groovemonkey

listen to me.

So Tuesday we blew out of town early, fueled up the old F-150 and headed out to Fresno CA from SF to get a heavy dose of chick fronted rock. Now mind you while this sounds like a walk in the park, it was actually a 4 hour drive thru the heartlands of California past cities that have a Population +1 -1 permanently duct taped on the base of the “welcome to….” sign that pops up at you on the horizon as you blaze down the 99 drafting semi-trucks loaded with tubers and roots and leafy things that will will grace your dinner tables later this week. But I digress.

The show was at The Save Mart Center in Fresno. Opening for the openers Paramore was a little act from Sweden called The Sounds. LOVED EM! I will buy their records. Tight, hit friendly and fun, this 5 piece blazed thru their set and said good bye - but I gotta tell ya it was a premature evacuation. I was just getting warmed up, which of course if what they are there to do, but i wanted more - which is rare for the musical equivalent of the amous bouche.

Up next was Paramore. So they sort of blew up when they got a few tracks on that movie about the vampires that really wasn’t a movie about vampires, as well, there was no real vampire stuff that happened. I mean after all ‘Twilight‘ is no ‘True Blood’ or ‘Dusk ’till Dawn’. Paramore has been playing since 2004 and hail out of Tennessee. Gotta tell ya, they brought it all with them. Great sound, fabulous sort of “we are gonna hit it big one day” appeal and swagger and ease to their performance. Lead Singer Hayley Williams was powerful and spot on and immensely cute in her “Lara Croft” shorts and snug tank. The band book-ended their performance with two hit singles - Misery Business and Decode, and the meat in this sandwich, to mix metaphors, was straight ahead non stop pop rock that not only validates their current successes but also insured that No Doubt’s choice of them as a tour mate was perfect. Paramore was the perfect starter for the third act of the night.

So there is no doubt that No Doubt is ready for a comeback, not that they really went anywhere. But seriously the band is in great form. Gwen, approaching 40 is in amazing condition, running around the stage and jumping and ahhhh hell… just take a look at the videos. Besides, I have already used up most of the superlatives I know how to spell.

Songs that should never be covered again with your host Christopher Smith - featuring songs from GnR, Chili Peppers, Van Halen and more.

So I finally decided to toss my hat in the ring and make my voice count. Or at least heard. Recorded the first of hopefully many podcasts for the sister blog Covered That the other day and thought I would share it with you. Hopefully you will enjoy it, and make some comments, or leave a note, or email or share it with friends.

The first of two parts - Episode #1 covers songs that should never be covered again. You know - like GnR covering Wings “Live and Let Die”, not like William Hung covering Ricky Martin - which ALSO should never be covered again, but for different reasons.

Have a listen.

 

 Covered That - Episode #1 [22:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Big thanks to Scott Parent over at American Cliche. Not only has he been a great friend and a brilliant colleague, he was instrumental in getting me on the airwaves. So if you don’t like the show, blame him. But be certain to listen to his podcast and see how a pro does it. Great format, content and show.

So after 5 years of not performing together, except for a surprise appearance at one of Gwen’s shows while she toured solo… No Doubt is back with a mini concert this morning at Rockefeller Plaza as part of the “Toyota Concert Series“.

Of course @missPuss and I have tickets to more than one show. If you are going to the Fresno or Shoreline shows hit me up on twitter and we can meet in the bar and tell stories about past shows or the time that I made out with Gwen in a seedy little dive bar in Lodi. At least I think it was Gwen. We were doing tequila shots at the bar and… wow.. I hope it was even a chick… Damn. Now I am worried. It was dark inside. And she smelt of bubblegum.

But enough about me, here are a few vids to kill the rest of your day.

So I don’t know if its due to the lineup for Outside Lands, which includes Beastie Boys, Pearl Jam, Band of Horses or if its just really that uninteresting, but when I turned on the new morning show on Live105, which btw I am looking forward to as I like @noName, I was just i guess underwhelmed.

Now don’t get me wrong, I will still shell out the $25 bucks for the all day event - 36 bands on 4 venues, that is cheap by any measure, but I am only looking forward to the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, well because they just rock, and I am seriously stoked that DJ AM will be in the Subsonic Tent.

BDF 9 is Saturday June 6 at the Shoreline. Headlining the day will be The Offspring, 311 and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, with sonic assistance from Crystal Castles, Airborne Toxic Event, and Glassvegas. BFD Tickets go on sale to the general public this Saturday, April 25th at 10am.

So today was Record Store Day 09, and my pal Daniel from Toronto (that’s his name - Daniel From Toronto) and I hit up Amoeba Music in SF. I picked up some vinyl my wall was missing, namely Nirvana’s NeverMind, The Clash’s London Calling, and Green Day’s Reissue of Dookie. Digging it all. Now I need to pick up some frames from Urban Outfitters and pound some nails in the wall of record covers.

We are about to hit the road, and I thought I would drop on you some hit covers. Daniel, @missPuss and I are off to some Girl on Girl action in Sac town to see some roller derby, So we added a handful of new covers to the queue. First up is a great cover of “Careless Whisper” by Seether followed by the Bowie classic “The Man Who Sold The World”. Yeah, Nirvana covers that and pretty much sends the message that no one else should ever even trying to record that tune. On third base is No Doubt blowing up Talk Talk’s  “It’s My Life” and I hope they lay that down at least once when I see them this summer. Finally, we added to the playlist MXPX and a Peter Shilling one hit wonder “Major Tom.”

