Thanks to inforoo for the tip.

   Hippies are some of the most beautiful people that I have ever encountered. And I'm not talking about appearances, I'm talking about who they are on the inside. Over those four days, the people there proved to me how gracious, caring, and concerned that they really are. I went in there with a preconceived notion that all hippies are, are smelly, pot-smoking, talk-the-talk-but-not-walk-the-walk, happy-colored-obsessed losers. And I was proved totally wrong.  Pretty big flip, huh?

   But I've noticed, while walking around the campus, that there's a shitload of posers out there. You'll start talking to these hippie-wannabes and you realize that they nothing about what's going on politically, listen to rap or country, and have no idea what a "Bonnaroo" or a "Vegoose" is. You'll see them wearing shirts saying "Peace and Love" and then you'll hear them support the war in Iraq and President Bush's death birgade. It fuckinf sickens me.  It's a far cry from the sights at Bonnaroo.

  Let me conclude by saying this: I'm not a hippie and I don't claim to be. I wish I could be but the facts are that I don't fully beleive in all of the ideas and am not totally willing to act on them. You have to understand that hippism was meant to be a way to detach yourself from society not a fucking fashion statement. Don't be a poser or a hypocrite.

The Second winner is Nine Inch Nails' Lollapalooza performance. This spectacle of music and lights wowed the crowd. Fans and non-fans alike. 

The third and final winner is Gogol Bordello's set at Bonnaroo. There is really only one word that can be used to describe this set. Party!

If you haven't guessed the winners yet they are Vampire Weekend and MGMT. Both of these bands seem to be on every festival's lineup. Their performances to massive crowds did not disappoint. Both MGMT and Vampire Weekend's sets at Bonnaroo were highlights of my summer festival season. If you didn't have the opportunity to check out these bands this summer don't worry. We are sure they will be around for a while.

So that's what 400,000 hippies looks like.

The first issue of this year's Generation (Volume 26, #1) came out today.  It's the first one I'm editor-in-chief for, and I worked my ass off to make it happen.

Check it out online at generation.buffalo.edu

Here's this week's I'm Right, You're Wrong and, finally, my Bonnaroo review.

Andre 3000 and Seven

The exceptional debut disc, Baduizm, was Erykah Badu's album that all the hip-hop heads played when they needed a break from the "bitches and bling" music that was clogging up the airwaves. Filled with materialism and macho posturing, Hip-Hop sucked...and we wanted a little more soul. Badu's soul-inspired-Hip-Hop joints cleared the airwaves like a fresh rain washes away all the LA smog we at eargoggles had become so accustomed to. The album came off like a well-executed hip-hop record; she kept it real, she proved her point, but did it through song rather than rap.

Badu continued to grow with Mama's Gun, her third release. It took the listener on a journey into a deep and tender jucier part of her soul; a place most artists would keep heavily guarded. From the opening whispers that are supposed to be the voices in her head, the listener is made to feel as if they stumbled onto the open diary of a woman who has poured her soul into the pages. At first, you feel bad for invading her privacy, but then you are drawn in and you can't turn away.

Mama's Gun concludes with "Green Eyes." Badu's brilliant, heart-wrenching, three-parter (featuring Roy Hargrove on trumpet), which was appearently was written just after the break-up of Badu and Andre 3000 (of Outkast), the father of her son Seven. Clocking in at a smidge over 10 minutes, the track is a moody, jazzy trip through the various stages of emotions one goes through when faced with sudden unrequited love.

From the opening lines of the "Denial" movement ("My eyes are green / 'Cuz I eat a lot of vegetables / It don't have nothing to do with your new friend"), to the admission of hurt in the "Acceptance?" movement ("Feeling insecure / Love has got me sore / I don't want no more"), and ending with the raw honesty of "The Relapse" movement ("Don't you want me? What's wrong with me / You told me we had a family / Wanna run to mama when you're down and low / Boy times get tough and there you go"), you can practacally hear the tears streaming down her cheeks as her voice cracks on the songs closing notes.

Reflecting on her breakup with her Andree she noted: "We were together for three years and we have a 3-year-old son named Seven. We are still together as a family. We are not a functioning couple, but we are a family. So therefore, I am not a single mother. My son has both a father and a mother who are very responsible."

She also confirms that "Green Eyes" is about her breakup. "It is very personal. It's a three-movement suite, 10 minutes long. I wrote that song in December 1998 and that was shortly after Dre and I decided to separate. It took such a big toll on my emotions that I had to write about it. And Dre thought it was important that I write about it as well. He said, `Yeah, you should write about it so other people can feel what we feel and know how that feels so they won't make the same judgment on themselves.' So we thought that it was important as artists that we use our outlet, music, and pray that our freedom of speech and art will aid someone else's growth."

