The Past Two Behind the Beats.

My apologies for the lack of anything on here.  No excuses, I've just been lazy (and in Chicago...keep your eyes peeled for a blog about that, maybe later on today).

Not only have I been absent from the blog world, I missed two shows in a row a few weeks back.  I was at The Pixies show for one of them and, as mentioned above, in Chicago for another.  Both places present major issues when trying to broadcast from there.  And guess what...I won't be there next week either, since my brother and I are heading down to Fargo to catch a Red Fang show next Wednesday.

May 11/2011 - random tunes with returning guest Dani Finch

PLAY LIST

A Tribe Called Quest - Check The Rhyme

Bon Iver - Skinny Love

Bright Eyes - At The Bottom Of Everything

Buddy Guy - Ninety-Nine and One Half

Galactic (feat. Cyril Neville) - You Don't Know

Matthew Good - A Silent Army in the Trees

James Vincent McMorrow - If I Had a Boat

Fort Knox Five (feat. A-Skillz) - Ain't it Funky

Neil Young - Walk With Me

May 18/2011 - summertime songs

(yeah, our Ustream crapped out briefly, so the video is broken into two.  If I can fix it, I'll re-post)

We introduced a new segment this week, called "The Sarcastic Pick of the Week".  Essentially, we'll choose one song that fits the theme, but isn't real good.  Then we'll talk over it and make fun of it.  Because, as I mentioned on the show, we're dicks.

PLAY LIST

Mungo Jerry - In The Summertime (background)

The Allman Brothers - Jessica

Sam Roberts - Brother Down

Robert Randolph & The Family Band - Homecoming

Jimmy Buffett - Volcano (Sarcastic Pick 1/2)

LEN - Steal My Sunshine (Sarcastic Pick 2/2)

The Cat Empire - The Car Song

River City Hum - America's Finest

Sublime - Doin' Time (Uptown Dub remix)

Tune in next week when Al does some stuff, maybe with a guest.  I'll be back on the show on June 1st, when we do a show based on YouTube artists.

The Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz

Recently all first-year CreComms shuffled over to the Rachel Browne Theatre to see former CreComm instructor Armin Wiebe's first venture into theatre.  Wiebe is the writer of the Mennonite-sex-romp that is The Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz, a play centred around four characters and one setting.

The story is based around a farmer, Obrum Kehler, and his wife, Susch, and their desire to have a baby.  In the beginning of the play, Obrum finds a broken old "piano-thing" that has fallen off a wagon.  He enlists the help of his old friend Beethoven Blatz, a pianist, to fix up the instrument, and help Susch learn to play.  Through a series of confusing altercations between the three, and Susch's best friend Teen, it is revealed that Obrum cannot get Susch pregnant due to a bout of mumps during his childhood (which I didn't know could affect a man's Gennys, but you learn something every day).  Through a series of even more confusing dialogue with double meanings (what does Obrum really mean when he says he wants Blatz to "tune his instrument"?) a love triangle is formed, with Blatz longing for Susch.  Then it turns out Teen has a thing for Susch, too.  This is followed by a few awkwardly staged sex scenes (done for artistic purposes, I guess), some out of place singing, a few angry altercations, then Susch has a baby.

If my description above sounds a little confusing, that's because it is.  The play itself followed a basic story line, but has a few scenes which make the viewer think twice about what is happening, which begin to make it quite confusing.  Add to that the actor's use of accents, and half the dialogue being in low German, and what do you get?  A confused looking group of first-year CreComm students.  Although the accents were fairly well done (and as an actor, I know how difficult accents can be), the fact that there was a lot of German thrown into the dialogue, it just made the story that much harder to follow.  I know some German, so I was able to understand basic things, but even still, I feel as though I missed out on a lot of the jokes and plot twists.

Wiebe makes no apologies for the way the play was written.  In a talk-back with the audience after the show, he stated that was the way he wrote, and it always has been.  Growing up in a Mennonite family, he was always around the Germglish (I just made that up, it means German/English) that he features so prominently in his writing.

Wiebe later came to RRC to talk with my classmates and I once again.  When I asked about the potential to alienate the audience by using the dialogue he does, Wiebe answered curtly.  "That's the way I write, and I make no apologies for it."

So, if you want my honest opinion (which I know you do), I feel like the actors all did a great job with what they were given, though the accents got confusing.  The dialogue made the play tough to follow, and unless you speak low German, you probably won't get about half of the jokes in the play.  As someone who enjoys theatre, I was mildly entertained.

