9/11 and the healing power of music

Today is the tenth anniversary of 9/11 as most people in the U.S. know. I wanted to take a second to reflect about it and the following days.

I will never forget that day (as most won't). I was working the closing shift at the Southfield, MI Best Buy at the time. I woke up and did the normal thing I always do, turn on the PC to read Emails and news, turn on the radio to Drew & Mike on WRIF for background noise and started the shower. As I'm bumbling around I hear Mike say something like "WOAH... ANOTHER ONE HIT A BUILDING!! THIS IS AN ATTACK!!" And I stopped what I was doing and paid attention to the radio, quickly signing into the PC and something I rarely did in those type of days, turned on the TV. I saw the replay of the 2nd plane, the PC finally fired up and there was all the news and speculation and I was just frozen and consumed by what I was seeing and hearing. This went on for a few hours...

I took my shower and called work to see what was going on there as Southfield is close to Dearborn which has a large Arabic community. The first person I got was Amanda at the front security podium and she was obviously (and understandably) freaking out. "I'm so sacred right now" she told me, "There is a rumor they may attack the Detroit area" Of course those rumors were in every major city. I told her to move away from the front podium to be safe and to get me Tony, the GM. Tony told me he was waiting for word and to come in, so I did. An hour later we were all sent home. The whole day just had a quiet feel to it, which was odd for all the chaos going around.

I was working in the audio department at the time and Best Buy still let us play our own stations at the time. And what I started to notice was a dramatic increase of requests, all of the most patriotic stuff of course, but WRIF is a rock station and rock isn't really known for patriotism, it's known more for the party. Yet this day I heard 2 songs requested over and over again. Both were remixed songs that included responders calls and people crying for their loved ones. One was Styx's "Show Me The Way" off their forgotten by then record "Edge Of The Century" and the other was Lee Greenwood's "God Bless The USA" Neither were rock songs but I hand it to WRIF for turning a blind eye to that and helping people heal.

One of the first things done after the shock wore off a little was SNL... And what was the first thing they did? Played music. Paul Simon's "The Boxer" while several firefighters and policemen stood on the other stage, covered in dust from ground zero, Rudy Guillianni was also there. It was a touching moment. Next was a huge concert where the event even moved Paul McCartney to write a song and preform it. The country was really coming together as one. I kind of miss that part of the tragedy.

A year or so later we had albums coming out inspired by the tragedy. My two faves are Springsteen's "The Rising" and Bon Jovi's "Bounce", both albums are some of their stronger works in their later years.

It's amazing to me that when everything is down and everything is chaos we turn to music to help and find common ground. It's why all these guys write here and it will always be this way.

Thank God

2011: The Music Year So Far

2010 was quite a year in music for me and 2011 hasn't been too shabby so far. I meant to write a post like this back in early July but it slipped my mind and here we are at the beginning of September! Before I know it, it'll be December and I'll be prepping for a Year In Review post!

So far this year I've seen quite a few excellent concerts. If I had to pick one as "the best so far" I'd have to go with Adele wsg Plan B at the Royal Oak Music Theater a few months back. It was refreshing to catch a truly great opening act in Plan B. If you have never heard of Plan B, you really should take a listen. The latest album is called "The Defamation of Strickland Banks" and it's quite good. You can locate it on any number of streaming sites to give them a try.

Adele was nothing short of fantastic live in concert. Her band was tight, her vocals were amazing and she had an interesting stage presence that you don't see much anymore. During each song, you could tell she was really feeling what she was singing. The most interesting part was when she would really let her attitude fly on a song like "Rumor Has It" but then turn all shy again the most the song was over and the applause started. It was interesting but most of all it was genuine. You could tell that this wasn't some act just to garner more applause (I'm looking at YOU Taylor Swift...).

New music this year has been so so. I was looking forward to the new Beastie Boys album but it let me down in more than a few ways. I've listened to it a couple of times at the most but there's been nothing drawing me back to it. Hands down the best record released so far in 2011 is Wasting Light by Foo Fighters. It's easily their best work and by far the best rock album released this year. That record together with Adele's 21 are probably my two favorite overall releases so far.

