Greatest Guitar Songs: Women Rock

Not all of the comments were suggestions of other groups or songs. Some were just criticism of the existing choices (lots of Cobain backlash). One that struck me was a criticism of the Sleater-Kinney offering, "Dig Me Out", placed at number 44 by Rolling Stone. The criticism is that it was merely an effort to include some females, though if I recall correctly, the inclusion of "I Love Rock N Roll" by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, at 89, was considered legitimate.

I was inclined to agree at first. Sleater-Kinney does nothing for me, but I have to admit that it is a good guitar song, and probably not just pandering. However, I wondered if there might not be better choices. Perhaps women are underrepresented in rock, and you can see why the obstacles that they have to deal with would make talented women doubt whether it's worth it, but still, there are women in rock. There have been some really good ones. I wanted to spend some time on other contenders.

One early thought was Heart. I'm surprised no one suggested them. I thought it might be because Nancy Wilson was playing rhythm guitar instead of lead guitar, so perhaps if you were looking for a token female, that would not be the most obvious choice. Having recently read their book, those would be inadequate reasons. First of all, Ann and Nancy were just so important to the feel and ethos and sound of that band; other musicians came and went, and some stayed for a long time, but Heart really is the Wilson sisters.

(The collaboration between Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo is also interesting to read about, but while they are both a part of the overall sound, it is more obviously Neil for the guitar part of it.)

As far as who plays which part goes, when Nancy described her reasons for staying with rhythm guitar, it deepened my appreciation for that role. How many of the best guitar bands don't have both lead and rhythm going on? And maybe they trade on some songs, or maybe their roles are really clearly defined, but it is that ability to cover multiple levels that gives you the fuller, richer sound.

Perhaps no one considered any Heart songs to be worthy. Trying to think of powerful guitar songs, my first thought was "Alone", which kind of is slower but quite dramatic. However, I had actually called a friend on the Bowie question, and when I brought up this part she immediately suggested "Crazy On You". I have to agree. There is some good guitar playing in multiple Heart songs, but there is a sophistication and versatility going on with "Crazy On You" that really stands out. Good call Karen. That would be a very solid entry.

One of the other thoughts that I'd had was The Go-Go's, and then I kind of dismissed them because they are really more pop than rock, and the list was geared towards harder stuff. I did some listening anyway though, and while they don't necessarily stand out for guitar, there is a really good combination of guitar, bass, drums, and keyboard. Their sound really works, and I appreciate that. Maybe they just needed to add a second guitar player.

(I did also briefly consider The Bangles here, but I don't remember any of their songs rocking that much, and half of the songs I remember were not written by them, so I didn't pull them up.)

The other obvious places to look were The Vixens and Lita Ford.

With The Vixens, the guitar didn't really stand out to me. I loved their drums though. Lita was better for guitars, but I'm not sure she would crack the list. As much as a sentimental favorite as "Kiss Me Deadly" is, we would be looking at "Playin' With Fire" or maybe "Shot of Poison" for this. They are fancier.

Then, realizing that Lita was in The Runaways with Joan, I remembered that was another female line up. First of all, let me say that I have no objection to the inclusion of Joan Jett or "I Love Rock N Roll" - they should be in there. So it could be a little repetitious to put The Runaways in there, but I am not necessarily against it. I am not as familiar with them. I had never heard of them before the movie, and I didn't go see it. That being said, "California Paradise" might be able to crack a top 100. "Cherry Bomb" is more vocal; I don't think it shows the same guitar strength.

(This is not relevant, but "Dead End Justice" is just weird.)

Let me just put two other random thoughts out there. One is that it did occur to me to look up Holly Knight, because as a songwriter she may have written some of these songs, even if she is not the one playing them. She has written some songs I love, though not necessarily for the guitar parts, but also, even if you had a blistering guitar solo on one, she might not have written that part, which could just be how the band arranges it.

Also, I am treating bass as separate from the guitar (or seriously, "Blister In The Sun" would need to be on the list), otherwise there would kind of be another inclusion with The Pixies and Kim Deal. If we were going that route, I would possibly want to throw in a Talking Heads song for Tina Weymouth, and it would probably be "Burning Down The House".

Greatest Guitar Songs: Mission Creep

I know many things I say may reveal my tastes as suspect; I can live with that. Anything that I say I like or don't like is honest, and not an attempt to appear cool. In that spirit of honesty, there was a time when I thought maybe Matchbox 20 would be added to my list of favorite bands.

On the strength of "If You're Gone", I requested Mad Season for my birthday. The first time through, I did not like it, but was struck by how bad the breakup behind it must have been. I listened again, though, and liked it better. For a while I played it a lot, and thought maybe they could be in the top bands. Guys would tell me no, I was wrong. Depending on how overbearing they were about that, I would either be irritated with them, or wonder if maybe Matchbox 20 was a band for girls.

A few months ago, someone tweeted a picture with Kyle Cook, their guitar player, but admitted in sharing that picture that he did not like the band. I thought about that, and tried listening to Mad Season again, and I could not do it. It's not even that I liked it less; I was so irritated with it I had to stop. I guess I still like some songs, but my feelings have changed.

It's not just that music taste is subjective, but it's also a moving target. There are moments when a song works for you, but they may not last. That's been one of the interesting things about this last review, along with that tendency for things to expand.

For example, one of the groups mentioned in the comments I was going through was Fall of Troy. I listened to them early on, while I was still doing most of the listening via Youtube. (Towards the end I was using Spotify more.)

I was impressed with Fall of Troy, and still am, but one of the other videos that came up as a suggestion was by Circa Survive. I clicked on it and was amazed. I had never heard of them before, they did not appear anywhere in the comments, but I knew I wanted to hear more.

While out buying CDs one day, I found a copy of Juturna and bought it. Great! Now I can listen to more Circa Survive. I do not like Juturna.

