./monroec

I talk an awful lot of shit when it comes to music. So I’ve decided to put myself to the test. Let’s take a look at my 25 most played:

What we see here is somewhat of an identity crisis. For a self hating Chilean, I’m doing a terrible job at avoiding one of their most popular bands - La Ley.

La Ley (Spanish for “The Law”) was a Grammy Award and two-time Latin Grammy Award-winning Chilean pop rock band formed by Andrés Bobe and Rodrigo Aboitiz with Mauricio Claveria, Beto Cuevas and Luciano Rojas. After a failed first album, Desiertos (1989), they released Doble Opuesto (1990), which appears as the official first album of the band. Singles like “Desiertos,” “Tejedores de Ilusión,” and “Prisioneros de la Piel” made them stars in Chile, Argentina and Mexico, especially after the release of La Ley, their second recording (1992). –WIKIPEDIA

Next, we see too much Assemblage 23. Ten years ago, I loved Assemblage 23 more than anything. Today, I’m sick and fucking tired of them. Every album is the same with the same god damned single.

Disappoing

“Did I disappoint you?
Did I let you down?
Did I stand on the shore
And watch you as you drowned?”

Collapse

“I’m suffocating with guilt
Asphyxiating on panic
And I can’t shake off this fear with which I’m bound”

SOMEBODY PLEASE GET THIS MAN AN OXYGEN TANK!

Lastly, I’m VERY disappointed (perhaps even asphyxiated?) that Paul Oakenfold is even on my list.

“Paul Oakenfold’s career was set to be a chef, after having hopes of becoming part of a band.” — WIKIPEDIA

Maybe that is why his cuts don’t mix. Early Oakenfold was smooth as butter. The later CD’s felt like random mash ups to me. Take a look at this POS. The TRUE milk and potatoes are right here: A Voyage into Trance or even Live In Oslo.

The only conclusion I can come up with are:

1. I’m full of shit
2. I love to hate music.

I think #2 is the winner. I start hating artists because I look too deep into the whole music making process. I’m far from a musician or authority, but certain elements of design are universal. When that fourth wall is broken, the illusion goes away and pisses me off.

With the new year, I’m cleaning out some of the stale music on my file server (shitbox music == Media Center music) and replacing with other notables. I believe it’s no longer the “shuffle” feature that’s broken, rather my lack of new music loaded onto the iPod.

As I search through my music, I see that there are multiple albums I’ve yet to listen. For example: what the fuck band is called 7VWWVW? In parenthesis it says “mammal”. What the fuck does that mean? When and why did I get this? I sit here in shock that there are over 50 Fabric releases. That shock is quickly followed by fear that I’ve forgotten to keep up with the Global Underground series. I never know how much Tiesto I really have. Do I file it under  Tiesto? DJ Tiesto? VA? Case logic 92 CD holder or ripped onto MP3s? Why can’t I find my Leftfield CD? Oh wait, was that a Sasha’s Xpander CD? Why do I have so much Laibach?

This whole thing is retarded.

As 2009 wraps up, I’d like to comment on my top three albums for the year. I’m purposely avoiding compilations and remixes.

Hip-Hop

Kid Cudi - Man On The Moon: The End Of Day

Kid Cudi broke out onto the mainstream with his mix tape “A Kid Named Cudi.” His popularity was already growing after having worked with Kanye West and Common. Overall, he’s a great rapper with an alternative Hip-Hop sound. Highly recommended.

Industrial/Noise

HEALTH - Get Color

HEALTH is an American Industrial/Noise-Rock band from LA. What makes them memorable is their use of haunting monotone vocals. Apparently this is their second album, and they have opened for NIN.

Psychedelic/Electronic

The Tear Garden - Have A Nice Trip

Essentially, The Tear Garden is Skinny Puppy meets Legendary Pink Dots. In this particular album, there is a stronger influence by Cevin Key (My opinion….). Overall, Edward Ka-Spel is as mystical/awesome as ever.

It’s a shame that 2009 did not have more notable releases. Here’s hoping for a better 2010!

I missed my chance to buy Muse tickets a few weeks back. Luckily, some free tickets made their way over to me. I saw two girls attention whoring, I met DJ Scott Stubs, laughed at Germans heading to Hoffbrauhaus, almost saw a guy get run over, and got a chance to walk through UNLV’s campus again.

Overall, a fantastic night that never really ended, as it was 7 a.m. when I got home. Too bad the past is exactly that.

Here are some pictures I took on my phone:

By far, this was the best show I’ve seen all year. The theatrics, visuals, and blood were beyond awesome.

I’m very glad to see the band back to form and can’t wait for the new CD.

On a whim, I signed up for the Santa Run in Town Square, Las Vegas. It has been a while since I’ve run a 5k for any sort of cause. I’m glad I still have it in me.

On a whim, I decided to go up Lone Mountain after sundown. My goal was to get a clear view of the strip and to snap a few photos.

Like before, I’m very much in need for a better camera. Also, I should have thought about taking some sort of tripod solution.

