1990 - The beginning

I couldn't tell you when I really started to listen to music, but I can tell you that it was around 1990. Sure, I had an MC Hammer album and a Vanilla Ice album, but that was what I was growing up with. After looking through...about 100 videos I realized that I didn't really listen to a lot of these songs until a few years later.

I think that that's the case with a lot of people when it comes to music; you have to go back and hear maybe a band's first album, or where they got their ideas, or who they were covering. I can honestly tell you that I didn't listen to The Who until I heard Pearl Jam cover them on a bootleg.

Most people know of the 90's as the Grunge era, where hairbands died and the flannels and feelings began making their way to the airwaves. It happened and you can see the seeds of that movement in some of these videos. What I have decided to do, is go through a list of albums that were released through the 90's decade, and pick some songs that I like. Now, most of the performances were around the time of the album's release...but they could be before or after. So this is based on when the album was released, not when the video was made...though I tried to keep it as close as possible.

Some of the videos are professional ones, some are live recordings, and one in particular was created by a fan...but I had to use it (It's a Mother Love Bone video). So enjoy...1991 probably won't be here until next week, got a camping trip to go on. Leave a comment or two.

Alice in Chains - "We Die Young" - album: Facelift


Black Crowes - "Jealous Again" - album: Shake Your Money Maker


Cowboy Junkies - "Sun Comes Up, it's Tuesday Morning" - album: The Caution Horses


Jane's Addiction - "Been Caught Stealin'" album: Ritual de lo Habitual


The La's - "Timeless Melody" - album: The La's


Social Distortion - "Story of My Life"(solo performance) - album: Social Distortion


Soundgarden - "Big Dumb Sex" - album: Louder Than Love (some f-bombs)


Mother Love Bone - "Chole Dance/Crown of Thorns"- album: Apple


Faith No More - "Epic" - album: The Real Thing


Green Day - "1000 Hours" - album: Smoothed Out Slappy Hours



If you think I missed one, feel free to leave a comment with the video embedded!

Covering the Beatles

We all know what The Beatles did for music. We all know how they're one of those bands that not everyone can do their songs justice. Sure, anyone can cover a Beatles song...but that doesn't mean that it should be done.

To cover a Beatles song and do it justice, I think you have to do 2 things. 1) You have to be a Beatles fan (2) You have to know what the hell you are doing. Rookies like myself have played Beatles' songs in front of family and friends in coffee houses - and that's okay. Groups coming up and trying to get the crowd into their show - What better way to grab the crowd's attention than to use a Beatles song? But when you're a group that has "made it," and you're doing a show, you best know that you covering a Beatles song means something different. Bands that play a Beatles' song will either fail miserably; pissing people off indefinitely...Do a fairly good job and people will say "That was okay." ...or you will kick the song's ass and people will leave saying "That was awesome...but it won't touch the original."

It needs to be accepted that Beatles songs cannot be topped, however that doesn't mean that the songs shouldn't be covered. I mean, the Beatles covered songs and made them their own. The trick is, is to understand why the Beatles' songs are what they are. If you can do that, then I think you'll be okay.

Here are some videos of bands covering songs by The Beatles. Yes, one is a Lennon cover from the upcoming Instant Karma Album (benefiting Darfar, Sudan), two are from a BBC The Beatles special, one from the concert for 9/11, and the other are live show moments that I think truly capture what made The Beatles who they were and why their songs will continue to be played by all forms of artists until there is no more music. Enjoy.

U2 - performing "Helter Skelter" - 1988 Rattle & Hum documentary


Green Day - performing "Working Class Hero" (Lennon) - Darfur Sudan


Neil Young - performing "Imagine" - A Tribute to Heroes 9/11


Pearl Jam - performing "I've Got a Feelilng" - Rotterdam 1992 **warning** Naked guitarist!


