Guess who’s back?
Guess who’s back / Back again / Glenn is back / with 2 “n”s!
Yes, I’ve returned, and yes, I happen to spell my name with two “n”s, thankyewverymuch (no thanks to the rest of the world – you become my arch-enemy if you insist on spelling it with only one! 😛 But I digress…). Know what’s been keeping me occupied for the past week or so when I haven’t been very busy?
Recently purchased hi-def tv + the World Series + surround sound = drool
Whaddya know, that TV set is showing a picture of a baseball game as well. How apropos! That helps me to lead in to the first song of this humongous return to posting:
“Talkin’ Baseball”, Terry Cashman [ buy Talkin’ Baseball ]
I originally heard this song at a Baltimore Orioles game during a montage of clips shown up on the jumbotron screen before the game started, and it was themed about the Orioles’ history. I thought that it was just something done just for the montage until I was browsing the iTunes music store for songs and saw a mix of baseball-themed songs just in time for the World Series, and this was one of them. Not the Orioles version, though. I’ve checked all over and can’t find that particular one even though I can find some for different teams. Ah well…
Now, on to our regularly scheduled ROCKTOBER!
Another particular reason why my posting of tracks has been on the back-burner has been the usual schooling that has been going on, and speaking of school, I recommend checking out the movie associated with this next song if you haven’t seen it…
“SCHOOL OF ROCK”, Jack Black & School of Rock [ buy School of Rock ]
“School of Rock” was a pleasant surprise for me – I wasn’t sure if it was going to be good or not, and it wasn’t a bad rental at all. I myself was a little bit worried that the movie would be a sort of feel-good sugar-coated funny-only-to-the-kiddies movie, but it seems that Jack “Mr. ‘I’m hungry for rock 24/7.'” Black wanted to avoid that as well:
“I was a little worried about working with kids. I wanted to make sure we didn’t approach it tip-toeing around the stuff that would normally be funny, or make it gentle, rock-a-bye-baby bullshit.”
So anyway, basic premise of the movie is he sneaks into the job of a schoolteacher when all he knows is music, music, and more music. So what does he do? He teaches the kids about music! It ends up being a kind of modern version of “The Music Man” in the end.
—
Next up, songs from a recent musicbuying splurge:
“GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS”, Mötley Crüe [ buy Girls, Girls, Girls ]
I don’t know what made me think of this song and buy the album, but recently I’ve been on an old-school metal kick and have been listening to a bunch of Van Halen, Motörhead, Twisted Sister, and others like that. I could have sworn that I’ve seen some movie once ages and ages ago that had the music video featured at some part, like some kids were watching it during a sleepover or something? I can’t remember for the life of me what movie that was, but after racking my brain and google searching all over I can’t turn up anything. It’s been driving me crazy trying to remember.
I always wondered what they do for those motorcycle effects in a song like this. I just think of a big ol’ Harley being wheeled into a recording studio just to have a mic hooked to it. Anyway, what makes this a Rocktober post is right after the motorcycle effect at the beginning, that first guitar BLAM at the beginning of the song is what gets me up and rocking.
The next two cds these songs come from I bought just because the album cover was interesting:
Man, is that a sexy looking album cover or what? O:-D Gratituous emoticon use aside, I can’t seem to classify this band under one particular genre. It’s definitely rocking though. It makes me think a little bit like The Hives but a bit more mellow and not as edgy/crazed.
“FUNKY JUNKYARD”
“DREAM GIRL”
“LAVA LAMP”
The Baldwin Brothers
There’s a little bit of backstory to this album – the night I was going out musicshopping I was asking my other friend Dave (not our own Rival Dave) whether or not he’d like to go out searching for music… he was busy that night and couldn’t go. While I was out I saw this album and the guy on the front looked exactly like him so of course I had to buy the album to show to him later. I ended up photoshopping it to have it appear as if he’s saying one of his favorite lines, and the phrase even kind of suits the scene:
Anyway, I’d say that this album is a very good jazzy/loungey album with just enough mixing of tracks in them to keep things interesting. If you’ve heard “The Antidote” by The Wiseguys I’d say that this album is similar in style, but not as sterile-sounding – it’s a bit more earthy and rich in tone, especially with the organ thrown in there. I couldn’t pick out one particular song that really carries the mood of the album, everything seems based from a different genre. I’d call this good man-about-town music to listen to while out driving from errand to errand… at least, that’s what I did when listening to the album, and it worked out well for me!