mostly classic rock ramblings
It’s Keith Moon’s birthday! Celebrate with some adorably mod Who:
I honestly think my favorite drumming of Keith’s is at the very beginning of The Who’s career. Later on, he had his 20-piece kits with double bass drums and toms for days, but in early videos like this he produces practically the same sound with just a 5-piece kit!
One more video. Happy birthday, you crazy loon.
Last week’s Farewell to Candlestick show was one I couldn’t pass up because: 1) whenever Paul McCartney is in town, I HAVE TO SEE HIM; 2) it was the last public event at the ‘Stick before the stadium gets demolished; and 3) the Beatles played the last show of their last tour ever there, so it’s got some pretty great Beatles history behind it.
This marks the 3rd time I’ve seen Sir Paul, all of which have been San Francisco shows. And let me preface this by saying that he is SUPERHUMAN for being able to consistently put on a career-spanning, nearly-3-hour-long show at 72 years old. Like, I can’t even stay standing for that long, much less put on a show in front of 50,000 people. And as if I even have to make this disclaimer, but I am the biggest Beatles fan I know, so I love Paul, I really do.
But that said, it’s funny how every single Macca show I’ve seen (live or online) since 2010 is exactly the same. Some songs were added from New, but other than that, the set list and (sometimes questionable) stage visuals were identical. Also, it’s like Paul has some magic formula of pre-song banter and gestures that he has programmed into his brain, and he’s able to follow the formula word for word, which is actually pretty impressive. I wonder what would happen if something broke the routine, like a fan jumping on the stage or a monster thunderstorm. Would Paul just keep tousling his hair and telling his Jimi Hendrix/Eric Clapton story with a rabid fan around his neck in the soaking rain? Is Paul McCartney actually a robot?
And while he did add in a few nice lines about the venue, I’m not gonna lie: I was kind of hoping there would be some big gimmicks for the ‘Stick’s last show. Haha, I don’t know what that would entail….even more fireworks, perhaps? Ringo coming out and singing “With A Little Help From My Friends”? John and George holograms? I did appreciate Paul deviating from the standard set list to play “Long Tall Sally,” the last song the Beatles played at their Candlestick show. It’s also worth mentioning that I really like the newer songs, especially “New” and “Everybody Out There.” What can I say, despite maybe being an Android, the man can still rock.
On an unrelated note, I have some blog news! I finally finished going through all my old posts, so the broken videos/links should all be fixed (that is, until those YouTube videos get taken down, which will surely happen someday). I also might have deleted a few posts that were just too embarrassing to revisit, like me attempting to talk about politics. Silly 2009 self, that’s not what this blog is about.
Here’s what this blog IS about:
A Random Roundup: Bowie, OK Go, Midcentury Mod, Queen
I’ve been watching entirely too many Queen videos on YouTube this past week, and as a result I’ve had a pretty fun time putting this post together. It also means I’ve made no progress updating the rest of my old posts, but oh well.
Among my YouTube finds was an interview where Freddie was talking about Queen’s music videos, and how he didn’t want a video to alter the listener’s own impression of the song too much, so the band purposely made their videos kind of vague and bizarre—without any clear message—so as not to impose on anyone’s personal image of the song. Inspired by this, I put together a Top 5 Random Queen Music Videos that fit the bill pretty well:
1. It’s A Hard Life – just a really good excuse to dress up
2. We Will Rock You – snowy backyard music video…they look so cold!
3. I Want to Break Free – already mentioned this one in an earlier post but it’s just so perfect
4. I’m Going Slightly Mad – I guess this one actually fits the song, but I like the video regardless
5. The Miracle – kids as Queen = cute, but also weird
Top 5 Roger Taylor Falsettos
Because in addition to being super adorable, his upper vocal range is CRAZY!
1. In the Lap of the Gods
2. ’39 – I am in love with this song btw
3. Bohemian Rhapsody – a cappella version for maximum clarity
4. Somebody to Love – the whole song, sooo good
5. My Fairy King
Top 5 Queen + Sombreros Pictures
Brian, BE HAPPIER ABOUT THAT SOMBRERO. IT LOOKS GREAT ON YOU.
Man, I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to go through a Queen phase. They are such a great band. I’m sure I’ll be back with more soon.
790 miles traveled in 1 day
526 / 9 minutes/hours of Beatles listened to, nonstop
456 Beatles songs on my iPod
at least 5 attempts to obtain the Past Masters albums
10 drum corps watched
8th time seeing OK Go in concert
Thursday. Let me just say that marathoning the 13 U.S. Beatles’ albums in order was probably the best way to spend all day in a car (and the only reason I’ll listen to Revolution #9 in its entirety). It’s hard to listen to the entire Beatles catalog because so many of their singles are not included on the albums…and as mentioned above, it was impossible to stream Past Masters using a phone. But to make up for it, we also listened to plenty of Live at the BBC and Anthologies 1 & 2. I realized during this marathon that Let It Be might actually be my favorite Beatles album??? (the Naked version, that is). The things you learn on the road….
