Utterly Useless Knowledge

(Also: More Geeky Guy Rock Music) I've never grown tired of this song after going on 20 years, and Satch is one of maybe three guys that I can listen to and almost wish I had picked up a guitar instead of a pair of drumsticks. Almost. "Surfing..." is what I consider his personal best (followed closely by Flying in a Blue Dream ), among an amazing career songlist/guitar clinic.

I call them the House Band , because they are, at least in my house. Great new stuff, amazing lyrics, all in a nice, tidy 37 minutes. Eddie's never been better at his craft.

The guy floors me every time I hear him. It's only when you see him own the guitar that you fully appreciate just how special this guy really was. Just a sick groove.

While my love of music now spans many different genres (many more than when I was growing up), I've come to realize that my traditional musical tastes do fall into a predictible pattern: Hard rock/metal, with a nod towards razor-sharp instrumentalism, and a tight forceful rythum & bass line. It's predictible because its fandom is made up overwhelmingly of geeky white guys. Not a lot of females (with any self-respect or dignity, for the most part) have their iPods loaded up with the likes of Megadeth, Anthrax, Rush, DLR-Era Van Halen, or Dream Theater (Anyone? Anyone???? Yeah.....didn't think so). Go ahead and put Iron Maiden in that category, as well. Blame it all on my older brother, but my disdain for terrible, cliched, bubble gum pop, glam rock, and anything written by Def Leppard was formed early on with my access to his 80's rock album collection. Still one of my all-time favorites was the 1985 Maiden classic Live After Death, a compilation of the best recordin...

Fear not, followers.....more good stuff is simmering on the stovetop of the UUKBlog kitchen. Tasty vittles like running the Dam-To-Dam 20K, plenty more food & BBQ pr0n, Some Maui in Malvern nuggets, and other various what-have-you's. Long story short: Been busy. Since I've been accused in the past of hosting YouTube2, here's something random to keep you occupied for now. Eddie Vedder playing with The Boss and the E Street Band. If you don't like this, you have no soul, and I weep for you. Late!

Man, this is like greasy fish sammich in a brown paper bag Funk. 5 day old pot of collard greens in the back of the fridge Funk. Did I say this was Funk? My favorite comment, from lildawwg . That's a compliment, by the way. I challenge you to NOT bob your head to this. Funk it up. Good Gawd.

To back away from the recent serious tone of some of the posts, I thought I'd take the easy road with some YouTube clips. Recently I've been reaquainting myself with my drums, and in the process, no doubt, reaffirmed my elderly neighbors' disdain for them. Screw 'em. I bought the set the Spring after we moved into our house. It was torture for almost 8 years being without a true set of drums for my own, bouncing from apartment to apartment. Like most cool hobbies or toys in life, we can get bored with them. That's been the case for the past year with the drums. but I'm back at it. No goals or anything, just the therapeutic feeling of tuning everything else out and playing as sharp and as clean as I can. For those hours, only the music matters. Something that made me rekindle this passion was an evening spent perusing old classic clips of a drummer for whom there is no equal. I had heard of Buddy Rich from a few adults when I was young. But I was a metalhead, s...

I was finally able to catch Ardency Rue back in Malvern over Homecoming weekend. Darren Schnoor & Adam Giaffoglione played a long set down at Bowley's Bistro after the game on Friday night. They've been playing together for over 5 years, and their experience is really showing. Now if I could only get them to play me some Tenacious D.... They've got some of their stuff up on their page , so check em out. Adam likes Corona. Darren pees a lot. Just some observations. Random Trivia: Darren & Dixon, back in the day, formed a band the likes of which have never been seen....what did they call themselves, and what was the first song they played together? It was a good crowd, but for once in my lifetime, there were actually 3 options for revelers to choose from for their Friday night downtown carousing. Charlie & Cindy have their place going well, and with a town the size of Malvern, that's no small feat. Bradley's opened up recently, and has been doing a very ...

Okay, after this post, I swear I'll try harder. Posting random YouTube clips is lazy, I know. I just haven't run across a genre of funny metal music spoofs like this before, and it's quite amusing to me. I've grown up as a fan of metal, but at some point it just becomes ridiculous. Probably why I find this so funny (as does this guy , obviously). My kind of humor. For you Malvern/Emmetsburg folks, tell me who this guy looks like. I don't want to be the one to name him by name (HINT: His name starts with a Mike). Am I wrong?? A couple more to tide you over through the weekend, then I promise some substance. Who knew Bert & Ernie were into Grindcore? I'll never look at kids television again. And I'm okay with that. This is so stupid. lol Okay, I'm done with this. I promise.

I really couldn't wait any longer to post this. I was inspired after watching the documentary Metal: A Headbanger's Journey this past weekend, so I decided to go YouTubing for a while afterwards to see if I could find any hidden gems. Then I stumbled on this, and I simply was not prepared for what I saw & heard. I'm sure a couple of you will appreciate. WARNING: This. Is. Awesome.

So it took be the better of 15 years to come around to the fact that, besides their early mainstream Top 40 hits, I really, REALLY like the Black Crowes . It was our first time seeing them live at Stir Concert Cove in Council-Tuckey, IA on Friday night, but it certainly won't be the last. Their sound is this perfect mixture of southern rock, memphis blues, and a rock solid 'Stones-like groove. There were some tasty jams from start to finish on a perfect night on the river. Plenty of songs from their new album Warpaint, which is very good. And, it got Hacksaw's Seal of Approval, so you know it was a good show. The crowd at the Cove is interesting, as at least 2/3 of the crowd brings lawn & camping chairs to sit in. To each his own, I guess. You can get away with that for some shows they get there, but whatever. We found our way up front to a relatively small crowd of fans up on the rail. Hell.....5th row for the Crowes? I'll take it. Some seasoned (okay, stoned) fans...

If you missed this on VH1 recently, I can only assume they'll run it another 79 times in the next few months. But this VH1 original is worth showing again and again. My personal favorite of the night is posted below. Pearl Jam blew the place away with their version of the classic "Love Reign O'er Me". I haven't heard Eddie scream like this since 1993. Flawless. VH1 TV Shows Music Videos Celebrity Photos News & Gossip

So while we were away in the Great White North, apparently Rush made their first appearance on US television in 33 years, performing on The Colbert Report . "They're like the J.D. Salinger of Canadian Prog-Rock." The intro was hilarious. Okay, so this is likely only moderately funny to those who are not a drummer like myself, or a standard Rush geek like my brother. Suffer through it anyway. Linky to the full episode here. I've posted the first segment of the show below.