The Mellow Years

I probably stopped listening to real hard rock around 1998, but recently, I have been listening to more and more mellow stuff. A big part of that comes from me still going backwards and listening to older blues music. Don't be too mistaken though, mellow for me may not be mellow for you. Eric Claptons Me and Mr. Johnson is mellow to me, but for most, it is still hard rock. Also, that doesn't mean I started listening to Jack Johson or Dave Matthews. I would rather go Vincent Van Gogh on my face than listen to that garbage.

2003:Elephant: The White Stripes. I go into all this mellow stuff and the first album on this post is probably the hardest album I have bought in years. Candy and I were in Marysville listening to the radio when Ball and Biscuit came on. We couldn't believe how awesome it was. I think what I love most about The White Stripes is that they are a stripped down blue band. Jack White's guitar is amazing and Meg White's drumming seems to always push you around. My friend Ernie always talks about a sense of urgency in music. It is hard to describe, but you know it when you hear it. There is definitely a sense of urgency here.

2004:Me and Mr. Johnson: Eric Clapton This album represents perfectly what I was listening to at the time, and to a certain extent now. Clapton has been ripping off Robert Johnson for years, this time he at least gave him credit for it. Robert Johnson is the king of the blues. I was listening to Robert Johnson, Leadbelly, Mississippi John Hurt and a lot of acoustic Hot Tuna.

2005: Guero: Beck I moved from Oroville to Sacramento during the summer of 2005. I did most of the move in nightly trips cramming a bunch of stuff in the back of my Hyundai Accent. I probably made twenty trips back and forth. I can still remember Summer Girl on the radio and the smell of sweet peaches in the air as I drove past Marysville on my way back home. One thing about Beck, he always does something different and sometimes is takes me years to get his albums, but ultimately, I always come around.

2006:Back to Black: Amy Winehouse I stopped listening to the radio in 2006. There is just too much garbage out there. From New-punk to Emo, it makes me want to tear my hair out. I look forward to the day when music takes another revolution like it did in the late 60's-early 70's, and then again in the early 90's. Maybe it takes 20 years for tha kind of thing to happen. If that's the case, we are in for a treat in about five years. Amy Winehouse however, is a throwback. Candy has been playing this album non-stop for months now. I like it, but it's getting old.

2007:Chrome Dreams II: Neil Young The third Neil Young entry. Between this and his Massey Hall performance, these might be the only two albums I bought in 2007 that came out in 2007. I had a lot of these songs already on bootleg albums as Neil has literally hundreds of unreleased material that he has been promising to release for years. In fact the original Chrome Dreams was never released at all and has a whole set of different songs fans have been trading online.

2008:Accelerate: R.E.M. It's July and I haven't bought an album since December. R.E.M.'s album will be the first one I buy as I know it rocks, but nothing else interests me.

Some notes: One of the reasons the last part of the list was so hard is because the idea of the Album is dead. People are making songs not albums because of iTunes. That encompasses a big part of my distaste for modern music. That and the fact that musicianship has taken a step back to make room for flash.

In august I will be attending Outside Lands in San Francisco. There are a lot of new bands I have never heard play. Maybe that will spark some interest in somebody new.

The Demise of Rock

After 1997, rock 'n' roll took a turn south. There were a few reasons for this. 1) The death of Kurt Cobain I think had a dramatic effect on grunge bands who seemingly weren't prepared to step into his place as the leader (the obvious choice was Pearl Jam, but they were busy fighting a battle with Ticketmaster) 2) Boy bands took over in popular music 3) Rock bands still around took the worst part of grunge music (the stripped down chord-work/lack of guitar solos and ran with it without realizing that the early grunge bands mixed in guitar solos now and then and could play just as well as metal bands at the least. 4) Rap-rock 5) Maybe the most critical part, was the dominance of format radio and conglomerate radio. They didn't know what to do with a new Tom Petty album, he didn't fit in new rock stations and his new music didn't belong on classic rock. This left a lot of awesome bands in a sort of limbo. They still produced new music, but there was nowhere to play it. The best album released in 2001 was Bob Dylan's Love and Theft, but what radio station is going to play it?

