STATIC and FEEDBACK
Posts tagged positively blake st.
Tracing the path of Neil Young’s ‘Helpless’
Cutting through all else, the song is a simple call back to a childhood home, the inevitable stage for all the confusion and turmoil that comes with maturity. It’s simple structure — the song never breaks from that D-A-G path — runs in contrast to the weight of growing up, growing old and moving out.
Revisiting the mechanical world of walkmans and cassettes
What began as an experiment in the wake of a dead iPod turned into a love rekindled with a gloriously imperfect format and an outdated music player.
Pearl Jam’s latest song, the throwaway “Olé,” is not a good sign for an aging band. Do the Rolling Stones hint at Pearl Jam’s ultimate direction? STORY
Sex, drugs, murder and rock ‘n’ roll are all present in the Rolling Stones’ classic “Midnight Rambler.” And it all scared the daylights out of a young Nick Tavares. Read on!
In 1999, the Red Hot Chili Peppers made a surprise comeback with Californication. Even more of a surprise was when that album recently came back to Nick’s consciousness.
Radiohead has had a number of lyrics over the years burrow themselves into my subconscious. In high school, a line from OK Computer’s “Paranoid Android” hung with me, one with at least two meanings that left me scratching my head, wondering if it was a condemnation or a clever play on a premise:
“AMBITION MAKES YOU LOOK PRETTY UGLY.”
Goodbye to the White Stripes
When a band is finished, folks want to know what the defining moment was. If given three or four minutes to describe the White Stripes to the unfamiliar, where to turn? Was it “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground” or “The Denial Twist?” The piano rumble of “My Doorbell?” Their live performance of “Seven Nation Army” and “Death Letter” at the Grammys?
It could be any of those. But since this is my forum, the White Stripes discussion begins and ends with their performance of “Let’s Build a Home” on Conan O’Brien in 2003. Finishing of a week in which the Stripes were Conan’s musical guest every night, Jack and Meg kicked into a bit of southern boogie from their second album, De Stijl.
Immediately, Jack White is nearly off the rails. Wringing every tortured note and chord out of a beaten-to-hell guitar, he’s the 21st century incarnate of the head-cuttin’ blues man storming into the dance hall to show off his chops. It’s not refined, it’s not pretty and it’s not clean, but it’s a blast, and it’s real. After about three minutes, Jack makes a bee line for Conan’s desk to tear up some slide action. On the way back to the stage, the guitar cuts out, he tosses it, grabs the mic and jumps into Son House’s “John the Revelator.” Crash, thud, bow, the end. It was musical carnage.
It’s the greatest four minutes of television I’ve ever seen.
Is Cake topping the charts such a bad thing?
This week, Cake set a record by selling the fewest records (44,000) to ever top the Billboard album charts. We can’t say we’re all that bothered by the whole thing.
