Trifecta

Time for a little recapitulation (thanks Drew Casper, CTCS 469, for improving my vocabulary) & shout out to #whatshouldwecallme for providing me with awesome gifs 

Hello World

Flashback to April of this year: Coachella 2012.

I’m in the middle of a throbbing crowd. Literally, throbbing. With the intention of seeing Calvin Harris up-close-and-personal, I have risked any and all personal boundaries to have my nose shoved in a stranger’s sweaty back while the DJ plays “Feels So Close.”  

I feel WAY too close right now.

Sniff, sniff. Is that him or me? Regardless, this is disguisting.

The friends I came with to this concert have recklessly abandoned me to push themselves a few inches closer. Those traitors. So I have been forced to take refuge in the protection of a nearby couple. The disgruntled look on their faces only portrays a sliver of the pain and distaste I feel as my hair is pulled by some overly aggressive middle-schoolers clamoring for the front.

The moment left something to be desired.

Then it hit me: although I loved Coachella music, I was much more of a Stagecoach personality.

Those are the eyes of someone who has just realized something very, very important about themselves. Or the eyes of an endangered, Southeast Asian tarsier. (SAVE THE TARSIERS!)

Anyways.

Perhaps my deleterious spiral into the country realm began when I moved to the lovely city of Bakersfield, California; perhaps it began before. Regardless, I have been rocking country boots to the honky-tonk Crystal Palace since the ripe age of 17. I can’t imagine ever losing my love for rednecks or line dancing.

At country concerts, I typically find myself leisurely embracing the company of some new tattooed comrades with an affinity for cheap beer. 

At the Coachella Musical Festival, on the other hand, I battled for my life.

Beyond that, I found myself missing the sweet, simple lyrics of my country songs that been replaced by booming techno beats. The line had been drawn and I knew which side my high-waisted Levi shorts were headed to. 

Beyond a love of country, I listen to everything from Rihanna hits on the radio to lesser-known indie bands like the Head and the Heart. I jam out to the oldies of Marvin Gaye and participate in screaming contests with Coheed and Cambria while I’m stuck in traffic. My passion for meaningful lyrics and harmonious beats has lead me appreciate almost all musical categories. Because of my broad tastes, I often like to think of myself as a musical-Renaissance Man, if you will.

The other day, however, when a friend asked me how I felt about classic rock, I was embarrassed to find myself asking exactly what he meant. This was a territory I had yet to explore, and seeing as I was newly single (in other words, full of free time) I decided that discovering rock music was an adventure worthy of embarking upon. It would be deliciously simple, gratifying and a hell of a lot cheaper than buying an Annual Pass to Disneyland.

To say that my new desire to discover my inner rock goddess was purely driven by copious amounts of time and an empty wallet, however, would be a cheap simplification of the real reason for taking this take a trip to into the Rock n’ Roll past. As I travel the rickety path towards adulthood, I find myself feeling less and less confident about my passions and goals.

“That’s a typical 20 year-old dilemma,” a wise reader might say.

But I would counter that with the fact that my dilemma has been magnified by my relationship of two years, during which I formed my identity as part of a unit, but not as an individual. Upon realizing that so much of what I thought of myself was based on my relationship with a boy, I took what might be seen by some as an extreme measure, and broke up with him. 

If there was any time to get know myself, it was college. 

I have decided to embark on a mission of self-discovery. I want to know what makes me, Missy Hendrix, tick. Listening to rock music, the tunes and ballads that helped shape generations, created social change and brought about a new era of music and culture, would surely be a worthwhile guide on my own journey. 

I want to hear lyrics that teach me, not only about myself, but the generations of the past who struggled to find themselves much like I am now. No more techno beats for me, thank you. 

Also, who needs a man when you have The Beatles and The Rolling Stones?! I feel overwhelmed by these attractive, talented men already. 

As Walt Whitman says in Leaves of Grass: “All music is what awakens from you when you are reminded by the instruments. It is not the violins and cornets. It is not the oboe nor the beating drums… It is nearer and farther than they.” I think what Whitman meant was that music awakens something within us, and I can only hope that a little Rock n’ Roll will assist me in my own awakening.

I'm excited. 

Profile

Eager to see how my rock and roll blog compares to others, I set out on yet another new mission this week: finding another blog that would give me some guidance and inspiration for my own.

Most rock and roll blogs seem to be professional ones, however, I was able to find one called “No Rock and Roll Fun” by Simon Hayes Budgen that sparked my interest.  Simon is an average guy, I assume, and so I figured we might be on the same rock and roll page.  (Affinity for The Beatles? Elvis Presley?? Jimi Hendrix??? Yes! Yes! Yes!.. Let’s hope so.)

Welp, fellow bloggers and readers, I learned very early on that Simon and I weren’t quite on the same blogging page after all.  The main difference between our blogs is Simon’s focus on current rock and roll, my tendency to look into older music. 

When I started my blog, I definitely wanted to go for more of a classic rock sort of angle, starting with the basics of rock and moving forward from there.  Simon’s rock recommendations include artists like A Fine Frenzy and mentions bands like One Direction.  Not exactly old school, but I like it. 

Feeling inspired: I'm down to delve into current rock music, hey, I might even blog about some one of these days.  Watch out for it!

http://www.queenbeetickets.com/One-Direction-Tickets

These men will never be mentioned, however.

