More Music Ho-down

Okay, I went off on critics who get their collective panties in a knot over an artists lyrics instead of focusing on the music.

Well, the critics have been writing the praises for one band who most of them will never have a chance in who-know-where of understanding their lyrics unless their natives of Sweden.

The band is Dungen. The album: Ta Det Lugnt.



It's a cool, trippy, 60s-ish psychedelic romp. A unique, but recognizable, amalgam of late 60s and early 70s pych bands like Pink Floyd. All sung in Swedish! If you like that type of music, you'd probably enjoy this album a lot.

Who's Hungry?

A short list of some of my favorite places to grub in L.A.:

1. L & L Hawaiian BBQ - Link. Best place to get a Plate Lunch. Started way back when in Hawaii and have been springing up around L.A. like 7-11s. What's a Plate Lunch? *GASP* - it's carb heaven. Usually some kind of fried meat accompanied by the traditional two scoops of rice and a scoop of mayo-enriched Potato-Macaroni salad.

2. Tito's Tacos - Link. A small shack-like restaurant right next to the 405 Fwy on Sepulveda and Washington. It's easy to find -- look for the Mexican restaurant with a huge crowd. The tacos are insaaaaane. The shells are ultra greasy and crunchy, the meat is perfectly seasoned. Add cheese, tomatos, and lettuce and it's taco nirvana. One of the few fast food joints where you don't mind waiting in a long line.

3. Kua Aina - I had to mention this one even though it recently closed. One of the best burgers ever. Fortunatley, there's still two in Hawaii (Honolulu and Haleiwa) so check them out if you ever travel to the islands. You will NOT be disappointed.

4. Sharkeys - Best nachos. Period.

Damn. I'm hungry now...

Charmed-A-Holic

I'm not that big a TV viewer. My family can have the TV going and I'll barely pay it any attention -- either I'm working on the computer or reading or doing something else.

There's only a few shows that I've actually set aside time to watch: X-Files (boy, oh, boy, Sunday nights were empty when this show went off the air...), Lost, and the Amazing Race.

Now, thanks to my wife, I can count one more show: Charmed.

I was in that camp that thought only teenage girls watched the show. I had intermittently read good writeups about it, but never felt compelled to actually check it out. But then my wife started getting into it. So, one day, I finally decided to check it out. Wow! The show is actually very good. Very, very good. It doesn't take itself all that seriously, yet never slips into parody. It manages to walk a very fine line between humor and drama and rarely, if ever, falters.

The acting is good, the effects are simple, but effective, the bad guys (demons!!) are creatively rendered. The stories a fun and well written -- a little repetitive at times (the first three seasons were pretty much "demon-of-the-week"). The later seasons started getting into more season-long plotlines.

It's been fun discovering a show after it's been on the air for seven seasons. It's a treasure trove of episodes I've never seen. Watched the cliffhanger from Season 3? You don't have to wait the whole summer to find out what happened. They'll air Season 4's premier the next day!

I'm glad the show's got at least one more year on the air, that way I can experience that "opening Xmas presents" feel of watching a new (or as The WB likes to call it, "Fresh") episode every week!

My only wish is that the show's producers would make nice-nice with Shannen Doherty so that she would come back for at least the series finale. That would make the fan-boys and fan-girls go loopy and would make for a very fitting end.

Hollywood's Slump

There's all this talk of late on how Hollywood's box office and DVD sales are starting to slump and how on earth are they going to improve it.

That's easy: Either stop making crappy movies or lower the ticket prices. There's no way in hell I'm gonna pay $9.50 to see two hours of insults to my intelligence and creativity. DVD's slumping? That's because I'm not going to pay $14.99 to OWN the two hours of insults to my intelligence and creativity.

Good, brief article in Yahoo about this: Link

In Defense Of Musicians

Got the new Jason Mraz cd - Mr. A - Z.



This disc has been getting a critical drubbing from all corners ...

Frankly, I think it's a good CD. The critics seem to be getting their panties in a ball because of the lyrics. Fine. I agree. Jason seems to be trying a little TOO hard to make his lyrics overly clever and at times it's a bit too much.

However, how many of us get a CD for the lyrics (Bob Dylan aside)? I don't. I've rarely listened to lyrics (yes, I know that puts me in a minority). I've always viewed the human voice as another musical instrument. It's not like without the words, the songs suck. If that was the case, Classical music would have blown up on the launch pad. The music is what it's all about. THAT's what's truly touches you. Occasionally, there are good lyrics that really cover something going on in your life. But, nine times out of ten, you have a song playing in your head, is it just some monotonous recitation of the lyrics or are you singing them, caught up in the melody?

