Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Aerosmith Job Application

Since Aerosmith is looking for a new lead singer now that Steven Tyler left to “work on his own brand, Brand Tyler,” I figured I’d help them out and provide them with a job application for the position. I know it’ll be tough, but since “the band is playing hotter than ever,” according to Joe Perry, the author of the gospel of hotness, coincidentally, they have to find a new front man so they can play more of their riveting live shows.
To Joe, Brad, and Tom, here’s the application you should send out. Skip the vocal tryouts; those obviously aren’t important to you guys. Just hand the candidates this brief application and move on. The only answer you should get for all them is “e) all of the above.”


1) When people see you on the street, they often say:
a) “How old is that guy?”
b) “Can you autograph my receipt?”
c) “Jesus, that lady is fucking hideous!”
d) “Sorry, I don’t have any spare change.”


2) After a good show, you’re most likely to say,
a) “That show was Amazin’!”
b) “Yakka-Kow, Yakka Yakka Kow, Aye, Yow!”
c) “Joe, you sucked tonight.”
d) “Why aren’t I going solo?”


3) Your lips can best be described by which statement?
a) They’re as gigantic as horse lips
b) If chickens had lips like mine, they’d want to have no lips again
c)  They’re fleshy flaps that spit forth terrible tones
d) Permanently affixed to the ass of better music


4) Your daughter is:
      a) nobody special
      b) famous only because you are
      c) not that attractive
            d) someone that calls herself an actress


      5) What’s your stand on drug use?
      a) I need them to live
      b) I almost died using them
      c) I’m a better musician and performer when I use them
      d) They were cool; what I can remember of them


 6) “Honkin’ On Bobo” is a reference to:
      a) playing a harmonica named Bobo
b) Bobo is the name of a homeless male prostitute and “friend” of the band
      c) Bobo is another name for “the penis of corporate record sales,” and the album   
          doesn’t make you bob your head, you started bobbing on something else to make it.
      d) When Joey Kramer almost blew himself up at a gas station in Scituate, MA, the car 
           he was driving was nicknamed Bobo. When the Ferrari that had been recalled (but
           not serviced) because of a faulty fuel line burst in to flames (because Joey Kramer
          didn’t shut it off before pumping gas in to it), Joey was so scared he nearly threw
          up on the car.


7) Fans haven’t been paying attention to us since
       a) Joe Perry last wrote a guitar solo
       b) we stopped touring with Run D.M.C.
       c) Garth Algar stopped wearing our t-shirt
       d) they went clean


8) When you’re backstage at the Jeff Corwin Experience live show while your kids watch the show with their nanny, and you find a pizza with four hungry stage hands, starved from working to set up the show, crowded around it, you:
       a) don’t ask whose pizza it is
       b) talk about being starved and how you haven’t eaten a thing all day
 c) tell the stage hands this isn’t good pizza, and that you get better stuff
       d) walk out with a second slice in hand, and then complain to management about
            stagehands being backstage


9) Once you get tired of touring and you decide to leave us like Steven, you will:
       a) not matter at all
       b) continue to sing the National Anthem at Opening Day at Fenway Park every
           single damn year
       c) launch a string of doomed businesses, i.e. more restaurants, a clothing line, a
           cologne, and maybe a salon
       d) make what will, inevitably, be the worst album ever heard by mankind


10) In place of a vocal tryout, please describe your singing style:
a) ex-addict wailing like a wounded mule
      b) an angry mother with a hint of Nick Nolte
      c) Aretha Franklin after she smoked seven packs of menthol cigarettes
      d) a high school cheerleader that lifted too many weights and yelled too many cheers


11) Aerosmith: Boston as _______ : Boston:
      a) Cheers Tourists
      b) closet Yankee fans
      c)  New Kids On The Block
      d) clam chowder food poisoning

(Today I Made) A Playlist

For some reason, when I put my iPod on shuffle this morning, the first five songs that came on all had parentheses in the title. As a result, I produced an “All Parentheses Playlist.”


