The time I finally saw Sevendust

Or should I say the time I finally saw an entire set of theirs?

This post has been like 14 years in the making.

It's taken that long for me to finally get to see one of my favorite rock bands play an entire set live.

It all started back in the fall of 1999, my freshman year in high school. Sevendust was bringing their headlining tour with Kittie, Powerman5000 and newcomers Staind (back in their heavy days) to my hometown's annual labor day festival On the Waterfront. Only problem though was that my aunt and uncle had gotten my best friend and I tickets to see either Fastball with Blessid Union of Souls or The Wallflowers (I forget which band was the big festival headliner that year, as one played this year and one played a different year that we went) and the shows were both at the same time, on opposite sides of the festival/river. Needless to say, we were obliged to go to the one we had paid extra for for tickets but the plan was that as soon as it was over we'd run across the river to catch whatever we could of Sevendust. Sadly, we got there during the last song.

Something that would become a running joke for me.

Fast forward a few years to 2003. Sevendust is co-headlining a tour with Staind and playing the Aragon in Chicago. Me and lazyass ex were big concert goers at the time and both liked Sevendust and Staind's older stuff so we decided to go. Only problem though - I had class til a certain time and couldn't leave any earlier than we did. And we hit some traffic on our way into the city, getting there about an hour late. We figured we'd be fine though as there was at least 1 opening band... well as we park and rush into the theater we hear Sevendust playing their encore! WTF??? Apparently the opening band canceled or something or went on earlier and we literally caught the tail end of Sevendust. I wasn't too happy... especially by this point Staind was in lite mode, only playing their heavier songs here and there (much to the displeasure of the majority of the crowd). I paid to see Sevendust, but got stuck only seeing Staind lite.

A few years later (circa 2008 I believe) I got a notice that Sevendust was coming to Chicago again, this time to my favorite venue, the HoB (House of Blues). I *really* wanted to go but sadly it just wasn't in the cards financially. Plus with my luck, I'd make it just into to catch the last song again.

Which brings us to now.

I found out a few weeks ago via the app BandsInTown that Sevendust was playing a show at the nightclub in my college town 30 miles away. Hubby and I both had the night off from work and if it wasn't on my bucketlist, seeing a full Sevendust set should have been cuz I was determined to see a set of theirs live at least once in my life. There was some confusion over the start time - 1 site said 7pm, the tickets said doors at 8 show at 9, the venue when we called said 8... we got there about 845 and the 1st band was just finishing so it was definitely happening!

They did a few new songs, including the latest single Decay, as well as a slew of their old hits (Bitch, Waffle, Too Close to Hate) as they made the point this was more of a fan reunion for them since they've been doing it so long and the majority of the crowd was people my own age or older that had been following the band for years (we stopped at one of my favorite local joints for food down there and the chick making our pitas/gyros had never heard of them while the chick that was working there since before I graduated 6 years ago teased her about being young).

I was down in the crowd for the first half of their set before moving back to where hubby stayed, eventually getting up on the board covered pool table he was sitting on. It got a bit rowdy too - considering how security was there when I saw Papa Roach and Nonpoint 10 years ago there, they pretty much didn't care - people started crowd surfing, moshing... saw a fight break out at the end, other girls and a drunk guy on one of the other board covered pool tables... it was pretty fun! They opened with Denial, closed it out with Face to Face (one of my favorites!). I also heard Xmas Day and Praise... only ones I wish they had played that they didn't were Crucified, Live Again, Enemy, and Broken Down (can you tell I liked the albums Animosity and Seasons? Glad they did Face to Face though, as that's one of my favorites from those 2!).

While the sound wasn't the best, considering the venue it wasn't terrible. (Another reason why I love the HoB - the sound there is amazing!). Night club shows rock though as it's such a small intimate setting, you really aren't far no matter where you're watching from!

So I can cross seeing a full Sevendust set live off my list now! Woot!

Peaches Come From a Can...

...they were put there by a man. In a factory... downtown."
A friend on Facebook posted the other day about liking something called "Naked and Famous" and of course the 1st thing that popped in my head was The Presidents of the United States of America's song "Naked and Famous" ("Everybody wants to be just like me, I'm naked and famous!").

Can you believe that in 2015 it'll have been 20 years since their self-titled debut was released?!

I remember my childhood best friend got ahold of the CD and we used to listen to it the ridiculousness of it for a good while when we were in... 5th/6th grade! Eventually I got a copy myself.

Even now, I still enjoy it - the songs are fast, catchy and mostly upbeat. I still find myself singing along!

Everyone remembers their hits "Lump" (or its Weird Al parody "Gump") and "Peaches", but the whole album was pretty good! Other favorites of mine include "Kick Out the Jams," "We're Not Gonna Make It," "Backporch," and "Kitty."

Thanks to my brief obsession with the stupid song, Peaches became my nickname in Junior High and was eventually part of my 1st ever internet handle. I also incorporated it into my license plate for some dumb reason (I swear, one of these days I *will* change it... someday. Or so I keep telling myself).

These guys definitely come to mind when you think of mid-90s rockin' jam bands!

Lucky Boy Lost- RIP Joe

At work last week, checking Facebook on my break while waiting for my dinner to microwave, I came across some sad news on my newsfeed - Joe Sell, guitarist for Lucky Boys Confusion, had passed away.

I don't know about your college town, but when I was in college, Lucky Boys were HUGE on the college circuit. All the schools within x-radius of Chicago knew who they were all. Like other college-town bands such as Mike and Joe and Evenflow, Lucky Boys Confusion made the rounds several times a year in DeKalb - I went to several of their super high energy shows (seriously, things got crazy!). They were also pretty big in Chicago too, having played regularly at the Metro for years. 2003 was when they got really big as they released a major-label record titled "Commitment" - you've probably heard their song "Hey Driver" in various movies and commercials. I also recall hearing it played during televised NFL football games in the background. "Killians (Do You Miss Me?)," "I'm Gonna Steal Your Girlfriend," and "Fred Astaire" were other popular songs from their indy debut.

