thanks!

Good Afternoon, everybody.

I figured I'd do a quick post now that finals are over and say thanks for making this class awesome.

I'll actually probably keep posting here, partly because I like doing so and partly because it gives me something to do when I get bored.

Have a great summer!
-Sam

Glenn Beck Needs to Shut Up When It Comes to Music

Glenn Beck apparently stays up at night worrying that our nation is hopeless against that "horror show" Glee.

Granted, I despise Glee as well. But for different reasons. Beck says it lacks moral values and that the entire show is "propaganda," particularly their version of the My Chemical Romance song "Sing," which begs the people who watch the show/listen to the song.

"It's an anthem saying 'Join us'. How can you and I possibly win against that?"

What is there to win against? Yes, Glee does have some pretty non-conservative plot lines. A pregnant high schooler, an openly gay couple, divorced parents, premarital sex. But is it really propaganda?

Propaganda, as defined by Webster's Dictionary, is chiefly derogatory information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view.

So is Glee propaganda? Eh, not really. Maybe it's propaganda for equality, but I don't see what Beck is getting at. Gerard Way, the singer from My Chemical Romance, has responded to Beck's claim with this:

"I think the word Glenn Beck was looking for was 'subversion' not 'propaganda', because I don't know what it would be considered propaganda for truth? I can't tell what he's angrier about - the fact that it's how I feel about the persistent sterilization of our culture or the fact that it's on network television for everyone to hear."

Not surprisingly, this isn't the first time Beck has taken a song and decided what it was about: he labeled Muse's performance at the Grammy's of their song "Uprising" as a "call for revolution" as well as expressing his love for the band back in '09. They proceeded to ask him to retract his comments about the band, as they don't approve of his general opinion.

Cover Songs, My Conundrum.

This is a video of Miley Cyrus covering "Smells Like Teen Spirit," the Nirvana classic that arguably changed everything about the music industry.

Sweet Jesus, is this even legal?

Ok, that might be a little harsh. Now, instead of complaining about her covering this, I'm going to do something a little bit unlike my usual blogging self and play devil's advocate.

I think Cobain would love this shit. Here's why:

Cobain knew he wrote a couple of pop songs (including this one) and, as far as I know, didn't have any pretentions or delusions about it. He was ok with it- hey, it's a great hook. Who wouldn't be happy with a hook as great as this one? Miley's got some pretty catchy hooks as well ("Party In the USA," anyone?). Cobain knew how to sell a song, just as I'm sure Miley does by now. I mean, c'mon- she's 18 years old and has sold just as many (if not more?) records as Cobain.

Plus, Miley's dad, Billy Ray Cyrus, managed to do with one song ("Achy Breaky Heart") what Cobain was trying to do with several albums- piss off the entire world.

I also have to mention that Cobain loved the song "Achy Breaky Heart," Miley's dad's only real claim to fame. Apparently, in fact, Cobain and Cyrus were pretty good friends. They hung out and bonded over their young daughters, who played together as children.

This begs the question: are there songs that are "taboo" to cover? As a musician, I say yes. Some songs are absolutely brilliant and should be "untouchable." I feel this way about a large portion of the Lennon/McCartney songbook as well as songs like "Seven Nation Army" and "Smoke On The Water," or pretty much anything by AC/DC (sorry, there's no lightning bolt key on my computer). These songs are all either classics or completely overdone, or both.

But as an avid music listener, I think you should be able to cover pretty much anything you want. Take Franz Ferdinand's new "Covers EP," which they released for Record Store Day. They had released covers by LCD Soundsystem, Britney Spears, and Blondie as b-sides to records, so they just released this EP full of several artists (including LCD Soundsystem and Debbie Harry of Blondie) doing renditions of Franz tunes. I think it's cool to do cover songs as long as you do a good job with it. Unfortunately a lot of people don't get exposed to cover songs and whatnot unless it's a shitty version on American Idol or America's Got Talent or something.

Granted, this could be looked at by Adorno as the problem with pop music- simply rehashing the same songs, over and over again. So how do you make it different?

Well, you make it different. You create something new out of something old. You change the song just enough in order to make it yours, but not enough to make an entirely new piece of material (because, well, it's not making something entirely new, you're using someone else's ideas and changing them a bit).

So I'm a little stuck in the middle here (ha, band humor).

CAKE: Not Just a Delicious Dessert

So, if you've never heard of CAKE, you really need to.

CAKE was one of the first independent bands to start getting noticed, mainly after their self-release of first single "Rock 'n' Roll Lifestyle" (watch that video, too. It's equally great), which described the original hipster. They've stuck around with consistently great albums, with their newest, January's Showroom of Compassion, becoming their first-ever Number 1 album on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. Their combo of twangy, country-like guitars, dancey bass and drums, trumpet, synths, John McCrea's almost monotonic voice, and a ton of vibraslap creates one of the most original and defining sounds in music right now, as well as over the past two decades.

Why am I posting about CAKE (it's supposed to be all caps, I swear I'm not just doing t

hat just to annoy you/yell at you)? Because I follow CAKE on twitter (@CAKEMUSIC).

But why does it matter if I follow them on twitter? Well, that's easy. CAKE is one of the only bands that I follow that doesn't use their twitter just to promote themselves- they use it to promote causes they like, as well as an outlet for the political opinions of the band members. Trumpeter/keyboard player/percussionist Vince Di Fiore is in charge of

posting, and he posts everything from articles like this one about the distribution of wealth in the

United States to a petition for cleaner air in Texas, all while dousing everything in the sarcasm that listeners have always been able to pick out of CAKE's

songs.

