Hinder and P!nk

I don't know. Maybe it's because I'm getting mentally prepared to move back home where Hinder-back rules the radio, but I am really digging Hinder's "Homecoming Queen." I heard it on the radio today during lunch and rocked out. It's kind of poppy and very hair band, which I love. Probably one for the ladies, in which case I'm the audience. I also recently downloaded "Who Knew" by P!nk. Another good one. I was in a Pottery Barn in Huntsville and heard it for the first time as I was browsing items that I couldn't yet afford. I really hope the gossip about her cheating husband is false. -K

Olde Towne Revival

Huntsville’s only brewery, Olde Towne Brewery, recently burned down. It was a blow to the beer loving government employees and southerners that inhabit this city. It was an especially sad situation for my dad since he and his friends had always been extremely loyal to the owner and his brew. Last night there was a benefit held at Crossroads for the Olde Towne and my father and I both went together. It was the first time I would go to a bar with my dad. I was kind of nervous.

Bird's eye view from the smoking lounge looking down onto the stage.

The first band, The Turner Family Band, lead by a vocalist/guitarist and the brother-in- law of my friend and coworker, M, moved through a selection of covers from Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, and others. The second local band, whose lead singer looked uncannily like my ex-boyfriend T, was called Johnny Black and the J-Birds. I am not sure how to describe what I was feeling when they came on, but it was almost a feeling of relief. On this kind of night I would have expected something more like The Blasters, which is great for some but snoozefest for me. So, when this four-member band came onstage and blew our faces off with quick-moving, melodic punk/rock/rockabilly original tunes, I was ecstatic. Check them out.

Here's Johnny. Usually not this bad of a photographer, but I was caught off guard and didn't come prepared with a good camera!

Though my dad and I didn’t stay for the rest of the bands scheduled to perform, I have to say that it has to be a success when after a couple of hours of loud music my dad put his arms around me, smiled and said he loved me. My friends/coworkers met and mingled with his friends/coworkers. For once, mixing worlds was not challenging. I actually had fun with my dad and it didn't involve Lord of the Rings! And to think I spent years as a teenager running away... -K

Learn about the Free the Hops movement.

Musical Sidenotes

I haven't driven a car in a week since my move to the UK, so I haven't really listened to music. I did download the new FF single, The Pretender. They deliver a satisfying solid rock song but it is not exactly covering new ground. The Foos are playing all over the UK right now but nowhere close. It's as if Dave wants to hover close to me but not seem too obvious.

Amy Winehouse is the Lindsay Lohan of Britain. Every day there is a new article about her drug and alcohol problems.

Every night at midnight one of the stations airs a live performance of a popular band from one of the summer festivals. It's very cool.

I stepped into a small independent record store around the bend from my office. I got the High Fidelity stare. You know, are you worthy to buy something that I sell? I would have bought something if they had anything that I was interested in that I didn't already own.

I fear that I won't be catching any shows soon. While there are some coming that I would like to see, I'm on a remote train line into London right now and I'm not keen on riding the train late at night by myself. K, I miss you! --J

OD-ing on UK Music Mags

One of the things that I promised K when I told her I was moving to England was that I would send her fave magazine, Kerrang! in the mail. As you can see I picked it up and a few others today. I couldn't resist buying NME since our favorite trainwreck and judakris poster boy, Pete Doherty was on the cover. --J

Last Show in St. Louis

When I was visiting Alabama back in May I was having a conversation with some old friends about music. One of my friends told us in her heavy southern accent that her life-long dream was to learn how to play "boogie woogie piana". I thought about her last Wednesday when I was watching Chuck Berry and his band at the Duck Room in Blueberry Hill. Chuck has a standing gig there every month and I have been saying for four years that I was going to go. I was glad before seeing this performance that I had recently watched the documentary Hail Hail Rock n Roll which was filmed twenty years ago in St. Louis. It explained a lot about Chuck's performance. Basically Chuck Berry does whatever the hell he wants to and his band has to watch him intently to keep up. Chuck's son plays guitar in his band and also acts as guitar tech. When Chuck broke a string, Chuck Jr. took the guitar from his dad, handed him another, and exited the stage to re-string. Chuck's daughter also performs with the band, singing the blues and playing harmonica. She is a force of nature. The other members of his band, including a boogie woogie piano player have been playing with him for a long time. While I imagine at 80, Chuck's performance is not as energetic as it used to be, it was an amazing night of blues and old time rock and roll. To hear him play the beginning of Johnny B. Goode sent the room into a frenzy. The audience included college students as well as people who could have been those college students' great grandparents. It was truly an experience. --J

Wear the Funky, Funky Eye Patch, Bret.