I’d like to share the following pictures:

I attended the Nellis Air Show today. Apparently, I know nothing about aircrafts:  everything was much bigger or smaller than I expected. By the time we hit up the C5 Galaxy, my mind was blown. I don’t care about the laws of physics, it makes no sense to see that thing fly. That thing is an assboat.

As expected, the Thunderbirds were the highlight of the of the show.

Had it not been for Dustin’s invitation, I wouldn’t have attended the event. Given his current military standing, I basically had my own tour guide. Kudos to you, dbarbour!

I don’t have a fancy camera or anything, so I took few pictures. Here’s some that stood out:

This year’s spontaneous trip landed me in Houston, Texas of all places. Go figure….

1998 - All the jackass-punk kids at Bonanza High school are etching the logo on 3 inch binders. It’s fucking pathetic. I’m on a trip further into Electronic Music and I’m not looking back. Guitars? Fuck that noise!

2002 - KMFDM signs with Metropolis-Records and releases “Attak”. I had read some reviews and was convinced to at least give them another listen. If Metropolis-Records like this, why shouldn’t I? This song in particular hooked me:

2003 - I had worked my way backwards through their discography and had all the albums. My retort was already programmed in my head: “Yeah, yeah, $YOURBAND sucks. You should listen to KMFDM. Start off with Symbols.”

2009 - I sit here wondering what I did with my old KMFDM sticker. I should have put it on a binder or something.

I’m really glad I got to see them. I had already missed both MDFMK and KMFDM in Vegas.  They’ve been around for 25 years and Sascha Konietzko is getting old. I got word that he had to sit down mid-concert in Phoenix!

My show in particular was energetic as all hell. I don’t see the band stopping any time soon. Besides, George Bush said it best: “There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, break up once, shame on — shame on you. Break up — you can’t break up again.”

We were finally seated at the Cracker Barrel. For some reason, this one felt different. The waitress, skeptical of my order, kept verifying my “sunny side up” request. For me, it was the only sane thing about the last 24 hours. Dustin looks at his phone and says “I’m turning the GPS off, it’s a fucking waste.”

(You can read Dustin’s side of the story here: http://www.dustinbarbour.com/2009/10/leaving-houston/)

I knew I had forgotten something when I boarded the plane. I kept repeating “keys, phone, plastic, keys, phone, plastic” over and over again to try to figure out what was missing. The croissan’wich was settling in, and my eye lids grew too heavy. Whatever was missing could be dealt with in San Antonio.

Dustin picked me up at Terminal 1 and we were off. The drive to Houston is an easy one. Texas has the horrible characteristic of being flat. As we reached city limits, we focused all of our attention in spotting a La Quinta Inn hotel he had booked days earlier.

We must have missed it. That’s the only explanation. Loop after loop around the city, no sign of our destination. The frustration levels kept rising, and his phone quickly ran out of batteries.

We had:

We pull over to a convenience store to check the phone book listings. Not a single one of them familiar to us. We call a random one and start working the Vegas charm. It couldn’t be…. No record of the reservation. If only we could find an open wireless access point.

We pull over again, but this time directly in front of two guys waiting on the bus. “Weezy” walks up to us speaking all kinds of jive trying to help us get to our location. His directions might as well have been from National Lampoon’s Vacation. “Maybe now you can help ME” he replied. And just like that, all the knowledge I picked up in Brazil came flying back. Redskins jersey was a hustler, and his pal was a spotter. Before I knew it, our car was surrounded by homeless transients. Feeling his Tupperware totes were in danger of theft, Dustin hands the guy four dollars, and we break out of there. We pull into a T-mobile store and borrow one of their power outlets.

I had used Google’s SMS 411 feature and obtained a list of La Quinta’s in town. Dustin makes a backup reservation just in case, and we go searching again.

6:53 PM - We turn on the GPS feature of the phone. Cell phone tower triangulation just wasn’t good enough for us. 13290 SM 1960 Roadwest. I wondered what kind of genius names their streets like that. GPS led us further down the spiral. We decide to try other locations: Greenway Plaza-Galleria-Airport — No reservation.

7:30 PM - We pull into a different La Quinta. This time, we’re able to jump onto an open wireless access point. Dustin pulls up his laptop browser history, the reservations were for a Baymont Inn Hotel. My brain goes into a state of shock, and my body starts running down the street. The level of madness is enough to make me laugh uncontrollably. I was drowning in nonsense.

7:53 PM - A mere seven minutes before doors open, we decide to get some food at Prince’s Hamburgers and check in after our concert.

12:00 AM - We head out looking for our Baymont Inn hotel, we pull in after GPS fails us a few more times. I had his laptop scanning for networks, I look down to see network “laquinta”. Am I delirious? I jump on Google to make sense of all this. July 15 2009 - La Quinta Acquires Baymont Inn Hotels.

No wonder. The conversion and branding process was still going on. La Quinta’s website never specified we’d be looking for a different name. It’s no surprise our reservation didn’t show, their systems are probably still not linked.

We walk inside our room. Dustin headed to the furniture, “I bet you these two bottom drawers are locked… HA!”. I take a quick shower turn on the Wi-Fi on my phone. All I wanted was a new day and some good breakfast.