Women Who Rock

I flipped my Rolling Stone calendar to October, and the picture is of their magazine cover from October of 2003.  It was the special issue of Women Who Rock.  Posing for the cover photo was Missy Elliott, Alicia Keys and Eve.  Missy and Alicia are talented ladies, but they do not rock.  I don't even know who Eve is.  Listed down the side, under "Special Issue" are the names:  Dolly Parton, Sleater-Kinney, Christina Aguilera, Lucinda Williams, Karen O, and Bonnie Raitt.  One of these things just doesn't belong, as the old song goes.  It is the band Sleater-Kinney.  It is the only one with Women Who Rock.  Again, Dolly, Bonnie, Lucinda and Christina are talented ladies, but they do not rock.  And I don't know who Karen O is.  Women In Music would have been a more appropriate title for the issue.

Can we discuss the word "rock" for a moment?  It has become way overused and misused.  Rock and Roll is a style of music and an attitude.  It means sex.  And these days, rock is used to describe musical acts that lack that attitude and musical style.  There has to be a driving beat and some chugging guitar to be rock.  This current crop of mid-tempo, synthesized copycats does not fit the bill.  Country, Blues and Pop acts certainly should not be described as rock.  And I must say that when people tell me, "You Rock", it makes me cringe.  Because while I aspire to rock, it just smacks of the old fake lines, "You're beautiful.  Let's do lunch."

Sleater-Kinney does rock.  L7, Bikini Kill, 7 Year Bitch, Hole, Babes in Toyland, Blondie, Bratmobile, The Dollyrots, Garbage, The Gits, X, Team Dresch, The Breeders, The Donnas, The Pretenders and Joan Jett all rock.  And they're all on KJRW.

KJRW TOP TEN LIST

Same songs, different order -- for the most part, anyway -- for the first week of (R)October.  Here is the Top Ten, as voted by KJRW listeners:

1. Animal - Pearl Jam
2. Come As You Are - Nirvana
3. Steady, As She Goes - Raconteurs
4. Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division
5. American Idiot - Green Day
6. Stranger Than Fiction - Bad Religion
7. Infected - Bad Religion
8. Someday - Strokes
9. Waiting Room - Fugazi
10. Pride (In The Name Of Love) - U2

Remember to vote for your favorite songs by clicking the 'thumbs up' while they are playing on KJRW.  I'm making a list (and checking it twice) of spooky tunes to play for Halloween.  Help me out.  Comment with suggestions.

Polka Face

The DVD of the “Weird Al” Yankovic Live! Alpocalypse Tour will be released tomorrow.  It aired on Comedy Central Saturday night. I would be very surprised if they don't broadcast it again -- considering the multitude of times the Charlie Sheen Roast has been shown.  The concert was recorded in Toronto.

We were lucky to see the show live in Puyallup, WA a couple weeks ago.  The live show was twice as long as the one on Comedy Central.  This was possibly due to all the costume changes.  But while those were happening, the video screens played old clips from his film, UHF and any program that mentioned "Weird Al".  I enjoyed seeing the old "Al TV" pieces.  It took me back to a time when "too much (was) never enough" of MTV.

Popular song parodies included:  "Polka Face", "Perform This Way", "White & Nerdy", "Fat" and "Canadian Idiot".  The audience waved their arms in the air for "Amish Paradise".  We were in the grandstand, where the crowd stomped its approval.  My favorite was "Smells Like Nirvana", complete with cheerleaders in black oufits and red pom-poms.

http://youtu.be/FklUAoZ6KxY