Fuck you if you don’t like Nickelback. Are they original? No. Does all their shit sound the same? Yes. No aurgument. Their music is slickly produced, catchy and fun to listen too. Them covering ZZ Top is something very cool. Even if you have fallen into the ironically trendy sentiment of hating on this band, listen to this song. It’s a great cover of a great song.

I realize I’m not planting any flags by lauding this particular effort from Zep, so save your barbs.  What makes this song stand out in a sea of exceptional songs by Led Zeppelin is how contrasting it is to most of their screaming, decade-defining rock and roll.  I’m always confounded by songs that can be so appealing and memorable that lack a catchy hook or refrain.  I don’t know how one does it.  Wikipedia describes the meaning of this masterpiece as the following:

“Going to California” is the penultimate song by the English rock band Led Zeppelin on their fourth album, released in 1971. The song’s wistful folk-style sound, with Robert Plant on lead vocals, acoustic guitar by Jimmy Page and mandolin by John Paul Jones, contrasts with the heavy electric-amplified rock on several of the album’s other tracks.

The song is reportedly about singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell, with whom Plant and Page were both infatuated. In live performances of the song, Plant would often say the name “Joni” after this stanza (which is thought to have referenced Mitchell’s 1967 composition “I Had a King”):

“

To find a Queen without a King, They say she plays guitar and cries, and she sings

”

In an interview he gave to Spin magazine in 2002, Plant stated that the song “might be a bit embarrassing at times lyrically, but it did sum up a period of my life when I was 22.”^[1] In a 2007 interview with the same magazine, Plant stated that the song was about “Me reflecting on the first years of the group, when I was only about… 20, and was struggling to find myself in the midst of all the craziness of California and the band and the groupies…”^{[citation needed]}

This song started out as a song about Californian earthquakes and when Jimmy Page, audio engineer Andy Johns and band manager Peter Grant travelled to Los Angeles to mix the album, they ironically experienced a minor earthquake.^[2] At this point it was known as “Guide to California”.^[2]

“Spent my days with a woman unkind,
Smoked my stuff and drank all my wine.
Made up my mind to make a new start,
Going to california with an aching in my heart.
Someone told me theres a girl out there
With love in her eyes and flowers in her hair.
Took my chances on a big jet plane,
Never let them tell you that theyre all the same.
The sea was red and the sky was grey,
Wondered how tomorrow could ever follow today.
The mountains and the canyons started to tremble and shake
As the children of the sun began to awake.
Seems that the wrath of the gods
Got a punch on the nose and it started to flow;
I think I might be sinking.
Throw me a line if I reach it in time
Ill meet you up there where the path
Runs straight and high.
To find a queen without a king;
They say she plays guitar and cries and sings.
La la la la
Ride a white mare in the footsteps of dawn
Tryin to find a woman whos never, never, never been born.
Standing on a hill in my mountain of dreams,
Telling myself its not as hard, hard, hard as it seems.”

Is this an unfunny bit?  Or do I really have to take rifle up on top of a water tower and take a few poor sonsabitches with me?  That’s the only recourse I will have if this is an actual attempt at a music video.  And even if you ARE joking, if someone has to ask “Is this a joke,” is it really that funny???  If you have anymore insight on this atrocity, feel free to help us out.  I’ll be cleaning my longshot.

FMQB says Rob Zombie has a new son on the Punisher soundtrack.   It get’s better.  It seems that the top-hatted one has a full length album coming out very soon as well as a 5 disc box set.  In a day where music most assuredly is not kicking ass, we are gauranteed to have an album that can grab the Jonas Brothers by their junkless private area and thrust kick them into a vat of boiling acid.  Much like Batman did to Jack Napier.  Peep:

Now that Rob Zombie has released a new single, “War Zone,” from the Punisher: War Zone soundtrack, of course fans want to know when a new record will be coming out. Zombie says that he is “almost finished” recording his new album and that it will be more of a group effort rather than a pure solo album.

“We’re almost finished. We’ll probably finish with the record completely before Christmas, and it’s great,” Zombie told MTV about his forthcoming, still-untitled effort. ”The unique thing about this record is, it’s the first time since White Zombie broke up that I’ve actually recorded with a band, in the sense that these are the guys that I tour with, that I hang out with, and we’re a band, and we’ll record as a band.”  The group in question includes guitarist John 5, drummer Tommy Clufetos and bassist Piggy D.

“The record’s hard to describe, but it’s just got a much more solid vibe, and it’s going to be a much more intricate, interesting record just due to the fact that we have four people that are in the room all the time, contributing and working on it,” Zombie continued. “For me, it’s great, because my solo records have been somewhat disjointed because there’s always a changing roster of people. Great things usually come out of situations where you have a great vibe and you can usually feel it. And that’s what’s going on here… Having a band helps because we change things at the spur of the moment. We’ll start with something in the morning, and by the end of the day, it’s morphed into something completely different.”

