There’s no doubt that Thriller (the track and the video) encouraged my love of Halloween and zombies. Thriller was quite possibly the first cassette I ever owned. I remember making a copy from someone (ah, the days before RIAA suits) and listening to it constantly with my awesome new Walkman. I remember to listening to Mom’s records before that (Pink Floyd and Foreigner most of the time), but getting the walkman was really the start of building my own musical collection. I was in sixth grade then – young enough to enjoy pop music unabashedly. Adolescence would bring new preferences. But in ’82 if I wasn’t at the arcade dropping quarters into Pac-Man or Galaga, I probably had headphones on and more than likely Thriller was running over the play head.
I may not listen to that music a lot anymore, but it’s refreshing to hear Michael pop up from time to time. I’ll be damned is this wasn’t one of the best feel good scenes I’ve seen in years:
Posted Friday, June 26th, 2009 12:10 PMNo Comments
Yesterday brought the debut release from Street Sweeper Social Club – the new band featuring Boots Riley (The Coup) and Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine).
The sound of SSSC is almost exactly what you’d expect from mashing up Boots and Morello – politically infused rap grooves with heavy guitar riffs and experimental solos all leading up to choruses meant to be sung loudly. Some criticize Morello for always sounding the same (from Rage, to The Nightwatchman, to SSSC), but that’s the nature of having a signature sound. There’s actually a lot of variety to what he does, but it’s always unmistakably him. As for Boots, he brings a great presence to the band – a little more chill than Zack de la Rocha, but also just as explosive. To put it simply, if you like Rage you will almost certainly love SSSC (or if not, don’t expect to be won over).
We saw SSSC open for NIN last month and even though we missed a few of their songs I was completely impressed. The band was crazy tight. Boots strutted and danced while he threw down. And Morello? That guy is a magician. He’s got blazing fret work. He DJ scratches over the pickups. But it was when he soloed with his face that we lost it. Here’s a video someone shot from the pit of the show we saw:
Posted Thursday, June 18th, 2009 12:15 PMNo Comments
We spent a crazy amount of time getting the deck and yard in shape this weekend. Pruning the trees and bushes always starts out enjoyable – especially when I get to play Mr Miyagi on the Japanese Maples. But after 15 hours over two days, the fun is long gone.
Just had a great weekend of camping in southern Indiana with Dave, Christian, and Nigel. The weather was absolutely perfect – very warm days with a little breeze and nice chilly nights – with none of the downpours that we usually get.
We did a 5+ hour hike on Saturday in the 80 degree weather. It started with a pretty treacherous climb down a steep muddy hill. From there, the hike turned wet and rocky as we followed a creek until we eventually got up to a set of waterfalls. After the falls we had to wind our way back up the cliffs and way back around the creek on high ground.
Back at camp we relaxed with games and beers and an awesome meal of steaks, brats, potatoes, peppers, and of course, s’mores. I think as we get older the camp food we eat is about the same, but we use better ingredients (gourmet meats and cheeses, etc).
Posted Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 12:28 PMNo Comments
Saturday night, D and I zipped over to Indy to catch one of the few Midwest stops of the NINJA tour. Although we’ve see Nine Inch Nails and Jane’s Addiction many times before, we haven’t seen them together since the first Lollapalooza tour in ’91. This tour is huge in so many ways. It’s the first time the original Jane’s lineup has been together since 91. It’s also the first time we’re seeing Tom Morello’s new band, Street Sweeper Social Club. But most of all, it’s Trent Reznor’s goodbye tour. Not that there won’t be any new Nails music ever again. But he’s recently engaged and ready to invest in other parts of life…stuff you can’t do in a tour bus.
Street Sweeper and Jane’s put on amazing sets each propelled by their guitar legends and strong front men. Morello and Navarro shredded solos song after song. Tom takes top honors though with playing one solo with his face and another using only the guitar TRS plug and a wah-wah pedal. He was kindly rewarded with 20,000 people singing Happy Birthday to him. But both of these acts were bookends to the main event…the last NIN show I may ever see.
The first time I saw NIN was in ’91 in Columbus. I went alone, got right up to the stage, and moshed to survive while Trent hovered over us. Over 18 years later I was on the other end of the spectrum – out in the lawn, with a bunch of friends – for this final show. In many ways it wasn’t the best Nails show I’ve seen, but in more ways it was the perfect one.
True, a lot of my favorites didn’t make it into the set list. I would have loved to see “Burn” or “Perfect Drug” once more. In fact, the only song from PHM was “Head Like a Hole”. But I have seen those performed before and it gave time for songs I haven’t seen. With six songs in the set list, the Indy show seemed centered on The Downward Spiral. But every album was touched (three each from Broken, Year Zero, and The Slip and one from Fragile and With Teeth). Metal and The Fragile were definitely down tempo highlights for me – I really gained a new love for both of those songs. And there were so many great manic moments (March, Gave Up, Hand that Feeds, Wish, and of course HLAH).
The weather was mild and sunny all day. As concert time approached, heavy clouds rolled in. Just as the sun began to slip away, the rain began to fall and tornado sirens could faintly be heard during Metal – as if some kind of feedback. The rain subsided for a bit then came back during The Fragile. The rain’s intensity built with the song as Trent screamed “I won’t let you fall apart”. Everyone in the lawn got soaked while they kept a watchful eye on the clouds, but I didn’t see anyone leave. Swirling clouds, rain, lightning in darkening skies continued into The Downward Spiral…it was perfect.
Into the final stretch of Mr Self Destruct, Physical, and HLAH the storm had past. Reportedly, Trent had planned to finish their set with HLAH, but the energy tonight was unique, which he commented on, and finished with Hurt. Lighters and cell phones blazed as the masses swayed. Sure it’s a rock concert clique, but it’ll be a goodbye I won’t forget.
NIN concerts:
Sin Tour 1991/01/28 Columbus, OH
Lollapalooza 1991/08/03 Chicago, IL
Further Down The Spiral Tour 1994/11/13 Columbus, OH
With Teeth Summer Tour 2006/07/03 Noblesville (Indy), IN
Wave Goodbye Tour 2009/05/30 Noblesville (Indy), IN
Posted Thursday, June 4th, 2009 4:14 PMNo Comments
