Tweak Bird Interview

So I managed to get in touch with Caleb Bird before the show to see if him and his brother would be down to do a quick interview for the magazine and he told me to hit him up when I got to the venue.  I texted him as I was walking up to Vinyl Music Hall and he told me they had about 10 minutes left in their sound check so I grabbed a beer while I waited. A few minutes later, I received a text  from him informing me that they were at the bar. I walked over to find the two brothers hanging out with their merch guy. We shot the breeze for a minute or so to introduce ourselves and then went looking for a quieter place to talk. We ended up stepping outside by their van to talk about their new album,Undercover Crops, how two Illinois boys got set up on a surf company's record label, and what get's them amped.

 

Get Amped: Your new album is awesome. How long have you guys had those songs?

Ashton: Those songs we pretty much wrote from January and February of this year, up until, well, we were still writing in the studio.

GA: And there's like, 7 or 8 songs on it right?

Caleb: Yeah, there's 7 tracks. And some weird noise tracks just to piss people off. Somebody actually wrote a review of the noise track, the first track, and they were like, “this is terrible, I could do this on GarageBand” and we were like “...yyyeaaaah. I mean, go for it, and it will sound shitty as that song.”

Ashton: But yeah, this album was written in about 3 months or something. We don't really do that 12 year song thing. We would do like 12 minutes and it's out of our heads probably.

                                                                                 (closed eyes ^ perfect haha)

 

GA: What's your process for songwriting?

C: This album we kinda just came up with one liners, like, I dunno, like that song people, we were just kinda like “oh man that’s a good line” you know? We were singing the melody before we had any guitar parts. It's kinda the same with the pigeon song. Like, he came up with the idea for that and then it was just about putting guitar and drums behind it. So, that's kinda how this album went. Like, with our last album we kinda just jammed out in the studio and were like “oh yeah, this could be a good riff”.

GA: Y'all went out to LA to record this album right?

C: Yeah, we live out there now.

 GA: I saw that you guys toured Europe a few times and I’ve always heard that the crowd's energy level over there is just crazy compared to over here. Would y'all attest to that? Or do you just think it's kinda relative to the night and the venue?

A: Yeah, I think it's more of like, probably more consistent...this tour especially, being on tour with The Melvins, we've had such a cool opportunity to play to pumped up people every night. Well sold shows every night. Well attended shows or whatever.  And I’ve felt a lot of passion, or whatever you wanna call it coming from people being amped up you know? And I see that in Europe more consistently probably, but I dunno.

 

C: I think Europe, for us, I think they know that they've kinda gotta follow a band online for a while before they're gonna catch them over there. At least US bands. So maybe by the time we actually get over there to tour, they're more into it where as in the US its like, we could put out a 7-inch that nobody knows about and for the band, it just takes a little more work.

GA: Okay, I know you guys are from Illinois, and I don’t know anything about the geography up there, I just know its up north and I was trying to draw the connection between y'all and Volcom.. Do y’all like, snowboard or ski?

C: No, its in the southern part of Illinois. So we get snow up there but its just like, flat as shit.

GA: How did y’all get set up with Volcom?

C: After we moved to LA, we were just doing some shows and one of the guys from the label came out and saw us a couple times and liked what we were doing. And you know, it's not like we had a million offers at the time, so when somebody was like, “hey do u wanna put a record out?”...

GA: Isn't ASG and like Valient Thorr on that label too?

C: Yeah, ASG, they just did a Torche record too. So they got some really good stuff going on.

GA: Do y'all like skateboard or anything? Or just musicians?

C: No, just play music.

GA: That's whats up. So I read that you guys went through a lot of drummers very early on until Ashton finally sat down to the throne permanently. Did you play drums a lot when you were younger?

A: I mean, I've played drums on and off since I was 12 you know, so I just love playing music. Like, I played bass, I wanted to play guitar since I was 10 but  he was older and he got a guitar first so I just kinda kept the rhythm for it however I could. But I like it. I just like rhythms.

GA: So do y'all have any connections with The Melvins? Because when I saw you in Jacksonville, you played with Big Business, which is like, the rhythm section for The Melvins.

