Pumpkin Carving: Classic Rock Style

Last night my family and my girlfriend carved pumpkins. I decided to go a little out of the ordinary of ghosts and witches and made a Doors pumpkin. Maybe I can raise Jim's ghost with it...

Every Incumbent Needs an Opposition

The blogsphere has been pretty absent from my life in the past month due to work and school but I'm certainly trying to involve it, and today I don't have a music post but instead I guess what you could say is a political one. It's that time of year again, election season is here and last year I made some political posts around this time. Now, it's not quite as poignant towards politics but instead what my school (Seton Hall) chose to do about two politicians coming to give a speech here.

The two politicians who were coming to do a speech at my school were Senator John Kerry and Senator Bob Menendez who is currently up for re-election in a very tight race. Both of these Senators are Democrats which is extremely important to keep in mind. The event of these two coming to speak here was announced on very short notice. Yesterday afternoon word got around the school and I didn't actually receive an e-mail about the event until early this morning.

I was extremely excited about the event for pretty obvious reasons, John Kerry was only the second most talked about American in 2004 and Bob Menendez is a Senator in an extremely tight race. There are only 100 Senators in America and Two were coming to speak here; what a great opportunity for the school, Right?

No, my school sends out an e-mail thirty minutes before the event saying that it was canceled. Why you may ask, because: "It is not the practice of Seton Hall University to host politicians in an election season without also hosting their political opponents, lest the University be seen to endorse particular political candidates." Yes, they choose to deny their students of actually hearing something which encourages political participation, what I would like to know is if the President came here, would the school allow him? Or would he need an opposition?

Not only is the school denying the students of actually learning something about politics but they wasted Bob Menendez's time who is in an extremely heated race who needs to take advantage of all the time he has left before election time. The school is also impeding on the almighty First Amendment, Freedom of Speech! Maybe it's just that these two politicians are Democrat who have views that don't exactly comply with the "Catholic Mission" (Seton Hall is a Catholic University) which I've heard was another factor in their reasoning for not allowing them to come. Then again what politician does follow the "Catholic Mission," but on a side note, these two politicians are indeed Catholic which isn't exactly the norm for politicians.

As a student of this college I'm disgusted with their choice to not allow these two politicians to come. Regardless of what party they are for, they should be allowed to come, not only is it an Amazing thing for the students but it puts a positive light on the school. By these two politicians coming, it gives a great image for the school showing that it is big enough to attract extremely big political names.

Changes Over at Imagine Echoes: The Review

While trying to juggle both work and school I find myself unable to post my reviews on the deadlines which I set for myself. No longer will I post reviews on every Tuesday and Thursday but instead I will do them sporadically, so to keep everyone updated I will post here when I put up a new review on "Imagine Echoes: The Review." To start things off I just received and reviewed a copy of John Lennon's "The US vs. John Lennon: The Motion Picture Soundtrack." Just click on that link to read the review. Thank You!

Music and Movies

Isn't it great when a song plays into a movie so perfectly and just adds so much emotion to the scene. The question I have today is, what song played in a particular scene in a movie did you think was just perfect or was your favorite in terms of how it tied in with the movie. My particular favorite scene was from the movie "A Bronx Tale" with Robert De Niro and Chazz Palminteri. In this particular scene there was a group of black teenagers riding their bike past a group of Italian teenagers who were advertley racist accept one of them. When the Italians see the black teenagers riding by, they get up and imediately beat all of them brutally with bats and garbage cans and basically whatever they could find. The scene was a very dramatic one but wouldn't have been as powerful if The Moody Blues' "Nights In White Satain"was not played. The song just added this incredible chill to the scene, how the song exactly pertains to the scene I don't know but I do have some ideas. It isn't even the lyrics which add this extremely dramatic feel but the amazing haunting chill of the song. Now my idea with the lyrics interweaving with the scene is probably pretty far off but one idea I have is it's just complete irony with the repeted yelling of "And I Love You, Yes I Love You, I Love You." Another idea is with the one part which goes:

Gazing at people
Some hand in hand
Just what I’m going through
They can’t understand
Some try to tell me
Thoughts they cannot defend
Just what you want to be
You will be in the end.

