TV Party Tonight (Part 1)

I personally believe that television theme songs are a vastly under-appreciated genre of music.  The very best TV theme songs set the tone for the program you're about to watch, and often set up the basic storyline for the show. Several of my favorite songs are actually TV theme songs, and I thought I'd take a moment to lay out my All-Time Top Ten Television Theme Songs (Sitcom Edition), for your perusal.  Now, without further ado:

Joel's All-Time Top Ten Television Theme Songs (Sitcom Edition)

10. "As Long As We Got Each Other" (Growing Pains) - This is a fine example of a theme song being superior to its show.  If I never saw Growing Pains again, I'd be happy, but I sincerely love the sappy sentimentality of this theme, sung by pop singers B.J. "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" Thomas and Jennifer "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" Warnes. (Note: I can't find a clip of the opening credits with this version of the song, so you'll just have to deal with the Seaver clan staring at you creepily instead.)

9. "Without Us" (Family Ties) - I kind of enjoyed Family Ties when I was a kid, but it was a little bit over my head with the political and social themes.  My sisters watched it pretty often, mostly (I assume) because of the dreamy Michael J. Fox.  The theme song , sung by Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams, has resonated with me since the first time I heard it, and it has a sappiness similar to the Growing Pains theme.

8. "Night Court" - This instantly recognizable instrumental is pretty much always on repeat somewhere in my brain.  I still find the show to be immensely enjoyable too, though it is a bit dated (existing from 1984 to 1992 will do that to you, I suppose).  I love that the first 8 seconds kinda make you think it's a gritty cop drama you're about to get down with, then the title screen appears and it's clear that you're in for comedy gold.

7. "Yo! Home to Bel-Air" (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) - This show is an anomaly in my life, because it was a show about a rapper that my dad and I enjoyed together.  My dad is in no way racist, but he does think hip-hop is bunch of bullshit.  We didn't have cable, so our programming choices were more limited than many families' at the time, but I really think my dad would've watched this show anyway.  This lesser-known, longer version of the theme song was used in the first three episodes, and is a bit more awesome.  The song was co-written by Will Smith and Quincy Jones.  Spoiler alert: this is not Mr. Jones' only appearance on this list.

6. "Where Everybody Knows Your Name" (Cheers) - There's very little I can say about this song.  It's a classic, and I don't know (or care to know) anyone who doesn't like it.  It was co-written (with Judy Hart Angelo) and sung by Gary Portnoy, who also co-wrote the theme from Mr. Belvedere ("According to Our New Arrival") and the theme from Punky Brewster ("Every Time I Turn Around"), both of which are in my All-Time Top Twenty-Five Television Theme Songs (Sitcom Edition).

5. "Those Were the Days" (All In the Family) - All In the Family has long been regarded as a ground-breaking sitcom, and for good reason.  The theme song is well-known, and was endearingly performed by the show's stars, Carroll O'Connor and Jean Stapleton, both singing in character as Archie Bunker and his lovable dingbat wife, Edith.  Her shrill notes are simultaneously terrible and wonderful.  Homer and Marge Simpson later did a wonderful parody/tribute at the beginning of The Simpsons episode entitled "Lisa's Sax."

4. "Nothing's Gonna Stop Me Now" (Perfect Strangers) - This is another example of a theme song being better than it's source program.  I certainly enjoy Perfect Strangers much more than I enjoy Growing Pains, but I still can't want to watch more than a couple of episodes without getting bored.  This theme song, however, is uplifting and inspiring, and it's a lot of fun to sing along with.

3. "It Takes Diff'rent Strokes" (Diff'rent Strokes) - Before Growing Pains and Thicke of the Night, Alan Thicke co-wrote TV theme songs.  This song alone makes him more talented than his R&B singing son Robin, but he also co-wrote the theme to The Facts of Life (Top 50).  I love how the opening credits make it look like Mr. Drummond was just prowling Harlem in search of two little black boys to take home with him.

