If you ask a group of people to name a Hair Band you may get a variety of answers. You may also get an argument. I watched such an argument recently on the Facebook page of the local rock station. The question? Is Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” a Hair Band song? You could see the discussion evolve quickly from the song itself to the definition of what a Hairband is and if Ozzy himself fit in there. He had once said that Motley Crue was not a fit for the Hair Band block. The Crue?
How do you define Hair Band? Bands that have that label are also often labeled Hard Rock, Glam, Heavy Metal, Arena Rock or Guitar Rock as well. It’s really harder than one might think to look at one band and answer if they were/are a Hair Band. Let’s have a look at some of the elements of a Hair Band and try and come up with a definition… (more…)
Browsing through the Independent Music Award categories a couple weeks ago I came across a video nominee that I can just not get out of my head. The Matt King video for the song “Cursing the Ohio” is one of the most interesting videos I have seen in some time. Goes to show what you have to gain by checking out the IMA site and what you may discover.
The intention of this post was to not only show you the video but to give you a little back ground on the artist. That information is not easy to come by so what I will share is some of his Bio on iLike.com(while you are there hit the I like Button)…
I grew up in the mountains of North Carolina. I worked in a goldsmith shop and an auction company growing up. I came up at the feet of honest to God mountain people singing bluegrass music about dying and losing lovers. My dad told me stories about our family killing people, killing each other and the generalities that go along with a family of bootlegers, preachers and splintered women. I didn’t think it was fashionable to talk about those things and then one day the apostles of suburbia began making up songs about how cool it was, then took it to the people and sang it to ‘em. – I don’t know about that. These are my stories, I try to be as honest as a liar and a thief knows how to be, I hope you find some threads of truth in here.
Back in the late 80′s there was a flick called Trick or Treatthat featured a cast of cameos by rockers of the time and a kick ass soundtrack by Fastway. Don’t get me wrong, the movie was cheezy as hell, although it didn’t seem like it at the time. My buddy Rich bought him and I the soundtrack on one trip to Musicland and I have to say, the whole thing rocked! I’m sure there were not many people looking to find out who was behind the voice of Sammi Cure…but I did.
I was listening to Hair Nation on Sirius Satellite Radio tonight and heard this song, bringing memories up again. this is the second time I have heard it on there so it’s not a fluke…someone else thought it was cool somewhere along the lines.
Check out the video and watch Skippy from Family Ties get bounced around.
Yeah, that is all I have for a working title right now. I kinda like it though. Like, “Space Balls: The Toothpaste…”
My friends and I were always trying to one up each other by showing off new bands we discovered. Many a $10 bill was lost by buying something that had a cool cover to find the music sucked. These days we don’t have to do that. We can sample music online and choose to only buy single songs if we want. There is also a lot of great music out there available for free. Which gets me thinking…why not do a present day version of showing off things I discover by doing a Podcast?
The original intentions of adding a Podcast to MusicLee Inclined was to explore the Blues side of Independent Music. There are so many excellent unsigned bands out there that are putting their work out independently that really should be brought to the attention of others. The more I got to thinking about it though, it wouldn’t be fair to back myself into a Blues only corner. I’m a Hard Rock guy at heart and there is a lot of great Indie work out there on the Hard Rock side as well.
So at the risk of not getting into a certain niche, The Podcast will vary from Acoustic, to Hard Rock, to the Blues. I guess the one thing you could use to tie them together is that they are Guitar driven, which fits in with the rest of MLI. If you would like to give this a listen, Bookmark me now and subscribe to the sites RSS Feed to find out when it hits the cyber air waves!
MusicLee Inclined has been reformed but still has the original singer. Cheesy, huh? We will continue to be Guitar focused but are throwing in some other elements to satisfy my musical needs. Kinda like when Van Halen started using keyboards. I had different sites going and felt it better to consolidate into one musical smorgasbord.
My thing with music was always discovery and then sharing it. Here is a little rundown on some of the different frets of MusicLee Inclined…
Blog Jam: This is it. Just the random babble that doesn’t fall into one of the other categories.
Guitar Web: This is where it started. When I was a kid starting out on guitar they didn’t have this Internet thing. Well, it was out there but I think it was some huge thing in Al Gore’s garage at the time. Anyway, there is all kinds of free guitar lessons and guitar resources on the web, why not share with those that don’t know how or don’t want to go look for them?
Podcast: One of my favorite things about the Internet is the ability artists have to put out their work independently. Many times they provide their work to you for free! So why shouldn’t we give them a little push and enjoy some great music at the same time? The Podcast will be a guitar driven jam from Acoustic, to the Blues, to Rocking out.
Rock: I was the long haired kid in small town Iowa who was always wearing a concert shirt. My heart still pounds like a double bass drum for the Hard Rock. In this category we will look back at rock from years gone past, to current happenings, to some of the Independent rockers out there.
Blues: When I was a kid I was a little too narrow minded. It had to be all Hard Rock all the time. My guitar playing paid for it by not letting the Blues in earlier. I told my wife about five years ago that I was going to become a “student” of the Blues. Here you can join me in our own little Blues Skool, looking at the history, artists from then and now, and the Independent Blues scene.
Video Jukebox: I had a girl I knew in High School that sent me a friend request on Facebook that read, “Let’s get some beer and watch KISS videos like the old days…” I was a collector of music videos going back to our first VCR in the mid 80′s and always forced them on my friends. The Video Jukebox is something in the works that will not appear right away.
I know that all of this is not for everyone. There will be separate RSS Feeds for each category so you can grab what interests you. Or…if you are not afraid to discover new things or at least give them a shot, you can subscribeto the whole thing.
So bookmark MusicLee Inclined now and come back often!
Quotes of Musicness
“We all have idols. Play like anyone you care about but try to be yourself while you're doing so.” by B.B. King
Recent Comments