I have tried listening to some of their other stuff, and I am just not feeling it. Sadly, I did not make a note of which song it was, and it wasn't an actual video- just the song with a single screenshot. I feel like I am not finding it, or maybe it was just something that hit me right then, and now that need is gone. Honestly, that makes me wish even more that I could remember the name, because those momentary connections are important too. Maybe someday I will hear it again.

There were some other similar situations. I don't remember whom I was listening to when Jack Rabbit Slim came up as a suggestion, but I did have in my notes "Kind if liking Jack Rabbit Slim." Listening to them now, I hear why I liked it, but the sleaze factor may be a reason not to listen. (And the sleaze is important to them; they keep mentioning it on their web site.)

Also, when I was talking to Lisa about liking Gang of Four and Richard Hell and the Voidoids, she said I should give Johnny Thunders a chance, with and without the Heartbreakers, so that was another diversion. They're okay, but I don't know that I will go back to them. Still, she is the one who introduced me to the Misfits, so I always have to take her seriously.

Another odd thought came when I was listening to Pink Floyd's "Mother", which was on the list. I had recently become aware that John Lennon had one with that name as well, as did Glenn Danzig. So, I thought I should listen to the three of them together, along with "Mama" by My Chemical Romance. The three "Mother" songs really did kind of go together. "Mama" did not, but that is a different word, isn't it? They are technically synonyms, but we use them differently, and those different connotations lead to them being used for different kinds of songs. I'm sure one could dig deeper there, but I'm not sure if I want to delve that much into Danzig's personal life.

The last one was not directly related to the list and comments. Once upon a time, Frank Iero tweeted about listening to "Meanderthal" by Torche, and I think he mentioned the guitars. I brought it up. It was okay, but I clicked on "Triumph of Venus" by them, and that was amazing. It was like "how do you ever not mention this song" amazing. When I first started looking through the comments, that's the song that should have been there. I can't believe it was missed.

(Recently I realized that both tracks are on the album Meanderthal, so he could have meant the album, not just the song.)

Anyway, because of this, Torche was on my radar, and another tweet last October was about them playing a show with Converge, Kvelertak, and Coalesce. That was interesting to me, so I checked for other shows, and almost the same lineup was coming to Portland, only it was going to be Nails instead of Coalesce. Based on Frank's endorsement of that lineup (he is an amazing guitar player and has a good ear for music) and my own admiration of Torche, I was going to have to listen to all of them.

Sadly, I could not go to the show. That was the one where I doubted my ability to get there and back without getting murdered or at least barfed on. Actually, if I can bring Frank up one more time, he has been writing about some shows lately, and he makes them all sound kind of terrifying, but he always goes with a buddy. So, I will go to shows alone, and I will go to scary venues, but not both at the same time. I was pushing my luck with the show at The Haunt as it was.

Still, music can be appreciated in other ways than live, and so I listened to all of them. Torche is still amazing. I admit it is more of an intellectual admiration than an emotional affinity for me, but I'm okay with that, and I still feel like more people should be mentioning them and how great they are. I don't know why that's not happening.

Other than that, I liked Kvelertak quite a bit, despite never being able to type their name right on the first try. The other three did not resonate as much, but I intend to listen to Coalesce more somewhere between The Get Up Kids and New Found Glory, due to the James Dewees connection if nothing else. There may be real differences between their sounds, but sometimes you notice interesting things nonetheless, and I am always interested in that.

There were some other things that required extended listening, beyond the comments, but that was due to two categories of glaring omissions, which we shall get into Tuesday and Wednesday.

Band Review: The Energy

I had been listening to The Energy this week, getting ready to write this, and yesterday saw a tweet from Gone By Daylight, another band, about going to the Jimmy Eat World concert with James (Clifford, The Energy's bass player). I found that cool. I like Jimmy Eat World, and they put on a great show.

Also, with no clear reason for it, The Energy's song "American Disaster" reminds me of the Gin Blossoms' "Don't Change For Me", and someone else had recently suggested a Gin Blossoms/ Jimmy Eat World tour (both bands originated in Arizona), and I would pay to see that. Usually that's an expression, but literally, I would totally buy a ticket to that. (Gin Blossoms are currently on the road with Sugar Ray, Smash Mouth, and Vertical Horizon.)

My point, rambling though it may be, is that I enjoy this camaraderie between musicians, where band members are not too cool to like other bands, or get excited about a show. It keeps them human. The Energy (who lists Vertical Horizon in their "Influences" section) may not be well-known, but are very much pros in this fellowship, logging thousands of miles and hundreds of venues.

You can tell. They sound professional. Footage of them at the Gramercy Theater shows them looking very comfortable. They know what they're doing. They could use a bigger audience. And more gigs.

The band's Facebook page is a great place to start, with 9 tracks, 4 videos, and some photos. The only regular video is for "Go To Girl", which works pretty well for the content. Then there is the previously-mentioned performance, as well as two lyric videos, for "Free" and "American Disaster". The lyric video for "Free" suits the tone better, but there are come clever pairings in the slide show for "American Disaster".

Musically, I love "American Disaster" the most. It builds and feels upbeat, while nonetheless being about failure. Perhaps its natural follow-up is "Hanging On", though I am also pretty fond of "Until I Fall". The lyrics are smart, often going somewhere other than you would expect. There is a bit of a tendency towards the carnal.

The genre is pretty much rock, but with a good range. "Free" is very funky, with a possible gospel influence. Having gone through the nine songs several times, it sounds to me as if each song has its own texture, which I appreciate, and there are some very decent guitar solos. They're a solid band. They deserve their audience.

Music is available on iTunes.

http://www.theenergy-music.com/

https://www.facebook.com/TheEnergyband/app_2405167945

https://twitter.com/theenergyband

Band Review: The Fever Cadence

The Fever Cadence is a three-person band from Queens New York, occasionally bringing in other members. Their Facebook profile lists them as alternative/indie/pop rock. I would say they are fairly low-key, with good energy but nothing bombastic.