Apparently Joe found dead in Chicago last Tuesday, and so far the cause is not 100% known. They said he had been battling pancreas problems in recent months, having been previously hospitalized for it and had also suffered drug and alcohol addiction in the past too.  No one knows for sure though what the cause of death was.

I didn't know Joe personally, but I did know a handful of people in college who did - a former roommate's then-boyfriend whom I hung around with for a few years had gone to school for years with some of the guys from Naperville (including Joe) and was part of their original street-team. And my ex... Joe grew up around the block from him and was even my ex's babysitter for a few years when they were younger (Joe was 4-6 years older than us) - I remember him taking me past the house just to prove it, as it was his little "claim to fame" that his former babysitter was part of a semi-famous band.

It's still pretty sad though - he wasn't that much older than most of us. I recall hearing Joe was one of the nicer guys in the band. I also think it was Joe who did an awesomely hilarious cover of "Part of Your World" from Disney's Little Mermaid!

RIP Joe - you'll be missed and remembered!

"Hurt" - NIN or Cash, who did it better?

Last night hubby and I were watching TV and a commercial for some new console game (Prototype 2...?) came on TV and the song used in the background was Johnny Cash's cover of Nine Inch Nail's "Hurt." I'm more partial to NiN's original version, hubby likes Cash's better. Hubby took it to Facebook, which the majority (so far) is in favor of Cash's cover.

I'll admit, both version are good and very moving, however I see NiN's version as more being about the present pain Trent Reznor was in when he wrote it back in 1994, whereas Cash's is clearly a reflection on the life he lived. Cash's seems more hopeful, whereas as the minor chords in NiNs are more creepy and makes the song feel dark and sad. I think having seen/heard Trent Reznor perform it live as the last song NiN ever played in Chicago also sways my vote a tad too - I was there, I felt the emotion that he put into it and what a personal song it is to him.

What do you think? Which version do you prefer?

(forgive the NIN video - the only "official" videos they have of the original are live versions - this was the only clear audio quality one I could find, straight from The Downward Spiral album)

The Return of Boy Bands?

Last Tuesday, which so happened to also be the day of the Illinois Republican Primary election (Ron Paul 2012!!), I happened to catch the majority of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (which is rare as I was disappointed with both NBC and Jay Leno in the mess with Conan O'Brien and normally I watch Conan on TBS for my weekday late-night entertainment) as Ron Paul was the headlining guest and I wanted to hear what my choice of candidate had to say. Anyways, the musical guest was an act called The Wanted, performing their latest single "Glad You Came."







I recognized the tune, but wasn't sure from what, but liked it. It was fun, catchy, upbeat... I looked them up on Wikipedia.

And if these guys get huge over here in the US, it could be the return of boy bands.

Which, it is about time - unless you include Nickelodeon and Disney Channel stars/bands the Jonas Brothers and Big Time Rush, there hasn't really been a string of successful boy bands since the late 90s when Hanson, The Backstreet Boys and Nsync blew up and others like 98 Degrees, LFO, Five, O-Town, Youngstown, etc came out of the woodwork too.

So far, The Wanted has been huge overseas in Europe, much like BSB and Nsync were before they hit it huge over here.

And "Glad You Came" has a similar catchy, upbeat sound and feel as "I Want You Back", "Tearin' Up My Heart", "Quit Playin' Games (With My Heart)", and "As Long As You Love Me".

Plus, there's 5 guys in the group, all aged 18-23.

"Glad You Came" has also already been performed on Glee this season too, by the Warblers at Regionals (which is where I originally heard it).

Keep your eyes and ears on these guys - I wouldn't be surprised if boy band mania is back in full swing by summer (15 years after the start of the last major boy band mania!).

2011 in Entertainment

In 2011...

I read:

• World War Z (well, technically I finished it, having started it near the end of 2010)
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
• Dead Reckoning (Sookie Stackhouse book #11)
• The Girl Who Played With Fire
• The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland Into a Ship of Her Own Making (started)
• A Game of Thrones (started)
• A handful of parenting books

I watched (TV):

• A Game of Thrones (season 1)
• Franklin and Bash (season 1)
• True Blood (season 4)
• Entourage (season 8)
• Glee (seasons 2 & 3)
• New Girl
• Up All Night
• Community
• The Office
• The Walking Dead (season 2)
• Once Upon a Time
• Conan

I watched (movies):

• The Green Hornet
• The Mechanic
• I Am Number 4
• Paul
• Fast Five
• Thor
• Bridesmaids
• Bad Teacher
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
• Winnie the Pooh
• Cowboys and Aliens
• Conan the Barbarian in 3D

Listened to:

• Volbeat
• Shinedown
• Britney Spears
• Lady Gaga
• Adele
• Katy Perry
• LMFAO
• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Bush
• Skrillex
• The Pretty Reckless
• Tinie Tempah
• Theory of a Deadman
• The Lonely Island
• Evanescense

Christmas already??

As usual, today I was running a few minutes late to work (at least now with a kid, I have a legitimate reason for almost always running late everywhere I go!).

I completely wasn't paying attention to any of the Christmas decorations that had gone up in the mall over the past few days since I last worked.

I clocked in and put my stuff away and my nametag on and after having a brief chat with the store manager headed out to the sales floor.

I took 1 step out of the back stockroom and it hit me.

Christmas music was playing in the store!

