Ben Folds Five: The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner

On Christmas Eve, it was a tradition in my family, (among others) to open a single gift of our choice from one of our family members. On Christmas Eve 1999, I had a joint in my pocket, and looking at the familiar cd sized wrap of my sister's gift provided me with an idea of what I could do before I went to bed that night. I was expecting something predictable like a Face to Face or Nofx cd, as I am an easy person to buy a gift for. When I opened it, I was confused when I saw the Ben Folds Five album "The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner", as I had never heard of them, and it was a unique album title to say the least. When I came inside from my smoke, I turned all the lights off in my room, put on a pair of headphones, and started the album. What followed was one of the most pleasurable and rewarding experiences I've ever had listening to a band or an album for the first time. The seminal mix of indie tones and piano grandeur had me spinning that cd for months, and it is still a favorite now. Years later, after a long breakup, they got together to play the album in it's entirety for a Myspace show. Here is the album, and a link to the reunion concert video.



Myspace Reunion Show

Ideas

Some things I will be adding in the future, as near as possible:
-changing the file association for all of my download links to my own files hosted on mediafire so my links never break
-a few Slapshot albums
-a few anti-folk bands (Paul Baribeau Jeffrey Lewis etc)
-add a few more gadgets
-links to other useful blogs, in a list separate from my other links
-change all of my links to open target in a new window

A Brief Unsolicited History of Myself As a Music Listener

I spent the better part of my first decade living in Thunder Bay, and although the eighties have a terrible musical reputation, I had alot of fun listening to the bands that found their way onto Ontario's music video program "Video Hits", with host Samantha Taylor. I remember sitting with my beloved tape deck when the show came on, holding the mic up to the tv to record the video's onto cheap blank tapes. These tapes ended up filled with Glass Tiger, Huey Lewis, Bryan Adams, and Corey Hart for the most part. I also had a few tapes that my father played in our Ford Pickup, Toto and REO Speedwagon. Eventually, I convinced my mother to buy me my first tape one day at a Zellers, which was Huey Lewis and The News-Sports. This was followed by Glass Tiger-The Thin Red Line the next Christmas.

When we moved to the Ottawa area just outside of Arnprior in 1988, I caught onto the rap explosion, listening to bands like Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff, Dream Warriors, Beastie Boys, Ice Cube, etc. You can't blame me either, with the most popular rock acts at the time being Guns and Roses and Def Leppard. At least the Dream Warriors were catchy, and I was too buried in mainstream rural Ontario culture to have heard of the Pixies or Minor Threat at the time. Anyway, it all changed for me, (among many) one night when I sat down to watch Saturday Night Live, (my favorite show). The musical guest was Nirvana, and to say they blew me away is an understatement. Watching Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl, and Krist Novoselic destroy their equipment seemed to encapsulate all of the early adolescent frustration I was experiencing at the time, trapped on the side of a highway in the middle of rural nowhere, out of touch with my peers, with pubescent hormones raging and unable to talk to my emotionally bereft father about it. Nirvana became my favorite band easily, and led me to other alternative rock acts like The Smashing Pumpkins, Stone Temple Pilots, and eventually Weezer.

When Kurt Cobain died alternative rock just wasn't the same for me, which ushered in a revival of another style of music quickly gaining popularity with the success of Greenday and the Offspring, punk rock. We were quickly taught that these bands weren't "real" punk rock however, (tongue in cheek). Enter Fat Wreck Chord and Epitaph. While punk rock quickly gained more followers, I initially enjoyed bands like NOFX, Gob, Propagandhi, d.b.s., No Use For a Name, and thoroughly enjoyed seeing my first shows. When I saw Greenday it was an arena show, with opening band the Riverdales, and they were a huge influence on me.

When I started playing guitar, and took my first stabs at writing music with friends, we went to see D.O.A., which imprinted on my memory forever as my first "real" punk show. However, I quickly grew bored with the sudden popularity, and starting listening to Foo Fighters and Smashing Pumpkins religiously. This relapse didn't last long however, as punk rock cemented itself as my favorite musical style when I was introduced to Hopeless Records and Recess Records by friends. This was a landslide of great music at once, as I enjoyed bands like Digger, 88 Fingers Louie, Pud, FYP, Funeral Oration, Nobodys, White Kaps, the Crumbs, Berserk, Goatboy, Guttermouth, and other bands. Face to Face and Jugheads Revenge also entered this group.

Fast forward 12-13 years and I still love these bands. Other bands have entered the equation too, however. These days I also love bands like Thrice, Hot Water Music, Small Brown Bike, Jimmy Eat World, A Wilhelm Scream, No Trigger, After The Fall, and other post punk and melodic hardcore acts. Chuck Ragan and Chris Wollard both have multiple projects going on that are awesome, Andy Dixon is doing some borderline brilliant experimentation with sound, Propagandhi has evolved from poppy political punk into an observational and poetic yet still critical hardcore band, and Gob is still touring Canada multiple times per year.
I also love anti-folk alot, including Paul Baribeau, Kimya Dawson, Moldy Peaches, Daniel Johnston, and Jeffrey Lewis.
Great Lake Swimmers and Attack In Black are also favorites.
While it remains obvious that DIY/Indie is my drink of choice, I still leave time for rock. I still listen to Foo Fighters, and bands like Danko Jones, Pride Tiger, and Hollerado have joined them as some of my favorite rock bands.
I also am a huge fan of desert rock, particularly Queens of the Stone Age and the Eagles of Death Metal.
In addition, (1+1+1=awesome) Them Crooked Vultures are an amazing effort from Dave Grohl, Josh Homme and John Paul Jones.