Behind the Beat "Good 90s" with guests!

You may remember the time when we did our tribute to crappy music from the 90s (if not, watch it here).  This time we decided to play 90s music that wasn't crappy, with a little help from our always well-dressed friend Dani Finch.  Our past (and future) guest Chuka Ejeckam came by near the end and, as always, classed up the joint. 

I'll be away for the next two shows (Pixies show this week, in Chicago next week), but never fear, Al will be providing you with all the Behind the Beat goodness you crave.  

PLAY LIST

The Wallflowers - The Difference

Moist - Push

No Doubt - Different People

Fatboy Slim - The Rockafeller Skank

The Tragically Hip - Scared

Rage Against the Machine - Ashes in the Fall

Bad Religion - Drunk Sincerity

Beastie Boys - Body Movin'

Meredith Brooks - Bitch

Pearl Jam - Glorified G

"Kanye Sucks" - everyone at Bonnaroo 2008

As you may know, I am a big fan of the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Tennessee.  I have been for the past three years, and seen some incredible shows there.  One show that wasn't so incredible was Kanye West back in 2008.  After hearing tons of buzz and watching social networks explode last night over Kanye's show at Coachella, I've decided to share my own story and videos.

It was my first year at Bonnaroo, and the main attraction for me was Pearl Jam.  Sure there was a lineup of great artists from here to the moon, but a big outdoor PJ show just doesn't come around anymore, so I was pretty stoked.  Kanye was originally scheduled to play on the second main stage (Which Stage) right before PJ closed out the evening on the main stage (What Stage).  Of course music goes all night at Bonnaroo, and that night had some great hip-hop (Chali 2na, The Coup, Talib Kweli to name a few) on the side stages and Phil Lesh (Grateful Dead anybody?) on the Which Stage.  Kanye freaks when he hears this.  Insists he needs to play main stage late night.  Schedule gets totally fudged last minute to accommodate Kanye's ego, which results in me missing all of the GOOD hip-hop that night.  Now Kanye is scheduled to play at 2 on the What Stage, hours after PJ is to finish.

There had been a lot of buzz about this show, and I, like many others, planned to check it out, entering with a clean slate.

For those of you who are out of the loop, Pearl Jam is a legendary festival band, and have been since the early 90s.  They ended up playing an epic (and I don't normally use that word, but it's the only way to describe it) three hour show which kept the audience transfixed right through their third encore, a cover of Bob Dylan's All Along The Watchtower.

Now the details of what happened next are fuzzy, depending on who you ask.  I heard, and like to believe, that Kanye wasn't even in Tennessee yet, but was partying in LA or something.  Others claim that there were technical difficulties with his gear.  Another rumour states that Kanye refused to take the stage while others were performing, causing the festival to cut down Phil Lesh's set (which did happen, so this situation is plausible).  All I can confirm is that the screens by the What Stage initially said "Kanye West, 2 am".  Then "Kanye West, 2 30 am".  Then "Kanye West, 3 am".  Then "Kanye West, up next".

He came out a little after 4 to a chorus of boos and a barrage of water bottles.  I had left by then, deciding it wasn't worth my time.  From what I could hear from my tent and online after the festival, it was a brutal show, with Kanye appearing tired and uncoordinated.  

Most artists would shit themselves at the mere thought of playing at a festival the size of Bonnaroo, but instead, Kanye decided he was above the festival, its organizers, and the 65 000 people in attendance that year.  He wasted everyone's time by delaying his show, showed absolutely no respect for the fans or festival, and did nothing but complain about the show in the aftermath.  For the rest of the weekend, everywhere you went, fans and artists alike were bashing Kanye West.  And rightfully so.

I would like to leave you with some videos and a nice hearty "Fuck Kanye!".

This first one won't let me embed, you'll have to click the link and watch it on YouTube.  It pretty much just tells you what I did, but with some visuals and a soothing female voice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMXGgG9JS5c

Audio is a little quiet, but you can get the point.  Side note, Robert Randolph is the man, you should check him out.

These people can't ALL be wrong.

The crowd anxiously awaits, most of them now just waiting to boo the man himself.

This much auto-tuner has NO PLACE in live music. Also, notice that the sun has started coming up.

Funny or Die saves the day!