1998:Devil Without a Cause: Kid Rock The less said about this garbage the better. The world would be a better place without Kid Rock. That being said, I think this is a good representation of how bad it got.

1999:Mule Variations: Tom Waits 1999 was the first time I had ever heard of Tom Waits. It was also the first time Candy, Nathan and I went to the Bridge School Benefit Concert. It remains the best year I have ever seen. Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, Neil Young, Brian Wilson, The Who, Beck, Green Day, and Tom Waits. We thought it was a joke when he first came out on stage, but by the second song, we realized that it wasn't and instead enjoyed it. I went out the day after we got back and started buying his albums. Most people have never heard of Tom Waits, but you ought to look him up. I've never been disappointed in any of his albums.

2000: Silver and Gold: Neil Young Candy and I got married in June of this year. This album reminds me of our first apartment. Red Sun is one of those songs that brings Candy to tears about every time she listens to it. Among Neil fans it is often referred to as Harvest 2. If you like Harvest style Neil, this album is better.

2001:Love and Theft: Bob Dylan This came out the same week that Sept. 11th happened. I think I listened to Bob Dylan for a month straight. When we saw Bridge that year, Neil made a remark, that "a lot of songs have different meaning now." It was exactly what I was thinking about Bob Dylan. Suddenly songs of peace, became something completely different.

2001: Gold: Ryan Adams. There were other years that I could have done a tie, but while at the time, Love and Theft represented 2001, since then, this album by Ryan Adams has probably been played more in my car and house than any other. This is probably the best album to come out since 2000. Bluesy, rocking, country. This guy is awesome and can do it all.

2002:Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: Wilco Everyone I knew was listening to Wilco so I picked this album up. It is awesome. The Mother Hips and Wilco are comparable. They are both sort of Alt-Rock/Country but The Mother Hips play circles around Wilco. Still, Wilco is awesome and I can't wait to see them in August.

Grunge Days

The next five years were all about grunge. I was in high school, most of my musical tastes and my views on life were formed here. I saw my first concert in 1995 and haven't stopped since.

1993:In Utero: Nirvana I bought this album the day it came out. To be honest, I loved Nirvana, but Nevermind isn't exactly easy to listen to. It has some great stuff, but for me, In Utero is the best Nirvana album, with Heart Shaped Box, Pennyroyal Tea, and All Apologies, lyrically, it destroys Nevermind, the music is even better.

1994:Vitalogy: Pearl Jam Not my favorite Pearl Jam album (that would be No Code) but more than any other Pearl Jam album, it sort of sealed the deal as far as my love for them. It was probably in 1994 that my love for Guns 'n' Roses waned and Pearl Jam took over. The next year, seeing them on the Vitalogy tour made me a rabid fan. I started working at Taco Bell in March of 1994 and by the summer, I was working nights and we would crank up 106.7. Betterman and Courdory were on the radio constantly as well as Interstate Love Song by the Stone Temple Pilots. I also started dating Candy a few months after this album came out and I think I bought her this CD for her birthday.

1995:Melancholy and Infinite Sadness: Smashing Pumpkins This album came out the week before I saw Pearl Jam for the second time in San Jose. I went with Milan, Josh, and some girl I don't remember. We listened to it all the way down and back. Tonight, Tonight is one of the best Track 1 songs ever.

