Noel Sanger-All We Are; Rhythm Section-Feel The Rhythm; Friction and Spice-Groove Me

There's three categories of music for me, and all three serve a specific purpose. They are as follows:

The Crap: Yeah, I tried to get around this category, but it's like driving past that huge slaughterhouse where there's about 3,000 cows farting at the same time. YOU JUST GOTTA ROLL DOWN THE WINDOWS AND SMELL FOR A SECOND. You regret it every time, but it simply has to be done. Examples: Toby Kieth, Nickelback, Tom Jones, etc.

The Great Stuff: This is music that can be listened to at any time, for any occasion, and unless its completely played out, a good time will be had. Examples: Radiohead, Pixies, Notorious BIG, Sly & the Family Stone.

The Good to Great Stuff that also has Nostalgia Going for it: This category has the most variation with regards to personal experience. For me, old school rap, skating rink freestyle music, 90s girl groups, and old school Florida beakbeats all figure prominently in this category, as well as bands like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, etc. Any music frequently enjoyed during childhood or the college years is capable of knocking me over with overwhelming feelings of nostalgia and melancholy-tinged excitement.

So I'm getting ready for a reunion with some old friends, both in human and record form. Needless to say, I am excited about the music. I'm also very excited about seeing my friends: the friends that know me like no one else knows me, and that sadly live so far away these days. It's gonna be a great time. :)

(NOTE: Firestone Live used to be The Club at Firestone, one of the best places to see breaks djs. I couldn't find a picture of their old logo, though)

Nas featuring Amy Winehouse-Cherry Wine; Amy Winehouse-You Know I'm No Good; Back To Black

This is a post about Nas, and my excitement about hearing exciting new music from him for the first time in a bit. I'm seeing a (primarily) old school hip hop festival this weekend, and while it is AWESOME to listen to old songs, hear great beats and feel nostalgic, it's also really cool to anticipate hearing new songs that could someday also be worthy of being added to the list of Nas classics. "Cherry Wine" is definitely a candidate.

Amy Winehouse sang a great hook on the new Nas song right before she passed, so this is also a post about her. Was she living the life of a total hot mess rock star cliche? Yup. Was her voice amazing? YUP. Seeing how her "management" allowed her to be propped up on stage towards the end when she was in really awful shape was pretty disheartening, but not all that surprising. It's probably better to remember that voice than the way the world gawked at a sick young kid as her life sadly slid down the drain.

Frank Ocean-Super Rich Kids; Tennis-Origins; Frankie Rose-Gospel/Grace

I unfortunately had to miss school the day I was planning to give a fun assignment last week, so I think I'll do it here. In the assignment the student pretends that he is going to write his memoir. He brainstorms what would be the ten chapter titles, and then chooses one of the chapters to write out as a full chapter. I'll write my ten chapter titles:

1. Paris, Je T'aime: I lived in Paris for the first two years of my life. Of course I don't remember anything from that time, but the pictures look pretty sweet! I went back and visited it years later and... it's great but I think I prefer Rome.

2. "Oh, Who Owns New York?": When we first moved to Manhattan, my sister, my father and I would walk down the streets of the city and sing songs. This was a favorite of ours.

3. Chewbacca Ate the Salt Shaker: We lived in Easthampton for a year in a type of house called a "salt shaker," but when our house in Southampton was done we moved there for seven years. We had a huge weeping willow in our front yard that we called Chewbacca.

4. M.I.A.: It's like I never knew ya!

5. A Trip To Disney World and Three Weeks Off School: When I was ten, we took our boat from New York to Florida. Eventually we moved there.

6. Medusa Turns To Stone: Everything changes with sis.

7. In the Gifted Program, Misbehaving Is Just Expressing Yourself Creatively!: Six years in the gifted program provided plenty of great friends and ridiculous situations that we were never held accountable for putting ourselves in.

8. Thank God For the Rain: The fall.

9. Give My Regards To The General: Dad gets Alzheimer's.

10. Hello, I Googled You, Won't You Tell Me Your Name?: Family finds me on the internet.

Here's three songs I've been digging on lately.

Outside Lands: Walkmen-Love is Luck; Tame Impala-It Is Not Meant To Be; Grandaddy-Summer Here Kids; Thee Oh Sees-Bloody Water; Metallica-Battery

I've been feeling kind of blaaaaaaaaah about rock music lately. Recently, I mostly just want to listen to electronic-based music of some sort. Well, there's no better way to reconnect with rock than to see some great live music. These are some from the first two days of Outside Lands:

Tame Impala- Damn. I never really gave them a chance a couple years ago when they first came out, but they're so good. Some of their songs sound like "Piper At The Gates of Dawn"-era Pink Floyd, and some just sound like a kick-ass '70s hard rock band. They have a new album coming out, but here's a great one from their first:



Thee Oh Sees are from SF, and they kick *ss. Lots of *ss. They combine garage rock and surf rock and kicking *ss.



The Walkmen: This was the third time I've seen The Walkmen, and they're just so damn good. Their drummer is godly, and though they've transitioned from a harder rock sound to a slower, country-tinged sound, they're still just as good. Here's a great song from their new album:



Grandaddy reunited for a few shows (and maybe more?), and wow am I glad. They were really great. My favorite album of theirs is "Under The Western Freeway," and they played three or four of my favorite songs from it. They're from Modesto, and the album perfectly captures that overwhelming feeling of ennui that some people get from that place (or any other dreary suburb).



Metallica closed Saturday night. Say what you want about Metallica sucking now, and being d-bags that whine about Napster all the time, you can never take away the greatness of Ride The Lightning and Master of Puppets. Period. They rocked. Hard.