Song of the Day: Talib Kweli - Gun Music

Nuff said ... I hate dust and debris in the cracks of the room. But what I hate most is finding socks. I can never find the matching pair!

xend transmissionx

Song of the Day: Wintersleep - Danse Macabre

[background baritone sounds to A&W root beer] ...

I've recently developed a sudden interest in the comedy series Curb your Enthusiasm featuring the co-creator of Seinfeld, Larry David. This all started with Eric and Henry forcing me to watch this show in between pockets of "filler" time before we headed out gallivanting the town. One episode lead to another and now I can't stop watching it! I polished off watching the first season on my lunch breaks. Before religiously watching the show, Eric warned me of the Larry syndrome. Once you get into the show, you enter a state of psychosis where you become Larry David. Anytime a peculiar situation arises in your life, you begin to hear the whimsical baritone music and you cringe and ask yourself "What would Larry David do?". So since last Friday, I've had a total of two incidents that I would categorize as "Curbitis". For example, I was in Toronto this weekend and bought a bottle of water after a typical night out on the town. After grabbing the bottle coated with condensation from the sub-par refridgeration unit, the plastic bottle scooted out of my hands and underneath the fridge. Instead of crawling on the floor of a late night pizza shop encrusted with dirt and grime, I decided to grab another bottle. As I stood there, the music instantly became apparent crescendoing to a fever pitch. The cashier started yelling at me to grab the other bottle that has rolled underneath the fridge. I had told him that the bottle was way behind the fridge, while kicking fridge to try and place the bottle way behind the fridge. One of the patrons said "Hey, the bottle is right there!". As Ludacris would say, I acted the fool and ran off onto Spadina as the clerk began to round the counter into the customer foye. I guess you had to be there to see the transactions that occurred.

In other news, I re-setted ipod. It took over an hour to re-load my mp3s onto "Hung's 40oz.". My playlists are ready to the much needed vacation. This should brighten up my vacation as I can now listen to music as I mask my distaste for GTA/BARRIE/MUSKOKA traffic. I can yell & heckle other passengers to a soundtrack. Now who wouldn't want to do that?

Man... Too much to document as this time. I'll have to finish another time.

xend transmissionx

Song of the Day: Saves the Day - Sell My Clothes I'm off to Heaven

This past weekend has got to be one of the most craziest weekends for me in terms of music. I hit two different ends of the spectrum in terms of music. Even though my feet are swollen from all the standing, the music was worth it.

Friday - Green Day & Jimmy Eat World
Friday involved a to four hour trip up the 400 series highway to Barrie to catch Jimmy Eat World and Green Day. We were all pretty restless in the car, but some funny stories alongside an old man with special plates engraved with "piper" made for an entertaining trip. As soon as we got there, I had suspected that we'd we late (just like the time at the amphitheatre). As we entered the final barricade, the blistering guitars were echoing amongst the Park Place tree line. Yet again, we were late for another show. Jimmy's set was rather mediocre. I didn't like Jim's onstage banter as he dummed it down for the kids, which was totally lame. I don't get a kick out of the number 69 as referenced by the vocalist and neither did the rest of the capacity crowd. When Green Day hit the stage, everyone was ready to see Billy Joe, Mike, and Tres tear up the fans with witty banter and outrageous physical humour. Their set was definitely fun and entertaining. Highlights were the fans who got to play onstage, the Green Day renditions of classics like "stand by me", "king for a day and seamless transition to shout", and the best cover of the Queen classic, We are the Champions. When the band played WATC, all the spotlights were turned off and the only thing that the crowd could focus upon was the Billy's amazing voice as he totally nailed that song. Freddy Mercury would be proud and Simon Cowell would approve. Who knew a punk-rock bloke had chops to mesmorize and raucous audience ready a good ole' circle pit. Even though Billy had the audience at his fingertips, the onstage banter was rather week and drawn out. Some of the sound bites were over used and left me unattentive to joining the crowd in a group sing-along. I was a bit surprised as to how many Green Day songs I knew considering they didn't play my three favourite songs: Geek Stink Breath, Walking Contradiction, Waiting. Overall, the ticket was worth the value of entertainment Billy and the boys brought to Canada. If you don't like the music, you'd appreciate the entertainment value.

Saturday - Foo Fighters / Sloan / The Constantines
Okay, so this show had much anticipation from my friend as he is a huge Dave Grohl fan, NOT Foo Fighters, but the boy-wonder Dave! I didn't remember much from this show because I drank too much earlier in the day the Horseshoe and other pubs (I wasn't DD. I couldn't relinquish the opportunity, hehe). I almost got into a fight with a bunch of teenagers who didn't appreciate me enjoying The Constantines set. It's unfortunate really. A friend told me me these kids were talking about me so I pointed at the individuals as if I want a officer of the law in an interrogation. I finally grabbed the our of them by the lot and threatened their lives while their dad, who stands up to my nose, was watching. The dad looked at me and I gave him the 1, 2 salute. As I eye the dad, the kids scrambled to the other side of the pit not to be seen again the rest of the night. The Cons were amazing as usual, but out of place such a large venue. Totally up for the task, they roared through their set with not much hesitation. The crowd was fortunate to hear some tunes off of "tournament of Hearts" which is soon to hit the streets. I had the chance to say hi to Doug after the show interrupting his conversation with his parents [d'oh!]. I think I was too hammered to care at this point. Sloan was good, but meh. not my thing. Finally, the Foo Fighters hit the stage which much raucous and thunder. Dave and the boys represented rock in its purest form. Half way through the set, I thought to myself, "dude, you are 10 feet from one third of Nirvana!!!". Such a weird moment. It such a treat too for the fans to see Taylor perform his song, while Dave got behind the drums and smashed the crap outta the set. Henry and I both recalled the ending to the song as Dave smashed the kit. It was reminiscent to the beginning of the "Smells Like Teen Spirit", where Dave's hair flails covering his scruffy face. Grohl behind the drums was very eerie, nostalgic, and gratifying to witness first hand. As he first hit the toms, he morphed into a different outfit taking us back to the early 90s. If only we could imagine what Nirvana would be like today. Anyways, killer show, but no "Hey Johny Park" WTF... Oh hey, look at these two dudes in the background! I think this pic qualifies for a Maxim photo section of "Who's this guy?!?!" haha

