The Dead Pants

I know I've mentioned Die Toten Hosen on this blog before (here's the post to prove it), but I wanted to put up a few of their videos because they're still one of my favorite bands in any language. Their name, as the title of this blog indicates, means "The Dead Pants," but "toten Hosen" can also mean that nothing's going on somewhere (maybe like "the boondocks" in English?).

When I was looking around the internet doing "research" for this post, I also came across this. It's got a good general overview of the band and it's in Spanish. It also seems that they actually came to Costa Rica in 2009! I wish I had known about it, but then again, I'm not sure I'd have gone, since my concert-going days seem to largely be a thing of the past.

Anyhow, here's the video I put up in the other post, for "Steh auf, wenn du am Boden bist," which means "Get up when you're on the ground." It's actually a pretty motivating song, and I played it in my German class this evening. My students seemed to like it:

But wait, that's not all! Here's "Walkampf," a sort of play on words that literally means "Whale-Fight." It's definitely one of my Top 5 German Punkisch-Rock songs featuring a bagpipe. It's not necessarily got a positive message or anything, but it's fun to listen to and the video's pretty cool, too:

This one definitely doesn't have much of a message at all, except for that the Bayern M�nchen football team is crap. Die Toten Hosen are from D�sseldorf and they're big fans of the local team, so the chorus says, "So many things can happen, so many things can occur, only one thing I know 100% for sure: never in my life would I go to Bayern!":

And they even have some pretty good songs in English! This is one of my favorites:

So, there's a very basic primer to this group. If you like the songs, I'm sure you can find more just by following the YouTube links at the end of each video, or you can also go to their website to find more information about them.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

More GNR

A sign I saw in Portugal.

I know I wrote about Guns N' Roses a few weeks ago for the 20th anniversary of the Use Your Illusion albums, but they've come up a few more times lately and I thought I'd mention them. 

First of all, thanks to Eric for tipping me off about this article called "Sweet Pie of Mine." Apparently Axl's been packing on the pounds recently, although who really knows. In the pictures he's wearing a big yellow raincoat, which I can't imagine would be very flattering for anybody. Although it may be just an unfortunate picture angle, the coat does make him look creepy, if not necessarily fat. 

Also, I recently happened upon this article from a series in Decibel called "Justify Your Shitty Taste." It defends Chinese Democracy, the latest Guns N' Roses album, which came out in 2008. I wrote a post with a much briefer statement of support back in 2009, and it was nice to know that I wasn't alone in my sentiments. Obviously, the current incarnation of the band hasn't got all the original members, but I definitely agree with the author that it was actually a good album that was doomed from the get-go because it could never live up to the expectations that had built up over so many years. As one of the article's commentators said, if you want to hear Appetite for Destruction again, go listen to Appetite for Destruction (and keep in mind that Appetite is one of my top 3 albums of all time).

Anyhow, that's it for today--I've got an appetite for some Rooibos tea, so I'm gonna cook up a cup. Thanks for reading, and have a good one!

Another picture, this one promoting a GNR tribute band in Spain.
"Gansos y Rosas" means "Geese and Roses."

Your Challenge, If You Should Choose To Accept It...

I DARE you to try to find something about this video that isn't awesome:
(Note: "Like all good things, it must eventually come to an end, and that isn't awesome" doesn't count) 

You're Welcome.

Ouwraight Poudafinga!

About five or six years ago my brother Paul went to Australia for a while. I only say "my brother Paul" to set the stage, and so you know his name. I've not got any other brothers. Anyhow, I think Paul was in Australia escaping the law or hunting wallabies or something (I guess I truly am not my brother's keeper), but the gist of it is that he was gone for a year or two. He did come down/up to Costa Rica for my wedding, though, which is pretty great, considering that he had to fly around 138 hours to get here, and he had to layover in Atlanta three times for some reason.

