Monday, February 28, 2005

Gone in the Blink-182 of an eye



Blink-182 announced Tuesday they are going on an "indefinite hiatus," possibly bringing to a close their decade-plus career of catchy but angsty radio hits, goofball videos, stand-up comedy stage banter and millions of albums sold worldwide.


From mtv.com - Blink-182 Announce 'Indefinite Hiatus' As Breakup Rumors Swirl

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Korn minus 1



Korn guitarist Brian "Head" Welch has parted ways with the hard rock act, citing a recent religious awakening.

From Yahoo! News.

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

Can you prove it didn't happen?



No, Mama Cass didn't die by choking on a ham sandwich, and Stevie Nicks didn't have cocaine blown up her "bum." Well, at least according to this article listing the 10 Greatest Rock'n'Roll Myths. But I still believe it.

The Observer | OMM | The 10 greatest rock'n'roll myths

Monday, February 21, 2005

Oh, those crazy hackers!



People are always looking for a way around copyright protection for music, and it looks like someone has found a way to tweak files downloaded from the new Naptster and remove the protection. This allows folks to burn CDs or transfer files to other music players, which didn't work in the current setup.

The never ending battle continues.

From The New York Times (registration required). Thanks to Dave Homick for the link.

Friday, February 18, 2005

See you at Winterfest tonight



See you tonight, Happy Hour 6-9, Downtown Manhattan's, Hanover Square.

Map
Winterfest Website

Thursday, February 17, 2005

Inspiration for the new MEB CD cover



Thanks to Bill Patrick for this crazy link. Here are the 10 Worst Album Covers of all time. Just a hilarious read. And the commentary that goes along with it is just as funny as the covers themselves.

Courtesy of Mental Drippings.

Wednesday, February 16, 2005

First Act guitars make it to the Grammys



As many of you know, my wife Ellen works for First Act, an instrument manufacturer based in Newton, MA. Along with instruments for very small kids, drumsets, and school band instruments, they also have a custom guitar shop that makes top-end instruments for artists. They've done instruments for dozens of top names, including players in Aerosmith, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Cure, Cheap Trick, The Donnas and more.

And now they've made it to the Grammys! Nicholas McCarthy from Scottish rockers Franz Ferdinand played a snakeskin-covered First Act model when they opened the show last Sunday night.

They're thrilled with the exposure this has gotten them, and it'll be exciting to see where else their instruments show up.

Links:
Franz Ferdinand website
First Act site
Nicholas McCarthy info @ First Act site
Guitar details and close-ups

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Come Rain or Come Shine



Today would have been composer Harold Arlen's 100th birthday, and I wanted to celebrate. With hits like Accentuate The Positive, Stormy Weather, Get Happy, Come Rain or Come Shine, and the all-time classic Somewhere Over The Rainbow, Arlen will go down as one of the greatest American tunesmiths. He didn't get the press of Irving Berlin or George Gershwin, but his tunes stack up against anybody's.

National Public Radio has done a wonderful feature on Harold Arlen and you can find it here: NPR : 'Come Rain or Come Shine'. There are audio links to his top 10 songs, an image gallery, links to Arlen websites, and a streaming audio link to an hour long celebration of him and his work.

Monday, February 14, 2005

We didn't win again (maybe we should be nominated first, eh?)




At the Grammy awards last night, they once again forgot to give the MEB our well-deserved award for Coolest Baldwinsville Band with a Drummer from Solvay. What do we gotta do?!?

OK, so it was actually a pretty good show with some of our favorite artist getting some well deserved awards. Alicia Keys was incredible, Los Lonely Boys took home an award, as did John Mayer, Maroon 5 and Green Day.

But then Bill Clinton, Rod Stewart, and Britney Spears all won Grammys. How messed up is that?

Read about the awards show here.
MTV.com's Grammy headquarters with lots of photo and video galleries.
See the full list of winners.
Read a review of the show that I almost completely agree with.

Sunday, February 13, 2005

MEB Kicks Off Winterfest

One of the biggest parties every year is Syracuse is the Winterfest, celebrating the hearty spirit of us Central New Yorkers even through this brutal winter weather. And it's the perfect time to bust those winter blues with a great party. Winterfest features Chili and Gumbo Cook-offs, tons of live music and special events all around the downtown area, fun for the whole family.

We're kicking off this year's fiesta with a Happy Hour show at Manhattan's in Hanover Square, the perfect place to party, on Friday Feb. 18, performing from 6-9 PM. All you teachers getting ready to go on Feb. break and all you former Sagers looking for a reunion - this is your party!

For more info on this show and upcoming shows, visit our schedule page.

Thursday, February 10, 2005

Ethnic Ambiguity



Here's an interesting take on how many celebrities these days are of a mixed ethnicity. Think Derek Jeter, Mariah Carey, Tiger Woods, Vin Diesel, Norah Jones, and more. And how that is opening doors for some actors/models, but becoming limiting for others.

From Backstage.com

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Finish Line loves the MEB



This is great. In the new commercials for the Nike Turbo Oz shoe from Finish Line, they show a bunch of runners competing on a NASCAR-style track, and one of the runners is named "Meb Caplensky" (or something like that). His team colors are yellow and black, so in the stands there's a whole group of people wearing "GO MEB" yellow t-shirts. Pretty darn cool.

• The Nike Turbo Oz page is here, with links to the video.
• Link directly to the video of the commercial here.
• See a larger picture captured from the video here.



1:00 PM - More info: The runner in the commercial is Meb Keflezighi, who was the silver medalist in the Athens 2004 Olympic marathon. Here are a few articles about him with some other pictures.

MSNBC.com - Meet Meb
MarathonAndBeyond.com - Hard Work and Long, Hard Miles Led Meb Keflezighi to Athens and to a Sterling-Silver Day
SI.com - Silver surprise; American Keflezighi finishes second in bizarre marathon

Why we ain't got rhythm

According to a Cornell University study, North Americans have worse rhythm than folks from other continents. Of course, after reading the article, I still have no idea what they're talking about and I'm guessing you won't either. But give it a shot.

At least I'm not clapping on 1 and 3 (inside musical joke).

MSNBC.com

Sunday, February 06, 2005

This is a new one on me - Podcasting

The internet has spawned a new phenomenon. People creating their own radio shows, uploading them to the internet, and allowing users to play them back on their iPod or other digital music player.

Surprisingly, former MTV VJ Adam Curry was one of the inventors. Check it out.

MSNBC - Podcasting gives Weblogs a voice

Saturday, February 05, 2005

Sir Paul is the safe choice



That's pretty funny. And as you can tell from the picture, he isn't much of an athlete ...

Yahoo! News - McCartney Safe Bet for Super Bowl Halftime

Thursday, February 03, 2005

We love the American Idiots



Nice to see Green Day getting good reviews and critical praise and selling a lot of CDs. Good guys.

CNN.com - The best thing Green Day has ever done

What's that in your rearview mirror, iTunes?

Naptster To Go launches. $15 per month, all the music you want (none of this $1 a song stuff). Very, very interesting. Any thoughts from the masses out there?

Wired News: Napster Goes Mobile

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

It's all about the Comedy



South Park, The Daily Show, Drawn Together, Crank Yankers, Chapelle's Show. And the list goes on.

Still one of the best stations out there.

Article on the network honchos at Wired.com.
The Comedy Central website.

How 'bout some 80's nostalgia?



We Are The World is now on DVD. Check out all the bad hair and sparkly gloves. And Dan Ackroyd. WTF?

VH1.com: We Are the World: The Story Behind the Song