They Say That A Hero…

Hi there.  So…would you believe that this marks the 200th post here at ye olde Holepuncher?  Seems kind of crazy.  Granted, there are several posts like last Friday’s about Lady GaGa that have less substance than an ant fart, but still…200 is a lot.  For example, I probably haven’t done 200 push ups in my entire life.  And I can promise you’ve I’ve never counted to two hundred, even when sorting pennies.  But here we are at this magical number.  Together.  Can you feel the goosebumps or is it just me?  You’re right, it’s probably just me, which is why I’d also like to announce that I will very likely make Holepuncher a weekly or bi-weekly endeavor in the near future.  Hopefully doing so will make for slightly more compelling reading and also ensure my enthusiasm for doing this doesn’t wane quite so easily.  At any rate, what I’m really trying to say is thank you for reading.  If you’ve read all 200 posts or only 20 isn’t really important.  I enjoy doing this mainly as a way to wake my brain up, but it certainly is nice having an audience as well.

Moving on, it appears the list of musicians featured in the upcoming Guitar Hero 5 videogame has surfaced and there are some real winners.  Aside from having what is maybe the best song ever recorded (“Under Pressure” by Queen + Bowie), they’ve also scored what I believe is the first videogame appearance by My Morning Jacket and TV on the Radio.  They haven’t announced the song list yet, but either way that’s pretty cool.  Also totally amazing: the inclusion of Sunny Day Real Estate.  Really, most of you reading this probably were Sunny Day fans with me in college and at that time could you possibly have imagined seeing a Sunny Day song on something as big as this game?  I know there was that Batman Forever soundtrack, but nobody really cared about that.  Being on Guitar Hero 5 though could at long last expose them to an entirely new and entirely deserved audience.  I can’t decide which song I hope it is – “Seven” would obviously make for a good challenge and God help whoever draws vocal duties on whatever song it is, but my bet is that it will either be “In Circles” or something off The Rising Tide.

Another surprise inclusion is that of the late Elliott Smith and as such I’d like to give him some love today.  Here’s a cool little short film that features a couple live tunes:

Perhaps the highlight of my brief stint as a teacher while in grad school was exposing some of my students to Elliott Smith.  If for no other reason that that I can’t help but feel I’ve done a service to the youth of this country.  Hopefully they took the torch and ran with it.  Anyway, enjoy the day.  More this week…

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

It’s Friday.  Time to get those toes tapping.  Here’s Richmond, Virginia’s Clutch with “Electric Worry” off of From Beale Street to Oblivion:

Man, that’s a good song.  ZZ Top would be proud.  And speaking of beards, here’s the moment when I knew I was going to be a My Morning Jacket fan:

And finally, I’m just curious if anyone’s sick of this next song yet.  Just when I thought I was tired of hearing it there it was again in (the great) Slumdog Millionaire and now it’s back in the brain fold.

That guitar at the end always makes me think of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, but I’ll save that for another day.  Props for the Lightning t-shirt.  Wonder if they have Hot Topic in Sri Lanka.

More Monday. Enjoy the weekend…

To Strings Or Not To Strings?

You know about My Morning Jacket by now, probably.  If not, look ’em up.  They’re a great rock band from parts of Kentucky and their last three studio albums have been three of my favorites of the last six years or so.  I stumbled across this video of them playing the song “Gideon” from their 2006 album Z on Letterman with members of the Boston Pops Orchestra and I was pretty blown away.  See what you think:

This will sound cynical since I don’t really have any concrete examples to back it up, but there’s something about adding orchestras to rock songs written without them that usually bothers me.  Sometimes I just feel bad for the orchestra because you know what they’re playing is probably one eleventh as challenging musically as what they typically play.  Other times, the orchestration just feels like they’re mimicing what’s already there in the songs; all you’re gaining is some new instruments but nothing is really added to the song.  Oh, wait. I think I’ve found an example that I think illustrates both of these complaints:

And then sometimes maybe they try just a little too hard with the orchestration, taking the rock song in a direction that’s maybe not that advisable in the first place:

But you know what?  For the most part these pairings are all harmless.  A show or two and then the orchestra can go back to what they do incredibly well and the rock band can get back to rocking.  Unless you’re My Morning Jacket.  Or – and this should go without saying – David Lee Roth:

Have a good one.  More tomorrow.  Less strings…