The Cinderella story continues! Thanks to your votes Pearl Jam (again by a single vote) was victorious over David Bowie to move into the Sweet 16. #15 seeds Smashing Pumpkins and The Cure also dominated in their respective match-ups to move on to the next round. The remaining #1 seeds all won their pairings and look to remain undefeated. Can Pearl Jam prolong this amazing run through to the Elite 8? Will we lose a second #1 seed? I think even Pink Floyd would vote against Pink Floyd in their upcoming match-up against The Beatles. Now it is up to you, the readers, to decide. All four regions’ match-ups are ready to go. Please make your selections below.
The Cinderella story continues! Thanks to your votes Pearl Jam, again by a single vote, was victorious over David Bowie to move into the Sweet 16. #15 seeds Smashing Pumpkins and The Cure also dominated in their respective match-ups to move on to the next round. The remaining #1 seeds all won their pairings and look to remain undefeated when the voting for the MoSS? Madness Sweet 16 begins on Thursday. Click on the bracket above to see which other artists moved on.
Again, thanks for voting. It’s been a long 4 days of basketball, brackets and ridiculous musical death matches. You may find it hard to go back to your normal lives again. Do you actually have to WORK at the office now? The answer is no. Please view this youtube clip from the movie Teen Wolf to help keep you distracted from your daily tasks.
Thanks to your votes the impossible happened. A #1 lost to a #16 in March! That’s right, by one single vote, Pearl Jam handed Elvis Presley a first round defeat. That wasn’t the only highly ranked artist to get knocked out in the first round. Much like Hampton over Iowa State (That one still stings), 2 seeds were dropping like flies. My beloved Smashing Pumpkins easily handled rock and roll legend Chuck Berry. The Cure squeaked out a 1 vote victory over “Soul Brother Number One” James Brown (Chris should be very pleased). Nine Inch Nails narrowly escaped their pairing with Little Richard. The only victorious #2 was guitar god Jimi Hendrix who put a beat down on Journey. I guess you can stop believin’ now Steve Perry.
The upcoming Round of 32 should be equally as exciting. There are going to be some great match-ups. Can the straight forward hard rock of Van Halen prevail over Metallica’s overpowering heavy metal? Can Pearl Jam pull off another Cinderella-style victory and beat glam rock icon David Bowie for a spot in the Sweet 16? You, the readers, will decide. All four regions’ match-ups are ready to go. Please make your selections below.
The match-ups for the round of 64 are set. Dexy’s Midnight Runners survived a late rally by Right Said Fred to earn the last #16 seed. Dexy will be going up against the Beatles in the first round. Can they pull a spectacular upset over “The Fab Four”? It won’t be easy, but your votes could move them on. All four regions’ match-ups are ready to go. Please make your selections below.
The shortest month of the year is often one of the quietest in terms of musical awesomeness. There’s usually little love for the ear canals within two weeks on either side of Valentine’s Day.
2012, though…I don’t know if it’s the Mayans’ prognostication or just some happy accidents, but music blew up in February.
Van Halen returns with Diamond Dave. This is how things should be. (Not that the album is anything to write home about, but DLR belongs in Van Halen.)
Burial puts out a half-hour EP of beats that retain classic Burial traits AND manage to sound as fresh as ever.
Frankie Rose (seen at right in that sexy shot) puts out Interstellar, an album that would have dominated its release date if not for…
SLEIGH BELLS! REIGN OF TERROR! THE ALBUM CONTAINING “COMEBACK KID” AND “BORN TO LOSE” AND “CRUSH” AND “DEMONS” AND “D.O.A.” AND EVERY OTHER INCREDIBLE TUNE WITHIN THIS COLLECTION OF DOMINANCE (except “Road to Hell,” which is the closest thing to a clunker they’ve ever made).