With this section I have a feeling maybe their is a sense of jealousy with the racism, quite possibly they are missing some sense of connection with everyone and therefore want to take it out on those who are "different." In the end the essence of the song is so strong when tied in with the scene. Not to mention in the movie there is also a phenomenal part where The Beatles' "Come Together" is played during a fight scene which also escelates the emotion. Anyway, have there ever been any songs in movies which you felt made a certain scene so much stronger just because of its presence?

Aerosmith: Devil's Got a New Disguise: The Very Best of Aerosmith

Coming out on October 17th is a new Aerosmith's Greatest Hits CD. The tracklisting for this CD looks excellent, they aren't quite overdoing the amount of songs on the CD nor are they underdoing it. What makes this Greatest Hits CD unique from all the rest is that it is the first single disc collection from Aerosmith to inclue both their songs from Columbia Records and Universal Music Enterprise catalogs. For those who are interested in seeing what is on the album here is a list:

Official Tracklisting

1. Dream On

2. Mama Kin

3. Sweet Emotion

4. Back In The Saddle

5. Last Child

6. Walk This Way

7. Dude (Looks Like A Lady)

8. Rag Doll

9. Love In An Elevator

10. Janie's Got A Gun

11. What It Takes

12. Crazy

13. Livin' On The Edge

14. Cryin'

15. I Don't Want To Miss A Thing - Pop Mix

16. Jaded

17. Sedona Sunrise

18. Devil's Got A New Disguise

Also here is a link where you can preorder the CD: Aerosmith: Devil's Got a New Disguise: The Very Best of Aerosmith

Happy 66th John

John Lennon will always be remembered as one of the very few musicians / artists who were actually bigger than what they created. Unfortunately John is not around to celebrate his birthday year after year but what the whole music community can do is sit back and allocate some time out of their day and listen to the music of John Lennon on what would have been his 66th birthday. In celebration of this day I am going to ask all my readers to post their top five Lennon songs which is certainly a tough one but here are mine:

1. A Day In The Life


2. Imagine


3. I Am The Walrus


4. Mind Games


5. Happiness Is a Warm Gun

You Say You Want a Revolution?

Why is it that we wait for a new CD from newer bands for several years and when it finally comes it sounds just like the album before it. Yet when lets say The Beatles released a CD it only took a year for it to come out, there are only one year intervals between genius albums such as "Rubber Soul," "Revolver," "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," "The White Album," "Abbey Road," and "Let it Be." With Pink Floyd there was only one year between "Atom Heart Mother," "Meddle," "Obscured by Clouds," "Dark Side of the Moon" and two year until we received "Wish You Were Here." Yes the list may begin to get redundant but is there any better way to get my point across, all of these albums were stunning, the were unique and had different sounds which displayed true evolution wishing to expand and tug on the current boundries of music. Now, it takes me around three years to hear a new CD from my favorite bands, and is there a decent explanation for why it takes so long and why I'm not receiving an incredibly brilliant album with all that time between records?

Now I can't explain why it takes so long for new CD's to be released but I do have a theory on why music has become dull and bland and pretty redundant and unoriginal. The reason I believe music has changed so dramatically from the 60's and 70's is because people have changed. People no longer cary the same mind set as they did back then. I of course was not around during the golden age of music but I do believe I know enough about society in those days to make a pretty fair judgement.

In the 60's and 70's people were looking for more than what was just in front of them, people felt they were able to cross the realms of what they could see, feel and touch. People often used drugs to try to seperate them from the grips of reality. Like drugs, music was trying to do the same. The comparison I am trying to create is music is like drugs, the way they have evolved through the ages and what they are like now. Currently drugs have been used for different reason opposed to how they were used in the 60's and 70's. Now drugs are used for that quick fix, being used just for social purposes, somewhat like alcohol. People are just looking for that great but short lived sensation, they aren't looking to "expand" their minds and to try to explore different territories.

Music has become prefabricated, the equation of what the sound will be is known before recording starts, the sound bands are now trying to create is what's popular at the time. Bands don't wish to try new and different things because that isn't what the people want. Music and artists now and days are not the ones to blame for this, the ones to blame is our current society. Everyone wants that fun sing along three minute hit, sort of like how drugs are used now, just that short but fun moment in time. They don't want something that they will actually have to wrap their mind around, they just want that fun and short moment.

