Pavement - Brighten the Corners (reissue)

One of my favorite Pavement albums, now with an entire extra disc plus of extra material. Check it out here.

Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks

One of my favorite albums of the year. Former Pavement frontman Malkmus & co. really bust out the extended jams on this one. Former Sleater/ Kinney drummer Janet Wiess really shines on this Indie-Hippie classic. Check it out here

If my rap's soup my beats is stock

I can't believe I had never seen this video

Look Out For the Bull

What Are We Talkin About......Practice?

...an oldie but goodie...

Is You Tweakin'?

Little Furry Ninja

Yes We Can!

a thousand words

Wicked Lester

My Shit's Fucked Up (part II)

Well my computer has decided to not turn on anymore. The Black Giraffe was in town last week and we went to Super Cool's for a night of shenanigans. I shut off my computer before we left just to give it a little break, and now it doesn't want to turn back on. Well maybe it wants too, but it can't. Two of it's three fans will give a quick spin when I press the power button the first time, and then nothing until I unplug the plug and insert it into another socket, and then again with the one quick spin. Grrr.
So I now am on the black-back-up. It's good for slowly checking email and stuff, but all of my programs and music and pretty much everything is on my computer. Grrr.



Red Hot Chili Peppers - Minor Thing

The Metal Police

Well the Thrash Metal Police have caught up with me once again. They weren't happy about my posts on Vio-Lence and Forbidden. I'm very surprised about this. I mean thrash is such a lost genre, especially in America. These are bands that put out 3 or 4 albums, got to tour the US a couple times (maybe a small Eurpean tour), and then break up after like 5 or 6 years. And this all happened 20 years ago. A lot of these cds are out of print. I would think that they would want the exposure. Fuckers.

Tenacious D - The Metal

Copyright Infringement

Well I received my first "copyright infringement" email from box.net (the site I use for hosting). Apparently the forces that be got their panties in a bunch when they noticed that I was sharing "Feel Good Inc" by the Gorillaz and "Fabulous Disaster" by Exodus. Pretty wild seeing as how my blog is only about 2 weeks old and there are only like 3 people who read it. It makes me think of how much money they are spending searching for evil infringers like myself. Money that could be going to the underpaid artists who they claim to be 'protecting.' Especially Exodus- I mean seriously, they were never super-popular even in their hey-day 20 years ago. They should be psyched that I'm giving them exposure in this day and age. And I had 2 other songs up by them at the time, but I guess I wasn't infringing hard enough on them. I'm a poor infringer.
And the Gorillaz are goddamn cartoons- who do they have judging my infringdom...Harvey Birdman?
This does sort of explain my disappearing posts earlier this week, although the emails were from box.net and not blogspot. Apparently they're in cahoots.
I love that word..."cahoots."

related:
Eric Idle - The FCC Song

that new album there

http://schoolofrock2007.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2007-07-05T16%3A45%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=15

About halfway down the page you'll see it

Talk like a Pirate Day

Yaarrgh - It be that day again me hardies!

Download:
A Pirates Life For Me

Count Fistula

Thanks to the Black Giraffe and Dr. Q

Where did you go?

So my last couple of posts have completely disappeared, and I have no idea how or why. They've been completely wiped off of my blog- even the categories I put them under (like Thrash Metal Thursday) have vanished. Well, if anyone missed out on the De La Soul and Exodus songs I put up, shoot me an email and I'll put them back up.

Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Where Did You Go?
Sonic Youth - Disappearer

Classy

Edward Lodewijk "Eddie" Van Halen

"Dimebag" Darrell Lance Abbott

I just found out about this neat little tid-bit abut Dimebag Darrell & Eddie Van Halen. Real cool, classy thing for uncle Eddie to do to honor Dime...

"Some months before his murder, Darrell had found out from one of his industry contacts that Eddie Van Halen and Charvel guitars were going to produce a limited-edition series of guitars bearing Van Halen's trademark tape-striping. Van Halen himself would be individually taping each guitar and they would also come with a picture of him doing so and a certificate of authenticity. According to Eddie, Darrell called him on the phone and asked if he could purchase one before they became available. Eddie replied that the next time he saw Darrell, he would have one of the guitars with him and would stripe it in Darrell's presence as a gift. Before they could meet again, Darrell was murdered. Eddie recounted this story when he spoke at Darrell's funeral, then, to the surprise of those in attendance, he brought out the black and yellow tape-striped guitar seen on the back cover of Van Halen II (which Darrell had said was his favorite guitar of Eddie's) and laid it in Darrell's casket to be buried with him. [this paragraph plagurized from wikipedia.org]"
Source: gastrologica.com

Van Halen - Lighting Up The Sky

Pantera - Domination

NWA 101

Well, it's come to my attention that my good friend Super Cool was absent the day we all learned about NWA in junior high, so I needed to put a little sumthin sumthin up here for him...a cliff note sampler on probably the most important group in hip-hop history.

from wikipedia:
N.W.A, also known as Niggaz With Attitude, was a Compton, California based hip-hop group widely considered one of the seminal acts of the gangsta-rap sub-genre. Active from 1986 to 1991, the group endured controversy due to the explicit nature of their lyrics. They were subsequently banned from many mainstream U.S. radio stations and even at times prevented from touring - yet the group has still sold over 9 million units in the U.S. alone. Their second album, Straight Outta Compton, marked the beginning of the new gangsta rap era as the production and the social commentary in their lyrics were revolutionary within the genre. Although largely unknown at the group's inception, rappers Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Eazy-E and MC Ren would all go on to be platinum-selling stars as solo artists.