Meanwhile, on November 25, Zombie will release Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, the career-spanning, five-disc box set from White Zombie. And with that, he’s essentially closing the door on his former band for good.

Zombie’s music is fucking tight, catchy and has balls the size of that globe in Fight Club that rolls into the coffee shop.  It is EXACTLY what we need right.  AC/DC is at te top of the charts, Guns and Roses is releasing a new album and Metallica is on tour.  Do you think rock fans are getting sick and tired of this poppy drek that MTV is trying to pass off as real music?  I think you have your answer.  For your viewing pleasure, please click the above video to be treated to “Never Gonna Stop” by the aforementioned Rob Zombie.  It kicks ass, and so do I.

If this doesn’t make you proud/weep, we don’t have much in common.

“Johnny Cash’s America was not red, white, or blue, but black. And that blackness contained multitudes. While society has become increasingly divided. Cash navigated some of the most contentious issue of our time - war, prison, reform, youth discontent, religion, Native American rights - without losing his audience. Americans who can agree on little else have agreed on Johnny Cash. What lessons can be learned from his story? Johnny Cash’s America blends biography, essay, and music to explore the meaning of one American’s life. The film, which will be seen on A&E’s Biography starting end of October (just in time for the election), chapters Cash’s life, his agricultural roots, finding his voice within the original rock and rollers, his commitment to family and self education, his anger at the treatment of Native Americans, his refusal to let prisoners be forgotten, America’s wars - his support and resistance, and patriotism even when questioning the government. All things that are totally relevant today.”

Credit: Fark.com

 
From time to time on this site, I like to share with you: the reader something that I: the writer enjoy. Sometimes it’s a movie, sometimes it’s a song, sometimes it’s a 14 inch dildo. Today, it’s a song from one of the most underrated rappers currently making music. Bubba Sparxxx.

White rappers receive there fair share or criticism, deservedly so at times. They may be talented, but they are biting off a genre that was developed in a culture not their own, talking about hardships that most have not experienced. That was one thing that drew me to Bubba’s second album: “Deliverance.” It was very honest and true to the environment that he grew up in. It infused county with hip hop in a way that I had never heard, and have not heard since. It didn’t sell as well as “Dark Days, Bright Nights,” his first effort, so Bubba seemed to take that as a cue to make more commercially viable music.

I’m no fool. “Ms New Booty” isn’t blowing my skirt up, pardon the pun. That being said all of his albums so far have select tracks that I don’t want to oversell, but are moving and epic. My favorite being the title track from the afore mentioned “Deliverance” album. The video for it is above what you read here. Give it a listen and maybe you’ll hear what I hear and feel what I feel. Or maybe not.

Metallica Rules.  St. Anger did not.  So it with GREAT trepidation that I post this: Cyanide.   The newbian.  It seems you can download the thing on the up and up on www.livemetallica.com  That’s a step in the right direction.  Fuck all you Metallica fans that don’t like the Black Album, btw.  Just because a song is catchy, doesn’t mean they’ve sold out, and it doesn’t mean they don’t still rock. 

My logic is flawless.  Like Sub Zero after he pitches Kano off the pit into the spikes.  TOASTY! 

Credit: Gary Sharp of Sterling, VA

From the “Who the fuck Knew?” category of The Fukerton.  According to Billboard, vinyl records are selling like hotcakes.  I wouldnt know where to buy one but apparantly a great many people do.  Anything that takes money out of Apple’s wallet, I’m in favor of, so maybe this is a good thing?

It may have seemed like a fad at first, but the resurgence of vinyl is now turning into a nice niche business for the major labels. With EMI’s announcement that it would reissue eight classic albums in the format, all four majors are now onboard the vinyl bandwagon.

The only reason why this sucks is I bet the only people buying these records are the same people that say things like: “I live for music.”  Do ya really?  I live to blow my load on the backs of loved ones of people that say they live for music.  Look, I like a few songs.  I sing along to “500 miles” by the Proclaimers like everyone else.  But as long as their are a group of men known as the the NFL, I’m not putting music anywhere the top of my list.   Internet Porn, Marcus Feenix, basketball and .89 cent cheesy double beef burritos would have to be wiped from the planet before I would buy one record.  God Bless America.

If you dont like the Don Mega, I dont think we can be friends. Not only is he one of the most influential rappers on the planet, he puts an amazing live show. Cube meshes well with hip-hop acts and rock acts. Ive seen him with Korn and Westside Connection and he killed it both times. AllHipHop.com reported today that he will be doing an international tour to support the release of his album “Raw Footage.”

The video for the album’s first single “Do Ya Thang,” debuted yesterday (July 7), on www.icecube.com. The overseas outing, which kicks off July 11 in Leipzig, Germany, will land in 11 cities, before coming stateside August 21 for the beginning of the US leg of the tour, which kicks off in Seattle.

I would fly to Seattle if he promised to open the show by throwing a brick at Tiny “Zues” Lister’s face. Or if he got fired by his record company for stealing boxes. What you trying to build a clubhouse??