FilteringCraig

Word has it Hulk Hogan’s daughter Brook (on the right in this family photo) is going to be the next Britney Spears or something. We caught up with Brooke and she said,

“You know what brother? Britney and Christina and Jessica Simpson and all them other women better watch their backs, Mean Gene. I am going to come in and take the title, Mean Gene. Whatcha gonna dooo, when Brooke Hogan runs WILD ON YOU!”

I can’t figure out why she kept calling me Mean Gene, but maybe her father shouldn’t do any more career coaching.

I am so surprised by this album, I thought about giving more time before I wrote this review of the album. I just can’t sit on this one though.

After hearing “Meant to Live” which is a heavier pop/metal song that I saw on Fuse, with a really great guitar riff, I expected the rest of their album to be like Chevelle, or like Shinedown. I expected them to be a “not-quite-metal” band. Turns out the REALLY aren’t anything like metal.

“Meant to Live” is by far the heaviest song on the entire album. The rest sounds like something that Third Eye Blind, or Matchbox 20 would do. The singer has a very good voice and the ambience created by the band is intricate and different. It’s just so amazing to me because my expectations were so much different based on their first single. “More than Fine” sounds like something from Radiohead’s “The Bends.” “Dare You to Move” and “Redemption” sound like songs that Dave Matthews or John Mayer would sing.

The “expecting something totally different than what you get” phenomenon happens a lot. For example, I remember a few years ago when I was still in high school and Sugar Ray came out with their song “Fly.” I knew a bunch of people who really liked that song, so they bought the CD, “Floored.” Then when they got the CD home, they found that “Fly” was easily the most chill and accessible song on the album, as the rest stuck to the band’s heavier punk roots. For proof of this, check the local bargain bin at the used record store near you. I just looked on Half.com and you can buy a brand new copy, still factory sealed, for $1.99, or a used one for 75 cents.

Back to Switchfoot, if your expectations are right, you might like this album. If you are looking for a decent rock album with poppy songs and reasonable atmospherics on the slower ones, you will enjoy this album. If you expect “Meant to Live” you will be seriously disappointed. My highlights from this album are, “Meant to Live,” “The Beautiful Letdown,” and “On Fire.”

(This article was first posted at RockDummy.com)

Don’t worry, I am not talking about my regular visitors. What, do you have a guilty conscience? Wish you hadn’t made that last Alan Thicke comment?

Just kidding.

Back in February of 2003, I wrote this article about Fred Durst. So it was a REALLY long time ago. Anyway, this guy shows up and makes a comment yesterday, and usually I don’t even respond because the post is so old. I didn’t respond this time either, but I just have to say, this better be the absolute last time anyone uses the word “hateraid” on my site.

(From CNN.com)

I can’t honestly believe they pay this guy money. He does the most boring late night show out of all of them. His show isn’t as good as Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel, Conan, Craig Kilborn. To be perfectly honest, Carson Daly might be almost equivalent to Jay Leno.

LOS ANGELES, California (Hollywood Reporter) — Jay Leno has signed a new deal with NBC that will keep him at the helm of “The Tonight Show” through at least 2009.

The new contract is said to be worth more than $100 million to Leno over the life of the deal. The host’s most recent contract, a five-year pact signed in January 2001, had been set to expire at the end of next year.

Sources said the deal calls for Leno to pull in about $25 million-$27 million per year, a significant bump from his previous salary, estimated to be about $18 million per year.

Leno, 53, has frequently said he does not touch his “Tonight Show” money, opting instead to live on earnings from his standup gigs. It was unclear late Monday whether Leno’s new contract takes effect immediately.

Leno has been the undisputed ratings champ in late-night since the mid-1990s after taking the “Tonight Show” reins from Johnny Carson in 1992. “Tonight Show” generates about $100 million in annual profits for NBC, according to a report in the February edition of Fortune magazine.

“Tonight” averages about 6 million viewers each week, compared to about 4 million for CBS’ “Late Show With David Letterman.” Letterman, however, is believed to still pull in a slightly fatter paycheck with an annual salary estimated at $31.5 million.

The site is up and running at semi-full strength. Make sure you go there and check it out. It will be devoted to the obscure music that causes Deezo to rip me at every opportunity. Turns out, that is the most popular topic on this site according to the traffic logs. So, I got a new site up and running and a couple additional contributors who will be helping me out.

The goal is to focus my music stuff over on that site with all my reviews and everything else. If you have any suggestions for page structure and/or design which would make it more readable, I would appreciate it.

On tap first will be redesigning the center column on the front page to list 3 columns and the 10 most recent stories below each heading. Music News, Concert Reviews and Album Reviews.

So go read and catch up on your obscure music. It should be growing daily. Also, (no pressure) but feel free to link it from your homepages. If you don’t want to do that, drop in, click on the Web Links on the left-hand side and submit your site link on my site. Due to an anti-spam thing, your link won’t show up until I approve it, but I assure you that I will as soon as I get the chance.

Wish me luck and ROCK!

Believe it or not, but it has been 10 years since Kurt Cobain committed suicide. Ten long years. Grunge is gone, seattle is making a comeback with music that is much less angst-ridden. Courtney Love is out of control. Lots of other things have changed too. It’s kind of interesting when you think about it.