It also says that they are currently writing new songs and getting ready for a new album, but they already have a pretty decent output. You can listen to seven unique tracks on their main web site, along with an acoustic version of "Behind Closed Eyes".

They are a good band to cover while I am going through the guitar comments, because I really like what they are doing guitar-wise. In addition, I find that their lyrics are often poignant, as the deal with emotional honestly and human connection.

The sound quality on some of the tracks is not great, but as they begin work on the actual album that will be something they can pay more attention to. Also, vocals are sometimes a little flat. That is fairly common with young bands. One thing I have been thinking about recently, not specifically in relation to The Fever Cadence, is that while it seems like it would be hard to pick up an instrument by ear, you are probably at least hearing what it really sounds like, and with your voice you don't. Listening to recordings may help, but I am really seeing the value of vocal coaching.

Anyway, it's not something to hold against the band. There's a good amount of variety in what they do. I like how "Fasten Your Seatbelts" starts off a little Western, then goes kind of Eastern European and gets a little blues-y. That one reminds me a little of the change-up you get in "Hang 'Em High" by My Chemical Romance, but I would say that each intro is unique. "The Distance Between Us" is probably my favorite.

The band's home page is the best starting point, with links to everything else, but you can purchase their 5-track EP for $3.00 on Bandcamp, which I intend to do.

http://www.thefevercadence.com/

https://twitter.com/TheFeverCadence

https://www.facebook.com/TheFeverCadence?v=app_178091127385

http://thefevercadence.bandcamp.com/

Greatest Guitar Songs: You get a gold star!

As you may have guessed, trying to keep everything straight was a challenge. Once I had the list in a document, I changed all of the text to red, and then as I listened to something I changed it to black, so the ones I hadn't listened to were easy to spot.

Sometimes I would write notes, but often I would think that I should get back to something later, after I had listened to more. I would designate these with an asterisk. Sometimes I would even wait to mark something as black. Like, with "Chick Magnet" by MxPx, I liked it so much that I thought I would like more by them, so I kept them red. I also waited to mark off Dinosaur Jr. and Link Wray. Fall of Troy got a star, without having a specific song, as did Wolfmother. I want to listen to them more.

Going back through my stars, I see some that were because I really liked them, and some more because I can see where they really do have legitimate claims to the list, and sometimes both, but not always.

For example, one person suggested "Love Like Anthrax" by Gang of Four. I did not care for the song, but there was something about the band where I wanted to listen to additional songs. "Natural's Not In It" came up, and I really liked that. Based on my listening, which was rudimentary, "Natural" is more typical of their style than "Anthrax", which probably explains why it stood out to the original poster. (Actually, I thought they were more bass-centric in everything else, but I am not sure. More listening required.)

Here are a few songs of which I was completely unaware, but knew on hearing them that I would need to go back to them:

"Blank Generation" by Richard Hell
"Through The Fire And Flames" by Dragonforce
"Bolero" by Jeff Beck
"Oh Well" by Peter Green
"Surfing With The Alien" by Joe Satriani
"La Villa Strangiato" by Rush
"Black Masquerade" by Rainbow
"Rock Box" by Run DMC
"FFF" by P.I.L
"Shot By Both Sides" by Magazine
"Plug In Baby" by Muse
"Seasons In The Abyss" by Slayer

Yes, I am embarrassed that I had not heard of some of these bands, and some of these songs by bands I do know. I know Run DMC, I just didn't know this song. Again, sometimes it is worth going back.

I am well familiar with Queensryche - I've waited in the rain for an hour to see them - but I hadn't thought about them from a guitar point of view. I'm glad that people put them on the list, because there was sort of a reunion there.

Listening to the Eagles again, I don't know that any of those songs should count as "greatest", but they do really have their own individual sound. Lindsey Buckingham had not stood out to me in Fleetwood Mac, but listening again, his playing is very unique. I wrote down that it has an almost banjo-like texture. I'm not sure that I can back that up, but that's what I thought when I was listening.

I am not a fan of Nine Inch Nails, but of course "Head Like A Hole" stays with you, and "Discipline", which I had never heard before, is pretty good. I had never heard "Just Because" by Jane's Addiction either, but I like the intro.

My most embarrassing moment from this? "Highway To Hell" is a cooler song than I remembered, and it is by AC/DC, not Judas Priest as I had thought. If we are putting AC/DC on the list, I think that "You Shook Me All Night Long" is a better candidate, but it's good to have the memories cleared up. (If we are putting Judas Priest in there, I think I would vote for "Breaking the Law".)

For a fairly random revelation, even with all of the Dinosaur Jr. songs that were mentioned, my favorite by them was "Been There All The Time", which no one mentioned, though I certainly agree with the sentiment of so many, including Stereogum's Brandon, that they should have been somewhere in the Rolling Stone list. That's not the part that was weird though.

In comments on the "Been There All The Time" video, someone mentioned J Mascis's resemblance to Sauron, and I started thinking that every time I saw him. Well, last week I saw a clip where Mascis is being interviewed by Fred Armisen's feminist bookstore character from Portlandia, and there is another resemblance pointed out, and I am not going to be able to forget that one either:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG8pSsUyrl8

(J does not look as similar to Candace here as he has at other times.)

And for an unexpected development, it turns out that I do like Black Sabbath! I just prefer them with Ronnie James Dio; my brother listened to the Ozzy Osbourne version. Now, as vital as Tommy Iommi is to the Black Sabbath sound - both as a songwriter and as a performer, with the detuning and everything - Osbourne has such a distinctive voice and personality that there was no way that change would not be significant. I'm sure my preference for Dio ("Iron Man" aside) is an unpopular opinion, but still, finding out that I like them at all is a surprise, and a pleasant one.

It looks like Sabbath Keepers is a go.

Greatest Guitar Songs: What were they thinking?

Back when I had finished just the Rolling Stone list, I wrote a little about the question of what would make a great guitar song. Does it have to be difficult to play? What if it is really catchy, and gets under your skin, but a beginner can pick it out?