2. "WKRP in Cincinnati" - I think this show is funny, but as it went off the air when I was five years old, I've only ever really seen it in syndication.  My cousin Jason, who is two years older than me, had a major thing for Loni Anderson when we were kids, so I watched it with him occasionally, and it's one of the first TV theme songs that I can remember loving.  It's very much a product of its time.

1. "The Streetbeater" (Sanford and Son) - If Quincy Jones had never written another song in his life, he would still be one of the greatest songwriters of all time, because he wrote the theme from Sanford and Son.  This show went off the air just under one month before I was born, but my older brother watched it all time in late-night syndication, and I watched it with him, because I thought he was cool (for the record, he is pretty cool).  I instantly loved the show and the theme song, and I still love them both just as much as I ever did.  This is, without a doubt, one of my All-Time Top Ten Favorite Songs (Any Genre), and I could listen to it for days.  My super-awesome wife and I were introduced at our wedding reception to this song.

And here's the full-length version, because you can literally never hear "The Streetbeater" enough times, even if you lived to be 382 years old.

So that's it - my personal  All-Time Top Ten Television Theme Songs (Sitcom Edition).  The themes from Barney Miller, Fish (both of which were co-written by Jack Elliot, who also wrote the theme from Night Court), The Jeffersons, Good Times, and Three's Company all fought valiantly for a slot in the Top Ten, but were ultimately bested by the rock-solid lineup you see above. I'd be interested to know your thoughts on my picks, and on TV theme songs in general.

Show Review: Anthrax, Testament, and Death Angel at The Egyptian Room, Indianapolis, Indiana - January 27,2012

My ears are ringing, my entire body hurts, and last night I smelled worse than I have smelled since I was a teenager, but I wouldn't change a thing. Anthrax, Testament, and Death Angel absolutely brought the goods to Indianapolis last night. My cousin Jason and I made the trip up, and had our minds blown clean apart by some super-high quality thrash metal from these veterans.

Death Angel played first, and their set was pretty short, but they brought an amazing amount of energy to the stage. Frontman Mark Osgueda ran, jumped, and banged his head like it was 1988, and his voice (unlike most other veteran metal singers) has lost very little of its youthful quality. He can still hit the high notes, and he hit them often. DA is the band that I was/am least familiar with, having only owned one album (1990's criminally underrated Act III) and one song from another album (the utterly awesome "Mistress of Pain", from their 1987 debut The Ultra-Violence), and they only played one song I was familiar with ("Mistress of Pain") but their set was fantastically enjoyable nonetheless. Osgueda said they'd be back, and I, for one, will be there to experience it.

Testament has been among my favorite bands for probably the past 20-25 years now, and last night was the first time I had the opportunity to see them live. It was absolutely worth the wait. They hit the stage and immediately launched into "The Preacher", then proceeded to play at least one song from nearly every one of their albums throughout their 45-minute-or-so set. (They didn't play anything off 1994's Low, which I love, or 1997's Demonic, which is easily my least-favorite, but I wasn't really expecting to hear anything from those albums.) They even blasted out "D.N.R. (Do Not Resuscitate)" from The Gathering (1999), and that was a nice surprise, but I digress.

Chuck Billy is probably one of metal's most entertaining frontmen, constantly playing his wireless microphone stand like a guitar when he's not singing/screaming. And speaking of singing/screaming, his voice over the years has definitely gotten deeper at the expense of the high notes, but since he did survive a very rare form of cancer, I say Chuck Billy gets to scream and sing however Chuck Billy wants to sing and scream. The rest of the band was spot-on, as well. The high points of their set were "Into the Pit", "Over the Wall", "Electric Crown", and "Disciples of the Watch", which is probably my favorite Testament song. They played three (maybe four, I can't remember for certain right now) songs from their most recent album The Formation of Damnation, which is easily one of the best current albums from any of the veteran thrash metal bands, but that's a discussion for another post - I just wanted to give it my endorsement. Onward!

