Top 10 cheese rock songs

After mentioning rockin’ out to More Than A Feeling I felt compelled to throw together an playlist of feel-good cheese rock for the ol’ iPod.  Here’s what I came up with:

10. Little River Band - Help Is On The Way
9. Triumph - Fight The Good Fight
8.  .38 Special - Caught Up In You
7. Styx - Lady
6. REO Speedwagon - Can’t Fight This Feelin’
5. Boston - Don’t Look Back
4. Journey - Don’t Stop Believin’
3. Triumph - Hold On
2. Styx - Come Sail Away

And of course, the number one cheese rock sing-along car song of all time is:

1. Boston - More Than A Feeling

That right there is a respectable list of totally cheesy music that makes you feel awesome when you belt them out in the car.  Honorable mention to the ones that didn’t make the cut:

Triumph - Magic Power (I only cut it because I had two other Triumph songs!)
Foreigner - Feels Like The First Time (Almost but not quite the right vibe)
Toto - Hold The Line (fits with the Foreigner but not this list)
Styx - Mr. Roboto (I almost cut Little River Band for this, but the LRB song better fits the theme)
Styx - Too Much Time On My Hands (this would have made a top 20 list)
Styx - Renegade (actually too good of a song for this list!)

Now it’s your turn.  What’d I miss?  Anything that you think just doesn’t belong?

Posted by JimK at 05:00 AM on February 07, 2007
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Categories: Entertainment,  Music
Tags: music playlists

More than a feeeeelinnnn…

I’m going to come right out and say it - I still like Boston.  Not the city, the band.  I have a special place in my musical heart for all of those totally cheesy feel-good rock bands - Boston, Triumph, Styx that sort of stuff.  There’s something that is so...uplifting, I guess.  Even the depressing songs aren’t.

I know what you’re thinking.  And I don’t care, I like ‘em anyway.  On the way back from the doc’s just now* I was all about “More Than A Feeling.” Those high notes are something else, Ah tell yew whut.  Damn near popped a gasket in the car and I was like, three octaves lower.

That’s right, I’m a car singer.

So, yeah...sometimes I have no taste.  That having been said, I’m going to ask you (yes, specifically you!) to pick the next album I buy from the Russian mob.  What album do you think I simply *must* own?  If I already have it I’ll let you know in the comments.  My one rule is no pop or R&B.  I get enough of that crap on American Idol.

* Blood pressure is down to 110/60.  Dat’s freakin’ awesome ovah heah /Carl.  Remember, Sudafed will kill you.

Posted by JimK at 07:20 PM on February 06, 2007
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Categories: Entertainment,  Music,  Personal
Tags: music

My taste in music

Your Taste in Music:

90’s Alternative: Highest Influence Progressive Rock: Highest Influence 80’s Rock: High Influence Hair Bands: High Influence Heavy Metal: High Influence

That’s pretty spot on, although I would say that the metal is higher than the alt stuff, they just didn’t have enough metal bands on the list.

Posted by JimK at 09:11 PM on February 04, 2007
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Categories: Entertainment,  Music

Out of the frying pan and into the cocaine-heroin speedball

Maybe if you were crazy you’d do this.

Love reveals to her favorite magazine Web site that Idol’s executive producer Nigel Lythgoe called her office last week inquiring into whether she would be interested in sitting in as a judge on the hit FOX show.

“He called,” Love tells Usmagazine.com. “He was wondering if I was interested. I thought it was kind of weird but brilliant.”

...

But a source tells Usmagazine.com that Lythgoe was considering having Love “replace Paula.”

Oh bullshit.  No one would ever replace Paula with Courtney.  Putting Courtney on live TV during prime time would be like letting John Wayne Gacy be your kid’s birthday clown.  You couldn’t trust her to not swear, throw a tittie on the desk or worse, try to rub her runny, rubbery vag all over Simon and Randy.  Replacing the mess than is Paula with the nightmare that is Courtney would be like treating the flu with a shotgun. That would be like fixing your car’s engine with dynamite.  It would be like...like...well, like replacing Paula Abdul with Courtney frigging Love.

Us is either lying or decided to print some intern’s misunderstanding of Love being asked to guest-judge on the show this year.

Posted by JimK at 07:11 PM on January 30, 2007
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Categories: Entertainment,  Celebridiots,  Music,  Television,  24
Tags: American Idol Paula Abdul Randy Jackson Simon Cowell Courtney Love

Manson pulls a dick move

My boy’s being a jerk.

