As has become regular around here, I wanted to share a tune I heard on the classic rock station today (the BBC version anyway).
Cream - Politician
One of the invaluable functions I have at work, is making flyers for different events. Kind of a fun thing to do because I like browsing through different clip art images (you may have seen them around here before, but it's been a while). One of the many things that may make this site your regular stopping place is my use of recycled clip art. Anyway so I'm making a flyer to celebrate the birthdays of two of the guys I work with, type in "party" and on the first page of images I get this piece of clip art. It's entitled, "woman getting botox injection at a party". The image itself, in that playful clip art way really portrays the grotesque vanity human beings are capable of. Man I fucking love that image, it's almost a story in itself and really could be a topic all by itself. I don't know if you see it but it reminds me of something Nick Blinko would do.
So I'm still looking for "party" images and I run across this image. Love this one too, but it was interesting because it made me think of some topics that have come up here and elsewhere. My old band Garden Weasel and the super successful Green Day. Other than both starting with the letter "G" and playing music you might wonder what those two bands have in common. Well we both played Angelos Pizza in Arcata California in 1991. Ha, my brush with fame. Actually I've brushed elbows with many super stars in my time including the actress who played Nellie Olson on the TV hit "Little House On The Prairie". See what I mean. Now what made that show special was not that we played with Green Day, who were just like us at the time, nothing, but the fact that for Garden Weasel it was the best paying gig we ever had. The owners decide to pay us in beer and pizza. I don't think they realized how much a few of our friends (roadies, ha, ha) could consume. I remember thinking that we must have ingested about $400 worth of beer and pizza. So what the image above is, is a picture of me watching Green
Day. In the picture at left, the manager or owner thought the people there were getting a little to0 crazy, so he made everyone sit down or he was going to stop the show. Now I give Green Day a hard time and maybe a part of that is that they are making a (too) good living doing something they love and I'm jealous. The reality is that they are a damn good pop band and no one can take that away from them. But to this day I can't stand what they stand (stood) for and in hanging out with them I decided, that night, almost 20 years ago, that had they stuck around the pizza parlor for very long I would have puked on them and all the little idiots that followed them around. I read this at one site, "punk just wouldn't have been the same without Green Day. The band brought back punk in a big way, laying the groundwork for many pop-punk bands to follow". As penance for my envy I thought I'd share some of their tunes with you.
1000 Hours - (their 1st EP)
An Operation Ivy cover, that I don't really dig. If you want the best that Lookout Records had to offer, forget Green Day, and think about Op Ivy or Filth (period)...
Knowledge
I've been threatening/promising this one for a while. I did the Armenian folk thing a while back, Rendevous In Armenia. Basically this was the shit that got played at this club my mom and her friends went in LA on Temple St. called the Intersection. Mediteranean type stuff with music, food and dancing. Must have heard this stuff in utero because I can feel it in my bones, even though I have no idea what they're singing about. Actually maybe a little bit, it seems somber at least. I sent a rip of this album to my friend Billy at
7" Crust who lives in Greece. He was not amused, but he said that his mom or grandma might dig it. For all I know it could be like listening to country here. Anyway, everything is in Greek so I have no translations of anything on or about this record. The style is demotic and in case you enjoy reading something you're not really into check
this. Anyway I played the clarinet for a semester in junior high school and the horn in this reminds me of the clarinet. Really the lead instrument and if you can appreciate nothing else besides the sadness of the singing at least listen to the horn on track 8, at 23:30 (as a favor to me, ha, ha).
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=semCwN4Vyl8&w=560&h=315]
Well it's Halloween tomorrow and I've been looking around the other music blogs and many have special themed music. Over at Cosmic Hearse, Aesop the guy who runs it, is touring with his bands, but one of his buddies has a sweet Halloween themed comp thing up for your listening pleasure. Here at MR I guess I just couldn't think of anything special, boring old me. Odd because despite the consumer craziness that it represents today, it is my favorite holiday. The old lady really gets into it too and has us buy more and more decorations every year. I'm kind of superstitious myself with my wierd spirtual mix of pan-Native religion, The Gospel of Thomas, Gnosticism and a little Santa Ria thrown in. Everyone should at least read a general breakdown of what Halloweenis about, like the one you can get at my usual source here. Something in the air I think, but those kinds of feelings and superstitions aren't rational so I'll keep my personal beliefs to myself. On the other hand, here in the bible belt you definitely have two factions. There are those that celebrate the consumer oriented, devoid of spirituality, day for children to collect cavities. Then there is the Christian right wing literalists who believe that it is the devils day and that anything associated with Halloween has to do with heretics and evil. They even have Halloween alternative events, candy and games but no scary shit. Funny because even though I disagree with them on so many fronts, I would at least agree with them in that it is a spiritual day and it should not be taken lightly. Booooooo!
Got this picture along with several others of graffiti in various places. Social commentary at it's best, short and sweet. That less is more attitude can say so much more than my drawn out ramblings ever could. Does anyone agree that as some of us get older the "Lies and Bullshit filter" gets more finely tuned?
Was reading comments over at Erich's Good Bad site and ran across a guy who semi-regularly has interesting comments over there. Mr. Poopy. Great sense of humor and it turns out he has a site of his own called, Glorify the Turd. I wonder if Mr. Poopy has an unhealthy obsession with feces. Anyway he's got quite the variety going on over there and if anything it might be good for a laugh or two. Some stuff is posted for it's inherent comedy. He did turn me onto one of the best song titles I've heard in a long time, from a band called Artless. Check that tune 
Was also reading somewhere that there is a difference between redneck and hillbilly. I would agree but it's subtle like the difference between country and western. We have both here, and I would say that for a redneck it would be an insult to call another redneck a hillbilly. I say that as I am slowly morphing myself into a pseudo-redneck maybe even a hillbilly. I will always fall short of a complete transformation though because I don't enjoy hunting, I don't like most country music and I can't stand John Wayne. Even still I do live in the country, have horses, numerous dogs and both running and not running pick ups. What had me scared for a little bit is the change in speech patterns, but I figure it's something you can't stop and it's not so bad. "Y'all" (you all), came pretty quick, but it wasn't long until "Yar" (you are) was in my vocabulary. We'll see what comes next.
This record is one of my most recent scores and actually represents the newest record I have in my collection as it was released in 2009. What makes this a Mustard Relic, other than the fact that both sides of this bad boy kick ass, is that an old friend (that I never actually met), Todd C. is in The Undergroun Railroad To Candyland (URTC). He's the guy that put out the Garden Weasel 7" on his own Recess records way back when. now this thing was limited to only 300 copies so I doubt there are any left, but do yourself a favor and go and see if you can at his store or his site. This was co-released by Rockstar Records, so if you're in Europe you should check with them if you want this. I'm pretty much just going to let the music speak for itself, but I will say you have two very different bands. The Pricks kind of remind me Zeke with that straight forward all out attach. Really dig the singers voice, remind me of someone else but I don't know who. Now both bands are playful, but I would say that URTC is a bit more so. They kind of have more of a surfed out punk thing going on. I don't know I'm not very good with descriptions, I just know I dug the hell out of both sides of this thing. Let me know what you think.
The Pricks
Fuck You Too
5 Dollar Hand Job
I Wish I Could Dance Like Sir Henry Fiat
Don't Rape
Piss On Me I'm On Fire
Cover Up
Short Song
Is This A fucking Date
Pay To Cum
Contan
Sick
Go Home
The Underground Rairoad To Candyland
No Way! Miss U.S.A.!
Age Of Consent
Basty Wolves
Yuppie Hip Hop Ad
Livin' In A Straw (In The Summer Of Fraud)