When we arrived at the venue, an awesomely weird little security guy was walking the line letting everyone know that "Scotty Ian and the drummer from Anthrax, Charlie" would not be performing with the band, Scott being ill and under doctor's orders to stay home and rest, and Charlie having to go home and be with his terminally ill mother. I was a little bummed about this, but honestly I was there for Testament more than I was for Anthrax. There was a long period of my life when Anthrax was my favorite band by a wide margin, but over the past 5-10 years or so they've made it difficult for me to hang onto them. That, too, is a discussion for another post.

Since Charlie was gone, Gene Hoglan filled in on drums. Mind you, Testament had just finished playing for over 45 minutes, Gene took a 15-20 minute break while the stage was redone, then he came right back out and played another hour with Anthrax. Charlie Benante is an amazing drummer, no doubt, but with The Atomic Clock behind the kit, I honestly didn't miss his presence. No Scott Ian, though? That was going to be a tougher slot to fill, and for the first half of their set, they didn't even try to fill it. Lead guitarist Rob Caggiano played his parts (so excellently) with only Frank Bello's genital-rattling bass (literally!) for rhythmic accompaniment, and there were points where you could tell that something was missing, and things sounded just slightly off (I recall "Caught In a Mosh" and "Antisocial" lacking some heft, in particular). Death Angel Guitarist Rob Cavestany joined them during "In the End" (off 2010's overall-pretty-great Worship Music), "The Devil You Know" (also from Worship Music) and "Madhouse", and DA's other guitarist Ted Aguilar joined them for "Medusa", "Got the Time", and "Indians", and they both slayed.

The primary reason I was stoked for Anthrax is because Joey Belladonna is back on vocals (for like the 5th time since 1999, which is a part of why it's been difficult for me to keep loving them), and I never got a chance to see Anthrax with Joey on vocals in real life. Travis and I saw them in 1996, when only about 30 people knew or cared that they were still a band. They were "co-headlining with" (but really just opening for) the then-newly reformed The Misfits [when Michale Graves was on vocals (before they became the Jerry Only Sideshow, as my friend Sal refers to their current incarnation)], John Bush was their singer, Stomp 442 was the album they were touring for, it was the first time I ever participated in a pit (also the first time I ever thought I might literally die in a crowd at a show), and it was an amazing experience. Then again, I never stopped loving them when John replaced Joey, and I'm pretty sure I'm one of like 8 people in the whole world who likes Stomp 442. Again, I digress. Joey Belladonna still sounds phenomenal, and he, like Mark Osgueda, can still hit most of the high notes. I was also happy to see that his goofy stage banter was still as goofy as ever.

Their set was excellent (they even played "Metal Thrashing Mad"!), and aside from the few awkward moments early on where they really needed that second guitar (and that signature tone), they absolutely killed it. One more thing regarding Scott's absence: I knew he did a lot of backing vocals, but I never realized how much Scott's voice is all over those classic Anthrax songs until I heard them without his voice. It was a bit strange, but they still delivered the goods, and the 3/5 of the band who were there were obviously very thankful to the crowd for delivering the goods right back at them.

My only real complaint? Since Charlie and Scott were absent, I still haven't gotten to see "I'm the Man" live.

That, and $7.00 beers.

Pedals By Rival Schools

Well, if you know me, you know that I have a man crush on Walter Schreifels. I have posted on him in the past and I will spare you the slobbering here. One of his bands, Rival Schools, is back together and I wanted to sample three songs from their newest album Pedals. The album is full of post hardcore melodies but it still has some surprises.

Shot After Shot



Eyes Wide Open



Wring It Out

Double Shot Of Bon Iver

For some reason, I can't get enough of Bon Iver lately. Justin Vernon makes some creative, soulful, mysterious, and innovative indie rock. Here are a couple of tunes that I can't seem to get off of repeat.

Holocene



I Can't Make You Love Me/Nick Of Time -- Yes, the Bonnie Raitt song! This is a very raw rendition of the song.

