hulu.com is one of the greatest sites i've been introduced to in awhile. while they don't have all the tv shows one might want, they have a heck of a lot of good ones. they have all of nbc's late night talk shows (which are clearly the best), lots of great sitcoms (all three seasons of arrested development, always the most current office and 30 rock episodes, etc.), and even full movies. there aren't loads but they are free.
i just finished watching a documentary called before the music dies. it discusses the current state of american music and the american music industry. included are interviews with lots of musicians, including ?uestlove, erykah badu, doyle bramhall ii, bonnie raitt, branford marsalis, eric clapton, dave matthews, and others, and also some industry insiders, including music critics, a&r personnel, label execs, etc. if there is something i love, it is listening to real musicians talk about music. these people are people who know what they are talking about it because they live it. this is their niche, whether they are musicians or critics or labelmen. some really interesting thoughts about where our music is currently and where it's come from and hopefully where it is going.
it's about an hour and a half, so if you've got the time, please watch it. just go here. it's a fascinating documentary about the unraveling of the music industry and its intense commercialization in the last ten to twenty years. i can tell that something is communicating its ideas well when i actually want to turn it off so i can listen to good music. about halfway through i paused the movie and listened to a few tracks off bob dylan's the times they are a changin'. this got me excited to work harder, or at least be more intentional in my music listening, and making sure my time is put towards real pieces of art.
and come on. the opening segment of the movie is just one of the most incredible performances by anybody i've ever seen. look at how that man dances!
-jon
Thursday, March 19, 2009
spring break '09 and not a single free day to do what i want.
i have all these great ideas about things to write about. i write the ideas down, then i never get to expanding on them. i'm giving you a list of my most recent thoughts so i will have more of a push to actually write them.
1. recap of my first gig.
2. track by track review of eric clapton's reptile.
3. why i think snl kind of sucks lately (i know it sounds like i'm jumping on a bandwagon that's been rollin' along for almost a decade now but i've got some legit thoughts about it, let me explain myself.)
4. conan o'brien. this one might not show up for awhile cause i might just turn this into a Top 5 Comedians type of blog. we'll see.
and then a quick little one i'm about to jot down and post. brb.
-jon
1. recap of my first gig.
2. track by track review of eric clapton's reptile.
3. why i think snl kind of sucks lately (i know it sounds like i'm jumping on a bandwagon that's been rollin' along for almost a decade now but i've got some legit thoughts about it, let me explain myself.)
4. conan o'brien. this one might not show up for awhile cause i might just turn this into a Top 5 Comedians type of blog. we'll see.
and then a quick little one i'm about to jot down and post. brb.
-jon
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
the debut of the immortal string trio.
get a load of this.
this is on the official website of a local bar called the hub. i am playing there tomorrow night with two local performers slash friends, eli and bruce. eli is in a band called the barefoot compadres and they've played together for awhile and they are awesome. lots of college-y type covers, but the good ones. no crash or banana pancakes here. stuff like oar, old crow medicine show, amos lee, etc. and bruce plays all over the place, here in cedar falls, cedar rapids, and last time we practiced he was telling me about a gig he had just done in des moines. he plays mainly solo but also duos with eli occasionally. and he sounds like chris cornell. it's incredible. actually both of them have killer voices, eli fronts barefoot compadres and sounds like a mix of everybody he sings, so when they sing together it's a great blend. awesome harmony.
so a few weeks ago eli and i are out with some friends and he asks if i want to come and jam with him and bruce the next day and the next day comes and we jam, bruce teaches us a new song that he wants to start playing and then they ask me to play with them for this gig. yikes. i feel like the little brother tagging along with a brother and his cool friend. these two guys play all the time around town and even in other towns, and when i play i'm usually sitting on my bed in front of my computer playing along with itunes, not in front of real people who are drinking real drinks and listening and watching me play. i'm mortified.
i think it'll be fun though. the two or three times the three of us have met and played our set we gel really well and sound pretty good if i can say that. we play a mix of the stuff the two of them play, folksy acoustic rock type of stuff. nothing flashbang but fun to sit and drink to and even more fun to stand and play. i'm looking forward to it. if at least just to get a real gig under my belt and not be so nervous next time. should be fun though. if you're around, come check it out. the hub, wednesday night around 9.