OK, I jest a bit. But he did go to Australia for a while and he did come to our wedding, and when he got here, he gave me an mp3 CD of various music. One of the albums that was on it was Tea & Sympathy by Bernard Fanning. There are about four things that seem a little weak about the album title and the singer's name, but I assure you that it's a great album and has become one of my favorites. My favorite song on that album is probably "Sleeping Rough," but since it's not got a video, here's the video for "Songbird," so you can have something to look at (you'll have to watch it on YouTube, since embedding has been disabled).

Good stuff, right? So I told Paul I really liked this guy's music, and he told me about Powderfinger*, Fanning's band. Apparently they're from Brisbane, which is really close to where Paul was living/ hiding out. He mentioned that he should let me listen to some of their albums, since he had a few, but we kept forgetting about it every time we were together in Colorado. So I started checking them out more by myself on the "Internet." If you've not used it before, it's a really neat place for music and stuff. I'm really liking Powderfinger, so I thought I'd share this nice video from their last album (from 2009):

It's a great song, a great video, great lyrics... all in all, it's pretty, um, "lovely"(?) Is that what Australians say, or is that British people? Lucy, you're the only Australian I know: can I get a little help here?

Anyhow, I'd highly recommend both Fanning and Powderfinger if you're looking for some good music. Unfortunately, they're no longer together, but they did leave quite a few good songs and albums to check out.

Thanks for reading, and keep your eyes open for more Blogtoberfest to come!


*Powderfinger: OK, maybe "Powderfinger" is some kind of drug reference, an Australian slang word, or an Australian slang word referring to drugs, but did anyone else think of skiing and powdered snow when they heard this name? Or is it just me because I come from Colorado?

Using My Illusions

I took this picture in Las Vegas at the beginning of this year. It demonstrates the awesome
staying power of Guns N' Roses' Use Your Illusion albums... and trampy wedding dresses.
Stephanie Seymour would be proud.

Mike recently pointed out that September 17th was the 20th anniversary of Guns N' Roses' albums Use Your Illusion I and II. Rather than wallowing in self-pity because I'm getting older, and rather than mourning and my lost childhood/ youth/ innocence/ hair, I decided to be positive and say what I like best about these memorable albums. But just as a disclaimer, I still prefer Appetite. As long as we're clear on that, I can talk about how great the Illusions are.

Use Your Illusion I

I guess I was introduced to these albums a bit late, since I bought them when I was in Germany as an exchange student in 1998. I know I'd heard some of the songs before, but I was pretty late getting on the album train, and most of the music I had until about 1993 was on cassettes that I recorded while listening to radio. We didn't have cable, and the internet didn't exist yet in any comprehensible form, either. We had to work hard for our entertainment in the early 90s.

In any case, I believe I bought these two albums at a Saturn store in Hannover, Germany in 1998, and listened to them over and over on my Discman. At first I preferred UYI II over I, but within a few years I'd switched and started to prefer I. It's hard to argue with; It's got "November Rain," the better version of "Don't Cry," and the lyrics "I ain't superstitious but I know when something's wrong" (from "Garden of Eden"). I also had a long period where I was into "Bad Apples," calling it the "quintessential distilled version of a GNR song" or some such nonsense. It is a good and underrated song, though. But the best point on the album is certainly on "November Rain."

At seven minutes and nine seconds into the song, Slash begins the first note of his second solo in this song. Based on that one note, around 10 years ago I came up with a theory based on the excellence of that note. The theory is called, simply, "The 7:09 Theory." I've also been known to shoot my mouth off and say that this is "the greatest moment ever in music" and that "everything before it led up to it, and everything after this note was just music going downhill." Sure, I'll stand by those statements.

Use Your Illusion II

As I said before, I've gone back and forth regarding which of these albums I like better, and I'm currently in a II phase. It's just got such a jam-packed opening ("Civil War," "14 Years," "Yesterdays," and even "Knockin' On Heaven's Door"), the likes of which is unlikely to be found on another album (except maybe U2's The Joshua Tree, but the three songs there sound too similar anyhow). Plus, it's also got the under-appreciated songs "Breakdown" and "Locomotive," as well as "Estranged," which, despite its weird, dolphin-infested video, is a great song. The only down note seems to be "My World," but since it's such a bizarre track, we can almost write it off as an Axl rant instead of an actual GNR song.