More to come, and special thanks to anyone with enough patience to read this blog.
Kristopher (Dyce)
dycekgb@hotmail.com

Music Player Update

So I switched all of the files on my Mixpod to videos hosted on Youtube, and problem solved. Increases the functionality of it too because it operates just like a real Ipod Touch and shows the videos on it's touch screen. So Mixpod really ended up being the best music player I could find. Since I deleted the links to their site, I feel obligated to provide the link. You can click here, or find the link on my sidebar.

Cool Beans!

Just added my music player, with a sweet iPod Touch skin. It's a bit buggy, but usually works if you refresh when it freezes. The code is working fine, so I think it's just a problem with their server communicating with my connection. Hopefully it works for you because I threw some sweet tunes in there. Also removed a bunch of their links that advertise below it by going into the html and deleting it. Now hopefully I can generate some traffic this way so that i'm not the only person reading my posts! :p

Digger

One of the best bands on Hopeless Records, Digger was a pop-punk band from Pennsylvania.
I first heard of them when a friend made me listen to a tape with the first Hopeless Records compilation on it. This was my first exposure to bands like Digger, and the comp. also included other seminal acts such as 88 Fingers Louie, Guttermouth, Falling Sickness, Funeral Oration, The Bollweevils, White Kaps, and the Nobodys. I will have links to these bands in the future, but for now here are the Digger albums i've been able to find. (still haven't found the Geek Love e.p.)

Powerbait
Promise Of An Uncertain Future
Monte Carlo
Trainwreck
Keystone
Tattoo Broken Hearts
Seaside Diner

Goatboy

Just reposting Goatboy Must Die, the final album of Goatboy. This time with a clickable link. :p

Goatboy Must Die

Kill Your Idols

Another hard band to find right now is Kill Your Idols, Paul Delaney's band before moving on to play with None More Black. As a matter of fact, I don't think i've ever seen a physical copy of any of their records/cds, which is really too bad because they were famous for bonus materials. Anyway, here is four of their records. Really love the guitar tracks, and though the vocals are a bit repetitive, they remain one of the better east coast hardcore acts from the late nineties/early new millenium.

This Is Just The Beginning
No Gimmicks Needed
Funeral For A Feeling
From Companionship To Competition

d.b.s.

awhile ago I asked someone from a facebook group to post a complete d.b.s. discography. since d.b.s. isn't a band anymore and most of their albums are out of print and unavailable file sharing doesn't bother them. here are those great links.

Tales From The Crib
If The Music's Loud Enough
If Life Were A Result Then We'd All Be Dead
Some Boys Got It Most Men Don't
Forget Everything You Know
So....sunday update.
i just got off work and i'm glad to have a day off
i've been back on night shifts this week for the first time in a while, and it's a good thing this is temporary
because I couldn't do it full time anymore. Just a huge pain in the ass....
anyway, I should make it known that although I'll be posting quite a few links to music on this site, and perhaps even host a few albums on mediafire myself, you should know that at some point I've given quite a bit of my money to these bands on multiple occasions, often in person. If you like the mp3's you find here try to be conscientious about supporting the bands you like. It costs money to make records, and it is a sizable understatement to say most of these bands aren't rolling in volvos. Since you can't actually download anything from this blog I really don't have to tell you this, I just honestly hope you do the right thing here. If, for example, Propagandhi comes to your town, do yourself the favor and go down and show your support. Buy a t-shirt or a cd, check out the reading material, perhaps buy a comp or an e.p. from the supporting bands, and tell whomever you chance to meet that they fucking kick ass, and you appreciate their stop in your town. If you do that, i'm sure these guys won't mind if you download their new album to see if you like it before you
buy it from them in person the next time they're in town. Blogs and music downloads are free advertising after all.

Goatboy!!

For my first link, I'm providing Goatboy's final recording. Awesome diy record, and one of my all time punk rock favorites! I had this record on lp a long time ago, but this mp3 collection sounds even better!
http://www.mediafire.com/?kuhq9wz3c9z

My First Post!

Ok! I've been thinking about starting a blog for a while, so this is my first post on my first attempt at having an online home for my rants, links, and tastes. After a few years of being a facebook tramp I suppose this seems more fun and customizable. So, stay tuned, and when I find great links to loved music you can find them here. Also, in the future I will be posting reviews salvaged from my raging entertainment addiction, including musical performances, movies, album releases, and other fun stuff. So stay posted people!