Melodic Hardcore

For some time now, I have been listening to various American hardcore bands. What is labeled hardcore today is a mix mostly of metal and hardcore elements. A number of years ago, my fellow blogger Joel predicted that with the rise of bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit breaking into the mainstream, a new revival of metal would take place. Well... he was right and it appears to me that the hardcore scene is where this revival has found its home.

Now the hardcore movement is beginning to splitter off into sub genres such as grindcore (Suicide Silence), (Born Of Osiris, ABACABB), ravecore (Attack Attack!; Asking Alexandria), and other "cores" labeled by some. Frankly, I dislike the use of such terms, however, some fans use them to distinguish the styles that are emerging.

Of the sub genres in the hardcore scene, my personal favorite is what is now known as melodic hardcore. What you find in this style is typically of the metal influence hardcore: blast beats, double bass, breakdown, and growling-like vocals. However, the guitar work and the vocals include more melodies.

In my personal opinion, it appears that this type of hardcore leans heavy on Shai Hulud, which was a paradigm shift in my listening tastes and in my humble opinion, this band paved the way for the type of hardcore that is popular today.

Listed below are my personal favorites:

For The Fallen Dreams -- They put on a great live show if you ever get a chance to see them.



It Prevails -- A band from Oregon with a new album out at the moment. This is from their second album entitled "Capture and Embrace"




Misery Signals -- A band from Wisconsin and this song is probably my favorite hardcore song ever!

Currently Listening To...

At the moment, I have been listening to the following bands:

Bell X1 -- An Irish band that reminds me of the Talking Heads.



The Civil Wars -- An American band with Southern and folk influences.



The Dangerous Summer -- An American post punk band.

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Bon Iver -- An American indie rock band.




Maritime -- An American indie rock band featuring former members of The Promise Ring

What a concept!

Concept albums. Is there anything in the music world more polarizing than concept albums? Probably, but I've still heard plenty of disparaging remarks about the idea of them. Technically, a concept album is any album where the songs are linked by a common theme, be it lyrical or musical. For purposes of this entry, however, I'll be focusing entirely on concept albums that tell a story from beginning to end. And for purposes of this entry, let's just assume that I'm right.

Here they are, then - five super rad concept albums, in no particular order (followed by a few honorable mentions):

Voivod - Dimension Hatröss (1988): The fourth album from Canada's greatest export since Rush (who are Canada's greatest export since ice hockey) saw a transition from the thematic concepts of their past albums to full-on narrative-driven story, from beginning to end. This disharmonic riff-fest tells the story of the Voivod's creation of an alternate dimension, his journey into that dimension, and the bizarre beings and occurrences he encounters there. Highlights include album opener "Experiment," "Macrosolutions to Megaproblems," and the final song, "Cosmic Drama," where the Voivod is forced to destroy Dimension Hatröss and return to his own dimension in order to save himself. Highlights aside, however, there isn't a bad spot of the album. It's full of Voivod's signature discordant riffs, off-kilter time changes, and love 'em or hate 'em vocals (clearly I reside firmly in the former camp). A full 23 years after its release, Dimension Hatröss is still years ahead of its time.

King Diamond - Abigail (1987): King Diamond is not for everyone. When I first heard this album, sometime in '89 (while secretly going through my older brother's tape collection), I was terrified, panicked, freaked out...whatever scary adjectives you can think of, I probably felt. I thought I would be swallowed into Hell for listening. I was also strangely intrigued, and when I happened upon the CD at Half Price Books in Austin, TX, back in '05, I picked it up. I can safely say that I no longer fear being swallowed into Hell for listening, but it's still a pretty creepy album. Being a King Diamond album, there is a fair bit of cheese melted throughout, but if you're taking a King Diamond album seriously, there's something seriously wrong with you.