As we all know there are small underground bands which are trying to explore new and different territories but it's not so easy doing that when being unable to sign with record labels who can give them the tools to do as they wish. By not signing with a label we can never truly hear what so many bands really want to accomplish, creating music is expensive especially music which is very unique (well not necessarily but a quality recording proccess is expensive none the less.)

Music will be unable to change unless our society changes, until people want something interesting and grand we will never be able to hear what true music lovers wish to hear.

Is New Music Just a Lost Cause?

I am asking this question to everyone because later tonight I want to address a certain issue regarding current music and possibly tackle some more issues about current music. Before I post later tonight I just want to gauge other peoples reaction to what they think about current music, I'm not looking for some long drawn out response but if you wish you are more than welcome to do so but I am just simply asking: Is current music any good? If not, is there any hope? Just to let you know I got this idea from Layla's post One Mans Opinion.

Moving On

I just wanted to say one final thing about my previous post regarding the battle of the bands with The Who and Led Zeppelin, I really appreciate all those who participated, and who gave their supporting views and opposing views. I honestly feel that nearly all of those categories could swing either way, in the end it is just a matter of opinion. I was actually meaning to post that topic around a year ago when I first started this blog but was held back because I never really wanted to touch the subject, however lately I've been running a little dry on ideas of things to post. Maybe that post broke the ice and I can finally start posting some more meaningful topics!

Defending The Who

Clearly I'm the odd man out when feeling The Who is the better than Led Zeppelin. When doing my little comparisons I didn't give any justification for why I chose The Who for the categories I did. Just a reminder, I don't think I will have a review posted tonight for "Imagine Echoes: The Review" because this post will surely occupy my time. Anyway, lets continue:

Musical Songwriting:
I believe The Who are better song writers because not only were The Who able to crank out hit after hit which was not only catchy, but also very innovative. If I were to list the best songs The Who wrote compared to Led Zeppelin I would have on my list about twenty more songs from The Who than Zeppelin, even when comparing both of their double disc greatest hits albums I come away wanting to listen to every song from The Who opposed to just the first CD of Zeppelin which leads to my consistency argument later on. Pete Townshend is easily one of, if not the most genius song writer the world has ever seen. The Who are were able to construct songs that convey a theme without the lyrics, not to take anything away from Zeppelin but if I were to listen to "Tommy" or "Quadrophenia" without the lyrics I would be able to pick up on the jist of the story by hearing the emotions being conveyed for each song.

Best Album:
This is a tough choice which could go either way depending on who you are asking. "Who's Next" stands as one of those albums that is just larger than life, it pulls and tugs at your emotions, it has songs which urge you to crank the stereo up to full blast with "Babe O'Riley" and "Won't Get Fooled Again" and songs that make you just sit in awe of their beauty like "Getting In Tune" and "Behind Blue Eyes." "Who's Next" doesn't fail for just one second, every song is phenomenal and never gets dull. Led Zeppelin's "IV" or "Zoso" whatever you would prefer to call it feels a bit more repetitious. Especially when putting "Black Dog" and "Rock and Roll" back to back is just a problem within itself. The songs are just too similar to be put back to back, with their extremely uninspired lyrics and un-creative sound they don't offer enough to keep me coming back for more. The first few times hearing those songs they are fun but the more I listen the more I realize they are unable to really give the listener a valuable listening experience. There are classic moments on the album like "Stairway to Heaven" and "The Battle of Evermore" but those songs don't match the best The Who was able to put out on "Who's Next." In the end I feel "Who's Next" was packed with more emotion and character than "IV."

Better Bass Player:
This one was fairly easy for me, John Paul Jones is a great bass player but John Entwistle was one of the best. Entwistle just may be the most important and influential rock bassist of all time, his leads and solos were astonishing. His lack of emotion on stage surely didn't represent his pounding bass leads and solos. Possibly the best bassist out there right now, Les Claypool regards Entwistle as one of his biggest influences.

Consistency:
I mentioned it before, after "IV" Zeppelin hit a slow downward spiral. The Who's catalogue can be summarized as steady and powerful never letting down.