Lastly, here is a link to a site where you can read Kanye's reaction, which has been taken off of his blog.
http://www.popcrunch.com/kanye-west-bonnaroo-blog/ 

Behind the Beat "I, Me, Mine"

This week's episode, entitled "I, Me, Mine", featured songs with self references in the title.  It was my first show back after a couple of weeks off, and my energy level was a little low.  I guess if I want to do this professionally one day, I'll have to learn how to force myself to be energetic.  Either way, good music!

PLAY LIST

The Beatles - I, Me, Mine

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - I Should Have Known It

Audio Bullys - I Go To Your House

Robert Randolph & the Family Band - Deliver Me

Cypress Hill - How I Could Just Kill A Man

Galactic feat. Lyrics Born - I Got It (What You Need)

Blind Melon - All That I Need

The Raconteurs - You Don't Understand Me

Roky Erickson & The Aliens - Mine Mine Mind

The Doobie Brothers - You Belong To Me

Pretty Lights - I Can See It In Your Face

Tune in next Wednesday at 8 for our 90s show, round 2.  This time we are going to focus on the good part of the 90s, not the bad.

Behind the Beat (minus Jaremy plus Jason Wysynski)

I had to miss out on the fun this past week, but fortunately Al had a trick up his sleeve and brought his old roommate and (apparently) twin Jason Wysynski to fill the hole.  I'll be back next week (I know, I know, I said that last time, but I didn't expect my soccer team to still be in the playoffs at this point) and Al and I will resume our usually schtick.

PLAY LISTRage Against the Machine - Down Rodeo

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Aeroplane

Sense of Truth - Push and Pull

Hilltop Hoods - Mic Felon

Sense of Truth - Crawling

Flying Fox & the Hunter/Gatherers - Nurse

MC I-Ras - 2007 Poundermix

DJ WyZa - The Birth

The Asteroids Galaxy - Lady Jesus

Spacehog - Lucy's Shoe

Carolina Chocolate Drops

It's been a while since I've written about a band that I like, and these guys have been stuck in my head for a couple of days, so here ya go.  I first heard of Carolina Chocolate Drops in 2007, when I saw them at Folk Fest.  I remember leaving and thinking "that was pretty cool" but never got around to checking out any of their recordings.  My Dad enjoyed the band, and ended up buying one of their t-shirts, so their name always stuck with me. 

I decided to check them out when I saw their name on last year's Bonnaroo lineup.  After watching a few videos on YouTube, I decided we had check out their show.  Unfortunately, unforeseen circumstances didn't allow me to see the whole show (okay, I admit it, I got way drunk the night before and couldn't bring myself to get up in that heat).  The part I saw made me immediately regret not dragging my sorry ass out from under the shade tent and getting there for the start.  This is just some good ol' fashion music.  No overused effects, no auto-tuners, no stupid repetitive loops, no testosterone-drenched cock-rock lyrics, no...you get the point. Just three really talented people playing a variety of instruments and singing.

I don't know much (anything) about Carolina Chocolate Drops, so I'll let the videos do the talking.

Cornbread and Butterbeans


Memphis Shakedown


Covering "Hit 'Em Up Style" at Bonnaroo.

Behind the Beat with special guest Chuka Ejeckam

This week we had our friend and classmate (sort of) Chuka Ejeckam in the studio with us to liven up Behind the Beat.  Having put together the play list for these shows every week since about October, we decided to let Chuka chose all the music, to get a fresh taste in there.  Lucky for our listeners, he is a music genius (as well as an advertising genius) and brought in some great music.

PLAY LIST

J. Ralph - Kansas City Shuffle

Tom Waits - Wrong Side of the Bed

Kasabian - L.S.F. (Lost Souls Forever)

The Clash - Bank Robber

Tom Waits - The Piano Has Been Drinking

The Parlor Mob - Can't Keep No Good Boy Down

Kasabian - Thick as Thieves

Frank Sinatra - This Town

Tom Waits - Whistlin' Past The Graveyard

Tune in next week when Al and I will be doing our "guilty pleasures" edition.  It's gonna be so bad that it's good.

Off Topic: CreComm Quotables

This one is just for fun, 'cause why not.  Anyone who knows me personally knows that I spend a lot of time at school.  Partly because I need to get the assignments done, partly because there's always something ridiculous going on when CreComms are together in a group.  I've decided to share some of the more memorable moments to date, completely out of context to make them funnier.

