The Clash: Live at Shea Stadium

The Clash have released a live album from when they played at Shea Stadium opening for The Who in 1982. My relationship with The Clash is as follows: London Calling is undeniably one of my favorite records if not one of the best rock albums ever made. That being said, I have never personally ventured to far past it to Combat Rock or anything, mostly because I don't want to ruin what I pretty much maintain as a flawless reputation.

This live album (while heavily laden with London Calling tunes) has plenty of other songs (Tommy Gun, Police on My Back, I Fought the Law) and solidified in my mind that they are an immensely influential band in so many genres. The way they combined punk, reggae, and the genre that would eventually become ska, so wonderfully is truly amazing. Bottom line, I thought The Clash were awesome before, but I wasn't going to give myself a mohawk and start singing like Joe Strummer. Now I am seriously considering it...

Yearbook Yourself

This site is the best. A history lesson and product placement. Works awesome with webcam photos.

http://www.yearbookyourself.com/

PS, look at me.

Love Lockdown Music Video Premieres on "Ellen"

So remember when I told you earlier today about Kanye West's new album coming out soon? Well, I've got a couple more quick updates on that. According to RollingStone.com the album will come out on November 25. Also, today he debuted the video for "Love Lockdown" on the talk show Ellen. The song has an awesome mix of tribal drums as well as the latest hip-hop trend of overusing a pitch corrector. The video is extremely trippy, but very awesome. Enjoy.

The Onion: Pushing the Comedic Envelope

Most people are relatively familiar with The Onion News. What started as a small publication full of parody news stories, has grown into an empire: with weekly YouTube videos, a recent full-length, straight-to-DVD film and regular print publications. It seems like more and more people are turning to fake comedic news sources to stay up on current events than ever before. Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" are hugely popular, especially among young people. However, these sources, for the most part report on real events, with hilarious commentary. The Onion takes a completely different approach, reporting completely fictional stories based upon current events. My favorite aspect of them has got to be their channel on YouTube. Each week a new video is released, always delightfully insightful. They are comic geniuses. Some of my recent favorites include a report that teen pop-star Miley Cyrus will be "depleted" if fans keep obsessing over her, and a pre-game coin toss causing football players to forfeit the game because of an existential awakening. In the midst of the election though, The Onion has really stepped up its game. Their "War for the White House" coverage (complete with explosion graphics) is a fabulously sarcastic take on such a serious election. The Onion has made jabs at both candidates through their series of about 15 short films so far. Definitely worth checking out if you have some time to kill and want a less serious approach to the 2008 Presidential Election.

The Onion's YouTube Channel can be found here, with all of their videos on it.

Kanye West's New Album to be Released Soon

Kanye West is constantly up to something, always causing a stir in the music scene. A couple weeks ago he told fans that he would be moving the release date of his fourth studio album, "808s and Heartbreak", up to "November something" (MTV.com). He debuted his first single from it, "Love Lockdown", on September 7, 2008 at the MTV Video Music awards. The album, which was originally slated for release on December 16, is being moved up according to Kanye's blog (www.kanyeuniversecity.com/blog) because, "I want y'all [the fans] to hear it as soon as possible." Kanye's first three album's are some of my favorite and am really excited for his next one.

Happy Birthday Thom Yorke

Today is Thom Yorke's 40th birthday. In honor of this I would like to take a very abbreviated look at his life.

He was born in Wellingborough, England, but grew up with his family in Oxford. He had several surgeries on his left eye, which was paralyzed. The last surgery was botched but eventually he was able to have partial vision. He grew up being inspired by bands like Queen and The Beatles.

He went to an all boys school in Oxford where he met future band mates Ed O'Brien and Colin Greenwood. During his time at school there he formed On a Friday, the lineup which would later become Radiohead.

Radiohead burst onto the scene in 1993 with their single "Creep" and the rest, as they say is history. With each album pushing the limits of their own musicality, and the alternative rock scene as a whole. Bottom line: if I can look back on my life at 40 and have accomplished even one third of what Thom Yorke has, I will consider my life a success.

(A portion of this information was gathered from Thom York Biography at starpulse.com )

MGMT

One emerging group that is beginning to really make their name lately is MGMT. They are an electro-rock duo from upstate, New York. Their debut album (although they released one prior as 'The Management') "Oracular Spectacular", is a great testament to the ingenuity that modern artists are exhibiting. It was released digitally over a year ago but not onto CD until January 22, 2008. I have been listening to it on and off ever since then. In the beginning there were a few songs I really liked, but the album never really stood out. Lately, I can't get enough of it. All of the songs I was indifferent on have really grown on me, and the ones I liked to begin with have just gotten better. "Time To Pretend" is an awesomely danceable track that pokes fun at the music and pop-culture world. "Electric Feel" is by far the best track, a discoey track that perfectly features their dual vocal style. A lot of their other tracks are spacey ballads but all of them are great. MGMT gained a lot of attention over the summer performing at festivals such as Bonnaroo and Coachella. Here is a video of them performing on the David Letterman show quite a while ago. Enjoy.

