Axl Rose

It's all been said before. The guy has an ego. He's crazy. He's got delusions of grandeur. But Axl Rose continues to grab attention in some circles, for his spazzy attention whore antics.

His most recent rant includes a 766 character "tweet" on Twitter. As we know, Axl has never been one for brevity. He takes it to a new level by defying the very thing that Twitter is known for.

In it, he addresses a rumor about The Chinese Democracy tour. Apparently, Axl was accused of asking people wearing clothing with Slash's image on it to turn them inside out. Because you can see individual t-shirts in a sea of thousands of people, from several hundred feet away?

Sometimes I question who is truly the loon here: Is it Axl Rose or the entertainment gossip website morons that have the IQ nature gave a flea?

Someone answer me this: Does anyone give a damn about anything Axl has done in the last fifteen years?

Jonas's First Concert

I took Jonas to his first concert yesterday. Hep Cat Boo Daddies were performing at Riverwalk Blues Festival in downtown Fort Lauderdale. We strolled in during sound check, and Randy's drums were too loud. Jonas was sufficiently pissed off, so we walked away from the front of the stage, finding a spot near the beer tent.

The band took the stage, and I was curious to see what my six month old son's reaction would be to live music. At first, he didn't seem to notice or take much interest. A couple of songs into the set, I took him out of the stroller so he could get a look at the stage and the band, as opposed to being eye level with every person's ass in the crowd.

The opening notes to "All My Life" drifted through the sea of people, and reached Jonas. Immediately his eyes lit up, and as the song progressed, he was smiling and laughing.

Apparently, we'd found Jonas's favorite HCBD song.

He seemed to enjoy himself for most of the set, until time started to take its toll and the overstimulation gave way to a mini fit.

This is just the first of many concerts to come, and I can't wait to see him enjoy more.

Looking For the Next One...

Sometimes, as a lifelong music lover, I get a little jaded and discouraged with popular music.

There are so many groups in the music industry spotlight today that are undeserving of the attention. So often it's all about your clothes, who you're fucking, and what you said at an awards show. When this takes the spotlight over the actual music itself, it's extremely disappointing. The amount of undiscovered talented musicians out there who are not getting the credit they deserve, or the attention of the public, is almost ludicrous.

It's not even always about a lack of talent. It can also be a matter of just churning out the same radio-ready garbage that my six-month old son could probably tap out on his musical toys and sound like a prodigy compared to these jokers.

After hearing the new Godsmack song last night for the first time, which sounds like every other Godsmack song in existence for the last DECADE, I couldn't help but think of this very sentiment I am sharing with you now.

I'm opening up the comments section on this blog for you to share with me your favorite bands that no one has heard about. Whether they play in the local bar down the street, or they're a signed band that just doesn't get any exposure, I'm ready to listen to something new.

It's no secret that I'm a Hep Cat Boo Daddies fan, or that I love The Freakin Hott.

How about you?

Mood Music

One of my favorite things about entertaining a group of people in my home is choosing background music. This week, we've have two occasions to do so, with friends that have a wide variety of musical tastes. Tonight, my husband selected Elvis Costello's "North". It's one that we often select for mixed company. Many of our "rock friends" in their 20s and 30s know and love Elvis, and our friends that are of the generation before ours love jazz music. This was followed by Miles Davis, which is always a crowd pleasing favorite.

Chatting over snacks, the topic naturally turned to music. Our group tonight loved everything from 80s country to disco, and many different genres in between.

The general consensus among the group was old standards, jazz, and classical music are all favored genres.

The gathering was relaxed and informal, and the music we chose was complimentary.

Had it been a more lively get together, such as the birthday party earlier this week, we would have chosen something entirely different.

Each situation, every different group of people, calls for a soundtrack that matches the mood and tone.

What are some of your favorite albums for entertaining guests?

MTV to Alter Logo

I generally stray away from news stories on my blog, as I want this to be a place to have discussions about music in a more generalized way. You can get music news from various sources on the internet that are often far more timely. That being said, it's difficult to ignore when I come across a bit of news that has as much significance at the changing of MTV's logo.

The new design will no longer include the words "Music Television" underneath the iconic logo.

For those of us that grew up as part of the MTV Generation, this piece of news means a lot in the pop culture landscape. For anyone born after 1990, this likely bears little to no affect whatsoever.

Many of my contemporaries can tell you what our favorite music videos were from those early days. Today, MTV is known for rolling out intelligent programming like "Jersey Shore", virtually ignoring its musical roots. So I guess the change is appropriate, but sometimes I WANT MY MTV.

RIP, Music Television.

The Who Halftime Performance

For the first time in a couple of years, I was actually able to sit and devote at least half of my attention to the Super Bowl. In 2007, I missed Prince perform at halftime, and that was a disappointment. I was on the air and had to have the television muted to, y'know, do my job. I couldn't even remember who did last year's performance, I had to do a quick google search to see that I'd missed Bruce Springsteen. Tonight, The Who performed. I have never been a huge fan of The Who, but have always enjoyed a handful of their songs, some of which I was actually looking forward to seeing tonight. The guys took the stage...and sucked. Pretty badly. Daltrey sounded like hell, Townsend not much better. The only redeeming bit of awesome was the trademark windmill arm. I still have Baba O' Reilly in my head, but only because I'd like to hear it again, the way it was intended to sound.

My friends and fellow Facebookers took to the social networking site to air their grievances with the lackluster performance as well. Comments ran the gamut from "Turn the microphones off" to "Really, The Who?"

My Generation (honestly unintentional pun) is right on the borderline of either really digging bands from this genre, or not giving a damn whatsoever.

Maybe they were off their game, maybe the sound equipment was bad as some suggested.

Overall, not the performance I was expecting.

Here's The Who when they were awesome:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKUBTX9kKEo

Sports Music

On this, the eve of the Superbowl here in South Florida, I give you a few of my favorite (if not totally overplayed) "Stadium Anthems".

Queen-"We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions

Kool and the Gang-"Celebration"

The Isley Brothers-"I Got You (I Feel Good)"

The Ramones-"Blitzkreig Bop"

Guns n' Roses-"Welcome to the Jungle"

Enjoy the big game, kids :)