"You're gonna wish I farted" - Al White

(walking into a quiet class room)
"No man, that's Juicy by Biggy!" - Mike Badejo (aka Black Mike)

"Well how the fuck am I supposed to know that?!" - Garth Hildebrand (aka 30-year-old white guy)

On the topic of Garth, his slow progression from face to heel during first semester was pretty awesome.

(after Ken Finkleman dropped the cunt-bomb while speaking to our class, we had a long conversation about whether it's offensive or not.)

"Well, it's all about the way you say it, right.  What if you were saying 'you have a nice...'...you know" - Evan Paterson (conversation over)

The time Evan gave Garth his cell-phone so he could read some dirty texts aloud to all of us as we ate lunch.

The IPP after-party.  Getting so drunk at 12 noon that Al and I sang "Because I Got High" by Afroman on the karaoke and dedicated it to Steve Vogelsang.

Seeing Matt "Downtown" Nicholson take off one GWAR hoodie to reveal another GWAR hoodie underneath.  And underneath that GWAR hoodie was a Kids in the Hall t-shirt!

GOOSE! (anyone who's been in Dani's class knows what's up)

Hearing Veronica go from speaking in a normal voice to doing a "Fargo" accent mid sentence.

Pretty much anything involving Adam Campbell.

Riding the elevator with several classmates, and two random people.  It began to smell like fart right before one of the randoms got off.  After he left I loudly remarked "that guy farted".  Immediately after, I realized the random dude who was still on the elevator with us was looking rather sheepish.  He was the one who farted.

There's plenty more, and I'm sure I'll post more on here at some point.  CreComms, leave me a comment with some of the most ridiculous shit you've heard.

Behind the Beat Gets Colourful

It would appear that I'm getting lazy with these posts, but really I'm just busy and haven't had time to post anything.  I have two major projects wrapping up next week, so then I'll have some time to write about some wicked bands.  For now, I'll just do this late post of Wednesday's show.

We had a humdinger of a show this week, with TWO WHOLE GUESTS!  Our good and often mentioned pal Sirissa and her buddy Sam joined us.  I can't spell Sirissa's last name, and I don't know Sam's, so they only get first names on here.  The video for this week is pretty awesome, because Al is in the other room, so you get ALL ME!  There was a downside to this arrangement, however.  Al was totally stunned to be in a room with just himself and two women, but he persevered and the show was a bunch of fun.  Also, my pal Dave Hollier was helping out with the phones a bit (strangely enough, we actually get callers sometimes!)  You may see his arm once or twice in the video.  Don't panic.

Our theme for this show was colours, so every band or song title had to have a colour in it somewhere.  For some reason, most of them turned out to be black.  Which, as any asshole will tell you, isn't technically a colour.

I apologize for having part of the intro cut off, but I didn't click record on Ustream in time.  Also, Al said the wrong band name for the first band, it's Supergroove.

PLAY LIST

Supergroove - Your White Shirt

Electric Six - When I Get To The Green Building

Gordon Lightfoot - Black Day In July

Easy Star All-Stars - Any Colour You Like

Why - Red

Red Fang - Wires

Galactic - The Green Minute

Blitzen Trapper - Black River Killer

Blue Scholars - Blue School

The Black Keys - Black Door

Tune in next week when our good buddy Chuka Ejeckam will be joining us in studio.  Do I really need to tell you where and when?  Yes?  Okay, 8 p.m. on Wednesday.  92.9 KICK-FM or click here to visit our show page on Ustream.

Behind the Beat Goes Local

 

So I'm a few days late on this one, I know, but I've had a busy week.  Sort of.  This past week, Al and I did our local show, which took us a surprisingly long time to get to.  I feel like we got a pretty good variety in this show, but it's hard to really showcase all of the talent in Winnipeg in one hour.  My best advice is get out and see shows, there's always something good going on here.

PLAY LIST

River City Hum - Easy Jesus Casino

Lovechild Monarchy - The HIV Killed Rock N Roll

Flying Fox & The Hunter/Gatherers - Spring

Enjoy Your Pumas - Sister Rose

The Lytics - Checkin' On My Pumas

Will Bonness - Softly, As A Morning Sunrise

Hot Live Guys - Creamy Illusion

Amuse - Carte Blanche

Join us this Wednesday, same beat-time, same beat-channel, for our colours edition.  Every song/artist we play will have a colour in it somewhere, and it'll be cool and stuff.

