MEBlog

Is American beer any good?

2008-05-14T11:46:00.001-04:00

Now that's a great headline if I've ever seen one. The Canadians are feeling the love for American craft beers now. Cool beans!

From Toronto's thestar.com.

Great songwriter quotes

2008-05-13T14:12:00.002-04:00

iSound has collected a bunch of quotes from great songwriters about the art (and work) of writing a song. It's funny and interesting and entertaining. Here are a few examples, and the full article is here.

Irving Berlin: "Listen kid, take my advice, never hate a song that has sold half a million copies."

George Gershwin: "Out of my entire annual output of songs, perhaps two, or at the most three, came as a result of inspiration. We can never rely on inspiration. When we most want it, it does not come."

Burt Bacharach: "Music breeds its own inspiration. You can only do it by doing it. You may not feel like it, but you push yourself. It's a work process. Or just improvise. Something will come."

Hal David: "I tended not to be concerned about whether a song was going to be a hit when I wrote it. Because it became evident that none of us knew what was a hit and what wasn't. So I thought if I just write what I like, why shouldn't people like what I like?"

Leonard Cohen: "I wish I were one of those people who wrote songs quickly. But I'm not. So it takes me a great deal of time to find out what the song is. I am working most of the time."

Neil Diamond: "Performing is the easiest part of what I do, and songwriting is the hardest."

Hank Williams: "If a song can't be written in 20 minutes, it ain't worth writing."

Gavin doesn't like labels

2008-05-09T10:32:00.002-04:00

The term "singer-songwriter"” makes Gavin DeGraw cringe. "It makes you feel like a weakling the way all the singer songwriters are marketed, you know what I mean? ... It's not masculine enough for me. I don't feel like I fall into that category in a lot of ways."

MSNBC.com

The summer of beer is coming soon

2008-05-04T14:24:00.002-04:00

There are lots of summer beer festivals around, and MSNBC.com gives you a six-pack of their favorites.

Road trip anyone?

Good times at Muskie's

2008-04-28T12:14:00.004-04:00

It was a packed house Friday night at Muskie's Grill in Fulton, and everybody seemed to be having a great time. It was very cool to see friends and neighbors in the crowd, along with lots of our new friends. The dance floor was hopping all night (including the interesting all-female lap dances), and the beverages seemed to be flowing freely.

Can't wait to do it again. Thanks for rockin' along with the MEB!!

Speaking of beer ...

2008-04-25T13:52:00.004-04:00

Why didn't I think of this? A beer search engine. Yeah, baby! Sadly, it's only in NYC at the moment, but I see great things in this site's future.

BeerMenus.com

UPDATE: Here's another great site for finding beers
beermapping.com

We must drink beer in Syracuse

2008-04-23T12:17:00.004-04:00

All About Beer magazine put together a list of the "must-visit" spots for beer drinkers, and The Blue Tusk and Clark's Ale House both make their list. Yeah, baby!

Thanks to Doc Willoughby for the link to Syracuse.com

Dear Keith:

2008-04-22T12:06:00.001-04:00

Blender Mag lets fans ask Keith Richards anything they want, and it makes for a pretty interesting interview (with audio of his answers).

R.I.P. Danny Federici

2008-04-18T08:32:00.002-04:00

Danny Federici, the longtime keyboard player for Bruce Springsteen whose stylish work helped define the E Street Band’s sound on hits from "Hungry Heart" through "The Rising," died Thursday. He was 58.

MSNBC.com

A few minutes with Max

2008-04-09T11:29:00.002-04:00

It's always good to sit down and chat with Conan bandleader and E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg.

Popmatters.com

Hey, where's my key?

2008-04-08T05:45:00.005-04:00

My hometown of Bay City, MI, wants to honor Madonna with a key to the city, since she was born there in 1958.

That's nice and all, but when am I gonna get a statue? Where's the Pimp Daddy Monument?!? I get no love.

MLive.com

Truer words have never been spoken

2008-04-01T08:59:00.002-04:00

"If you can’t afford to tip, don’t buy a drink," she said to me, and to no one.