C: We kinda just met those guys, through, really the first time we hooked up with The Melvins was we just kinda sent them an email cuz we saw that Dale was helping bands make records and producing them or whatever. So we said, “hey, we wanna do an EP, do you guys wanna come help us out?” And they were like, “yeah”. So that was the first time we met them. So then we would go to their shows and they would come to our shows and just started hanging out.

GA: How long were y'all playing music in Illinois before you decided to head out West?

C: It was quite a while, like 5 years or so, we've kinda been doing it since we were pretty young so..

GA: How old are y'all now?

C: He's 26 and I’m 30.

GA: Sweet. Have y'all been listening to any new bands lately? Anybody y'all wanna like, bring to the light?

C: The last thing I heard that was sticking out was Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats. Ashton turned me onto that.. I dunno where he found them.

GA: What are they like? Or can you really describe it?

A: Oh, it's pretty easy to describe I would even say. It sounds like, yeah, it sounds like Black Sabbath. I think Staring Problem. That's the best band. They're out of Chicago.

GA: Okay, I saw this once and I thought it looked pretty fun, so do y'all wanna do some word association?

C: Yeah.

GA: Okay, so I’ll just say a word and you just shout out whatever comes..

 

 

GA: Bird.

C: Birdcage.

GA: Trees.

A: Awesome.

GA: Pumpkin.

C: Chucking.

GA: Candy.

A: Coated.

GA: Sweat.

C: Uhhhh, sweat lodge.

GA: Sugar.

A: Magnolia.

GA: Radical.

C: Simplicity...yes.

GA: Okay, ugly.

A: As fuck.

GA: Zebra.

C: Stripes.

GA: Minotaur.

A: Awesome.

GA: Alright since I’m with Get Amped magazine I’m gonna need to ask what gets you guys

amped?

C: Uhhhhhhhh.... hmmmmmmm.

A: Assholes.

GA: Assholes? Like, a nice bleached one? Or like jerks..?

A: Jerks.

C: Jerks will put a nice little fire under us sometimes.

A: People that are mean and judgmental make me feel amped.

GA: Like, in a good way? Like fuel to the fire? Or like in a punch a hole through a brick wall kinda

way...

A: No, I don't really punch. I've become really accepting and peaceful. I pretty much accept everybody for everything. But except people that are mean. I just can't get behind it. That's the only thing that really, still gets me....amped.

GA: Is that what amps you up as well Caleb? Assholes?

C: Yeah I mean, same thing. When you're playing music you cant really complain about anything you know?

 

GA: Do y'all ever have to deal with hecklers? Do people still do that?

C: Yeah... I mean, that’s different. That just people, you know, getting there.

A: That’s funny.

C: That’s just people tryin to get there kicks. But I think its just incentive to keep what we're doing. Our whole take on heavy music and metal is to kinda be, the 'fuck you guys'. We'll write poppy songs, we'll draw peace signs, we don’t give a shit. Like, if you wanna be an angry metal dude, like go ahead, but we're here to kinda..

GA: Do y’all have anything else you wanna throw in there for the kids in Jacksonville? For the kids that are smoking weed and trying to make music? Stoners need a little bit of extra ambition, got anything for em?

C: Keep the PMA dude, Positive Mental Attitude. Keep doin it. Don't let anybody try to fuckin take it away from you.

A: Quit.

GA: Alright guys, thanks.

C: Thank you, man.

Tweak Bird Is The New Black

 If someone told me that there was a new band I should check out that was made up of two brothers from southern Illinois who grew up on a 17-acre farm and were home-schooled, I would most likely go ahead and assume that their music would be more or less... rural. Kind of a folk/country concoction. Well I couldn't be further away from the truth. Ashton and Caleb are these two brothers from Carbondale, Illinois who grew up on a farm, were home-schooled, and around middle school age began making music. The end product: a sound heavier than your weird fat uncle at 8pm on Thanksgiving night yet as beautiful as the girl you watch from across the club as you try and think of a smooth way to strike up a conversation until you see her boyfriend walk up and step on your fantasy by putting his arm around her. They call themselves Tweak Bird.

