Monthly Archives: September 2009

Tuneage, Videocracy

YouTubery Friday: Legion of Rock Stars and Autotune George Brett

It’s Friday! Procrastinate and countdown to happy hour with these lovely bits!

The Friends of Tom forum continues to be a fount of awesome. It was there that FOT icepants posted the video below, which was produced by The Legion of Rock Stars. From their website:

LEGION OF ROCK STARS has freed themselves from the shackles of practicing, instead perfecting a performance technique known as the Pure Pleasure Process.

While listening to songs on headphones equipped with 30dB sound blockers to blot out the outside world, the band plays and sing their hearts out, all while unable to hear themselves.

What this means: They record horrible versions of famous songs, and occasionally sync their versions up with the real videos and post them. YouTube has many LRS reworkings to feast on, but this rendition of Danzig’s “Mother” is probably my favorite (though I also recommend their take on Van Halen’s “Jump”, as it has some “amazing” keyboard and guitar solos in it; their rendition of Journey’s “Any Way You Want It” is also quite hilarious).

Last year, the world cheered as a video surfaced of Baseball Hall of Famer George Brett torturing young Royals players with tales of shitting his pants. It was not really a gotcha video. If anything, it enhanced Mr. Brett’s reputation as a masterful raconteur and a purveyor of awesomeness.

How could this video possibly be improved upon? The way that everything is improved: with autotune. CuzzinLoutie pointed me to the video below, wherein someone has not only autotuned Brett’s poop story, but enhanced his monologue with hilarious visual cues.

This is probably the only good use of autotune ever (other than Autotune the News, of course).

1999 Project

1999 Project: Games 141-147 (West Coast Swing #3)

Click here for an intro/manifesto on The 1999 Project.

johnrocker.jpgAs the Mets began the last of three lengthy cross-country road trips, they were 3.5 games behind the Braves. It was no small feat to be so close to Atlanta so late in the season. The Braves hadn’t had a serious rival for a division title since 1993, when they edged out San Francisco to take the NL West crown on the last day of the season. Ever since their transfer to the NL East, they strolled into the postseason every year; their closest shave came in 1996, when Montreal finished a mere eight games behind.

If there was any year to catch the Braves, 1999 should have been it. Andres Galarraga, Odalis Perez, Javy Lopez, and closer Kerry Ligtenberg were all lost for the year with injuries. John Smoltz spent time on the DL, and Tom Glavine pitched surprisingly mediocre. Rumblings began early that their dynasty was over.

And yet, between July 25 (when Lopez was sidelined indefinitely) and September 11, the Braves had a mind-boggling 30-11 record. For the season, they had an astounding 27 come-from-behind victories. Chipper Jones said, “No matter what happens this year, it’s going to be my most satisfying season. This is a team that really has overachieved.”

The Braves even said they welcomed the Mets nipping at their heels. Quoth Chipper again:

In years past, September was a month when we kind of took it easy and took some days off here and there to get ourselves prepared for the postseason. That may have an impact on what happens in the postseason, in that guys have trouble just flipping the switch on and off. I don’t foresee us having any problems flipping the switch this year.

As the Mets would soon find out.

Although the Mets had more than Atlanta to contend with. They began this trip 3.5 games ahead of Cincinnati for the wild card berth. The Reds were not picked by many baseball minds to seriously contend in 1999, but manager Jack McKeon had gotten the most out of them (as he would for a young Marlins club a few years later).

Plus, they would have the advantage of a softer schedule than the Mets down the stretch. While New York had six games left with the Braves, The Reds had only one series left against a team with a winning record (Houston), and would only play two games against them. During the series in LA, Darryl Hamilton admitted, “I think [now is] the first time I’ve actually looked to see what the Reds were doing. We’re not looking back, but we’d like to know who’s trying to get up on us.”

Continue reading 1999 Project: Games 141-147 (West Coast Swing #3) →

Tunes of Righteousness

Tunes of Righteousness: CCR + NOU

A coupla tunes for alla y’all on a slow-ish day.

ccr.jpgLike any red-blooded American, I dig Creedence. I have for a long time, although I wouldn’t say I’m a fan per se, because I own only two CCR albums. I mean, I know all the hits, I think Creedence is pretty great and all, but I have great respect for the word fan. (Kinda like I have great respect for the word friend–’tis not to be thrown around willy-nilly.)

When I’m a fan of something, I get all the albums or books. And all the limited edition stuff. And lie in wait outside their practice space so I can grab a lock of their hair. Since I was never compelled to do this for Creedence, I didn’t consider myself a Fan with a capital-F.

But I recently heard a deep album track by CCR that rocks so damn hard, I just might have rocked me into full-fledged fanhood. It’s called “Ramble Tamble”, it opens Cosmo’s Factory, and holy goddamn, is it good.

nou.gifYour second tune comes from Nation of Ulysses, who I would definitely declare myself a fan of, even though I was too young to get hip to them the first time ’round. (Their first 7-inches dropped around the time I was deep into Weird Al.)

It would take a medium-sized novel to capture all the mythology and legend surrounding the band (much of it self-propagated). Suffice to say, they were revolutionary in every sense of the word. Although nowadays it may be hard to piece that out, since so many of their innovations were co-opted by later, lesser bands (not to mention marketing). The liner notes to Plays Pretty for Baby are a genius piece of agitprop. Or satire. Or satirical agitprop.

But today I turn to their first album, 13-Point Program to Destroy America, and the tune “You’re My Miss Washington D.C.” This song was played on last night’s edition of The Best Show on WFMU. This not only reminded me how awesome it was, but allowed The Baby to dance heartily to its strains. Her moves weren’t much different than Ian Svenonius’s in this video.

With that said, here’s some liberation for your room.