1996:Shootout: The Mother Hips I didn't see The Mother Hips until 1999, but this album was the one that really hooked me. I still listen to it all the time on road trips. It has my favorite live of any song ever in the song Transit Wind "off the white dash line on the black windswept road" as well as a coincidental "Candy...there was a time that your love came in handy but I can't get to sleep without weeping on your name" I've seen them more than any other band. I would say that the number is closer to 200 than 100. I think I have seen them everytime they have played in Chico or Sacramento since 2000 (I've missed one or two shows but not many)

1997: El Ultimo Concierto A & B: Soda Stereo. Still one of my favorite rock bands ever. I didn't discover them until the year they broke up. If they get back together, I will see them immediately no matter where they play. This is also one of my favorite live shows ever. Argentina has some really great rock bands. Soda Stereo is a three piece band but they sound fuller than that. This concert has all of their best 1990's stuff. Early stuff is o.k., but a little too 80's for me. The 90's stuff like "De Musica Ligera" and "Ella uso mi cabeza como un revolver" are nothing short of amazing.

Coming up: music takes a very bad turn with the onset of Rap/Rock bands and crappy grunge copies. It was about that time that I began to look into the past instead listening to the future. That being said, I am sure that Wilco will make an appearance.

Coming of Age

After I fell in love with Guns 'n' Roses, music started to be important to me. Before, it was always there, but wasn't something I obsessed about. The early nineties changed all of that for me.

1988:Tracy Chapman: Tracy Chapman 1988 was another terrible year for music, producing my all-time worst song to get stuck in your head, Don't worry be Happy, but amidst the garbage, Tracy Chapman's first and probably best CD came out. I love Tracy Chapman especially the song Gimme one reason, which isn't on this album, but Fast Car is a beast to get through and well worth it.

1989:Freedom: Neil Young After getting released and sued by Geffen for not sounding Neil Young enough, Neil puts out one of his best albums ever. Most people point to Rockin' in the Free World, which is great, but for me, give me the Crime in the City and the fragile Hanging on a Limb. I didn't discover Young until ten years after this was released, but he quickly became an obsession and he is still number 2 on the list of people I have seen in concert (Probably around 20 times.)

1990:Shake Your Money Maker: The Black Crowes. With America awash in metal and boy bands, The Black Crowes were a breath of fresh air. There isn't a bad song on this album and I think it was my first break from metal and into grunge (though it isn't grunge either) If you haven't seen The Black Crowes, you probably should quickly because they are awesome live.

1991:Out of Time: R.E.M. Where 1988 and 81 were terrible years for music. This had too many to offer. Ten, Nevermind, Gish, etc. It was the beggining of Grunge, the beginning of high school, and R.E.M. had this crazy song and video called Losing My Religion. Why not Pearl Jam and Nirvana here? Because my favorite albums come later. Although Ten and Nevermind were staples in my tape deck.

1992: Core: Stone Temple Pilots. While all of my favorite Grunge bands were out touring, instead of making music, there were some really cool one hit wonders out there, No Rain by Blind Melon being my favorite, but Core by the Stone Temple Pilots was straight awesome. I don't think this is their best album, but Wicked Garden, Dead and Bloated, and Plush rock. It's a shame Weiland couldn't kick the drugs.

up next, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and The Spice Girls?

The Mid-Eighties

I don't think I really listened to music before this time, I was into watching television too much, but about 1982, that all changed. Part of it was because of MTV, but really, it was all about Michael Jackson

1982: Thriller: Michael Jackson I can remember when this came out, people went insane. Even at five years old, the video Thriller was so awesome. That was really the song I loved, although at the time, Beat It was pretty cool as well. I was even so dorky that I practiced break dancing by myself (something which I continue to do this day as Candy can attest to. I still can't do the Moonwalk to save my life.) No matter how creepy Michael Jackson gets or how different it is than almost all the other music I listen to, I still love this album. I probably didn't like Billie Jean then, but today, it is by far the best Michael Jackson song.

1983:Sports: Huey Lewis and the News "They say the Heart of Rock 'n' Roll is still beating!" Awesome album. The album cover was cool, they looked cool, they were in Back to the Future, and for a kid, this album was really edgy. We used to listen to this album all the time. I think I have the album here that I stole from my parents house along with the Blues Brothers album.