We've also lost some immense talent thus far. Jani Lane and Amy Winehouse seem to have both succumbed to their respective demons which is sad for many reasons. I'm sure 2012 will bring the usual bombarding of unreleased material from at least the Winehouse camp. Jani Lane was prepping many new songs for a solo project and I do hope we get to hear those tracks. I don't expect that release to be near as high profile but I certainly hope it gets some attention.

The rest of 2011 holds some cool things for me musically. I'm very much looking forward to the new album "Kicking & Screaming" from Sebastian Bach. A new solo album from Rich Robinson (The Black Crowes) is due in October along with a solo tour that I'll be attending. I'm also excited to report that I'll be seeing the one and only Garth Brooks in concert at the Encore in fabulous Las Vegas on September 23. As soon as I return from Sin City, I'll be writing up a review of the event. I'm also hearing the Guns N' Roses will be starting a US Tour in Miami in the end of October. I would imagine they'll make their way to Detroit by the end of November or the beginning of December. Needless to say, I'll be attending. If you want to check out GN'R live prior to the US Tour, you can see them at www.youtube.com/rockinrio near the beginning of October. They're known for putting on quite a special show each time they've appeared at the Rock In Rio festival and I'm assuming this time won't be any different.

What did I miss? What concerts did YOU see this year that I should've? What new albums did YOU check out that I should? Did you discover or re-discover an artist this year? TELL US ABOUT IT! Log in and leave a comment below, let's get some music discussion going!

Why the F*@K Would You Listen to Rap Anymore?

I am a man of many hatreds. When Russ asked me to write a lil' sumn-sumn about music from time to time, I thought about all the things I wanted to say about music. Then I realized that a lot of what I have to say is about what's wrong with music. Like I am the only person that knows how music should be. So I decided I wouldn't be that guy. You know, the guy that tells you that this generation of kids is screwed up, how music doesn't mean what it used to. The back-in-my-day guy. The kids-don't-know-real-music guy. Basically, the get-off-my-lawn guy. I used to hate that guy. But what if that guy is right? Is being a bitterman justifiable when your bitterness is tangible? Or does that just make you a hater?

Well, I'm both. What makes it worse, is that I hate that I'm right. Not all the time, but I especially hate when I'm right about the destruction of the things I love. Like when the Verve broke up. Or when At The Drive In broke up. Or when the MotherScratchin' Bulls eliminated my Bad Boys in 4 games in the last Eastern Conference Finals that Zeke, Joe D, and Laimbeer would ever participate in. Now add to that list the destruction of hip-hop.

See, the rap game has been under siege for years. Rap has closely mirrored the meteoric rise of computers and the internet in the 90's. Once it proved that it was commercially, and therefore financially viable in the mid 90's, it was only a matter of time before the effects of big business stripped from it everything that gave it soul. Now look at it. After 15 years of assembly line rap production, replete with regurgitated misogyny, doctorate-level knowledge of narcotics, and idle threats from wanna-be thugs, rap has completely lost its edge. When is the last time you heard a rap song that had an original thought? An original beat? An original concept? When was the last time you you winced from the realness of the lyrics? Or felt compassion after hearing the criminal's side of the story through rap? (On a side note, I completely remove The Roots from this argument. That group is the antithesis of everything negative that I say about hip-hop in this blog entry.)

So, the question is why the f*@k would I listen to rap anymore? Why would anyone, when the radio waves are saturated with unimaginative drivel? I hear songs now and I feel disconnected from the genre. Maybe it's that I'm 36 years old with a steady job, a family to be responsible for, and obligations like bills and taxes. I think that we as music lovers forget that music is a medium of the moment; it's only relevant to the feeling of the artist at the time the artist feels it. Ice Cube railed against all things caucasian in his first album Amerikkka's Most Wanted and his collaboration with Da Lench Mob on Guerillas In Tha Mist. A quick listen through either album and you can hear the most hateful, dark, xenophobic language in any album. At the time, it was dangerous. Dangerous because it exhibited not hatred for whites, but the underlying feeling of helplessness against forces out of your control. Seeing the "American Dream" all around you and not being given the tools to obtain it. Being defenseless against a system built to strip you down and make you conform to ideas, lifestyles, and cultures foreign to anything you've experienced. But that was the way Ice Cube felt in 1992. That is not the Ice Cube of 2011. In a quiet moment, away from cameras and voice recorders, I'm willing to bet that even Ice Cube would admit that his lyrics were the bullshit babblings of an ignorant twenty-something. The same establishment he raged against is all of a sudden his ally. He has been lucky enough to see certain breaks and favorable situations while simultaneously working hard to make sure he was in the right place at the right time with the right skills to take advantage of it all. While complaining about never seeing the American Dream, he was realizing it. Now, much like Ice-T, he enjoys a career greater than he ever imagined by leaving behind the things he did to start his career. You know, my kids, until this year, had no clue where Ice Cube got his start. They only know him as a movie star! Damn, I'm old!

