Just Say 4/20 - the repost
This is a repost from 4/20 a couple of years ago. My thinking goes along the following lines:
- I always kinda liked this post;
- I can't be arsed to dig up five or six more songs about weed;
- If you're really celebrating 4/20, you probably don't remember I've posted this before.
Also note that Nirvana's "Marijuana" is likewise known by the name "Moist Vagina."~~~~~
I’ve been more or less responsible all day, so it’s time to go ahead and roll out (roll up?) some music and celebrate 4/20.
I know a couple of people who are actually taking the day off of work tomorrow and plan on celebrating the day as if it’s some sort of religious holiday. I’m not that dedicated.
In case you don’t know what 4/20 is (and if
I know, there’s no reason
you shouldn’t know!), High Times magazine can help expand your mind: “420 is not so much a time or place as it is a state of mind. The original story of 420 begins with five fellow students – all of whom assumed the
nom de pot ‘Waldo’ – who met after school at the appointed hour to smoke some of California’s finest, and occasionally searched for a hidden pot field they’d heard about in the hills outside town.” Click
here for the very informative “History of 4/20” timeline.
For today’s post, I’ve gathered a variety of appropriately themed music; I’m sure there are some classics I’ve, ahem, forgotten. Be safe and know that I am not endorsing any sort of illegal activity.
Smoke Two Joints.mp3 ~ Sublime
Sweet Leaf (live).mp3 ~ Ozzy
30 Days in the Hole.mp3 ~ Humble Pie
Sweet Leaf.mp3 ~ Black Sabbath
Hits from the Bong.mp3 ~ Cypress Hill
Let’s Get High.mp3 ~ Dr. Dre
Marijuana.mp3 ~ Nirvana
Labels: classic rock, grunge, hip-hop, ska-punk
Beachfront In Reno
In case you haven’t been keeping up with Sublime, the band’s name has been coming up a lot lately. Unfortunately, it’s been in the context of a courtroom as drummer Bud Gaugh and bassist Eric Wilson have battled with Brad Nowell’s estate over use of the Sublime name.
To quickly bring you up to speed, Wilson, Gaugh, and singer/guitarist Rome Ramirez performed last month as Sublime at the Smokeout Festival in California. They were immediately hit with a threatened
lawsuit from Nowell’s estate. “Out of respect for Brad's wishes," Nowell's representatives said in a statement, "we have always refused to endorse any group performing as ‘Sublime,’ and now with great reluctance feel compelled to take the appropriate legal action to protect Brad's legacy."
Despite efforts from Wilson and Gaugh, earlier this month a Los Angeles judge shut down an effort by the new lineup of Sublime to perform under the name.
Regardless of pending suits around Sublime, the two founding members have been staying busy with other projects. They worked together in the Long Beach Dub Allstars, and Bud Gaugh has just released an album,
After the Quake, with his latest band, Del Mar.
Del Mar formed in 2007 when Mike Martinez and Matt Bode, who had been involved in the Reno music scene, decided to start a new band. Nicole Hutcheson, Gaugh’s wife, found out about the project and also wanted to participate. When the band needed a drummer, it was only natural to include Gaugh.
The music combines the sound of the harder Sublime songs with traditional surf music and just a touch of ska-punk. “I want to have an arsenal of punk music for the young fans and surf music for the older fans,” Bode says.
The band has foregone the usual record industry hassles, choosing to distribute the album independently, and taking a direct-to-fan and DIY approach in marketing and touring. For information on getting the disk, click over to Del Mar’s
website. And on an unrelated, but cool, note, the album’s cover art is by Dennis “Lil Daddy” Roth, son of legendary hot rod cartoonist Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. Check these guys out.
Reno.mp3 Labels: new stuff, ska-punk
Chewing on Tinfoil
Is it too late for third wave or too soon for fourth wave? Either way, it’s good to know ska-punk survives. I can’t put a finger on what it is that appeals to me about ska and ska-punk but doesn’t appeal to me about real reggae. But that’s how it goes and I guess I’ll have to live with that shortcoming.
I recently got an email and a CD from an Irish ska-punk band called Chewing on Tinfoil. As they say in the song “Hating Every Minute,” “We sing these songs like they’re our own / n’ it’s nothing new, oh yeah we know.”
These guys aren’t reinventing the wheel here; they’re cut from the same cloth as the last wave of ska-sters, i.e. Buck-O-Nine, Reel Big Fish, et al. But you know, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. They make infectious, poppy music, combining ska and rockabilly with a little bit of punk, leaving out the horns and sometimes playing up the twangy guitar. Ska-billy? Call it what you will – this is fun music, meant for listening while drinking a pint during these ruthlessly hot summer days.
Chewing on Tinfoil formed in late 2003, in Dublin. Just last month they released their debut album
Get Rich or Try Dyin’ (and I swear I just now noticed that says “try dyin’.” ha) The album, the band says, was recorded in a 150-year-old cottage built on the burial site of an excommunicated, fornicating monk. They are currently touring the album around the UK, so check ‘em out if you’re in the area. And for more info on the band, the album, or the gigs, check out Chewing on Tinfoil’s
MySpace.