In Mr. Mraz's case, overly clever lyrics aside, his music is fun, bouncy, and addicting. Taken on that level, his new album does not deserve the trashing it's getting.

Music Critics Be Damned

Fergit all them "official" music critics. Full of bombastic prose, pretentious lessons in rock history, and a sense of "know-it-all"-ness, which never really answers the one, burning question: Did you like the CD or not?

You want a good criticism of new CDs that you can trust? Why not read what your peers are thinking. Why not add your own voice into the fray to help the next curious music buyer.

Check out Rate Your Music where you can review pretty much every album in existence. You don't necessarily need to WRITE a review. You can simply indicate how many stars (the traditional one to five) you think the CD deserves. All the reviews are compiled into rankings per year, so you can see what your fellow music lovers' combined Top 10 list is.

A far more valuable tool for finding out if a CD is good or bad (without all the unnecessary padding and bombast).

Music Ho Reloaded

Okay, I wasn't finished listing all the new music I got, so here's the rest:

The Vines - "Highly Evolved"



Much better than their second album (thought their second album isn't that bad). It's just this one has better overall songs. The second seems a little more bankrupt creatively.

Weezer (Blue Album)



Yes, I know I'm a late-comer with this one. I've heard "Undone" and "Buddy Holly". Good, straight-forward geek rock. Got the expanded version with lots of extra goodies. (I'm a sucker for expanded versions with lots of extra goodies. Extra goodies are good.)

The Dead 60s



Another in the current, growing list of British bands generating a new-wave/punk revival. Sound very much like the Clash. They may wear their influences a little openly on their sleeves (a lot of the new bands are guilty of these), but it's a disc full of good songs. If you like the Clash, you'd probably enjoy this one.

Missy Elliott - "Under Construction" / "The Cookbook"




My wife wanted these, but I'm always open to all kinds of music. Damn, that girl can rap and write some wicked-ass lyrics. Nasty to the core, but very creative.

Montrose



A blueprint for the 70s hard rock sound. Some of it is wildly outdated. A lot of it is formless (not really any major hooks or melodies). Just a lot of crunchy, straightforward rock n' roll with top notch vocal from Sammy Hagar and solid guitar work from Ronnie Montrose.

That's enough for now. I'm tired of typing.

Good Reading

No, I'm not talking about the latest Harry Potter (though more on that in a second)...

Couple of good columns to seek out if you care about such stuff:

The latest Stephen King column in the latest Entertainment Weekly (the one with - who else - Harry Potter on the cover) gives a rave review to embracing pop culture. I saw "HUZZAH!". It's time for all of us to openly embrace pop culture. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it. Those of us who are "art snobs", turning out noses away from anything deemed less-than-cultural need to lighten the hell up. There's room for a Big Mac on that plate of healthy greens and low-sodium treats. Humans are built to derive great joy out of solid, visceral experiences and a pop culture gives 'em to you in great, big, mindless, greasy doses. It's time to expand your horizons in BOTH directions (more refined and extra greasy). To turn away from experiences and art that you deem below you is to gyp yourself of all the experiences life has to offer you.

The second article is in the latest copy of L.A. Weekly (the one with Inglewood on the cover). It's a great response column to what needs to be fixed in Hollywood. I'm not going to summarize here, but everything was absolutely dead-on. The spirit of this town has shifted WAY too far over to profit and money and away from artistry and creativity. Show of hands for those of us over 35 -- when you were a kid, did you care how much money each movie made on opening day? I sure didn't. That was boring, icky stuff for the studio accountants to worry about. Now-a-days, the first thing we talk about a movie is it's opening box office -- not "did you like the film?". No. It's "wow. 'Schmuck-a-rama II' raked in $20 Million". Stop being so freeeeekin' greedy Hollywood. Your drive to make money has corrupted a lot of talent and the effects are starting to show (notice the weekly articles how this year's Box Office is in a major slump).

Both are great articles. Worth checking out.

The Music Ho Strikes Again

Okay, went a little overboard these past few weeks gettin' some new music:

Arcade Fire - EP



I need to listen to this one some more before passing judgement.

Spoon - "Girls Can Tell" and "Kill The Moonlight"





If you haven't checked this band out, do so. Their latest, Gimme Fiction, hit the stores earlier this year. One of the best, lesser-known, bands out there.