1984: Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc.: Dwight Yoakam. Ugh! I actually have never willingly put this record on. I don't need to. Since we have been dating and especially since we have been married, Candy has been listening to Dwight Yoakam almost non-stop (although I wouldn't mind going back to him if she turned off the Any Winehouse. She's great but enough already!) I used to hate Dwight, but respected the talent. Candy has beaten me down though and now I love him. Last year when we went to see him, it was an awesome show.

1985:Whitney Houston: Whitney Houston Enough of my dad rocking out. 1985 was a terrible year for music. Especially in my house as my mom seemed to figure out how to work the record player for something other than Kenny Rogers. This album was played non-stop. My mom would especially rock out to How will I know?

1986:Liscence to Ill: Beastie Boys I was nine and in fourth grade and rap was the new thing. It really didn't catch on that hard in O-town until fifth grade, but The Beastie Boys were for me, a forbidden fruit. I knew my mom would let me listen to them. It wasn't until I was like 22 that I discovered this record for real. In the meantime, I had The Fat Boys to tide me over.

1987: Appetite for Destruction: Guns 'n' Roses My first real love. I think I bought this album two or maybe three times. My mom would never let me listen to it, so I taped it in secret and listened to it on my walkman. The first video I ever remembered watching on MTV other than Ghostbusters and Michael Jackson was Sweet Child of Mine. It still is in my top ten favorite songs. It is an awesome album from beginning to end from the opening chords of Welcome to the Jungle, I was hooked. I've mellowed a lot in recent years, and really never got in to heavy metal with the exception of Guns, Metallica, and AC/DC and rarely listen to hard stuff anymore. But, the other day, in the car, Sweet Child of Mine was on the radio (on a classic rock station no less) and I couldn't help rocking out.

And now for something completely different

I saw this on another site, and since I love lists and music, this seemed like the perfect thing to do here.

The object is to list an album to represent every year of your life since you were born. You have to list an album that was released during the year specified.

That makes 21 albums plus justification for me since I was born in 1977. Some of them will be stuff that I am listening to now that was put out then, some will be stuff I love that had a great impact, others will be just albums I remember from a particular time and place.

1977: Fleetwood Mac: Rumours I have a love hate relationship with this band, but ultimately, they remind me of both my dad, Bill Clinton, and Chuck E. Cheese. I am sure my dad won't appreciate the association, but this album is great, although my favorite Fleetwood Mac song, Silver Springs wasn't included because it was too long. I remember my dad telling me that he went to see them once. I also remember being in Chuck E. Cheese in Chile thinking it was odd that in 1998, in South America, there was a mouse singing an American tune from the 1970's. Of course, they were right next door to a fast food joint that specialized in lamb sandwiches so I don't know why it was that odd.

1978: The Blues Brothers: Briefcase full of Blues. Oddly enough, another selection brought on because of my dad. We could only listen to two things on Sunday mornings: Church music and The Blues Brothers. It doesn't make sense but it does. This was the first album I put on when I got my first record player and it still rocks. I didn't know it growing up, but the entire backing band are old Staxx Records players.

1979: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Damn the Torpedos Believe it or not, I don't own this album, but it rocks from beginning to end. Tom Petty is probably fourth on the list of bands I've seen most behind Neil Young, Pearl Jam, and The Mother Hips. Every show is pretty much the same, which is why I took a voluntary two year Petty hiatus, but in August, I'm seeing him again. The song refugee is probably one of the greatest rock songs ever.

1980:AC/DC: Back In Black It's cliche but in many ways so is the band. Most of their songs sound exactly the same, they're mostly all about rocking and sex, and they all rule. I remember listening to the Ballbreaker album when I was living at home and my mom asking me what the song "Harder than a Rock" was about. I lied mom. It is about exactly what you thought it was about.

