Monday Moaning (20 Albums)

So it's Monday...Last week was busy...Tiring and busy...The household is healthier, and on the lookout for the next bug that spreads around...

 

I've got nothing for you sports-wise...What am I going to say building up for the "Super Bowl"?   SQUAT!  Yeah, I watched some college and outdoor NHL Hockey this weekend...Pretty impressive keeping a rink in great shape at Dodger Stadium...The Rangers played the Devils at Yankee Stadium Sunday, and they take on the NY Islanders Wednesday night there...That'll be a cold one...

 

The Pro-Bowl was Sunday...No interest...I watched the Grammy Awards...I'm not sure why I do that to myself each year...I guess I just want to see how far the Music world can slip...This got me thinking about the Music I love, and then one of the games people tag each other in on facebook...

 

 

Think of 20 albums, CDs, LPs, that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life....Dug into your soul...Music and or Lyrics that brought you to life when you heard it...That affected you, kicked you in the ass, and punched you in the gut...That damn good is what I'm talking about....So here are my 20 albums...

In no real order....

John Coltrane- Blue Train


Van Halen- 5150

Portishead- Dummy
 

Alice in Chains- Dirt

Pearl Jam- Ten

Glen Hansard- Once soundtrack

Our Lady Peace- Clumsy

Raine Maida- The Hunter's Lullaby
 

Deftones- White Pony

K's Choice- Cacoon Crash

Jimi Hendrix- Band of Gypsys
 

Led Zeppelin- Physical Graffiti

U2- Joshua Tree

Zakk Wylde- Book of Shadows 

 

 

Radiohead- The Bends
 

 

 

The Gaslight Anthem- Handwritten

 

 

Lorde- Pure Heroine

 

 

Paul Westerberg- Stereo

 

 

Damien Rice- O

 

 

Miles Davis- Kind of Blue

 

There's 20Albums...Do you have 20?


The Beeze.

Monday Moaning (The Best of 2013)

That's right Scarlett, get the Champagne ready...New Years is upon us...

At the end of 2012, I heard a lot of people wishing it away, and happy to see it go...For the most part, 2012 was okay for us...Then 2013 started and it started shitty...The first half of the year was tough...Lots of bullshit to deal with...Lots of things not going our way...But I didn't wish it away...And talking with Sully on Christmas Eve, and later with my wife, I realized, as tough as this year was...As much of it sucked, we're still doing okay...We're a lot better off then many...So, when reflecting on your year, remember to look at the good with the bad...And look at where you are, compared to so many others who are having a much tougher go at it...

Okay, off my high horse...

So, normally I watch a ton of the college bowl games at this time of year...But it seems like they haven't had as many this time around...Maybe they aren't space them out as much, and just cramming them into a tighter slot...Saturday I finally got into some bowls...

I watched the second half the The Pinstripe Bowl, as Notre Dame grinded out a 29-16 win over Rutgers...All year I've been looking for the Irish to lean on their ground game...They finally realized it in the second half, of their final game of the season...It says something when the MVP of the game is a OT, as Senior Zack Martin lead the young O-line in dominating Rutgers up front...

Teddy Bridgewater and Louisville took Miami apart, 36-9...and after that I watched Kansas State roll Michigan 31-14...It felt good to watch 3 games and be rooting for the winner in all three...Thank God, I needed to make a couple extra bucks after Christmas! May have been the best College Football Saturday I had this season!

So that leads us to My BEST of 2013...

First, the Best Hockey Hit of 2013 ...




Thank God there are still leagues that allow beautiful, open ice checks...This was a high school game...Sad to say, if that kid goes any further he's going to have to stop laying people out with good, clean checks like that, because Hockey is starting to try and take away open ice hits like this...

Best Hockey Goal of 2013...




Nothing like a 19 year rookie Tomas Hertl, racking up his fourth goal of the night by not giving a fuck, and trick shot-ing  the fuck out of the backup goalie...This may have been the goal that got Martin Biron cut by the Rangers!

