So I was glad to hear the other day that MCA drop the beat down on his cancer, but then doing some more research I found a statement from him that he's still recovering.
http://pitchfork.com/news/41139-beastie-boys-mca-beats-cancer/
This is another reason I'm in favor of health care reform. I wouldn't mind my taxes going to help the Beastie Boys live as long as they can.
And then I finally heard about Fight for Your Right Revisited. This is another reason I wish I was more successful and well known as an actor.
I still stand by my own casting choices of me as MCA, you as Ad Rock and Daniel as Mike D. Maybe at our 20 year reunion we can film our own Beasties video. Maybe weave it into a third Spanish video. (Friends reading this, feel free to ask me about the Spanish video next time you see me.) (Alan, we should get that transferred to the net soon.)
In other music news, I got a iTunes gift card for Christmas and decided to re-buy some albums that I either never had or only had on tape:
a) It's a Shame About Ray by The Lemonheads
I think this album is one of my biggest musical influences. I should have brought back the song book I own from Texas last I was there. The iTunes version included some acoustic demos of most of the songs. I still wish I had the tape my brother gave me of them playing in New Orleans back in the 90s from that album tour. One side was the Lemonheads and the other was Juliana Hatfield. I loved the contrast between the studio album and the live set because the albums has a heavy country feel with all the steel pedal fills throughout but live it was just drums, bass, and Evan with a guitar and distortion peddle. I love the moment of realization that Hannah & Gabi could also be a punk song and hearing Alison's Starting to Happen in all its glory. I'm sad I missed him on tour recently. I was keeping my eye on it but then something else came up that night.
b) Doubt by Jesus Jones
I forgot how fucking awesome this album is. I'm on a little Brit-rock/dance phase right now and this album certainly helps fuel that need. The iTunes version also included remixes of some of the more popular songs (Who? Where? Why?, Real Real Real, and International Bright Young Things). Now my question is, should I add Liquidizer?
c) Unbelievable by EMF
I only bought this one song from the Schubert Dip album. I listened to the other tracks and decided that I'd probably never want to listen to them. I like Lies but decided against it. But I did pick up the Ralph Jezzard mix of Unbelievable also which was always my favorite and church camp and band camp dances.
I almost bought Groovy Train by The Farm. Even though I really loved dancing to that song in 8th grade, it's really not that good. I mean it's fine, it just didn't have the same kick for me as it did then. And the rest of the album is pretty horrible. I was reading some reviews and it seems like they were just riding the current craze of Brit-dancepop that was everywhere during the early 90s. I'll just add them to my grooveshark favorites.
d)Mother Mother by Tracy Bonham
I don't know how well you remember this song but I'm sure if you heard it you'd go "oh yeah, that song." She's got that voice and angst of similar artists like Juliana, Courtney and Liz. But what I especially love about the song is when Tracy starts screaming "Every thing's fine!" I love nothing more than a woman screaming with a distortion filled backdrop of sound. I heard the song the last time I was in Texas driving around listening to satellite radio and instantly transported back in time.
In other music news, I have some friends in bands that I keep meaning to tell you about. I've done theater with the friends in these bands which proves a point that (maybe) all actors want to be rock stars and vice versus. I once had a conversation with Wally Pleasant after a show he played in Norman, OK and I told him that I always wanted to be a rock star and he told me he always wanted to be an actor. I told him we should make a movie where we trade places with each other and no one notices and live out that dream. But of course that never happened.
The Electric Mess: 60s style garage rock. They got some pretty awesome songs and some awesome musicians playing those songs. My friends at Piper McKenzie made a video for them that is also pretty awesome.
"She Has a Funny Walk" (official video) by THE ELECTRIC MESS from Piper McKenzie on Vimeo.
Ladycop: I'll call them sprawling prog-rock except easy to dance to. My friends at Charred Oak Films made a video for them that's pretty awesome. I was asked to be in it but I went to DC that weekend to visit my brother.
Ladycop "Idea Maker" from Charred Oak Films on Vimeo.
Supermajor: Excellent pop rock. As far as I know, none of my friends have made a video for them. That should be amended.
And in even more music news, I keep talking about getting a band together. A couple friends from the improv world play bass and drums and a buddy I've done some theater with plays guitar. I keep postponing when we're gonna jam. First I need to get an electric guitar. I regret giving my old Fender Squire to Croteau's kid years ago cause I don't think he's playing it or anything. But I've got my sites set on the Danelectro '63 guitar style.
Except the one I'm looking for has all the tuning pegs on the top of the head. My search continues.
But when that happens I'll be dusting off a lot of old songs with these guys including a healthy amount of Lemonheads and other obscure covers.