It is tricky to explain how music makes you feel, and why you respond to it - often you only have an idea that cannot be fully expressed or understood verbally. Isn't going beyond words kind of the point of music?

Because of this, justifying the place of any songs on the list, as well as justifying the existence of a list, is questionable. However, there are a few things where I could totally see why, and a few where I think I know why, and I kind of want to explore those a little.

The one that was most baffling was the inclusion of Rachel and the Lawn Grower. I did finally find a couple of videos on Youtube. Now, it is certainly possible that they have a larger body of work that I just couldn't find and their inclusion was based on that. I only know that my comment by their place on the list was "No, that's insane."

Yes, there was a guitar, but that was it. It was like a duo playing for tips in a coffee shop, like Nicole Parker and Jordan Peele on MADtv, but without the racial tension. And there is nothing wrong with that, but for "Greatest Guitar" it just didn't fit. So, the only thing I can think is that this is someone's favorite band, or they are emotionally invested in them, and so they are just going to add them to every discussion in the hopes of getting their names out there.

I can sympathize with that desire, but adding them to inappropriate discussions is ineffective. For something like that, most people probably aren't even going to look, and then the ones who do will be grossly disappointed. Even internet comments should make sense. I mean, I will be mentioning some of my favorite songs and bands and some point, but I will not be throwing in "Take On Me" by A-ha, even though the music video clearly showed a guitar, because it just doesn't belong there. (If we are going into great keyboard songs, on the other hand...)

Some I believe were added because of their unique sound. I get that, but I also did not end up liking most of them at all. I guess I had always intended to give Buckethead a listen, for Viggo Mortensen's sake, so I don't regret listening, and having specific song suggestions to listen to. It was interesting listening to some tracks by the Russolo brothers, trying to figure out which the original poster meant, but it was only interesting. The music did not hold me.

That doesn't mean that it didn't hold the people who suggested it. Yes, there is a part of me that wonders if they didn't just post those names to show how smart they are, but I know that tastes vary. This project has taken me from knowing that Tool is a band to really hating them, but not everyone feels that way. I have a friend who is a big David Bowie fan and I called her for advice, so we were discussing all of it, and she works with someone who is a huge fan of Tool. He wears the shirts, and does not get the jokes about labeling himself. So there could totally be people who consider Keiji Haino to be the greatest, and not ironically.

(Though I still feel that anyone who did not suggest specific songs was missing the point.)

One thing with the experimental musicians is that even if I do not find their sounds pleasing, they do convey that they are thinking about what music is, and can be, and often they do have some expertise. That leads to the final type of inclusion that I am getting to today: players with mad skills.

They were names that I recognized, and have heard good things about, and there was nothing wrong with listening to them, but again, most of them didn't grab me. The one exception was "Surfing With The Alien" by Joe Satriani.

The interesting thing to me about that is this is a case where someone recommended a specific song, and it was totally deserved. Usually they just put the names, and there was nothing wrong with listening to their tracks, but I think the most magic comes from bands. The different players, with their instruments and their personalities, come together. Maybe it will be the guitar that stands out, but it is fitly framed, and all goes together.

Tomorrow will be some of the ones I really liked.

Greatest Guitar Songs: The trouble with internet comments

There is a Twitter account whose spirit I kind of admire: https://twitter.com/AvoidComments

Don't Read Comments is dedicated to reminding people that nothing good comes of reading internet comments, which are overrun with ignorance, racism, and misogyny.

They are not wrong, and yet I have a hard time resisting. Sure, you expect news stories about crime and politics to bring out the worst in people, but just this weekend I was fascinated by how much hate was being directed towards Jack White's soon-to-be ex-wife. She was the shameless hussy who could clearly not be trusted, even though he was the one who wanted to make his kids switch schools so he would never have to sit next to Dan Auerbach.

So yes, internet comments can make you hate people and weep for the fate of the world, but sometimes they are also kind of funny and interesting and I am glutton for punishment. And that's pretty much how we got here.

To review, at some point after Valentine's Day 2012, I got really into My Chemical Romance, and started remembering how great guitar can be. On April 5th 2012, Jim Marshall, the inventor of the Marshall Stack and the "Father of Loud" died, and the 8 at 8 picked songs from Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time in his honor.

This was before I read that issue of Rolling Stone on the cruise, so I was not disillusioned with them yet, and the idea of such a list was very intriguing. I found a copy of it on Stereogum, and started working through that:

http://www.stereogum.com/10114/rolling_stones_100_greatest_guitar_songs_of_all_ti/list/

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2012/04/rolling-stones-100-greatest-guitar.html

Quite honestly, it started out horribly. It did get me listening to different things, and a lot of it made me think, but I disagreed with much of it strenuously. Naturally, so did the commenters. Much of that was merely hate for what was included, especially Nirvana, but there were also alternate suggestions.

There was so much that I had never heard of, or where the name was familiar but I really didn't know anything about them, that I decided to go through. Internet comments are very disorganized. I am going to post the list I was working from below. Don't be afraid, but it's a monster.

First of all, no one reads anyone else's comments, so there were many duplicates, and it took a while to weed all of those out and consolidate, but some duplicates stood, because one person mentioned a specific song, but another put them as part of a list, or put it in a quote that was worth capturing, or maybe I just didn't notice the duplicate because monster! (I think I counted 179 line items, but I can't vouch for it.)

Also, Rolling Stone gave you all specific songs with titles and artists. Some people were much less helpful. I thought I had a song title, but it was an album title, or they had the title wrong or not specific enough, or the name of an artist but not his band.

Magic Band: was that the album by Howard Roberts? No, it was probably the Captain Beefheart thing. Crimson Red could have been "Red" by King Crimson, or The Crimson Red, or the song "Crimson Red" by Seikima?.It was probably King Crimson. Similarly, did "Spacemen" mean The Spacemen, or Spacemen 3?

