more LEGO video fun – these are all music videos – but surprisingly, they missed The White Stripes one (see earlier post)?

enjoy…

candybowl

Came across an amusing article on Salon the other day – “Why it’s OK to love Styx” – Hmmm.

So for me, this band hit it big about the time I was attending Cub Scout Camp around 6th grade – we were all ‘Renegades‘ that summer to be sure – there were of course the obligatory older Boy Scouts around with at least a few boom boxes blasting this out nonstop (along with Queen and the rest – what would American junior high schools have been without ‘We Will Rock You‘? I submit – unsuccessful at most sports! And to think, all those conservative hicks were cheering a song written by THE most flamboyant – in every sense of the word – rock singer of all time – Fredde Mercury – the man who wrote the book on ‘mustache‘ – life works in strange ways, no? :))

Anyway, back to Styx. This article uses too many big words (zeitgeist? This is STYX, for pete’s sake) to get across a great point – F the people who criticize your music taste! And AS one of those critics for nearly all of the time I’ve loved music (ask Kerewin about the never-ending slagging of Huey Lewis and Oasis – the latter being no-talent poseur turds who really DESERVE slagging) I certainly have no room to judge. There were some rocking Styx tunes, although later stuff like the attempted apocalyptic/Orwellian Mr. Roboto was done far better, later, by Queensryche and others – Styx was simply too cheesy.

Every so often one of their songs comes up though – semi-regularly over in K-Land where a local cover band plays at least ‘Come Sail Away’ every night I’ve seen them – and plays it well, despite lack of keyboards. I’m convinced ‘Suite Madame Blue‘ is a Judas Priest ripoff but whatevs. Steal from the masters, not from losers, I always say.

candybowl

Haven’t blabbed about music in some time, so here goes. What are people listening to? Of late, I’ve actually tried some new(er) bands out – since I never listen to the radio, and don’t drive very much – I tend to rely on album reviews from The Stranger, The Weekly, occasionally Willamette Week, or random articles from the ‘Net as they come along. Some good stuff of late includes

People Eating People (seattleite too!);
Fruit Bats
Le Loup
Blue Scholars

and for the old school, have been getting back into Saga (sorry, Kirk :)) and even good ol’ Wall of Voodoo. gotta love Stan Ridgway!

tried (and failed) – Owl City – but this review is way harsher than I would have been – I just thought he was too derivative of the original synth bands first time around.

candybowl

Given that I suffer from a somewhat obvious malady probably fairly common among Americans – the ‘pack rat syndrome‘ – I accumulate things. Among these things, music is certainly essential. So, I keep adding and adding and adding songs to my iPod without always stopping to actually LISTEN to all these crazy songs. Of late I have begun trying to pre-screen the songs better before adding them, but with some bands, after hearing 1-3 songs, you simply add the entire album and enjoy.

Heartless Bastards are such a band – I suggest you check them out!

candybowl

A quick note that we had an excellent t-day feast (still recovering) – at a friends’ house here in Seattle with excellent company, conversation and food. The note is regarding the music playing in the background on someone’s iPod at low volume. What was funny was that every so often there would be a lull or break in the conversation(s) – and somehow a Led Zeppelin song seemed to rise up in the background every time to grab our attention. There’s nothing like stuffing your face to ‘The Immigrant Song‘, after all 🙂

candybowl