dimand radio 4-14-18 show notes

Mom: No Update This Week

Mom is OK.

 

I guess that is an update. Oh, well.

I Made It Through That Top Ten List

After a little talk about a show that used to be on Z Talk Radio (it still cycles through the autoplay when no scheduled show is on), whose host believed he could talk to angels, I revisited the topic of my rant at the end of last week's show: WatchMojo's Top Ten list of the Most Electrifying Live Bands of All Time.

You will recall my two complaints about that list were the placement of my favorite band, The Who, at #10 and the voice-over child not knowing how to pronounce Pete Townshend's name.

Well, during the past week I mustered the courage and watched the entire video. On this week's show, I talk about that list and I try to look at it from the perspective of someone who isn't as big a Who fan as I am. (Apparently, there are people out there who don't even like the greatest band in the world. Go figure.)

These kinds of lists are subjective and I try to keep that in mind. But The Who at #10?!

 

Here's the video.

Tool Time Talk

No, I don't talk about Tim Allen and his manly man, tool-obsessed sit-com. This talk was about a band I know very little about. The band is Tool. They are a highly respected and acclaimed prog-metal or alt-metal band from California.

As I said, I know very little of them, but recently friend of the show Craig introduced to a couple of their songs. Metal was never a favorite musical form for me, but there are some songs I like. And I was impressed with the musicianship displayed in those two songs and the vocals did not put me off as is what usually happens when I listen to metal, especially 80s Hair Metal.

 

The two songs are Crawl Away and Forty Six & 2.

 

And Then There Are These Music Students

 

Craig also linked me to a video of some music students of Maineville Music Academy doing a cover of Forty Six & 2. The kids range in age (I'm guessing here) 9 to 18 or so. And they are pretty damn good.

 

You Take That Back, Travis!

 

Next I talked about a conversation I had with another friend of the show, Travis, about my learning about Tool. I think Tool is to Travis as The Who is to me. We also talked about the cover by those school kids.

 

Travis mentioned how there were nine of those kids (eight on instruments, one doing vocals) to do that song, while, when playing live, Tool consists of three on instruments and one on vocals and they pull it off.

 

Hmm. Three on instruments and one vocalist. WHO does that sound like, eh? Of course.

 

I know. I'm sick. I can't help bringing them up (Although I will try.) So, I brought The Who into the conservation. It was then that Travis suggested Townshend wasn't much of a musician.

 

...

 

Travis is still alive. When you listen to the show you'll learn how he managed to survive.

 

They Aren't All Playing All That Music?

 

I learned this from a recent Penn's Sunday School podcast. It's an industry secret that some of the major touring rock bands will hide additional musicians to fill in the sound, cover the mistakes, hit the high notes, etc. I guess I can understand when a band wants to reproduce the sound of their records, but they don't want to appear mortal not being able to do it all.

 

U2 is one a band that employs a keyboardist who is hidden away from the crowd, but they do introduce him to the audience. Aerosmith and The Rolling Stones aren't as open about it. At least, according to Penn Jillette and pianist Mike Jones.

 

You know, when The Who tours now and since the late 80s they have their additional musicians right on stage with them.

 

The Who are so great. They just... Sorry, I'll stop talking about them for a while, OK?

 

Three Cool Things

 

3) Well, it appears I can't stop talking about them for long, because there's this very cool video on YouTube that isolates Keith Moon's drum track on the song Won't Get Fooled Again.

 

2) There a very entertaining podcast that humorously focuses on American history. It's called The Dollop and there's a YouTube video of a live performance done on baseball's maverick owner Bill Veeck. The talk includes the infamous Death To Disco event held during a doubleheader at Comiskey Park.

 

1) As is most always the case on the second Thursday of the month, I met up with the Minnesota Skeptics and got all good and skeptical with them. Always a cool time.

 

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Take It Away' by Paul McCartney & 'Walking & Falling' by Laurie Anderson

Second ad break bumpers: 'Infected' by The The & 'No Reply At All' by Genesis

Closing song: 'Angler's Treble Hook' by $5 Fiddle

That's it! See you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com you can also download my show from the z talk show archives page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com

Please subscribe on iTunes! Just search for Dimland Radio in the podcast section. And if you could leave a good rating and a positive review it would be awesome.