I asked where the name came from and Caleb told me that his brother came up with the name and that “it doesn't mean anything, he just sort of brainfarted it.” Many times you will see the brothers referred to as Ashton and Caleb Bird, so I went ahead and double checked to make sure that that wasn't in fact really their last name. “Nope.” is the answer Caleb gave me. Just one of the many benefits of being in a band, getting to create new names for yourselves.

I first caught wind of these guys back in 2008 when a friend and I were thumbing through a copy of Folio Weekly looking for a show to go to that night. We stumbled across a band called Tweak Bird opening up for Big Business. The description labeled them something along the lines of “stoner metal”. We both decided that this would be our best bet. Thank God we did. As we stood in front of the stage at Jackrabbits watching Caleb, on guitar, and brother Ashton, on the drums, I think our mouths were open throughout the entire set. These guys literally had a gong on stage as well as a theramin. For those of you who don't know what a theramin is, it's an antenna basically that sticks straight up and is electrically wired to something and when you move your hands near it, it emits different frequencies. Basically it just makes super trippy and cool Sci-Fi type noises. Stuff from The Twilight Zone. I was instantly a believer in “the bird”. After the set I went and bought two shirts, one for me and one for my friend, as well as the album they were touring for, Reservations. Four years later, I'm living in Pensacola and see that Tweak Bird will be playing a show at Vinyl Music Hall opening up for Melvins Lite, which is Dale Crover (drums) and Buzz Osborne (guitar/lead vox) from The Melvins with their friend Trevor Dunn on the stand up bass.

 

Tweak Bird's show at Vinyl was no exception to their reputation for bringing the rock. Ashton goes harder than Animal from The Muppets and you can just barely see his smile through his sweaty mop of hair hanging down over his face. Caleb, on the opposite end of the stage is holding it down on his baritone guitar that delivers a more bass heavy sound to make up for the absence of a bass guitar.  To this day, I've never seen a two piece band generate so much head banging from an audience. There was barely any talking going on between the two brothers during their performance. The focus seemed to be entirely on putting on the most energetic show possible.

It was fun to see them having so much fun on stage together, knowing that they have a mental connection that most band members will never get to experience with one another. We even got to see a little peek into their world as brothers in a band when during the outro to one of their songs, Ashton shouted out “Hey! You stole my part!” to which they rewound 30 seconds or so and finished the outro the right way. We all got a little laugh out of that, especially since we could sense that it was all love up on stage and no animosity. That's what makes these guys stand out from the crowd. Their message is spreading love and doing what you love.

The real highlight of their set, and I think I speak for everybody when I say this, was when Dale Crover came on stage and played along with Ashton Bird on “Pigeons”, bringing a second drum set to the table. This just made their already heavy metal pop sound that much heavier. The crowd ate it right out of their hands.

    

 

 

As if that wasn't enough rock 'n' roll for one night, we still had Melvins Lite to look forward to. I wasn't sure what to expect from them considering this was my first time seeing them live. I did know that I was in for a ride though. As Buzz Osborne took the stage the crowd went nuts. Screaming and yelling from men and women of all ages. He came out wearing what I can only describe as a black (as in the color black) wizard's cloak with a bedazzled golden breastplate sewn on the front covered with what appeared to be hundreds of tiny planets all over it. Underneath you could see his black leather high top P.F. Flyer's. I noticed those right away because I was actually wearing the same ones. Except mine are canvas.  And then of course was the signature Buzz Osborne/ Side-show Bob crazy out of control blast of hair. If you've never seen Melvins Lite, but have seen The Melvins or Big Business, you certainly can't judge one by the other. Trevor Dunn was the man responsible for bringing the sometimes thumping and sometimes crooning stand-up bass.

When the trio stepped onto the stage, they eased us into the weirdness that is Melvins Lite with Trevor eerily bowing his bass while Dale worked the symbols and Buzz drew out distorted atmospheric sounds from his amp with his guitar. This strange trance went on for about 5 minutes or so until Buzz was ready to kick it up a notch and lay down some heavier riffs. It wasn't long before Trevor tucked away his bow and started to work the thick strings with his fingers bringing out that thumping rockabilly sound that I personally can't get enough of. If you haven't had a chance to give these guys a listen but are interested in checking out what I would refer to as atmospheric sludge metal, their album is up on Spotify and of course you can pick it up on iTunes or the bands website. The album is titled “Freak Puke”. Don't worry, it's not as bad as it sounds.

