Happy birthday, dalefarwalker! Hope it's a great one! :)

Western Dental is the biggest piece of shit company I've ever had the displeasure of doing business with. That is all.

OH GOD MY EYES.

How can I unsee this?

Parsley, ugh, you vile weed! In other news, hey onions, where you been all my life?

This is literally the most exciting entertainment-related news I have heard since "Superman Returns" was officially put into production in, what, 2004?

I AM SO FUCKING STOKED YOU HAVE NO IDEA.

Ahhh, which icon to use? I have multiple Larry David icons! I have multiple Seinfeld icons!

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Ok, ok, only one obvious choice now.

ETA: Larry David is my hero.

Happy birthday, licie_oic! :D

I told you it wouldn't be too long before I had another one of these ready to go. And yes, I can hear your collective sigh of ambivalence from here.

This time around we have what will likely be my one and only foray into country music. What I'm basically saying is that:



Now a disclaimer to start this off... I grew up with a lot of country music, it's what my family primarily listened to (and they still do). Maybe that's part of the reason I am not, as a rule, fond of country music. There might be a song here or there I take a liking to, but it's pretty rare and by and large I just find little to enjoy there.

That is not so with the Dixie Chicks, although you could also argue that the longer their career gets the less "typical country" they become... which is really no wonder considering the way the industry has treated them for daring to voice dissent with regards to President Bush. That's a dangerous game in the country music industry, and perhaps that's also part of why I dislike the genre as a whole... a lot of its fans are closed-minded, hateful people. I know I'm stereotyping, but when they hold "cd burning" parties and send death threats to talented, intelligent women for a difference of opinion, well, they sort of do that to themselves. I know it's unfair to lump all country music fans into that category, but at times it's hard not to.

But to be fair, I was a fan of the Chicks long before the whole Bush brouhaha. So how did this happen if I dislike country music, I hear no one asking? Well, I'll tell you. No no, don't leave. I'll strap you down if I have to.

The one and only time I've ever been fortunate enough to see Sarah McLachlan live (she will get her chance to kick your ass, but that will be saved for a rainy day) was at a Lilith Fair tour. I didn't give a damn about any of the other acts at all. I actually went to the bathroom while Sheryl Crow played (which isn't entirely fair, about half of her songs don't actually annoy me).

All I wanted to see was Sarah (who, it turns out, had a cold that night and went on anyway, and that was awesome of her, but her voice just wasn't right). So you can imagine the o_O on my face when these three platinum blonde women came out with pink feather boas wrapped around their microphones, carrying a banjo and a fiddle.

what the hell!

And then... I was sold. It was instant. Natalie opened her mouth and completely blew me away with such an amazing, powerful voice in such a tiny, compact little body. The Dixie Chicks are a curious thing... they're like half Steve Perry/Journey and half Freddie Mercury/Queen, by which I mean it is CLEAR the influence Natalie has had on the Chicks and that she's a key component to the success they've had, but there's also more to them than just her. Emily and Martie are excellent in their own right.

I've listened to the two indie albums the Chicks released before Natalie joined the group. It's crap. Good lord, a heaping stinking pile of stereotypical crappy country dung. And the voice of whoever was singing before... instantly forgettable and unforgivably boring all at the same time. And that's BEFORE you compare her to Natalie, who easily has one of (if not) the best female voices in music today.

But at the same time, you can hear the banjo and the fiddle in the songs, and you can clearly hear Martie and Emily sort of struggling to do as much as they could with that crappy material. It's almost like you can hear them trying to break out, and Natalie helped them do that.

I find I'm liking a lot of the Chicks' later stuff better. And yes, it is much less "country" than their earlier albums, but they're also writing their own songs now (a big no-no in the country music biz) and not only do I think they write better songs than they were given in their early albums, but it's clear the songs mean a LOT more to them and it's rare I find someone who puts as much raw emotion and feeling into a song as Natalie does, regardless of what she's singing about. You can tell the songs that hit her in the heart, it's perfectly clear in her voice and it makes them a thousand times better.

Honorable mentions:

Hello Mr. Heartache
Top of the World

The latter is an absolutely BRILLIANT song and Natalie sings it so well it crushes and breaks my heart every single time, so I just can't listen to it most of the time unless I have the time to be completely depressed and sad for a few hours afterward.


CD 1:
The Long Way Around
Heartbreak Town
Easy Silence
Cowboy Take Me Away
Don't Waste Your Heart
Tonight The Heartache's On Me
Ready To Run
Some Days You Gotta Dance
Sin Wagon
Goodbye Earl
Give It Up Or Let Me Go
Thin Line
Let 'Er Rip
Never Say Die
There's Your Trouble
Am I The Only One (Who's Ever Felt This Way)
Cold Day In July
Let Him Fly


CD 2:
Long Time Gone
Tortured, Tangled Hearts
Wide Open Spaces
Godspeed (Sweet Dreams)
Lullaby
Landslide
Not Ready To Make Nice
Without You
I'll Take Care Of You
I Can Love You Better
If I Fall
Loving Arms
Bitter End
You Were Mine
Truth No. 2
You Can't Hurry Love
I Hope
I Like It


Interesting to note is there are MORE songs here than in the Journey Kicks Your Ass compilation, and Journey has two to three times the number of albums to sift through. The Chicks only have four albums out presently (not counting the two indie ones before Natalie) and are still pretty young in their musical careers, and every album is literally a factor better than the last. I'm absolutely thrilled to see where they go from here.

