Decibully @ the Bayview Brew Haus

Friday, December 18th was a rare moment in time. Like when there is a solar eclipse, or if the planets all line up for a brief moment...So what WAS this rare moment? Bryan and I got to see a concert TOGETHER for the first time in roughly 9 years. Not just any band...Decibully, one of the best bands around headlined a show at the smokey Bayview Brew Haus. Fable And The World Flat and Invade Rome joined them that night to celebrate Decibully's record release of World Travels Flat. As Invader Room played, my brother, my wife and I shared a "Java Beer" which was 1/2 coffee and half beer. It was dark, strong and pretty good. We almost looked out of place with the rest of the crowd drinking PBR and Shlitz. Fable and the World Flat opened. They weren't too bad. Had some catchy grooves here and there. I chatted with Aaron Vold of Decibully for a bit during their set. I stupidly forgot to introduce him to 82. Oh well. Invade Rome played second. They were quite forgettable, but covered Decibully's "Rid of Me At Last" which wasn't too bad. Vocals could have been better, but the overall sound was good. Decibully went on around Midnight. They opened with "World Travels Fast" off their latest album with the same name. William sounded perfect singing acapella at the beginning of the song. His voice is very soulful which makes this unique band that better. Other sounds they played off the latest album were "Live By The Lake", "Don't Believe The Hype", "If I Don't Work", "Little White Girl" and a few others. "Broken Glass" sounded amazing live. I can't even describe how the opening song from WTF blew me away. They played their single off the record as well "Somewhere in the World". They played a few classic D-Bully songs as well including "Penny Look Down", "Sing Out Sing Out Sing Out" and "Meg and Magill". My wife started to get kinda nauseous while we stood in the crowd since it was basically like standing in a completely filled ash tray. We headed out after "Meg and Magill" (which was around 1:15am). The fresh air was a wonderful welcome to the quiet streets of Bayview. As far as the new ablum is concerned, I've listened to it way too much lately. But unlike other artists, you have to turn this up loud so you can hear all of the well-detailed layers. Like a painting, Decibully is well enjoyed by listening, relaxing and taking it all in. When you see Decibully live, it's like watching art come to life. All of the notes, rhythms and vocals are the brush strokes. If you haven't seen them live, you probably should go to their myspace and check the tour dates.

Singers/Actors who need to cover Holiday songs

82 posted the most dreadful holiday songs. I totally agree. But now it's time to list some artists or actors that should release some covers for kicks and "jollys"...

Christopher Walken-12 Days of Christmas

William Shatner-Frosty the Snowman

William Shatner With John Lovett-Mr. Grinch

Dr. Dre with Jimmy Buffett-Deck The Halls

Tenacious D-Feliz Navidad

Rivers Cuomo & Henry Rollins-Jingle Bell Rock

Happy Holidays!

The Fall-The End of Madrid. & The Last show @ McCaullifes Pub

I knew it wouldn't last forever. Almost from day one, I knew deep down Madrid. was a downward spiral. Saturday, the 5th of December, we called it quits at our last gig in (of all places) Racine. A few weeks before the event, Alex the bassist announced (after Nick, the guitarist couldn't practice a day) that he was going to leave the group to play in a metal/prog/rock project. Nick and I were actually pretty pleased because we knew he was irritated for quite some time. Nick wrote 98 percent of the songs we played. Alex couldn't handle the basic bass parts that were pretty much cemented in. Nick and I didn't like having to drive out to Racine to play in dinky small bars for people who weren't even watching us (thanks to the UFC fight last Sat.) So, we were pretty stoked to finish off Madrid. But we wanted to end our year-long group on a high-note.

Saturday, we played Blank Fest 3 at McCaullife's, which went decently well. We played second after a bar-band called Rest of Yesterday. They were solid, but that's about it. Drumming was very basic, despite the guy having a very expensive set of hi-hats (which I ended up drumming on). After the first song, I got really exhausted because I hit the skins with so much intensity. After that song, I thought "man, I've got like, 9 more to go!" The rest of the set went swimmingly despite losing a drum sticks during "Oliver's Army" and breaking one on our closing song "The Fall". Overall, the night went pretty well and I thought I played the best I could. Thunder Driver was next and they were metal-esque. So obviously, my wife and I left at the drop of the first few notes.

I'll keep the blog posted on my new project with Nick and our new keys/bass player

Worst x-mas songs ever

Here are the very worst non-traditional Christmas songs ever, in no particular order:

* "Same Old Lang Syne" - Dan Fogelberg

Ok, this song is on every single year at Christmas time, but the incident in question just takes place at Christmas at a grocery store. Apparently, he has the time to go out drinking with an old flame unbeknownst to her husband. Nice one, buddy. The lyrics are just crap.

* "The Christmas Shoes" - NewSong

Seriously, shoes for his dying mother? Does she have everything else? And of course, the kid is out on the street all alone. Maybe it's Maccauley Culkin.

* "Last Christmas" - Wham!

He gave away his heart last year, just to have it thrown away. But this year, he'll give it to someone special. Didn't he do that last year? And look what happened!