 

 

   

The Voice of the Vendor : DeLuna Fest 2012

OK, wow. Last weekend was intense. Loud music, soft music, dancing, moshing, eating too much, not sleeping enough, drinking too much alcohol, hydrating with warm water, and I'd do it all again in a heartbeat.

Since this is the first music festival that I have been given the opportunity to do press coverage for, I wasn't exactly sure what kind of access I would be granted and who I would be able to interview.

As it turns out, and as I should have expected, you gotta work your way up the totem pole. Go figure.

HOWEVER! I did have a blast and in between the sets of my favorite bands, I actually interviewed a handful of vendors as well as some of the members of two local bands. So what I'm going to do is introduce you to these magnificent individuals that I had the honor of interviewing.

People of our generation, for the most part, probably think of seafood when they hear mention of hush puppies. This weekend I was introduced to a whole new world of hush puppies. Based out of Rockford, MI., Hush Puppies was born of the minds of a company salesman and his friend as they shot the breeze over a dinner of fried catfish and hush puppies. At the mention of the tip that some farmers have been known to feed their dogs hush puppies to quiet their incessant barking, this salesman thought to himself that the comfortable shoes he had been manufacturing shared in this quality except that they were capable of silencing a different type of “barking dogs”. Peoples' feet.

Fast forward 54 years and Hush Puppies is now selling over 17 million pairs of shoes annually, spread out amongst 150 countries across the globe. Shannon Kennedy, the company's marketing manager says, “we like to say that we invented casual.” This fall, Hush Puppies will be releasing a new casual dress shoe that she says is marketed towards the “renegade gentleman”. The shoe will have the look of a pair of wing-tipped loafers on top and have a regular casual sneaker's sole. It's a bit much to take in, I know. But you must admit, they do have a certain allure to them.

This summer, six Hush Puppies reps and their mascot, Penny the basset hound, loaded up in their 1967 custom Airstream trailer for a 30 day tour of the Southeast to reignite the flame that this company once had. Starting in Birmingham, AL and ending in Nashville, TN, the team is stopping everywhere from colleges to malls and even hitting a couple of music festivals.

Of course the custom Airstream trailer caught my attention initially, but the friendly staff called me over to give me a free “slap-coozie” and asked to take my picture. They had me at “slap-coozie”. It's like a slap on bracelet (you might have to be at least 25 years old to know what these are) but instead of your wrist, you slap it onto your beer! It's awesome to say the least.

For the grand finale, I got to meet the Hush Puppies mascot, Penny. She was definitely popular with the children who were out at DeLuna Fest with their parents. Go check out their website, www.hushpuppies.com, to pick yourself out a pair of boots, moccasins, sperry’s, or get classy with some of their signature wing-tipped dress shoes. When you are checking out, make sure to use the code OFFTHELEASH20 to receive 20% off of your purchase! How can you say no to those big droopy eyes and ears?

The next day I met 3 guys that decided to started up a new clothing company called Duvin, which has everything from tank tops and board shorts to snap backs and beanies. These guys have their heads in the game and even expressed hopes of global attention. They are marketing to hip-hop artists, rock bands, surfers, skaters, and people who generally just like to have a good time. I got to talk to them for 5 minutes or so and this is some of what I got out of it.

The Corsair : So how do you pronounce it? Is it duv in? Or doo-vin?

Duvin : Doo-vin.

TC : Where'd y'all get that?

Duvin : Ummm it's basically like a mix of our last names. It's something that we started back in high school. We have always just had kind of a niche for dressing different than people. We're just kinda tryin to mix the older stuff with the newer stuff. Simple plain stuff with just good color waves that might not look like they match to the eye but like, if you look on the color palette, like, those colors are meant to be together, ya know?

TC : So y'all are like, the founding fathers?