The Music of "Forgetting Sarah Marshall"

I saw "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" starring Jason Segel, Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Russell Brand when it came out last Spring. I enjoyed the movie quite a bit, but forgot just how hilarious it was until I watched it on DVD this weekend. The movie is an intricate love story in some ways, but for the most is a typical Judd Apatow comedy. For those unfamiliar with Apatow, he is the producer of recent comic masterpieces "Superbad", "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and, this summer's stoner smash-hit, "Pineapple Express". Perhaps one of the most striking parts of the movie though, is the slew of original music made for it. All of the songs are satirical works of arts, that are actually great pieces of music. First of all there's Russell Brand's character, 'Aldous Snow', the hyper-sexual front man of the fictional band Infant Sorrow. The movie features him singing two different Infant Sorrow songs, "Inside of You" and "Do Something", both equally funny. "Do Something" is a call to arms for people to literally "do something" about the injustices in the world- no doubt a jab at the likes of U2's Bono and other rock and roll activists. The music video for this (featured partially in the film and in its entirety on the special features) has Brand making out with nuns, humping police officers and sexually crawling on the floor of public places. "Inside of You" is another gem, an explicit 'love song' enhanced only by Brand's excessive pelvic gyrations. Also part of the film are songs written by the main character, Peter Bretter (Jason Segel) as part of his Dracula musical. Segel, who actually plays piano (www.imdb.com) croons "Dracula's Lament" about halfway through the movie. This short piano-ballad, complete with Dracula accent, is not only hysterical, but actually reflects themes that work on multiple levels; both in the context of the movie, and out of it. Bottom line, if you haven't seen the movie, I recommend you rent it, buy it, Netflix it, whatever you can do, as soon as you can. You won't be disappointed.

Here are some videos of the songs on YouTube:

"Inside of You"


"We've Got to Do Something"


"Dracula's Lament"

WMEB Spot: "Late Night with Mike and Mike"

This is a copy of an interview I did for the Maine Campus. It is part of a series I am going to be doing on DJs at the WMEB, the campus radio station.

WMEB Spot: Mike & Mike

Kegan Zema

Issue date: 10/2/08 Section: Style

Mike Maberry and Mike Moody, both third-year history students at the University of Maine, host the weekly radio talk show "Late Night with Mike and Mike," Wednesdays from 10 to 11p.m. I sat down with them to discuss their program.

MC: What made you guys first want to get a radio show?

Moody: I think it was born out of a lot of very long discussions at York Commons, back when it was open all the time. And we just thought, "Hey, let's do this on the radio."

Maberry: Yeah, I think that's exactly how it started. I know Mike had prior experience at his high school and I had always wanted to try. I had done a little stuff on my own and I had volunteered some time at a local radio station.

MC: Do you discuss politics, whatever is on your mind or what exactly do you discuss on your show?

Maberry: Well, the last two shows have been whatever the hell we want to say. Whatever's on our mind at the time, I guess you could say. But we're hoping that we'll start to get guests again. I think that's the biggest part of our show.

Moody: Yeah, we've got some guests lined up for this week. Should be exciting. Shed some light on the inner workings of Student Government. We have acting student government president, James Lyons - a friend of the program.

MC: Who is the most interesting guest you've had in the past?

Moody: [chuckling] Probably the last time we had James Lyons or the time we had Dillon Bates. He's a member of the student senate, very interesting guy. We had him on with Travis Hall just after he had lost his bid for Orono Town Council, but we had [Travis] on to talk about that.

Maberry: And talked [with Travis] about the smoking ban on campus, which we will actually be going over again with the chairperson of the Tobacco-Free Campus Committee, Lauri Sidelko.

MC: How does your show offer a different perspective than similar talk shows?

Maberry: Both of us have very differing, varying political ideologies - very differing ideas about humanity and life in general, I think. And we may not agree on a lot of things...

MC: But it makes for good conversation?

Maberry: It does, and we're pretty good friends because of it.

MC: Do you guys get in debates pretty often on your show?

Moody: We like to not throw any punches in the studio, so we get all of the physical fighting out of the way before hand. And all of the yelling - we like to try and avoid yelling on the radio.

MC: Do you have any stories from your show you'd like to share?

Moody: The last time that James Lyons on our show, the three of us were sitting in the on-air studio - two history majors [Maberry and Moody] and one political science major [Lyons] - and we were trying to figure out who Al Gore's running mate in the 2000 election was. And between the three of us, we couldn't figure out with any certainty who it was. We got a call and I took the call while Mike and James filled time. [The caller] informed me that it was [Joe] Lieberman. So I thank him for calling us and letting us know, and then I whisper to Mike, "It was Lieberman." And Mike just freaks out because he thinks Joe Lieberman has just called our radio program.

