Happyblox

Listen.

 

Miles Davis - Herbie Hancock - Wayne Shorter - Ron Carter - tony williams
Stockholm 1963.

Iggy What?

Today Iggy Pop and the Stooges were nominated into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame along with some other bands. I was listening to 880 AM in my car today and some Rock & Roll "expert" was yammering on about how none of the bands were worthy and he could name 5 bands more deserving than the Stooges. Of course I was interested to hear who on this Godless green Earth this guy thinks could be more worthy of being in a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame than Iggy freakin' Pop? You know what this tool said? The Red Hot Chilli Peppers. This "expert" thinks that Iggy Pop is less than Flea.

Crack smoking is obviously going on here folks.

Other than one of the worst sounding live performances on television I have ever heard, I don't hate RHCP at all. Oh, and for completely ripping off a Tom Petty song... I think they were a fun band but cutting edge? Influential? To who, some garage bands kids who wound up being cops and lawyers? Look, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame needs to get back to it's roots and be what it is titled to be and I think The Stooges is a great nomination. I would love that so called expert to find this page and watch this video and tell me that Iggy Frakin' Pop doesn't deserve this.

Free.

When asked how he likes being the lead singer of AC/DC, Brian Johnson said "It's great, I get into all the gigs for free!"

Helpless

Ever feel helpless? Like you can't control a thing anymore and everything is up in the air? Me too. Good thing Neil Young has felt that way too and wrote a song about it. Here is a true gem I stumbled across on the YouTubes. The Band helps Neil Young be helpless, live. Wow. Sometimes you just need to listen to a song about being helpless to feel a little less so.

Thanks YouTube!

Tonight, after reassembling the HAPPYBOX YouTube in it's infinite wisdom decided that it would recommend a video for me that doesn't suck. In fact, it's quite good. In fact I believe it is the best in many categories only some of which would be best song from 1977 with 3 guitar solos, best live performance by a grown man in a school boy get up and it is most certainly high up there on the best live performance by any band I have ever seen. Since I was 4 at the time and my ears would have definitely bled I appreciate the rock archive being established on YouTube. I could spend hours.

Thank YouTube for a little AC/DC at midnight.

Acoustic Tuesday: 4 Less Than Likely Unplugged Goodies.

I like the rock & roll. I like it so much I spend hours sometimes searching through the Youtubes for cool versions of songs or something rare. Lately I have been finding some good acoustic numbers, some from bands you may not even think owned an acoustic guitar.

The first is Megadeth. Not a band one would initially associate with anything distortion-less even though Dave Mustain is well known as a world renowned musician. "Dred" is an interesting choice for an acoustic version too because it is slightly more "bluesy" at its core than some of their other songs.

The next is a classic unplugged song "Lake Of Fire" from Nirvana. This song kind of haunts me. It is a great example of no matter how much you strip down a good song it remains a good song.

Steve Miller is a classic Rock & Roll fixture, not to mention the best driving music ever, so an acoustic version of "The Joker" was a find I played over and over for several hours. You don't have to do that though. You can watch it once like a normal person.

Now to me The Cure was never a band that I would figure as having trouble acoustisizing anything as they use massive amounts of acoustic guitar on their albums and even throw in strings more often than not. Though they may be out a  keyboard most of the time the point remains. Never the less, I was impressed by the sound of the whole band playing acoustically and Robert Smith's voice with absolutely nothing on it sounds wonderful and rich. Check it here.

***BONUS BRAIN BALANCING VIDEO***
Since 4 music videos with no distortion or real screaming have had their say let us not forget why in fact those videos are so intriguing. It's because of the raw beauty of things like this: Bad Religion live in 1984.

Thriller Acapella Will Thrill Ya.

What can I say? Genius. Thanks glumbert and whoever this guy is!

glumbert - Thriller Acapella

"Shaft" butchered Almost Beyond Recognition.

Ladies and gentleman my hat goes off to the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain for not only covering a song I am surprised anyone over there even knows about, but for now holding the record for turning the blackest thing ever into the whitest thing ever. You may think that is easy to do, but you would be wrong. Sure, you can simply replace one stereotype with another and call it whatever you want but that's called good old fashion racism. I am talking about TRUE manipulation, handy work that in most cases is created by such fans of whatever they are "spoofing", no matter how different their version may be, or how bad in this case, it comes from a place of admiration and appreciation. Any putz can take a 50's looking white guy with a tie and give him a mic and have him rap something or alternatively have a black guy in a club get on stage and yodel. My point is no black people you know rap and no white people you know yodel... wait, is that my point? Irrelevant because I wanted to show you this clip. I think what makes it great is they have achieved the said "blackest thing ever" to said "whitest thing ever" without my feeling that it came from a negative place. Only something this honest could be this bad. You decide.

glumbert - Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain - Shaft

Electric Guitar & Video, Perfect Together.

My friend Yale's friend Ben has a company called Visionary Instruments. Check out his site here. Here is a little concoction they developed called the video guitar. The possibilities are pretty much endless.

Who Called The Latvian Ghost Busters?

Here is a cover song you may remember, this time from a Latvian band called Intars Busulis. God I love other countries as long as they are covering American culture.