Duvin : Yeah, it's us 3 and then 1 of our buddies who's back in Orlando. So it's just the 4 of us.

TC: Cool. Do you like do it out of one of your houses or something or what?

Duvin : We all live together and then we have a couple different manufacturers that do different stuff. It's split up between 4 different places all right there in downtown Orlando. One place does really detailed screen printing and the other places are just kinda chill.

TC: Do you have a shop in Orlando? Or do you sell it in stores?

Duvin : Yeah, we do wholesale to retailers. We're in 9 stores in Florida and then 1 in Puerto Rico. We are sending boxes everywhere. Like, we've sent boxes to Australia, freakin' Canada, California, but the thing is we, like, just launched our legit website. We've been doing sales through Facebook for a while but our website went up like a month ago. We're just tryin to get on the road and push a lot of the traffic back to our website because when you're doing small quantities like us it's tough to be in stores.

TC : Do you aim for a certain demographic or anything? Like, would you say your stuff is more for skaters? Or what..

Duvin : We don't wanna get stuck in a hole. We wanna make clothes that anyone can wear. Just kinda tryin to be our own boss.

Check 'em out at www.duvindesign.com for more details.

On Sunday, I got to catch up with Chad, from To Write Love On Her Arms. TWLOHA is a six-year-old clothing company whose main goal is to raise awareness on issues like depression, self-mutilation, and addiction. The roots of TWLOHA stem from a friend of the founder who had some serious struggles with both addiction and self injury.

The Corsair : So who's the dude that started it? Did he just have a friend that was super down? Or like..

TWLOHA : We really kind of emerged out of a natural desire to talk about these issues, so we're at DeLuna not really convincing anyone, not trying to convince anyone, these issues are real depression addiction, self injury, suicide, we all have friends, family, and ourselves that kind of prove that they exist but we wanna take it a step further and say that if you or someone you love is struggling, that help is available that hope is real, that change is still possible.

So you have this gal, her name is Renee, she was struggling with cocaine addiction and self injury and she decided she was ready for treatment but wanted to have one last binge. The next day she went to check in for treatment and they turned her away due to the drugs that were in her system. They didn't have a detox unit and said that 'you gotta get clean and stay clean for 5 days first'. So a guy named David, he was a friend of hers, he welcomed her in. David had a roommate, a guy named Jamie. David and Jamie, they kinda rallied the troops. They got friends together to take turns just sharing life with her. You know, helping her through those first 5 days. At the end of those 5 days, Jamie asked Renee 'how would you feel about sharing your story?', Renee said 'if one person could be affected by this then perhaps there's been a purpose for all my pain.' So from there Renee sat down, wrote a 2 page blog really about her first 5 days clean, and through the sharing of that, people said 'this sounds familiar, I get it, can you help us too?'

TC : So did he come up with the name? I mean, once you hear the story, it's kinda self-explanatory but yeah.

TWLOHA : On that night of her last binge, she actually took a razor and cut the word 'fuck up' across her arm, so the name To Write Love On Her Arms comes out of believing in something more than that. What she put on her arm, it wasn't about profanity, it was about identity, that that's how she saw her years on this planet. As just a mess up, a collection of mistakes. So To Write Love On Her Arms was, hoping to erase that, was hoping that she could define herself as something else, by the fact that she's loved, maybe more so than she could have ever imagined. So, the name, To Write Love On Her Arms, that was the title of the story that first blog, so that just kinda stuck.”

TC : So do you guys provide a hotline? Or just promote awareness? Or...

TWLOHA : Oh, totally. We really aim to be that branch like you said, and any other resources out there, we wanna be that bridge to connect people that are looking for help, to that help. And if you go to our website, www.twloha.com , you'll find a page called “Find Help” and that's a collection of those resources. So if you or your friend are struggling with, you know, thoughts of suicide then we have numbers there for you like 273-TALK, or 1-800-SUICIDE. If you're looking for resources dealing with self injury, we have the website and contact info for S.A.F.E. Alternatives. If you're in the wake of a sexual assault we got our friends at R.A.I.N That are there for you. So yeah we're there to kinda be a hub, a middle step to these other resources.

TC : Do y'all travel around to a lot of festivals?