Behind the Beat with special guest Joel Nickel

I realize it's been a while since I've done one of these posts, and there's a damn good reason; we haven't done a show for the past two weeks.  We missed the first one because all first-year CreComm students were at the Winnipeg Press Club that night, and Al was out of town last week, while I was off playing back-to-back indoor soccer games. 

We didn't have a theme this week, since we've been busy working on a radio drama series for our Creative Writing class.  We just came in and played a bunch of songs that we like.  And as you can see/hear in the show, our good friend Joel Nickel joined us in the studio tonight.  Way back when Behind the Beat was still just a brain-fart Al and I had after a few too many afternoon beers at The King's Head (initially called "The Superior Sound of Vinyl", which was scraped after we realized our vinyl resources were limited), Joel was kind enough to have us as guests on his own radio show, Guerrilla Ontology.  He brought us back when Behind the Beat became official so we would have a chance to promote the show before it started, and we really appreciated what he had done for us.  Having him as our guest was the least we could do.  And we specialize in doing the least we can do.  Check Joel out on Thursday evenings at 6 pm on 92.9 Kick-FM

PLAY LIST

Aloe Blacc - I Need A Dollar

Fun Lovin' Criminals - Scooby Snacks

Ben Harper and Relentless7 - Shimmer & Shine

Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

Gorrilaz - Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head (feat. Dennis Hopper)

Blakroc - Dollaz & Sense (feat.  RZA & Pharoahe Monch)

James Taylor - How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)

Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine - Three Strikes

Robert Randolph and the Family Band - Ain't Nothing Wrong With That

Tune in next week, when we'll be doing our all local show.  If you are in a Winnipeg band, have good quality recordings, and want us to play them, leave a comment on here.  Or even if you just have a show you want to promote, or suggestions for bands to play or anything.

Is This Music? Vol. 2

Howdy internet people, and welcome to the second edition of Behind the Blog's Is This Music?

As you may recall, the first edition of ITM? featured Merzbow (click here to view), which I had deemed to NOT be music, and the only responder to the question agreed with me.  Now let me make something clear here, "is this music?" is not just a title, or rhetorical question.  I really want to know what you guys think, so leave a comment, give me your opinion, suggest future candidates for ITM? (this edition comes from a reader suggestion), post a picture of your new puppy or kitty, just do something!  I want some feedback, internet people!

This time, I bring you something which was brought to my attention in the comments on the inaugural ITM?.  Well, I guess I knew about it before, but I wasn't planning on using it for this purpose.  Thanks to mr_viking for the idea.

In 1952, an American composer named John Cage wrote 4'33", and experimental piece which was apparently written to be played on any instrument.  This kicker?  The musician plays nothing.  Nothing at all.  The piece has been performed worldwide by a variety of musicians, groups and orchestras.  Many people argue that this is just around four and a half minutes of silence (and I'm with them), but fans of the piece (see: rich artsy folks) say that's it's not the silence you should be hearing, but the sounds of the environment around you. 

My opinion?  It's a performance, but not music.

What do you think?

Hockey Teams + Music Videos = Hilarity

I'm sure any internet person who regularly visits this here blog has figured out that I'm a music fan.  If not, you should probably learn how to read.  But what some of you may not know is that I'm also a big hockey fan.  I also like to laugh.  Sometimes all three of those things combine, and it's pretty awesome.  I've decided to share some of my favourite hockey music videos with y'all.

The 1986-87 Calgary Flames present: Red Hot

Wow.  Just wow.  The soft focus nicely compliments those beautiful 'staches.

The Leafs Are The Best

It's funny 'cause they're not.

I Just Want To Play Hockey

As a Winnipegger, this is embarrassing.

Hope you all enjoy these as much as I did, and go Canucks!

Pancake Mountain

My brother just showed me a video that I thought was worth sharing on here.  It was from an episode of the kid's show Pancake Mountain, and featured a performance by the Melvins. Typically not very kid-friendly music.  It quickly became apparent to me that this show had some wicked guests on there, but many of them very not the kind of guest you'd expect to find on a kid's show.  Here's a couple videos.

The Melvins

Andrew W.K.

Some notable ones that I couldn't find videos of include:
George Clinton
Cypress Hill
The White Stripes
Wolfmother
Robert Randolph
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

for a full list, see Pancake Mountain's wiki page.

Garage a Trois

Looking back on my posts, I realize it's been a long time since I've written about a band that I like, so here it goes.  Also, Al and I were out on a school assignment tonight, so there was no Behind the Beat.  Sorry!

