The Right Voice

I like a lot of different bands and a lot of different types of music. Grunge, Blues, Alt. Country, Country, Alt, Blues, Folk, Alt. Rock, Punk, Jazz, and other genre’s. It may seem very ecclectic to some, but it all can be traced, very easily to one band - Nirvana. I will now attempt to explain this to you in a manner that you can understand.

Folk

Nirvana - Kurt Cobain - Mark Lanegan - Isobel Campbell - Gentle Waves

Blues

Nirvana - Leadbelly (that was an easy one)

Alt. Country and Country

Nirvana - Meat Puppets (Alt. Country) - Conway Twitty - Waylon Jennings - Johnny Cash - Hank Williams Sr.

Alt. Blues

Nirvana - Kurt Cobain - Mark Lanegan

Punk

Nirvana - Meat Puppets

You can name any band I like, and I can tell you the correlation between them and Nirvana. Most people think I like Lanegan the best, but I never would have known about him were it not for my love of Nirvana.

Nirvana did what other bands before, and since, have been scared to death to do. They told their fans that they were not actually the best band out there (even though they were) and people needed to look beyond mainstream major label music if they want to hear the best stuff. If you wanted to hear good music from major labels, you had to wait until the “dinosaurs” (as Kurt called them) die out. Unfortunately for us, now that the “dinosaurs” are gone, the music is as bad as ever (read: worse than it’s ever been). If it were not for Nirvana, I would not really be in to music hardly at all. So you can thank/blame them (however you see it).

Todd

On Friday, I, once again, had the priviledge of going to see one of my favorite bands, Veruca Salt, in concert. The concert was all the way in Riverside, but it was completely worth the drive. I got to The Vibe at around 830 and the show that was supposed to start at 8 had not started yet. finally, around 930 the first of 4 bands bagan to play. They seemed to focus on their gimmick of all wearing these suedo suits than playing music (much like the Hives). They were not very good. Between sets I walked over to the merchandise table to buy “Lords of Sounds and Lesser Things” and guitarirst Stephen Firtzpatrick was also there and we were able to talk for about 20 minutes about baseball. That was very cool of him to do and a lot of fun. The next band was the Strangers Six. They were much better. No gimmicks, they just played good music. At 11 PM the Dead Celebrities began their set. It was not their fault that I did not care for their music. They got a raw deal because it was already 11, I was 70 miles from home and I had work the next morning. I just wanted Veruca Salt to start playing so I could get home. They were alright, but I cringed everytime they started a new song. They finished their set at around 1130 and, finally, Veruca Salt started to set up. It took a long time for them to set up and guitarist, Stephen Fitzpatrick told me that they were almost ready and they had a minor catastrophy backstage.

Louise Post and company got on stage around 12. However, there were some major technical difficulties and they had to go backstage again to try and fix them. They were not able to fix them and, finally, at around 1215 or 1230, they began to play. No monitors and guitars were not working completely, but they rocked out and tore the house down. From my spot at dead center in the front row, I could barely understand the lyrics. I was able to read lips and used my knowledge of Veruca Salt songs to be able to sing along to all the songs though.

They went through some of their old classics and a lot of their new songs that are just as good if not better. They ended the show with a more intense version of Salt Flat Epic and went off stage. Louise, being a consument performer, thanked the audience in her own special way and they left. During the performance of “Save You”, Louise changed the lyrics (as she usually does) from “She’s an Innocent Freak” to the Nirvana lyric “I’m a Negative Creep” which made me very happy and I showed her my appreciation for that.

They were not done, of course. They stayed back stage for about 2 minutes and Louise emerged. She grabbed the mic and said “I am going to sing this accapella and it will be the first time all night I will be able to hear myself”. After that she gave an incredible accapella performance of “One Last Time”. The rest of the band joined her for the incredible “Victrola” from the “American Thighs” album. Then the second song of the encore was the million seller of 94, “Seether”. Despite my feelings on Nina Gordon, it is a good song. (It’s a lot better when Louise sings it though). They ended the night with “Hellraiser” from the Resolver album. At this point the time was 130 AM and I had a long drive and work later on in the morning. I had to leave.

Photos of The Concert

Todd

In my studies of the American Revolution and the Civil War I have come to one simple conclusion about both: We should have lost. We were outmanned in both affairs. By outmanned, I mean the other side had better generals and know more about the art of war. In fact, it amazes me that we won. We had no business even coming close to defeated our enemies. Let’s go further into each conflict.

The Revolutionary War:

George Washington took control of the Continental Army sometime after the war started. Before the war started Washington was not the all powerful, unbeatable general who became the father of our country as we think of him today. Quite the contrarty in fact. He single handidly started the French and Indian War that lasted for several years. He was serving in the British Army and accidentally fired upon a French Fort and it swelled up from there. When he became Supreme Commander of the Continental Army he was much, much smarter. He changed our weapons to weapons that were much more accurate than the garbage we were using before. However, he was still no match for General Lord Cornwallis. His undying allegance to the Crown and to the “rules of war” may have been his undoing. Cornwallis was a gentleman all the way down to the core. He was unwavoring in his courtesy towards wounded soldiers on both sides. It was proper for any army to give quarters to wounded soldiers on either side of the battle. The Colonial miltia came in and broke the rules of war. Cornwallis did not stoop down to our level and was defeated because of it (with a HUGE assist to the French Fleet of course). The only recorded ungentlemanly thing Cornwallis ever did was during his surrender. It was proper for a defeated General to relinqhish his sword to the victorious General. Cornwallis did not do this as he was too ashamed. He sent his second in command to do it and quietly went back to England where he was disgraced for losing the war and the colonies. If Cornwallis would have tried to move to America, I, for one, would have welcomed him open arms. There are not many people to ever live who know more about war than him, and there are not many people in history as devoted to doing right than him. Our next generals come close though.

The Civil War:

This war was won by the Union by sheer luck, geography, and numbers. “Stonewall” Jackson and Robert E. Lee knows leaps and bounds more about war than Grant and Sherman. They proved that by defeating the Union forces time and time again. The South had several problems going against them though. They had a significanlty smaller population than the North did, which means that thety had a smaller army. The smaller army was not a problem with the genius of Robert E. Lee and “Stonewall” Jackson pulling the strings. Another problem was shoes. The textile mills and factories were all in the North and obviously the North was not trading with the South. Their only hope was trading with England who could benefit much more from the South due to the cotton that the North did not have. However, Lincoln took care of Britian by issuing the Emancipation Proclimation, which had no power to do anything, and were just words on a paper. However, the Proclimation told England that the North wasagainst slavery and thought everyone as equal and the South did not. Salvery was dead in England long before and they agreed with the North’s ideals of equality and they stayed out. The biggest to the South was, in my opinion, the accidental shooting and subsequent death of “Stonewall” Jackson. The South, with all it’s problems, my still have won the war had Jackson been alive to see it through. No one had the respectg of their troops like Jackson did. They all thought the world of him and rightfully so as he was a very upstanding individual who treated everyone he knew with rthe utmost dignity and respect. He was, however, a slave holder, but by all accounts, he treated them like family and frequently donated money for their education. This blow left the South devasted and very weakened. After this, General Grant (who was completely unqualified) sent wave after wave, after wave of sodiers to overwhelm the shoeless South and after four years, in 1865, the South was finally overwhelmed. This was hardly an act of Military genius.

 America stumbled it’s way through two important battles on our way to becoming the most powerful nation in the world.

Todd