I turned around and said loudly into the stockroom "Christmas music?! Seriously??"

The one manager laughed at my reaction while the team leader responded "Didn't you notice all the lights and decorations up in the mall??"

I noticed them afterwards on our way (and I believe one of the managers said Santa's supposed to be making his appearance in the next few weeks too, BEFORE Thanksgiving - wtf?? Santa doesn't appear until the end of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, which by the way, I'm actually looking forward to watching it with Jay this year as he'll have my butt out of bed when it's still on! lol...), but for my entire shift tonight I got to rock out to some Christmas poptunes (most of which I got to listen to on repeat while working last year!).

Fortunately, this isn't our full-blown Christmas store soundtrack yet - it still has some of the regular poptunes that were one the previous soundtracks but they're intermixed with Christmas songs by Hanson, other boy bands, and some other poptune Christmas tracks. We predict this year's Christmas soundtrack is going to have quite a bit of the Biebs on it, as he apparently has a Christmas album out this year.

I am looking excited to the She and Him Christmas album though that just came out Monday - while their sound is a bit folks-y, I LOVE Zooey Deschanel and her singing voice is quite pretty (remember her singing Christmas songs in Elf?? And the Winnie the Pooh songs in the recent movie too??). Yeah, definitely getting a copy of that one this year... which reminds me, I should see if it's up on Spotify yet to give it a listen to =)

I swear to God though, it's going to be torture to my brain hearing Paul McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime" in all its synthesizer glory every. time. I. work.

I kid you not, I was on the verge of going crazy whenever I heard that one last year, the song drives me sooooo nuts - you know the one, "Siiiiimply, haaaaaaving a wonderful Christmastime!" and its bouncy synth beat and tones. I can't stand that song and I'm pretty sure it's all because of the annoying synthesizer, lol...

Flashback Friday: My favorite music videos in the mid 80s-early 90s

In attempt to remove "unnecessary" photos from my Google+ account, a lot of my custom made icons, such as the Flashback Friday logo got deleted as well and sadly I haven't had much time to try and find the originals!

Jessi recently posted about the Beatles and it got me thinking and watching my favorite George Harrison video from his solo days. This then led to me finding a bunch of old music videos VH1 would play in the mid-late 80s and early 90s that I LOVED as a kid and would spend hours with the TV turned to VH1 in the background as I played with my toys hoping I would get to see my favorite music videos that day!

"I Got My Mind Set On You" by George Harrison


This one came out in 1987 and as a 3 year old, I LOVED it and with all the dancing furniture and animal heads/skins I'm sure it's pretty easy to say why. Even now, 24 years later, it still made me crack up!

"You Can Call Me Al" by Paul Simon


Chevy Chase and his antics in the video are pretty much why I loved it. I saw Christmas Vacation when I was like 5 and for the longest time I associated Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold.

"Cold Hearted Snake" by Paula Abdul


Watching this now, this video was quite racy for being the late-80s and I have no idea why my 5-year old self was allowed to watch it as it wreaks sexuality. I loved the song back though and gotta admit, it's still pretty catchy!

"Opposites Attract" by Paula Abdul


What kid didn't love this video - it had a talking, singing, dancing cartoon cat in it! 'Nuff said.

"I'm Your Baby Tonight" by Whitney Houston


Took me forever to find this one, as all I could remember from the video was a woman (who I coulda sworn was Tina Turner until I thought it could possibly be Whitney) in a leather jacket magically getting on a motorcycle near the end of it! Not sure why I liked this one but something about the motorcycle stood out to me!

"Live for Loving You" by Gloria Estefan


My mom listened to a lot of Gloria in the 80s and for some reason I LOVED this video and the animation in it (totally 80s, btw!). I remember getting furious at my 2nd cousin over this video when I was little too - we were visiting my grandparents and I learned their TV in the basement had cable and so, like usual, I was watching VH1, waiting for my favorite videos to come on. This one *finally* came on and I was rockin' out to it when my older teenage 2nd cousin came in and tried to take over the TV to watch a New Kids on the Block video she had bought. I was screaming and in tears when she took over the TV while my jam was on, despite her telling me that what she was putting on was better and I would like it (I didn't - as all it was was them trying to get on a tour bus while hundreds of girls were screaming and attacking the bus, which I thought was dumb, lol...)

"Just Leave Me Alone" by Michael Jackson


I know it was the stop-motion and claymation/animation in this video that made me love it, on top of the fact I decided when I was 4 I wanted to marry MJ after seeing the Captain EO movie at Disney World's Epcot Center.

"Thriller" by Michael Jackson


I was fascinated by this song and video so much that my parents confiscated my cassette of the album, I listened it to so much, lol...

"Black or White" by Michael Jackson


I remember when this one was premiered world-wide in the early 90s on Fox (I want to say it was after the Simpsons). MJ, Macaulay Culkin (whom everyone my age knew as Kevin from Home Alone) and people morphing into each other... LOVED IT!

(*note* I think mid-80s to early 90s Michael was the best!)

"Escapade" by Janet Jackson


During this period I used to confuse her with Paula Abdul soooo much, as they had a similar hairstyle and were both great performers!

"Always" by Bon Jovi


Another "racy" (for its time) video that my friend and I probably shouldn't dave watched when we were kids but we did, and we LOVED this song and video because of the story it told. It's fun watching it now, as I recognize Keri Russell, Carla Gugino (from Son-in-Law with Pauly Shore and Entourage), the blonde bully neighbor from The Brady Bunch Movie and the artist guy was Joe in NBC's short-lived series Persons Unknown.