In the 80's and 90's rappers at least tried to stand for something, however uninformed they might be. Rap served as the megaphone and the mirror for young, black America. In rap, we saw how other blacks lived throughout the nation. we stood in awe at our similarities and took pride in our differences. Rap was an audible black bulletin board. A place were we could discuss why we were what we were and where we should be headed. Quite often our pontifications on what it meant to be young and black ranged from narrow minded (Paris), to do-you-even-know-or-believe-what-you're-saying (Digable Planets, X-Clan, Camp Lo). But rappers at least wrestled with expressing their varying realities of life in America. Rap was always evolving; finding ways to better itself through sharper lyrics, more innovative sampling, even live instrumentation and singing.

Now, rap is stuck on stupid. Everything is party rap. The formula is simple: take some kid that is barely literate and borderline retarded, let him/her spew forth nonsensical gibberish for a catchy hook, insert generic synthesized beat and/or autotune, purchase airtime and advertisements. Wash, rinse, remix. The artists are too stupid to realize that they are dooming themselves to one-hit wonder status because they never developed a sound or style all their own. This is most desirable to record companies, because rappers aren't capable of sustaining their meteoric success, and thus never have leverage to get bigger contracts based on a consistent track record. Of course Jay-Z and Kanye seem to defy this logic, but they are exceptions to the rule. They provide the bell curve that everyone else gets graded up on.

So tell me, why do you listen to rap anymore? I still listen because I know where to go to get the good stuff. I haven't listened to the radio for an entire song in approximately 8 months. Don't need to. But every once in a while I'll test the waters and let the fm tuner do its thing, only to be disappointed to hear horseshit flow freely from my speakers. However, the further hip-hop slides away from anything worthwhile, the harder it gets to justify the effort it takes to wade through the pile of manure in order to get a smidgen of gold.

3 artists I'm listening to now:

Jay Rock - Follow Me Home - 4 stars

Phonte - Charity Starts At Home - 4 stars

9th Wonder - The Wonder Years - 4.5 stars

Jani Lane 1964-2011

Jani Lane 1964-2011

Last night we got another story of rock n roll tragedy. Jani Lane was another star musician who lived a life in the tabloids as much as he did on stage and though he always seemed like a nice guy to fans he never seemed to be able to overcome his many demons. My feelings on Jani vary in many ways... I hated Warrant's first record but still saw them live 6 times because they opened for everyone in the late 80s, I thought the record was bland and very "paint by numbers" though it was a big hit, I became a fan after the 2nd single on the 2nd record "Uncle Tom's Cabin" which was followed up by the equally good "I Saw Red", Two songs that lyrically different and had a musical emotion that was rarely found in that day. Then I became angry at the industry because of this band as they put out 3 great records that no one heard because they weren't the cool band anymore and the industry can only push one style of music and at that time it was grunge. Then I lost some respect when Jani left Warrant to be a solo artist. Why? Because when you are the chief song writer then you have no need to leave... The band is your sound and a solo record will most likely be indistinguishable. Then he became another 80s reality show guy, that group of 80s stars that showed up on all the "I'm fat and on drugs" shows that VH1 got popular on recently and to many he became a punchline.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time on Warrant's early years. If you recognize the man then you know about the first two records. They put out singles that were very pop oriented and safe and sold millions and toured a lot. That's the story. More interesting is the next three records. The band put out some great music at that time and Jani was the reason.