Sufjan Stevens - "Michigan" and "Illinois"





Best described as "charming". These are very fun, sweet, imaginative odes to two of the 50 states in our nation. Apparently, he's planning to record an album for EVERY state (good luck!) -- I can't wait for "California" or "Hawaii".

There's more to come, but that's enough for now.

A Classic Mugshot

From BoingBoing.net...

Check out the T-Shirt this poor sap is wearing after being booked for drunk driving.

Well... I guess if you're gonna drive drunk, you'd be into that stuff...

Link

New Music!! (Well, Mostly New)

More CD acquisitions from the Music Addict -- some new, some old, but all new to me.

Spoon - "Gimme Fiction"



Damn! This is an awesome album. I'd rank this with Beck's "Guero" as one of the two best albums of 2005.

John Mayer - "Room For Squares"



Got the Dual Disc version. I know there's a whole mess of debatin' going on over this new format, but I like it. It's cool to get a Surround version and some extra DVD content. I guess I'm pretty lucky -- all my CD players, including the dreaded front-loading truck CD player, can handle the discs. Oh, and the CD is pretty good, too.

The Offspring - "Greatest Hits"



Great stuff in one package. "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)" is still one of the best singles ever made.

Television - "Marquis Moon"



This is one of those albums you read about on numerous top 100 lists and it's considered one of the pinnacle albums during the late 70s New York Punk/Art Punk movement... and yet you've never actually head it. One of my co-workers let me borrow his copy and it's really good. So, went and got the remastered version. If you can get past Tom Verlaine's oddball singing, you can see how this band was definitely an influence on newer bands.

Buffalo Springfield - "Again"



A little dated in spots, but still contains some of the best rock tracks ever written.

War of the Worlds. Day-um.

Saw "War of the Worlds" today. Awesome!! Awesome!! I knew Spielberg still had it in him after releasing a few "quieter" films. "The Terminal" and "Catch Me If You Can" were good movies, but not Spielberg popcorn movies.

"War of the Worlds" is pure Spielberg and pure popcorn.

The pace is relentless, the effects outstanding (they don't dominate the film like many "end of the Earth" films), and the story is good. What makes this better than your average Armageddon-style film is that fact that it stays entirely with one family. It keeps this wild space invaders movie grounded in human frame of mind and that makes it all the scarier and discomforting.

Tom Cruise, currently much in need of a image makeover, is very good. I sometimes find his acting a little TOO intense. But here he manages to keep the tone down and give a very real performance of a deadbeat dad learning how to take care of people other than himself in less than optimal circumstances.

Highly recommended.

A Few Rules About Driving In L.A.

Please follow these rules when driving in L.A. It will make YOUR life easier. The lives of the people driving around you easier and reduce the chance that you'll piss off that one driver who's packing heat...

1. A speed limit is a speed LIMIT for everyone. Cars travelling at safe speeds are not doing that to give you something to slalom around as you get to your destination at 80 - 90 MPH. I don't gave a flyin' rat's ass if there's a pot of gold at the end of your destination. Risking your life and the lives of everyone else just for an adrenaline rush is not right. You think you're "Too Fast, Too Furious"? You're actually "Too Dumb, Too Stupid".
   
   
2. On the converse, do drive with SOME speed. If you're on the freeway, where the speed limit is usually 65 MPH, don't you think puttering along at 25 MPH is a little TOO slow? WHY are you driving so freakin' slow? If you're terrified of freeway traffic, then DON'T get on the freeway!! Last time I checked, there's really not that much interesting stuff on either side of the freeway to warrant you slowing down to take a look. And if it's that interesting, get off the freeway and take a really good look! Hawaii has it right -- they actually post a Minimum Speed Limit. Go slower than that and you can get a ticket.
   
   
3. The right turn lane is a TURN LANE, not a PASSING LANE. Yes, we all hate traffic jams on surface streets. It takes a lot of patience to not only sit in slow traffic but also have to wait out all the traffic signals that make getting to your destination a long, arduous journey. But you do NOT have some extra priviledge that allows you to bypass chunks of traffic by moving into the right turn lane, then blasting forward into the traffic when the light turns green. Again, that just makes you stupid. When I see someone attempting that, I'll always stick my vehicle out a little into the lane so the other person can't pass. You're gonna wait your turn along with everyone else. (But what about people who are actually turning right?? -- Trust me, you get good at filtering out the legitimate turners from the dorks).
   
   
4. If you're driving, take your cell phone and shove it up your ass. Do not. Do not. DO NOT talk on a cellphone while you're driving. If it's urgent, pull off into a parking lot and finish your conversiation. My life is worth more than you finding out what you're having for dinner tonight. I've been near one too many drivers who are weaving and driving like they could blow a sobriety test because they're more focused on their phone call than on the road.