Thursday night, Lauren, Jocelyn, and I reunited at Jocelyn’s apartment in Provo and promptly sat down to catch up on drum corps. The 2014 show that I’ve been hyping all season is Bluecoats’ Tilt (watch the closer and awesome crowd hype/BLOO). Congrats to Bluecoats on their silver medal and to BD for a world record high score! I love this activity so much.
Friday. We spent the day around Provo and the night in Salt Lake City for OK Go! First off, the State Room in SLC is AWESOME: spacious but intimate (especially because OK Go only uses like 1/4 of the stage), and a good mix of seating and standing space. Really cool venue! And the show was one of my favorites of all time. I love all the visual effects on this tour, from the double screens to crazy optical illusions. OK Go puts on a great show. :) My favorite song of the set was “The One Moment,” which they played during the encore. Oh, and listening to the new EP yesterday, I realized that I can’t hear “The Writing’s On the Wall” without envisioning huge bursts of confetti raining down on me, which makes me so, so happy.
I only spent one full day in Utah (seems to be the norm, at least the last 3 times I’ve visited!), but I couldn’t have asked for a better time. Especially reuniting with my favorite OK Go show buddies:
Our first OK Go concert together: San Diego, 2009.
Salt Lake City, 2014.
OK Go fans for life!!
Ok so I haven’t really made this new blog public yet, but since I’ve already referred to it from a few specific outlets, I feel the need to include a small disclaimer:
Although migrating everything from Blogger to WordPress was super easy, a lot of my posts seem to have gone through some sort of bizarro warp zone in the process. Suddenly they’re full of broken images, phantom youtube videos, and all sorts of annoying spacing issues. As a result, I’ve been going through all my old posts fixing each one manually, which has been quite the tedious process. I mean, I know it’s highly unlikely that anyone’s ever going to go back to my Monkees marathons from 2008, but if they do, I want to make sure they can see those youtube videos, ok?!
So while I painstakingly fix lines of HTML and pretend to know what I’m doing, here is something for you to watch/listen to/enjoy:
This is a band called James Rabbit, performing at El Rio in San Francisco. A couple weeks ago they toured with my favorite guys The Spencer Owen Timeshare, and I was lucky enough to see them at both their Berkeley and San Francisco shows. Their live sets are INSANELY fun. Lots of dancing, and improv, and in this case, unintentional glasses-flinging.
I think my favorite song from this set is the “Conversation Through Walls” singalong, but really, they’re all fantastic. They have a new album out, which you can listen to (and buy!) on bandcamp. I’ve been exploring all the other albums on their page too; there’s so much good stuff.
Another goal for this blog is to eventually have a page for some of the pictures I’ve taken (including some from the above show), but that’ll have to come later, once all the nitty-gritty stuff is fixed. In the meantime, maybe stick to the more recent posts on here, and I’ll be back once everything else is up to par.
Bye!
The other night we watched Boyhood, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since.
This movie is extraordinary in that it doesn’t seem like a movie at all. Instead, it feels like Richard Linklater just reached into everyone’s collective childhood, pulled out all these strings of memories (good and bad), and wove them into a beautiful story. Watching Boyhood makes you feel like you’re growing up all over again.
The movie was filmed over 12 years with the same cast, following the growth of a boy, Mason, from adorable first grader to moody teenager to philosophical high school graduate. There were three girls sitting next to me in the theater who would gasp and coo whenever a new stage (read: haircut) of Mason’s life was introduced, and while most of us kept our reactions more subdued, I’m pretty sure we all felt the same sense of amazement that this kid was growing up before our eyes. I could easily see this being an emotional roller coaster for any parents in the audience, haha. On that note, you also get to follow the lives of Mason’s divorced parents, who have really interesting stories of their own, and see how their actions influence his thoughts and decisions. It makes you feel like you know all these people, like you’ve experienced the family trips and birthday parties and homemade dinners along with them.
And that’s it, basically. There’s no complex theme, no crazy plot twists, just an ode to life itself. Obviously that’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but being the sentimental and nostalgic person I am, I thought it was wonderful. I loved reliving simple things about childhood that I’d forgotten about, like saying the pledge of allegiance or having your parents read to you before bed. What’s also amazing is that the director and cast had no idea what was going to happen when they started filming in 2002. Obama ran for president, Harry Potter books were released at midnight, Facebook was created…these things all came about as the project continued, and were included seamlessly into the story. If anything, it’s a really cool time capsule of the years 2002-2014.
If I had to recommend one movie to watch from this year so far, this is it.
Flip the Record 