by far the best track on the album, and I recommend giving it a listen, or two.  

Picking the Wrong City

This past week has been an incredible roller coaster of emotions for the United States, especially the Northeast, and more specifically the greater Boston area.  I am from the area, living in parts of New England my entire life.  This post seemed fitting for this week, and all of the fall out from the Boston marathon attack and the subsequent manhunt.  The phrase used the most this week, aside from the new trendy Boston Strong fundraiser catch phrase, is "these guys picked the wrong city".  My friend writes for Bloomberg and in a recent response to the attacks on Patriots Day said this: "You don't fuck with Boston, because Boston fucks back".

This statement could be tossed aside as bravado, unable to be backed up by facts, but... for all of you who have watched movies like the Departed, Good Will Hunting, The Brinks Job, Mystic River, or even The Town need to understand that all of the grit and toughness expressed by characters in those films are influenced by and express how people who actually live in this area think and act.  and with that...  I give you the best compilation album of all time, and quite possibly the finest American Hardcore punk album ever recorded.

Gang Green, The Groinoids, Jerry's Kids, The Freeze, The Proletariats, Decadence, The FUs

This is Boston Not LA

1982, Modern Method

Produced by Jimmy Dufour, Mark McKay, Sean Sweeney

In the late '70s and early '80s a new kind of punk started out in LA and moved to DC.  This scene had a harder, dirtier sound than British and New York punk bands like the Buzzcocks, Sex Pistols, The Clash, and Ramones. Lead by the LA based Black Flag, and the DC based Bad Brains, this American Hardcore punk scene infiltrated many other cities along both coasts, including San Francisco, New York, and, of course, Boston.  

This comp helped to promote the Boston sound and scene and distinguish them from the DC scene on the east coast.  The title was initially supposed to be a rallying cry for Boston area bands to be themselves, instead of copying what LA groups like Black Flag, Fear, and the Germs were doing.  Since then, it has become more of a statement that Boston, it's city and people, are harder than the soft citizens of the warmer, more luxurious cities of California.  

This comp, and these bands would go on to influence a Boston music scene that would cultivate groups like The Unseen, The Lemonheads, Ten Yard Fight, Slapshot, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Big D and the Kids Table, the Dropkick Murphys, and even Godsmack.  NoFX frontman, and punk rock historian, Fat Mike has said this album is the best of all time (which he says about everything), and references it in his song 2 Jealous Agains, which is all about iconic punk records.  

Trouble if You Hide is a track by the Freeze that seems pretty appropriate to the events of the past week.  The lyric "please come forth with clues to confide, because there will be trouble if you hide" highlights the tenacity of the Boston spirit.  

An Open Letter to my Favorite Radio Station

I still listen to radio.

Let that sink in for a second.  Despite all the new technology available to me, like iPods, and satellite radio that rely on frequencies sent from space, and the internet, I use technology that was discovered and invented in 1872 and made popular in the 1920s.  I choose to do this, mostly because it is far simpler to turn the dial in my car than to figure out how to sync an iPod, or learn how to stream an internet radio service.  

Most of the time, rock radio doesn't disappoint.  I've learned which stations are good, and play what I like, and which stations are clown shoes (I'm looking at you Pop/Hip Hop radio).  I change channels between three or four stations, mostly because I hate commercials.  

Recently, one of my go-to stations changed their format, sort of.  I say sort of, because it was a rock station, and it still is a rock station.  No one went and burned the rock collection and bought a bunch of country records from the local yard sales.  The station decided to expand their offering of rock music to incorporate "all rock".  Previously, they played mostly hard rock from the '80s, '90s, and '00s, focusing on newer rock and metal.  Now, they've added what many would call "classic" rock, and span rock music from the late '60s all the way until the present.  

Of course, this change was met with a ridiculous amount of hostility as evident on their Facebook page.  Some people just don't like change, or appreciate the old school.  I felt pretty awful for the employees of the station, as many of the comments were brutally worded, and mostly unfair.  

Personally, I love the fact that the station has realized that the older bands and artists can still rock.  It can be a great idea, and could showcase a bridge between old classic rockers and the newer bands that they influenced.  

However, the execution of this really great idea is where the station fell flat.  

They could have added to their playlist seamlessly with groups like Iggy and the Stooges, the MC5, Cream, Mountain, Deep Purple, Alice Cooper and Steppenwolf, and expand their genre to include punk rock and play groups like Bad Religion, Black Flag, Minor Threat, The Sex Pistols, and the Misfits.  No other station plays stuff like that.  

