Soundcloud

So, a fellow blogger who lives in Old Blighty turned me on to Soundcloud. It's essentially a music sharing site where you can upload your tracks and folks can listen to, and download them, for free. So, if you like any of the the music I've recorded in my little studio (ok, it's a Macbook in my den with a Fender P-bass and Stratocaster plugged into it) in the previous post, you can follow this link and download any of the songs that you may find appealing. Ciao!

http://snd.sc/tW9WHo

or

http://soundcloud.com/johnjohnson-8

New Music and the movie Drive

OK, so I saw the movie "Drive" a few weeks ago and absolutely loved it. It was this beautiful amalgamation of gritty 70's movies, early Michael Mann, early 80's European crime flicks (think Long Good Friday), and maybe even a bit of Sergio Leonne stuff. Anyways, loved it. I also really enjoyed the soundtrack because it had this very cool (again) early 80's Euro/Michael Mann feel to it. Giorgio Moroder-esque in a way. So, I was inspired and came up with V832V. No guitars, just bass, drum, and keyboards. I also, once again, remixed and added to Just Like the Sun. I always liked it, but it felt incomplete. So I went with an assault of guitars for the second half of the song, and now, I think its as it was meant to be. There's nothing layers upon layers of over driven, effects laden guitars can't improve upon!

V832V

Just Like the Sun (remixed again...guitar bombast mix)

The Snake Charmers

Space Monkey

Mercury Tears

Lessons Learned

The Lizard Brain

Sullivan Potter

On the Dole

The Hedonist

Flanger

Razorblade Mirror

Johnny Comes Home

Jumped the Shark

Horizon

Jason James Flint

Lunar Plane

Altar

Wayward Youth

Re-mix and re-edit a song to my satisfaction

OK. (Slightly) re-named a song, and re-mixed it. Also changed a few leads and amp settings. It was never quite right, and it was bugging me. Now it sounds as it should, and I am happy with it. Now called The Snake Charmers. Here it is with the others. And, as usual, no vocals...but some shoe gaze/alt rock indulgence all the same. Dig you hipsters from the 90's!

The Snake Charmers

Just Like the Sun (Remix)

Space Monkey

Mercury Tears

Lessons Learned

The Lizard Brain

Sullivan Potter

On the Dole

The Hedonist

Flanger

Razorblade Mirror

Johnny Comes Home

Jumped the Shark

Horizon

Jason James Flint

Lunar Plane

Altar

Wayward Youth

The modern press are a bunch of plasticized, failed model, lazy, non-reporting douce bags

It would be nice if we had a press that actually did its job as the so called "Fourth Estate." The modern press is lazy, and providing a great disservice to the public with its non-reporting techniques, i.e. merely collecting sound bytes without actual questions asked. A rather simple example: Every time a politician spews forth the idea that the path to economic recovery is to reduce spending, lower taxes, and reduce the size of government, nobody has asked the obvious question of "Can you show us a historical example where this approach as worked to end a recession/depression?" or "Didn't the Hoover administration try this with disastrous results seventy years ago?" or how about "If nobody has a job or any money to spend, and therefore cannot buy goods and services from a business, how does lowering the businesses tax rate compel the penniless and unemployed to buy goods...and therefore encourage the business to expand and hire?" Stop with the mindless regurgitation of talking points, and make people defend and explain their ideas and philosophies!

I guess I'm all grown up...

How I know I've officially become my parent(s): in almost every paparazzi pic of a celebrity I see now, I almost never know who in the hell the so called "celebrity" is or why they're famous enough to have their picture taken as they grab a Starbucks coffee or lay around on a beach. Minka Kelly? Bar Rafeli? No effing clue.

Quick Rant

Attention Fresnans: the minor kink (like what, about a 4 degree variance???) on freeway 41 between Shields and McKinley does not, I repeat, DOES NOT, require you to slam on your brakes and slow down to 27 mph. Stop treating it like it's blood alley or the chicane of death for Christ's sake, and grow a pair. Thank you for listening.

Also, motorcyclists: wearing a Jesse James style bandana with an open faced helmet does not make you look like a bad ass. It makes you look like an idiot. If you're really concerned about bugs in your face/mouth/etc., it's called a full face helmet. They're not new. Look into it.