Sleigh Bells also hit SNL on Feb. 18 and, most importantly to yours truly, announced on Feb. 28 that they’ll play a show in Iowa City this spring. #FUCKYEAH
The Sleigh Bells/Iowa City news hit the same day School of Seven Bells completed its trifecta of incredible albums by releasing Ghostory, while Memoryhouse put out a full-length album just two days before a scheduled show at The Mill (a.k.a. a night out for the Music or Space Shuttle? lads).
If this month is indeed a 10 (or, in Spinal Tap terms, 11), how do previous Februarys stack up in terms of music?
Naturally, I’ve made a chart.
How did this line take its shape? The primary data is listed below.
1982
Ozzy Osbourne is arrested after urinating on The Alamo, in San Antonio, Texas
1983
“Menudomania” comes to New York as 3,500 screaming girls crowd Kennedy Airport to catch a glimpse of Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, who are playing six sold-out shows at the Felt Forum
Michael Jackson’s Thriller album hits #1 on the US charts, the first of 37 (non-consecutive) weeks it would spend there on its way to becoming the greatest-selling album of all time
Sonic Youth releases Confusion Is Sex;U2 wages War (but Styx did release Kilroy Was Here and Kenny G deployed G Force)
1984
Elton John marries studio engineer Renate Blauel (lulz)
Recovering from the scalp burns sustained a month earlier, Michael Jackson wins eight Grammy Awards out of twelve nominations, breaking the record for the most Grammys won in a single year
The Smiths release The Smiths; I receive my first cassette (the Footloose soundtrack) for winning the St. Pat’s Grade School spelling bee
1985
Well, we got the following albums: The Smiths, Meat Is Murder; Tears for Fears, Songs from the Big Chair; Whitney Houston, Whitney Houston (I just poured some out)
1986
Absolutely nothing of worth happened, although March 1986 saw Master of Puppets, Black Celebration, 5150, Please, and the single “Live to Tell”
1987
The first five Beatles albums are released on CD
Again, no good new albums, although March shone once more with The Joshua Tree, Among the Living, and Sign o’ the Times
1988
Jacko buys Neverland
Leonard Cohen releases I’m Your Man
1989
Um…well…David Coverdale weds Tawny Kitaen
1990
Billy Idol badly hurt in motorcycle accident, sees role in The Doors minimized
James Brown released from jail after high-speed, two-state car chase
Dinosaur Jr. releases Green Mind
1992
Vince Neil becomes a race car driver
Kurt Cobain marries what’sherface
Tori Amos releases Little Earthquakes; Pantera unleashes Vulgar Display of Power; “Bohemian Rhapsody” gets new life via Wayne’s World soundtrack
1993
Oprah interviews Jacko, we learn about his whitening disorder
2Pac dares white people to buy his second album (Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z.)
Radiohead puts out the album they’d probably rather forget
311 releases Music
Duran Duran comes back with the VH1 crowd via “The Wedding Album”
Joey Lawrence puts out an album (whoa!)
1994
Shannon Hoon gets thrown out of the American Music Awards
Green Day drops Dookie; Pavement puts out Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
1995
Tommy Lee marries Pamela Anderson
Jewel launches her pre-poetry career by releasing an album
1996 (possibly the most eclectic data in this collection)
Former Milli Vanilli band member Rob Pilatus is hospitalized when a man hits him over the head with a baseball bat in Hollywood, while Pilatus is attempting to steal the man’s car
Take That split up!