Sunday - Kardinal Offishal / Lil' Jon & the Eastside Boyz / Kanye West / Ludacris
I was totally hung over and not thrilled by the fact that I had to wake up at 10 to be ready for my ride and stand in the rain for most of the afternoon. It was definitely a rough start to what was a surprisingly great day. Even with a massive hangover, I still managed to plow back a few to break the ice and overcome the bad weather. It was great opportunity to hang out with some friends and to meet some new ones. You know everyone dogs Canadian hip-hop artists, but Sunday belonged to Kardinal. I mean he represented the 416, 905, 519, 800. He totally kept the crowd into every song, every beat, every moment of his set. Much respect to such a hard working artist. Some major label needs to sign this guy. Lil' Jon and the Eastside Boyz were A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! So much energy, so much hype, so much entertainment! Even if you don't like the music, you gotta give it up for a man who can make 2 official English words and 1 that might be found on urban dictionary so entertaining and high anticipated as Lil Jon. Who can get away with starting a sentence with "bitch" and end it with "bitch". The crowd was crazy. I have never witnessed a rap concert mosh pit, but it was amazing! BeaBe ho! Also as amazing was the highly acclaimed Kanye West. No artist has made me so interested in hip hop as this guy. His lyrics are whitty and smart. Something hip-hop has been lacking for some time now .. Intelligence. Kanye brought with him DJ ATRAK, who cuts like a butcher into a fresh piece of meat. Kanye messed up some of lyrics, but who cares. I think everyone there was happy to get get such great hip-hop artists to the great white north. If anything sticks out, it was Kanye' s stage banter. He's funny man. He's the total package: the bling, the beats, the brains. Totally worth the price of admission and the shitty weather. All in all, a great weekend! Let's hope it's only once a summer...

xend transmissionx

Song of the Day: Roy Orbison - Pretty Woman

S T A M P E D E C O R R A L E !!!

Wow, was I in for a shocker. I've heard of this place and how amazing it is on a Thursday night. So I had to check it out. The place reminded me of that old Patrick Swayze movie Roadhouse. At every lurking corner, there could have been potential for a altercation to break out. Another aspect that could not be overlooked was the ratio. Mindboggling to be honest.

I think Kerni felt a bit aggravated because he loves to dance, but he didn't know how to get down as he usually can. You get to listen to a live band and intermittent DJ cuts. I think I vaguely familiar with about 3 songs the whole night, but Kerni knew way more than I expected. Me thinks Kerni is a hick.

Shit tonnes of fun man!

xend transmissonx

Song of the Day: Mike Jones - Back Then

Man, I'm so sore that I had to buy a tube of Rub A535 today to rub down my muscles or lack there of. In the past two days I've played 24 games of squash amounting to a total of four hours of comeptition. Though I'm paying for it now, I still had a great time playing it. Hopefully, I'll get some more games in for the Fall term.

Anyways, pretty stoked for this weekend. It's the an all-out concert weekend kicking off Friday...

Friday - Green Day / Jimmy Eat World
Saturday - Foo FIghter / Sloan / The Constantines
Sunday - Ciara / Ludacris / Kanye West / Lil Jon & the Eastside Boyz

Gyeaah!

xend transmissionx

Song of the Day: Gwen Stefani - Cool

Okay, so this post was inspired by this new Gwen Stefani song I heard on the radio. This post will be deemed the "Airing Dirty Laundry" post. I know songs can and most of the time generated from tough relationships that have gone awry. Sometimes some of the best lyrics arise from tough times. And what's more identifiable than loveloss. Everyone's been through it. It's the easiest thing to write about for some. You have so many ways to express your hatred for the other half or how they screwed you over. Artists write about it all the time. Some might have even mastered the craft of screwing the othe rperson over and letting the whole world know. The artists get all the attention in this particular case, but what about the other half? Some guy/girl writes a song about a tough breakup and then tells the world that the other half is an asshole and scum of the earth. If this was a rap song, you'd most definitely hear a comeback or diss from said rapper. Someone is making a serious killing ont he billboard charts from a very personal relationship. So in light of this, I have decided to make a list of the most evident celebrity relationships in music format that have transcended to a cash grab for the music industry. Here goes:

Top 4 relationships-turned-into-a-hit-single

4. Knock Knock Ginger - Syllables - I'll give props where props are due. There's much hate here and it's well-deserved. And there's no bigger celebrity here than Milosz. So this qualifies

3. Avril Lavigne - Sk8er Boi - This could well be about Chris Chalk's brother who broke poor Avril's fragile heart

2. Gwen Stefani - Cool - it's almost like a fimal "fuck you" to Tony where she tells the world that he didn't have a chance with being close to her

1. Usher - Confessions - This album/song basically took this guy from a average R&B singer to a superstar. I wonder if he sent a "thank you" card to Chilli for telling the world that he cheated on her and now cashing in on record sales.

xend transmissionx