The powerful tune details the stages of the breakup. "The first movement is called `Denial.' I was denying that I was even upset at all."

Badu continues, "The second movement is called `Acceptance?' with a question mark behind it. `Am I accepting this?' I was kind of starting to accept it. And the third movement is called `The Relapse.' You go through all these stages of heartache and getting over it. The Brother helped me through it is as much as he could," she laughs. "But that's something we have to do as adults. We can't make anybody else responsible for our feelings. I hope the song shares that bit of wisdom."

She loved OutKast's Stankonia with the hit Ms. Jackson, the song about a baby's mama's mother.

"I am the mother of his first son, so it may have something to do with me," she admits. "He wanted to give the world something to think about baby's mama's mother and baby's daddy. We are very proud of him, my whole family. My mom just laughs about Ms. Jackson. She and Dre are really pretty cool; they talk."

She explains that Andre is essentially saying in  the song, "`I apologize, my intentions were good. I never meant to make your daughter cry.' Nobody wants to do that. He is a very humble, good Brother. He is a really good person."

Trading Common Sense for Common

In 2000 assending Rapstar Common was in Chicago promoting his new release, eargoggles must-play favorite, "Like Water for Chocolate." The album had just been released 2 weeks prior; the night held two shows at the House of Blues with a break in between.

During the break in between the shows was where it all started. Common, Common Sense at the time, was go through the beginning phase of his transition from underground Hip-Hop artist and local hero into the mainstream Rap Act for MCA.

Up until this point a major record label had never invested three to five hundred thousand dollars into a Rap Act that wasn't from the East Coast, West Coast, or talking about negative things surrounding them. With the success of The Roots' 1998 smash album, Things Fall Apart, record companies started to look at "Rap" and Hip-Hop from a different point of view.

MCA thought that Common was the right artist at the right time and they were more than ready to exploit explore this new avenue of positive Black Music. He had the Mega-Platinum Lauryn Hill on a couple of tracks, yet he still had never reached gold status with any of his previous 3 albums (Reserection is a must for any Hip-Hop Heavy). Before Like Water for Chocolate his previous albums combined had not toppled the 500,000 (or Gold) sales mark.

Why the success with this album? This was during the time when Record execs thought the whole "Napster Fad" was going away; especially with the whole DRM thing. MCA was throwing an unprecidented level of money into this project considering it's content. All kinds of merch and promos. Billboards, radio airplay, retail displays, press, and tours. They were allocating more resources to Common than some of their Rock acts of that time. Common was on buttons, stickers, T-shirts, posters...

A promising thing at the time was that they were pushing the album's release date back because the orders were still coming in. Back in 2000, the number you sold in stores was directly releated to the amount that distribution set for it's sales goal to the stores before the album dropped. So, if Capital Records had your album at a national retail sales goal of something like 20,000, then that was how many they were expecting to sell-not much. But if the album demand increased at the store level, then the release date is pushed back and numbers re-calculated. Remember Pre-ordering albums? This was a gauge for the Record Companies. Gold and Platinum are certified by how many are sold to stores not by stores. The retail store orders for Like Water for Chocolate were somewhere around 340,000 when the album finally dropped in March of 2000-a prime spot to go Gold.

Swoop

--paraphrasing an account from an unknown source backstage:

Back at the House of Blues, Common had many of his Chicago-based friends of this new "Black-Positive" Movement there supporting him and collaborating with him. Erykah and (Common's Bandmate) Bilal performed in both of the shows and Mos Def came out as a surprise guest in the first of the two.

In between sets Erykah showed up in Common's dressing room wearing some extremely tall boots-almost fell down the stairs, stumpled here and there. Along with Bilal the two of them started drinking-smoking and having a good time. She sat down next to Bilal on a couch and that's when Bilal started in. He eased himself up to Erykah, talking to her, mumbling in a hushed tone in her ear. She was very receptive to the things that Bilal was saying-giving him a look of longing and acceptance. They had a couple more sips of their drinks and moved in closer.