Flight of the Conchords: an HBO show about two musicians from New Zealand, Jermaine and Bret, who are struggling to make it in NYC. Bret occasionally has nocturnal imaginary visitations from a poor advice-giving David Bowie (who looks an awful lot like Jermaine). If you're a Bowie fan like me, you will not be disappointed. -K

Ziggy Stardust era


Ashes era


Labyrinth era

This is the Day Your Life Will Surely Change...

I remember years ago all of the hullaballoo around the song Revolution being used for a Nike commercial. In my youth, I didn’t understand what the big damn deal was. Another sign that I am old, I suddenly do. I recently heard one of my favorite one hit wonders in an M&Ms commercial, The The’s This is the Day. Don’t get me wrong, if the artists made some cash, good for them but geez, I don’t want to think of that stupid commercial when listening to that song. And I also, as the commercial encourages me to do, don’t want to go to the M&M website and make an M&M candy of myself. Okay, I went to the stupid website and made one and it’s funny because as you can see, it looks as irritated as I am. --J

Supermassive Blackhole on MTV2

Can someone tell me why Muse's Supermassive Blackhole is just now number 6 on MTV2's T-Minus Rock? I know that sometimes a single will get airplay overseas before it hits here, but is it just me or does this seem extremely post factum? -K

Courtney Love

This is hilarious. Courtney threatens to stop blogging... tmz.com -K

She Won't Let You Fly, But She Might Let You Sing

Until tonight I have avoided watching The Wall in a sober state. I now know why. The idea of escaping into a fantasy world to cope with reality and creating an emotional wall around you hits a little too close to home. Seeing it with a clear head tonight during an emotional time (I'm moving, J is moving) may not have been the best idea. It ruined me as a 13-year old hopped up on vodka and pain killers at her friend's house. I never wanted to see Bob Geldof take a razor to his body ever again. I also didn't want to see an angry sphincter judge getting ready to shit something abstract and grotesque on the protagonist. But anyway, tonight I found myself curled up with my cat experiencing the whole thing from beginning to end.
I have heard Roger Waters explain that concept behind The Wall was inspired by the excessive success the band saw after touring in support of Dark Side of the Moon. It was also autobiographical of his life. David Gilmour has criticized it as being a catalog of the people that Waters considers to have screwed up his life. Well, not everyone has a therapist or anti-depressants; some just write one of the most successful concept albums ever and subsequently a cult movie favorite. It may not be my favorite Floyd album as a whole, but Hey You and Comfortably Numb are never far from being stuck in my head. Frankly, Mother speaks to me like no song ever has, will or can.
I can see why the movie The Wall has enjoyed such cult success: you see a creative rock star grow increasingly isolated through success, eventually envisioning himself as a fascist dictator, and finally judging himself. It's out there, but it's a vision of a haunted rock star's hubris and ultimate self-destruction, fantasy and reality coming together via live action and creative animation. I can't believe it took me this long to understand. As a Floyd fan, it's about time I do. -K

New Foo Fighters Record in September

Dave and the boys have announced the tracklist for their upcoming record. One of the songs is titled, Cheer Up Boys (Your Makeup is Running). Can't wait to hear that one. --J

Kiss of Dawn

(video screenshot)
HIM's new video for Kiss of Dawn, a tune on the upcoming new album set to be released this September, popped up on You Tube for a while today. All I have to say is if this is a preview for the new album then September can't come quickly enough. Love the song, love the video, and damn sure love that Ville has finally cleaned up! Very reminiscent of And Love Said No. I would post it, but it's already been removed from the site due to a copyright claim by Warner Bros. I downloaded the video this morning, but I cannot for the life of me crack the code on their website. What the hell am I missing? -K