Instead, the station decided groups from the '80s like the Damn Yankees, Tom Keifer, Warrant, Cinderella, and LA Guns were better additions.  Also, instead of classic groups that compliment their hard rock identity, they play Neil Young, Tom Petty, and the Barenaked Ladies.  These are good musicians, excellent music, but not really what one looks for from a hard rock radio station.  

I'd love to request more solid rock music, and less girly, feather and spandex wearing, '80s emasculating cock rock nonsense.  I know every rose has a thorn, stop crying, you're mascara is running.  

Also, Nickleback is unnecessary.  There is only enough room on the radio for one band of cocky, douchebags, and Van Halen has it covered.  

I say, keep the old stuff that actually rocks (ZZ Top, Led Zeppelin, the Stones, Hendrix, The Who) and dump the folk rock, and all the pansy-ass glam ballads that make men gag and women swoon.  I miss the Tool, Manson, Godsmack, Chevelle, and Monster Magnet tracks I used to hear.  

It Will Go Over Like a Lead Balloon

According to Rolling Stone magazine, Led Zeppelin is the 14th best musical group of all time.  NBC news ranked them #6 all time in a piece by Eric Olsen.  AVR ranked them #1 overall.  Polls and lists created by most musical sites and publications have ranked this band close to their top ten, and for good reason.  It is, after all, a hard rocking, blues based band that has influenced countless musicians since their debut, as well as many of their own contemporaries.  I, like many people who like music, have a few of their albums.

Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin II

1969, Atlantic

produced by Jimmy Page

Robert Plant - vocals, harmonica
Jimmy Page - guitars
John Paul Jones - bass, organ
John Bonham - drums, percussion

singles -

• Whole Lotta Love/ Living Loving Maid
• Heart Breaker/ Bring it on Home
• Living Loving Maid/ Bring it on Home

The Brown Bomber album is my favorite Zeppelin album.  This is one of those albums I picked up when I was younger because I wanted to know more about a band that everyone talked about.  My dad didn't really play Zeppelin in the house, and I heard stuff on the radio, but radio play only gives a little window into a band.  So, I asked for this album, and received it as a gift, for a birthday or Christmas, or something.  Whole Lotta Love, of course, is an epic song, full of rocking guitar rifts, and a crazy feedback induced breakdown in the middle.
This album made me appreciate Jimmy Page as a guitar player.  Many people talked about how great he was, but discovering things for myself was always the best plan.  I still don't think Eddie Van Halen was such a great player, since I haven't heard a shred of evidence to tell me otherwise.  There has been no "holy crap" moment like I've had many times listening to Page.
The bluesiness (I'm sure that's a word) on this album has made it my favorite.  The Lemon Song, Ramble On, and Bring it on Home are my favorite tracks.

Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin III

1970, Atlantic

produced by Jimmy Page

singles -

• Immigrant Song/ Hey Hey What can I do?

I think, the biggest issue I have with this album, is the best song was left off.  Hey Hey What can I Do? still gets radio play, more than the A side of the single.  Anyway, this album is good regardless, I suppose.  Most of the album has a softer, folkier type of sound to it, which is a contrast to other Zeppelin stuff of the past, and future.  This album is definitely worth buying, if only for the song Tangerine.  There are a few traditional cover pieces done also.  This album incorporates the band's folk influences, and starts to show their weird wiccan/occult/mythology psuedo religious beliefs.  Live Magazine called this album "the best of all time" in 2007.

Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin IV

1971, Atlantic

produced by Jimmy Page

singles-

• Black Dog/ Misty Mountain Hop
• Rock and Roll/ Four Sticks

Some people refer to this album as Zoso, or the four symbols album, or whatever.  I think these people are dumb.  The whole point of the album was to not call it anything, not even the name of the band appears on the cover.  It is Led Zeppelin's fourth album, though, and since the last three were numbered, and the Zoso symbol refers to Jimmy Page only, I call this one Led Zeppelin 4.  Deal with it.

This is probably the hardest rocking, most well known album by the band.  Most tracks receive radio play, and it incorporates just about everything the band was and had been into.  There is blues, there is folk, there is traditional Celtic/Wiccan mythos, and there is just good loud rock.  

It is amazing to me what one can be subjected to without even realizing it.  I saw Wayne's World back in the day, before I really understood who Led Zeppelin was... and that scene about not being allowed to play Stairway in the music shop was funny, but I didn't know what Stairway was.  At least, I didn't think I did.  But when a friend played it for me, I realized that I had heard it before, a lot, on the radio.  Radio doesn't always tell you what they play, you know.  

