Scanning Stations to Sing

What is one of the best ways to make a car ride not feel as long? My roommate and I have created a new game called “Radio Wars”. We created this game a couple months ago to make our 3 hour car rides from home to school a little bit more interesting. Now many people would laugh at this because honestly, there could be a worse car ride, like one that lasted over 7 hours one way. And of course I would agree with them. But I would also argue that other people might also have a cd player or i-pod they could throw on and not have to worry about finding a good radio station. We however, aren’t so lucky. My roommate’s car has a cassette tape player, and that is it. I could dig around and find some of my old cassettes, but I can only handle instrumental Disney songs for so long without going crazy.
It felt like about every 5 minutes we were scanning the radio looking for a new station to find some good songs. And that was how the game started. Whichever station we landed on, we listened to the song, whoever knew it better got a point. By “knew it better” I mean who got the most lyrics right. Sometimes if we were feeling nice extra points would be given out for style and enthusiasm. If we both know the song equally, we go to a sudden death for the point. We can’t change the station we were on where we both knew the song. Whatever song plays next determine who wins that round. Sometimes we play it and just joke around. It’s nice to jump around to different stations and hear songs that we haven’t heard for years. It was also a huge eye opener to different genres and styles of music I wouldn’t normally give the time of day.
So next time you’re on a road trip with a friend, warm up those pipes and get ready to rumble.

“Women Cry For It! Men Die For It!”

Drugs! Jazz! Madness!

1930’s-cautionary-film-turned-cult-classic Reefer Madness (Tell Your Children), the tale of good kids turned bad by the evil “marihuana.” The film is not for the faint of heart: as the opening credits warn, “the motion picture you are about to witness may startle you.” The earnest filmmakers were perhaps a bit too earnest, going over the top—way over. The introduction continues: “it would not have been possible, otherwise, to sufficiently emphasize the frightful toll of the new drug menace which is destroying the youth of America in alarmingly increasing numbers.” (Coincidentally, the whole film can be viewed here at Google Video. Just make sure you can stomach all that madness.)

So, what better way to celebrate this overblown tale than to add in some song and dance? The 1936 film Reefer Madness sunk into obscurity until it was rediscovered by tokers in the 1970’s, and has since enjoyed cult status. In the 21st Century, Reefer Madness was made into a musical, thanks to the genius of comedy writers including Dan Studney and Mystery Science Theater 3000’s Kevin Murphy. The musical was in turn made into a film (Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical), which premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and aired on Showtime.


Lucky for those of us in Iowa City, The University of Iowa is bringing the madness to Iowa City with their very own production of the musical.

Reefer Madness: The Musical opens for Iowa audiences at 8 p.m., Friday, November 13, in E.C. Mabie Theatre of the University of Iowa Theatre Building. Third-year Master of Fine Arts directing student Brandon Bruce is directing. There will be additional performances at 8 p.m., Saturday, November 14, and Tuesday–Friday, November 17–20, and at 2 p.m., Sunday, November 15. Tickets for UI students with a valid ID are only $5 ($17 for the general public, $12 for seniors, $10 for youth).

Images from Wikipedia and The University of Iowa.

I Challenge You to an Un-Challenging Duel

Have you ever had one of those nights when you have the best intentions of going out with your friends, forgetting your troubles for a while and just having a great night? Well, have you also ever had one of those nights when you have the best intentions of going out with your friends, forgetting your troubles for a while and just having a great night but instead you and five of your friends are all just sprawled in someone’s basement in a long silence waiting for a great idea to pop into your head, or for the room to suddenly get brighter because someone else’s light bulb went off? If you answered no, you are probably lying.
A couple of weeks ago I was in that situation, until someone decided to turn on the TV. Don’t ask me what channel or show it was, but the people decided to have a conversation without using the letter “e”. We tried just joking around for a good 2 minutes before someone slipped, it was hard. After laughing for a while we decided to try and speak to each other only using song titles or lyrics from songs. I thought it would be fun for about 10 minutes but I figured after that everyone would start to lose steam. Boy was I wrong. For as close of a group as we are, and for the similarities in music that we have, there were some bands thrown in this game, and lyrics from songs I have never heard of. Not only did it keep us entertained, but now we have mini tournaments whenever we are back together. Never again will we have to worry about what to do when we are bored, because there are hundreds of thousands of songs, and if I have to learn a lot more just to win, I will!

Friends+Music=Never a Dull Weekend

Over the weekend I went home and spent some much needed time with my friends. One of my favorite parts about us hanging out involve, you guessed it, music. No matter how long it’s been since I’ve seen them, nothing really changes once we’re all back together. The same goes with music and the certain bands and songs each of us listen to too. Sitting around I started to look at everyone and smile, because our taste in music is all different, and although we may not fully enjoy a certain band that one person likes, we still give it a fair chance and appreciate it. Every time “the gang” is back together we fight over whose turn it is to play the music. It’s like a fun guessing game, we never know if it’s going to be a boy band, a hard core scream-o band, songs that make us flash back to high school, or a brand new song from a band someone just started listening to last week.
One of the best parts is that we are so comfortable with each other now that we’re not self conscious anymore about how we look or sound when we are singing to songs too. We just belt it out. I never knew some of my friends had such a broad range and could really hit some of those high and low notes. We compete with each other to try and mimic the actual singer’s voice and see who does it best, as well as interpretive dance competitions to certain songs. If I was to give everyone in my group of friends a stereotype it would be a very wide range. One of the funny parts is that if I asked everyone to give each other a stereotype, I’m almost 90% sure most of them would give me the quiet or shy one. But if you asked them to stereotype me at a concert, or hanging out and listening to music, I’m pretty sure that same percentage would change to hyper or excited. What can I say, “music makes me lose control”.