Best Offensive Touchdown of 2013 ...




Auburn, the kings of the big finish...This so should have been picked off, but Georgia fucking sucks, and Auburn will make you pay for that...

Best Defensive Touchdown of 2013...



What did I tell you?  Mother Fucking Auburn will make you pay...Offense, defense, they're about to lose, but no, you fucked up, and they just stole your game...Watch out Florida State...They're going to be pulling some witchcraft on your ass too...

Best Broken Leg of 2013...

Way to go Anderson Silva...You slipped that one in last second, to pull out the big win...HOLY FUCKING OUCH!!!

-Now...Enough sports...Time for my other love...Music...There was some really good music in 2013...I'm going to give you my Best 5 Albums of 2013, with a taste of each...

-Frank Turner's "Tape Deck Heart"  Great songwriter, taking his punk roots to the acoustic world...




-Lorde- "Pure Heroine"  This does not fall in music I would find myself listening to, but when I heard that the most offensive community, the Hip Hop community was offended by her lyrics in her hit song "Royals" because she basically called them out for their idiotic lyrics/lifestyle, I had to check it out...I was blown away that a 16 year old wrote this album...Amazing...




Here's the latest single...




-Raine Maida- "We All Get Lighter" The Our Lady Peace frontman's second solo album is again acoustic and instrumental...Just the raw music laying down the path for the emotional lyrics to follow...Just as in his first album, you won't find anything that sounds like an OLP song...Which while being an OLP fan, it's great to hear Maida detach himself from that a do something different...




-Twenty One Pilots-  "Vessel" This two man wrecking crew mix, rap, rock, electronica, and everything you can think of to make a record that should make the music world take notice...And their live show is amazing...But I have to hang in the back by the bar, because I'm the oldest fucker there...




-Elvis Costello & The Roots- "Wise Up Ghost" Costello cut up more then a dozen of his old songs, making them less melodic, and bit more conversational...This is not a rock/hip-hop mash up...The best description I heard was it sounds more like a "wordy bebop record"...Costello is taking a Jazz approach (flexibility) with his lyrics on this one...

 


That's it folks...Feel free to share your best whatever's of 2013...

Have a week...Happy New Year...

The Beeze.

Monday Moaning

Well, it happened again...The wife and I were doing our exercises Sunday night, and our daughter was awakened by the noise again...I gotta get that kid some earplugs! At least this time she stayed in her room and waited until we were done, before she questioned what was going on...Never a dull moment here!

So pre-season Football has gotten going, and the Cleveland Browns got started with the Green Bay Packers Saturday night...The Browns won 27-24, but hey, it's only pre-season...I'm not getting a boner over this crap...Hell, I didn't even watch the game...We were at a wedding Saturday night...I'll get to that in a minute...But I looked at the numbers Sunday morning...My fears were confirmed...Colt McCoy sucks! He completed 5 of 10 passes, for 25 yards...But that's nut really fair...He completed two other passes with the Packers defense!

Over-priced veteran Jake Delohmme was 6 for 7, with 66 yards...Seneca Wallace completed 4 of 8 for 72 yards and 2 touchdowns...I guess I shouldn't worry about McCoy, because all the talk coming from the Browns staff, says he's not gonna play this year...Let me just say, Thank You! If the dolts wanted to burn another draft pick on a QB this year they should have drafted Jimmy Clausen, who looked pretty good Thursday night!

Seriously, the Browns and Quarterbacks just don't mix...Here's a list of the QB's the browns have drafted since 1999...Tim Couch, Spergon Wynn(16 picks before New England drafted Tom Brady), Luke McGowan, Brady Quinn, and Colt McCoy...That's just the guys they've drafted...Here are the other hacks that have started for the Browns...Ty Detmer, Doug Peterson, Kelly Holcomb, Trent Dilfer, Jeff Garcia, Charlie Frye, Derek Anderson, and Ken Dorsey...That's a pretty damn sad there!