Bilal wanted a refill, asked if Erykah could use one as well, and got up to get them some fresh cocktails. As he got up they looked at each other very intensely. Erykah was giving him that "come back to me baby" look she very seldom, if not ever, used and he exited. As if out of a Notorious BIG lyric Soon as he buy that wine / I just creep up from behind Common walks in to the dressing room, trimmed beard-Kangol hat-nicet fitted suit- to "talk" to Erykah. She was equally receptive to Common's game as Bilal's. At this point she was single, Andre and her were and had been broken up for a while, and she was possibly a little lonely. Probably could have been any smooth talking gent at that time that would catch her ear. Few moments later, Bilal returns to the dressing room drinks in hand and a shocked look upon his face. Common had swooped in on his game. He sat down in another chair, sipped the two drinks in his hands and tried to play it off like nothing happened.

By now Common had Erykah fully engaged in conversation, but not as intense as Bilal and Erykah's had been, it was as if they were old friends catching-up. Anyone in the room could tell that something was happening in there though, whether that was the beginning or not...you could tell that Common had influenced her that night-or she was under some kind of influence.

Electric Circus

Just as Common had influenced Erykah Badu, Badu had inturn influenced Common. On his next album, Electric Circus (2002 MCA), if was instantly apparent that Badu had done something to Common. Whether that was a good thing or not was for the people to decide. The underground rapper who used to tote a 40oz as a young buck was now exploring a whole new sound on this record. Many guests (Badu, Mary J Blige, Jill Scott and even Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier) and guest producers (?uestlove, J-Dilla, and the Neptunes) make the album hard to swallow for some of his evergrowing fanbase; here at eargoggles we embraced it. Like some Herbie Hancock records in the 70s (Fat Albert Rotunda, Mwandishi, Man-child.....) he brought in outside influences and ran with it. Not all of the tracks mixed, but if Prince were to do a Hip-Hop record this would be the closest thing to it. Upon a recent roadtrip through the Berkshires some of us at eargoggles (re)listened to the album amongst the beauty that is New England. Wasn't too fitting, but really funked up the drive. Man, the Red Sox are really getting on our nerves...Go Angels!

Still Ms. Badu couldn't take the most maddening (or maybe the most endearing) trait the Common has away from him-- his unapologetic earnestness. The Black Panther Salute-like-Neo-Soul-Bohemian influences didn't seem to fit, but what drove Electric Circus was an exploration of personal shortcommings and a lot of musical ambition. With the help of ?uestlove he took Stereolab into the Hip-Hop realm way before Pharrell; where do you think he got the idea? (Pharell is a featured artist on Electric Circus.) Nevertheless, the record is a spacy-good time that will take you to another place in the universe if you aren't prepared.

Just Be

After disappointing the hardcore Hip-Hop Heads with his last effort, the (over)exploratory Electric Circus in 2002, Common was sent back into the studio with longtime friend (and nobody at the time) Kanye West and Detroit producer Jay Dee (later changed his Name to J-Dilla). The result was the critically acclaimed Be, which leans on Common’s raw lyrical artillery of clever rhymes and metaphors. He went back to his dapper ways, dropped the hippie act and started smooth-talkin the ladies again. He also introduced the world to John Legend, but that's a whole other post all together.

Creatively, it’s between two albums, Can I Borrow a Dollar and Electric Circus.

Taken from:

Associated Press Mon, May. 23, 2005

AP: Perhaps your fans didn’t believe that the album essentially came from within you, rather more from your then-girlfriend Erykah Badu.

Common: (Laughs.) The album was all me at that time. I go through changes. If you look at my career, I started off holding 40-ounce (of beer) on my first cover. I grow and I go through changes. I think that there was a period in my life that I was trying to find myself, maybe trying to find myself in that relationship too. That was one of my transitional periods and that isn’t always going to fly with the masses.

AP: What do you say to critics who thought you got soft and impressionable during the making of your last album?

Common: Where I’m from and how I was raised, I never got to prove that I’m hard. My music never comes from anyone else.

AP: When you started recording Be, where you already broken up?

Common: We had been broken up for a little while, and it was a time where I was really grounded. It came to me at a hard time in life where I was really hungry.

AP: What are you trying to convey artistically on Be?

Common: That first of all, I’m a human, I’m a person. I experience different emotions like love, sexuality, creativity. I just want to show the sides of who I am as a being. I tried to not think about my sales, what I’ve done in the past. I was in the moment when making this album.

AP: After all these years, how do you keep on reinventing yourself and not get bored like most artists?

Common: I try to find new challenges, new things that excite me. On my last album it was about breaking boundaries and convention in hip-hop. Part of the challenge this time was that people where kind of doubting me, so that got me hungry.

AP: Would you ever consider having another public relationship like you did with Erykah Badu?

