Kiss me, it’s St. Patrick’s Day

Trying to recall St. Patricks’ Days past is always a hazardous endeavor.  If you can’t remember one for some, ah, reason … then you can’t remember any! For the past seven years or so St. Paddy’s Day shenanigans have gotten a little mixed up for me. That’s because it always falls in the middle of SXSW madness – the beer always flows anyway.

Well this year I’m taking some Irish music with me … not that there won’t be some playing around Austin during the festivities. Irish music is a lot like the Cajun music I grew up with – that shit rocks out. And you can’t seem to get enough of it. Nevertheless, here’s my St. Patrick’s Day mix that is good for drinking along to, or not.

MP3: “Irish Drinking Song (Drink And Fight)” by Buck O’ Nine

MP3: “As I Roved Out” by The Hit The Bottle Boys

MP3: “Celtic Rock” by Donovan

MP3: “Whiskey In The Jar” by Thin Lizzy

MP3: “I Useta Lover” by the Saw Doctors

MP3: “Ditch” by Irish Stew Of Sindidun

MP3: “I Know My Love” by Maura O’Connell

MP3: “March To Battle (Across The Rio Grande)” by The Chieftains & Ry Cooder w/Liam Neeson

MP3: “Sunday Bloody Sunday” by U2

MP3: “And A Bang On The Ear” by the Waterboys

MP3: “Thank Christ For The Kids” by the Mighty Stef

MP3: “Danny Boy” by the Three Irish Tenors

MP3: “Celtic New Year” by Van Morrison

MP3: “Haste To The Wedding” by the Corrs

MP3: “Cracklin’ Rosie” by Shane MacGowan & the Popes

MP3: “Celtic Storm” by the Mighty Regis

MP3: “Whiskey Makes Me Crazy” by The Tossers

MP3: “Tomorrow Comes A Day Too Soon” by Flogging Molly

MP3: “Paint The Town Red 2010” (The Fighter mix) by the Mahones

MP3: “Body Of An American” by the Pogues

MP3: “The Irish Rover” by the Dropkick Murphys

MP3: “Kiss Me, I’m Shitfaced” by the Dropkick Murphys

Sampler Daze: The WB/Reprise Loss Leaders, Part 12

There was just no denying it, by 1978 two things were obvious: one, the Loss Leaders had definitely gone uptown.  And two, our buddies in Burbank were definitely in denial over the Disco Monster, at that time raging on radio stations across the country.

Check out this copy from Collectus Interruptus, the only sampler from ‘78: “This is unequivocable party music.  Danceable R&B by some of its premier practitioners – none of them, curiously, traversing the well-traveled terrain of disco.”  This was to introduce artists like Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson, the husband-wife team who wrote monster hits for Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross before jumping to Warner Bros. in the early ’70s.  Despite the denial, “Don’t Cost You Nothing” from Ashford & Simpson sounds suspiciously like disco.  And you can’t blame ‘em; pretty much everyone from the Bee Gees to the Rolling Stones to Kiss at least dipped their toes into the disco waters in 1978.

Collectus Interruptus also featured funk from Bootsy’s Rubber Band and the definitive “Bootzilla”, a tasty “Night People” from the great New Orleans master Allen Toussaint and selections from franchise players Gordon Lightfoot, Gary Wright, George Benson and Seals & Crofts.  But it’s an interesting sampler in that you can hear the first stirrings of a few contenders that would soon rise to tame the disco monster: there’s “Soft and Wet,” from the debut LP of an 18-year-old named Prince, the brothers Van Halen introduce themselves with “Runnin’ With The Devil” and this little band outta New Yawk, the Ramones, going to “Rockaway Beach.”

Guitar Hero: The Future Of Music?

Metallica playing Stubb's BBQ at SXSW

Today, the big video game Guitar Hero: Metallica comes out at a store near you.  The game has a playlist of about 49 songs – 28 of them from heavy metal gods Metallica and the rest from artists like Queen, Bob Seger, Thin Lizzy, Judas Priest, Motorhead, and System of a Down. 

The game is expected to sell in the millions – something that new albums don’t do any more.  Even Metallica’s own Death Magnetic, while considered a big hit, has sold just a little more than 1.3 million worldwide since its release last fall.  Back in the day, Michael Jackson used to sell that many in a week.

Old-timers like me should welcome the existence of something like Guitar Hero.  It’s one way to get the music out: at Austin’s SXSW music festival/conference last week, Metallica lead singer James Hetfield admitted that drummer Lars Ulrich’s son told him that he likes Mountain’s “Mississippi Queen” best on the game.  “And he discovered it on Guitar Hero!” Hetfield said.  A few years ago my son asked about “Anarchy In The U.K.” by the Sex Pistols, which the band remade in 2007 for a Guitar Hero game.  Would these kids have discovered the music  by listening to the radio?  Certainly not.  Could they have stumbled upon them on their own?  Probably not.

While the game is certainly a way for kids to get into new music, some people may argue it’s not real life.  To really be a musician, you have to practice (a real instrument), pay your dues.  OK – but it’s like anything else, there’s a point in everyone’s life where you grow up and put down the toys and go outdoors to face life.  As Hetfield said in Austin: “Get off the couch!”  If Guitar Hero puts more real guitars in kids’ hands, and as a result puts more live music in the world, I’m all for it.

Side note: Next weekend Metallica is going to be inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  As I mentioned above, the hard rockers played a “surprise” free show at Stubb’s BBQ in Austin last weekend during SXSW and it was a hoot.  Big names like Metallica, Kanye West and others really isn’t what SXSW is all about – it’s about unsigned and under-the-radar acts getting their music out to larger audiences – but headliners don’t hurt.  The conference seems to be evolving into a free-for-all music festival and if it does, that would be great.  Because most of it is free – no $250 tickets for standing a mile away in a field (Bonnaroo) or even $75 a day for sweating your ass off and hearing music from a mile away (Austin City Limits festival).  We stood about that far away from Metallica – and the sound was perfect.  SXSW is turning into a true “people’s festival,” and I wonder when the bottom-line guys are going to figure out how to put a price tag on it.

MP3: “Creeping Death” by Metallica (live at Stubb’s BBQ)

Metallica official website (with links to Guitar Hero game)