"Wild Night" by John Mellencamp & Me'Shell Ndegeocello


A video that follows a night in the life of a female New York taxi driver who's rocking out to John Mellencamp and the chick with the last night we could never seem to pronounce as kids, lol...

"Jack and Diane" by John Cougar Mellencamp


So it came out before I was born but this song was big throughout the 80s and still played on the radio in the 90s. You know you loved clapping along with this one!

"Forever Young" by Rod Stewart


My favorite thing about this video was the whole father/son aspect - I thought it was soooo cute (and still do, despite the kid looking a bit scared of riding on his dad's lap of a the back of a truck the 1st half of the video! lol...)

"Don't Come Around Here No More" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers


The creepy, twist Alice in Wonderland aspect of the video was what always caught my attention, lol...

"Last Dance With Mary Jane" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers


Tom Petty made some pretty creepy videos in the 80s and 90s!

The 2011 VMAs

To be honest, with birthday festivities on Sunday, I completely forgot about the VMAs until I checked my Twitter feed and saw all you guys tweeting about the event.

So I caught a VERY late rerun of it to see what it was all about this year.

I think the preshow should have been called "Selena Gomez and Friends" as I just kept seeing her pal-ing around with Beiber and Demi Levato, etc. And sorry Cobra Starship, I still ONLY like your Snakes on a Plane song. Beiber looked quite butch-feminine too, poor kid.

Gaga surprised everyone who was wondering what crazy get-ups she was going to be sporting this time when she kicked off the show dressed as the dude from her latest video "You and I". She stayed in character throughout the whole show. It was definitely a change for her, but still just as bizarre!

Nicki Minaj presented an award with a super skinny Jonah Hill... it worked for Seth Rogan but Jonah just looks a bit odd! And Nicki looked like she was trying to be Gaga with her whacked out get-up.

Chris Brown, despite the fact I've never really liked him, gave a pretty neat dance performance which included "dances" from different eras in music, such as grunge headbanging from Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video. I read today though that he lip sync'd it though, which is kinda disappointing since Pink did all the wire trapeze work last year and didn't lip sync.

The Britney tribute was pretty lame and too short... and Dude Gaga hovering next to her during the whole acceptance speech with puppy dog eyes (after Britney turned down a kiss, stating she's already done that on the VMAs) was just creepy.

Beyonce's performance was quite classy though and yes, she modeled her baby bump at the end which was cute.

Adele's performance was great as usual.

The Amy Winehouse tribute was pretty good and the footage with Tony Bennett was pretty neat to see! She had amazing talent... too bad she wasted it.

Katy Perry's get-up at the end was just plain strange... I get the 80s look was supposed to be from her TGIF/Last Friday Night video, but what was up with the yellow box on her head?

What's in the box?!?!

And Lil Wayne's performance... ugh... so, SO much fail in that one. For one, it was auto-tune city. Second, he sampled Iron Man - that's just... no. He gave up lip syncing altogether halfway through the performance and there was sooooo much swearing in the song that us viewers at home were just hearing a constant string of annoying beeps. One of the worst performances ever.

I give up - these MTV Award shows just keep getting worse and worse... the movie awards are a joke (Twilight for best movie EVERY. YEAR. IN. A. ROW?! Are you kidding me?!) and the VMAs haven't been worth watching in years.

I'll still probably catch a rerun of next years though. And the year after.

Has Gaga peaked?

As I posted on my Twitter just a few minutes ago, I think Lady Gaga peaked awhile back, she realizes this and has since just been going for shock value to keep in the public eye.

Does anyone else agree?

I honestly have to say, I have not really liked any of her songs that have come out recently - ever since "Alejandro" it seems both her lyrical quality as well as artistic value have gone downward. Yes, I'm sure the videos for "Alejandro", "Born This Way", and now "Judas" have been done on crazy budgets, but honestly, in my opinion, they're just not that good!

Let's take a look back.

"Just Dance" - her debut single which got plenty of play on the dance stations was a fun pop tune, the video was just okay, nothing special. Then there was her big breakout hit "Pokerface" - expensive looking, not much plot, but the song was catchy and the video showcased some of her wacky fashion - it put her on the map so to speak. Then came "Lovegame", which also had catchy, fun lyrics and the video looked like a female version of Michael Jackson's "Bad" as they were singing, dancing, and running around an empty subway station or whatever. It wasn't great, but it was fun. And then there was "Paparazzi" - the song was pretty and catchy, the video played out like a story and it kept you interested and was also visually appealing. She did "Telephone" with Beyonce and while the song was just catchy, the video was a clear homage to Tarantino which was great! It too played out as a story and was just fun to watch. "Bad Romance" was another one that again, was catchy, and the video was intoxicating - I couldn't help but watch it everytime it was on and even start doing the monster dance.

But from then on... it seemed like she was all about the shock value and trying to shake up and cause controversy with the religious sect.

"Alejandro" for example has a lot of religious imagery combined with some graphic sexual content kids shouldn't see. Definitely shock value, as the song itself wasn't even that good and many even cited it sounded like an Ace of Base rip-off.

I don't recall "Born This Way" being too controversial and it's got the whole message about being who are you and being true to yourself, etc, however it wasn't very memorable and the song itself sounds like a direct rip-off of Madonna's "Express Yourself". And Madge did it better.

And now "Judas"... honestly, the song itself is just stupid and terrible and I agree with one review I read saying that it shouldn't have been released as a single as it's THAT bad. And the video... once again she's going for shock value, shaking up the religious sect and trying to cause controversy. The whole point of the song is that she's hopelessly in love with Judas (yes, the Judas from the Bible, as she makes it clear near the end of the song) and in the video the disciples are portrayed as a biker gang.