In all of those cases, I preferred the ones that were probably not the intended ones, so it may have been in my favor that the comments were not clear, but still, it also made things take longer.

(For whether "Russolo" meant Luigi or Antonio, they probably meant Luigi, but I care for neither.)

The worst, though, was whoever put Bowie. Seriously. Do you realize how vast his output is, and not particularly focused on guitar, and I am just supposed to figure it out?

Plus some things led to other things, which will be another post, but I did want to clarify one thing. The first name on the list is Erik Rutan, and although he does play guitar, he was listed not as a contender for a song, but as a Stereogum rebuttal to Rolling Stone referring to Bruce Springsteen as the angriest lead guitar on record.

I do think it's fair to say that Erik Rutan, of Hate Eternal, Ripping Corpse, and Morbid Angel, does come across as angrier, but actually, I think a lot of guitarists do. James Hetfield might be angrier. I think of Ted Nugent more as crazy and vile, but yeah, I guess he's angry too. Johnny Ramone is dead, but still strikes me as angrier than Bruce.

I'm not saying that Springsteen doesn't have any anger in him, but it seems like kind of a stupid comment, and that one is by a professional!

Anyway, the next few posts come from working my way through the following. I did copy and paste, which is why there are different orders, syntax, and punctuation.

Erik Rutan
Teenage Riot, Candle, Sonic Youth
Dinosaur Jr (freak scene) Living All Over Me album, Sludgefeast
Pavement (summer babe, grounded, watery domestic ep, frontwards, wowee, slanted, shady lane, carrot rope, rattled by the rush)
Television
Hell, Blank Generation
Gang of Four Love Like Anthrax
Tool, parabola
My Morning Jacket One Big Holiday, Mahgeetah
John Mayer No Such Thing, others that are not gravity
Pixies other than Debaser, Dig for Fire, holiday
Pearl Jam Yellow Ledbetter
Coheed and Cambria Welcome Home
Dragonforce Through the Fire and Flames
The Spill Canvas, Black Dresses
Pantera Walk
Dire Straits, So Far Away
Eric Clapton, Cocaine
Lindsey Buckingham
Springsteen Born in the USA
My Iron Lung but not Paranoid Android? Solo at the end of Just? Paranoid Android should be over My Iron Lung (Radiohead)
Gang of Four, and Link Wray should be higher
Stone Temple Pilots
Smoke on the Water, All Right Now, The Boys are Back in Town, Mississippi Queen
Stevie Ray Vaughn, Couldn’t Stand the Weather
Van Halen, Ain’t Talking about Love, Mean Street
Pink Floyd/Gilmour, Comfortably Numb, wish you were here, One of these Days instead of interstellar overdrive, Mother, Shine on you crazy diamond
Rush, Limelight
Robert Cray, Time Makes Two
Built to Spill (Doug Martsch)
Stooges, Search and Destroy
Bowie
Hawkwind
Magic Band maybe album by Howard Roberts? Captain Beefheart
Keiji Haino
Don Caballero
Mick Barr (Orthrelm)

Mark Ribot

Kings of Leon Four Kicks

Black Keyes, All Hands Against His Own

Karate Ice or Ground

Les Savy Fav The Sweat Descends

Magazine, Shot by Both Sides

Elvis, Mystery Train

Dale Hawkins – Suzy Q;

Duane Eddy – Rebel Rouser

Beatles Taxman

Husker Du’s “New Day Rising”

Sonic Youth, but not the ones they picked, Sonic Youth covering “Touch Me I’m Sick” by Mudhoney., Cross the Breeze

Search and Destroy

Velvet Underground

Who, My Generation
Boz Scaggs, Loan me a Dime

Soundgarden, Outshined

Jeff Beck, Bolero

Crimson Red

Amboy Dukes, Journey to the Center of the Mind

Santo & Jonny

REM, Begin the Begin

Rapeman, Steak and Black Onions

Jesus Lizards Monkey Trick

Modest Mouse, Never Ending Math Equation

Guided by Voices, Everywhere with Helicopter

Chavez, Break Up Your Band

run dmc: “rockbox”
dinosaur jr.: “start choppin’
p.i.l. : “fff”

Berry, Roll Over Beethoven

Iron Butterfly, Innagaddadavida

Black Sabbath, Iron Man

Jethro Tull, Aqualung

Beck Stewart People get Ready

Hendrix, Still Raining Still Dreaming

The Faces, Sweet Little Rock and Roller

Santana, Soul Sacrifice

Procul Harum, Whiskey Train

The Outlaws, Green Grass and High Tides

Ozzy, No More Tears

Yardbirds, Heart Full of Soul

Kinks, All Day and all of the night

Black Sabbath, Sweet Leaf

Steely Dan, My Old School

Chicago Transit Authority, I’m a man

21^st Century Schizoid Man, King Crimson

Jefferson Airplane, We can be Together

Foghat, Driving Wheel

Humble Pie, I don’t need no doctor
Van Halen “Unchained
Iron Maiden “Alexander The Great”
Aerosmith “Love In An Elevator”
Whitesnake “Still Of The Night”

Slayer

Iron Maiden, Number of the Beast

Spacemen

Nine Inch Nails

Jane’s Addiction, janes’s addiction: “ocean size”, Stop by Jane's Addiction (would've been Mountain Song if it weren't for the damn Coors Light ad! Maybe I'll get over it one day)

Cocteau Twins

Instead of Only Shallow by MBV To Here Knows When or Soon

The Chameleons

Cream

Cat Power’s “He War,”

Archers of Loaf’s “Last Word,”

Slint’s “Breadcrumb Trail,” or

Big Black’s “Kerosene.

Albini

Von LMO
John Fahey
Russolo

Rachel and the Lawn Grower

MXPX “Chick Magnet”
George Lynch (Dokken)
1. Smoke on the Water
2. Iron Man
3. Sunshine of Your Love
4. Welcome to the Jungle
5. Enter Sandman
Robin Trower. Bridge of Sighs, Too Rolling Stoned, Day of the Eagle.