Garage a Trois (apparently also known as GAT) is a band that I have known about for a while, but never really started listening to until a few weeks ago.  I first checked out their music when Behind the Beat was doing a show where Al and I were supposed to find songs by bands we had never heard of before.  Well, I got a little lazy during the week before the show, and I didn't actually find many new bands.  I took the easy way out and just looked for some of my favourite artists' "other bands".  Stanton Moore has been one of my favourite drummers since the first time I heard Galactic, so I figured one of his other bands would be a safe bet.


I went on YouTube and was instantly impressed by GAT.  How often do you hear someone rock a vibraphone like Mike Dillon can?  Not often, that's for sure.  I was drawn in by their hooky vibe riffs, unconventional drum beats and wild saxophone sounds.  And I do mean wild.

GAT is a quartet made up of Moore, Dillon, a dude called Skerik on sax and keyboardist Marco Benevento.  For four people, these guys make a lot of sound!  They started out as a trio in 1998 (Moore, Skerik and 8-string guitarist Charlie Hunter), when they recorded a (mostly) improvised EP called Mysteryfunk.  The studio time was initially meant to record Moore's debut album, All Kooked Out! but he managed to record two albums in that time.  Both albums recorded during this session were done live-off-the-floor with no overdubs.

They added Dillon to the lineup and took the show on the road.  They became pretty popular pretty quickly, probably due to their ability to mix a variety of genres, from jazz to electronic, into an original, eargasmic sound.  They recorded their next two albums (Emphasizer in 2003, and Outre Mer in 2005) with this lineup, both of which were more produced and planned than the first EP.


Hunter left the band shortly after (my minimal research hasn't answered "why?" for me, yet) and they continued touring with a number of bodies filling the spot.  In December of 2007, Benevento became a permanent member of the band.  The current lineup recorded Power Patriot in 2009, which I recently ordered from Amazon (good luck finding a GAT album in Winnipeg) and it hasn't come out of my car's CD player since.  I drive a lot.


Check out some vids, yo!  These are all from the same concert, during New Orleans Jazz Fest 2010, at the Louisiana Music Factory.  All the songs they play are from Power Patriot.  There's a whole bunch more videos from that venue that are worth checking out in the related section on YouTube.


A couple of my favourite songs from the album, Electric Door Bell Machine and Fragile.  I have to make a video montage for school, and I'm using Fragile for my background music.  I'll post it on here in a couple months when it's done.




Dugout




The title track itself!  Power Patriot

Off Topic: Self Publishing

So you wanna publish a book, eh?  Well, I'm no expert, but if you want my advice, self publish.  I say this for a few reasons, but mainly, it's control.  As with most things in life, you are loosing a decent amount of control over the situation by signing a contract, in this case with a publisher.  At any point in time, the publisher can say "nah, this sucks" and you have to either rewrite that part, or start all over again.  Doesn't sound like a good time to me.  You will have to meet your publishers expectations, and follow their guidelines, which can often take the fun out of writing.

You may have written a book that you think is totally super awesome, so you send it out to a number of publishers.  What happens when they all tell your shit's weak (sometimes in more polite therms) and they don't want it?  You feel dumb and stupid, that's what.  Oh yeah, and your book doesn't get published.

I have no problem with teamwork, collaborations, business partners, or any sort of joint work, but when it comes to something like writing and releasing a book, I think it's a "if you want it done right, do it yourself" sort of situation.

But hey, what do I know about self publishing?  It's not like I write on a regular basis or anything.  (that last part was sarcasm, I write a lot)

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to publish this post (see what I did there), get some food in me and go see The Sadies!  I've posted videos of them before, but I'm going to post another one, because they are good at stuff and I always post videos on my blogs.

Behind the Beat "Before They Were Famous"

So we had another stupid night with the ustream, so there is no video, once again.  If I can ever figure out how the hell to get them online, you'll be the first to know.  Obviously, by the title of the show, we were playing songs by famous people, but that they recorded before they were famous.

PLAY LIST
Eminem - Infinite
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Mommy, Where's Daddy
Strontium 90 - Electron Romance
Fleetwood Mac - Merry-Go-Round
The Tragically Hip - Small Town Bringdown
The Black Keys - She Said, She Said
The Quarrymen - That'll Be The Day
Genesis - Harold the Barrel
Scream - Gods Look Down
Kyuss - Allen's Wrench
Green River - Swallow My Pride
Classified - Why

Al and I will be out reporting for our radio class next Wednesday, so we won't be doing a show next week.  Sorry for the inconvenience, but we'll make up for it by doing a wicked sweet show the following week, promise.