Hating Every Minute.mp3 Labels: new stuff, ska-punk
Bad Emma
Today’s music comes from a Miami band, via Italy. A couple of weeks ago, I was looking for some information on something going on here locally, and came across the Bad Emma MySpace. Noting they were a local rock band, I checked out their music and liked what I heard: Something on the scale between punk and ska, with some very subtle Latin influence.
I sent them a note, letting the band know that I was digging their music and asked if there was anyplace I could buy it or download or steal it, whichever. I got a note back from &rew (Andrew, who I think is the singer – band info is kind of vague) saying he is in Italy, but would send me a disk with some Bad Emma demos.
The disk arrived this weekend, I gave it a few spins, and I liked it enough that I thought you good people needed also to know about Bad Emma. The two songs I’m posting are a pretty good example of the band’s sound. “Fuck the Public” is not about misanthropy, but an indictment of the government’s seeming apathy about the public. It’s a pretty straightforward ska-punk song. “Sex Pilgrim” is a little different; it’s an acoustic, Latin-flavored song with some Italian lyrics, which I think is about a missionary who travels town-to-town trading salvation for handjobs. Although I could be wrong about that!
As a point of interest, Bad Emma took their name from anarchist
Emma Goldman, adopting as their motto one of Goldman’s most famous quotations (which she may or may not have actually said): “If I can't dance, I don't want to be in your revolution.”
Fuck the Public.mp3 Sex Pilgrim.mp3 Check out the Bad Emma
MySpace for more information and
más música.
Labels: punk, ska-punk
Just Say 4/20
I’ve been more or less responsible all day, so it’s time to go ahead and roll out (roll up?) some music and celebrate 4/20.
I know a couple of people who are actually taking the day off of work tomorrow and plan on celebrating the day as if it’s some sort of religious holiday. I’m not that dedicated.
In case you don’t know what 4/20 is (and if
I know, there’s no reason
you shouldn’t know!), High Times magazine can help expand your mind: “420 is not so much a time or place as it is a state of mind. The original story of 420 begins with five fellow students – all of whom assumed the
nom de pot ‘Waldo’ – who met after school at the appointed hour to smoke some of California’s finest, and occasionally searched for a hidden pot field they’d heard about in the hills outside town.” Click
here for the very informative “History of 4/20” timeline.
For today’s post, I’ve gathered a variety of appropriately themed music; I’m sure there are some classics I’ve, ahem, forgotten. Be safe and know that I am not endorsing any sort of illegal activity.
Smoke Two Joints.mp3 SublimeSweet Leaf (live).mp3 Ozzy Osbourne30 Days in the Hole.mp3 Humble PieSweet Leaf.mp3 Black SabbathHits from the Bong.mp3 Cypress HillLet’s Get High.mp3 Dr. DreMarijuana.mp3 NirvanaLabels: classic rock, grunge, hip-hop, ska-punk
"I haven't finished talking to me monkeys!"*
The impetus behind this post comes from hearing Ronnie James Dio on the radio earlier today. Listen to the Goldfinger song and you’ll know what the hell it is I’m talking about.
The Duran Duran Tribute Album came out in 1997 – actually we’re exactly two months short of its 10-year anniversary (Oct. 7, 1997). Surprisingly, I don’t remember a lot of hoopla surrounding its release. I was still living in California and could pick up X-treme Radio out of Las Vegas. They were big on the so-called Third Wave of ska: Reel Big Fish, Goldfinger, Buck-O-Nine, etc.
As a fan of – Second Wave? I don’t know what the 2 Tone era would be called – I got into a lot of the ska-punk stuff, too. If I remember correctly, X-treme Radio probably played a couple of tracks from this disk.
The tribute to Duran Duran is pretty much filled with ska-punk bands covering Duran Duran songs. On paper, that sounds like the worst idea ever, but in reality, it’s a fun album. One reviewer on Amazon wrote, “If you are a serious, die hard Duran Duranie, you probably won't like this (or any other tribute album dedicated to Duran Duran). However, for the rest of us, this has a bunch of creative interpretations of these great songs.”
Also, just for fun, since I’m posting Duran Duran covers, I’ve included Hole’s quick rendition of “Hungry Like the Wolf.” This comes from a 1995 recording at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. It’s not on this track, but somewhere Courtney Love refers to Duran Duran as “the most punk band ever.” I'm assuming she was kidding....
Rio.mp3 GoldfingerGirls on Film.mp3 Wesley Willis FiascoHungry Like the Wolf (live).mp3 Hole*credited to Simon LeBon
Labels: covers, punk, rock, ska-punk
I’ve been more or less responsible all day, so it’s time to go ahead and roll out (roll up?) some music and celebrate 4/20.
For today’s post, I’ve gathered a variety of appropriately themed music; I’m sure there are some classics I’ve, ahem, forgotten. Be safe and know that I am not endorsing any sort of illegal activity. 