Marilyn Monroe and Lance

So, I’ve seen a lot of women over the years post the following quote on various social media profiles:

"I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best."

Now, I know a lot of you ladies think this says, “Hey, I’m not perfect, and if you cannot accept that, then you have unrealistic expectations and are unworthy of a relationship with me.” But you know what? It doesn’t say that. Know what it does say? It says the following:

“Hi. I’m a seriously unhinged lunatic who will have the occasional lucid moment where I’ll lull you into a false sense of comfort that I’m a rational human being. The reality is, however, you are far more likely to wake up with me straddling you, crying, holding a knife to your throat, and screaming, DO YOU LOVE ME???? DO YOU???????? DADDY….WHY DIDN’T YOU LOVE ME????? WHY??????????”

You see, this quote is from Marilyn Monroe. The same Marilyn Monroe who not only was raised in a physically abusive atmosphere, but married a string of assholes and then fucking KILLED HERSELF. She was also famous for being wildly promiscuous, and not because she had some sort of voracious sexual appetite, but because she felt the need to constantly debase herself because she was filled with an overwhelming sense of self loathing. Now, while we can debate the tragedy of it all, let us not forget the paramount point here…she was a complete train wreck. To identify with her is to identify yourself as a likewise pile of twisted metal and smoke filled destruction, and a pretty good flag for healthy people to view you as a live grenade. It’s also a great way for the kind of narcissistic, self aggrandizing, abusive pricks Marilyn often engaged in relationships with to sniff you out and introduce themselves. Just so you know…

Also, I had the following encounter yesterday. As I was driving down the road after a trip to the grocery store, my trunk warning light came on, and it turned out I hadn’t completely shut my trunk. Not wanting potentially loose plastic grocery bags to fly out of my trunk, I pulled over to the right curbline of Shepherd Avenue, stopped my car, got out, and shut my trunk. Now, in this spot on the road, there is a designated bicycle lane…which I momentarily occupied with my car. Before I pulled over, I made sure there were no cyclists near by. After the fifteen total seconds I occupied the bike lane, and as I was reentering my car, a cyclist, apparently offended he had to make the risky maneuver of moving six feet to his left, felt the need to make the following comment as he rode by, “Really!!!???” Apparently, he was so mortified by my position in the road, he just couldn’t help himself. Now, Lance here (he was dressed up in the latest Tour de France style bicycle racing gear…i.e. spandex head to toe…and speaking of toe, probably a good case of man camel toe as well in those bun huggers he was wearing. C’est chic monsieur!) was no doubt deciding to take up the need all “serious cyclists” feel in educating the general public in traffic etiquette (if you’ve ever seen an episode of Portlandia, you know what I’m talking about). They think they’re being helpfully instructive and are creating greater societal good. But you know what they’re really being? A ginormous asshole. I mean, just like the Grand Canyon, it can be seen from space kind of asshole. And it’s not instructive. It’s just being a dick who is assuming you are the only decent human being in the world and this lunk headed car driver decided to park his car in the middle of a bike lane so he could jack off and smoke a menthol cigarette or something. Whatever. Point is, it never occurred to this living, locomotion capable douche bag, that perhaps there was a REASON why this guy pulled over, legally I might add, into the bike lane. What his comment did inspire , however, was a moment where I considered catching up to him and committing vehicular homicide…just so I could hear his head pop like a grape under my 3,500 lb vehicle, and have the joy of rinsing his blood off of my grill. But no, I didn’t do this and settled for this razor sharp come back statement instead: “Yeah…really!” Yeah, my wit knows no bounds. The kicker is Mr. Law and Order here made a right turn at the next intersection into the far left oncoming lane (illegal), and then proceeded to travel against traffic (also illegal). It would be funny if it wasn’t so tragically retarded. The lack of a sense of hypocrisy and self awareness that seems to be spreading across this country faster than an STD on a college campus is depressing, and will be the death knell of this country faster than any boneheaded economic policy we adopt. Wow. That was a lot of words to just say “people are dumb.” Thanks for indulging me.