Warrant's 3rd record was "Dog Eat Dog" The record went gold, it did OK. They had a hit with

"Machine Gun" but they went from arena's to theaters. I had seen them at the Fox in Detroit with some good friends and Jani had a rep of going into the crowd and singing, this time he grabbed my buddy Eric to do a verse of a cover of "We're An American Band" and Eric was star struck as one of his heroes was standing there with his arm around him goading him into singing a song with him! Here is a guy who sings in his own band and he can't say a word... Frozen... And still loving it! We still talk about that night and I doubt Eric will ever forget it. This was early on in the tour for "Dog Eat Dog" and later we would read (and see) how the record company just forgot this great record and they were not going to promote it at all. The record was heavier for Warrant and really stretched the band. They were dropped soon after the tour.

Eric and Jani

Their next release was "Ultraphobic". It was a dark record as far as lyrics were concerned, but it was another good record. Songs like "Undertow", Followed", "Family Picnic" and "Stronger Now"were certainly not the happy hair band type songs that made them big. Another tour, but now it's the club scene. But Jani didn't care. He still went out to the crowd and in Detroit he started breaking out his Barry Sanders story (his favorite running back he would say from the stage). We also saw the beginning of another tradition... Jani would sit down with a guitar on a stool with a cigarette in his moth and no lighter. From the stage he would ask the audience for a light and be pelted buy hundreds of them, lol. Years later it would seem a little cheesy, but looking back now it was all in good fun. I hope Jani wasn't too hurt, lol.

The 3rd record was "Belly To Belly" and it has my favorite song by Warrant "Letter To A Friend". It was an angry record lyrically but still very good. It had strong songs like "Indian Giver", "In The End" and "A.Y.M.". The band was still playing clubs and they still had good crowds coming out, and the crowd was into the newer songs as much as the hits. We got the Barry Sanders story, we got the lighter barrage, we got Jani in the crowd and we got a fun show. But there were some signs of tension as guitar techs were yelled at from stage and at times Jani did look angry. It was the beginning of the end.

After that you saw Jani on "Celebrity Fit Club" were he really seemed to make an impression on people as a sweet guy with problems, after that was all the rumors... He was too drunk to preform, too much a mess... I didn't see any of his solo shows, but I heard the stories and it was sad. I have heard he was going through a lot at the end.... The loss of his band, a divorce and a parent dying. He even lashed out (Regrettably) at one of his biggest hits saying he regretted being the Cherry Pie guy. He later retracted the statement but it obviously bothered him to some extent.

I know this look like a Warrant post more then a Jani Lane post, but Jani was Warrant, period. The saddest thing to me is that most of his best music still goes unheard because the band wasn't trendy enough so most people only know 3 or 4 songs of 2 records and it's not fair. Jani deserved better then to be a hair band, reality celeb punchline.

I'm going to add 2 songs that you should check out from their later work. two of my favorite under appreciated tunes

"Man.... You REALLY need to hear this band!!"

I think we all have a few bands that we feel we found and bugged our friends and anyone else who'd listen to hear them. My next article will be on one of the bands that never made it, the Galactic Cowboys, but this is about the ones that did and the excitement of feeling you changed someones listening life.

My first "Discovery" was Bon Jovi. Now I know everyone know them as a cheesy hair band/adult contemporary band, but before that they were a hard working rock band from New Jersey. I first heard them on a late night video show on local PBS when I saw "Runaway" and the hook was so strong that it just had to be a hit... It wasn't. Sure, it's well known for them now, but at the time, not so much. Then they released the much better "7800 degrees Fahrenheit" which may have actually done worse. I was telling everyone about these guys and playing them constantly getting one of my best friends to become a big fan (which he still is). Then came the big record "Slippery When Wet" and they were everywhere! They followed up with 2 more huge records but then made the darker "These Days" record (their best by the way) and all of a sudden I found myself trying to tell people about this band again as everyone seemed to have lost interest. It took a few solo albums and changes of music styles, but the band has been back for years, but I was one of the first...

My second band I found before all my friends (and a lot of the world) was Guns n Roses. I was one of the few that saw the one airing on Mtv of the video of "Welcome To The Jungle" and went out that day and bought the cassette. That guitar riff still sends chills up my spine! I listened to it over and over (which was not a great idea in the cassette age, lol) and then playing that for anyone in any situation where I had the chance to hit "play" on the boombox. But the song that I told people that was going to be huge was "Sweet Child O' Mine" before it was even a single. It wasn't even my favorite song on the album (Rocket Queen, Jungle or Paradise City fought it out for fave) but I knew it was catchy as hell and had another unique guitar sound. Within a month and a half or so everyone was talking GnR and within a year they were the biggest band on the planet, but I was one of the first...