Compton-based drug dealer Eazy-E began Ruthless Records with Jerry Heller. Ruthless released N.W.A. and the Posse in 1987 with Macola Records. N.W.A was still in its developing stages, and only credited on four of the eleven tracks, notably the uncharacteristic electro hop record "Panic Zone", "8 Ball", and "Dopeman", which first brought together (on wax) Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and Eazy-E. Also included was Eazy-E's solo record "Boyz-n-the Hood". In 1988, rapper MC Ren
joined the group.

N.W.A released Straight Outta Compton in 1988. With its famous opening salvo of three songs, the group reflected the rising anger of the urban youth ("Straight Outta Compton"), violently protested police brutality and racial profiling ("Fuck tha Police"), and painted the worldview of the inner-city youth ("Gangsta Gangsta"). While the group was later credited with pioneering the burgeoning subgenre of gangsta rap, N.W.A. in fact referred to their music as "reality rap".

Dr. Dre and DJ Yella, as High Powered Productions, composed the beats for each song, with Dre making occasional rapping appearances. Ice Cube and, to a lesser extent, MC Ren, wrote the lyrics. "Fuck tha Police", perhaps the group's most notorious song, brought them into conflict with various law enforcement agencies. Milt Ahlerich, an assistant director of the FBI, sent a letter to Ruthless and its parent company Priority Records advising the rappers that "advocating violence and assault is wrong and we in the law enforcement community take exception to such action". This letter can still be seen at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. Policemen refused to provide security for the group's concerts, hurting their plans to tour. Nonetheless, the FBI's letter only served to draw more publicity to the group. Straight Outta Compton was also one of the first albums to adhere to the new Parental Advisory label scheme, then in its early stages: the now-iconic label then only consisted of "WARNING: Moderate impact coarse language and/or themes". However, the taboo nature of N.W.A.'s music was the greatest part of its mass appeal. The media coverage compensated for N.W.A.'s virtual lack of airplay and their album eventually went double platinum.

One month after Straight Outta Compton, Eazy-E's solo debut was released. Eazy-Duz-It was dominated by Eazy's persona - MC Ren, appearing on two songs, was the only guest rapper - but behind the scenes it was a group effort. Music was handled by Dr. Dre and DJ Yella, and the lyrics were largely written by Ren, with contributions from Ice Cube and The D.O.C.

Ice Cube left in late-1989 over royalty disputes, having written 40% of the "Compton" album himself but not getting fair share. He wasted little time putting together his solo debut, 1990's AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, but avoided mentioning his former labelmates.

N.W.A's next release was some five months later, the EP 100 Miles and Runnin', but would not be equally diplomatic. They alluded to Ice Cube's departure in its eponymous single, stating the group "we started out with too much cargo/so I'm glad we got ridda Benedict Arnold". Also heard on the EP (which also found its way on Efil4zaggin) was "Real Niggaz", a full-blown diss on Cube where the remaining members accuse him of cowardice, and question his authenticity, longevity and originality: "How the fuck you think a rapper lasts/With your ass sayin shit, that was said in the past/Yo, be original, your shit is sloppy/Get off the dick, you motherfucking carbon-copy." The song "100 Miles and Runnin'" is also notable for being Dr. Dre's final uptempo record, which had been a common feature of late-80s hip hop.

The group's second full-length release, 1991's Efil4zaggin ("Niggaz4Life" spelled backwards), re-established the group in the face of Ice Cube's continued solo success. The album is considered by many Dr. Dre's finest production work, and heralded the beginning of the "G-Funk era". It also showed a clear animosity towards their former member, and derogatory references to Ice Cube are found in several songs.

from "Straight Outta Compton"
NWA - Straight Outta Compton
NWA - Fuck Tha Police
NWA - Gangsta Gangsta

from "100 Miles and Runnin"
NWA - 100 Miles and Runnin

from "Efil4zaggin"
NWA - Real Niggaz

from "Eazy-Duz-It"
Eazy-E - Still Talkin
Eazy-E - Eazy Duz It
Eazy-E - We Want Eazy

Bonus request:
Eminem - Never Enough

My Shit's Fucked Up

Well I was hoping to put a couple samples from the rifftastic new Metallica album, Death Magnetic, but I'm having some hosting problems. (Sorry Dave). But let me assure you that it truly harks back to the glory days of Metallica. It may not be as good or classic as say Kill 'em All, Lightning, Puppets or Justice, but the sound and energy (and speed) is as close as they've gotten in 20 years. (Holy crap it's weird to imagine that Metallica has been around for 20 years, let alone that they haven't been very good in 20 years....man I'm getting old). As I had hoped, super-producer Rick Rubin has has brought out the best in them, like he has for countless others like the Chili Peppers, Slayer, Danzig, Johnny Cash, Tom Petty, System of a Down, Run DMC etc etc etc. (Rubin will also be doing the new albums from U2 and ZZ Top which I'm psyched to hear).

related: Tom Brady's shit's fucked up, which doesn't bode well for the Patriots this year. Personally I'm pretty worried he'll be out for the season. It's pretty ironic that this week was the first week in 5 years that he wasn't listed probable on the Pat's injured list.

Warren Zevon - My Shit's Fucked Up

Back in the Saddle

(I am hoping) Today marks my official start into the world of blogging on a regular basis. I have nothing original to be promoting/ exposing, so for the time being I'll just be posting some shit I've been digging lately. This does of course bring up the question of why would I want to do this in the first place if I'm in a creative black-hole like I've been for the past couple of years. Well, maybe by talking about some of the stuff I think is cool, it'll jump-start my own juices.
I have been really inspired by other blogs lately, and have found out about a lot of cool shit. Hopefully if you've found me, I can do the same for you...

Aerosmith - Back in the Saddle