Speaking of knowing things I thought I didn't know... Battle for Evermore features Sandy Denny.  And... I knew who she was before I heard this album, because I knew Fairport Convention and their album Liege and Lief.  This was the first time I realized that musicians from different genres can and do hang out together.  

I learned so much when I was 12 because of music!  

As a side note, my favorite track on this album is When the Levee Breaks.  

Led Zeppelin

Houses of the Holy

1973, Atlantic

produced by Jimmy Page

singles - 

• Over the Hills and Far Away/ Dancing Days
• D'yer Maker/ The Crunge

This album is so strange.  Comparing it to the four previous albums, it is just plain weird.  First of all, it is the first album they release with an actual title.  Second, where did the blues go?  The entire album is different than anything else the band has done before.  Sometimes different is good.  Sometimes it is just strange.  And sometimes, when you realize where the band goes after this record, it isn't really that big of a surprise.  This one is worth it, if only for the funkiness of certain tracks, and the melodic song writing.  I still can't find that confounded bridge, but I'm okay with that.

Defusing the Weapon: Context is Everything

An interesting thing happened this week, and I figured this would be a good place to post and share.
Unless you either haven't been paying attention, or just don't care about social politics, you've probably heard about how conservative Republican Rob Portman from Ohio has flipped his views on marriage.

Click me, I link to a New York Times article

Portman has a son who recently came out to his parents.  Knowing who his father is, and his stance on certain socially conservative platforms, this act in itself must have been difficult.  However, showing his true character, Portman accepted his son, and revised his belief system.  It is a little shameful that the issue had to hit so close to home for Portman to shift his platform, but he ought to be commended for revisiting an issue and reforming his opinion based on personal experience, rather than through political soundbytes, and platforms.  Another GOP pal of his, Dick Cheney, sent his regards, by the way, which I also thought was interesting, as Cheney has also dealt with the political nature of marriage equality.

I saw this as reported on CNN, and of course, in order to seem fair and balanced, they interviewed Newt Gingrich on what he thought about it, and of course, he did his best to make this whole thing seem unimportant.  His reason was basically, no matter what anyone's personal views were about who is allowed to marry whom, marriage will always be a religious definition, and politics wont change it.  But, I'm pretty sure politics helped make this whole thing an issue to start with.

This brings me to another thing I wanted to share.  I found this doo-dad on the internet today.

The Leviticus chapter and verse is often used as an argument against marriage equality, claiming that, due to this passage in the Old Testament pertaining to one of the 613 commandments of Jewish law, marriage was meant to be between a man and a woman.  I won't even go into the theological implications of Christians using old Jewish law to prove dogmatic points, or the fact that there are only certain sects of Judaism that even follow most of these 613 commandments.

What I will do, is clarify this argument better.  William's argument, and point is this... if man lies with another man as he does with a woman, than that man is acknowledging that men and women are equals and deserve equal treatment.  Since the rest of Leviticus makes several claims that men and women are not equal, and women are subjective to men in a variety of ways, treating another man like he is a woman would not only be  disrespectful in the biggest way, but would also undermine all of these other commandments that establish this patriarchal system.

Things that the religious right and hard line conservative Christians say to back up policies of anti-gay sentiment often lead me to think about a pretty famous Canadian evangelical preacher.  Charles Templeton left the ministry in 1957 after 20 years as a devoted and moving evangelical preacher.  Templeton had been studying scripture at Princeton at the time, and denounced the faith abruptly.

Many many years later, Lee Strobel interviewed Templeton, and although Templeton had been a self imposed recluse and a staunch atheist, when asked about Jesus Christ, Templeton had this to say:

"He is the most important thing in my life... I adore him.  Everything good I know, everything decent I know, everything pure I know, I learned from Jesus".

There is more about that interview here.  What I take from this, is not an example of Christianity "winning" one against atheists, but rather, an example of how the religion has moved so far from it's original intent, purpose, mission.  Clearly, Templeton did not privately denounce his spirituality, but rather turned away from this religious propaganda machine that he helped make strong.  Mr. Portman, like Templeton, discovered that sometimes those things we learn from Jesus: compassion, love, ethics, are far more important than politics, social agendas, and phobias.  Jesus had, in effect, undermined the old Judaic system, which is something that the conservative right have been clinging to, regardless, ever since.

The best part of William's post is the last line when he states, "the bible is used as a weapon".  The best way to stop this is to be educated about what the text is actually saying, and to whom it is actually speaking.  What would Jesus do, indeed?  God, and the people at the time had specific reasons for commandments, and it is irresponsible to not take those factors into account when attempting to use certain passages as a basis for oppression.