My third time was Extreme. I remember seeing TV ads for the movie "Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure" and hearing this crazy guitar going on underneath it all, but never could hear the singer and the band wasn't credited. One day I just happened to hear on one of our no defunct rock radio stations in Detroit the song and the DJ actually saying the name of the band and the song (I miss those days) as Extreme and the song was "Play With Me" and once again, off to Harmony House I go! What a great album! Full of great guitar playing and unusual lyrics for a "hair metal" band and I couldn't wait for the second record. I had a lot of friends listening, but not buying the first Extreme, but "Pornograffitti changed that... Especially "More Than Words". The album was big and the song was bigger, in fact it held a record for most returned album for some time because some people (mostly of an older variety, haha) would buy it for "More Than Words" and find a very hard rocking rest of the disc that had a lot of adult themes. They followed that up with the great "III Sides To Every Story" which had a couple minor hits, then they went in a dark different direction with "Waiting For The Punchline" which didn't do well at all. Then out of the blue Gary Cherone (singer) is signed on to sing with Van Halen and Nuno Bettencourt (guitar) is doing side projects. They broke up, but in 2008 they reunited with "Saudades De Rock". I never saw them get bigger then theater tours, in fact we saw them at the beginning of the "Pornograffitti" tour at a tiny club in Detroit called "The Ritz with Alice In Chains Opening, but I won't take credit for exposing my friends to them as they were there and we didn't even notice the band til later that year, "Man In The Box" was big and that's when we noticed we saw them and no one even knew, lol.

What bands have you found and forced upon your friends til they finally saw the light? Let me know... I'd love to check them out!

The 27 club

The death of Amy Winehouse has brought the dreaded "27 club" back into the lexicon. Let's get out of the way first... It's a club, not a curse. If it were a curse there would be a lot more dead. The reason for the "curse" talk is that in general most people claim Robert Johnson was the first member after going to the crossroads and making a deal with the devil to become a great bluesman and traded his soul and that many have done this after him and mate with his same fate. Problem with the theory is that the biggest star to be associated with this deal (at least in my opinion) is Jimmy Page, and he's still kicking around. Also the fame but unusual deaths of stars much bigger then those in the club, but at a much older age (Elvis & Lennon come to mind) makes the idea of a curse seem silly to me.

However one can't deny the coincidence of the age of all these musicians or the impact that a majority of them had. The poster childs of the club are Brian Jones, the founder of The Rolling Stones, Janis Joplin, influential female blues singer, Jimi Hendrix, considered by many the greatest guitar player ever, Jim Morrison, lead singer for The Doors and Kurt Cobain, leader of Nirvana. It's hard to say at this time if Amy Winehouse deserves to be on that list, but she did join the club none the less.

So how does this happen? My personal opinion.... Too much, too young. Maybe that's too easy, but imagine having the world at your feet and more money then you can ever know what to do with and you aren't even 30! And to top it off... No one will dare tell you "No". You are still immature yet you need to make decisions that would stress out an experienced CEO. Band members, road crews, record labels, agents, managers and fans are now depending on you and just a few years ago maybe you were flipping burgers... It's gotta be insane. So you turn to drugs and partying to release the stress, after all... This is what you know, you are too young to understand that you have all the power to tell everyone to just slow down for your own good, heck... You're young... You will live forever!!

I fear we will see this much more often in this TMZ society. The press adds even more pressure to an already volatile situation and it seems our young stars can't fart without a thousand cameras catching it. I see Miley Cyrus and Lindsay Lohan heading down these paths and I'm sure there is more to come. Maybe next time we see a sad pathetic, falling down drunk or stoned star, instead of laughing at them or instead of the courts sending them to jail for 2 hours we take this serious and help them and stop enabling them.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond

Roger Keith Barrett was born January 6, 1946 and passed from this world on July 7, 2006. During his time with us, he was best known by the nick name "Syd" and for founding one of the most influential rock bands of all time: Pink Floyd.