Glee’s Got Game

Fox’s one-hour musical dramedy extravaganza Glee has definitely got game. But why has it succeeded where others have failed, asks Ayala Ben-Yehuda in an article on The Live Feed today. The answer? There’s just something about the way everything works together: the writers, the actors, the producers—and the music, of course.


Glee’s success has a lot to do, in fact, with the music—the choices are great, of course, but those songs wouldn’t make it on the show without the permission of artists, record companies, and other copyright holders. Far from restricting itself to one genre, Glee utilizes everything from iconic Broadway hits and folk songs to the musical stylings of contemporary artists such as Kanye and Beyonce. Ben-Yehuda reports that this demand to adapt different music to the show puts a strain on performers such as Lea Michele (Rachel Berry).

But with a little hard work—okay, a lot of hard work, by a lot of talented people—everything seems to come together each week, including those incredible ‘mash-ups.’

The producers of Glee drummed up interest by circulating the pilot as much as possible in the months before the series got going this fall. The trailer alone was enough to get some groups interested.

Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” was secured for the pilot, and member Steve Perry even showed up to watch how it would be used in the new show.

And those who have invested their artistic capital have not been disappointed; iTunes downloads of Glee tunes are being counted in the millions, and multiple soundtracks are slated for release—the first of which comes out Tuesday.

Those in the business of selling the show—and selling the music—are definitely excited about these facts and figures. Us fans, however, can just lean back and take it all in. Glee’s diverse music selection is just another reason to keep watching, stay interested, and get some songs, old and new, stuck in our heads.

Image from The Live Feed.

P-Roach Set to Rock Iowa With Two Big Shows

As we head into the end of fall, Papa Roach makes a long waited appearance back in Iowa for two great shows. A smaller show on the 28th of October in Dubuque along with Killing Hannah and Jet, and then again on the 4th of November at the Val Air Ballroom in West Des Moines as they headline with Jet, Saving Abel, and Red as the lead-in bands. Papa Roach fresh off their new album, Metamorphisis, which hit stores last spring have been on tour with Jet for the last couple of months, and will continue on into the winter with other big shows mainly on the East and West coasts. Their album includes hit singles such as "Lifeline," "Hollywood Whore," and "I Almost Told You That I Loved You." The band, now one of the more veteran groups in the business have been going strong since 1997 and are 6 albums deep into their career with no end in sight. After seeing one of their high energy shows back in 2007. The venue was an all-star line-up including headliner Hinder, and support by Buckcherry, Saliva, Bullet For My Valentine, Fuel, and Operator, I found it hard to make any arguement that any of those bands were better than the show P-Roach put on, even though they were the 3rd to last band to play. This band likes to get after it, get the crowd involved, and in all reality just rock the fuck out. Definately a must see.



Pictures provided by paparoach.com

The Next Step on Google’s World Domination Tour?

Maybe.

I remember when I was a freshman in high school and people in my art class started talking about “Google.” Many of the students (and our teacher) had not heard of it. That was back when the curious Internet user had his or her choice of search engines—Yahoo, AltaVista, AskJeeves, and so forth, and Google was just a newcomer to the crowded party. Slowly but surely, for better or for worse, Google started taking over. The word Google has even expanded its reign in our vocabulary, moving beyond mere proper noun and taking also the role of verb. Skilled searchers even speak of their mastery of “Googlefu.”

And Google, somehow—the details are still unclear to me—made money. Lots and lots of money. And they have expanded their reign over all things internet: Google Maps edged out MapQuest and the like; Gmail is one of the most popular web-based email services. There’s also Google News, Google Finance, Google Scholar, Google Books…

Even in the current economy, Google has enough capital to risk a few bucks here and there on more risky ventures. This week they’ll be announcing their step into the world of music. But there are a lot of skeptics out there predicting this will not be a successful scheme.

Richard Metzger at Brand X, in his unambiguously titled article “Will Google’s new music app really be all that?” predicts the fall of Google’s new music app, as it will be utilizing the “underwhelming” music service LaLa, when crazily popular European streaming service Spotify is slated to come to the US later this year. Google will allow users to search for a song and pull up information on the performers, lyrics, etc., and Lala will allow the user to stream the song—once. After that, it’s time to buy if you happen to want to listen again.

As Business Week reports, Lala is thrilled with Google’s choice to use their service—and not just Google, but Facebook as well (just as you can buy little illustrated “gifts,” for your Facebook friends, you will soon be able to pay to send them a song—ten cents for them to listen online whenever they wish, about a dollar for them to download it onto their computers and mp3 players).

Within the next few months, new ways of searching, streaming, and purchasing music will be coming to America. The winner, as usual, is to be decided by the consumer. Will Google dominate the music scene, as it has taken over so many other facets of our lives? Or will this venture count among their losses? Either way, it’s probably safe to assume that Google will be okay.