TWLOHA : Yeah, we don't have enough personnel to hit 'em all but we got to 16 festivals this summer and this is the last one of the summer for us. We went on the Warped Tour again. This is our 6^th year on the Warped Tour. We're travelin' all the time. Whenever we hear of a good event going down, we just wanna be where people naturally come together.

TC : Where are y'all based out of?

TWLOHA : Yeah, we would all kinda call Melbourne, Fla home. But again, so much of us travel so..

TC : Does TWLOHA kinda lean towards the music scene?

TWLOHA : Yeah, well that's my job in the organization, to use music as a platform to spark conversation. For, I think a lot of us, I'd say that all of us on staff and everyone at this festival, that music is a place that we run to kind of make sense of our lives. That our favorite artist, our favorite album, our favorite song, it's our favorite because it reminds us of things that are true in our lives. So you know, you've got so many people coming together for something that they already share in common, the fact that music moves them. For us, music reminds us that there's things in life worth screaming about. Things in life worth dancing about. Things in life worth singing about. And things in life worth sharing with other people. I'd say that that's the magic of a live music event, is that you are sharing this moment with thousands and thousands of other people. If you can share that moment, then I guarantee there's other things in your life that are worth sharing, that are worth having an audience for.

TC : Is there any Christian aspects to your organization? Or is is just strictly, like, love?

TWLOHA : Yeah, I wouldn't say so. You know if you read the story, the guy that started it kinda speaks for himself. There is some language of faith but I think in that there's also language of questions. Of not having answers and not being satisfied with the current answers that are there. So as far as how we interact with faith, if you or your friends are looking for a faith-based treatment option, we're gonna help you find that. And if you're at a point in your journey where you're not comfortable with faith being a piece of that, moving forward, we understand that. We just want you to find help. So everyone on staff, you know, we all have our own beliefs, I can't speak for everyone. But I'd say that for many people, faith has been very helpful and for others it's been a gradual journey.

       For more on TWLOHA, visit www.twloha.com.

Alright. First things first. The name. Foosackly's. How am I supposed to pass by a food vendor with a name like this? Especially one offering a basket of 5 chicken fingers for only $5 AND throwing in their own signature sauce. Which by the way definitely gives Zaxby's and Chic-Fil-A a run for their money. So of course, I had to get to the bottom of this. I talked to Chris, who was in charge of the Foosackly's operation this weekend. Here's what I found out..

The Corsair : So where the hell did the name come from?

Foosackly's : It's a funny story man. The owner's last name is actually Fusaiotti, and when he was in college and stuff they had a problem saying it so somebody spit out “Foosackly” and it kinda just stuck.

TC : That's hilarious. I dunno. Italian fried chicken. I probably woulda never put the two together, maybe like Italian bread crumbs or something. But yeah, it's good stuff man. So where are y'all based out of again?

Foosackly's : We're out of Mobile. But the owners actually LSU alumni. So, Geaux Tigers.

TC : So is it like, all family owned?

Foosackly's : It's not necessarily family owned but it is all local. It's only in Mobile. So it's pretty much like a family.

TC : Do y'all have a restaurant? Or is it strictly catering?

Foosackly's : Oh, no, we do both. We have 8 locations in Mobile. Actually, we just opened 2 new ones. We do catering, drive-thru, and dine-in. We can do catering for football games and stuff like that. 150, 500 fingers if you want it and depending on how much it is we actually deliver too.

TC : Do you specialize in just chicken? Or do you offer other things too?

Foosackly's : We mostly just do chicken fingers, fries, garlic toast, and cole slaw. It's very simple. We try to keep the menu simple so we can get it out quickly and just you know, perfect what we got. We got a buncha sauces. We brought out two this weekend.

TC : I tried that Foosackly sauce. It was real good. The lady compared it to Thousand Island...

Foosackly's : I don't like to describe it as Thousand Island 'cause a lot of people are deterred by the Thousand Island, you know? But it's so hard to describe what it is, you know?

TC : Yeah, you can't really describe a sauce. It's like, a state of mind.

Foosackly's : Exactly.