I do LOVE A Fine Frenzy though.  It was the first thing I saw on Simon Hayes Budgen's blog- so I had a good feeling about him from the beginning.  He put up a picture of their latest album and a link to where you could get it on Amazon.  I was thrilled:

1) I had no idea that A Fine Frenzy had just released a new album, and 2) Simon directed me to where I could go purchase it for myself.

(And I totally would have bought it if I wasn’t already deeply invested in my free subscription of Spotify...)

What a brilliant man.

This was surprisingly new and simple idea. Yes, I had been providing links to YouTube videos, but giving readers a link to where they could purchase the song for themselves was as both helpful and effective- definitely a great way to help share music.  

Although perhaps if I was feeling especially kind and insightful, instead of putting in links to Amazon and iTunes, I would write a blog for my fellow college students about the merits of Spotify.. Another time.   

I also liked Simon’s use of pictures and quotes from reliable sources.  The pictures give a face to the name of these artists, and the quotes made his writing seem more credible.  These are both things that I should be incorporating into my work, especially considering the only thing I have quoted thus far is Wikipedia, obviously the most reliable source around. 

In the future, I should probably stray away from Wiki P., lest you doubt my credibility as a connoisseur of rock music and everything mac n' cheese related.  

Another thing that Simon did well was use the sides of his blog to show songs to download, Youtube highlights to watch, radio, performance and download sites to peruse, band websites he likes and other useful music sites.  There amount of information is almost overwhelming, but it is easy to see that Simon has put a lot of time and effort into his blog and that he is extremely knowledgeable when it comes to music.  

I have no idea how to format all of that information, but it's something I should definitely look into.   

I would say that my blog has perhaps a little more structure than Simon’s, generally addressing topics that stay in the same vein more than Simon.  But if this guy has taught me anything, it is the value of mixing things up to keep readers engaged.  Looking at my own blog, I am afraid that perhaps the way I’ve presented my thoughts has become too regimented.

Food for thought.  

Voice Critique

As I’ve begun to share my blog with my peers, I’ve noticed that I’ve developed a certain voice, or way of expressing my personality via word choice and sentence structure, if you will.  I like to think that my voice says, “Hey! I’m creative, intelligent, and a little self-deprecating.”  At least, that’s what I hope.

If it’s not, feel free to let me know. TELL ME THE HARSH TRUTH PEOPLE!

But seriously I could use some comments on this thing, so man up.

Checking out other rock blogs has definitely made me look at my own voice more closely.  For instance, I took a peek at “Danny G.’s Rock Blog,” by who else than Danny G. himself, the 38-year-old working musician from Austin, Texas.

This man’s blog sort of depressed me at first; right from the start he tells you that he is a struggling musician:

“You’ve read the rock bios and seen the movies, but this is what it’s like for the other 99% of musicians just trying to survive”

http://www.berfrois.com/2011/11/we-are-the-99/

I know the guy’s not necessarily making any broader economic claims here, but all I could think of was the Occupy Movement.  I’m not sure which came first, Danny G. or the movement- but someone is taking somebody else’s slogan here. And both feel like they are part of the disenfranchised majority.  I would say though that Occupy is more about criticizing the concentration of wealth among the top 1%, and Danny is just bitter that he isn’t some sort of rock god. (This is probably where Danny G. and Occupy differ.)

I soon realized, however, that you have to give Danny some credit: he’s a multi-instrumentalist for different bands, has released two instrumental solo albums and was voted #8 bassist for the 2009 Austin Music Awards.

You go Danny G.

This man obviously knows what he’s talking about in the realm of struggling musicians.  He has the experience and (arguably) the talent.  So I read on.

Getting into his blog posts, Danny seemed a lot more optimistic than his first impression had lead me to believe.  From the sound of his reviews on his latest gigs, this guy is loving the rock and roll lifestyle.  His abundance of curse words and exclamation marks really set the tone:

“Anyway.  Last night ETB @ Friends was pretty goddamned epic.”

“Got back up there and threw down even harder… Then a guy from ‘an oil company’ asked us how much for one more song.  Eric asked me, I threw out $100 as a nice round number, and oil guy gets onto the mic and takes a collection from the audience for $100 into the tip jar for one more song.  Wallets appeared like startled bats. Amazing!”   

“We were totally spent, but still got back up to play “Little Wing” again.  Knocked em dead. Great night!”

“In other news the weekend was busy as fuck all.  Which is good. Really good.”

I especially loved his description of wallets coming out like startled bats… Not sure if anyone else caught that.  I would also like to point out that all of this is only from the first half of Danny’s most recent blog post (Oct, 23rd).

This guy is voice gold.

Like the guy who plays the lead singer in Almost Famous, Danny G. is a rocker who loves his job and his music. 

He also really loves putting in single words like “crazy” or “amazing” or “wow” to make his point about how he feels about certain shows and situations.  And it works. Kind of.

Well, at least the music man makes jokes!

“Then the pack-up-as-fast-as-we-can shuffle.”

Post-show pack up and craziness?  I can only imagine.  This phrasing gives readers a funny image, versus just supplying us with a typical description of packing up after a show. Way to be silly.  I actually give him props for this.

The last few sentences that Danny put on his most recent blog post I think best summarize how he’s feeling right now:

“Eric, Rob and I really have something special.  We can feel it.  The audience can feel it.  It’s a really cool thing to be a part of.  And being a variable in the equation that converts a humble blues-rock band into a force of nature is really special too.”

Well put Danny G.  

Even though I wasn’t very impressed with how Danny portrays himself online, I can only assume that his voice matches his personality (as concerning as that may be) and that he’s expressing his genuine self.

So even if I don’t think much of it, blog on brother.