Stereophonics - performing "Sgt.Pepper's [Reprise]" - BBC Special


John Butler Tri0 - performing "Come Together"


Dave Matthews - performing "In My Life" - Tribute to John Lennon


Ray Charles - performing "Yesterday" - 1973 Documentary


Fiona Apple - performing "Across the Universe" - soundtrack for Pleasantville


As always, feel free to leave a comment.

Network Television Debuts

It must be a great feeling knowing that you are making your network television debut on The Late Show with David Letterman. I've always been a Letterman fan, therefore you won't see any Leno acts on here, though I'm sure people have debuted on his show as well. I was searching through videos and videos on Youtube finding just great performances and I noticed that quite a few were "network debuts" so I thought that it'd be fun to check out some more. I'll let the music do the talking. Click on each artist's name to find out more info about them.

M. Ward - "Chinese Translation" - August 24, 2006


The Libertines - "I Get Along" - May 9, 2003


Screaming Trees - "Nearly Lost You" - October 16, 1992


Stone Temple Pilots - "Wicked Garden" - 1993


Amy Winehouse - "Rehab" - March 12, 2007


Cat Power - "Maybe Not" - June 13, 2006


REM - "Radio Free Europe" - October 6, 1983

AOL Music Sessions

I think it can be said that Mtv doesn't really have a pull on music like they used to have. When you think of new music now, you think of Ipods, Itunes, torrents, and online sessions. No longer does Mtv celebrate the music that is not only new, but unique. More specifically, Mtv Unplugged has truly lost what it once had. I can remember when a new episode of Unplugged was going to be shown, I would be glued to the television. Sessions like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Clapton, Dylan, REM, 10,000 Maniacs, Neil Young and many others of the earlier shows redefined not only how music is viewed, but how the artists were truly gifted, talented, and could do more than just an album version of a record. The stripped-to-the-core Unplugged versions were works of art on their own.

Mtv has lost this magic I think, but I think that there is another company that has picked it up. AOL seems to realize what type of music is out there and also realizes how important it is to get it out to the masses. The AOL sessions have been quite unique in that they are broadcast online, rather than on television. I believe the only session to be shown on TV was the Coldplay session. Now, if Mtv is in with AOL, then the first part of this post can be deleted and commented on as me being misinformed, but I don't feel like doing a bunch of research.

I want to show you some videos. The AOL sessions have grasped on to what Mtv Unplugged no longer has; bands that are artistic, different, unique, and can play some great music. (Though you may not like every artist they have on there...) The following videos are of Bright Eyes, Coldplay, Pearl Jam, The Fray, & Keane...











If you want to check out more, click here for a YouTube search, or go to AOL Sessions to check out some new stuff.

Ryan Adams and...Silverchair?

Ryan Adams has a new album out and it's pretty solid. Everything of his usually is. The man that somehow has put out more albums within 5 years than some groups do in a lifetime, has once again brought his voice and lyrics to make another beautiful album. The new album is titled "Easy Tiger." You can go and check out some songs and see tour dates at his Myspace page. This video is from his performance (with the always-by-his-side band The Cardinals) on David Letterman earlier this week. The song is "Two" and is an excellent representative of his outstanding art.



Now, I am far from being a person in the know of music. I just like to listen to what people are checking out, and see if it's something that I would enjoy. A friend of mine mentioned on a message board, that Silverchair is going to be a breakthrough band this year. I had no idea to what he was referring, because I honestly thought that Silverchair had gone down with the many other bands of the 90's grunge era. Yet, I ran a Wiki search and discovered that the band has not only continued making music, but that it's been pretty decent. So, they have a new album coming out, titled "Young Modern" and they are already selling out concerts...not in Australia, but in the United States! How have I missed this?

Having listened to what is out there, this is not the Silverchair that I was used to...10 years ago. No longer is it a deep voiced 17 year old baby-faced boy wailing on a guitar. You'll be surprised as I was. But I can't get this song out of my head, nor the thought that Daniel Johns (who is married to hotty Natalie Imbruglia) greatly resembles Freddie Mercury! See if this gets stuck in your head...