Common: I don’t think I would. I wouldn’t hide behind a relationship either, but one thing I do think is that sometimes you open up so much that you allow other energies to come in. And if it’s vulnerable at that time, then, you know, it can get messed up.

Badu 2008

“Don’t listen to the tabloids, they’re not always true, but what they say about me and the men? Yeah, that’s true," pans Badu on the taping of her February 2008 VH-1 Soul's Storytellerss. "I got ’em wearing crochet pants, but they still soldiers.” With thunderous laughter and knowing chuckles from the female fans in the crowd, Badu introduces her next single off the album “Soldier 7.”

What is it that they say about Badu and her men?

They ride bicycles????

Erykah Badu used to be a strong woman, with strong woman ideals and some sort of cred now she may be sending out the wrong message by becoming Hip-Hop's town bicycle.

She is now pregnant with her 3rd child. No big deal, congrats! That's wonderful. But...the father is that guy Jay Electronica, a self-proclaimed genius--which nobody has heard of right?. Not only that though; it's her 3rd different father. Happens all the time...but she was supposed to be a role-model some say. All kinds of people in the Hip-Hop world universe are in an uproar. Which caused Erykah to post this.

How dare you disrespect the queendom and my children and my intelligence.

Ive never been so disgusted in all of my life. There is no other place i used to enjoy more I post no where else .you guys have taken an all time low , tho.

I am an excellent mother and resent all of the negative comments and insults on my character. I put much time and thought into having and raising my children. Ive had the honors of having 2 home births and 2 wonderful partners by my side.

Every relationship i have been in was because i loved the person dearly and was dedicated to us "exclusively" for a number of years. The fathers of my children are my brothers and friends .we have a great deal of respect for one another and always will.

We love our children to no end. We took our own "vows" and continue to uphold them. And that is what that is .

Is it really "good" to stay in a relationship where both parties are unfulfilled , longing for relief , bringing one another down as a result of improper training , creating bad energy and experiences for the child to repeat ? (not to mention breeding deceit and anger and resentment )

How many of you grew up in 2 parent homes that were miserable as fuck ? Or 2 parent homes that were not perfect but worked? How many grew up in one parent homes where the mother worked hard to make sure you were cared for but she wasnt quite happy? How about a home where the father was the main care giver and did the best he could -lacking nurture? How many of you have a sibling that has a different father or mother? Does he or she mean less to you? How many of you have more than 1 mother or father of your own children ? How many of you had /or / are parents responsible enough to make good decisions for yourself and your children ,that dont quite fit any of these descriptions?
How many of you stay in unhealthy relationships for fear of going to hell?

Birth control lol- could have 10 babies instead of 2 .your opinions lack experience and are not only careless but also very uninformed and immature. Nothing is sacred here . And i see why.

If i loose you as a fan because i want to continue to have children then fuck off-who needs you-certainly not me |kick rocks ¦ call tyrone ¦ pack light â. Bite me

I have defended myself here on this site and hurled a few insults .. But only in response to your insults of my music , my clothes , my lyrics , my hair , my being a woman , my spirit, my choices of partners.

And if this post is not clear
kiss my placenta.

Nice.

Here's a recent interview from

GIANT MAGAZINE

“I know about the backlash, the ‘Erykah Badu, if you look at her, she’ll make you change gods and wear crochet pants’ backlash,” she says. “But nobody looks at the things that those people have given to me.”

What have they given you?

“Just so much musical freedom. Common is the most humble person I ever met. Kind and generous. He reinforced that in me. Andre is very creative and artistic. All of that that you see of him, that’s all him. That’s how he is, and that gave me a creative push, too.”

Although Badu is fairly cryptic when discussing her old beaus, she allows this brief, whispered indulgence.

“With Andre, we were both very young, so we didn’t know what we wanted or anything. We just knew we were in love, and we didn’t care who saw us. With Common, it was a little bit more mature.”

Whoa, lots going on there.

But why all the stories and info about these folks?? One reason... We just picked up an EP with the same theme as this post/feature from eargoggles' staple Turntable Lab.

Here's the write-up:

Feelgood summertime remixes from Plug Label head Kero One. His remix of Common's "The Light(1)" is super-satisfying like Pacificos by the pool. Warm melodic guitar loops and crisp drums give it substance, play it at your next outdoor gig and feel the warm vibes fill the air. Kero's remix of Erykah Badu's "On And On(2)" keeps a similar pace as the original, but adds that LA cosmic soul flourishes and swagger. On the flip, he adds some fatback drums and 70s synths to Outkast's "Roses(3)," and makes it into a song that both the ladies and beatheads can get down to. Three for three is rare, but Kero comes through. Also includes instrumental versions of "The Light" and "Roses."