Maberry: I just heard, "It's Lieberman" and I thought oh my god, Joe Lieberman is listening on a college campus radio station. I panicked.

"Late Night with Mike and Mike," part of the complete WMEB lineup, can be heard on 91.9 FM, online at wmeb.fm and on channel 20 of campus television.

Radiohead Release 'Reckoner' for Remixing

British rock band Radiohead have released their latest single "Reckoner" on iTunes in separate musical stems in order to let fans more easily remix the song. This is the second time they have done this, releasing their song "Nude" for remixing last April. The band allows for anyone who remixes the song to upload it to their site, where fans can listen and vote on their favorites. The first contest was a huge success with 2,252 remixes uploaded, 461,090 votes and 1,745,304 track listens (http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace/). This time around Radiohead has made it cheaper to remix the song (only $0.99 for all the stems rather than $0.99 per stem for "Nude") and to get things rolling had producers James Holden and Diplo take a crack at it.

You can listen to the remixes at http://www.radioheadremix.com/

Punk Show at Brewer Worker Center

This is a copy of an article I had published in the Maine Campus newspaper. It talks about the punk scene in eastern Maine and my experience at a show last Friday, September 26.


Brewer's Worker Center highlights local bands

Whoever said punk is dead must have never been to eastern Maine. On Friday, Sept. 26, it was apparent the same radical punk rock scene born in the back alleys and seedy dives of New York and London is alive and well in the Bangor area. A punk rock show, organized by a group of University of Maine students called the 105 Collective, transformed the Worker Center in Brewer into a hub of music, culture and activism.

The night centered on the performances of diverse local acts. The show, running close to five hours, featured Taco Apocalypse, Clinic Bomb, Megatime, Anal Jesus and a surprise set from Kicking Dicks. Fans filled the majority of space in the small venue, coming and going throughout the night, but maintaining a high energy level. Circle pits, awkward versions of the twist and even plastic sword fights abounded in the audience for each set.

The Worker Center has experienced growing success by transforming a simple meeting place for the local labor movement into a venue for alternative acts. The Center has become a hub for the countercultural community.

Martin Chartrand, co-founder of the Worker Center, said, "The punk scene definitely existed beforehand … We just opened [the Worker Center] up to shows at the right time for the scene to continue."

The activist side of the Worker Center remained prominent during the show. Between sets, Chartrand spoke to the audience about the issues the Worker Center is concerned with and offered ways to get involved. Literature on union laws and recent legislation was also available, and volunteers ran tables containing information on activist organizations.

The success of the eastern Maine punk scene relies upon more than passionate fans and a solid venue; at the heart of the scene is the music itself. The performances on Friday were undeniably punk - dirty, sometimes unrehearsed or unfinished, yet oozing emotion and intensity. Punk traditionally relies on its simplistic sound and haphazard style as a way of breaking away from the norm.

Every band that played had something to offer, like the brutality of the bearded front man from Anal Jesus or the energy from the mohawked guitarist of Kicking Dicks. Taco Apocalypse's performance featured everything from catchy guitar riffs and lyrics about circumcision to a guitar breaking apart and being thrown on the floor.

Clinic Bomb's co-ed dual vocalist style gave them an exciting flair as they cursed the American government with choruses such as "Uninsured, underpaid / How many working class died today?" echoing the Worker Center's ideals. Megatime, who commuted from Portland, blew the crowd away with old-school punk and blues vibes, sounding like a mix of The Clash and AC/DC.
Shane Garland, member of both Taco Apocalypse and Clinic Bomb, also commented on the Center, saying, "It's really a central meeting point that brings people together." Garland referred to himself not as an artist but simply a "rock and roll enthusiast."

Chartrand's message with the Worker Center is simple: "The basic premise of the Worker Center is about people working collectively to accomplish things. Shows like this are a perfect example of that."

With such innovative musical acts, diehard fans and a cooperative venue, the Maine punk scene has all the right ingredients to thrive. Perhaps most inspiring about the show was the fact that ordinary young people worked hard to create a place for themselves.
"People involved with punk music have this reputation for breaking stuff," Garland said. "We're all really nice kids."

First Post

Music is an inseparable and integral part of my life. As an avid listener, performer, writer, arranger, disc jockey and music journalist, I have surrounded myself with music, in nearly all its aspects. This blog will focus heavily on music, featuring topics such as local performances, album reviews, interviews with independent radio DJs and interesting quips about artists that spark my interest. In addition, it may have some information on other apsects of Arts and Entertainment, like movies, television, theater, fashion, pop-culture etc... Basically, if I think its interesting, there's a good chance it will end up in this blog. So, if you are looking for a blog with an in depth look at music and culture, look no further than right here.