30 yrs and VH1 is all I get.

I am almost thirty. A milestone to those vain enough to start a blog entry with "I am almost thirty". And to thirty I say "yuck!" Now that I'm older and entering the age of reflection (soon after is the favorite age... age of senility).

Years back in the late eighties I was sitting at a friends house watching VH1. I was watching a B52's video that was on. I couldn't tell you how I ended up on VH1, but I do know that I was watching MTV only moments before that. More than likely I was running away from a Jodi Whatley video. But back then everybody was running away from a Jodi Whatley video and into the arms of Taylor Dayne. As I watched the end of the B52's video a fear rolled over me. A fear of what was going to be on next. Will it be Hall & Oates ? Gasp! Will it be solo Mick Jagger? The Horror! Or will it be... no!... anything but....NO! Rod Stewart!!!! From the depths of hell, why?!?!?

When you are eleven or twelve years old Rod Stewart is the ultimate old fart music. The kind of music that makes your repressed house mom come out of her momminess and into a hip shaking, gyrating horror show. Isn't that enough reason to hate Rod Stewart? Yes. But there are more reasons. Reasons that will go unmentioned. It'll take too much time and there are other things I need to do with my life. But in short.... I'll mention the semen/stomach pump incident. ( I know, I know... you heard the same thing about Bon Jovi... I think they were in the same room)

The point being, when you are a kid there you'd never think to yourself there would ever come a day where you would be a watcher of VH1. As the thought would be, you would never be a watcher of a Rod Stewart video. Since VH1 has a hard on for Rod Stewart, you would think they will always be playing Rod.

In the recent years VH1 has taken on programing. As we all know MTV has been nothing but programming for the past 10-12 years. To appease us they gave us MTV2, but that's a separate story in and of itself (next time). For years I struggled to keep MTV on my T.V. screen. I stayed when they put on Singled Out. I stayed when they put on Road Rules, then Real World/Road Rules Challenge. I almost made through Room Raiders before I realized what most had given into by now. MTV is not a channel that wants my thirty year old ass. That is what they made VH1 for. A retirement home for old MTV watchers. They make it as comfortable as possible. When watching VH1 now, you can see all sorts of things of interest. For one thing when they do play music videos (which is late at night), and the videos are waaaaay better than the choices on MTV. From VH1 you get: Death Cab for Cutie, Goldfrapp, White Stripes, The Frey, Morningwood (the last two are alright, but in comparison with another G-Unit video.... I'll take it) and more! But it gets worse! And by worse I mean better! All their programing is geared for nostalgia. Any program they have that starts with " I love the..." is great. They do specials on the "Awesomely Bad (fill in the blank) Videos". What's better than watching bad videos and making fun of them? Watching VH1 tear down Rod Stewart on one of those specials, that's what. They have the freak show that is called the Surreal Life and it's spin off's. The channel has won me over over. Nothing saddens me more than the thought of liking VH1. The question becomes: "Do I like VH1 because they pander to my age range? Leaving behind those they used to embrace (like MTV) or is it that I'm old and don't have my finger on the pulse of America youth?

Soon I will be thirty. I think of myself as a hip music guy. I own my copy of Arcade Fire. I'm a college radio music fan. An indie rock scene fan. I'm a snob. But I'm also a VH1 watcher. So fuck MTV. I want my. I want my. I want my VH1.

And if you happen to be older than me.... say by eight years. They gave you a convalescent home in VH1 classic. Where you can widdle away at your golden years in senility, watching Rod Stewart videos and imagine he's right there in the room with you.

On a side note. I highly recommend clicking on this weeks links I placed in this post. You won't be sorry. On second thought.... you might.

Disc 2: Ike Reilly

There is music is this world that's for women and some that are for men. Ike Reilly is a man's man of music. He for the grounded intellectual music fan. His lyrics tend to be rough around the edges, but yet ring true in it's bluntness. When I think of Ike I think of the man who opened his first album with the line: "Last time I couldn't make you cum. Last time you didn't fake me out". That's how the man cares to open an album. Very blunt. Very confessional. His music doesn't appeal to to womenfolk for some reason. I've tried. They don't like it. Maybe it's the stuff about not cumming that turns a woman off.

On second thought... I'm sure not cumming turns them off.

This time around Ike has taking on a full band and add Assassination to the end of his name to make it the band's name. The album title is Junkie Faithful . Taking on a full band seems to have caused a back step from the level the first album was playing at. The lyrics aren't as sharp. Though they are still very dry and witty at times. If there is one thing Ike is consistent about is his sense of humor and his irony. But there is a problem with this album. The fun doesn't really begin until the sixth track, then sticks around till track 12 (the last song) which did nothing for me. What about the tracks before the sixth? Eh. They're okay. The four track is grating, the rest are good to poor. The album lost what the first had. That gritty, sitting in the bar drinking hard with all the other barflys that are sort of your friends but not really. Singing along and laughing, even when faced with harsh reality (wheather it be your own or Ike's).

So... the question remains: "Is this a buy?"

No it is not. Not unless you are fan already. If you've never heard of Ike Reilly, I suggest getting his first album Salesmen and Racists. If you like that, maybe buy this one used for no more than $5.

Disc 1: Clap Your Hands And Say Yeah!

Out of all the Cds that I purchased the other day, this was the mystery Cd. The bands name is Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah! I had vaguely remembered listening to a track or two of the album, but could not remember if I had liked it. So many times it was on the verge of being discarded for another Cd that I was more sure about. Something just kept buzzing in my head that should go and take the risk anyways. Then I took my meds and the buzzing stopped. But I still held on to the Cd regardless. As it turns out... what I had heard via Towerrecords.com was not something I liked. Fortunately I forgot. The album sounded nothing like when listening on my home system as opposed to the crappy Tower Records windows version of the song on my computer. I'd like to take this moment to say: Though I like the service the Tower Records site provides with allowing you to listen to 30 seconds of music for free of almost any band you can think of, but its at the cost of the music sounding like it's being sent to your computer via a tin can and some string.

When listen to the band there is a air of familiarity to the sound. What is this sound? The Talking Heads. Which is great for me, being the BIG Talking Heads fan that I am. Now their sound isn't some carbon copy of an iconic band... it's more like a riff. To put and accurate description of the vocals would be to say; It's like David Byrne if David took a lot of pain killers. Sort of this half sung, half closed mouth "cause it take too much effort to open it" sound. The album is fun and festive. Not too cheeky or jokey, but not moopy or self important. It is everything amodern indie rock fan is looking for.

I'm not a big fan of breaking down an album track by track, so I will just leave this posting with a suggestion. The album is a buy. As a fan of music you should own this and attempt to follow their career. At least till they sell out and I'm writing a blog post about "How they out lived their relevance". Stay tuned for more.