The Fall of Troy
Deep Purple, Highway Star
All Right Now – Free
Born To Be Wild ? Steppenwolf
The Boys Are Back In Town ? Thin Lizzy
Kashmir ? Led Zeppelin
More Than A Feeling ? Boston
Rockin? In The Free World ? Neil Young
School?s Out ? Alice Cooper
Smoke On The Water ? Deep Purple
Wild Thing ? The Troggs
Won?t Get Fooled Again ? The Who

Boston More than a feeling
Wolfmother

Queensryche
Guns N’ Roses – Since I Don’t Have You, Ain’t It Fun, November Rain
AC/DC – Highway To Hell
Aerosmith – Cryin’
Rainbow – Black Masquerade

Muse, Hysteria, Plug in Baby
Mott the Hoople, All the Young Dudes

Paul Mccartney, Band on the Run
Rush, La Villa Strangiato
Daytripper
Satriani, Surfing with the Alien
More BB King, Lucille, 3 o clock blues

Megadeath, Tornado of Souls
Yngwie Malmsteen, Cacophony (consists of Becker and Friedman), Racer X (well executed, but did not grab me), Judas Priest
Michael Angelo Batio, Jason Becker, Marty Friedman, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani

Ted Nugent, Stranglehold, Cat Scratch Fever

Led Zeppelin

Golden Earring, Radar Love

Buckethead, Sea of Expanding Shapes, Padmasana, The way to Heaven

Lou Reed, Intro/Sweet Jane from Rock n Roll Animal

Eagles - they really have their own sound.

Santana, Hope you’re feeling better

Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac) Oh Well

Stones, Satisfaction, Start Me Up, Gimme Shelter, Beast of Burden, All Down the Line

YaYas Sympathy for the Devil, Bitch

Mick Taylor, Slow Blues

Bo Diddley

For what it's worth, the hastily-thrown-together FtY Top Ten Guitar Songs:
10) Badge by Cream
9) The Plan by Built to Spill
8) The Only Moment We Were Alone by Explosions in the Sky
7) Silverfuck by Smashing Pumpkins (this was nearly Siva)
6) Alone by Dinosaur Jr. (that no Dino was on RS's list is yet another travesty)
5) Supernaut by Black Sabbath (really, this whole list could be all Sabbath now that I think about it)
4) Stop by Jane's Addiction (would've been Mountain Song if it weren't for the damn Coors Light ad! Maybe I'll get over it one day.)
3) Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry
2) Maggot Brain by Funkadelic
1) Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) by Jimi Hendrix

Band Review: Crash Midnight

Crash Midnight is a basic rock band out of Boston, and they are really solid. They cite influences from Aerosmith to the New York Dolls, and many others, but I was most reminded of AC/DC and Sammy Hagar. It is a  definite classic rock feel.

So far I have only found five songs, but these songs can be heard via Youtube, Spotify, and Reverb Nation, though each of those places only had four, so you will need to hit more than one. Can't-miss songs "151" and "Welcome to Boston" are available at each, but only Spotify has "Made For The Money", and it does not have "Somewhere Yesterday."

On Youtube, there are two official videos (the other two are more slide shows), and both of those concentrate on performance. It's hard to imagine the band doing much else. The music is so straightforward, it feels like trying to obscure the performance with anything else would be wrong. The one possible exception would be fast cars heading down open roads. Maybe the reason I thought of Hagar and AC/DC was "I Can't Drive 55" and "Highway To Hell".

Listening to this music just feels good, so I recommend it. Tracks are available for purchase via Amazon and iTunes.

http://www.crashmidnight.com/

https://twitter.com/CrashMidnight

http://www.youtube.com/user/CrashMidnight?feature=watch

https://www.facebook.com/crashmidnight

http://www.reverbnation.com/crashmidnight

Band Review: Eva And Her Virgins

We are back to going through bands who have followed me on Twitter for a while now (my next live show is September 8th), and that brings us to Eva And Her Virgins, a dark electro-pop band from New York.

I'm afraid I don't like them. I hate writing off bands like that, but it is not working for me. It is mainly the "dark" part. There is just kind of a nasty vibe, with a cynical vulgarity. Actually, they remind me a little of Romeo Void.

Singer Emily Powers is a performance artist, which makes total sense watching them perform. (There are a few videos on Youtube, though they do not seem to have an official channel.) It also means that I can't rule out that I am missing their point.

Looking at one video of  "Disrespect", one commenter said the song was a play on words of growing out of being disrespected. So, when she is singing about him beating her, but her staying, and her loving him for disrespecting her, that the message is actually that she is growing out of this unhealthy mindset.

This may be true, and the band could actually be working to subvert some of the more unhealthy trends in relationships. However, subversion done ineffectively can reinforce what it is trying to fight, and I am not sure this is working. It seems like it would be very easy to ogle Powers in her teddy and hope for his own woman he can treat badly.

Band co-founder Jabbath Roa is a classically trained composer and producer, and so the music performance is solid. Every now and then there are some musical surprises, like a different groove on "Hammer" or a change of pace on "Johnny". It's just not enough for me. If you are more into electro-pop, or more into dark, it might be.

https://twitter.com/EvaHerVirgins

https://www.facebook.com/evaandhervirgins

Going Emo

Did you notice what I did with the music reviews last week? The Odds and The Evens? I was very proud of that.

I got the idea from a tweet from Craig Northey. It was just an off-hand comment, but it got me thinking that I might like to put reviews of them back to back at some point. I did it now because Ian MacKaye, for his part in Rites of Spring, is a good launching pad into the realm of emo, and that's where I'm going now.

This path started a year and a half ago, when I first started listening to My Chemical Romance, mainly by bringing up videos on Youtube. I have a bad habit of reading internet comments (more on where that got me Monday). There was an overarching theme with the comments, regardless of the specific video, that would pretty much break down into this:

"Stupid emo!"
"There's nothing wrong with being emo! It just means the music is emotional!"
"They're not even emo! Emo is short for emotional hardcore, and it's completely different from this!"