I definitely think Gaga peaked awhile back and has been on a steady decline - her songs keep getting worse and not really memorable or sounding like total rip-offs of other people's songs and it seems like to make up for it or make people forget about it she comes out with videos that have controversy and shock value fueling them.

Can we go back to the creative, artistic, feel-good catchy Gaga of 2009/early 2010? I'm really not digging the "new and improved" Gaga.

Houses, movies, Friday and apps

So it's been a few weeks since I've last updated - my apologies!

Anyways, we've been keeping busy with various doctor appointments and house-hunt related stuff.

So it's official - as long as nothing happens with the seller, we're closing on the house sometime during the first week of April! How exciting!

We got it in a light tan/mocha color

We also bought our living room furniture too, or well, at least put a deposit on it. Slumberland has their Mega Sale - 55% off stuff - going on through this week and they had some really nice 5 piece living room sets (a sofa, loveseat, 2 end tables and a coffee table) for under $1000 so naturally we jumped at the chance as it really is a good deal and we need furniture for our front room upstairs since the majority of our furniture is going in the rec room downstairs. We're planning on putting it on our credit card but have to wait til after we close so it doesn't screw up hubby's credit any, but that works out as they have to order it from the manufacturer warehouse and won't be in til around our closing date anyway.

We had the home inspection this past Monday and it went well - no major surprises, just a few smaller things that we can do ourselves or have my dad and uncle help out with. We're also shopping around for a fridge and washer/dryer too and I plan on painting Jay's room all Super Mario Bros-esque - I'll be sure to post pics!

I had my post-partum 6 week check-up at the OBGYN last week too and they said everything looks good so I'm good to go back to work - I find out tomorrow if I'm back on the schedule or not yet. I'm also down at least 20lbs from my max preggo weight! Woot! 10 more pounds to go and I'll be back to my pre-preggo weight! I've been trying to go walking once a week (either at the mall or out on the walking path, which I'm really going to miss once we move) and I'm thinking of starting the 30 Day Shred in May, as we're going to be busy with moving at the beginning of April plus the doctor said to ease into working out and don't start out with anything too crazy right away.

Other than that not too much of importance has been going on.

We watched the movie Easy A the other day as it was our Netflix movie. Gotta admit, it was a lot better than I was expecting! To be honest, the witty and quick dialogue as well as the humor in it reminded me of Mean Girls, which was another really good recent high school comedy. If you liked Mean Girls I definitely recommend checking out Easy A. The cast was pretty good too, with familiar faces such as Emma Stone (as this movie is her breakout vessel), Amanda Bynes, Stanley Tucci, Thomas Hayden Christensen (whom I will always think of as Ned from Fox's old school "Ned and Stacy" sitcom), Lisa Kudrow and Malcolm McDowell.

And if you haven't heard the song "Friday" by Rebecca Black go check it out (if you can handle it). It really is one of the worst songs ever! The entire song from start to finish is auto-tuned and unlike with "singers" such as Ke$ha, they don't even try to hide it! And the lyrics... omg they're hilariously bad! My favorite is the part that's all "we so excited!" as they were too lazy to include "are" and decided a fragmented sentence like that was fine! And then there's the random rap near the end too that has not much of anything to do with the song! It's too funny! Apparently there's a deathmetal parody version of the song too that's completely hilarious as well!

One one last note - hubby found a really neat app last week called AudioGalaxy. What it does is, via the internet, syncs your phone with your computer's music files so you can listen to any song on your computer on your phone no matter where you are, so long as you have the AudioGalaxy program running on your computer and your phone - you get to choose with music files you want it to "share" with your phone and it streams it through the network! So rather than upload/import your music files onto your phone and taking up space you can just use AudioGalaxy to listen to your music on your computer while you're out walking or driving or even at work! How neat is that?? I know it's in the Android Market, not sure about the iPhone one though as I don't pay attention to iPhone stuff.

Music Shuffle Monday 01.24.11

1. "Pop" by N*Sync

To be honest, not sure why I have this song on my iPod - the only N*Sync album I ever bought was their debut, when I was in 8th grade. My fascination with N*Sync was short-lived as I much preferred the Backstreet Boys over them and ultimately Hanson was my favorite of the boy bands of the late 90s because they actually played their own instruments and wrote their own music. Regardless, this song came out during my high school years - I think I got stuck listening to the tracks on this particular N*Sync album thanks to some of the "preppy" girls I was on the soccer team with who were obsessed with N*Sync. It's kinda of a catchy tune, but yeah...

2. "One" by Creed

Ah creed... I remember during mid-high school we had a group come and do a chapel service for us at school (for those not familiar with Christian schools, chapel is like a weekly church service during school with worship songs and a guest speaker) and they performed a "human video" to Creed's song "Higher" off their 2nd album (a human video is a group of people acting out a performance to a song to tell a story). Anyways, the next day we were all hooked on the song and Creed and I think my school's student body bought out every copy of the CD in town, lol... this song is off Creed's 1st album - having liked the album with Higher on it, I went back and got their 1st one. It's a pretty good song. By the end of high school Creed was pretty huge - kids today have Chad Kroger and Nickelback, we had Scott Stapp and Creed.

3. 'They Know Who You Are" by Powerman5000

This is off their major debut Tonight the Stars Revolt. For those not familiar with the album, it's kind of like a space odyssey as it plays out the fantasy of a group being lost in space, trying to get their radio transmission picked up. PM5K's main man, Spider (aka Rob Zombie's slightly younger half brother), is a huge fan of horror and especially the strange classic horror B movies, so this plays out like a Twilight Zone type horror. During this error of the band they performed in spacesuits - it was pretty awesome! Nearly 10 years later and after some good and not so good experimentation with their sound, Spider finally gave the fans the sequel/follow-up to Tonight the Stars Revolt that we've been wanting (Somewhere on the Other Side of Nowhere) and also brought back the classic spacesuits!