Abigail takes place in 1845, and tells the story of a young couple, Miriam Natias and Jonathan La Fey, who are en route to Jonathan's inherited ancestral home ("A Mansion in Darkness"). The Seven Black Horsemen stop Miriam and Jonathon and warn to turn back, for if they take possession of the mansion, "18 will become 9." Jonathon is intrigued and concerned, and most probably confused. Later, Jonathan is visited by "The Family Ghost," the Count de La Fey, who tells him the terrible truth about the mansion. Turns out the Count's wife cheated on him and became pregnant, so he pushed her down the stairs on "The 7th Day of July, 1777," and killed her, so now the mansion is possessed by the spirit of Abigail, the child who was stillborn when the Count's wife died. And what do you know, but Miriam suddenly turns up pregnant with a child who contains the spirit of Abigail.

As I stated, it's a bit cheesy in the lyrical department, and it's also a pretty convoluted story, but creepy things happen, and it's awesome. Musically, it's easily in heavy metal's top 25. I've often thought it would make a cool movie, but such a feat could only be pulled off by some messed up foreign filmmaker, and then I'd be too freaked out to watch it.

racebannon - Satan's Kickin' Yr Dick In (2002): When I first heard this album from Bloomington, Indiana's scariest secret in 2006, it grabbed hold of me, and I was fairly certain for a while that it would never let go. I literally fell asleep and woke up listening to it almost every single day for a month. It provided the soundtrack for my dreams, and it gave me the drive I needed to get through my days as a recently divorced metalhead walking to work at a 20-hour-a-week job, living in a tiny bedroom in a house full of hippies and cats (for the record, I love all those hippies dearly, and the cats are okay, too, as long as I don't have to live with any of them).

Anyway, Satan's Kickin' Yr Dick In tells the story of Rodney Mitchell, a young man willing to do anything to become famous. Told in five parts (because there were five Rocky films at the time of the recording), the album begins with Rodney lying naked in despair, shouting "I'd sell my soul just to take it all!!" Can you guess who shows up? Why, it's none other than the world's oldest talent agent himself. Satan transforms Rodney into Rhonda Delight, promising her untold fame and fortune, and reminding her, "And remember, one day I'm coming back. Till then, show the world what you're made of." Rhonda quickly becomes the "It" girl, star of stage and screen, hobnobbing with the likes of "Sean Penn, Thurston Moore, and John F. Kennedy, Jr." until tragedy strikes, and Ol' Scratch comes a callin'. It's rad.

If you like ambient noise in your monstrous riffs, screaming of the most fearsome variety, and intelligent, tongue-in-cheek lyrics, you should give this album a chance.

Pink Floyd - The Wall (1979): I know it's trite. I know it's obvious. I know Roger Waters is an arrogant prick. I also know I don't care. I love The Wall. Conceived and recorded at the height of Pink Floyd's monstrous world domination, The Wall is the story of Pink, a rock star who is fed up with all the trappings of rock stardom. There's not a second of this album that I do not love, but for my money, "Another Brick in the Wall (Part One)," "Goodbye Blue Sky," "In the Flesh," and "Waiting for the Worms" are the reasons this album will always be a favorite of mine. David Gilmour's guitar solo in "Comfortably Numb" is also utterly divine. Really, though, you don't need my opinion to know whether or not you're gonna like The Wall. And unless you've been living under a rock since 1978, it's unlikely that you don't already have your own opinion about Pink Floyd and this epic work.

And for the record, I thoroughly enjoy the movie, too.

Willie Nelson - The Red Headed Stranger (1975): "Don't cross him, don't boss him/he's wild in his sorrow/he's ridin' and hidin' his pain/don't fight him, don't spite him/just wait 'til tomorrow/maybe he'll ride on again." This album is arguably Willie Nelson's finest achievement, his cameo in Half Baked notwithstanding. The story of a man on the run after killing his wife and her lover, The Red Headed Stranger is musically sparse, lyrically heavy, and utterly brilliant. Like The Wall, you probably already know if you're going to like this album, but unlike The Wall, if you're a fan of music, you have no excuse to not like it.