Now, I'm getting all pissed...Let's move on to the wedding we were at Saturday...It had to be the slowest moving wedding, but it was Mother Nature's fault...It was scheduled to be outside, and that bitch started raining an hour before show time, so things had to get moved around...So it got the reception backed up a bit to...Which meant they were cutting into my drinking time...Hey, I may sound like a dick, but some one paid good money for me to eat and drink all night, I wasn't gonna let them down!

It was your typical wedding stuff...The Maid of honor gave a very nice toast, that made my wife cry...She cries pretty easy, but now we're mixing in all these baby hormones, so she's extra fragile...Then of course there were the dance floor douchebags...You know, white guys that think they're just the shit when they're on the dance floor...Oh, and every other Rap song that comes on, they have to high-five, 'cause that's their jam!'

Then a Country song kicked in...All the pasty gangstas left the floor, and a few of the country fans jumped out...The song was some Hillbilly nonsense, "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy." Oh you clever guys you! As I was listening to this drivel, I realized, 'Holy shit, it's Rap too...Just a redneck doing rap...Same thumping beat..Same cadence...Same guy with little ability to sing, so he talks to the beat.' Well, f*ck me! You see, I'm not a Country fan...Some is okay, but most makes me want to eat a bullet like R_Bud_Dwyer...

I'm not a Rap fan...There's some stuff that I can handle, but you're not gonna find Jay-Z's greatest hits in my collection...Seriously, that asshole said, "Shit I made the Yankee hat more famous than a Yankee can" REALLY F*CK-TARD! Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle and hell, even Jeter beat you at that! Anyways, back to the music...So I would guess that a good number of these people loving this "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" bullshit, are also the same people who can't stand the dumb-ass, misogynistic Rap lyrics...Hey, at least Rappers don't sugar-coat shit...They just say, 'Bitch, suck my dick!' Or something like that!

Did I just defend Rap?

But the biggest douchebag of the night, was this guy...

How is it that ass-hats like this clown land chicks like that...Seriously, when they walked in, my wife and her friend were talking about how pretty she was, and how they liked her dress...I had to confess to them, I hadn't even noticed her, because I was sucked in by his unbelievable, douchebaggery...This guy should be punched in the face repeatedly, for like, 3 days...Maybe 4...Hell, as they were leaving one guy almost did kick his ass, for no other reason, then he was a douchebag...Seems justified to me!

Sunday, the wife took our daughter shopping for school supplies, and spent $140...I shit you not...They sent home the list of supplies, and I have to ask, what are my taxes paying for, because from the looks of it, the school is only providing the teacher and the desk...Later this week I'll be taking the boy for his...His list is a bit smaller, so I may get by with just $80...

After that we did a lot of house cleaning...We've finally come to the realization that we have a baby on the way, and December will be here sooner than we think...We cleaned out our storage room, so we had room to store other shit...we worked hard in the man cave/playroom...It's about 10% man cave and 90% playroom...The Little Beeze was putting up a fight through all of this...he wanted to keep shit I wanted throw away...You know, the crap he hasn't played with in 2 years...Then he just kept playing with crap he found...We kept giving him small jobs, and a few minutes later, there he was, playing with something he hadn't seen in year...After awhile, I tapped out, and they played with their friends next door...

When it was time for bed, he was complaining and fighting about everything...I tried to talk to him, about some times when you're over-tired, (which he was)That you have a bad day...Then he broke out some of his logic, which at times is hard to argue with...He said, "I'm just having a bad day, 'cause you guys won't let me do what I want to do." So very true!

I'll Close with this song from Raine Maida and his wife Chantal Kreviazuk, inspired by being a parent...There's some chatting at the beginning, but he explains it and gets into it about 45 seconds in...And I know exactly what he's talking about...



If you missed, my first college football preview, you can catch it HERE.