CAKE is also very environmentally friendly. For Showroom of Compassion, the band outfitted their home studio with solar panels and recorded using only solar energy. Keeping with the environmentally friendly theme, CAKE printed all of the packaging for Showroom on recycled paper products with vegetable dyes.

So, that's CAKE. I suggest acquiring their music if you don't already own it, and I promise you won't be disappointed.

Rock & Roll and the Government Shutdown

Well, crisis averted, I suppose. The government shutdown didn't happen due to some late-night proceedings (which still have yet to be released...) on Friday night, and now thousands of government workers will continue to get paid and the we're still in massive debt.

I was alerted to this video by Ben Swank's Twitter, @VietnamSummer, on Friday. Me being a self-professed White Stripes super-fan, I kind of freaked out. Here's the video:

I had never thought of "Effect & Cause" as being a protest song, more of just a song about a relationship with some problems. But Congresswoman Donna Edwards makes me realize that it can really be put into practically any context- "you can't take the effect & make it the cause."

The New Grammys

So, as well all know, the Grammys kind of suck nowadays.

Seriously, though. The show is far too long, there's way too many awards, and the awards have pretty much become a joke. Essentially, winning a Grammy nowadays doesn't really mean a whole lot- it just points out that, yes, your music was popular last year and yes, you made a lot of money off of it. That's why it was such a huge surprise that Arcade Fire won album of the year this year- they're on a small label (Merge), and although they were a pretty big act last year, headlining festivals and the like, they definitely didn't sell anywhere near as many records as Katy Perry or Lady Gaga, their big-name contenders for Album of the Year (some people still have no idea who Arcade Fire is). Most years, the "album of the year" Grammy goes to whoever sat on top of the charts for the longest amount of time that year.

So the Grammys are undergoing a "radical change" this year. They organizers are cutting 31 categories, cutting the awards from 109 to 78, with many categories being merged and several being cut completely. The main goal is for the ceremony to go "gender blind"- there will no longer be "Best Female Pop Vocal" and "Best Male Pop Vocal" awards, just "Best Pop Vocal." They are also starting with 40 contenders per award now instead of 25. Grammy President Neil Portnow says that these radical changes are a way to "up the game for what it means to win a Grammy."

Some people are up in arms about this. "Oh, that's not fair! There has to be different categories for male and female singers!" Well, not necessarily. A good singer is a good singer- it really doesn't matter what gender you are. Why not have just one award? It makes things easier and really does make it mean more when you win one of these awards. The Grammys used to be a really big deal- now they're almost laughed at.

Another big change is the dropping of several categories, like Best Zydeco and Best Hawaiian album are gone (they were actually the most recent additions, too), having been consolidated with a couple of other awards into "Best Regional Roots Album."

Is it wrong to consolidate all of these genres into one category? It depends on how you look at it, really, and I'm not really sure if I agree with all of this or not. The male/female thing is totally fine in my opinion- I've actually thought they should consolidate those awards for quite some time. But getting rid of entire genre categories is a different story.

Let me know what you think of all of this in the comments, I'd love to have a discussion about this.

This Is Just Disheartening, or The Joys of Record Store Day

Just when I thought things were going to start getting better in the music industry, this happens.

Mercury, a music label in the UK, is stopping the physical release of vinyl singles in the coming months (real meaning: anything that hasn't already been made/planned won't be released as a vinyl single). Apparently, physical singles count for less than 1% of all single sales weekly, with digital sales being the obvious main source of all of those millions of sales. Unfortunately for music fans in the UK, this means that artists like Arcade Fire, The Killers, and U2 will no longer be able to release vinyl singles, save for "rare occasions." Which sucks, because that pretty much means no more cool b-sides.

I'm assuming that those "rare occasions" will probably be the most wonderful day of the year. No, I'm not talking about Friday or Christmas (please watch the video that's linked, it's honestly one of the best mashups I've ever heard). I'm talking about Record Store Day (which might as well be christmas for a music geek like myself), and it's coming up on April 16th.

Record Store Day was conceived in 2007 and is quickly becoming a really big deal in the industry. Tons of artists release limited edition 7", 10", and 12" inch vinyl that is exclusively sold at independent music stores. This years releases range from a new single by The Flaming Lips to a re-release of Nirvana's "Hormoaning" EP. (You can see the full list of releases here.) Most independent music stores have huge events planned for the day, often involving live music and DJ sets, giveaways, etc. Last year, my brother and I got tons of cool stuff- a Them Crooked Vultures 10" picture disc, a pink Phoenix single, the Dessert Sessions on Vinyl, a Black Keys 12" single, a Queens of the Stone Age EP 10" picture disc, and more.

Record Store Day is what the industry needs, but every single day instead of the second Saturday in April. And not only because vinyl just sounds so much better, but because it's tangible. It proves you bought something, that you supported an artist, that you love what you've just spend a decent money on (because believe me, it's an addiction...our total last year ended up coming out to just short of $100 bucks). Plus, everything's special. Most of the releases are extremely limited- often only having a total release of 1000 copies (some are less limited with 5000 or 10,000 copies).

So, even though the bastards at Mercury aren't going to put out physical singles anymore, supporting record stores has actually never been easier. So go out on April 16th! I promise you'll come away with something incredible.