Rock out and protect the planet??  Who knew you could do both?!  Well, now you can by purchasing the new CLIF GreenNotes Protect the Places We Play  benefit album.  I was ecstatic when I first heard about this album because not only does it involve protecting the planet, it also features some of my favorite musicians!  Just to name a few... John Butler Trio, Missy Higgins, Gomez, Mason Jennings, Michael Franti & Brett Dennen.

What's so cool about GreenNotes is that they support emerging musicians who are passionate about the environment.  They actually help artists reduce their environmental impact by integrating several eco-friendly touring practices.  Such practices include fueling their buses with biodiesel, printing on recycled paper using soy-based ink, selling organic cotton t-shirts at shows, working to provide locally and organically grown foods backstage, and buying renewable wind energy credits to offset their remaining carbon dioxide emissions.

If you're a music guru like me, you would also like to know that CLIF GreenNotes has partnered with events such as Bonnaroo, Telluride Bluegrass Festival, Green Apple Music and Arts Festival, etc.  Hope to see you at one of the shows!!  Let's Rock! 

Kelsey - Vail, CO :)

So, at some point when I was trying to cross the country in the last two days Holepuncher crossed 1,000 visits since I started the blog a little over a month ago.  And, no, wordpress doesn't count visits from the author in its stats (and, yes, I double checked).  Even with purposefully using Metallica to generate search traffic I'm still surprised it reached this number so quickly.  I guess it just really goes to show you that people will google just about anything...Seriously though, thanks for visiting and thanks to those who have mentioned Holepuncher to others.  Now, on to the music!

Since I like the number 1,000 today's song is one with that very number in the title.  "1,000 Times" comes from the 2002 album In Our Gun by British band Gomez.  I realize that a sharp observer of this blog might think that 99% of my music collection consists of albums from 2002 or 2003, but that's just how it's worked out.  Promise.  Don't hold it against Gomez, because they're a really good band and In Our Gun is a really good album.   They're a tough act to categorize and this album is one of the main reasons why.  At times you can find influences of classic rock, blues, britpop (whatever that means), and alternative rock in Gomez's music.  On In Our Gun, the band added electronic sounds to that mix .  Currently, it seems a lot of folks think of Gomez as a jam band.  Maybe it's because they're on Dave Matthews' record label or because they've played Bonnaroo a couple times or aren't afraid to use instruments like banjos, but forget all that hippy nonsense.  Gomez is a rock band who just happens to be able to do a lot of different things well.  There.  Settled.

Want to hear something a little loopy?  I first heard Gomez while on hold with Gateway Computers' customer service.  That was 1999 and I still remember it though, shoot, I can't remember exactly which song it was now ("Devil Will Ride" from Liquid Skin is my best recollection).  Point is they were a band that stuck out to me even over the phone and much of this has to do with singer Ben Ottewell.  Ben's just one of three men who share vocal duties in Gomez, but he's got a very distinctive, big voice and Gomez knows exactly how to use it.  If nothing else, homeboys know how to delegate.  Even when one of the three singers is featured less or not at all in one of their songs the end result still feels like Gomez.  They have a collectively singular identity.  "1,000 Times" isn't a tune that wouldn't even crack my top ten list of Gomez favorites, but it's nonetheless a pretty good showcase of Ottewell's voice.

Download Gomez - "1,000 Times"

If you like this tune, you'll like Gomez.  But if you don't, you might still like Gomez because there are so many other songs that sound nothing like "1,000 Times."  Take, for example, "Catch Me Up," from 2004's Split the Difference:

I wasn’t able to goto the recent Tom Petty Show.  I heard that after he played the SB his shows sold out in less than a half-hour.  The man is a genius.  A classic American Voice, great songs that young and old know, and a great showman taboot!  In the past year he has brought out an exceptional album by his original band, Mudcrutch.  If you haven’t picked it up, you should.  It has a 70’s southern rock feel to it.  And it has an amazing back-story.  The band started in 1970 with Petty being the front man and his good pal, Tom Leadon on Guitar.  The band started out in Gainesville Florida.  (Home of the writer of this blog’s most hated college.  I am sure if there was one thing I would not like about Petty is the fact that I am sure he is a Gators fan.)  The band made several lineup changes and finally brought out a single in 1975 which didn’t chart.  The band then broke up until 2007 when Petty decided to get the band back together. 

