Killing Your Sacred Cows since 1992

Underground Chinese hip-hop, not state sanctioned...

I'm especially amused by the snippet of fast-mo tai chi toward the end.

Wow, the band North really gives you a lot of music and entertainment for your buck. We saw them in concert last night, and between North and their guests/opening acts, it was almost 3 hours of music. It's too bad the Ark was so damn cold- we would have enjoyed the show better if we'd known we should layer up. But, anyhow, a really good show. And, free downloads of some of their singles from the website, too. Very cool.

Also, for my drumming/percussion-loving friends, Tom Sharpe, who guested during the show, is cool beyond description. You'd have to see this hyper little man live in person, jumping around with jingles on his ankles to get the full effect, but he has some clips at his website, too.

Every time I woke up in the night last night, I had some song or other playing in my mind. At one point, I had the "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" tune going, but it had the Pogo lyrics of "Twinkle, twinkle little bat/How I wonder where you're at" **accompanying it.

I woke up to the alarm with Crowded House's "Something So Strong" playing in there, specifically the lyrics, "I've been feeling so much older/Frame me, and hang me on the wall". 

Then, I clicked on LJ's notice about their new staff member, and I've had something quite different stuck in my head ever since...  


** Actually, the line is from Lewis Carroll's Alice stories, but I'm leaving the Pogo link anyway so I can go explore it later. I love Pogo.

Some background. I think that the White Stripes are talented but pretty over-rated, especially by Rolling Stone. For instance, Rolling Stone included the band's album "Elephant" in the RS Top 500 albums of all time. Most recently, RS ran two separate articles (one giving background on the songs, the other a more traditional review with a 3.5-star rating) about the Stripes' new album in one issue.

This conversation ensued this morning:

Me: Who do you think Jack and Meg are blowing over at Rolling Stone?

J: I don't know. Maybe Jack is blowing Jan Hammer.

Me: Uh, do you mean Jann Wenner, the publisher? Jan Hammer is the guy that did the Miami Vice theme song.

J. starts humming the Miami Vice Theme Song.

Me, in a pseudo-Germanic accent: Yah, Jack, Meg, I will write the theme song for your movie...

Had an acquaintace say she thought it was some kind of political correctness that Outkast won instead of White Stripes for Album of the year. In response, I said:

I really think the White Stripes and Elephant are overrated. I listened to the album again a few days ago, and while I like several of the songs, some of them are *really* irritating. I haven't listened to Speakerboxxx, but judging from the two break-out hits, those guys put out some catchy, catchy tunes. As does Beyonce.

I think it's like the recent debates in literature. Some people are so caught up in being high-minded artistes with their 10-page descriptions of their toilet and starting each chapter with 2 quotes from some obscure romantic poet, that they forget that readers WANT A GOOD STORY! (separate rant which I will not subject you to).

I don't care how arty you are or what your prog-rock roots are-- people want good voices and catchy tunes. While the White Stripes certainly have some songs that can get stuck in your head, I dont' think you could accuse either Jack or Meg of having a melodious voice (Meg's makes me shudder on that "cold, cold rain" song).

I agree with an article I saw at salon.com (that came out well before the grammys) that said hard rock was lacking this last year, and R&B and hip-hop artists were really doing the innovative work. THAT's why I think there were so many African-American winners, not because of some kind of political correctness on the part of Grammy voters.

I was happy Missy Elliott took home a grammy, too. I love her!

As for Evanescence, they get on my nerves. I can stand one or two songs, but not the whole album all at one time. That lead singer has a beautiful voice, but I don't like the way she uses it-- she's always using it in a crying-moaning way. I suppose that's their whole goth-rock schtick, but I guess I'm not taken with their schtick (dionysus1999 likes them).