This may have been the first I had heard of "emo" as a music genre. A coworker had once used the term to describe a former coworker, who had issues with his mother not making him feel special enough. I did see the "Goth Baby versus Emo Baby" on the Humor for Stoners segment of the Spike Feresten show (Goth Baby won by unleashing a swarm of bats at Emo Baby). Still, everything at that point had indicated it was more of a manner of dress and an attitude than anything else.

Now I was seeing it used as a musical term that was being used as an epithet and drawing very strong responses. My first stop was Wikipedia, and while the article was interesting, the bands it mentioned were not at all like the bands that were getting called emo now. Key bands were Rites of Spring, Jimmy Eat World, and Weezer. Where are the black scarves and eyeliner?

The article directed me to a book, Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers, and Emo, by Andy Greenwald. I added it to my reading list on Goodreads. There was a review there that said the book started out okay, but then it got all hung up on Dashboard Confessional, and if you really want to know about Emo go to http://fourfa.com/.

Again, there was so much passion in her review. And she's right about the book; it feels like Greenwald got a crush on Chris Carraba, but I think it was more that he fell in love with himself being the one who knew about this and could talk to the kids about it. Well, I guess you can have more than one love object.

Genre labels have limited usefulness anyway, I know, but I do like seeing how music develops, and who influences whom, and so delving into it more deeply is good for that. I am going to reread the book, but this time slowly, stopping and listening to the bands as I go, and of course spending time at http://fourfa.com/.

There are things that will be good about this. I have more James Dewees and more Matt Rubano coming up, and of course more Jimmy Eat World. After the concert, I am all primed for that. I don't think I will love Pinkerton, but I do love Weezer; might as well listen to the whole oeuvre.

And I want to see if I can understand the switch. When did "emo" stop meaning dressed like Richie Cunningham and start meaning dressed like Edward Scissorhands? At first I thought the issue was that none of the original emo bands got that big, so the label ended up being applied to better-known bands doing different musical things, but it's still all so illogical.

I've seen a video clip of Tyson Ritter crying to one song, where the roots were humorous, but you could easily see that as more of a natural successor to some of these bands. And if it did switch to meaning wearing black and singing about death and sadness, how did Kill Hannah never get that label?

The first AFI album I listened to, Sing The Sorrow, was 2003, so that's the big year, and I remember thinking it sounded like they had been savagely attacked by vampires and had a lot of anger and torment over it, and this album was the result of that, but they're not emo. Why not? (I am seeing them on Halloween; perhaps I can ask.)

I do have some theories about what happened, and the emotional and societal roles some bands end up filling, and so after the book, which takes us to about 2003, I am going to start in on this other list:

Avenged Sevenfold, Sleeping with Sirens, Of Mice and Men, Pierce the Veil, Black Veil Brides, You Me At Six, Big Time Rush, Heffron Drive, Mayday Parade, Marianas Trench, Lower than Atlantis, All Time Low, Asking Alexandria, Suicide Silence, Lost Prophets, Falling in Reverse, A Day to Remember, We Are the In Crowd, Bring me the Horizon, Blood on the Dance Floor, Janoskians, Boyle Brothers, Paramore, Ice Nine Kills, 5 Seconds of Summer, While She Sleeps, Motionless in White, Ed Sheeran

Some of those things are not like the others. I know. I also am probably missing some. Regardless, these are the bands that keep coming up on Twitter, and they have devoted fans who will argue about what emo is, and whether they are, and affirm that their lives were saved by these bands.

I am starting to know some of them already. I know two All Time Low songs, and I can recognize Austin, Kellin, Oli, Alex, and Jack at this point. There are a lot of them I feel affection for already, because they have helped people I care about, and so I am going to love them no matter how I feel about their music.

We'll see how it goes. One of the most amazing things recently has been the realization that I actually have a chance of getting questions answered if I ask in the right place. I learned something about that eyeliner just two weeks ago.

I am sure there will be thoughts that make it into writing at some point, but that will take some time. Where we're heading now is somewhere different. You see, the reason that I can start listening to emo is I have finally made it through the comments from that 100 Greatest Guitar Songs list. That means what we have coming up is guitar, guitar, guitar.

Contrary to expectations, My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy will be more significant here than in the emo section.

Profile updates

If all I really ended up doing was inserting "feminist" into my Twitter profile, that would have been quick and easy. That doesn't even sound like something that would happen to me.

I guess it was because I was thinking I should update Facebook too, and was there a spot for that? There are specific places for schools and jobs and religion. I could like a Feminism page, I guess, but that seemed insufficient.

I had not been thrilled with Timeline, and it made some things harder to find, but there was a little paragraph, and I could add it there. Fine, but because I had remembered the drop-down menu for religion, that had me thinking that I should add LDS to my Twitter profile. I blame that on Orson Scott Card.

I have read Ender's Game, and while I did not exactly like it, I did think it was well-written. Some time after reading it, Card started doing a newspaper column that I really liked. It was sensible and down to earth, and I grew to like him from that, though it ended quite a while ago. Honestly, I knew nothing about the National Organization for Marriage until recently. I had kind of heard about the Superman thing, but I wasn't really paying attention until now.

The only reason Card's non-apology isn't the worst non-apology out there is because Paula Deen beat him to it. I never cared for her, though, and I liked him, so I am really disappointed. More to the point, right now he is the Mormon getting all the press, with Romney before that. I am not comfortable with this representation.

Currently there are a few rampantly religious people going around and encouraging the depressed. It should be a good thing, but they are so aggressive about it that it is kind of a turnoff, especially for some of the people they are trying to help, many of whom have issues with religion. I don't want to be like that, but just putting it in my profile seemed like a reasonable compromise. It's not a secret, I'm not ashamed of it, but also I will not shove it in your face. And I ended up using Mormon instead of LDS because that is more familiar to people.