II doesn't have anything as memorable as 7:09 into "November Rain," but it does have one thing that I think is really great, weird, and hilarious. On the song "Pretty Tied Up," which is possibly about a dominatrix, the perils of rock n' roll decadence, and/or finding money in the street, there's a strange line near the end of the song. After Axl sings "It's days like this that push me over the brinks," a deeper voice comes on and says "Kool Ranch Dressing." That didn't make sense when I first heard it, so I looked to the lyrics sheet in the liner notes. On the lyrics, it said "Cool and stressing" but then literally underneath that, it said "(Pronounced: Kool Ranch Dressing)". I just remember reading that on a train from Hannover to Munich and being blown away, since neither the original line, nor the attempt to explain the "correct" pronunciation, made any sense whatsoever. Obviously, I was dealing with Advanced Rock Music. And it's been a great ride ever since.

So, that's it for now. If you liked or like those albums, feel free to go to the comments section to chime in. Thanks for reading, and be sure to check back in 2031 for the 40th anniversary blog post!

And OK, sure, why not:

The Wall

"We don't need no education"??

"We don't need no thought control"??

"No dark sarcasm in the classroom"??

"Teachers leave them kids alone!"??

It looks like I'm going to have to make some drastic changes to tomorrow's lesson plans.

Although I'll still probably promote the same meat eaten : pudding allowed ratio.

Wasted Years

It's interesting that a lot of thoughts, conversations, and social interactions I've been having lately have involved becoming older. It's mostly been a coincidence, though. In any case, in class yesterday one of my students did a presentation on heavy metal culture. It was pretty interesting, especially to see most of the classmates' reactions to the mere idea of heavy metal. Most assumed it was satanic, even without having heard any heavy metal ever before. At the end of the presentation the student played a song by Iron Maiden called "Wasted Years" and led an activity involving the lyrics. It was actually pretty spot-on in terms of what I've been thinking about lately, and while Iron Maiden does have their skeleton-corpse mascot Eddie, it's hard to argue that there's anything satanic or even dark about the lyrics to this song. In fact, it's pretty optimistic. Have a look at the video:

Iron Maiden - Wasted Years por Pacotosman

The general feeling of nostalgia can hardly be summed up better than through long-haired rockers wearing 80s-style short shorts and playing soccer. Here are the lyrics if you're interested:

IRON MAIDEN - WASTED YEARS

From the coast of gold, across the seven seas
I'm travelling on, far and wide
But now it seems
I'm just a stranger to myself
And all the things I sometimes do
It isn't me but someone else

I close my eyes and think of home
Another city goes by in the night
Ain't it funny how it is
You never miss it 'til it's gone away
And my heart is lying there
And will be 'til my dying day

(Chorus)

So understand
Don't waste your time
Always searching for those wasted years
Face up...make your stand
And realize you're living in the golden years

Too much time on my hands
I got you on my mind
Can't ease this pain, so easily
When you can't find the words to say
It's hard to make it through another day
And it makes me want to cry
And throw my hands up to the sky

(Chorus)

Well, that's it for now. Thanks for reading, and be sure not to waste your years!

Killer Killers Videos

I wanted to post this Killers video for "Spaceman" because it's great:

This video captures the general aesthetic I was going for when I participated in the Mr. FCHS competition quite a few years ago (I represented the school newspaper and sang a strange version of "Louie Louie" for the "talent" section, although I didn't have enough of a budget for so many masks, chandeliers, and a four-story stage). I actually thought I had posted this video before, but I can't seem to find it on my blog. If you've already seen it, that's fine, but just so you know, the only reason I use this blog is so that I can have a depository of videos available to me at all times!

I definitely think I've also posted this video for "When You Were Young" before, but I can't seem to find the post where I mentioned it, either, so here it is again:

It reminds me a bit of Berl�n de San Ram�n, although I don't think I looked that cool at my wedding...

