Who Loves The Sun

Cool It Down -- Twin Fair, 8-Tracks and the missing CDs, that one's that really hurt...

I think back about all the CDs I used to own that were stolen, borrowed and never returned, disappeared after a party, you moved out-of-town and you traded them to me in exchange for your share of the utility bills, and the otherwise misappropriated. The ones that you remember most are the ones you really miss.

Of the first 2 cds I ever bought -- LL Cool J's "Bigger and Deffer" and B.A.D.'s awesome first record, "This is Big Audio Dynamite"-- only the BAD remains in my collection. Kinda sucks not to have the first 2 cds I ever owned. Not for nostalgic purposes, because they both rocked. I have the first ever record I purchased- 1975's (bought new in 1978) Aerosmith 'Toys in the Attic" (but then again, it might have been Joe Walsh's "But Seriously Folks" LP....). Good one... probably bought at Twin Fair or Cavages at the Boulevard Mall.

I don't have the first cassette tape I ever boughtm and know I don't have the first home-recorded cassette I ever made-- but I do remember it was The Beatle's blue LPs (didn't bother with the red one, for some reason..). I know I don't have the first 8-track tape I ever duped. Before moving all the way to cassettes at an early age, I did have a nice collection of 8-tracks when I was 14-15 years old including Steely Dan "Aja", Cheap Trick "Live at Budakon," Alice Cooper's "School's Out," and the first Boston & Foreigner records. Hey, I was 15 years old.

But I must bring this back to the misappropriated CDs of the past. The ones that really get me, are the CDs I have completely forgotten about. They are the ones that pop-up and make you say "damn, now I have to buy that for a second time...". I have one CD of the 2-CD set New Order "Substance" in my collection... that really burns me, someone stole one half of the collection. Loser. That second one was the good CD too! I am also missing-- and if YOU have them, please return them-- the Cure's "Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me", "LA Woman" by The Doors and/or U2's "Joshua Tree"... I already replace the first two, so on second thought-- if you got 'em, keep 'em!

The real painful ones are the forgotten ones that sneak up on you like this: I recently read the 33-1/2 book about the "Velvet Underground and Nico" LP and decided to dig out the vinyl version so I could burn it to CD (for myself only, of course...). I haven't found it yet, but I know (hope) it is still in the record collection someplace. Then it hit me. I used to have the CD of VU's commercially-pleasing, hit-filled "Loaded" - quite a fine recording, I might say. It's gone... a long time ago. I forgot I even owned it, it has been gone for so long. I probably bought it 24 years ago and owned it for about 10 years of that time. I found a real beat-up and unplayable vinyl copy that wasn't mine to start with... I may have 'misappropriated' this one.... (not on purpose).

But when you have a bunch -- some may say, too much -- music like me, you can get a surprise once in a while. The exact opposite happens. I had a hankering for the live Kinks double LP "Two For The Road," and bammmmmmm-- there it was! Awesome. Then a few mysterious ones will creep in like Electroman's "KookaKook" 12" record... who's was this? Thanks!

All The Young Punks (New Boots and Contracts)

The past in the past until you burn it to CD or something like that....

It is a test in 'drifting-off-idness', trying to burn records to CD. You gotta pay attention. You don't always want to just stand there while it is burning. You have to track each song by pushing the red REC button or else you have one long 'track 1' on your CD. So inevitability, I usually do something else while it is happening: often paperwork, writing proposals, business emails, but not usually designing. When I am deep in design, the CD or record will always end and then 1 hour later, I'll notice... so I have to just do busy work. It's better for us all.

All of a sudden, you have to jump up for the end of one/ beginning of the next song to 'track' that space. Not a big deal, but when you are distracted, you forget and have to leap over to the CD burner. Missing the track- hitting the button after the song started = not good.

Miss-tracking is not the end of the world, but it does make the CD crappy when you are in a situation when you just want to play that one song. If you just pop the CD in and let it play all the way through, then you are good to go.... but for us DJ-types-- no good!

So then I got greedy, I tried to squeeze 2 albums onto a single CD. It was going to be the Super 70's NYC Punk Legends CDs with Robert Mapplethorpe Cover Photos CD:
Patti Smith Horses - Television Marquee Moon
What even made it all the better-- was the fact that Patti and Tom Verlaine from TV had been an item back in the day! It was the perfect double-burn CD- punk girlfriend-boyfriend CD.

... and then I didn't find out-- until the middle of the second last song (the long guitaraastic Prove It!)-- that it wasn't going to fit. Damn! So then I had to decide whether to live with it or throw it out and start again burning two single albums to their own CDs. I was a bit disgusted so I decided to chuck it and burn the Clash 2nd LP Give Them Enough Rope LP instead. And, for all you authorities out there, this is "for personal consumption only."

Shit I had to just jump up, there are a lot of short songs on this LP! Now what a value, I just made a new favorite Clash song: Guns On The Roof, and what about Last Gang In Town, now there's a song. They don't make them like that anymore.... Oh, and I just missed the start of Safe European Home, by a few seconds, damn!

I'm still keeping it.

Welcome to The Jungle

We don't stop playing because we grow old,
we grow old because we stop playing.
George Bernard Shaw

Take that to the bank!
Axl Rose

I am having mixed feelings about the 'new' Guns and Roses LP (and yes, it is available in vinyl format). I mean, 1st of all, it isn't GnR- and hasn't been for some time. The band broke up in the nineties- well I should actually say, Axl fired everyone in the band and made them sign contracts so he could keep using the name. At least that is what Slash's bio tells us.

The reviews are in, 1/2 good, 1/2 bad. Rolling Stone gave it 4 stars, Pitchfork Media trashed it. I have listened to most of it online and am mixed myself. I mean the title track rocks, but there seems to be a lot of ballads on it which kinda suck. The record took 14 years to make and rumour has it, some 12 million dollars- for crying out loud! How many records have been worked on that long- it should be a rock and roll masterpiece.

And then there is the almost 50 year old Axl. I should relate to him as an old guy who likes to rock myself. But there is something disturbing about the new larger Axl, the corn row hair he has been sporting for the past few years, and the fact that he pretty much dresses the same he did in 1990- open shirt/vest, scarves, mirror sunglasses. Well, I guess I kinda do too-without the mirror sunglasses, but maybe a more sophisticated version of myself in 1990. And if you see the video for Chinese Democracy (which is really some other older GnR footage played along to the music).. well it is rockin', yet really off-putting a bit.

Buckethead or Bubmlefoot? Does it make a difference?

Well I avoided a trip to Best Buy last night, where I might have tricked myself into buying the record. I am not sure I want to give Axl my money. I didn't buy it, and I feel relieved this morning. Instead I listed to CFNY's Thursday Thirty ( number 12 was Chinese Democracy, by the way...) following another Sabres loss and enjoyed the new Killers, Franz Ferdinand and Kings of Leon (now they seem like a band that can rock). So no GnR hangover, thank goodness. Maybe I should just stick to the Appetite 4 Destruction and live in the past... a gentler time when the band shunned electronics, rocked hard, before axl was known as a complete ass, when Steve, Slash and Duff were still in the band.

I like the new logo, though.... I should just enjoy the time when GnR was really GnR.

EPILOGUE: I bought the record (12.07.08) and I like it. I think you have to be an old guy to really like this stuff. I have read posts and posts on this LP. I have read the hate and the love, the 'it's not G-n-R' and the 'axl is the man' cries from the fans and the enemies... whatever, I like to rock with this shit really loud! So FU!