I set some guidelines for this; not just any tune with parentheses can make the list. I put “Kicks” by Paul Revere & The Raiders as the one example of what doesn’t count. Any song that was (Single Version), or (Featuring…), or (Studio Session), etc. doesn’t make the cut. Similarly, all songs had to be over a minute, so a lot of Mike Patton’s solo stuff didn’t make it.

In the cases such as Fishbone, Clutch, Deftones and Elvis Costello, I had several choices, but went with what song I wanted to hear the most today. I didn’t add “The Green Manalishi (With The Two Pronged Crown) by the Melvins either, because the Fleetwood Mac & Peter Green original was simply called, “The Green Manalishi.” Nice try, Buzz.

This turned out to be a decent list of tunes; check it:
 


What Does it Take (To Win Your Love) – Junior Walker & The All Stars
Rise n’ Shine (Epic Doobie Nightmare #1) - Estradasphere

Don’t Let Go (Hold on to what you got) – Bo Diddley
Kicks (Single Version) – Paul Revere and the Raiders
Polizei (zu spat) – Trans Am
Efilnikufesin (N.F.L.) – Anthrax
Psychology is B.S. (Not Science) – Tub Ring
Dancing in the Moonlight (It’s Caught Me in It’s Spotlight) – Thin Lizzy
(Nothing But) Flowers – Talking Heads
Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) – Kenny Rogers
What Comes Around (Goes Around) – Dr. John
(In the Wake Of) The Swollen Goat – Clutch
1983…(A Merman I Should Turn To Be) – Jimi Hendrix
Summer Romance (Anti-Gravity Love Song) – Incubus
Sell Your Body (To The Night) - Turbonegro
Who is He (And What is He to You?) – Bill Withers
Gonorrhable Discharge (Torment) - Kilbacca
(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding – Elvis Costello
E.T.I. (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) – Blue Oyster Cult
Can’t We All Just Get Along (At The Dinner Table) – Guttermouth
Burr (The Man) – Lake Trout
Invertus Indica (The Marijuana Convictions) – Cephalic Carnage
No Good (Attack The Radical) – Pantera
It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) – Roger McGuinn
Stretch (You Are All Right) - Tortoise
Exit Music (For A Film) – Radiohead
Bang A Gong (Get It On) – T. Rex
You Pick Me Up (Just To Throw Me Down) “Therapy” – Infectious Grooves
The Omen (Ave Satani) – Fantômas
(Ghost) Riders In The Sky – Johnny Cash
Mama Told Me (Not to Come) – Three Dog Night
(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher & Higher – Jackie Wilson
Tragedy of War (In III Parts) – Company Flow
Good Guys (Don’t Wear White) – Minor Threat
Preaching Blues (Up Jumped The Devil) – Robert Johnson
(High) Visibility – Helmet
C.F.T. (New Circuitry and Continued Evolution) – Isis
Jazz (We’ve Got) – A Tribe Called Quest
Magic Finger (it’s my dink) – James Kochalka
Change (In the House Of Flies) – Deftones
Skinny (It’s Overflowing) – Quicksand
Why? (What’s Goin On) – The Roots
Stubb (A Dub) – Mr. Bungle
Girl (You Captivate Me) - ?& The Mysterians
(Don’t Worry) If There’s A Hell Below We’re All Gonna Go – Curtis Mayfield
Ship of Fools (Stone of Exile) – Secret Cheifs 3
Thank you (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) – Sly and the Family Stone
Spiral Meningitis (Got Me Down) - Ween
(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay – Otis Redding
I Know Somethin (Bout You) – Alice In Chains
Spider Baby (Yeah-Yeah-Yeah) – White Zombie
We Have Spy-Tech (We Know) – Mayor Meighnot Administration
? (Modern Industry) – Fishbone
Wake Up (To Yourself) – Weaker Youth Ensemble
Psychology of A.I. (Numbers Follow Answers) – Man Or Astro-man?
(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais – The Clash
Three For Flinching (Revenge Of The Porno Clowns) – Dillinger Escape Plan
(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave – Martha and The Vandellas