Honorable Mentions (Concept Albums I Enjoy But Do Not Know Enough About To Write About, And Am Too Lazy To Do Any Research To Find Out More):

Hüsker Dü - Zen Arcade (1984)

David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (1972)

Queensrÿche - Operation: Mindcrime (1988)

Now, what's it worth?

Bloomington, Indiana in the mid-to-late 1990s was a pretty cool place to discover new music. There were at least 6 music stores that sold used CDs and cassettes (five of the six were located within three blocks of each other), and being a college town, the variety was pretty extensive. I found albums by all kinds of bands that I'd read or heard about through interviews with other bands I liked, talking to people at punk shows, the occasional video on Headbanger's Ball or 120 Minutes, etcetera - bands like ALL, Clutch, Helmet, Quicksand, Leeway, Only Living Witness, Sick of It All, Murphy's Law, Agnostic Front...the list goes on and on.

Occasionally I'd find an album by a band I'd never heard of, and I would buy it because it was super-cheap, I liked the cover art, I thought the song titles were funny or cool, I liked another band (or bands) on the same label, or I saw bands I liked thanked in the liner notes. Sometimes all the above. One fateful summer evening in 1995, Travis and I were digging through the Discount Cassette Milk Crates at Tracks, one of two of those old music stores that survives today. The Discount Cassette Milk Crates at Tracks had been good to me before - I found Leeway's Adult Crash (which I still love) in those crates earlier that summer, along with Brightside by Killing Time (one of the first New York Hardcore albums I ever heard - it opened a lot of musical doors for me). I was desperately pulling out tape after tape, and nothing was grabbing my attention, until finally, right near the bottom, I noticed a full-length promotional cassette from Columbia Records called Stress, by a band called Stompbox.

The name of the band sounded heavy, and it compelled me look at the track listing on the back, where I saw such titles as: "The Making of Pump"; "Forever (In Blue Jeans)"; "Fool For the City"; "Workin' For Sony"; "Carry on My Wayward Son" How could I not be intrigued? Here's my 50 cents plus tax, sir, and I thank you. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a date with my car stereo. And what a date it turned out to be! Stress became my steady for the remainder of that summer, and has remained in my life ever since.

From the opening lick of "No Woods" to the trailing feedback that ends "Carry on My Wayward Son," Stress is an absolute masterpiece of mid-90s post-hardcore. Huge riffs; time signatures just off-kilter enough to make you pay attention (drummer Zephan Courtney is nothing short of amazing); big, burly, bellowed vocals; choruses catchier than herpes (even though I still can't understand a lot of the words); and enough melody for 3 albums. Like Betty, Helmet's third full-length album (also released in 1994), Stress holds its own against any album from any genre from the 1990s.

Comparisons have been made on other blogs to Helmet, Clutch, Tad, Paw, Quicksand, and (Pepper Keenan-era) Corrosion of Conformity, and those comparisons are all valid, but Stress is very much its own rabid animal. Fans of all those bands should check this out, but quite honestly, I think this is better than nearly all of that. Clutch remains an all-time favorite of mine (though I have yet to warm up to their latest, Strange Cousins From the West, but that's a subject for another entry), and Helmet's Meantime and Betty are both impossible to deny, but aside from that, Stompbox are where it's at. Stress is long out of print, but you can pick it up on Amazon for less than a dollar (plus shipping), or if you don't care about lyrics and artwork, you can download it from the bass player's personal blog, I Am a Jackass.

Sadly, Stompbox broke up not long after the release of this album. For more info about the band, check this out. And now, the evidence:

"No Woods"

"The Making of Pump"

"Jake Song"

"Chevy S-10"

J. Robbins Roundup

J. Robbins is one of the few influential and innovative artists in Rock today.  Here are a few of his highlights:

Jawbox performing a cover of Tori Amos' Cornflake Girl.

Burning Airlines performing Mission Control.  

His current band, Channels, can be heard on their myspace page.