You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you like. Find out more here and here.

dimland radio 10-1-16

My Rocktober Tradition

I don't know if I've done this every year, but I've told this story on or about October 2nd often enough to consider it a sort of tradition. The story is how I came to see The Who in concert for the first time on October 2, 1982 and it changed my life. I became a pretty good sized Who fan and my musical tastes were greatly influenced by Pete Townshend and company.

The Singer?!

So, it's happened.

 

 

 

On Facebook the other day someone shared a video of The Rolling Stones performing 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' as part of their Rock and Roll Circus concert special of 1968. The concert featured the Stones as well as Jethro Toll, The Dirty Mac Bird (John and Yoko's band for the film), Marianne Faithfull, and The Who. I goofed on the show, because I thought it had been released back then, however it wasn't because the Stones didn't want it released. They felt they had performed badly and others thought it was because The Who's performance was so good.

 

In 1996, the film was finally released.

 

Anyway, there's the video of the rather young looking band of classic rockers and someone made a comment on how "the singer" looks a lot like Ashton Kutcher on That 70s Show. "The singer?!" The fellow just couldn't think of Mick Jagger's name.

 

Well, it had to happen some day when people would be too young to know the members of such an iconic band.

Here's The Who's kickass performance (with Pete Townshend interrupting with the story of the song).

It's Been Done

I got to thinking about a Garth Brooks TV concert special that aired in the early 90s. I can picture the commercials for the TV event that I really didn't give a damn about, because Garth Brooks just was never my thing. And I remember one specific thing about that ad: It showed Brooks and a member of his band smashing two acoustic guitars against each other. I remember a person I knew at the time remarking on how valuable those guitars were. I also remember saying, "It's been done."

 

Pete Townshend may not have been the first rocker to smash his instrument in concert (the internets say Jerry Lee Lewis was), but he was the one who made it a statement-making, show-ending tradition that might have bankrupted The Who had not Tommy become such a massive financial success.

 

I made the point that when The Who destroyed their instruments (just Pete and Keith Moon really) it meant something. It was was a very costly statement on the self-destructive nature of man. We were living under the shadow of "the bomb". It was art.

 

OK, it was a gimmick, too. And it lost it's meaning when The Who became wealthy enough to afford it. Garth Brooks was already awfully damn rich when he was smashing those expensive guitars, so really...yawn.

 

 

 

It's been done before. And done better.

A Different WHO Made The News

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced earlier in the week that measles had been eradicated in the Americas. After decades of vaccinating the population against that dreaded disease (people think of it as just a kid's disease, but it was responsible for the worldwide deaths of 2.6 million people a year), WHO could safely state the endemic transmission of measles was no longer happening in the Americas. The incidents of measles outbreaks in recent years were due to unvaccinated people traveling aboard and bringing it back with them and then spreading it to other unvaccinated people.

 

No thanks to Andrew Wakefield and Jenny McCarthy, the measles vaccine has worked in the Americas and is working in the rest of the world. We must keep vaccinating if we want to make measles go the way of small pox. It can be done.

 

No Crying In Baseball? Bullshit

 

Sure, it's a great scene in the movie A League of Their Own, but it couldn't be farther from the truth. There's plenty of crying in baseball.

 

Mike Schmidt announcing his retirement.

 

 

Pete Rose breaks Ty Cobb's hitting record.

 

 

Joe Torre gets his first World Series Championship as manager of the Hated Yankees.

 

 

And most recently, after the untimely death of Jose Fernandez, a gifted young pitcher for the Miami Marlins, teammate Dee Gordon did this:

And the Miami Marlins did this:

Don't tell me there's no crying in baseball.

Movie Recommendation: None

I ran out of time. You're on your own this week.

Music heard on the show...
 

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Daily Records' & 'Another Tricky Day' by The Who

Second ad break bumpers: 'Dangerous' by & 'One At A Time' by The Who

Closing song: 'Angler's Treble Hook' by $5 Fiddle

That's it! See you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com you can also download my show from the z talk show archives page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com
 
You can also go to my CafePress store and buy stuff with my artwork on it and have me do a portrait for you if you like. Find out more here and here.