Band Names

So you know how people say we're all here for a reason/we all have some kind of gift or talent? I'm not ever very sure that I've found mine, but one curious thing that I find I have an affinity for is coming up with weird band names. I wish I'd kept track of some of these over the years (uh, hello, use your blog) but unfortunately easy come, easy go. However, I thought I'd share one recent co-creation that was inspired by a game of charades and SNL's Jeopardy parody. So in the charades, the word was "Psychology" and the guesses had kind of stalled at "Psycho G". As one of the partygoers has the nickname "G", it took awhile before someone put the pieces together and got "Psychology" rather than Psycho G. But then, this reminded some of us of the Sean Connery character Jeopardy parody on SNL, in which he picks the category "Therapists" as "The Rapists". Perhaps I should have thought a little longer before speaking, but I said to the group, "hey, how about that as a band name, Psycho G and The Rapists?!" I do recall there may have been a gasp or two and some other assorted reactions. I didn't mean to make light of rapists or raping, of course. I just pictured a poster with "Psycho G and Therapists" and the real in the know fans of the band would pronounce it as the rapists while others would wonder if there shouldn't be a "the" in front of therapists. 

And today, there was an incident (more to follow in another entry perhaps) that I called "The Waffle Explosion" and then thought, hey, another possible band name. Can you picture the poster? I'm seeing it as done by a talented and funky graphic artist, with text something along the lines of... "Psycho G & Therapists (The Rapists??) with special guests The Waffle Explosion. Tickets $15 at the door". 

I will conclude by noting a real band name that I think is very clever. Canada's The Tragically Hip. Good stuff. And while I'm giving shout-outs (oh, did I just say that, I did a half cringe/half throw up in your mouth - shout out??? really??? gag) I would be remiss to not mention Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. Perhaps not totally appropriate band name for this particular post, but hey, I like their CD and I saw them in concert and it was good. (I guess music reviewer is definitely not my talent - can you imagine? "Saw Pink last night. She sang. It was cool." or "Lollapalooza this year, a lot of bands, some good, some not so good, a few awful.") Okay, I said I was concluding but then I decided to throw in one more thing... Not sure how "true" this is but I heard that The Talking Heads were going through some sort of battle over use of the name after the group was splitting up and so the one faction called their album "No Talking, Just Head". That cracks me up.

Dixie Chicks Debaucle Documentary

A couple years ago I was recommended to watch "Shut Up and Sing", a documentary about the Dixie Chicks and the incident around comments made about then president GW Bush.
Sure, I recalled vaguely that the band had made some comment - in my memory it was at some sort of award show (turns out that wasn't the case).
I eventually ended up seeing the documentary (and saw it a 2nd time a few months ago) and learned a bit more about the 2003 incident and (more importantly) the events that came afterwards.
I don't want to spoil it, so I won't say much, but a couple of years afterwards, the group put out an album called "Taking the Long Way" that references some of those events. After having seen the documentary, the lyrics in "Not Ready to Make Nice" are pretty powerful. And on a music note, the whole album is quite good, particularly so a few songs.

Celtic Concert Contemplation

So I went to a concert the other night that featured a celtic band. They were quite diverse and the whole experience was very enjoyable. Small venue. The woman in the band who spoke the most was very funny, with a Scottish accent. She liked to tell a bit of a story about the songs they would play and they were very improvisational. 'What should we play now?' they'd say to one another and then pick something. At one point she said they were going to do a song by this guy called Time Will End (the song, not the guy - and I think that's what she said, don't quote me). She said that she thought this was a neat title and she emailed this guy to ask what the story was behind his song, thinking it might be very cool. He said he was "contemplating his navel" when he wrote it but that if she came up with a good story, be sure to let him know. So she put it out to the audience to do just that. She said if anyone wanted to share and had a good one, she'd use it at future concerts and even give them credit.

So they start playing and I sort of zone out a bit and just let the music wash over me. Wow, that sounded so incredibly cheesy that I feel nauseous. It wasn't that weird. So anyway, I'm seeing if anything comes to me from listening to the music but all I can think of is the navel contemplation and I find myself kind of wishing that she hadn't put that in because it's interfering with me thinking of anything. Then suddenly stuff comes to me. So I thought I'd share...

I visualized a guy sitting in a room and literally staring at his belly button. (I didn't think until right now the symbolism involved in this, being that the umbilical cord unites mother and baby blah blah). Anyway... I see him doing this and then the screen goes wavy and we whoosh into his belly button in a sort of tornado like motion. There we see, sort of in miniature, a whole little 'village' in which the grass roofed huts are being lit on fire by marauders and people are running and screaming (there's no noise but you know they are). Then it morphs in the tornado way again and we see another scene. Each scene is a different time period but all sad in theme (or evil or what have you). The feeling that came up was depressing. Like since the beginning of time there has been ugliness (killing, hatred, etc) among humans and it will never change kind of thing.

At this point the music of the song kind of changes and I feel there's a different tone to it (not musical tone, just ... you know). So then I see the same kind of thing as before except now the scenes are more happy or at least ... emotional is the only word I can think of... like weddings or children being born or something. I think at the end of the song perhaps it zooms back out and we see the guy sitting in the room again, kind of expressionless.

------

"That's my story...and I'm sticking to it."
(Borrowed from a live version of "Highway Girl" by The Tragically Hip - very very very cool song).