1981:The Grateful Dead: Dead Set This was the second album I bought by the Grateful Dead and it remains my favorite (other than the other live stuff) Some of it is terrible, but Samson and Delilah, Friend of the Devil, and Little Red Rooster are awesome.

That's the first five years. Obviously, with possibly the exception of the first two albums listed, I wasn't listening to any of this stuff then. Frankly, I was born during a bad time for music. I hate late seventies rock for the most part, because it is mostly power ballads, disco is terrible, and it was really hard to come up with any album during some years (1981 was a bad year for music.)

Coming up next time...1982-1987 Michael Jackson, Guns 'n' Roses, maybe some R.E.M, maybe even a little Dwight Yoakam.

The Worst Place in the World

In Anthony Bourdain's book A Cook's Tour he descrbed Cambodia as "...the worst place on earth...a dream come true for international losers-a beautiful but badly beaten woman, staked out on an anthill for every predator in the world to do with as he wishes."

When I read that, I immediately thought back to Khaled Hosseini's book The Kite Runner.

The book is not set in Cambodia at all, but the image Bourdain evokes is appropriate. Because in Hosseini's writings, what is important is not so much the story, the people, or in many regards even the country, but rather that it is 2008 and places like the one he described in his book exist.

Difficulty: 3/5 The book is easy to read word-wise, and it isn't very long. Like most authors writing a book in English set in another non-English speaking country, he does include a lot of local words, but they are usually followed with an explanation so it isn't that difficult. The only real difficulty comes with the subject matter which can be in your face and difficult to swallow. I don't want to spoil it totally, but the book does have a rape in it.

Enjoyment: 3.5/5 Certainly the book is a good read, but at times, it drags a little especially after the halfway point, and while this shouldn't be an indicator of the quality of the book, there aren't many triumphs. We get a whole lot of very depressing stuff here. Is it interesting though? Absolutely. I think anyone who reads the book will be affected by it and will probably learn a whole lot. I haven't seen the movie, but from critical reviews, it lacks the power of the book and it is certainly a powerful book.

Set in Afganistan in the seventies, the first part of the book is actually quite fascinating to someone like me and most others who know very little about that part of the world. I think we all have our preconceptions about Afganistan, especially now that our troops have been there for several years, but Hosseini shatters them in the first few chapters. The idea of Afganistan as a broken, dry, ugly landscape ruled with an iron fist by Sharia Law was simply not true for Afganistan in the early seventies. In fact, according to Hosseini's description, I got the image of a slightly less technologically advanced (say 1910ish) America. That being said, the country had its problems. There was a definite caste system in place and being a monarchy, the upper-class had many priveledges that the lower-class did not. In one part, however when the main character Amir is describing both his own country and Iran, he might as well have been talking about two completely different places from the preconceptions I had about the area.

The problems begin when the king is deposed, guerrilla fighters take over, then the Soviets come in, the the Taliban kick the soviets out, etc. etc. etc. What we see in the book is a young boy (and eventually man) coping with his native country as it goes through now almost 40 years of war. The people were repressed, different factions ruled, and for the most part, daily life is nothing more than turmoil.

The main story features Amir and his best friend Hassan (the son of Amir's servant) as they learn to cope with all of this and the guilt Amir feels as he purposefully ruins Hassan's life and then as the Soviets come in, leaves him behind in the war torn country.

The secondary story, is more of a straightforward immigration story as Amir and his father Baba, both very wealthy in Afganistan, try and succeed in America as new immigrants to the country. They have to deal with their new positions in life and try to get by with the help and support of their fellow ex-countrymen.

The book is good, I recommend it and wish there was a way I could teach it to my Sophomores because I think it would be enlightening for them and help them understand the political mess that most of the world is in. One of the drawbacks about the book is that Amir leaves and we don't get to see much of the destruction of the country to bring it to where we are now. Hosseini does address this in his next book though, which was also very good: A Thousand Splendid Suns