To see their menu, place an online order, or to find out where the closest Foosackly's is, visit them at http://www.foosacklys.net/order/

Alright, so there you have it folks. La voix du vendeur. I'm going to post another article focusing strictly on the music side of DeLuna Fest because, well, that's what people paid to see. So check back shortly for some of my highlights of DeLuna Fest as well as interviews with a couple local bands who made it to the bill.

Speaking of Music with a Heartbeat...

     Today I discovered something that I'm surprised I hadn't discovered earlier than now, Fever Ray.

                   


     Fever Ray is the solo side project of the girl from indie electro-pop duo, The Knife. If for whatever reason, you are unfamiliar with them, drop everything you are doing now and click on the links posted below.

     The Knife spread like a fever among the indie dance scene with hits like "Heartbeats" http://theknife.net/videos/2408790  and "You Take My Breath Away" http://theknife.net/videos/10040571 back around 2005. If you enjoy those tracks or anything else by The Knife, you owe it to yourself to look into Fever Ray. Karin Dreijer Andersson (the female half of The Knife) still uses the same exotic and captivating vocal style she did with The Knife. A Swedish siren, that gal.
   
     Fever Ray, is almost more....soundscapey I would say. It has a kind of, haunting and spacey feel to it. The use of synths is still there, and so is that weird effect she does on her voice that makes it sound deeper. I think the main difference is that it's just a little bit slower and more chill.

     I guess you could compare it to the solo album put out by Brandon Boyd versus his previous works with the whole band, Incubus. Or Anthony Green compared to his work with Circa Survive. Except in that case, I think his vocals changed a bit more drastically than that of Andersson (Fever Ray). I don't know. The point I was trying to make is, you can still here The Knife in it, but there is definitely more focus on Andersson and what's going on inside that beautiful mind of hers.

     This album was released back in 2009, and she hasn't put out any other music under this name. She did however release a song under her real name on a compilation album called "We Are The Works In Progress" that was made available in January earlier this year. This is a benefit album whose proceeds will go towards those stricken with poverty and loss from the effects of the recent tsunami in Japan. You can find that cd on the Fever Ray website. Sucks it took me 3 years to find her solo stuff, but I'm glad I did! Follow the link to her website..
                                             
                                                     http://feverray.com/

Andy Griffith: 86'd at 86.

While I am only 26 years old, I still grew up on the classics of the generation before me. Shows like The Honeymooners, I Love Lucy, The Andy Griffith Show, and so on and so forth. Today, America lost one of its greatest television icons of its time, Andy Griffith. The Sheriff of Mayberry, Andy Taylor, and renowned criminal defense attorney, Ben Matlock, was pronounced dead this morning, around 7am, at the age of 86. The cause of death has yet to be identified but he was known to have had heart troubles in the not so distant past. Born in Mt. Airy, North Carolina, Andy lived and died a Carolina man through and through. From his association to the fictional town of Mayberry, North Carolina to his ultimate demise in the same state, he will surely remain in the heart of North Carolina while it's heart remains beating.

I remember watching The Andy Griffith show with my mom as a kid so often because of both the family values of the show as well as its universal sense of humor. Where as shows like Seinfeld captivated a more adult audience, The Andy Griffith show was able to reach out and entertain audiences of all ages. One of my favorite episodes was the one where Opie was scared to go to his school's dance because he didn't know how to dance. So Aunt B and Andy took it upon themselves to show him a thing or two about movin his feet. Later, at the dance, Andy (serving as a chaperone) gets out on the floor to break the ice and starts dancing with one of the teachers. This makes little Opie feel more at ease and next thing you know he's out there havin a good ol' time cuttin a rug along with the rest of his classmates and even gets some time in with a girl he's got a crush on. Classic Andy Griffith material right there.

Come to think of it my mom even had the theme song as her ringtone!

As for Matlock, well that was just a bit boring for me. But it was on air for 9 years! So he musta been doin somethin right!

Here's some pics I thought did a pretty good job of summing up Andy Griffith in my eyes...

                                                                          

RIP Andy Griffith

 June 1, 1926 – July 3, 2012

Big Brother Wants Us Healthy

New York City, known in great part for its culturally diverse and eclectically independent style, is facing the potential denial of all that they know. The ability choose what they want to do.