Later, The Beeze.

Our Lady Peace Live at the Cleveland House of Blues

Last night Our Lady Peace rolled into the Cleveland House of Blues...I've been looking forward to this night for a couple months now...I was not disappointed...

First we had to get through the opening act, Meese...They're from Colorado...They sounded better live then on their MySpace...By better, I mean more energy, and a dirtier sound...That may just have been caused by a bad sound guy...You couldn't understand a word from the singer...I would describe them as a bad mix of Weezer and The Fray...But they have a poppy sound that will win some people over...My wife included...She enjoyed them...

Then the stage was set for Our Lady Peace...They made the crowd wait a couple more minutes then we wanted to...But when they came out the place went crazy...They Opened up with a new song...Monkey Brains...It was rocking...

OLP sounded tight...Duncan Coutts' bass was thumping the room...Jeremy Taggert was working the drums with fire and strength...Steve Mazur ripped it up all night on guitar...AWESOME...



And Raine Maida didn't miss a note, and was the stellar front man he has always been...

Next they played the classic Superman's Dead...Audience participation a must...And Cleveland did not disappoint the band, as Maida stopped and said, "This is gonna be a good night!"

Then they played Angels/Losing/Sleep...Flowed right into Innocent...More crowd participation...Followed by fan favorite, Clumsy...Insert even more crowd participation...And an awesome jam at the end of it...OLP was killing it...

At this point Maida stopped and thanked the fans for their support over the years...Then gave a shout out to a little place from back in the day, called Peabody's...A little dump I spent far too many nights in...Yes I called it a dump, but I have nothing but good memories from there...Just wish once, that my band got paid with money instead of beer there....




Then they played Paper Moon and Escape Artist...Both from the new album Burn Burn...Which if you missed my review of that, here ya go.... http://thebeezewax.blogspot.com/2009/08/beeze-reviews-burn-burn.html

Paper Moon was great, as I expected...Escape Artist didn't disappoint me either...I had been hoping that they would play it...I just wish more people knew it...That will be a good audience participation song...

Now the next few songs I may have jumbled out of order...I had a few drinks, and I was just enjoying the show...Not taking notes...

Is Anybody Home was started out with just Maida, and his acoustic guitar, and the crowd...We did well again...the song finished with the whole band blasting in....Chills were had....

Then came Somewhere Out There...Insert audience participation....The tempo was slowed down with Bring Back the Sun....Then picked back up with One Man Army...That was followed by the classic Naveed...The whole time the crowd singing along...Then came the first single from Burn Burn, All You Did Was Save My Life...Again the crowd got involved...And Maida got into the crowd....he's made a habit of climbing into the balconies and rafters and getting closer with the fans...And he taunted a fan for sitting...Awesome...

OLP left the stage for a couple moments...All bands do this...We know they're coming back out for a couple more songs...But we still clap and chant, and hell some people still throw a lighter in the air...

When they returned to the stage, OLP started the encore with fan favorite, and city challenge sing-a-long, 4AM...If you don't know...4Am is a song that many people have connected with over the years, and the audience no matter what town, will sing the hell out of it...Cleveland did not fail..And yes, I sang along too...

Then they did In Repair...One of my favorites, as well as one of the little Beeze's favorites...No I didn't bring him...In the middle of In Repair, Maida and the band dropped in a little taste of Life, before blasting back into the powerful finish of Repair...

They finished the night with Starseed...Rocking the hell out of the House of Blues, with the help of their fans, of course....Including one fan who jumped up on stage and started singing with Maida...Raine gave up the mic to him and let him take it to the lead...Very cool...Even cooler was when the dude jumped back into the crowd and was catching some sh!t...Maida spoke up and said "Leave him alone...That takes a lot of courage." The band finished out Starseed, and the show was over...




I was left wanting more...A sign of a great show...