Folks, just tip the bartender, OK?!?!?

From newyorker.com.

New R.E.M. CD out tomorrow

2008-03-31T11:18:00.003-04:00

Accelerate hits the stores tomorrow, and this reviewer really likes it.

Order from Amazon.com here.

I'll believe it when I see it

2008-03-28T10:07:00.000-04:00

"We'd love to have Bruce in the Dome," Campbell says. "We've had some conversations. We're waiting to hear. They have a number of places they're looking at. We'd love to do it. They haven't been able to tell me anything."

Vodka - is there anything it can't do?

2008-03-24T09:40:00.001-04:00

If you’re a fan of vodka, you know that its smoothness and versatility make it the perfect drink to pair with pretty much any mixer. There’s no end to the praises to be sung about this uniquely intoxicating alcohol, but did you know that there are plenty of other uses for vodka? It turns out that it’s actually a pretty handy substance to have around.

21 Amazing Alternate Uses for Vodka

A History Lesson from Billy Joel

2008-03-17T09:13:00.007-04:00

Whether you're a Billy Joel fan or not, you probably remember his song "We Didn't Start the Fire." Here it is, set to pictures---very very cool! Had to share this one. It's a cool flashback through the past half century. Turn up volume, sit back and enjoy a review of 50 years of history in less than 3 minutes!

Thanks to Doc Willoughby for sending this along.

A quiz! A quiz!

2008-03-11T08:46:00.001-04:00

So you think you know your album covers? Take this quiz to see if you can tell which ones are correct and which ones have been altered.

Thanks to Ken for the link.

Happy 62nd, David Gilmour

2008-03-06T10:53:00.001-05:00

R.I.P. Jeff Healey

2008-03-03T06:11:00.002-05:00

Legendary blues and jazz guitarist Jeff Healey has died, his publicist said Sunday. The Canadian musician had battled cancer his entire life.

"It was something he fought with considerable bravery," his publicist, Richard Flohil, told Newsnet late Sunday.

Healey, 41, had lost his eyesight to a rare form of the disease, Retinoblastoma, at the age of one.

Obit

The photos of Autumn de Wilde

2008-02-20T06:11:00.004-05:00

I love great photography, so an article and photo gallery about a great indie rock photog - Autumn de Wilde - is really cool.

From Boston.com

Where's the MEB logo?

2008-02-18T10:31:00.002-05:00

Spinner Magazine lists the top 25 band logos of all time.

How do they look 20 years later?

2008-02-16T10:28:00.003-05:00

Here's an interesting slideshow of 80's male rock stars and what they look like today. Some have aged much better than others (I'm looking at you, John Oates).

WNBC.com

We didn't win again, dangit.

2008-02-12T14:00:00.002-05:00

The Grammys happened this weekend and the MEB got dissed again. When will they ever learn?!?

Quick hits:

I started watching about 9 or so, missed the first chunk.
Winehouse deserved her wins, but really needs help. She seemed completely out of it.
Alicia Keys never fails to impress, though the duet with John Mayer was a little off - her tune was solidly in a major key and when John played a lot of bluesy licks, they just didn't work.
Rhapsody in Blue with Herbie Hancock and some Chinese dude was great - orchestra was really impressive.
Kid Rock/Dave Koz/some spaced-out lady singing jazz standards was surreal and bad and unsettling.
Foo Fighters rocked like they should have.
Enjoyed various folks busting on Kanye, and he seemed to take it well.
Andrea Boccelli/Josh Groban duet honoring Pavarotti proved that while Groban is talented and has a good voice, Boccelli is just amazing and on another plane.
I had a hard time watching the Goodyear Blimp formerly-known-as-Aretha-Franklin. Holy crap.

Great new band: Paramore

2008-02-06T17:30:00.000-05:00

Nominated for a Grammy for Best New Artist, these guys rock.

Sometimes a little research is a good thing

2008-01-31T08:45:00.000-05:00

I'm all for science and stuff, but there are times it gets a little dry and boring. So when I heard about this call for research, I was totally into it.

canada.com