And then I just started changing things to stick with the character limit but still represent me.  Twitter really pushes you toward the concise. Whereas previously I had said "Aspiring screenwriter, frequent blogger", well, those are mostly still true, except that I feel really disheartened about ever selling a screenplay, so I am rewriting Family Blood as a novel, plus working on the musical and writing monthly comics now, as well as the occasional song, and it ultimately came down to just "Writer." I am a writer.

Part of that is the music writing, with the reviews. Maybe that's why it felt necessary to put "Rocker." That sort of feels like delusions of grandeur again, but rock needed to be there. As much as I love music in general, rock is most important. Not mentioning rock would be a lie. Putting rock as something I do does seem like a bit of a stretch, but have you seen me at karaoke? I don't know, it felt right.

These first changes left out comic books, and that seemed wrong. They are kind of part of me now. It also left out travel and animals. Maybe you can't fit everything in, but some things are so basic. How much of my essence could be boiled down to 140 characters?

My previous bio said "Will help with school but you still need to do the work." That was too long a way of saying that, and yet it was important. The first teen who befriended me on Twitter did so because of My Chemical Romance, but our first conversation was me helping her prepare for a test on Romeo and Juliet, and giving her ideas for different ways of looking at the characters. That was really cool. But still, you need to put in some effort; I'm not going to do your assignment for you. And I was not leaving out the claw machines!

And as much as I started this for entertainment, the connecting with people has been the most important thing. Keeping an eye out for people who need some help has meant a great deal to me, and I keep finding that I am cared about too, and that there are people looking out for and interested in me. It's been profound. The old admonition, "Be there for people" was going, but something needed to take its place.

I finally ended up with this:

Gina Harris
@sultryglebe

Writer. Rocker. Feminist. Mormon. Loves animals, travel, books, comic books, & sketch pads. Good at claw machines, answering questions, and caring about people.

Aloha, OR · sporkful.blogspot.com


Related posts:
http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2011/12/hometown-howdies.html
http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2012/07/affiliated.html

Yes, I'm a feminist

I recently decided that I needed to add "feminist" to my Twitter Bio.

I had been thinking about it anyway, because feminism is important and I am becoming more aware of its importance all the time. However, it also seemed a little like having delusions of grandeur. I mean, I haven't really done anything for the cause, and I don't feel like I know enough about the history. Could I take that title upon myself and deserve it?

It was a simple Twitter exchange that tipped the scales. Someone tweeted the question of whether it's possible to rape a prostitute. I felt a flare of anger go up and replied, "Yes. She still has the right of refusal." He replied, "Could you ask for your money back at that point? I'm thinking of the case of Aileen Wuornos accusing her victims of rape."

Okay, he got a flurry of replies from me at this point. First of all, being completely practical, my understanding (and I am out of my depths here, I know) is that the money is put somewhere in plain sight before, but that she would not collect until later.

To be fair, we were thinking of different things. I don't think he was a bad guy, or would abuse a prostitute. He was thinking of paying someone and then not getting the (illegal) services rendered; I was thinking of her outright refusing the job.

It can go beyond that though. She might agree to one act, but not a beating that follows, so there is still an assault. She might agree to one act and he might force a different one. That would be a rape, but even if she went to the police, the odds of any successful prosecution even being started, let alone winning the case, is next to zero. You are more likely to see a case like this:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/06/06/ezekiel_gilbert_texas_man_acquited_of_murdering_craigslist_escort_who_wouldn.html

I was feeling angry that people could be so marginalized that they could end up in positions where there really was no protection for them. But wait, is that not the logical result of them choosing an illegal and immoral lifestyle? I have two thoughts on that.

One thing that I wanted to say is that with Wuornos it is kind of a different case because she may have had some PTSD going on (or she could have been a liar), but actually, that's not different. Most people with stable lives don't just decide to start selling themselves on the street. They tend to be survivors of rape and incest. Maybe they have been groomed from a very young age. It is common for them to start as minors. There may be a lot of PTSD that just doesn't result in homicide. That's something worth remembering about the "victimless" crime, so I was feeling some anger about that too.

The other thought is that you do not have to be at this level of marginalization to have a hard time getting justice. College students, soldiers, wives, teenagers, and all sorts of women are put on the defensive when they get raped:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/50-facts-rape_b_2019338.html

More and more I see that we have issues where empowerment is the answer, and that in terms of asking the right questions and making the right points, feminism is key. Unfortunately, that term has very negative connotations, where many women who at least seem to believe in aspects of feminism shy away from the word. There's nothing wrong with the word. Feminism is completely valid, and my qualification for calling myself a feminist is that I'm willing to.

It may frighten some people off, or make some people more likely to disregard what I say, but those are the attitudes I want to counter. The real value may be if people who already know me as an intelligent and good person see that, and think about it, but I will clarify my stance here.

I don't hate men. I am not anti-marriage, anti-family, or anti-housewife. I always expected to have a husband and children, and that didn't happen, but I am not bitter about that or motivated toward feminism because of that.

I do believe that women and men should hold equal positions in society and in the workplace, and that they do not, and I believe that those inequities are so firmly entrenched and habitual that it is easy not to notice them.

While I am not similarly affected by racism, I am equally against it, and opponents of progress do try and re-frame the terms of the argument there too. However, there is not (that I am aware of) a term for fighting racial inequality that is equivalent to feminism in terms of stigma.

And I am aware that men get raped and abused and get eating disorders too, and I do care about that, but I believe as we fight the mindset that creates sexism, it will help with the attitudes that contribute to other types of abuse and discrimination. Again, it specifically bugs me how much people get this one word wrong, and if you do want to fight injustice, you can't let the unjust control the vocabulary.

Once the decision was made, it seemed like adding one word to a profile would be a simple enough task. That didn't go as I thought it would, which I'll cover tomorrow.