The sound was great...Great set list...Yes there were other songs I wanted to hear...But if it was up to me they would have played another hour...some people may not want to hear this...Or read it...But I prefer OLP,and probably many other bands, in a smaller venue like the House of Blues...You feel like you're part of something special...

My wife had never seen Our Lady Peace live...Hell she didn't even know who they were until I tricked her into marrying me...She had come to like some songs because of me playing them all the time...And she loves the new album...But now she's hooked...She couldn't believe how everyone knew every word, to every song...On the way home she said, "You have to put ore of their songs on my ipod, so I can learn them for next time." That's my girl!

Tickets were $22.50 before service charges...That's a bargain...I would have gladly paid more...It was an amazing night....If OLP rolls through your town...Check them out...And Check out the new album...And check out the old ones too...You gotta be ready to sing-a-long...

Later, the Beeze.

The Beeze Reviews Burn Burn

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In the past I have reviewed restaurants, movies, and a Dane Cook concert...Why do I do this...Because most critics suck, and I will always feel my opinion is much better then most!

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So today I'm reviewing the latest album from Our Lady Peace...One of my favorite bands...Most reviews come out before a album or movie are released...And most critics don't take the time to listen or view more then a couple of times...I've taken a couple of weeks...Mainly because I don't want to look like a douche bag fan...Okay, I may be a douche bag fan, but I took the time to listen to every song many times...So here we go...

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For years Our Lady Peace has had to deal with their record label giving them crap to write "hit singles." It seems to be a common story in the music business...Labels trying to tell artists what to do...Now OLP is free from their label, and Produced "Burn Burn" on their own...Guess what? Some douche at Sony is kicking himself right now...Not only is this excellent OLP album, but it may be the most "Radio Friendly"...Although being in Cleveland, it's been a long time since I've heard a good radio station....Most the time it's jumping around fro song to song...Actually Most the time i'm listening to CDs or XM...But that's not the point right now...

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When I heard the first single "All You Did Was Save My Life" on the radio I was a little nervous...My co-worker, Jurk and I both thought it had a hint of Goo Goo Dolls to it...This scared me...But after listening a few more times, and listening closely...I realized this was OLP without a doubt...

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The poet that is Raine Maida, picks up where his solo disc "The Hunter's Lullaby" left off, opening himself up for all to see...I've always admired his lyric writing...The rest of the band, guitarist Steve Mazur, bassist Duncan Coutts, and drummer Jeremy Taggart, sound revitalized and crisper then ever...

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Through out the album I was blown away by Mazur's guitar work...he drops the gloves on this one and plays some old school rock & roll guitar...(sorry if the hockey metaphor gave you douche chills)...But seriously, this is some of the best guitar I've heard from OLP...And honestly, the rhythm section of Taggart and Coutts sound stronger then ever...I guess Bob Rock isn't the only guy who can get the best out of musicians...Our Lady Peace seems to have gotten the best out of themselves...

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The second track on the disc is the uplifting "Dreamland"...Great music, great lyrics...One of my tests for music is if my kids like it...(They both [7 and 4] love OLP...Seriously they're mad that the Mrs. and I are going to the show here in the Cleve and they aren't)...My son can sing every word of "Thief" and "In Repair"...Well his new favorite is "Dreamland" and he's got it down...If a 4 year old can rock out to a song and learn the lyrics in a matter of a couple days...That's a good song in my book...

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Next is "Monkey Brains"...This one jumps right into your face...Taggart, Coutts, and Mazur show you where they're from on this one...Straight up rock & roll...Then OLP slows it down...Just to come right back and blast you in the face...I've seen videos on YouTube...And they tear it up live too!

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The next song is "The End Is Where We Begin." This is one of my favorite songs on the album...The Lyrics are great and the music strengthens them...Every band has those certain songs that become staples in their set list and this feels like another one for OLP...