Can you imagine?  You have been living your life all these years.  Over thirty to be exact.  You have watched your friend make it big, win awards, date whoever he wants, live the dream, and one day he decides, hey why don’t we finish what we started?  You get a call just randomly.  Here is how I think the call went. 

Petty:  “Hey Leadon, it’s Tom.”

Leadon:  Tom who?  Do you realize that it is 2 O’clock in the morning? 

Petty:  Tom Petty, you remember?  From our days back in Gainesville? 

Leadon:  What do you want?  I have to get up @ 5 in the effin morning. 

Petty:  I have been up all night here in London thinking about getting the band back together. 

Leadon:  Did the Heartbreakers break up? 

Petty:  No Dumbace, Mudcrutch!

Leadon:  And your calling me because…..

Petty:  Cause we need our guitarist.

Leadon:  Call me back when you get off of your binge.  I always knew you couldn’t hold your liquor. 

Petty:  No seriously, I am clean as a whistle.  A whistle filled with the GREEN! 

Leadon:  Let me ask the wife.

Petty:  LOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNGGGGGG PAUSE then hysterical laughter.

Leadon:  What in the hell is so damn funny? 

Petty:  You.  You are all suburban.  You used to be a wild man. 

Leadon:  Well, now I have a mortgage, kids, a wife, a job.  You know what one of those are? 

Petty:  forget all that stuff.  I will set up some recording time.  This will be huge…..

And the rest is rock history. 

The Album is great.  He took some of their older songs, mixed in some new stuff they wrote, and wala, a great album. 

The Music for Friday however is from Tom Petty’s set @ Bonnaroo from 6-16-06.  It is a pretty good recording.  FOB. 

 http://www.sendspace.com/file/wqq7l2

My only beef with this show is that Stevie Nicks make an appearance.  I hate Fleetwood Mac/Stevie Nicks with all my passion, almost as much as the Cure.  Other than that it is a pretty good show. 

Enjoy! 

If anyone knows of a good Traveling Wilbury’s show to DL let me know. 

Hey Peeps!

Sorry I haven’t rapped at ya lately.  I have been on vacation, and trying to get out of this Vacation Depression.  I now know why I usually take the Monday off after a Vacation.  That sucked. 

Well it is Friday, and I have been thinking for the past few days what I could send out to the masses.  I really haven’t gotten anything lately that I can legally send out.  I have picked up a few discs, but due to the lovely RIAA, I am unable to share those with you.  I am sure though that you all have the means to purchase/download any of the discs I mention. 

 So here goes.  My current musical obsession.  I get in a groove if you will (or if you won’t I really don’t care) with certain bands, and play the snot out of them.  I have done this pretty much my entire life.  I can remember as a kid wearing out VH’s 1984 while riding my ten-speed on a walk-man.  Those were good times…riding around the block, singing Jump @ the top of my lungs.  Now I realize why all of my neighbors looked at me weird. 

 The month of July was all about The Who.  I don’t really know where it started.  I have their greatest hits, and have had it forever.  (What can I say?  I am a sucker for the compilations.)  From there I did some searching on TV and found that there was basically a Who marathon on the HD channels.  I caught, The Who’s Rock Honors.  This was amazing.  Foo Fighters, The Flaming Lips, Tenacious D, and an AMAZING performance by Pearl Jam doing Love Reign O’er me.  It was one of those jams where you just want to turn the volume on about 35 and just let the music drape over you like a rushing lava flow. 

From there came an amazing discovery.  I have been listening to The Who pretty much my entire rock-loving life.  They have always been one of my favorites.  I mean seriously.  If you don’t like the Who, you need to check yourself.  I can remember back in the day watching a video of Keith Moon with my friend Mike.  The man looked like he was freaking possessed.  The guy was amazing.  During the Rock Honors show Daltry was talking about how Moon joined the band.  He said that during one of their gigs Keith came up either after the show, or during a break and said that he wanted to join their band because he was a better drummer than the one they currently had.  Now that took some balls.  And the rest they say is history.  Where was I?  I seriously had to just re-read the first sentence to see what I was talking about.  Ok.  Now I remember. 

Quadrophenia-The name even sounds cool.  I can’t ever remember listening to this album in its entirety.  I really thought that I wouldn’t like it for some reason.  And to tell you the truth, I have no idea why I would ever think that.  Maybe it was because it was a Rock Opera. 

