On Adele: A Brief Note

Finally connected that singer called "Adele" with an actual tune, on a radio station I wouldn't normally listen to.  Gawd she sucks.  The Youth Of Today...The YOTS...The Millennials...listen to royally shitty music.  Its like they took every electric guitar that ever existed and buried them in a field somewhere and replaced them  with a lot of overproduced bloopy sounding synthesizer noises.

As a result I, as a near-senior, an old x-hippy from the 70s, am starting to feel less guilty about exploiting them, if they're going to listen to crap like this.  When I'm 90 and they're 50 I'll fly into McDs on my jewel encrusted walker with a jet-pack attached and demand my free coffee and throw dimes on the floor when they look at me sad-eyed for a tip.

I blame cell-phones for the YOT's dissolute nature.  They give off magnetic fields (the cell phones, not the YOTs, although maybe they do too), and kids carry them around in their pants all the time and irradiate their nads.

This kind of thing could cure them:

...but I doubt they'll listen.

Titus Andronicus Is Back

This one should be a mega hit:

And this one, combined with one above, makes me think there might be a bit of drug-type influence on the album.

Still pretty good, though.  But  Patrick Stickles is the best candidate for boy genius out there these days.  Stay well , kid.  The world needs you.

Rock & Roll & Tinnitus

A couple of years ago I began to experience a persistent dizziness, as though I were walking down a floating pier that rocked up and down with the waves.  I visited my doctor, and he sent me to a specialist, and he  told me to lay off the salt.  I did, and the feeling has gone away since, though it comes back occasionally if I go on a multi-day sodium binge.

But during the same visit the specialist told me that the thing he was most  worried about was my Tinnitus.  I said, "But Doctor, I don't have tinnitus."  He replied: "O yes you do son.  We all have tinnitus."

And when I walked out of his office I could hear a whistling in my ears.  It was the first time I had ever noticed it.

Long story short, the condition was probably caused by the invention of the Sony Walkman. I'd been walking around with one for a good 25 years, listening to screamingly loud music on it.  I can't do that anymore, or the condition will worsen, so I don't follow the new music scene as closely as I'd like.  Here are a couple of tunes, though, that I've been playing a lot the past couple of days.

The first one is from Titus Andronicus's latest, Local Business:

Note that frontman Patrick Stickles has shaven his beard off.  And he's not such an ugly young fellow after all.  I would encourage the youth of today to lose those ugly beards, esp. if they're women.

The next is from Dustin Bentall (that's Barney's kid):

And this last is an older tune from Rock Plaza Central, who made one fabulous album and then seemed to disappear from the face of the Earth.

So there you have it.

New Titus Andronicus

The latest from my favorite "art punk" band:

...sounding quite Clash-like.  Older stuff here.

Titus Andronicus New Single

2nd one off The Moniter:

Not the obvious choice, but anthemic enough in the end. 

PS. I think I've finally figured out band-leader Patrick Stickles' thing with the beard.  He's not doing the Jihadi look; he's doing the Starving American Civil War Soldier look, which fits in with the themes on the album.  Believe it or not. Still, success has changed him.  From the video it looks likes he's filled out a bit; not sure "the look" works anymore. Anyway, in rawk beards are almost always a mistake. Look what happened to Jim Morrison: he grew a beard, he died.

Anyway, these days these guys are my favorite rock band, and Stickles my favorite candidate for rock boy genius.

Titus Andronicus In T.O.

...which I missed.  The review is here.  And this one is off their latest, The Monitor:


You can hear the Springsteenisms.

Friday Morning Feedback

More live Titus Andronicus. Note how Patrick Stickles smokes, drinks, sings, and plays keyboards at the same time. That's how you know he's a badass. They also sometimes get 4 guitars going at once--although not in this tune--which is one more guitar than Skynyrd.

Because Feedback Is Good

...and the world needs more of it. Titus Andronicus:



And a live cut, of one off their new album, The Monitor:


Psst! Kinsella! Notice All The Guitars? Just one don't cut it these days.

Titus Andronicus: My New Favorite Band

Like punks playing Springsteen, with a bit of the Pogues thrown in, and more guitars than Lynerd Skynerd.

Although I would advise Mr. Stickles, who just might just be a Rawwk genius, to lose the beard. Beards and Rawwk don't mix. Jim Morrison died after he grew a beard. Think about it, son.