-jon
p.s. i had no input whatsoever into what was put onto the hub's website, especially concerning me. i actually have no idea who wrote that. just wanted to clear any doubt.
so a few weeks ago eli and i are out with some friends and he asks if i want to come and jam with him and bruce the next day and the next day comes and we jam, bruce teaches us a new song that he wants to start playing and then they ask me to play with them for this gig. yikes. i feel like the little brother tagging along with a brother and his cool friend. these two guys play all the time around town and even in other towns, and when i play i'm usually sitting on my bed in front of my computer playing along with itunes, not in front of real people who are drinking real drinks and listening and watching me play. i'm mortified.
i think it'll be fun though. the two or three times the three of us have met and played our set we gel really well and sound pretty good if i can say that. we play a mix of the stuff the two of them play, folksy acoustic rock type of stuff. nothing flashbang but fun to sit and drink to and even more fun to stand and play. i'm looking forward to it. if at least just to get a real gig under my belt and not be so nervous next time. should be fun though. if you're around, come check it out. the hub, wednesday night around 9.
-jon
p.s. i had no input whatsoever into what was put onto the hub's website, especially concerning me. i actually have no idea who wrote that. just wanted to clear any doubt.
Friday, February 13, 2009
303,000 results? really?
go to google.com. type in, but don't search for, the phrase "i am extremely". see what the last google suggestion is.
-jon
p.s. found at failblog.org
-jon
p.s. found at failblog.org
Monday, February 9, 2009
the grammys.
disclaimer: as my roommates and i do not pay for or have access to cable television, or any television for that matter, i was not able to watch the grammys. everything i know of last night's award show is hearsay from the internet.
let's start with the positive. or the dark cloud with a silver lining. quite a back story here. chris brown and rihanna were both scheduled to perform at the grammys. before the awards show, chris brown turned himself into the police for reports of alleged assault, so he pulls out of the show. rihanna, for reasons unknown, also pulls out of the show. there is a lot of speculation as to whether rihanna is the victim of the alleged assault. regardless, instead of having their performances, the grammys threw together one of my dream-come-true performances.
let's stay together - jt and al green.
skip the first minute. jt is horrible when he isn't singing, acting, dancing, or doing anything that involves more than just plain talking. this is so great. back when it was first announced that al green was doing an album with ?uestlove, i read a story from mtv that said justin timberlake was in talks to guest on the album or at least had made it clear he wanted to guest. for some reason it never happened, which is i guess good because the album is incredible without him, but this performance is really good too. the one thing that really would've made it just stellar would've been john mayer on guitar rather than keith urban. cool dude, you're good at guitar but you are a country artist. john mayer transcends genre, and that's why he's great. but still this is an awesome performance.
super great performance number two: lost? - chris martin, jay-z.
chris martin is such a so-so performer to me, at least voice-wise. he can't really hit his falcetto notes. his bouncing around the stage is sort of weird too. but for some reason i still really like him. and going into viva la vida is awesome, what a grand song for a band to play. i absolutely love seeing drummer will champion banging away on that bell. and their background vocals are super great. so coldplay rocks.
great performance number three: b.b. king, buddy guy, keith urban, and john mayer in a tribute to bo diddley.
notice it's only great, not super great. it's a cool line-up of old/new musicians, but it's sort of a ho-hum performance with nothing really special to write home about. plus it's really short.
worst juxtaposition of artists performance: burnin' up/superstition - stevie wonder and the jonas brothers.
i'm sorry, did you just say the jonas brothers? yeah, so they might be the new face of pop music, but come on. these guys in no way have the chops to be put next to stevie wonder, living legend of r&b, soul, pop, jazz, funk, or whatever other genre you could attach to him. the man is an incredible artist, and he is stuck playing "burnin' up" alongside two crappy guitarists and some iffy vocalists. what happens to nick, who is supposed to be the good singer in the group, when he first starts his verse of superstition? and kevin and nick both playing guitar...it's a bummer to me that in our culture, showmanship is favored over actual talent. you might not be able to play your instrument very well, but if you are a natural born performer, than you will probably be famous. shame. and joe needs to stop trying to growl when he sings. it's not happening buddy.