4. "Hell Song" by Sum41

I first heard this one in my freshman year of college and I thought the music video was awesome as it was done all with action figures and dolls dressed up like celebs, fighting and on their way to a Sum41 show. Check it out below:

5. "Fear" by Disturbed

This one's off of Disturbed's debut The Sickness. While probably the darkest and most explicit album they've done (and by far the most "disturbing" as a lot of the songs paint the picture of a man struggling with actual demons), it's probably my favorite Disturbed album as it was so dark and different at the time. Definitely not one for the kiddies, but it sure packs a punch and rocks HARD. And there's not a single track on the album I feel the need to skip over while listening either.

Music Shuffle Monday 01.17.11

1) "Just A Girl" by No Doubt

Ah, back to the year of 1995... I remember this song - No Doubt's first BIG hit - came out when I was in 5th grade and the "We Play Anything" station had it in regular rotation. I remember getting the Tragic Kingdom CD and rockin' out in my bedroom, using a hairbrush as a microphone! Ah, those were the days! Gotta admit, I long for the Tragic Kingdom days of No Doubt - I never really "dug" their more reggae or new wave sound they had going on some of the later albums. Hopefully with them getting back together they'll get back to their ska/punk/rock roots and give us another awesome album like Tragic Kingdom!

2) "P5hng Me A*wy" by Linkin Park

This is off their remix album Reanimation. As an original LP fan who loved their major debut Hybrid Theory (I bought it the week it came out), I was originally disappointed with Reanimation but some of the tracks - this one included - grew on me. Unlike the Collision Course album they did later with Jay-Z, this one fuses tracks from Hybrid Theory and other older LP rarities with a more electronic element to it, not to mention various other artists contributed to the different song remixes too.

3) "Salty Dog" by Flogging Molly

I was introduced to Flogging Molly, an Irish punk band, back in college by my roommate. I don't know too many of their songs, but they're a good ol' Irish band that really gets ya in the spirit of St. Patricks day blending the quick pace of punk music with traditional Irish instruments! It's pretty awesome!

4) "Whenever, Wherever" by Shakira

I remember when Shakira broke onto the US scene when I was in early high school. I'll admit, she looked pretty hot in her music video for this one and the song was pretty catchy!

5) "Every New Day" by Five Iron Frenzy

In summer 1999 I went to the weekend long Christian music festival Cornerstone in Bushnell, IL. It included a lot of the more popular Christian rock and contemporary bands as well as a lot of smaller unknown ones (including Tasty Snax - the former band of Linkin Park's bassist Phoenix - yes, I met him at their merch booth!). One of the highlights for me at the festival was getting to see Five Iron Frenzy during a midnight show at one of the tents. I was pretty big into ska at the time but wasn't too familiar with Five Iron Frenzy despite hearing they were pretty good. I got lucky too as they we were recording parts of their live album there that night too and got my name listed in the fan section of the credits. Seeing them perform - including this song - was such a great experience and anytime I hear this one (live or studio version) as well as other songs they performed that night it takes me back to skanking around with other ska music lovers late that night as the entire crowd got into the performance.

My United States of Whateva!

I remember first seeing this video back in my early college days (back before the days of Youtube!) and for some reason we thought it was one of the funniest music video shorts we had seen in awhile! I forgotten about it until someone recently posted it on Facebook.

Check it out:

Music Shuffle Monday 01.10.11

It's the return of Music Shuffle Monday!

I know, I know - I've been slacking a bit on this one lately, but it's a new year so let's give it another go!

1) "Over the Edge" by Zebrahead

This is off their "big" release MFZB which came out in my early college years. I first heard it working late at night at my college's newspaper as one of the guys would bring in this CD as well as the latest Lucky Boys Confusion CD and we'd often listen to them back to back as they were similar sounding bands. It wasn't a bad CD - a lot of the songs were catchy and it grew on me and I went out and got myself a copy. Feel free to check them out - their songs range from college pop-rock to a little heavier.

2) "Perfect" by The Smashing Pumpkins

There's something about the older Pumpkins' music (pre-break-up/failed "reunion") that I can't help but like. A lot of it's really pretty and melodic - Billy Corgan's vocals work great with the music and you can usually find a song of theirs you like or can relate to. Like many, I came in towards the middle, after the release of Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness and bought the rest of their albums until the break-up. To be honest, I'm kinda sad that Billy's attempted to put the band "back together" and tour/record under the Smashing Pumpkin's name but with a different line-up - it's just not the same! Gimme the band with Billy, James Iha, Jimmy Chamberlain and D'arcy (or even Melissa Auf der Maur if you must).

3) "My Life Would Suck Without U" performed by the Glee cast

I thought this was a really fun rendition of the Kelly Clarkson song and was also a great tune to end the 1st season of Glee on a positive note with. For me, the Glee songs are hit and miss - some I really like, others... ugh. But in this case, the was a good one, or at least I thought so!

4) "House of the Rising Sun" by the Animals

Ah, a classic! Growing up as a kid in grade school I was only allowed to listen to Contemporary Christian music, Adult "Lite Rock" and The Oldies Station as my parents didn't think most of what was on the Top 40 stations was appropriate for kids my age (and who could blame them - my mom freaked a little bit the first time she heard my 6 year old self and best friend singing Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy" lol...). Usually we ended up listening to The Oldies station as I liked the music on that channel more (the songs were catchy!) and it took my parents back to when they were growing up. For some reason, given the subject matter of this song, I've always liked this one, even though I used to get it confused with the "Li'l Red Riding Hood" song by Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs as instrumentally they sound similar!