The current mayor of NYC, Mike Bloomberg, is proposing a law that will ban the sale of "sugary drinks larger than 16oz" in regulated food establishments. That means basically everywhere. Fast food joints, sports arenas/coliseums, movie theaters, sit down restaurants, etc.


In order for this to be passed, all that Mayor Bloomberg needs is the nod of consent from the Board of Health, who's members were all appointed by none other than Bloomberg himself. 


The board has made plans to hold a public hearing regarding the issue on July 24. 


The fact that the city is even considering this is scary. A fine example of power being put into the hands of the wrong people. What's next? A limit on how many burgers or burritos I order at the drive thru? Are they going to monitor the sale of donuts? Candy bars? LITTLE DEBBIES??


If you guys are so concerned about our "health", why are cigarettes still legal? That's much of a cause for concern. You have second-hand smoke. You have all the butts that the carcinogen junkies leave strewn out all across the face of our once beautiful planet. And the list could go on and on.

I'm not fond of cigarettes. Can you tell?

But back to the point. The government already has to much say in what we do in our daily lives. Allowing them to govern our sugar intake is like, 3 steps over the line. Back up Sam.

If we allow this, where will it stop? Give 'em an inch and they'll take a mile.

For more on this, you can check out the New York Times' article covering the issue..
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/02/nyregion/in-fight-against-nyc-soda-ban-industry-focuses-on-personal-choice.html?pagewanted=2&seid=auto&smid=tw-nytimes

Check yourself before you "politically correct" yourself.

Yesterday in my sociology class at Pensacola State College, we were discussing "culture shock", which can be loosely defined as "personal disorientation from culture". Professor asked the class if any of us could think of any times when we felt that we had experienced culture shock. 

I raised my hand.

"I went to a black church once." I said.

"What's a black church?" the teacher asked me.

"It's a church black people go to." I replied, surprised at her display of ignorance.

She didn't like my example. "OK. Time-out class." She did the time-out symbol with her hands. "How many of you found what he just said, to be offensive?"

Something like 15 students raised their hands to which I responded with a laugh and a remark. 

"You guys are just trying to be PC." I said.

The professor continued on, and said we will not be having this type of behavior in her classroom. It is unacceptable for such an offensive tone to be taken on matters. A few students chimed in.

"You say it like, they only let black people go to their church. Like nobody else is allowed in."

To which of course i responded, "Okay well that is obviously not the case considering the fact that I ATTENDED THE SERVICE." I wasn't implying that at all. 

The professor says I should have referred to them as African-Americans.

Really? Is that really what I should have said teacher? So I reminded her then, of her conversation with us the day before regarding a young black male from Orlando,Fl who has started an online movement with the agenda of removing the title "African-American" that has been so dumbly placed upon the heads of every black citizen of the United States. His argument is that he is NOT from Africa. He is from the United States of America and should be referred to as an American. He has nothing to do with Africa. 

So, why again should I be referring to said congregation as one of "African-American" descent? Because I think most of them lived here. In America. So which one is it teacher? Should i have taken a poll to find out what percentage of the church actually derived from Africa? And if the greater percent leaned towards American, rather than Africa, what would I call it then?

 

"A predominantly black church." she responded. 

"So that one word changes the statement from racist to politically correct ?" I asked to which she responded with a simple, "yes."

Throughout the remainder of the class, the black students, when discussing anything that involved white culture, they would say "predominantly white" and act like that's the way they always talk. 

You aren't fooling anyone.

What's even funnier to me, is that later on in the class, we were discussing Helen Keller. The teacher said something along the lines of, "It's not like she was retarded."

Retarded.

I wanted to call her out so bad.

If you are going to be enforcing a "politically correct" atmosphere in your classroom, you can't be stepping in and out of the essence. Shouldn't you have said, "mentally handicapped" or "mentally challenged"? 

If you think the word black is offensive, but not the word retarded, there is something wrong with you. I think that may even borderline racism in itself. And maybe even prejudice.

Check yourself before you "politically correct" yourself.