Originality:
Although I labeled this as a Draw originally I really wanted to give it to The Who and I just may go back and change it because the more I think about it the more I realize the innovations of The Who. The Who were the Godfathers of what would eventually be one of the strongest and most powerful musical genres: Punk! Although Punk has somewhat died, in its heyday it's power was undeniable and if any punk band was to say they weren't influenced by The Who they would be lying terribly. "My Generation" was the song which kick started punk music. The Who also went on to create the idea of the Rock Opera. Apparently Townshend wasn't the first to write a Rock Opera he was inspired by a Christian Rocker Larry Norman who wrote a fifteen minute rock opera. What The Who did was they took that innovation and moved it to the next step with "Tommy" and "Quadrophenia." Bands like David Bowie, Jethro Tull, Rush, Dream Theater, Meatloaf, Genesis and so many more owe their dues to The Who. Led Zeppelin did indeed push the boundaries of hard rock and were innovative with long and experimental songs but The Who's originality transcended into so much more.

Lyrics:
This is probably the easiest of all the categories to decide. The Who have some extremely childish lyrics at times but on the contrary they have some of the strongest lyrics of any band. Townshend was able to put together some of the greatest lyrics of all time to create full length operas which not only tell a great story but also leave enough room for the listener to take into consideration their own interpretations. Led Zeppelin's lyrics were decent at best, their lyrics felt very disconnected way too often and often down right cliche. Zeppelin's best lyrics were probably the ones that didn't make any sense.

The Who vs. Led Zeppelin

One of the heated debates in music history is the battle between two of the hardest rocking bands in classic rock: Led Zeppelin and the Who. While I hate to make a comparison of the two bands, for arguments sake I will try to do my best to have an Imagine Echoes style "Battle of the Bands." What I will do is compare a number of things such as who has the best album and the best members and so on and so forth. So let the battle begin!

Songwriting: Winner: The Who

Best Album: The Who "Who's Next" vs. Led Zeppelin "IV": Winner: The Who

Drummer: Keith Moon vs. John Bohnam: Winner: Draw

Guitarist: Pete Townshend vs. Jimmy Page : Winner: Led Zeppelin

Vocalist: Roger Daltrey vs. Robert Plant: Winner: Led Zeppelin

Bass: John Entwistle vs. John Paul Jones: Winner: The Who

Consistency: Winner: The Who

Originality: Winner: Draw

Lyrics: Winner: The Who
__________________
Final Score:
-The Who: 5
- Led Zeppelin: 2

Winner: The Who

While there is no science to finding out who is truly the better band; in fact it is something completely objective, but I tried to give more proof to why I feel The Who is the better band. Another interesting subject to look at is which of the two has more influence on current music, that question would be opening up a whole new can of worms but could be a fantastic argument. Now is the time to hear your thoughts and arguments, comment away!

Sticking Up For What You Believe In

Recently Tom Morello, guitarist of Audioslave and former guitarist of Rage Against the Machine was arrested for "unlawful assembly." Morello famous for his politically aware music with Rage was found at a protest along with 400 other people rallying for immigrant hotel workers' rights. Morello had this to say about arrest: "In these political dark ages, it's important for us to stand up for one another," and "These hotel workers by the airport make 20 percent less wages than hotel workers around the rest of Los Angeles. We're here to express our solidarity with them, to help them unionize and to help them close the gap between their sub-poverty wages and the millions and millions of dollars the people who own these hotels make." The most interesting thing to note is the protestors along with Morello actually gave the police department their information the day before to make the whole arresting process faster.

Although Morello was arrested, I'm so glad to see that he continues to fight for what he believes in. I have previously wrote about Politics and Music awhile back and here is the link if you with to read: How Many Times Must the Cannonballs Fly, Before They are Forever Banned? It's certainly one thing to see musicians taking their political beliefs in the studio but it is another to see these same musicians out in the forefront standing up for what they believe in. It is these musicians which separate the artists who use politics as a tool for popularizing or making their music fit into a certain category and those who have pure and undisputed passion in politics. I for one like to see artists taking their beliefs and thoughts into action, what are your feelings towards this?