Monday, November 9, 2009

Terrible loss

When I worked as a pro audio salesman, I dealt with some very needy, annoying customers, but was also lucky enough to deal with some really great people. One of those people was James Murphy. As a customer, he was handed to me when a coworker left, and I only knew James from his label, DFA Records. About four months in to our relationship, I learned he was also the James Murphy that mixed one of my favorite albums ever, "Futureworld" by Trans Am. Not only is James a great guy, but incredibly talented as well, as demonstrated in his work with LCD Soundsystem.

James and some guys would pop in to the store every now and then, rampage through, grabbing goods for their tour, and treating me extremely well. For some reason, I always seemed to be stuck in the drum department with Jerry, the drummer for
 !!! (Chk Chk Chk) at the time. I learned about Jerry Fuchs as time went by, and he was always one of the nicest guys out of the DFA crew, who were all nice guys.

Jerry did some graphics work for
Chunklet Magazine , another fabulous production. Jerry also did some freelance work for Entertainment Weekly, and was a hell of a drummer. Unfortunately, I have to put that statement in past tense, as Jerry Fuchs died early Sunday morning after falling down an elevator shaft at a benefit party in Brooklyn. You can read a better synopsis of Jerry Fuchs's life on Chunklet, they do a great write up on him. I barely knew the guy; I just sold him some stuff from time to time. Still, he was a great guy, and I know that a lot of great people (James and the entire extended DFA family) will be suffering with this for a long time. My thoughts and prayers are with Jerry's family, and anyone that knew him. Even though my time with him was brief, it was always a pleasure to see him, and I know he had that affect on just about everybody he met.

Rest peacefully, Jerry.   

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Do the housework

Blind Melon – Soup
This album is appropriately named after a comfort food. I started with this one because it’s nice and easy for waking up, but with energy of positive darkness. It’s deep and intimate, yet silly and loose. Like any album you know a lot of words to, this is also a good one for warming up vocal chords.   

Queens of the Stone Age – Queens of the Stone Age
Another good sing along album. By this time, the bedroom was clean, and the hot water had finished its’ morning coffee and was ready to help me wash dishes. Mid scrub on a frying pan I thought about how great it would be if Josh Homme, Nick Oliveri, and Dave Grohl played this album live I would follow them for months. Homme blew it and chased away Oliveri, and now we’re left to suffer the directionless pop disaster left behind.

Faith No More – Album of the Year
It was tough to decide which FNM album to play, but landed on this one mostly for “Stripsearch.” I had finished the first sink of dishes, and since my kitchen doesn’t feature a dishwasher, mine dry by air, so it was off to shave my head and take a shower. Since I had to de-clothe for the shave, “Stripsearch” was an obvious choice. I admit; I didn’t make it through all of “Pristina.” By the time I got back from walking the dog, I wanted to start something new, so, like Jason Hawes from “Ghost Hunters” would say, “on to the next.”  


Baroness – The Blue Record
This album gets better and better every time. Great from start to finish, this was a good soundtrack for putting away the first round of dishes, and most of the second sink full of disgraceful dishes. By the time this was over, so was the second rack of dishes, and only pans to soak.

BREAK TO WATCH FOOTBALL

Megadeth – Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying?
My dog loves this album, as it inevitably makes me play air guitar, and she thinks it’s a game. She especially likes “Devil’s Island,” and, as always, my favorite is “My Last Words.” There’s almost nowhere to go after this one, but thankfully, there’s this band:

Oxes – Oxxxes
My iPod just informed me that I need to re-burn Oxxxes. The first five tracks are alright, but the rest are all short of full songs. What the hell, Apple? Way to ruin a musical Saturday. Actually, thanks, this means I can stop doing housework and watch some more football. Well done.