hip-hop performance of the night: swagger like us - m.i.a., jay-z, kanye, t.i., lil wayne
this is ok. m.i.a. is incredibly fat. jay-z clearly has the most class of any of them. kanye, since when did mullets become fashionable again? t.i. kind of just sucks. and lil wayne, my goodness i do not understand what the appeal of this guy is. he won some grammys last night, thank goodness he didn't win the big one, album of the year. granted i haven't heard his universally-hailed album tha carter III, but what i have heard is just bad. awful beats, like painful to listen to. i do not get why he is so freakin' popular.
so those were the performances i saw. there was one little "bombshell" dropped by some presenters. blink-182 is reforming. an ellipse is really the only way i can communicate my emotion for news. blink sucks. they are basically responsible for making that crappy pop-punk garbage that infests the radio nowadays phenomenally popular. but i mean come on, who doesn't love a band who releases albums such as enema of the state and take off your pants and jacket? and honestly, who can forget their cameo (the mere fact that it's a cameo just makes me fandom soar) in the classic coming-of-age movie american pie? HORRIBLE. all the way around they are a terrible band who should not make any more music or try to be relevant at all. in any way.
ok as far the winners of the grammy awards go, i was generally fine with it, with a few exceptions.
1. jennifer hudson won for best r&b album. without a doubt, this should've gone to al green for lay it down, by far the BEST r&b, and nearly the best of any genre, album released in 2008.
2. raising sand and songs from it won record of the year, album of the year, and best pop collaboration with vocals, among other awards. now i get that this is a really good album. i've listened to it, and it was ok. i didn't fall in love with it. it's got a very distinct sound that i am surprised has garnered so much acclaim. but record AND album of the year? no way, especially when you look at both of those lists: coldplay, adele, radiohead. there was so much good music that probably should've won. and best pop collaboration with vocals should've absolutely gone to alicia keys and john mayer for lesson learned. i think i've written about this song before, how it is one of the most gorgeous pieces of music i've ever heard in my life. robert plant and alison krauss sound good together, but alicia and john KILLED it with that song. such a bummer. my biggest beef with raising sand winning so much, and are you ready for the bombshell here? IT WASN'T EVEN RELEASED IN 2008! it was released october 2007! and it won the grammy for best pop collaboration with vocals LAST YEAR! it's ridiculous. how is that even allowed? upsetting.
while i was displeased with those awards, i was EXTREMELY pleased when i found out daft punk had won for best dance recording AND best electronic/dance album, with around the world / harder, better, faster, stronger and alive 2007, respectively. SO deserving. that album is awesome.
so all in all, a pretty good show (i think, since i didn't really watch it). let's hope the oscars aren't any worse.
-jon
let's start with the positive. or the dark cloud with a silver lining. quite a back story here. chris brown and rihanna were both scheduled to perform at the grammys. before the awards show, chris brown turned himself into the police for reports of alleged assault, so he pulls out of the show. rihanna, for reasons unknown, also pulls out of the show. there is a lot of speculation as to whether rihanna is the victim of the alleged assault. regardless, instead of having their performances, the grammys threw together one of my dream-come-true performances.
let's stay together - jt and al green.
skip the first minute. jt is horrible when he isn't singing, acting, dancing, or doing anything that involves more than just plain talking. this is so great. back when it was first announced that al green was doing an album with ?uestlove, i read a story from mtv that said justin timberlake was in talks to guest on the album or at least had made it clear he wanted to guest. for some reason it never happened, which is i guess good because the album is incredible without him, but this performance is really good too. the one thing that really would've made it just stellar would've been john mayer on guitar rather than keith urban. cool dude, you're good at guitar but you are a country artist. john mayer transcends genre, and that's why he's great. but still this is an awesome performance.
super great performance number two: lost? - chris martin, jay-z.
chris martin is such a so-so performer to me, at least voice-wise. he can't really hit his falcetto notes. his bouncing around the stage is sort of weird too. but for some reason i still really like him. and going into viva la vida is awesome, what a grand song for a band to play. i absolutely love seeing drummer will champion banging away on that bell. and their background vocals are super great. so coldplay rocks.
great performance number three: b.b. king, buddy guy, keith urban, and john mayer in a tribute to bo diddley.
notice it's only great, not super great. it's a cool line-up of old/new musicians, but it's sort of a ho-hum performance with nothing really special to write home about. plus it's really short.