Behind the Beat "White Out!"

 

just ignore the ad at the beginning and hit the red arrow, then the green arrow

So we had some technical difficulties on the show tonight, but the biggest problem was our ustream.  The feed kept cutting out briefly, which caused the recording to stop randomly.  This is why there is some parts with the video missing, and I added in the songs that got parts cut out.  After the first song we talk about it screwing up, but I fixed that for this video, so ignore that part.  Also the last song didn't work out live, so I just added the video at the end

Tonight we finally did our White Out on Behind the Beat, a show where every song we play has Jack White in it, which we have been talking about doing since we started the show.  We decided last week that we were going to do this tonight, so it was just sort of a coincidence that The White Stripes announced that they were officially done this morning.  I'm surprised we didn't talk about that more...

Being a huge fan of White, I have heard just about every song he has ever written.  But what I haven't heard are a lot of his collaborations he does, so preparing this show was a lot of fun for me, since I got to hear a bunch of stuff I had never heard before.  It was tough to choose which songs to play in a one hour show.  So tough, in fact, we ended up going past the hour, but not as long as we had expected.  The last song we wanted to play was one we were doing off of YouTube, and it decided to be an asshole and make us look stupid.

PLAY LIST

The Upholsterers - Pain (Gimme Sympathy)

The White Stripes - The Union Forever

Jack White - I Fought Piranhas

The Raconteurs - You Don't Understand Me

Jack White & Conan O'Brien - 20 Flight Rock

Loretta Lynn feat. Jack White - Portland, Oregon

The White Stripes - Hotel Yorba

The Raconteurs - Together

The Rolling Stones feat. Jack White - Loving Cup

The Dead Weather - I Cut Like A Buffalo

Wanda Jackson feat. Jack White - Thunder on the Mountain

The White Stripes - White Moon

Tune in next Wednesday at 8 pm for our "Before They Were Famous" show.

Off Topic: Some Cool Crosswalk Ads and a Birthday Twitter Quest

Today I got my first ever request for a blog post, sort of.  My advertising instructor was showing the class a list of crosswalk ads that I had sent him, and they asked if I could post them on my blog, so I did.  You're welcome, guys.  I'm just going to put a few of my favourites on here and a link to the rest.

 

Click here to see the rest, and other interesting stuff.

On a side-note, today is my birthday (slightly exciting, though not earth-shattering, we all have 'em) and I've gone on a Twitter quest to get celebrity birthday shout outs, just for fun, see what I can get.  My main goal for the day is to get a shout out from Gordon Ramsay.  So far I gotten a traditional "Happy Birthday!" from Frankie Muniz and a not-so-traditional "Have some balls on your B day bitch" from Danny DeVito.  I'll let you guys know if anything else comes up.  To keep with Behind the Blog tradition, here's a video that connects this off-topic post to music somehow.  Danny DeVito as Frank Reynolds, on my favourite TV show, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, playing the drums.  For some reason his line at the end is in Spanish, just roll with it.  If you haven't seen It's Always Sunny, you probably should.

UPDATE (4:55 pm, Jan 31)
My celebrity birthday tweet goal has been reached.  At 4:52 pm, central time, I received the following message from the one and only Gordon Ramsay.

"Damn happy happy birthday x"

I would like to thank Mr. Ramsay for helping me achieve my goal, and proving that being annoyingly persistent pays off.

UPDATE (5:13 pm, Jan 31)
Comedian Baron Vaughn is the latest to add to my collection of celebrity birthday tweets, with a classic pun, "You panderer! Happy Bidet."

UPDATE (2:21 pm, Feb 1)
This one has a bit of a story to it.  I had tweeted Baron Vaughn at the same time as Daily Show writer/comedian Rory Albanese, Rob Riggle and ex-Daily Show-turned-Conan writer Rob Kutner, asking them to find funny ways of saying happy birthday (hence the "panderer" comment from Vaughn).  This morning, Albanese sent a tweet to  Riggle, Kutner and Vaughn saying "Holy crap! We missed @jediger Birthday! Let's all meet at our secret location and plan something."  To which Kutner replied, "Umm, hello? I've been sitting inside this cake in a thing for 48 hours now?"  So if you'll excuse me, I have to go cut a comedian out of a cake.