And with that I bid you a safe drive to where ever you are going, a large bar tab that someone else picks up, and a bottle of aspirin near the bed that you will find yourself in the AM.

Contest results in the comments.

Its Friday and The Monkey is feeling lots of love. Already today we ran out a few choice covers. The day started early with Dryden Mitchell covering The Cure’s “Friday, I’m In Love.” followed by Groove Coverage doing “21st Century (Digital Girl)” celebrating mocking @Oprah’s incredible use of ALL CAPS in her historic first tweet.

Now for the good stuff, and when I say good stuff I mean your stuff. Suggest a great cover (that we haven’t already played of course) in the comments. Contest ends at 12 noon PST and if no one has made any recommendations that I may just have to play William Hung’s cover of Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs”. On Repeat.
The coolest entry for this Friday will get a copy of Slash - his wicked cool autobiography, or if you already have it I’ll send you a sign copy of my book, Jane Luvs Dick. Up to you. How could you go wrong with a book that - first page, third paragraph contains the sentence “Fifteen years of overdrinking and drug abuse had swollen that organ to one stop short of exploding.” Hank Moody already owns a copy of this tome that is for fucking certain.

Cover a way kids, and thanks so much for playing.

I LOVE COVER SONGS! By now I think you have got it figured out. Up at the top of the blog you will see the Covered That player. And it plays cover songs. I have a pretty deep collection of em, but of course I can always use more and you can always send them to me. righteousCovers at groovemonkey dot com. You can also tweet me your fav’s to @groovemonkey. I have gotten quite a few suggestions, and have have either played em or queued em. So thank you to those that are listening, and to those that sent in requests your autographed copies of SLASH have been shipped to the address you provided.

So - Twitter tweeter, occasional pin up, and one of the most beautiful women in the whole world (she sure aint in the bottom three) @missPuss sent in a video recommendation for Covered That. So here, dedicated to SugarPuss, is The Vandals covering Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now.”

So at first I didn’t get it. ANOTHER book of photos of The Grateful Dead. I mean hasn’t that been done again, and again and …. Anyway,  is something really different, and I gotta tell ya, I am pissed I didn’t think of it first.

So those cool kids at Blurb have put together a roadtrip that will yes.. wait for it… FOLLOW THE DEAD ON TOUR! Only they aren’t out to capture the 1 millionth recording of Truckin’ on a crappy smuggled in recorder you held up near the stacks of amps. They have teamed up with Longtime Grateful Dead photographer Jay Blakesberg, who will be traveling to the shows, shooting everything from the band, the backstage, the crowd, and even you. Now the books will go on sale 72 hours after each show. And you can have a photo of you from the show on the cover of the book you order. Since Blurb has some of the leading tech in on-demand publishing, you will be able to customize your book with a photo of you in the stratosphere after you “accidentally” drank a liter of “tea” brewed from hemp. Or a picture of you and friends in tie dye shirts. But I generalize and digress.

The first book went on sale today, April 16th. You can order it here. Original band members Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann will be touring 17 cities so your chance to get some completely cool merch just supersized.

Note to bands out there looking for ways to connect with their audience. Instead of putting some shitty myspace photo gallery together from some snaps your sister’s friends pal in art school shot for a chance to get backstage and feast of your rider, run a contest for some fans to get some cameras, take shots, and then make a concert collectible book with Blurb for your fans BY your fans. Contact @marinGuy if you are down with it. Tell him The Monkey sent you.

So the set times for Coachella are up on their site, and I gotta tell ya, I am seriously wishing I was going. I mean who wouldn’t want to see The Silversun Picks, The Hold Steadys, Airborne Toxic Event, The Crystal Method, and Leonard Cohen… and this is only the first fraking day!

If you are going, feel free to email, or @groovemonkey or swing by my house and slip photos or recordings or whatever you think might be kinda cool for The Monkey to post. Actually, the swinging by the house thing is not really an invite, unless you happen to be an out of work cheerleading coach from Orangevale.

Speaking of Orangevale, why, you ask am I not going to be at Coachella and digging the dirt of Indio? Its because I will be near Orangevale, in Sac Town, at The Foothill Skate Inn cheering Central Coast Roller Derby on to a girl on girl victory over the Sac City Roller’s Capital Punishers. Now again, why, you ask am I going all the way to Sacramento to watch Girls on Rollerskates hit each other in stead of heading off to Indio…? Aside from the obvious, there is also an Air Guitar Contest during halftime, and I just bought new strings for the ax. And since my cheer is a little out of shape, this is an open invitation to Charlie or Coach or Ex-Coach Christine to swing by the rink on Auburn Blvd and show me some moves. I am just saying.

So sometimes you wake up in the morning and go outside and grab the paper, brew some coffee and have a scone. This morning I didn’t do that all. In fact I never do that as I hate scones, and dont take a paper. Instead I hit Twitter. And near the top of my tweetdeck pals feed was a big HIYO from @maringuy and his call out of @daveibsen for the first teabag sighting of the day. Now I don’t know if its because of tax day, or that party in Boston a bunch of years ago or just that is Wednesday and tweeps are acting strangely but #teabag seems to be picking up traction. Its right up there with Adam Lambert. Just saying.

Now, being The Monkey, sometimes I like to lead. But today, I’ll follow. Here is my contribution to the #teabag meme. Now I am off to get some tea for breakfast. Not the Boston kind but the Strong Island kind.