5) "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough" by Michael Jackson

Not my favorite MJ song, but it's definitely a must-have for anyone's Michael Jackson collection as it was his first big single as a solo artist. Growing up, we 1st went to Disney World when I was 4 and at Epcot they were playing this 3D movie - Captain EO - starring Michael Jackson. We went and OMG I fell in love with him and was convinced I was going to marry him when I got older, the fact that we shared the same birthdate even convinced me more that it was meant to be and I would gaze at my Captain EO poster we hung my playroom, imagining what it would be like! lol... ah to be young again! I guess you could say MJ was first real celebrity crush - my parents had Thriller on vinyl and made a cassette tape so I could listen to it on my little brown Fischer Price tape recorder... I listened to it so much they ended up taking the tape from me as they didn't think it was healthy for a 4 year old to be listening to it as much as I was (ah, the start of my minor obsessive personality problem, lol... I have this bad tendency to get hooked something and become near obsessed with it for awhile!)

Memorable Christmas Gifts of the Past

Since Christmas is right around the corner, this week's Flashback Friday post is devoted to memorable Christmas toys/gifts.

One of the first Christmases I can remember I got quite a bit of toys, including a red tricycle that I road around the house that first morning as well as my brown Fischer Price cassette recorder.

Another memorable gift was the year we got a Nintendo game system. I've mentioned it before in various posts on here - my childhood best friend and her older brothers had a Nintendo at their house that we would play often and since I had an interest in video games, when an older cousin got a Nintendo he sent us his older Atari system, but it just wasn't the same. The Nintendo system we got came with 3 games - Super Mario Bros., Duck Hunt (with the gun controller) and a track and field game that worked with the Nintendo trackpad.

I also remember getting quite a bit of Play-Doh sets over the years - I LOVED Play-Doh and back in the late 80s/early 90s there were plenty of sets you could get to make all sorts of crazy Play-Doh creations! I remember one of the sets I had was Burger King set - it came with a Play-Doh "grill" to make burger patties and fries and there were the stamps to create lettuce and tomatoes... I had too much fun with Play-Doh!

I loved coloring books too so every year Santa would bring me some. One year he really confused me though as he brought me a whole stack of new coloring books, however some were duplicates! I didn't understand why Santa would do that and then I started to feel bad, thinking that some little kid out there was some of their coloring books because Santa accidentally gave me multiples! Oops!

One big gift I got in grade school was my American Girl doll Samantha. As I've mentioned before, at one point in school, American Girl dolls were all the rage at school. Us girl were always checking the books out of the library and reading them together in our freetime. Some would bring their dolls to school... at the time there were the original 3 - Kirsten, Samantha, and Molly - and they had just added Felicity. Kirsten was the more popular one at school and me always having to be a little different, I wanted Samantha instead - I loved her Victorian style and stories! My parents got her for me for Christmas one year and I was thrilled!

Another memorable gift was the year I got my stereo in 5th grade. We actually have amusing video footage of this one as my dad (or "Santa" to my sister) played a prank on me with it. I had opened all my gifts and it wasn't there, despite me not having opened a "big" present yet (my parents would get us 1 big, more expensive present that we really wanted each year). As we opened presents in the living room, my parents told me to go retrieve the stockings that hung on the mantle between the kitchen and family room. I didn't really want to, but I did anyway and I think my sis followed. As we went to go get them, we both noticed a big large box wrapped in the middle of the family room. I knew that had to be my big present, but my sis, being the little 3 year old she was at the time, insisted it was hers. My dad, who wrapped it, had forgotten to put a gift tag on it, which only led to the feud as my sister insisted it was her present despite what anyone told her. She then began to fight with me over opening it, getting all upset when my parents told her to let me do it. I unwrapped it and sure enough, it was a box with the stereo I wanted on it. I opened it up though and there was an older junk radio in the box! My dad thought it was funny - turns out he hid the actual stereo somewhere else in the house! lol...

What memorable Christmas gifts have you gotten over the years?

Recent Music Discoveries

I love it when I'm listening to the radio and hear a "new" song I haven't heard before and really like it.

Today I made 2 discoveries this way.

Driving to work, I heard the song "Enemy" by Days of the New. Now this song is like 11 years old - before the singer "fired" the rest of the band and they went and formed Tantric, which explains why it sounds a bit Tantric-y - but I had never heard it before and really liked it! It was pretty, yet rockin' at the same time.




Then, driving home later this afternoon, I heard the latest by Shinedown called "Diamond Eyes." Apparently this song was released last summer and was on The Expendables soundtrack - it wouldn't surprise me if it's also on Shinedown's next album as it doesn't seem to appear on any of their previous albums.

Forget Lennon, RIP Dimebag Darrell

December 8...

Many people on Facebook seem to be remembering today as the day John Lennon died.

For me and those into rock and metal, we all know it as the date "Dimebag" Darrell Abbott was murdered.

Who is "Dimebag" Darrell?

Well, he's probably most famous for being the guitarist for Pantera and a huge influence when it came to the world of rock and metal. After Pantera broke up, "Dimebag" and his brother Vinnie Paul continued to rock with their band Damageplan who had a stop in my hometown just months prior to his death.

From Wiki:

On December 8, 2004, Abbott was shot onstage while performing with Damageplan at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio.

The gunman was Nathan Gale, who shot Abbott six times, including four times in the head, killing him instantly. Gale then continued shooting, killing four others and wounding a further seven. Gale fired a total of fifteen shots, stopping to reload once and remaining silent throughout the shooting.