Oh, and one quick question: If you play guitar in a rock band and you have big, bushy, curly hair, are you required to be shirtless and wear a leather vest, or is it just some sort of informal pact that compels you to do so? Just wondering.

Shakira

I know that for a while now, many of you have been asking--well, "shamelessly begging" is probably a more appropriate word choice--for me to do a blog post about Shakira. So, here you go.

After living in Costa Rica for almost 5 years, I should probably understand Shakira's Spanish lyrics better, but I don't. My only consolation is that I can't understand her English lyrics very well, either. I'm wondering, though, why she makes English and Spanish versions of much of her material (yes, I know the answer is "more market, more money," but artistically, I don't really get the point).

I remember 11 or 12 years ago, when I was an exchange student in Germany, we saw the video for her song "Wherever, Whenever":

I've got a couple of things to say about this video:

1. Sure, she's very pretty, but I guess I'm one of those guys who's just not turned on by those weird gyrations. To paraphrase Seinfeld, it's like a full-body dry heave.

2. "Lucky that my breasts are small and humble / So you don't confuse them with mountains" may be some of the stupidest lyrics ever sung in English, and I'm including songs by Raffi here.

3. No one likes the pan flute.

Still, after seeing this video, I believe I had a conversation with my friend Christa, who assured me that both Shakira and Ricky Martin were much more sophisticated and "deeper" in Spanish, but something had gotten lost in the translation. I had to listen to them in Spanish, I was told.

And I think she was right; Shakira is better in Spanish, especially if you don't understand Spanish. Maybe it's something about her beats or rhythms that loan themselves to being accompanied by Spanish lyrics, but it just seems better. Check out these two recent examples, "Loba"/"She Wolf" and "Rabiosa." First, the Spanish version of "Loba":

And now the English version:

Do you see what I mean? In the first one, you're somewhat distracted by a pretty girl, and you quietly wonder to yourself if she'll accidentally snap her spine dancing like that. But in the English version, you can understand the lyrics, and you just think, "Hmm, this song is kind of stupid."

Let's look at Exhibit B, "Rabiosa":

And here it is in English:

So, yes, exact same video. The weirdest thing about this song is the lyrics; they've translated "Rabiosa" as "Rabiosa," "boca" as "boca," and "Oye mami" as "Oye mami." Maybe someone's taken the hint that her songs are better in Spanish, and so the English versions are just gradually becoming Spanish versions, one word at a time.

In any case, here's my favorite Shakira song and video, which as far as I know, is only in Spanish:

So, there's your Shakira post. Now shut your bocas.

Robyn

Lately I've been enjoying Robyn's latest album, Body Talk. I got it as an Amazon download, and it's got some great tracks. However, I'd not seen any of the videos until yesterday, when I came across this one:

I guess her outfit and haircut are a bit unfortunate, but her dancing's actually pretty great, and the song's as good as any Swedish girlydancepop that I've ever heard. So hopefully it'll make your Sunday a bit better!

300-Word Music Review Hat Trick: Rise Against, Radiohead, and R.E.M.

This, along with all the pictures in this post, are obviously taken of me looking at
itunes, and therefore a bit crappy. I kind of like this one, though.

These three groups have a couple things in common, among them the fact that they all start with the letter R, and they all recently released an album that I�m having trouble coming to terms with. Instead of just thinking about them, I�m putting down three quick reviews and commentaries on these albums. I�d love to hear what you think if you�ve listened to any of these groups� new offerings.

Rise Against: Endgame

I got this album from amazon.com. It came with a digital booklet, which is basically a PDF of the liner notes. That went a long way to helping me appreciate this album, since I�m normally horrible at understanding lyrics. (Another interesting point from the liner notes: Apparently this album was recorded in Fort Collins? Who knew?) 

Sonically, this album is in the same vein as the group�s album Appeal to Reason. I must say that I really like Appeal, and although that may immediately mark me as a sell-out or a �Lite� version of a Rise Against fan, so be it. It�s never been my aspiration to be a hardcore fan of this group. Where this album differs from Appeal, though, is in its lack of constant musical hooks. All of the songs on Endgame are very competent and sound good, but there are only one or two points where a specific song pulls me in. With Appeal to Reason, that happened on almost every song, and the hooks were different enough to help me separate each song into an individual entity. Endgame flows well from song to song and is better appreciated as a unit.

