ads suck

there's an insidious trend in advertising that's starting to get on my nerves. it's the one where an ad's sole tag line is a well known phrase or saying, only with one key word replaced by a word that rhymes with it, such that the phrase basically sounds the same, but with an entirely different meaning (and one generally better suited to selling the product at hand).

an example: i'm driving home from band practice tonight, and i see a city bench with an ad on it for trimet, which is the local public transportation system in portland. the line: "lose the wait".

get it? ha ha! you won't have to wait with speedy trimet buses. hence, you lose the "wait"! ha ha?!

which begs the question, where did the wait that you're about to lose originally come from? since public transport systems are pretty much a monopoly, the only possible source of your prior wait would be trimet itself. so, the ad is basically saying, "hey, we know we made you wait before, but now, we're gonna pick your ass up super quick! seriously!!"

well said

interesting article in the boston globe. i liked this part:

Iraq is not a war, because, though we have savage assault, we have no enemy. The war on terrorism is not a war because, though we have an enemy, the muscle-bound Pentagon offers no authentic means of assault.

it bugs me that the well-deserved drop in public support for the invasion of iraq is always framed in the context of what a mess it is, rather than the possibility that it was a bad idea in the first place. even when we get it right, it's for the wrong reasons.

who will tell the people?

i recently finished reading an excellent book called who will tell the people, by william greider. (i'm learning that one of the benefits of living with a significant other is that your shelves are suddenly filled with new books you've never read)

it's a pretty eye-opening read. it doesn't necessarily tell you a lot you don't know, or didn't already suspect ("whoa, hold on, big business has way too much influence in government?"). it just says it in a way that's well-written, literate, but also very plain and stark. one might even say "depressing".

one thing the book did was confirm my belief that the line of demarcation that truly matters in this country is not the line between ordinary folks who are liberal and ordinary folks who are conservative. all that stuff does is sell books and TV ad time. no, i think the only line that really matters is the one between the people with the power (politicians and corporations) and the people without (the rest of us). in other words, if the urban pseudo-intellectual progressives and the middle-american blue collar workers of this country can ever truly unite and find their commonality of interests, we might have a chance to see some real democracy in this country.

surf's up

were you aware just how much nada surf rocked?

i sure wasn't. all i knew about them was their hit song back in the early-mid 90's called, i believe, "popular". it was ok, but smacked off the same "jumping-on-the-alt-rock-bandwagon" schtick that plagued much of rock music during that time. and, when i never heard another peep out of 'em, i assumed they were just another in a line of one-hit wonders from that era.

then along comes a website called pandora. it's a pretty cool idea; basically an internet radio station that you program by inputting the names of your favorite artists. the playlist is then automatically generated based on their own algorithm for figuring out what other stuff you might like, based on your selections. anyway, i started out with just one band, my all-time fave, guided by voices. i figured anything that their algorithm said was similar to GBV had to stand a decent chance of being good. and, sure enough, most of it was. then along came this song by nada surf called "imaginary friends". and i was like, "damn, who knew these guys rocked?" i did some reading up on them on-line, and saw that their last two full-lengths, let go and the weight is a gift, had gotten a lot of good reviews. so i went out and bought weight, and damned if it isn't the catchiest slice of power pop i've heard in ages. reminds me of the posies, although i'm not super-familiar with that band's catalog. anyway, check it out.

postscript - in the process of researching this post (read: looking up nada surf's URL), i learned that they are playing at the aladdin theater in portland on 2/24, along with rogue wave. hot damn!

everyone's favorite bad joke

have you seen this?

wtf

i'm all for celebrities poking a little fun at their image. but generally, said fun is merely a sidebar to actually having an career, rather than a replacement for one.

then again, i guess he is big over in germany.

i think "ooga chaka" is german for "fire my agent!"

bands on the run

i'm trying to post more often. it's not working too well so far, but i'm resolved to try at least once a day. because, you know, it's really important that my thoughts get out there. what the hell else are people going to read on the internets?

so i'm currently playing in two bands in portland. both are pretty casual at this point, although both recently reached an important milestone: they both now appear to have names. one is called "knife and son" (my idea; i saw a business called "L. Knife and Son" when i was back visiting in massachusetts recently), and the other is tentatively called "the cigarettes". as a rule, i'm generally opposed to naming bands "the somethings", since it seems about as creative as calling your dog "fido". but "the cigarettes" is pretty cool. hell, cigarettes are cool. if only the companies that made them weren't so skeevy. maybe that's why people seem to like american spirits so much; who doesn't love indians?

ride the wave

one of my favorite bands right now is rogue wave. they're based in the bay area and are fronted by zach rogue. they were signed to sub pop a while back and recently released their second album. they've gotten lots of good reviews, have toured the country multiple times, even made some TV appearances. all of which leaves me feeling slightfully resentful of them, not only for those reasons but also because i auditioned on drums (unsuccessfully) for zach's former band, the desoto reds, a few years ago. actually i'm not really resentful of them, since i am admittedly a mediocre drummer.

anyway, pitchfork recently ran a review of a show they played last december. the review seemed to take exception to the fact that they played a fairly mellow show. some quotes:

"I expected that Rogue Wave might be louder this time, touring in support of a full-band-penned and generally more rocking record, but nothing doing: They played so quietly that the blowsy bar girl singing at the MegaTouch machine was actually louder than they were."

"While it was certainly not unpleasant to coast along the glassy surfaces of Bird on a Wire and Publish My Love, it all seemed sort of academic."

while i find it odd to take a band to task simply for not rocking harder (whose band is it, anyway?), i have to admit that i sometimes have a hard time keeping focus when i'm seeing a live band that isn't kicking out the jams. it's not that i don't like mellow music; i've got plenty of downtempo rock records in my collection. and i feel that i should be able to appreciate the subtle nuances of quiet music in a live setting. after all, rock music isn't the one dimensional gimmick it was 50 years ago. it is a full-fledged art form, one that can and does take many different shapes. but let's face it, when you're out at a club with a PBR in one hand and a cigarette in the other, you want to be watching a band with some swagger, a band that can bring the noise.

i'm sure i've seen mellow shows before that i enjoyed, although i can't think of any right now. truth be told, i actually don't go out to see bands all that often, which has always been a source of shame for me, as an avowed music lover. i hate to say it, but i just don't think i have the attention span for it. seeing a live show represents a fair investment of time, when you factor in transportation, parking, opening bands, etc. and while i do sit on my ass all day at work, i'm old and was not blessed with the best feet, so standing around for several hours into the late(r) hours of the night isn't all that easy for me.

the truth is that i'm an album guy. there's nothing i love better than getting stoned, slapping on a pair of good headphones, and rocking out to a record (or CD, for you younger folks). you get to hear the band's ideas fully formed, unconstrained by the inherent limitations of performing live. is that album opener just crying out for 12 exquisitely panned guitar tracks? no problem! throw in some crazy keyboards while you're at it. oh, and don't forget the four part harmony and timpani solo.

which, of course, is not to say that it's an impossible feat for a band to translate their recorded sound to the stage. in fact, i saw rogue wave play up here in portland last fall, and they heckof rocked. maybe they were just feeling sedate on the night that reviewer caught their show. they're allowed. but i can't help but feel glad that they busted out the decibels for me.