The Who

Who?
^---- We're not doing this joke.
The Who is probably one of my favorite classic rock bands of all time, and I say probably because I don't wanna think of all of my favorites and actually rate them, because I just don't wanna do that. I like to type whatever comes to mind, and thinking about that would make me reconsider other things I might've said already, and that's dumb. I like to keep things moving. ANYWAY. The Who has won my heart with songs like My Generation, and Pinball Wizard. Why? Because they're freaking awesome. All of their songs are extremely well written, well produced, and overall just enjoyable to listen to. I try not to pick favorites in bands, but their bass player John (I'm not even going to try to spell his last name) is insane. He is so freaking amazing with everything he does, and I wish that I could steal his talent. He can play circles around anyone. He's the best. He's the man. The thing.
This is a little embarrassing, but idgaf. (That's text-speak for, "I don't give a darn") The song, Behind Blue Eyes made me wish I had blue eyes when I was younger. Just because I thought that song was awesome. Because it is. Go listen to it.

My show tonight

Tonight I played with Dead Earth Politics and Warbeast for the Housecore Horror festival, and it was probably the most fun show I've played in a long freaking time. It was definitely one of the better metal shows I've done.
I did not meet Phil Anselmo, but I met the rest of Down, and they were very nice. The nicest out of all the bands however was Dead Earth Politics. They treated us with so much love and respect, it was like being in the band for real. On top of that, that songs were freaking amazing. I'll post links when videos are up.
We did really well with Warbeast, too. It wasn't nearly as tight, though. SOMETHING happened near the end of the song, I don't know what though. Most talk has been blaming the drummer, but I dunno. I was playing my part just fine. Hooray for being freaking prepared, right? Where's my paycheck? Oh yeah. School of Rock kids don't get money. Sadface. I should get a real job. One day.
Everybody loved us, though. And that is really all that matters, I think. If the people on stage have a good time, the crowd should too, and vice versa.

As I said, here's a video of me playing with Dead Earth Politics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT9zmDfqRWU

Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution

Rock to me is the greatest thing ever, but what is it? I was to be broad about it, I'd say music. But what makes rock music? To me, it's attitude. As Mr. A. put it, "Rock is the sound of rebellion.", and by his definition, The Beatles is rock, yet so is a group like Blackalicious. Rock is to make something outside of the mainstream, or pop, regardless of the specific genre such artist is to be put under. Not to say that all rock or even metal bands aren't in the mainstream, but...hmm... this is difficult to phrase.
Like, pop music something that you can just listen to without much thought or musical passion, whereas rock is the opposite. The only way that a rock band would get into the mainstream is if places like Hot Topic sells their shirt or something, but no one (generally) really listens to them. Like Iron Maiden for example. Do you have any idea how many kids I see wearing Iron Maiden shirts and they don't have a single idea what any of their songs are or what they sound like? Too many. Too many, and it needs to stop. Now, preferably. Same thing kinda goes with The Misfits, but they kinda trailed off to "Horror punk" (or as I call it, "F*ck you, we're selling out and not admitting it" punk...you know, that doesn't even satisfy me. I just called it New Misfits. Less exciting, but it gets the job done) so I don't really count them quite as much.
POINT I'M TRYING TO MAKE.... rock is something that isn't a waste of your time. Listen to it, please.
Sorry this blog is a bit late, couldn't fit it in my schedule, and my internet has been making me sadface with it sucking. </3

Dead Earth Politics

Turns out I'm going to be playing a show with Phil Anselmo and others next week (thank you school of rock for providing me with fuhmazing opportunities) Saying that, I'll totally blog about how that goes
Anywho, one of the songs in the setlist is called Dos Cuerpos by a band named Dead Earth Politics. While this band is probably a bit more hardcore in terms of their sound and how their vocals go, the overall music is freaking fun as hell to play, and the bassline is sick. Their other songs that I've heard pretty much give the same appeal. Awesome and overall fun metal group. Like I said, I'm not big on all the screaming, but if you can get past that, it's a great group.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7xM63kX_rg&noredirect=1 here's the song I have to play. :33

Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath is arguably one of the greatest metal bands of all time, all while arguably not even being a metal band. Funny how things work out that way.
When people think of Black Sabbath (and hopefully know who they are) Ozzy Osbourne would probably come to mind, which is fair. He did have a lot to do with the band in general, and he gave the band it's first name, The Polka Tulk Blues Band. Apparently he came up with it when he found a cheap brand of talcum powder he saw in his mother's bathroom. They then shortened the name to just Polka Tulk, and then eventually changed the name to Earth. Fun Fact: Ozzy HATED that name.
They stuck with that name for a while, thinking they were going to be more of a blues rock band until they saw a movie called Black Sabbath. They wrote a song with the same name, obviously inspired by the movie which is arguably the heaviest song ever written based entirely on the pure evil vibe it gives off. After that, they changed their name to Black Sabbath and started writing more songs of the same nature. Evil, heavy, and freaking awesome.
The Ozzy years are characterized as "heavier, and more political." Heavier, sure? Political, very yes. War and politics were topics that were always used during the Ozzy years. With songs like, War Pigs, they often criticized the governments of the world as, well, war mongering pigs. I'm not one for politics, but these songs are freaking amazing. The lyrics are meaningful, while at the same time feeling like a total diss to whoever Sabbath wanted to go against. The music itself, as in instrumentation and melodies, brilliant. In the world of hard rock/metal, I would almost say that Black Sabbath was The Beatles of that genre. They truly dominated; nothing could touch them.
Ozzy got kicked out in 79, and was later replaced with Ronnie James Dio, who was the vocalist for Rainbow (AKA: Elf plus Ritchie Blackmore). I've talked about Dio before, but let me say once again that he was perhaps the greatest metal vocalist of all time. As for how Black Sabbath changed because of Dio, well, for one, Dio had a completely different voice, different attitude, and different style of writing with a different approach altogether. Dio didn't often follow the riff of a song for his melodies whereas Ozzy did it more than not. Which era was better, though? In my opinion... I have no idea. I don't really think it's fair to compare because they're so musically different.
After Dio left, Sabbath got Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan to replace him, and then he left after a couple albums to form a band called Blue Murder, so they replaced him with Tony Martin. I'm not going into them, because I don't really care for those years as much. That's kind of when I stopped listening to them. Up until they got Ozzy back, and they made their new album, 13, which is freaking awesome. Go buy it.
Holy hell, this is long. Sorry for also making it a history lesson, I just love Black Sabbath. <3

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is one of the greatest songwriters of all time. He's been making albums for about 6 decades, and he's still making them to this day, so he has to be (minus the Christmas album, of course)
He's a great guitarist, great vocalist, and contrary to what many people think, I actually really like his voice, in the studio, anyway. He's a mess live sometimes, from what I've seen and heard.
While he is an amazing musician, he is also probably the biggest troll in music history. As Mr. A has put it, "He's gotta be f*cking with us!" While there is no clear evidence of this being true, or Bob saying so himself... he totally is. There's nobody weird enough to do/say the stuff he does while meaning every bit of it.
Don't even listen to his music. Just look at the pictures of his other albums, then look up the cover of his Christmas album. By the way, I'd also like to point out that he was an atheist while he made it, and he donated all the profits to charity. What a boss, but he totally planned that whole thing as a way of subliminally saying, "Lets see how much money I can make off the worst thing ever."
The answer? Enough and a lot.
HE'S A GENIUS.

Jonathan Coulton

I was introduced to Jonathan Coulton through a little game called Portal. The ending credits of the game played this song called Still Alive. The song was sang by the antagonist of the game, Glados. She is a computer, and has a more effeminate voice. I liked it, so I looked up the song and found out it was written by a guy named Jonathan Coulton. I looked up a version of him singing it, and I was hooked. I freaking love this guy. His lyrics for the most part seem relatively basic. There's no real use of complex vocabulary. But his delivery, how he writes his melodies, and just how he really tells a story for each and every song, makes everything freaking awesome. The instant I sat down and listened to his hits, I fell in love.
Code Monkey, Still Alive, I Feel Fantastic, Betty and Me, Blue Sunny Day, these are just a few songs to name that really show his charm and overall ability to make you want to listen to everything he plays.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BmK8PYm504&noredirect=1

This is a live performance of his song, The Future Soon, which is probably my all time favorite

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxNmeMklFk8&noredirect=1

This is a more silly video of him playing Still Alive

S.O.D. (Stormtroopers of Death)

This band is stupid. Yet at the same time, they're freaking awesome. They are probably one of the heaviest bands within the knowledge of bands I can refer to, and that's what makes them awesome. Yet, that's kind of the only appeal to this band, which makes them kind of dumb, but I really like them. The inner metalhead in me is very pleased by their existence. And by that I mean whenever I hear them, the little voice in my head goes, "F******CK YEAH!", and I proceed to break everything around me, or at least, I feel the urge to. S.O.D. is the kind of band that doesn't really impress me musically, but they're just fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReoMBYAoSWA&noredirect=1

What I've posted is the link to their entire album, Speak English or Die. The reason I'm posting an entire album is because it's short. Short to me, anyway. That, and I honestly don't expect many people to be reading this. That, and you don't have to listen to it. You could just judge me based on knowledge you don't have. <3