Rocker MARILYN MANSON is trying to block any future claim of spousal support from estranged wife DITA VON TEESE in divorce papers filed today (19JAN07). Manson also lists the date of separation from the burlesque dancer as Halloween - not Christmas Eve as she claimed. Both Manson, 38, and Von Teese, 34, cite “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for their split. Manson attempted to block any claims of spousal support, although Von Teese currently has not asked for any. He also wants her to pay her own legal fees, while she is seeking to have him pay for the divorce. Von Teese filed for divorce on 29 December (06), after just over a year of marriage.

So he filed papers saying that even though she isn’t asking for spousal support, he’s not gonna give her any?  “Hey, I realize that you’re decent enough to not try to take my money since you have your own, but just so I can make you look bad, here’s some legal paperwork preventing you from asking for what you aren’t asking for in the first place.  Merry Christmas.” Kind of a dick move if you ask me.  He’s notoriously cheap though, so it’s not a surprise.

When I say he’s cheap, I mean he can make Lincoln cry copper tears he can pinch a penny so tight.  Take every joke you have ever heard about Jewish people and money, multiply it by three, then make it true.  Now you’re somewhere in the neighborhood.

By the way, the part where he claims they separated on Halloween?  Yeah, I’m betting he decided they were separated on Halloween but either forgot to tell her or thought he did tell her because he was in a drunken stupor.  Absinthe, baby.  The cause of, and the solution to, all your goth rocker problems.

See, Halloween was the night he had that gallery opening.  The one that featured the painting of Evan Rachel Wood, the 19 year old he’s banging.

Get it now?

Posted by JimK at 07:43 PM on January 19, 2007
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Categories: Entertainment,  Celebridiots,  Music
Tags: Marilyn Manson Dita von Teese

Not a great Christmas story - James Brown passes on at 73

James Brown will not be a gettin’ up-hah.

James Brown, the dynamic, pompadoured “Godfather of Soul,” whose rasping vocals and revolutionary rhythms made him a founder of rap, funk and disco, died early Monday in Atlanta, his agent said. He was 73.

Brown was hospitalized Sunday at Emory Crawford Long Hospital with pneumonia and died around 1:45 a.m. Monday (0645 GMT), said his agent, Frank Copsidas, of Intrigue Music. Longtime friend Charles Bobbit was by his side, Copsidas said.

The cause of death was uncertain, Copsidas said. “We really don’t know at this point what he died of,” he said.

Pete Allman, a radio personality in Las Vegas who had been friends with Brown for 15 years, credited Brown with jump-starting his career and motivating him personally and professionally.

“He was a very positive person. There was no question he was the hardest working man in show business,” Allman said. “I remember Mr. Brown as someone who always motivated me.”

Along with Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and a handful of others, Brown was one of the major musical influences of the past 50 years. At least one generation idolized him, and sometimes openly copied him.

Early reports have him standing at the Pearly Gates tellin’ everybody he’s superbad.  St. Peter is trying to take care of him and wrap him in a cloak, but James ain’t havin’ it.  His soul cannot be contained.  Huah!  Wooooooooooowww!

Rest in peace, Godfather.  The last 15 years weren’t good to you...now you can rest, assured that no one will ever, ever forget you.

Posted by JimK at 05:16 PM on December 25, 2006
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Categories: Entertainment,  Music
Tags: James Brown

Uh-oh.  AllOfMP3.com is in trouble - Dad’s home

Looks like Daddy finally came home, and AllOfMP3 is gonna get a whuppin’.  As we all know here in these lawyer-saturated United States, when the law isn’t actually on your side yet - you can always sue!

Several major record labels sued the operator of the Russian music Web site AllofMP3.com on Wednesday, claiming the company has been profiting by selling copies of music without their permission.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in New York against Moscow-based Mediaservices, which owns AllofMP3 and another music site, allTunes.com.

A slate of major record labels, including Arista Records LLC, Warner Bros. Records Inc., Capitol Records Inc. and UMG Recordings Inc., are behind the lawsuit.

I wonder how many “labels” are really involved.  I mean there are only 5 labels anymore.  Who owns Arista these days?  Not that it matters...a judgment against AllOfMP3 will do what the State Department hasn’t.  Money talks.  Doesn’t matter if AllOfMP3 is technically legal under current Russian law. 

The music business is - in it’s entirety - in a total state of denial about why people hate them, aren’t they?

I’m at a loss to understand why they don’t just get together and offer the same service as AllOfMP3.com.  Instead of wasting money on a band-aid solution (stemming the alleged flow of “piracy") they could spend the money on an investment in both the future and in customer trust and good will.  Build a service that offers major label music in various formats for a very fair price.  People will flock to it and pay good money for shit music.