Live at the Levee and Insole Products

Despite the fact that Live on the Levee was going to be our last show together for while in the States, J and I found ourselves giggling about random shit. For example, when we arrived it was in the middle of Ben Jelen's set. He opened for Pete and had a habit of prefacing each song with a serious explanation of what it was about. When one particular song ended, before he could open his mouth to explain the next a typical St. Louis weisenheimer behind us yelled "EH WHAT'S THIS SONG ABOUT!?" I almost shot beer through my nose.

Ben Jelen's tunes weren't bad at all, though he seemed like an artist who tends to take himself kind of seriously. I don't think he's been extremely successful in the States, unfortunately. What's also unfortunate is that I keep thinking of Dr. Scholl's commercials when I hear his name. -K

The Joys of Live Television

This is just an add-on to J's post about Saturday night and the whole Arch situation. Channel 5, which is our local NBC affiliate, interrupted SNL to cover the "breaking news." While the camera zoomed in on the observatory section of the Arch, Channel 5 began to air a live cell phone conversation with someone else who was stuck. This conversation made the seemingly unnecessary interruption worth it. The "victim", who I guarantee was having a festive night, said (and I'm paraphrasing) "We're doing great. We're all taking pictures and having a blast. Hey, why are you guys cutting into SNL for this? It's Justin Timberlake tonight. I called a buddy of mine a few minutes ago and he wants to see Dick in a Box." Channel 5 immediately ended the conversation and cut to the news desk. I rewound it a few times just to hear it again and again. -K

P.S. If you haven't seen Justin's Dick in a Box...

Walk Me Out by the Water's Edge...

After a day of selling my life away and dickering with old women on the price of board games, I was in need of a refreshing beverage and some live music. My brother S had strongly recommended that I go see Junior Brown who was playing here last night, but I have been feeling the need lately to do things unique to St. Louis as much as possible before I leave. The Live on the Levee music series was happening last and we have never gone, so I asked K if she wanted to go down and see Pete Yorn. I usually don’t like going to events with such huge crowds, but since I have a soft spot in my heart for Pete and his magnificent head of hair, I was willing to go check it out.

The humidity broke this weekend so the night air was perfect. The stage was situated right in front of the Mississippi River so the performers faced the large staircase that led to the Gateway Arch. It really is a perfect setting for a summer concert.

I was going to title this post “St. Louis Likes Free Things” but thought instead to use some lyrics to a PY song. The reason I say that St Louis likes free things is because I was shocked at the number of people that had come out for the event. As I climbed the top of the stairs to take some pics of the stage below, there were people passed out on blankets on the grass under the arch oblivious of what was going on below, and lots of people my dad’s age, who wouldn’t be coming to The Pageant to see this same show if it had a ticket price. The crowd was enormous.

Pete put on an excellent show. He said it was their first night of their tour and he was happy to be in St. Louis and loved his view from the stage. He ran through a lot of songs from all three albums but leaned closely to his first. As usual, he also peppered in some covers like Warren Zevon’s Splendid Isolation and The Smith’s There is a Light that Never Goes Out.

After he performed, we sat on the Arch steps and watched fireworks accompanied by tunes of local celebrities like Chuck Berry and who could forget---Head East! We sang along and then called it a night.

When I got home later that night, I had Harrah’s Lucky Break on as I wrote some posts for the blog. If you live in St. Louis and you have not seen this show, you have got to see it. It’s a karaoke contest hosted locally at Harrah’s casino and it’s a trainwreck. They cut into the programming to report that due to a power outage there were 200 people stuck in the Gateway Arch. We were right there and had no idea. When the reporter on the television was talking to a guy that was stuck at the top, she asked him how they were doing and he said, “We ain’t doing anything. There ain’t no fireworks to watch now”. I felt bad laughing having been up in that thing and thinking about the panic attack that I would be having if it were me, but you just never know how redneck someone is going to say on live television. --J