* "Grown Up Christmas List" - seemingly everyone...

Yes, it's so nice and selfless to ask for world peace and hunger to just vanish into the ether, but can't you do it with better lyrics? See John Lennon for tips.

* "Baby, it's Cold Outside" - specifically, the Brian Setzer version because it's especially creepy.

Ok, date rape is not cool. We can all agree. And basically, the female (in the sheet music, referred to as "the Mouse." The male is "The Wolf." What does THAT tell you!) wants to leave and the male attempts to talk her out of it, basically, refusing to take no for an answer.

To spare you, I'll not post mp3 links. Look 'em up yourself if you're curious.

The Twilight Vampires Are Just Plain Stupid

So this is totally unrelated to all things music, but it's getting on my nerves. The world is obsessed with the Twilight saga, as well as those series involving the emotional vampires that hardly look like some intimidating creatures of the. The main vampire character from the upcoming Twilight movie looks more like the distraught kid who just doesn't "fit" in school. I was always under the impression vampires were supposed to install fear and scare people into a run of terror. So with that in mind, I've come up with a list for your entertainment of infamous vampires that could easily take out the emotional "Edward".

The classic Dracula played by Bela Lugosi could easily frighten anyone. He's not hideous, but his eyes could scare you quickly & was hardly attractive compared to the teen vampires of today's movies and television shows.

Nosferatu. By far the scariest of monster creatures and he was made famous in SILENT movies! His face is just creepy by any standards. He's nasty, ugly and everything a so-called monster should be. The images of his silhouette on the wall with the long creepy nails is frightening! If it was possible, I'd love to see him take out the vampires in Twilight.

Count Chocula. Seriously, he's terrifying. Why? have you read the ingredients? His sugary breakfast food could easily rot out your teeth. He may not go after your neck, but he'll take out your teeth!

So there you have it. I have never read any of the Twilight books or are following the True Blood series. They can sit in the parking lot late Thursday evening awaiting for the movie to come out. I'll keep nice and warm in my warm bed.

Jazz for punks

It took me a while to get into jazz. Mostly, it was because I absorbed it thru my musical education in college. It was sorta forced upon me. I resisted for as long as I could until I was able to meet it half-way.

Being a fan of aggressive music, I thought jazz was easy-listening stuff. But if you seek it out, study its development in the 20th century, there are so many parallels of it to punk rock.

Jazz evolved from the blues in the early part of the century. White musicians - as usual - co-opted black blues and watered it down until it became rag-time, then swing and big band.

Just like how rock and roll came from the blues and became more and more sanitized as the 50s progressed to the over-indulgent 70s.

Along came be-bop. Derided as utter crap, just like punk rock 30 years later, be-bop became the counter to white jazz and eventually, the accepted true jazz form.

Be-bop begat modal jazz, represented by Miles Davis' amazing "Kind of Blue" album (released in 1959), which is the best selling jazz record of all time.

Miles eventually continued exploring modal jazz, taking it to something called "free-bop" which is some of the most aggressive jazz I've heard.

That said, here's a brief list of jazz tunes that should appeal to punks with an open mind:

John Coltrane

* "Blue Train"
* "Giant Steps"
* "Afro Blue"
* "My Favorite Things"
* "Syeeda's Song Flute"

Miles Davis

* "Seven Steps to Heaven"
* "Four"
* "Footprints"
* "ESP"

Charlie Parker

* "Bloomdido"
* "Now's the Time"
* "Yardbird Suite"
* "Chasing the Bird"

Thelonious Monk

* "Straight no Chaser"
* "Well, You Needn't"
* "I mean you"

Wayne Shorter

* "Speak no Evil"

Oliver Nelson

* "Stolen Moments"

McCoy Tyner

* "Passion Dance"

There's a Fine Line Between Keeping the Beat, & Looking Like You're Having a Seizure

I know that if a lot of drummers read this post, I'll get angry comments, flaming bottles thrown at me or perhaps egged. I'd take simply the angry comments, but with that in mind, here's my thoughts on drummers and some of the so-called "greats". For the record, I've never been a major fan of drummers like Travis Barker, Lars Ulrich (of Metallica), or that clown Joey J. from Slipknot. Why, right? They're worshipped by many drummers. Some even pray that they could develop the skills and techniques to play like their Gods. Well, this drummer prefers drummers who can be creative while still holding down the beat in a less then obnoxious way. With that, I really dislike Travis Barker. Woah! Yes, I said it. I know he survived a plane crash, & played the drums with one working hand, I just don't dig his style. Who needs to literally bang the hell out of the drum kit? really? Is it really adding much to the song? He is far from visually interesting. He just looks like he's convulsing.

Then there's drummer Lars from Metallica and Joey J. from Slipknot. Both drummers equally worshipped. They're "double bass masters" and have a massive amount of followers. Double bass drumming is silly. Especially since it sounds like a machine gun. How is this exciting. "lets see how fast we can drum!" I just can't see anything exciting about it.

In conclusion, the drummers out there can continue trying to twirl the drum stick while hitting 150 beats a minute. I'll continue hitting my drums and cymbals without trying to shatter and destroy my cymbals.