Cheer and Loathing in the Free World: The Musical Jan 18th, 2012

Music. It is one of those rare things that can bring together people of different ethnicities, economic backgrounds and religions together under one roof to wave lighters in the air in harmony. It is also cause some of the most feverous debates such as “who a better guitar player Hendrix or Clapton”   or “who has the most grating voice Axel Rose or Brian Johnson”.  PS this article was difficult to write do too Wikipedia and other sites blacking out today to protest SOPA which is a whole article in its self.

Cheer: Goyte- I admit the first song I heard from them was “Somebody I use to know” which is pretty great. So instead of just listening to one song and declaring him a genius I started googling around the interweb (googling is now a verb) to find some of his other music and wow what an interesting and wide ranging pieces of work. He is a Belgian that made his way to Australia when he was 2 years old. He combines acoustic, electronic, dance, indie rock, r & b into a mishmash of just coolness. He also has some of the more unique music videos which are so far from the rapid cut/white wipe/ blow out the colors editing process which is the norm now.

Loath-Jason Derulo- Just cause he yells his own name at the beginning of his songs. That the only reason I know he exists. Just imagine if you knew a guy who if you went to a meeting opened up every statement by crooning his name.

Cheer???- Steel Panther-I debated whether I should put them into the cheer and loathing section and if whether should they be a cheer or a loath. Steel Panther is an 80’s sounding hair rock band. Sort of.  There songs include Death to All but Metal, Fat Girl, Asian Hooker 17 girls in a row and such.  I assume there a parody band (dear god let them be a parody band) though they really blur the line well with their spot on wardrobe, very good glam rock compositions and production value. Honestly if you just heard them in the background at a bar or on the radio, you think it just some generic rock band. But if you just start listening to the lyrics you umm… hear some interesting stuff. Most lyrics are about sex, their junk, more sex, things they do during sex and well you get the picture. Let’s just say there lyrics leave little to the imagination.

Loath-Techno music- One out of every five hundred techno songs are somewhat palatable. One in every ten thousand offers something somewhat original.  I’m sorry when your whole genre is based on looping the same beat over and over and usually some guy screaming at you to dance or get down or move it a thousand times in a row, doesn’t cut it for me. That is the reason why you never hear of someone a few years after their “hit”. Usually because there some other guy right behind him doing the same thing. Here is the bases of almost every techno song. Beat: thump thump thump, insert crazy sound and then thump thump thump speeds up. Insert lady with mega voice yodeling and now drop the songs hook and repeat. When your audience is often comprises of colorfully dressed teens tripping out on acid the odds of your longevity are quite low.

Loath-Mariah Carey- I think Mariah Carey had a great set off ummm… lungs. She can really hit the high notes and blast the roof off a building. Here my beef. What the hell is with the vocal gymnastics? Ok we know you got talent and range but why wohhhhhowwowoowhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. The thing is since you started doing it everyone does it in a song if they got the voice. Why can’t you just sing damn it. Use your words to communicate.

Here a clip of both her singing voice and her yodeling.

Cheer-Jay Z: I’ll admit it when I first heard Jay-Z I thought to myself why does he have kids singing in his song? WTF? (Hard Knock Life was my first exposure to him) But I must admit the more I listened to him I thought, wow in this world of over produced garbage(though he does it at times but I guess every genre goes through growth and change) he still at least embodies the fundamentals and skills of the old school hip hop artist.  Most of his rhymes are well crafted and actually say something. Unlike most whose will rhyme the word F@#k with the word F#@K, talk about women like they’re never going to hear that song (I am talking to you Lil Wayne), or rap about the shit they have. (I swear I think there a song out there that the guy talks about his phone.) So Jay-Z though I may not always like the choice of your hooks, but your rhymes still at least echo back to the days of Ice-T, Chuck D,  Ice Cube, Eric B and the likes. Now if we can just get record scratches, the love of djs (not producers) and B Boys back into the mix and made up beefs, making up of words(looking at you Snoop) and bad hooks out (Soulja Boy), Hip Hop may have a shot of getting its soul back.

Kinda Cheer-Rebecca Black- Remember her? You don’t? If i told you its Friday now you probably remember her and horrible memories are flooding back. You are welcome. She now has a new song out called Person of Interest. I applauded her still chasing her dreams of being a singer through the fact she was horribly skewed in the public forum. I admit she sounds much better her second time around. So for her not to crumble under the scrutiny she got from her first song I applaude that but….

Loath-Person of Interest-This song doesn’t have the same annoying affect as Friday but man there some terrible lyrics in it. The start of the song she lists thing about a boy and follows up with “I like that”. Get a new lyric writer but you know that not the weird creepy thing about this video. The song is called person of interest and well if you read between the lines it almost sounds like she recounting a story of a flasher or stalker. I mean there cops with yellow tape, she looks like she emphatically saying with her hand “look a guy jumped out and waved his wang all around then made me cup his balls.” Then cuts of her just stiffly dancing. That coupled with some of the other lyrics its, its just creepy. Keep swinging though Rebecca.

Big Mega Cheer-The Beatles- Look I could write five thousand words on the Beatles and someday I might just do that. They brought rock to the main stream and then subsequently pushed it in every direction. All rock must pay their tribute to the Beatles and maybe this will clean your acoustic pallet of the previous Rebecca Black song. I’ll give you a double dose just in case.

by Josh Meisner