I’m actually confused as to why these idiots can’t see the obvious solution.  It’s called a free market, people.  Use it.  You’re the record company - you can tell the world that your MP3s are encoded from the original masters and sound 30% better than anyone else’s.  Most of the world will swear it’s true even if you’re lying.  That hook alone will bury the competition, both legitimate and illicit.

Plus, you’ll be undercutting Apple’s itunes.  Come on...how sweet is that?  Everyone wins.  Ever try to think up a solution where everyone wins instead of the consumer losing over and over again?

Posted by JimK at 05:24 PM on December 21, 2006
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Categories: Entertainment,  Music,  The Stupidity Of Man
Tags: RIAA AllOfMP3 music industry record companies

Amazon listening to consumers?

Could Amazon be offering DRM-less MP3s?  I’ll buy ‘em if the price is right.

Posted by JimK at 10:03 PM on December 19, 2006
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Categories: Entertainment,  Music,  Technobabble (Technology),  The Internet(s)
Tags: Amazon mp3

I blinded her with science

Sent to StuffOnMyCat.com and to Thomas Dolby:

Cat: Morgana
DVD: Thomas Dolby’s new concert DVD “The Sole Inhabitant”
Cute factor: Magnified due to the Dolby Sphere of Prosperity.  Little known fact, but all things can be improved with the addition of Dolby.  It’s just simple…

...SCIENCE!

SOMC slogan: Cats + Stuff = Awesome. My remix: Cats + Stuff x Dolby = Awesomer.

You can get Thomas Dolby’s new DVD or the CD at CDBaby.

Posted by JimK at 06:09 PM on December 10, 2006
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Categories: Entertainment,  Music,  Humor,  Personal,  Things With Fur
Tags: catblogging cats stuff on my cat Thomas Dolby

Some people never learn *UPDATED*

The only real way the music industry could collect money AND treat customers with respect is coming to an end soon.

The international noose around AllofMP3.com has been tightening for some time, and now it appears to have closed: the Russian government has agreed to shut down the site.

Russian and US negotiators have agreed on a bilateral trade agreement that should pave the way for Russia’s entry into the World Trade Organization, and one major part of the deal concerned intellectual property issues. Russia has agreed to a set of terms for fighting optical disk piracy, strengthening border enforcement against counterfeiters, bringing their laws into agreement with international standards, and protecting pharmaceutical test data. But the biggest news is that the Russians have agreed to shut down “websites that permit illegal distribution of music and other copyright works,” according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative. AllofMP3.com is specifically named in the agreement as an example site.

The Russian government must stop collection societies in the country from acting without the permission of rights-holders - a clear dig at licensing group ROMS. AllofMP3.com has claimed for some time that they are legal under Russian law because all of their works have been licensed by ROMS, and ROMS itself says that it “carries out its activity on the basis of the powers given directly by the Law, irrespective of the presence or absence of a contract with a rightsholder.” In essence, ROMS has given out licenses to music without any permission from the copyright owners to do so.

Whether this is legal has been the subject of heated discussion for years, with AllofMP3.com most vocally asserting that it is. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry disagrees, saying, “Under the copyright laws of virtually every country in the world, including Russia, it is illegal to distribute recordings without the permission of the rights owners.” ROMS was booted from CISAC, an international organization that represents 217 worldwide copyright societies, back in 2004.

Whatever the truth, Russia has agreed to modify its laws by June 1, 2007 to clarify that such activity is illegal. It will also implement the 1996 WIPO Internet treaties, and will take enforcement action against Russian websites that violate IP laws.

RIAA puts pressure via lobbyists on the State Department, State Department leans on Russian government, and in the end, artists still get screwed and now the consumer gets it up the backside as well. 

It’s going to be fun watching the music business die and artists wrench back control of their lives.  I think I’m going to swear off paying for anything music-related every again unless it goes directly to the artists, or maybe small labels that actually share profits with the people that create the damn music.

*UPDATE*

AllOfMP3 says go pound sand.  Also…

Also of interest was the claim that AllofMP3 has not been as badly damaged by the inability to accept Visa and MasterCard payments as many would suspect. That’s because most users have credit with the site and only use it over time. But as it grows increasingly difficult to add more money to one’s account, the company will start to feel the squeeze in the months to come unless they can work out alternative payment systems that are as safe and easy as paying directly by credit card.

Uhh...why is a respected tech site not doing their job and researching the articles they write?  AllOfMp3 can take Visa just fine, you just have to know that they take it at another site, and that credit is added to your account at AllOfMP3.

Posted by JimK at 01:45 PM on November 30, 2006
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Categories: Entertainment,  Music
Tags: allofmp3 riaa