From the opening of I Am The Sea, to the ending of Reign O’er Me it is amazing.  Every single song is great.  It has a GREAT story, and the music is spot on.  The Rock Opera tells the story of Jimmy.  Jimmy is basically all of the members of The Who, and the personalities that they bring to the band.  You will have to listen to it to get the full experience.  Trust me though that it will be enjoyable. 

Essential Cuts:

The Real Me

The Punk and the Godfather

Is It In My Head

5:15

Drowned

Love, Reign o’er Me

I have never been a fan of Tommy though.  I keep trying to get myself to DL, and give it a shot, but I never do.  In my book, Quadrophenia is where it is at.  I believe there is a Who live performance of Quad, but I am not sure what album that is (anyone know?).  I do however have the Phish live performance (10-31-95), and it is amazing!! 

Recent new Music/Music Revisited

Menomora—Friend or Foe—VERY GOOD.  Pick it up. 

MMJ, Evil Urges—When this one came out, I was like WTF is up with all these falsettos.  But after hearing the recording from Bonnaroo, and listening to it a few dozen times, it has really grown on me. 

On a side note…  If you don’t have HD, you really are missing out on some great Music.  They have tons of channels on there that show nothing but Music in HD.  Concerts, videos, docs.  Check it.  Not only that, Football has started again, and you don’t want to miss the action in HD!!!

Kanye goes off just before the end of his show and talks about the state of the hip-hop union.

Mr. West expresses his supreme admiration for Nas and then heaps praise on Soulja Boy, then mumbles something about the South and how we have to "open our fucking minds" and "be more accepting".

He then talks about being called "gay" for wearing his jeans "the fresh way". I love it when mainstream rappers go against the grain and call out homophobes.

In my opinion though, skinny jeans have nothing to do with being gay, they're just wack as fuck. Give it a view.

A few people have forwarded this story to me, recently, about the death of arena rock. Apparently, the days of Bruce Springsteen or The Who filling huge outdoor theaters every other year are behind us. There won't be another band who can fill an arena for 30 years straight. This, apparently, means that gone is the sensation of being part of a large crowd all singing along together with the artist.

As is often the case, the journalists are looking at a static situation and deciding it either is or it isn't. What they're failing to consider is that it might just be evolving.

In 1990, when I spent my junior year of college in Coventry, England, one of the things I noticed is the incredible number of music festivals that happen every summer. On the back pages of Q and NME, you could see the massive lineup for any one of what seemed like 20 different festivals, and all the names on the page were huge - Paul Weller, Elvis Costello, Blur, Happy Mondays, etc.

So, fast forward to 2008 and what do we have here in the United States? Coachella, South by Southwest (SXSW), Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza... and that's just a few. This past weekend's Lollapalooza drew over 225,000 people. I watched some woman do sign language for Radiohead with over 70,000 others.

What this article laments is the fact that no one band is going to be able to fill an arena for 30 years straight. This may or may not be true. But the onset of successful music festivals is simply the evolution of that model. Who cares whether one band or 70 bands draw a huge crowd to a huge venue.

The more important question, to me, is are the masses still involved and engaged in music, and I think the answer is a loud and resounding "absolutely."

This poster was made by yours truly. This is a killer combination: Chromeo and MSTRKRFT. Chromeo put on one of the best lives shows I've ever seen at Bonnaroo and I've heard stories about MSTRKRFT performances. Maybe they will team up and come to Columbus. *fingers crossed*

Chromeo - Tenderoni (MSTRKRFT Remix)

[audio http://thegrip.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/chromeo_tenderoni_mstrkrft_remix.mp3]

The young people were lured to Shrine Field by what they thought would be "Bonnaroo 2---A Love-in With Purpose." A flood of Gray Sox PR efforts touted the so-called Bonnaroo 2 for weeks. Unfortunately for the estimated 10,000 young people who made the pilgrimage, Bonnaroo 2 wasn't a cultural or musical festival at all. Instead, the event simply marked the promotion of a new player from the team's AAA team in Des Moines: Jesus Bonnaroo, a promising infielder from the Dominican Republic who made news while in Des Moines because of an accident involving farm equipment and several homing pigeons.

No Sex, No Drugs, But Free Hot Dogs

 "I don't understand how this could have happened," said a confused teenager. "We had such a great time at Bonnaroo in June, so we thought the promoters were just following up with another show by calling it 'Bonnaroo 2.' News spread fast online. We just text-messaged friends, and it snow balled, I guess. Here we are. I just really need to take a piss." 

"I love young people coming out to the park to watch the Sox," said Sox owner Hiram "Happy" Maloney. "It shows the strength of our great game of baseball. We gave them each a complimentary hot dog and wished them a safe trip home."