Prince marries Mayte Garcia
Snoop beats a murder rap
2Pac’s All Eyez On Me receives a middling review from some nerd in the Iowa State Daily
1997
Phish Food is born; Jacko’s first son is born; the Spice Girls’ chart-topping career is born
Blur releases the album with the “Whoo-hoo!” song
Anal Cunt releases I Like It When You Die (sounds charming)
1998
Elton John knighted
Neutral Milk Hotel puts out that seriously overrated In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (it’s good, but c’mon…)
1999
Gov. Jesse Ventura declares “Rolling Stones Day” in Minnesota
Eminem drops Slim Shady LP; Roots go with Things Fall Apart
2000
Santana wins 8 Grammys
The Cure releases their last good album to date (Bloodflowers)
Smashing Pumpkins release that MACHINA piece of crap
2001
Manic Street Preachers play Cuba
Jack Johnson releases Brushfire Fairytales
Los Embarasados allegedly release Tem Graca por Nome on Feb. 30 (according to Wikipedia)
2002
U2 performs at the Super Bowl
Britney Spears puts out the Crossroads soundtrack; Norah Jones releases the inexplicably popular Come Away with Me
2003
Lana Clarkson found dead at Phil Spector’s pad; he’s eventually found guilty of second-degree murder. His wall of sound will have bars on the windows for 19 years
A fire at a Great White show kills 100, including one of the guitarists
50 Cent talks about gettin’ rich or dyin’ tryin’
2004
The wardrobe malfunction seen by millions
Billy Corgan blogs his feelings about D’Arcy (“mean-spirited drug addict”) and James Iha (Pumpkins’ breakup was his fault)
Kanye is a college dropout, according to his debut album’s title
2005
Blink-182 goes on hiatus; Korn guitarist quits after finding God
Bloc Party releases the excellent Silent Alarm
2006
One for the history books: White Lion bassist James Lorenzo joins Megadeth
Belle and Sebastian release another lame album (The Life Pursuit)
2007
Chris Cornell tells Audioslave he needs to be emancipated because of musical differences
Bloc Party spends A Weekend in the City; Explosions in the Sky release All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone
2008
Beach House releases Devotion
2009
Bone Thugs n Harmony crashes MySpace by posting a new song
Pains of Being Pure at Heart release stellar debut; the brothers from the National curate Dark Was the Night; the Black Keys singer had enough time to put out a solo album
2010
“We Are the World” is remade for Haiti benefit
Joanna Newsom spends three discs enjoying the hell out of people (Have One on Me)
Here at Music or Space Shuttle? we feel like we should be asking the tough, hard-hitting questions. This week we continue our series of polls where we force you, the thoughtful reader, to choose between two random artists. You may not always like either selection but you have to pick one.
A Different Kind of Truth is their first album with David Lee Roth as lead singer since 1984 which was released, oddly enough, in 1984. I have always been amazed me that a band could have such great success with so many changes over the years. Sammy Hagar fronted the band through most of the 80’s and 90’s and to and to tell you the truth I am a lot more familiar with the Van Hagar version of Van Halen than the Roth version of the 70’s and early 80’s.
I am interested to know which version the masses would choose to listen to if forced to pick one. Will you live the rest of your life being “Hot for Teacher”(FYI, The woman who played the teacher in the video turned up in a few articles lately. She just turned 60 and still looks crazy hot) or will you spend eternity loving your baby’s “Poundcake”? Please feel free to justify your choice in the comments section.
While Todd is busy listening to a new song by the Wusses, er, the Shins, yours truly was rockin’ out with his cock out (well, not really, fortunately for my work colleagues) to “Tattoo,” the new ditty from VAN FUCKING HALEN. If you dare, click the video below…
Um…well, I never said it was great.
“Tattoo” (which makes the bold move of including the word “dragon” within its chorus) is a bit benign. The video is sorta odd and boring at once. Odd because at times the vocals don’t sync with Diamond Dave’s mouth movements. Odd because Wolfgang is holding Michael Anthony’s place as the stocky guy on bass, but without the solid backing vocals. Odd because DLR dances around like he’s trapped in an old Jamiroquai video. And boring because the song just doesn’t blister like VH did during the heyday.
All the same, if Van Halen is going to try some new tunes with three classic members, it might as well be Dave, Eddie, and Alex (and the latter’s thousands of cymbals). Dave might not be able to bring the vocals like he used to, but his singing was never the main asset; being a frontman is in his DNA, and he still has charisma. And if nothing else, this new song brought back some fond memories that involve the Halen.
