I always find homophobia, especially in America, to be a combination of two extremes: the laughably absurd, and the terrifyingly tragic.
Absurd, when we see homophobic athletes hugging each other tighter than they’d ever with a woman, gently patting each other’s asses all game long, and even kissing, all under the guise of being absolutely straight [...]
We tend to think of acoustic musical instruments as somehow being natural and organic: like a piano, acoustic guitar, violin, and a drum kit – but in reality, are they really? Why are the steel pieces of a drum kit natural? How about the wood of an acoustic guitar? What’s organic about the cast iron [...]
A young aspiring songwriter that I know was so impressed with Led Zeppelin’s songwriting yet couldn’t figure out how they wrote their songs, so he recently asked me where these songs actually came from. As songwriters, we’ve all asked ourselves these questions: “Do songs come from us through our talents, thoughts, and emotions? Are the [...]
As an artist who has pushed many an envelope in my career, I have been on the receiving end of vicious personal attacks, always disguised as legitimate criticism. Wouldn’t it have to be? If it is admitted to be merely a personal attack, the “criticism” loses all credibility or ability to be taken even remotely [...]
I remember hearing David Byrne (formerly of the Talking Heads) say years ago that even though it sounded naïve, he actually believed that if you just put your work out there, people will find it. A similar sentiment was echoed by Morrisey in a video interview I saw days ago on Amazon.com. He was comparing the [...]
It’s a little after 2:00 AM in Chicago on the morning of 2-5-09, and I just heard the news that Lux Interior, vocalist and frontman of The Cramps transitioned into spirit. I remember him fondly when my band performed with The Cramps for two nights at CBGB’s in early December of 1977. For his performance, [...]
When I saw a blog entry on a documentary about Iraq’s first heavy metal band, I was absolutely intrigued. Does the music sound Middle Eastern? Are the harmonies western, eastern or a combination of both? What does the group look like? How could a band play the “devil’s music” in of all places – Iraq? [...]
Certainly, the collective mind set is ok enough with the current state of the musical union that things just keep rolling along without any drastic change in sight. Of course, there have always been a multitude of artists and styles out there in any time period. However, nowadays there are far more artists, styles, and [...]
Regarding the extensive use of technology and high tech trickery in the music business, we probably all remember how Milli Vanilli was busted for lip-synching live (and not even singing in the studio on their own records). In the heyday of the MTV era, they were brought into the project to sell it visually, because [...]
Even though we now have You Tube and My Space, along with Facebook and other similar sites, the music business has become so much smaller, and the thing that a lot of people don’t get, is that as the profitability shrinks, exciting and fresh new artistic options also shrivel up. Simply stated, one has to be [...]