One Ring, One Cup (One Bourbon, One Scotch & One Beer)

I'm listening to sports radio today and I hear this rather interesting story about a Stanley Cup ring found in the waters of Mexico.
Here's a link to a print version of the story... http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/TopStories/ContentPosting.aspx?feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V2&showbyline=True&newsitemid=CTVNews%2F20070823%2FStanley_Cup_Ring_070823

So they find a ring from the last time the Leafs won a Cup (1967). This reminds me of "Fifty Mission Cap" by The Tragically Hip (hockey & The Hip, does it get anymore Canadian than that...) which describes the story of Bill Barilko. (Basically, he scored an OT goal that won the Leafs the Cup - then he died - his body was recovered 11 years later which was the next time the Leafs won a Cup.)

Now, like a lot of hockey fans, I enjoy a good ribbing of the Leafs. And if you'd asked me earlier today whether they'd win a Cup anytime soon I would have laughed (no offense). But now...spooky...finding that ring is a sign! This is the year!

Culture....Only in Yogurt?

So I've been reading this book (Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs... A Low Culture Manifesto by Chuck Klosterman) and it may inspire several blog entries. This being the first. And if I don't do others, the last too. Which would make it the only. But anyway...

So I'm reading one particular chapter and I come across this...
"The most wretched people in the world are those who tell you...."
(wait for it...)
"...they like every kind of music 'except country'."

When I read this I think I actually may have blushed. Or something. I think I also looked around furtively to see if anyone knew "my secret". Which would be that I have said a variation of the above on occasion. It was sure a shock to think that *I* could be among the most wretched people in the world. I mean, I'm not always the nicest, but I think that's ok. Anyway, CK goes on to say that "People who say that are boorish and pretentious at the same time."
Damn, and just the other night I was saying I didn't like pretentious guys (people). Now I have to face that label possibly sticking to me along with boorish. Ouch. (He goes on to say that of course this only applies to "new" not "old" country music).

You know, this was all a lot better in my head. I think I even had a point. Oh well. Somebody else take over...

Lament on Leaves

Just in case you're not aware, we are currently in the month of July. In the Northern Hemisphere, July is one of the months of which Summer is composed. However, today during my run, I could not help but notice that there were leaves, leaves that had changed colour, lying on the ground. Leaves changing colour and lying on the ground is considered a property of Fall (Fall, like leaves fall to the ground), otherwise known as Autumn. Now don't get me wrong, I love to run through the fallen leaves on the ground in the Fall, in fact it's a highlight of the running year and I wish we had more of the leaves & in prettier colours, like other areas in the country do. But, I lament seeing this in July. Furthermore, I do not ever recall seeing this EXCEPT IN THE FALL. Damn that Al Gore, this is one of those inconvenient truths. Damn global warming - I'm running over leaves and people in England are swimming across the street. Blimey. This is a spot of bother isn't it? I think I'll go have a cup of tea. Maybe Miss Marple can help solve this issue. Or we can just listen to Fallen Leaves by Billy Talent.

Anything But Be

So at this point you may be wondering, has GB taken to channeling Yoda? (Anything but be, yesssss). The answer is no, that is not what the title refers to. I think at this point you should proceed immediately to the comments section, do not read the rest of the blog yet, and do not collect $200 until you get your "get out of the comments section" free card. Go there and tell me what you think the title might refer to. It'll be fun, really. Then you can read the rest of the post - but not before. Go. Now.

Welcome back.
Awhile ago I purchased a Supertramp greatest hits CD. I then used this great free program called Quintessential Player http://www.quinnware.com/ to convert the songs to mp3's so that I can listen to them along with the rest of my computer collection on my mp3 player. Yeah, that's right, I'm not cool enough to own an iPod. So anyway, I like some Supertramp songs but I wouldn't say I'm a fan or know that much about the band or anything. But one day I'm listening to my mp3 player while I plod along (I plod, it's almost like iPod you see) and I hear a Supertramp song and I check the title of said song scrolling across the display of my player. It says "Anything But Be". And I think, hmm, that's odd. And then I thought a bit about how that would be funny if that wasn't the real title yada yada (zzzzz) and then promptly forgot about it. However, I recently was removing that song from my player and so I Googled it and found that indeed, as one would expect, the song is entitled "Anything But Me". And I thought, wow, this would make a good blog post! Boy was I wrong, huh. It was Anything But.

Transferred From The Old Blog 5

November 30th - Playlist
Found a website that is having this thing where some panelists pick 10 songs and then people vote for their favorite(s) and each week the bottom four songs are eliminated and the panelists add 4 new songs (and so on).

The songs are from different genres and eras. The goal I think is to eventually come up with the top 10 songs you'd have on your music player if you could only have 10. It's pretty cool - many of the songs/artists are ones that I'm not familiar with while some are classics (e.g. Bob Dylan). http://www.cbc.ca/nationalplaylist/

May 2007 - the above link is no longer operational.

Transferred From The Old Blog 3

October 31st
Watched an episode of Cold Case last night. The story was particularly nasty, with racism, a rape, a lynching, et cetera. The beating and hanging (and therefore death) that the story revolves around were 'racially motivated' (that sounds so bloody innocent, what a dumb phrase). At the end of the episode they show the crime happening, and the famous speech by Martin Luther King Jr. is playing on the car radio, then it starts playing this song that is really haunting and so appropriate - something about strange fruit hanging from the trees. As I listened more, I realized that the lyrics were about a hanging and I was really interested in finding out more about the song and surprised that I didn't know more about it. I looked it up (see link for example) and found the story interesting.
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/strangefruit/film.html
Strange fruit hanging from the trees indeed - what a well written song.