In no particular order, my favorite Van Halen moments from my life:
Finding a casette of 1984 and keeping it. Someone at St. Patrick’s Grade School must have dropped it on the playground. I spotted the white plastic rectangle, approached it hoping it was something like “People Are People” by Depeche Mode, saw it was that album with “Panama” (the greatest American rock song EVER), surveyed the area for any nosy nuns, and stuck the tape in my Super Denim pocket. (And I never said anything about it at confession. Ha!) And it was on. Phrases such as “I don’t feel tardy” and “Got an on-ramp going through my bedroom” entered that vast wasteland in my brain reserved for AWESOME SONG LYRICS. I played air guitar (behind my head, no less!) in my bedroom while “House of Pain” flew out of my JCPenney stereo speakers. I flaunted the air drums during the “Hot for Teacher” intro and the “Girl Gone Bad” outro. But even then I was a bit of a hipster snob: I never thought “Jump” was that great of a song.
A Microsoft Paint rendering of what The Cool Guys' Club sign looked like in 1986.
Painting the VH logo on our neighborhood clubhouse sign. A few “toughs” residing in northeast Waukon banded together to form a neighborhood gang called, fittingly, “The Cool Guys’ Club.” This was done without irony—it was 1986 and the gang’s members ranged in age of 8 to 12. We had a “clubhouse,” which was actually random planks of wood nailed haphazardly across some low-hanging tree branches. And we nailed a sign to the tree. The sign announced our group’s moniker. The word “The” started in the upper-left corner, and each word descended gradually toward the lower-right, where “Club” landed. I thought the sign was cool, but not cool enough. So I painted the legendary “VH” logo in the upper-right corner. Within days the sign was vandalized and The Cool Guys’ Club’s mojo never really returned. But for those 96 hours or whatever, it was the coolest thing going in the 200 block of Sixth Avenue NE.
Playing air guitar to the intro of “Panama” while driving, annoying the Brothers Schneden. On the way home from visiting Platteville, Wis., to see the Chicago Bears work out at training camp, my friends Travis and Corey Schneden and I listened to one of my infamous “This CD-R Sucks!” mixes. “Panama” was one of the standout tracks on Volume Three. The best part about air guitaring this song? The part where Eddie slides his fingers across the fretboard after the initial few notes, because you can extend that slide right out the driver’s side window if you’re REALLY into it. Which I was, although the Schnedens were not, based on their eye rolls and utterances of “God, you’re dumb.” They were not in The Cool Guys’ Club.
Joining BMG and getting the eponymous debut album as one of my introductory cassettes. Arriving along with stuff like Vixen’s self-titled debut and Bon Jovi’s New Jersey was this awesome collections of tunes, highlighted by “Atomic Punk,” “Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love,” and “I’m the One,” songs I like quite a bit today, truth be told. (The same can’t be said about Vixen or Bon Jovi.) And the aforementioned Brothers Schneden and I would endless annoy their sister Jami by singing the song “Jamie’s Cryin'” to the point where she wanted to settle things with fisticuffs. The tale of the tape showed that I had all the advantages (age, height, weight, reach) but I knew I was deficient in the intangibles (the blind rage of someone teased mercilessly by her older brothers and their even older friend) so I gave it a rest and probably went back to playing Travis (a.k.a. “The Beast”) in some Nintendo game.
Blaring the opening of “Good Enough” (HELLO, BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABY! [guitar screech]) on my boom box. Always a crowd pleaser when you and your friends are 12.
Realizing the acronym of For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. Huh-huh! Huh-huh! (And feeling good about the decision made at OU812 not to buy any more new material by the band.)
And most recently, seeing Episode 9 of the show Yacht Rock. The story of how Doobies producer Ted Templeman decided to produce Van Halen albums. What they did with the doo-wop breakdown of “I’m the One” and the incorporation of Kenny Loggins’ keys are priceless comedy ingredients. (Big ups to Timothy Davis for bringing this to my attention.) Watch the episode below (you could skip to the 0:38 mark and not miss anything).
I’ve lived a good life, no? Thanks for random moments of joy, Dave, Eddie, Alex, and that other guy…and even Sammy.
Music or Space Shuttle? 