In honor of the 10th Anniversary of Cobain’s death, NME.com is prepping a CD with 13 of the most influential tracks from some of Kurt’s favorite bands. The track list is as follows.

Mudhoney - ‘Touch Me I’m Sick’
Rites Of Spring - ‘For Want Of’
Faith - ‘Subject To Change’
Iggy Pop - ‘Louie Louie / Hang On Sloopy’
The Melvins - ‘Gluey Porch Treatments’
The Butthole Surfers - ‘Sweat Loaf’
MDC - ‘John Wayne Was A Nazi’
Gang Of Four - ‘At Home He’s A Tourist’
The Slits - ‘Typical Girls’
PJ Harvey - ‘Dress’
The Vaselines - ‘Molly’s Lips’
Leadbelly - ‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night’
Bad Brains - ‘Banned In DC’

I know it has all been said about Kurt Cobain, but can you imagine what kind of music he would have contributed over the last ten years since he has been gone? Especially when you consider he was coming off the most epic Unplugged performance that MTV has ever seen.

(This first appeared at RockDummy.com - It’s All Just Rock!)

Candiria is back after a long period of pain and suffering as a band. They had a van crash which left the members unable to play together for a long time, not to mention serious damage to their equipment.

So now it is however many months later, they have a new website which indicates they have a new label, Type A Records, associated with Sony, and a new album coming out called “What Doesn’t Kill You..” This is a seemingly obvious reference, but I am sure the material will be just as progressive and off the wall as ever before. Go to their site and listen to “1000 Points of Light” which is labeled as a preview to their new album.

Glad to see these guys on their feet again!

(This was first posted on RockDummy.com - It’s All Just Rock)

“A group of misfits enter a Las Vegas dodgeball tournament in order to save their cherished local gym from the onslaught of a corporate health fitness chain.”

I came across this tagline going through the Internet Movie Database. Looking at Ben Stiller movies, I came across a movie called Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story which is in post-production. We will see this some time in 2004. I’m sorry, but I think of the volleyball scene in Meet the Parents and I just have to see this movie.

“If I set you up, do you think you can spike it Focker?”

“Well, I would have to get pretty high.”

“I bet you would Panama Red.”

Classic

“When I’m running the March Madness coverage on ESPN6, all women’s scores will be in pink typeface, all tattoos will be explained in detail, and Marv Albert and Gus Johnson will provide play-by-play for every game, even if we have to fly them around in a Disney jet.”

(That reminds me, does anyone else think that Marv should set up his own XM radio station, then sit in his living room and give play-by-play of all the NCAA games as they’re happening? Wouldn’t you order this service for $29.95? Just mute the announcers, listen to Marv. I’m not even kidding.)

Bill Simmons writes the most entertaining NCAA tourney article ever.

EVER.

In this day and age when gay marriage is such a huge talking point in this country, I think it is important to focus on a few things. First or all, look at what we all do for love and romance, no matter who you love or how you express it. Love and romance are really the things that we base all our relationships on anyway, right?

Don’t forget that this is a more practical age that we live in today, so rules have to change and the nature of relationships must also be changed forever. Sorry, to tell you, but I didn’t do it. I am just the messenger. Don’t worry though because there are people out there who are going to help you. Sure they might not be the typical sources for advice on love and romance, but in these changing times, they have amended their roles in this world to pick up the necessary slack left by the shifting of norms.

Let’s go through an exercise here. What are the most romantic things you can think of? What actions and items signify the love that we either have, or long for? Flowers, candy, backrubs, candle-light dinners, bracelets, necklaces, ear rings, vacations, beaches, sunsets, wine, holding hands, snuggling, all the dirty deeds that are reserved for the bedroom, and of course the ring that comes along with that dreaded C-word, commitment.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot one of the most romantic things. The thing that says “I Love You!” more than anything else in the world. The Prenup. That’s right. The Pre-nuptial Agreement. Come on. You don’t think the prenup is romantic? The contractually binding contingency plan for the eventual hatred-filled, statistically probable existence your relationship will end up in, is now considered just another part of the process. I was reading this article and it mentioned a book with this title, “Prenups for Lovers: A Romantic Guide to Prenuptial Agreements.”

From now on, your love and romance guidance counselors will also be financial planners and lawyers who have knowledge of state laws. They will be making you think the worst from the start, because that is what love is all about, apparently.

Fine. This is the last straw. If you people can’t do it right, then I am just canceling marriage altogether. Forget gay marriage. I am sorry, but all these bad, straight apples have ruined it for everyone. I hearby cancel the whole “sacred” institution. There is no more sanctity to protect.

It’s like when I was a kid and I was supposed to go somewhere with my parents and my two siblings. One of us would screw up by doing something bad. We might fight over the front seat. I might say something that I wasn’t supposed to say. One of us would throw an unexplainable tantrum of some kind. As a result, my mom or dad would say, “That’s it. Get back in the house. We aren’t going at all anymore.” This would occur despite the claims from one of the innocents in the situation, that we didn’t all deserve to be punished. It never worked when I was a kid, as none of those trips were ever reinstated. My parents didn’t care if two of us had been good. It was ruined and failure to comply by any member of our little clan would result in loss of privilege for the entire group.

Who knows, maybe the gay folks are the good kids in this scenario. We will never know because you dysfunctional folks forced me to cancel the whole thing.

Maybe next time you will think of that before you get out of hand.

Now go to your room.