Rock Town Hall • Rock Music Discussion

Scream Meme

Sep 052013

It’s a simple question: Is there a better, more iconic rock scream than Roger Daltrey‘s wail in “Won’t Get Fooled Again”?

It could be a wordless scream, or just one word like Daltrey’s “yeah!” Maybe it’s a whole line or verse or song belted out with rage or destroyed vocal cords. Perhaps something less old school, like Trent Reznor in “Head Like a Hole” or Billy Corgan‘s rat in a “caaaaaage” in “Bullet with Butterfly Wings”.

Does Robert Plant have anything to bring to the challenge here? To start things off, I submit the “Immigrant Song” wailing as a top contender to the throne.

Please offer up your best candidates!

Once and For All: What’s the Best Drum Solo?

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Sep 042013

Competition is likely to be fierce, so be strong, Townspeople.

Rock Badge of Courage: Josh Homme Corrects Philadelphia’s Made in America Security Team

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Sep 022013

Dude!

An interesting note in Philadelphia Inquirer writer Dan DeLuca’s recap of Philadelphia’s recent Made in America music festival centered around female concertgoers’ right to sit atop their boyfriends’ shoulders. DeLuca mentions the following act of vigilance by Josh Homme during the set by Queens of the Stone Age:

The Josh Homme-fronted QOTSA sported a roaring, wildcat guitar sound, Homme isn’t a typical headbanger. He slowed down on moody “The Vampyre Of Time and Memory” and slinky “Make It Wit Chu,” during which he yelled at security for making a woman get off her boyfriend’s shoulders. “Take the rule book and shove it … would you? This is Philadelphia, we know how to have a good time!”

Right on, Josh Homme for sticking it to L’Homme! For this act, we award you the Prestigious Rock Badge of Courage. Take away female concertgoers’ right to sit atop their boyfriends’ shoulders and you take away the right for the audience to get a peak at some potentially bare breasts!

Rock Town Hall’s Saturday Night Shut-In: The Summer of ’13

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Sep 012013

Sounds of the Hall in roughly 33 1/3 minutes!

What a summer it was. I turned 50 and got in the best shape of my life. I’ve embraced technology like I’ve never embraced it before. No hot tub. No convertible. Just straight-up rock ‘n roll, including the completion of a new album, the digitization of scratchy records, and a few more chapters in a book I’ve been picking away at writing. I wish I was headed back to school rather than work once this weekend ends. I’m ready for the fall regardless.

RTH Saturday Night Shut-In 112

[Note: You can add Saturday Night Shut-In episodes to your iTunes by clicking here. The Rock Town Hall feed will enable you to easily download Saturday Night Shut-In episodes to your digital music player.]

RTH Saturday Night Shut-In, episode 112 by Mrmoderator on Mixcloud

All-Star Jam

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Aug 302013

Most surprising use of a 12-string guitar? You might say. I love Bowie’s rhythmic deployment of that instrument on his breakthrough albums; I didn’t know he kept using it that late into his career.

Almost anything goes in an All-Star Jam. Pull out your instrument of choice and join in.

Meanwhile, you might dig this Olde Thyme mix of music from founding RTHer General Slocum.

20s and 30s vol.1 by General Slocum on Mixcloud

Bullshit On: “What’s Love Got to Do With It”

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Aug 302013

Driving home from dinner with my wife and oldest son the other night our local Oldies station played a fantastic run of (albeitly cheesy) mid-’70s songs that my wife and I probably too enthusiastically pointed out to our son captured the time when we were the age of his younger brother, who was not with us on this drive. I can’t remember the killer run of hits, but it kicked off with “Young Americans” and included “We’re an American Band” and “Whatever Gets You Through the Night.”

“What a titan John Lennon was,” I marveled in my head, privately, “to be able to inject such a suspect disco-boogie romp with so much energy and cool!” I felt a tear building in my left eye as that song faded while memories of that era continued to blare, as I anticipated what the DJ computer would spin next…

Getting to Know You

Posted by ladymisskirroyale

Aug 292013

I’ve been a bit inactive in The Hall recently because I’ve started a new job. At the start of August, I began working in a Silicon Valley school district. I’ve been spending long days learning new procedures, protocols, and acronyms; I’ve been spending eternally-seeming hours sitting in the car on the commute home. (Guy in Trader Joe’s: “Where did you get that tan?” Me: “From sticking my arm out the window on the drive home.”)

AND I’ve been meeting lots of new people. I would really, really, really like to shorten this establishment phase and just cut to whether I’m going to like/get along with you or not. Sure, there are indicators such as temperament, vocation, mood, interest inventories and personality scales. But music has typically served as the quickest and most reliable indicator of whether a colleague and I will be compatible.

But how can I subtly find out about my co-workers’ musical tastes? I don’t know them well enough to start nosing around their offices and looking for their music collections. I’m not going to start wearing my band t-shirts to work just yet (even if everyone rides their bikes to work around here). We haven’t started to have those lunchroom chats quite yet, and work happy hour get-togethers are probably a few weeks away.

Today, though, I was offered a first glimpse into one colleague’s musical psyche. He gave me a lift to the District Office, as my car was in the shop. His young children had been playing with his CDs and had left them scattered all over the front seat. As I sat down, I scooped them up and casually flipped through them. Here are a few of what I saw:

The Beatles – Rubber Soul
Michael Jackson – One
The Darkness – Hot Cakes
No Doubt – Icon
The Clash – Singles Collection
Tim Armstrong – A Poet’s Life
Mad Caddies – Duck and Cover

What does this assortment of music tell you about my colleague? Do you think he and I will be able to work well together? Do you foresee issues, and if so, about what?

And lastly, How do you go about finding out about the musical tastes of your coworkers?

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