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Then comes "Escape Artist"...It opens up sounding like something from "The Hunter's Lullaby" and then the band joins in with the stadium sized chorus "you're the ghost" and it's amazing...A really powerful tune, and it leaves you wanting more...Some of the best songs do that...Leave you wanting more...I hope OLP does this one live when they come to The House of Blues in Cleveland August 20th...

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That's followed up with "Refuge"...A song about being a father in this screwed up world and raising your kids to be aware of it...While still giving them hope...When I heard this song I thought to myself...'This sounds like something U2 would write.' I don't mean that as a knock on OLP...In my world that's a compliment...

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As the album goes on, you can hear much of the writing is talking about relationships...And the next tack does more of the same..."Never Get Over You" could very well be the return of the power ballad...That isn't a knock either...It's been too long since we've heard a good rock ballad, with the singer wearing his heart on his sleeve...Any man who's man who's married or at least been in love can relate to the line..."There's no hiding, from your silence."

My wife immediately fell in love with this one...She tried to be nice and say it's not as good as the one I wrote for her...But she's full of sh!t...Of course it's better then the stuff I've written...She's just a good person...

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After that comes probably the most up-tempo song on the album, "White Flags." This one is my favorite on the album...We all have songs that we feel we can relate to...And this is one of those for me...The line, "this whole world has gone crazy, God's got a little lazy" is a thought I've had countless times...This is another song I hope to hear live...It's got such a great energy to it...I can see the whole place going crazy...

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Then there's "Signs Of Life." This is another one that has a similar feel to Maida's solo stuff...Another great line I wish I would have come up with..."The sound of quiet is deafening"...This song puts you in a place...A lonely place...Feeling kinda lost...And it's done beautifully...Including a sweet, trippy, bluesy solo by Mazur...

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The album ends with "Paper Moon." When you write a letter, you always end it with your signature...Well at least you did back when people wrote letters...That's what "Paper Moon" is...OLP's signature...It's everything you want and expect from them, plus a little more...That's what great musicians do...Give more then what you expect...And yes, I've seen videos of this one too..."WOW!" That's what I said after Steve Mazur's guitar solo...

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It may have taken awhile to make...But Our Lady Peace have put out a great album, and they did it without a record label, and without a high priced, high profile producer...(More people may be looking to come to Raine Maida's studio)

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Many people have been down on the music business, and with good reason in this silly, American Idol, flavor of the week world...But maybe it's better off having not so many hands all over it, trying to put their two cents in...

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Checkout OLP's website... http://www.ourladypeace.net/ ...And if you can catch them live, do it...I can't wait to see them at The House of Blues in Cleveland...I'm looking forward to hearing the classics...But I'm even more excited to hear the new stuff live...Maybe I do sound like just another fan...Tough sh!t.

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Later, The Beeze.

Time for Some Videos

I'm pissed off tonight...And to be honest My list of Skull F**ks was getting to big...So To calm down I started checking out some videos on YouTube...

Now I'm, smiling...So I thought I would share some...

The first one My pal Jurk posted on Facebook...Anytime You can use the Benny Hill music well...I'm gonna be happy!




Next is one of my favorite stand-ups...Bill Burr...I'm not gonna post my favorite thing of his, which was him verbally beating the audience down at a show in Philly...It's over 10 minutes long and I don't want to piss off anyone from Philly...But they started it by booing every comic that night, and Burr fought back...

Here's an older one of his first...




Here's something more recent...It's longer, but funny as hell...(to me)




Now here's Doug Stanhope...Some one who is angrier then me...(He can be offensive)




Last tonight will be a little music...Raine Maida is the singer of Our Lady Peace...He has also done some solo stuff along with working as a producer for some other artists...In this video Raine (like we're best f**king friends or something) is busking to raise money to rebuild a school in the Congo...It's very cool to see a celebrity doing something good for others...And we don't see it enough...I know I often blog about them being douche bags...So I'm mixing it up tonight...



I hope you enjoyed...If not Oh well!

Later, The Beeze