The young rowdies tossed the hot dogs on to the field followed by "assorted ointments, gels, and paperback copies of The Chronicles of Narnia," according to members of the stadium's field crew.

(Story Monty Huekle, a reporter for BBN. This story was not subject to the approval of MSBL or its teams.)

A pretty good starting point for thriving and surviving a summer music festival. It should also be added that you want to avoid a few things in particular to have a great time at shows this summer.

1. Dairy products
2. Jimmy Buffett concerts
3. Guys that look like the one below, particularly if they ask if you know where to "score" and if you're "cool" or not.

Check out the guide here.

File Name: MMJ Bonnaroo 1.zip
File Size: 206 MB
Download Link: http://www.sendspace.com/file/addndr

File Name: MMJ Bonnaroo 2.zip
File Size: 112 MB
Download Link: http://www.sendspace.com/file/00lbzd

Setlist:

My Morning Jacket
Which Stage,Bonnaroo Music Festival,Manchester,TN
6/13/08
RETURN TO THUNDERDOME pt 2:
cd # 1 Set 1:

Evil Urges
Off the Record
Gideon
Hot Fun(Sly & the Family Stone) with Jeff Coffin on saxophone and the Nashville/Louisville Horns
Highly Suspicious
What a Wonderful Man
I’m Amazed
Thank You Too
Touch Me Pt 1
Sec Walkin
Golden
Two Halves
Laylow
Hit it and Quit it(Funkadelic)
Tyrone(Erykah Badu)

cd # 2 Set 1 cont…
Steam Engine
Anytime
Aluminum Park
Easy Morning Rebel with Jeff Coffin and the Nashville/Louisville Horns
Dancefloors with Jeff Coffin and the Nashville/Louisville Horns
One Big Holiday featuring Kirk Hammett of Metallica
Set 2:Cold Sweat with Jeff Coffin and the Nashville/Louisville Horns
Get Down On It(Kool and the Gang) with Jeff Coffin and the Nashville/Louisville Horns
Across 110th Street(Bobby Womack & Peace) with Jeff Coffin and the Nashville/Louisville Horns
Wordless Chorus
Phone Went West

cd # 3
Mahgeetah
Oh Sweet Nuthin(Velvet Underground)
Librarian
Bermuda Highway
Dondante
Run Thru
Smokin from Shootin
Touch Me Pt 2
Home Sweet Home(Mötley Crüe) featuring Zach Galifianakis as Annie

Is there anything this girl can't do? From modeling in Marc Jacobs ads to donating money to build a school in Africa, and, oh yeah, making two of the most critically acclaimed albums of the last few years. Lets hope the retirement rumors that were started at Bonnaroo and have yet to be denied are false.

But it looks like the next release from M.I.A. will be a clothing line, which has been rumored for some time since when she's not wearing Jeremy Scott onstage she is rocking her own designs. If you go to her site, there is a video that appears to be an advertisement for her clothing line with the tag line "coming soon." The clothes look Bright, Bold and Brash, which is exactly what you would expect from M.I.A. According to the site, the line will have a limited run.

Here are some photos of Oakley Leslie rocking what might be the much rumored M.I.A. line:

And speaking of another critically-acclaimed artist getting into the designing world, get ready to rock your favorite electro stars Justice's new line. They have crafted leather jackets and jeans with Surface to Air, which can be purchased at select boutiques as well as on the Surface to Air site. But looking like your favorite French electro duo isn't going to come cheap as the leather jackets will set you back a cool 800 euro's.

Check it out:

--Mikey

Devoid of distractions again (except my full-time occupation), I can once again confidently suggest, Where Isn't My Mind? It's all over the place, I tell ya.

We have lots of catching up to do. It will be on my terms, so I may continue to post only sporadically. But content is coming. This blog isn't dead yet.

BTW: The last two days of Bonnaroo = sort of a mixed bag (made of hemp, obviously). Pearl Jam was incredible. Ben Folds was fun. Broken Social Scene sounded awesome. Ghostland Observatory made me dance even though my sandals were caught in the mud. 

Cat Power sucked (Would it kill you to play something off You Are Free?). So did Jack Johnson. The same would have been true for Kanye, but I didn't have the energy to wait up for his pompous ass. Death Cab For Cutie was a huge letdown. That's how Bonnaroo ended for me. As prophesied, I skipped Widespread Panic. Go ahead middle-aged hippies, flame away. Continue to insinuate that I love bands like Chicago, even though every other post on this blog suggests otherwise.