Jeff "Mayhem" Thompson, the band's head of security, was killed tackling Gale, as was Alrosa Villa employee Erin Halk. Audience member Nathan Bray was killed while trying to perform CPR on Dimebag and Mayhem. It was rumored that one crowd member leaped in front of the gunman, saving the lives of several band members. Damageplan drum technician, John "Kat" Brooks, was shot three times as he attempted to get the gun away from Gale, but was overpowered and taken hostage in a headlock position. Tour manager Chris Paluska was also injured.

Seven police officers came in the front entrance, led by Officer Rick Crum, and moved toward the stage. Officer James D. Niggemeyer came in through the back door, behind the stage. Gale only saw the officers in front of the stage; he never saw Officer Niggemeyer, who was armed with a 12 gauge Remington 870 shotgun. He approached Gale from the opposite side of the stage to avoid hitting the hostage and fired a single shot, striking Gale in the face with eight of the nine buckshot pellets. Gale was found to have had 35 rounds of ammunition remaining.

Can you imagine being at a show and having something like this happen? And poor Vinnie - he was just feet away from his brother when he was murdered - can you imagine the horror?

From what I know, I believe this is the only time a musican has been murdered like this by a crazed fan onstage during a show. While there are theories as to why Gale went on his shooting spree, no one knows for sure why he did it.

Dimebag's death was a huge loss to the metal and rock world, as well as the music world as he was quite the guitarist and a huge influence. He was only 38.

I was in college at the time, however I remember I was at my ex's parents house that weekend, sleeping in his sister's room and falling asleep to the TV in there. The early morning news came on and I remember them reporting on this, as it had just happened hours prior.

RIP "Dimebag" Darrell - you won't be forgotten!

Music Shuffle Monday 11.15.10

1. "Thoughtless (aka Tear Me Down)" by Korn

For some reason on my iPod the title of this song comes up as "Floyd" - not sure what the deal is with that even though I've always known that wasn't the correct name of the track. This song is off Korn's 2002 album "Untouchables" which was released just after I finished high school. I've never bought a Korn album but like many other bands, I like the singles I've heard on the radio throughout the years. It's a pretty heavy track and I remember hearing this album got pretty good reviews as well.

2. "Tera-Fied" by Static-X

This off their "for the fans" album Cult of Static, however as previously mentioned regarding songs on this album, several tracks on this album seem to showcase Wayne Static's new wife (28-year old retired porn star Tera Wray). This track not only uses her first name in the title, but she also contributes to it by doing vocals at the beginning. Friends that caught Static-X on their last big tour stated that this was one of the songs that she also dances around on stage to. Like typical Static-X, this song has a bit of a trance feel to it.

3. "Do Unto Others" by Mindless Self Indulgence

These guys have a huge discography of songs - many of which I haven't even listened to yet, so that's why they seem to keep popping up on here. This song has a bit of an 80s feel to it, as at first I thought it was an 80 band, similar to that of  Orgy's cover of New Order's "Blue Monday" or early Nine Inch Nails (think late 80s "Pretty Hate Machine" era).

4. "Giants" by Five Iron Frenzy

I loved these guys in high school, as they were a Christian ska band although a lot of their songs were quite random regarding the content (ie: a song about the cast of Different Strokes, a song about Canada, a song about a comb... etc) while others had a more serious message. They were a fun band and I loved rocking out to them. This song has a bit of a They Might Be Giants feel to it near the beginning. According to Wiki, in this song, singer Reese Roper references Adam Smiths' The Wealth of Nations to continue his general attacks on big business and Social Darwinism. Food for thought, right?

5. "Stockholm Syndrome" by Muse

This is off their Absolution album and is another typical Muse track. As mentioned, I was introduced to Muse during my late college years while working at the theater. They have a driving beat with their guitars, the vocals are a bit melodic and they make for good background or "zone out" music.

Music Shuffle Monday 11.08.10

1. "Vermillion" by Slipknot
This song goes back aways, as it's off their album "Vol. 3 (The Subliminal Verses)" which was out back when I was in high school. As mentioned previously, I'm not really a huge Slipknot song but I do like most of their songs that I've heard on the radio, I just don't have a desire to rush out and get any of their albums. I do find the multiple drummer thing they got going on to be pretty neat though!

2. "Anything Right" by P.O.D. with Christian from Blindside
This is off "Satellite" - P.O.D.'s follow-up to their breakthrough album "The Fundamental Elements of Southtown." It's typical P.O.D. and while I had both albums mentioned, I only really liked a handful of tracks on them. This song combines many different elements - strings for a bit of a melodic feel and then it's got the bass and guitars bringing in the metal and a little bit of screaming as well. It's an interesting mix!

3. "Sexyback/Thunderstruck"
This is a mash-up of Justin Timberlake's "Sexyback" with AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" and it's actually a pretty good mash-up as it flows really well together! My buddy at the movie theater had this one and a few others that he got me copies of as they were all pretty good. Hubby's not much for Justin Timberlake but he did seem to enjoy this mix when it came up on the iPod during our drive down to Dallas a few weeks ago.

4. "With Arms Wide Open" by Creed
Ah Creed... these guys were HUGE when I was in high school - this album ("Human Clay") particularly! While this track isn't one of my favorites, it did grow on me as it has a meaning and story behind it. Singer Scott Stapp wrote it when he found out he was going to be a daddy so it's a song to his unborn child which is pretty sweet.

5. "Rainbow in the Dark" by Dio
RIP Dio! For those that forgot, metal legend Ronnie James Dio, most known for his major hit "Holy Diver," lost his battle with stomach cancer and passed away last May. While I admitted before, other than "Holy Diver" I'm not that familiar with a lot of his songs, this is another great song by Dio that they also still play on the radio - if you listen to any rock/metal stations that still play older stuff you've most likely heard this one before.