For me the highlight of this album is a spoken word segment on �Survivor Guilt� (which says a lot, since spoken word overlays and skits are often the stupidest part of some albums). Apparently, the dialogue is from the movie Catch-22, which I�ve somehow never seen, despite the novel being my favorite book. One man says, �It�s better to die on your feet than to live on your knees,� to which the other responds, �You have it backwards; It�s better to live on your feet than to die on your knees.� I think I�ll spend the rest of the day thinking about that, now.

Radiohead: King of Limbs

I�ve had a small email �conversation� with my brother Paul in response to these albums. His comment on Limbs was that since it�s a digital release, maybe it�s not being held to the same standards as a widely-released, conventional album. He compared it to NIN�s Ghosts, saying that they seemed more experimental. I think he was right on.

I�ve listened to this album at least 10 times, and each time it�s been underwhelming. It�s the musical equivalent of Costa Rican cuisine: You�re hungry, so you hotly anticipate it, and it looks good from afar. When you sit down to consume it, it�s not quite what you expected. After all, you�ve tried Mexican tacos and they were great, so what are these weird, fried cylinders that they call tacos? (Track 2, �Morning Mr Magpie,� is the taco.) And what�s with all this damn rice? Plain, white rice (Tracks 1, 4, 6, and 7, �Bloom,� �Feral,� �Codex,� and �Give Up The Ghost,� respectively)?? Well, that depressing, defeatist rice is what holds the meal together. It�s basically filling. It�ll keep you alive if necessary, but it�s not going to do it with any pomp or circumstance.

The possible highlight is track 3 (�Little By Little,� aka a surprisingly tasty tamal prepared only for a special occasion), but it�s so overshadowed by all the rice and the raw, chopped cabbage that you�ve previously forced down, that you hardly notice that it�s good. And to finish, there�s a mediocre dessert (obviously, coconut flan or if you�re lucky, arroz con leche; that�s �Separator,� which is partially only good because it�s got so much sugar added to it, which makes a good contrast to the previously salty offerings).

It�s not bad, but this is surely Radiohead�s most unremarkable album (and yes, I�m including Pablo Honey and Amnesiac).

R.E.M.: Collapse Into Now

Full Disclosure: R.E.M. is likely my favorite band. But so are Guns N� Roses and Radiohead. Because of that, I�m likely holding R.E.M. to an unrealistically-high standard. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this album, but not as much as I hoped I would.

There seems to be a general consensus that the band�s preceding album, Accelerate, was great. I form part of that consensus. It picked you up right at the beginning and carried you all the way to the end. Collapse starts off strong with �Discoverer� and keeps the momentum going through track 2, but by track 3, ��Berlin,� it�s already winded (although I�m willing to forgive it, since I heartily endorse umlauts in almost any form).

Then there are a couple of songs that don�t really stand out. By the time you get to track 7, �Mine Smell Like Honey,� you�re ready for an up-tempo song. It delivers, although the chorus comes out a bit nasal and strange. The following track, �Walk It Back,� literally walks back the momentum that the previous track just spent so much effort building up. Two other good songs follow, and then you�re at the final two songs. The last two, �Me, Marlon Brando, And I� and �Blue� are OK, but they seem to be going for a strong, melodic finish � la Automatic For The People, but neither of these two songs are the type of song I�d ever consciously put on a playlist, because they simply aren�t interesting.

Well, that�s my R.E.M. fangirl rant, so you can take it or leave it. The album is good, but if you�re looking to get into R.E.M., check out Automatic For The People, Accelerate, or even their recent live offering, Live at the Olympia, which has a nice mix of their newer and more traditional sounds.

So, there you have it: three 300-word reviews, a musical criticism hat trick, if you will. If you have heard any of these albums and agree or disagree, I�d love to hear your comments. Thanks for reading, and have a great day!