Syd's story is inspiring, influential and tragic at the same time. He inspired and continues to do so with his wild imagination. He was in a constant state of pushing boundaries through his art. It was his vision that caused EMI Records to take note of what his band was doing to push rock in a new direction. He was among the first in all of rock & roll to see how well visuals could be used in a live setting to accompany the music. As far as influence goes, one need look no further than every music performance over the past 3 decades or so. Prior to the stage productions of the Pink Floyd shows of the late 60's, concerts were prone to using "house lights" along with an occasional spot light on a featured band member. Syd had a much larger vision for what a rock performance could be and it branched out from him directly to every other stage on Earth. The alternating, variable lighting and rudimentary overhead projections of the time have made way to other artists constantly borrowing from and enhancing the same scheme to this very day.

Syd's story is also tragic in that, while on a constant quest to push forward or go further, it is universally agreed he eventually went too far. Syd was eventually dismissed from Pink Floyd because, through hallucinogenic drugs, he had pushed his on mind so far out there that he was no longer able to function in normal society. I don't want to focus too much on the negative and/or tragic aspect of Syd's legacy. A simple Google search will dig up all of the unfortunately accurate information available about his steady decline. I do however want to touch on an interesting point David Gilmour once made about Syd's decline. David was doing an interview about Syd's early yearts and was asked if he could describe what exactly happened to Syd. Gilmour thought for a few moments and replied "It was suddenly as if that light that was so bright in his eyes, that place where you know so much was going on, had been switched off. The light was gone, he looked looked completely lost instead of looking like a leader who could take you anywhere". That quote has always stuck with me as do pictures like the two above. One being from early in Syd's career with the Floyd and the second being from after he'd left the band. In those two pictures alone, you can see exactly what David Gilmour was describing.

After Syd was removed from Pink Floyd, he did go on to create a number of solo tracks which where originally released as his solo albums "The Madcap Laughs" and "Barrett" in the beginning and end of 1970 respectively. These albums, along with several outtakes and remixes of sorts have appeared on upwards of 10 compilation projects through the years.

One of my favorite songs Syd ever released was called "Octopus" (above) from The Mapcap Laughs LP. Recorded and released a few years after he'd been deemed unfit to carry on making music, I really feel that it shows something was still there for Syd creatively. For whatever reason, Syd chose to discontinue making music entirely soon after the original release of the first two solo efforts.  At no point did he partake in any further live performances neither solo or with Pink Floyd.

Pink Floyd obviously went on to greater success after Syd's departure. While working on their own Pink Floyd related projects, the members kept in touch with Syd as much as they could. David Gilmour and Richard Wright also lent a hand to the material and overall production of both of Syd's solo efforts. After the monumental album and tour for The Dark Side of the Moon, the remaining members of Floyd did not forget their original inspiration. Their next effort, 1975's "Wish You Were Here" is both a lavish tribute to their friend and scathing comment on the record industry that had a hand in pushing Syd well beyond his limits. At 40 some odd minutes and only 5 tracks long, the record stopped off in the middle for angry tracks like "Welcome To The Machine" and "Have A Cigar" to mark the anger with the music industry previously mentioned. Near the end of the record is the title track which is so universal, it can be applied to just about anyone. But with it's place in the track listing, one can only assume that Syd was front of mind when lyrics like "Did you exchange a walk on part in  the war for a lead role in a cage?" were written. The album is book ended with "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" (above), a sprawling and brilliant direct tribute to Syd. The song is a tribute and cautionary tale at the same time. Many of the lyrics point to the sheer brilliance that was Syd and others warn of the price Syd eventually paid. Can you read the prior quote from David Gilmour about Syd's decline and not immediately reference the lyric "Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky"?

As I said before, a quick Google search will quench any sort of thirst you have for knowledge of Syd's decline so I don't need to focus on that. I choose instead to focus on what he did accomplish, what he inspired, who he influenced and the music he gave us both directly and indirectly. He left our world physically five years ago today. He remains in so many hearts now and forever.

"Come on you raver, you seer of visions,
Come on you piper, you prisoner and shine"

Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett
January 6, 1946-July 7, 2006