So, unless you don't mind that fact that one day the driver you piss off will have no problems blowing your head off with they gun they're packing (this is L.A. -- the chance of this happening is much greater than dying in an Earthquake), I suggest you drive safely and know that you'll get to your destination... eventually!

Only In L.A.

So I'm driving to another city during lunch time last Thursday when I hit a noontime traffic jam on the freeway.

Usually, when you hit a non-rush hour traffic jam, there's been an accident.

Well, usually.

Why did we have a traffic jam THIS time? Because everybody had to slow down to look at the big rig on the side of the road with the two Batmobiles parked on it. These looked like the Batmobiles from the Tim Burton version of Batman.

Either way, I dare folks in the Midwest to have a traffic jam due to Batmobiles!

Bridezillas

Watched a show tonight called "Bridezillas" about women who pretty much have major meltdowns planning their weddings.

Good freakin' lord, I'm so happy I'm not married to a person like that!! My wife organized the wedding and was 100% calm through the whole thing.

Makes you wonder if these women actually want to be married or if they just want to go through the event of a wedding?

New Music!

This week's new CD: The Foo Fighters!



Two CDs of wholesome, crunchy goodness.

The most surprising track is the duet between Dave Grohl and Norah Jones. On paper, it sounds outlandish -- how could it work?? -- yet it does. It definitely sounds like something that fits more on Jones' album, but it's very good.

Overall, I prefer the rockin' disc. The acoustic disc, while good in spots, has too many songs that sound similar.

Whole Lotta Shakin'

Wow. We've felt two quakes in the past week.

One of them hit while I was in a meeting with all my co-workers. You can instantly tell who was born in L.A. or has been living here awhile. When the room started to shake, nobody moved, nobody batted an eye, nobody freaked out.

Instead, they followed the basic workflow for experiencing an earthquake in L.A.:

1. The rumbing starts.
2. Wait to see if it gets stronger.
3. If it gets stronger, stand under a doorway.
4. If it doesn't get stronger, gab about it for a few minutes, then get back to your life.

It's that simple!

Chivalry Is 95% Dead

Chivalry is ALMOST dead.

We guys rarely open doors for women. We rarely pull their seats out for them at the restaurant. We rarely do anything that would be called "chivalrous" anymore.

Except for one thing...

Have you ever noticed that MOST of the time when a lot of people are waiting for an elevator, when it finally arrives, the women ALWAYS get to go on first? And when you're on the elevator and it arrives at your floor, you always let the women off first?

What is it about the elevator that has managed to trigger that last remnant of chivalrous urges in the human male where it fails to ignite everywhere else?

Real People

There's a couple of shows on TV that my wife enjoys watching (and I tend to peer in on from time to time) that shows real people in real situations.

The first is "Cheaters" where one mate suspects that their current boyfriend/girlfriend/wife/husband is cheating on them. The "Cheaters" crew, with the sleuthing skills of the FBI, follow the cheater as they quickly build a case against themselves. Once they have enough evidence, the "Cheaters" team shows the jilted made the evidence and ambushes the cheater so that they and their jilted mate can have it out (usually in authentic "Jerry Springer" style).

The best part of this show is watching the cheating mate get ambushed. They're responses range anywhere from tap-dancing around the truth, coming up with wild excuses, blaming the jilted mate for their cheating, and getting violent (one time the host [the HOST!] was stabbed).

The other show is "Clean Sweep" in which a hapless couple whose home looks like a dumping ground for items gets to sort through their crap and reduce it down to a manageable size, while the "Clean Sweep" team remodels two of their rooms.

The thing about this show that's fascinating is HOW many people live in such junk-filled homes. I sometimes wonder if, while - yes - their houses are cluttered, the producers of the show take all their junk, fill the two target rooms with everything and make them look like crazy, junk hoarding shut-ins. Regardless, it's very cool to see them willing (mostly) to part with all their excess junk and, on the whole, the remodeling jobs have been decent.

New Music!

(aka, I'm just a CD junkie in denial)

Coldplay - X & Y.



Same old. Same old. Doesn't break any new ground. The result? If you like Coldplay, you'll like the album. If you don't like Coldplay, then you'll probably not care for the album. I like Coldplay. I like the album.

Black Eyed Peas - Monkey Business



Enjoyable, mindless party music. As long as you don't look for something deep and meaningful, you'll get a kick out of it. The only song I didn't like was "My Humps", which is just downright embarrasing.