Rating My CD's: A Boy Named John

12. Johnny Cash -- The Legend Box Set

In a lot of ways, Johnny Cash was just like Elvis. Both were sons of the Mississippi Delta; both grew up poor as dirt; both wandered in to Sun Records in Memphis in the middle of the 1950's hungry and talented; both achieved international fame and became legends in their own time. Up until 1968 or so, their career arcs show suprising similarity.


After that, they break apart to an almost perpendicular degree. The King's '68 Comeback ended up not re-vitalizing Elvis' career so much as eulogizing it nine years ahead of time. He sank down into drugs and debauchery and became just another sacrifice offered on the altar of Fame, apotheosized in mystic sightings and velvet portraits. Only now, 30 years after his death, are the cognoscenti prepared to take him seriously again.

Talking Back to Punk Rock #5

"So, are you in favor of sex and violence, or opposed? Because the repetition of that lyric over and over again, it leaves room for either interpretation, friend."

-The Exploited, "Sex and Violence"

No Matter How Many Times I See It....

...I never get tired of watching the South Park Goth Kids burn down the Hot Topic. I like it so much, it almost makes me want to listen to Goth music. But that's a genre, aside from some Misfits and Joy Division discs, that I haven't really checked out (and I don't think they count).

On the other hand, sensitive rebels...

Spin Pisses Everyone Off

I won't make you wade through their list-by-numbers of the most 125 best records of the last 25 years. It's every record you'd expect to be there. The link goes directly to the No. 1. The commenters all hate it. It's designed to be annoying. Indeed, that's how these list consider themselves successful. If they'd just put Kid A or OK Computer in the top slot, like they'd really like to, no one would care. But if the list "starts a conversation" (i.e. invites flames from across the internet), then Spin has justified its online budget.

So click if you must. But don't feed the troll.

Talking Back to Punk Rock #4

"No, no, no...you see, if you were a surfer, you'd have a surfboard, not a skateboard. If you were trying to surf with a skateboard, you were more wasted than you realize."

-Black Flag, "Wasted"

An Album A Week is bettter than I can manage...

Here's a link to Album-A-Week Blog, my latest twitter buddy, while I absorb the Johnny Cash Box Set. We've nerded-it up over LCD Soundsystem, and he likes the Pixies:

The lyrics are rough and informal. They, like the music, bounce between stories and statements making the lyrics slightly hard to follow. It doesn't really matter though because they flow with the staccato nature of the music. Their shared lack of unity creates an unexpected cohesiveness.

So do I.

Either Andrew Earle has Re-Discovered his Funny...

...or I've finally read enough of his blog to get it. I mean, the recycled Cracked list of Failed Fast-Food Mascots is funny enough (scroll down to find it), but the Record-Store Day takedown is pretty epic, especially coming from a guy whose entire schtick revolves around being able to direct disdain at 7" records that most of us will never see:

I’m especially jazzed about the History of Maverick Records 18LP box set, the one-sided 10″ by Les Claypool & the Three-Mile Island Prosthetic Antelope Vagina Recovery Group, the set of 4 hot-garbage-colored 7″s by Surface-to-Air Prairie Dog, and the reissue of Photo-Collage & the Senior Projects’ timeless “WTF…My Portfolio Ruptures For You” on freshly-paved parking lot-colored 12″ (one-sided and etched)...

I mean, "Prosthetic Antelope Vagina Recovery Group"? That's just funny.

Guess Who's Still Alive, Part III

Here's who's sitting comfortably in Amazon's Top 25:

• James Taylor and Carol King (Hope she knows how to duck)
• Natalie Merchant (Never have so many bought so much for 10,000 Maniacs)
• The Cast of Glee (four, count 'em, FOUR discs in the top 25. I can't imagine something I'd be less likely to buy)
• The New Pornographers (who rely on close readings of smut, irrespective of authorial intent)
• Melissa Etheridge ("Fearless Love," eh? I wonder what that refers to...)
• The Deftones (Music by 2001. Album Cover by 1986.)
• Toni Braxton (answering the long-asked equation: Whitney Houston - Amy Winehouse + Mariah Carey - Anyone interesting = ? )
• Godsmack (never understood whether God is doing the smacking or being smacked. I suspect both.)
• The Rolling Stones (with an album that was first released in 1972, and is not actually available for another two weeks. Whoever negotiated their deal with the Devil earned a bonus.)
• Sade (Throw it)

Lala Shuts Down

Lala Shuts Down

Weirdly, selling something below cost is not an eternal business model.

"Born Free! What an Original Title!"

What do you do if you're a soon-to-be has-been/never-was international music sensation?

Have you tried shooting a video over your un-interesting music showing U.S. soldiers/cops shooting a ginger kid in the head?

M.I.A. -- We should be so lucky.