worst juxtaposition of artists performance: burnin' up/superstition - stevie wonder and the jonas brothers.
i'm sorry, did you just say the jonas brothers? yeah, so they might be the new face of pop music, but come on. these guys in no way have the chops to be put next to stevie wonder, living legend of r&b, soul, pop, jazz, funk, or whatever other genre you could attach to him. the man is an incredible artist, and he is stuck playing "burnin' up" alongside two crappy guitarists and some iffy vocalists. what happens to nick, who is supposed to be the good singer in the group, when he first starts his verse of superstition? and kevin and nick both playing guitar...it's a bummer to me that in our culture, showmanship is favored over actual talent. you might not be able to play your instrument very well, but if you are a natural born performer, than you will probably be famous. shame. and joe needs to stop trying to growl when he sings. it's not happening buddy.
hip-hop performance of the night: swagger like us - m.i.a., jay-z, kanye, t.i., lil wayne
this is ok. m.i.a. is incredibly fat. jay-z clearly has the most class of any of them. kanye, since when did mullets become fashionable again? t.i. kind of just sucks. and lil wayne, my goodness i do not understand what the appeal of this guy is. he won some grammys last night, thank goodness he didn't win the big one, album of the year. granted i haven't heard his universally-hailed album tha carter III, but what i have heard is just bad. awful beats, like painful to listen to. i do not get why he is so freakin' popular.
so those were the performances i saw. there was one little "bombshell" dropped by some presenters. blink-182 is reforming. an ellipse is really the only way i can communicate my emotion for news. blink sucks. they are basically responsible for making that crappy pop-punk garbage that infests the radio nowadays phenomenally popular. but i mean come on, who doesn't love a band who releases albums such as enema of the state and take off your pants and jacket? and honestly, who can forget their cameo (the mere fact that it's a cameo just makes me fandom soar) in the classic coming-of-age movie american pie? HORRIBLE. all the way around they are a terrible band who should not make any more music or try to be relevant at all. in any way.
ok as far the winners of the grammy awards go, i was generally fine with it, with a few exceptions.
1. jennifer hudson won for best r&b album. without a doubt, this should've gone to al green for lay it down, by far the BEST r&b, and nearly the best of any genre, album released in 2008.
2. raising sand and songs from it won record of the year, album of the year, and best pop collaboration with vocals, among other awards. now i get that this is a really good album. i've listened to it, and it was ok. i didn't fall in love with it. it's got a very distinct sound that i am surprised has garnered so much acclaim. but record AND album of the year? no way, especially when you look at both of those lists: coldplay, adele, radiohead. there was so much good music that probably should've won. and best pop collaboration with vocals should've absolutely gone to alicia keys and john mayer for lesson learned. i think i've written about this song before, how it is one of the most gorgeous pieces of music i've ever heard in my life. robert plant and alison krauss sound good together, but alicia and john KILLED it with that song. such a bummer. my biggest beef with raising sand winning so much, and are you ready for the bombshell here? IT WASN'T EVEN RELEASED IN 2008! it was released october 2007! and it won the grammy for best pop collaboration with vocals LAST YEAR! it's ridiculous. how is that even allowed? upsetting.
while i was displeased with those awards, i was EXTREMELY pleased when i found out daft punk had won for best dance recording AND best electronic/dance album, with around the world / harder, better, faster, stronger and alive 2007, respectively. SO deserving. that album is awesome.
so all in all, a pretty good show (i think, since i didn't really watch it). let's hope the oscars aren't any worse.
-jon
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
i'm glad lotr made the list.
this is the side of the kansas city public library parking lot.
well done kansas city. you just sealed the deal with this. if i ever live in a big city, it's kc without a doubt. absolutely inspired. I LOVE LIBRARIES.
-jon
well done kansas city. you just sealed the deal with this. if i ever live in a big city, it's kc without a doubt. absolutely inspired. I LOVE LIBRARIES.
-jon
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
the bird and the bee.
what a performance. i saw them on leno about three years ago and thought the song they did was really cool but i never followed up with them. and then they come back with this. what an enormous sound. the whole album is great, and this performance is just so artsy i feel guilty for liking it. love those dresses. and man is the singer pretty.
superb album.
-jon
superb album.
-jon
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