Okey Dokey Karaoke

...Or should I say, car mix!! I have...lots...of songs that I like to 'sing' in the car, especially on longer car trips. By myself. Because SOMEBODY gets all huffy when people sing good songs poorly. I most likely fall into that category. I was in band for a reason.

My criteria: 1) I have to know most of the words. Yes, I realize that the point of karaoke is that they give you the words, but it's better if you already know the majority of the words. 2) It must be beltable. 'Nice' songs, even though that I absolutely love and would happily sing in the shower and are the first songs I would ever learn on the guitar, are not my favorite car songs.

I just checked, and there are 35 songs on my car list. I won't give you every single one of them, but here are my favorites:

Billy Idol (Rebel Yell, White Wedding)
Counting Crows (Rain King)
Garbage (The World is Not Enough)
Kansas (Carry on Wayward Son, Dust in the Wind)
Poison (Talk Dirty to Me, Every Rose Has Its Thorn)
Ricky Martin (She Bangs, Livin La Vida Loca, La Bomba)
Guns 'N Roses (Knockin' on Heaven's Door, Paradise City, Live and Let Die)
Rush (Roll the Bones, Fly By Night, Tom Sawyer, Closer to the Heart)
Tenacious D (Tribute, Wonderboy)

Weekly Wrap-Up

This is my first Media Wrap-Up. But I actually have something to discuss.

Earlier this week, I was listening to Alice in Chains' album, Sap. Sap is a short, sweet album, with a terrible hidden track at the end. I try to listen to it...but I just can't. However, the 4 'real' songs on there are spectacular. Three of the songs feature Ann Wilson from the band 'Heart'. Well, use her as back-up vocals, but I think it's the only album of theirs that they use a female vocalist at all. But the other song, "Right Turn," is my favorite on there. "Right Turn" is credited to "Alice Mudgarden." I had remembered that they had called themselves that because not only was it Alice in Chains, but also Chris Cornell of Soundgarden. But then I couldn't remember who the 'Mud' was from, so I Googled it. Turns out it was Mark Arm of Mudhoney. But that's not the point.

The point is, while I was on Alice Mudgarden's Wikipedia page, God bless Wikipedia because under 'related topics' it had "List of grunge supergroups." Um, yes please! Alice Mudgarden, who had all of the one song, was one of them. The other two, with (slightly) more success were Temple of Dog and Mad Season. Temple of Dog consisted of guys from Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Green River and Mother Love Bone (never heard of the last two). But of much more interest to me was Mad Season, comprised of Layne Staley (the AIC frontman), a guy from Pearl Jam (not Eddie Vedder), and two more guys from two more bands I'd never heard of. But Layne Staley!! I absolutely love his voice. Love, love, love it. It's beautiful. I'm really sad he's dead, and that while he was living he had too many substance abuse problems to sing more.

Mad Season had one album, called Above. I listened to it on lala.com, and have put it at the top of my list of albums to buy. It's fantastic. I love AIC's harmony...but there was something about Staley's voice on its own that was almost haunting.

They also have a live recording of their first (and maybe only) concert. It's listed on Amazon for a hundred bucks. I don't need it that badly.

Music, My Brother, and the Greatest Band on Earth

What is your favorite band?

This question plagued me for years. As a child, I wasn't allowed to listen to anything other than classical music, and kids would tease me if I said 'the New York Philharmonic'. Classical music is still a major part of my life. One of the best parts about minoring in music in college was the weekly listening lists...I fell in love with Wagnerian opera, and found a new appreciation for Brahms.

That being said, I do like a bit of variety. Not to say that there isn't variety within the realm of 'classical' music, but sometimes a girl just wants an electric guitar and English lyrics sung by one to three people instead of a choir. Luckily for me, every time my big brother wanted to 'play Legos,' (which was very, very often) we would listen to whatever he wanted, and what he wanted was certainly not found on NPR.

Nick exposed me to more music than anyone else in my life. It started off with Bobby Brown, MC Hammer and New Kids on the Block, then became Green Day and Reel Big Fish, then Metallica and Megadeth, Dream Theater, My Dying Bride, Amorphis, and countless other death metal bands (including his own, Northian...check them out; they're awesome).

But perhaps the most important band he introduced me to is Alice in Chains. 

I don't remember where we were going, but it was somewhere really far away. Possibly home from scattering my grandfather's ashes on a lake in Wisconsin. He started playing this CD, which he often did (I never had any say in the matter), and I will never forget the first time I heard 'I Stay Away,' from their EP 'Jar of Flies':

We're talking amazing harmonies, goose-bump-worthy violin (not typical of the band), and my first taste of the haunting lyrical style of the late-great Layne Staley.

I couldn't get the sound out of my head. Every time I was home alone, I would borrow the CD from Nick's room (sorry, bro), and then I found his other two AIC albums, and listened to those. He had moved out at one point and left them there, and I most definitely stole them and brought them with me to college. (I hope he never reads this...)

Periodically, I would forget about them. But every so often I would go back to them, and remember how much I liked them. After awhile I realized that they had actually become my favorite band. Alice in Chains is the only band I have actually cared about not only the frontman but the rest of the band itself. I have watched interviews with them, and Mike Inez (bassist) seems like the sweetest man on Earth. I was fortunate enough to see them live a few months ago...some bands turn out to be total jackasses when they perform, but Alice in Chains was totally professional and had a ton of fun, and didn't resort to dropping F-bombs every two seconds to make people think they're cool.

Layne Staley passed away on April 5th, 2002. I was actually unaware of this until only a couple of years ago. This past year they released a new album, Black Gives Way to Blue, with a new frontman, William DuVall. I am supremely impressed with him...his voice has a similar timbre to Staley's, but it's his own. He's not copying him. But the Alice in Chains sound that I fell in love with remains.

And finally, their own tribute to Layne Staley. Don't feel ashamed if you tear up.