As before, if anyone is interested I would be happy to make you a MIX TAPE to sample the awesomeness that is the Dixie Chicks before you rush out to buy all their albums.

Also, I've not done this with any of the others, but let's face it... country music has a big stigma to overcome with a lot of people (myself included), and the Chicks are so atypical-country I feel they deserve more of a shot than people give them. And yes, they are absolutely amazing live.

If you have a few spare moments, check out the below links. I honestly believe you'll be impressed.

This is a performance of "Not Ready To Make Nice", their song in response to the death threats for speaking out against Bush. The comments to this video are heartening and disgusting all at once. Plenty of people standing up for them and their freedom of speech, and plenty of sick, sad people still railing against them for daring to have opinions and voice them.




This is the album version of "Let Him Fly", which is a cover, but I always felt it showcased Natalie's voice in amazing fashion. (ignore the video here, someone took the video from a different song and remixed it for this? or something? anyway, just listen :)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrn17soPpQQ

I forgot to post about this a couple weeks ago, but one day we were in traffic heading down toward Hollywood and while stopped at a red light, in the right lane in a silver Mustang was Zuleikha Robinson. Many of you probably don't know who that is, but you do if you watch the crack they pass off as a television show called "Lost" (she was also the sexy bartenderish-type lady in "Rome").



Hooray.

Reposted by way of michaelbailey because this just... shouldn't... exist. My brain hurts.





Oh, this was in Ohio. Well that explains it, he says. Having lived there. :p

Continuing on in my series of telling you what music I think kicks ass (because I know you all want to know), I bring you:




No honorable mentions this time. Actually I only had about one and a half CDs worth of music here, but I split it to make two just so one wasn't ridiculously short.

Journey, when they're on, are fantastic. They sound a little more dated than, say, Queen (as most of their songs sound pretty timeless) but they still rock it out. And they've produced a lot of great songs, not the least of which is "Don't Stop Believin'", which is an easy contender for one of the greatest rock songs ever.

The sad part is this band has been around just about as long as Queen, for example, and they have far, FAR less to show for it. In going through their discography I've come to the conclusion that often their songs were way too long, overblown, pretentious and boring (look at me, I'm Simon Cowell!). So how did a band who produced the dreck of their early albums end up kicking so much ass from the late seventies up until the nineties?

Steve Perry.

Yes, his hair is hilarious, but that's the only conclusion I can come to. It's not just his distinctive voice, but clearly he was a major influence in their ability to crank out songs worth listening to. Again, contrast this to Queen... Freddie Mercury was arguably the greatest rock singer ever, but the band was more than Freddie. Queen can tour today with a new singer and I have an interest in possibly listening to that, because they were more than just Freddie (for as much as I love Freddie, and I do love him, he wasn't the entire band).

To me, Steve Perry IS Journey. Their stuff before him was bordering on crap, as far as I'm concerned, and so even though they now have a new singer they found off of YouTube (no joke, but then for a band that got their name from a radio station contest this is no real surprise) I have absolutely ZERO desire to hear any of their stuff now.

Steve Perry was the most talent Journey ever had, and it's clear to me when listening to their pre-Perry stuff that he was the factor that turned them around and sent them from borderline crap to awesome.

I probably should have retitled this "Steve Perry Kicks Your Ass, And Journey's Too", but hey.


Enough of my blathering. Here's the playlists:

CD1
Don't Stop Believin'
After The Fall
Open Arms
Knowing That You Love Me
Faithfully
Suzanne
Escape
Who's Crying Now
The Place In Your Heart
Girl Can't Help It
Send Her My Love
A Better Place
Lights

CD2
To Be Alive Again
When You're Alone (It Ain't Easy)
Any Way You Want It
Higher Place
Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin'
Be Good To Yourself
I'll Be Alright Without You
When You Love A Woman
Wheel In The Sky
Stone In Love
Positive Touch
Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
Baby I'm Leavin' You


If you missed Queen Kicks Your Ass, you can check it out here.


I'd also like to mention, as I forgot last time, that if you would like a MIX TAPE of these songs to check them out before purchasing said songs legally, I might be persuaded to make a MIX TAPE for you to peruse.

And then immediately destroy. Of course.


ps - the next one of these will be along a lot sooner, as it's a group with a much smaller catalog to listen to... not that any of you cared, but anyway!

Happy birthday, shiny_rosie! :)

Happy birthday, dragonblink! You're a super... lady. ;)

Happy birthday, tmmillie! :)

Boo.

Happy birthday, spiralsequin! May the coming year bring you more joy than any before. :)

I haven't had that much fun in a while. That was a fantastic good time, and a great way to relax. :)

We have to go clean up our old apartment today.

BOO.

We can has intarwebs yay.