Category Archives: R.I.P.

So Much to Say

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“Open. up. my. head annnd let me ouuuuuut.. a-little bay-bay.”

(Thanks, Dave.)

Hello!  I know, I’m an asshole for waiting well over a week to write a new post. But in all fairness I have been very busy catching up on my life since my return from my trip.  Okay, that’s a terrible excuse. I’ve just been lazy.

But seriously, some crazy shit is going down.  First of all, have any of you heard this news about the Jimi Hendrix biopic?  Today it was announced that they are casting Andre 3000 (yes, from Outkast) to play Hendrix in a film called “All Is By My Side”, about his years in England from 1966 – 1967, and it’s set to start filming in DUBLIN in 3 weeks.  Okay, can we please talk about a couple of things?  First of all, I think it’s really weird that I was reading “Room Full of Mirrors” while I was in Dublin 2 weeks ago, and now they’re filming the Hendrix biopic there. Secondly, I’m not really sure how I feel about Andre 3000 – not as a person, but as Jimi.  Look, I’m a huge Jimi Hendrix fan, and if they’re going to do a film about questionably the most pivotal years of his career then they need to do it right.  I will not argue that Andre looks like Jimi, because he actually kind of does.  But isn’t he a little old?  He’s 36. Hendrix was 27 when he died, and only 23 during his rise to stardom in the U.K. Andre looks great, but not 23.  I guess that’s why film crews hire make up artists.  And also, I don’t really know that much about his acting chops.  The only thing I’ve ever seen him in was Four Brothers, and he definitely wasn’t bad, but I don’t know.  What do you think?

 

In other news, this Saturday I attended the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert at the Prudential Center in Newark.  Un-fucking-believable.  I originally did not intend on going (for obvious reasons), but I suddenly changed my mind on Friday night (looking at other people’s pictures of the 5/4 show on Facebook definitely didn’t help my regret), bought tickets, and it was one of the best decisions of my life. They still got it, and I was pleasantly surprised by Josh Klinghoffer’s performance throughout. He’s very, very good.

Pass the Torch

Here’s the video I took of Saturday night’s performance of “Scar Tissue”:

Please note that I tend to watch concerts like a sport, so a few comments throughout, such as “PUSH IT, JOSH!!!” (for example) was me.  However, the really out-of-tune and slightly distracting male singing voice in the video was NOT me, but some innocent person standing next to me who will unknowingly be shamed by my blog for all eternity. So this is my formal apology. I’m so sorry, guy… whoever you are.

We were also all very sad to hear about the Beastie Boys’ member Adam “MCA” Yauch’s passing on Friday.  I was never a huge Beastie Boys fan, although I did grow up in the 90s, and so inevitably their music was pretty much always in my peripheral. They were also just inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame (along with those fine gentlemen above and Guns N’ Roses) just three weeks prior to his death.  Although he was not in attendance at the ceremony due to his illness, he did become an official inductee, along with his many other lifetime accomplishments, including directing many of the Beastie Boys’ videos under the pseudonym Nathaniel Hornblower, opening his own production company, and doing a ton of charity work, among several other projects.  He was 47 years old.  My condolences to his family, friends and fans.

Great video.

“So Get Off Your Rich Asses and Let’s Have Some Fun” (The 54th Annual Grammy Awards)

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ImageBruno Mars performing “Runaway Baby” from his album, Doo-Wops & Hooligans

ImageChris Martin of Coldplay & Rihanna performing their colaborative “Princess of China”, off Coldplay’s 2011 album, Mylo Xyloto

ImageDave Grohl of Foo Fighters performing their award-winning single, “Walk”

The always amazing Adele performing her single “Rolling in the Deep”

ImageDeadmau5 performed with the Foo Fighters, and then jammed solo to the song “Raise Your Weapon”

I have to say that I was surprisingly impressed with the 2012 Grammy Awards. Above, I’ve listed some of my favorite performances of the night.  I, of course, went into the show with my fingers crossed for the Foo Fighters.  I always feel like rock (I mean ROCK rock) is extremely underrepresented at main-stream music award ceremonies.  However they clearly did not need any help from me, since they ended up taking home 5 awards, including Best Rock Performance for “Walk,” Best Rock Song for “Walk,” Best Long-Form Video, Best Rock Album for “Wasting Light,” (which was recorded in its entirety in Dave Grohl’s garage) and Best Hard Rock and Metal performance for “White Limo“.

Adele, not surprisingly, took home 6 awards, including Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Solo Performance, Best Pop Vocal Album, and Best Short Form Music Video. Everyone knew that this was going to be a total sweep for her.  She is, after all, the first artist in history to lead the Billboard 200 concurrently with three Billboard Hot 100 number ones. 21 is the longest running number one album by a female solo artist on the UK Albums Chart, and is tied for the longest cumulative stay at number one by a female solo artist. So yeah… she’s pretty good.

Now, I need to make a confession. And, I think this is a very opportune time to announce this, a. because it’s relevant to this post, and b. because I only just recently started this blog, so I think it’s good for me to get this out in the open early on.

With that being said, here I go…

I. like. Coldplay.

Are you still there?  If so, hear me out. I realize it’s not the “cool” thing, and many consider them “boring sellouts”, but I actually really like their music.  In all fairness, I do have to say that I like their older stuff better than their newer stuff.  I was a huge fan of their first two albums, Parachutes and A Rush of Blood to the Head, and X&Y is pretty good too.  You also can’t deny that Chris Martin is a very passionate and talented guy – I mean, he practically humps his piano when he performs… That dude freaking loves it!  And I did really enjoy their performance last night.  His collaboration with Rihanna (“Princess of China“) was beautifully done in acoustic fashion, and I have to admit, I’ve been singing their song “Paradise” all day.

Another performance that completely caught me off guard was Bruno Mars singing his single “Runaway Baby“.  I am so estranged from pop music these days that I had never even heard the song before, but his performance was arguably the best of the night.  It was like watching a current-day James Brown (and he actually did that reference justice!) He is definitely a talent in my book.

The other “performance” — I guess you would call it — that was truly notable, at least to me, was the section of the show which paid homage to dance music. This genre took the U.S. by storm this past year, although it has been popular throughout Europe for years and years now.  I’m actually a relatively big deadmau5 fan, so I was excited to see what he would do.  I have to say, I was kind of underwhelmed by his choice in song.  I was hoping he’d do something either a little more well-known or at least a little catchier (like “I Remember“, “Ghosts ‘n’ Stuff” or “Some Chords“), but maybe that’s just me.  Either way he’s awesome, and clearly well-deserving of the recognition he receives.

 And, of course, I cannot fail to mention the many many tributes to Whitney Houston throughout the night.  Most notably was Jennifer Hudson’s rendition of “I Will Always Love You”, which was actually originally a Dolly Parton song, but  was certainly the most famous song of Whitney’s career. I would be lying if I said that this has truly affected me on a personal level, since I wasn’t really a fan.  But it is certainly a loss to the music community regardless, and I can’t argue that she was, at one time, one of the best female vocalists ever.  She had a range that no one else could touch. It’s a shame.

My sincerist thoughts go out to her family, friends and fans.

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