Saturday, April 16, 2011

Overexposure

I railed a bit yesterday about how difficult it is to make it in the music business.   I feel compelled to discuss the danger of spreading yourself too thin once you have been firmly established.  To wit, I bring you the Foo Fighters.  I cannot go anywhere or see anything without Dave Grohl invading my private space.  SNL, Howard Stern and now this weekend he has taken over Sirius radio's Alt Nation.  Are Foo Fighters even alternative???  And don't get me wrong, I like the Foo Fighters.  The fact that Grohl both sat behind the drums of the legendary (and overrated) Nirvana and has led Foo Fighters into stratospheric success is not lost on me.  But as they push their 7th studio album down the throats of America I kindly ask them to turn down an invitation.  If you are a fan of music even peripherally, you have heard "Rope" a few dozen times.

While I am at it, a word about SiriusXM radio.  I have said in the past I do not know what I did before I purchased satellite radio.  And had Mr. Stern not signed for 5 more years I would have kept the subscription for a couple key reasons.  First, I am in the car a fair amount and commercials are the worst.  Second, there are a few stations that provide outlets for new and up and coming bands.  The big problem the channels have lies at the feet of their Program Directors.  They tend to lost track of which format they are playing.  Why should Mumford and Sons, or Arcade Fire appear on 3, sometimes 4 channels?  And Spectrum, the soft adult alternative network, will routinely throw a Beatles or Neil Young song in to their mix which infuriates me.  There are several classic rock stations those artists could, and should appear.  Again, this is not an indictment on classic rock.  If I am paying for a service I get to gripe, right?  Same reason I complain about the Manager at my local Starbucks.  I am here every day lady, buying the same drink once, sometimes twice a day.  Would it kill you to smile?  Say thanks?  Appreciate my business???

Sorry.  Probably should not be this angry so early.  After all the neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt is only an hour away.    I understand my wife has a reputation as kind of a hard ass.  Truth is she arranged this event so all the little kids and their parents can get together and enjoy some Spring festivities.  Her heart is big and generosity endless.    She even has reached across the religious aisle and included some Jewish friends.  If you can get Jews to search for eggs with hedonistic Gentiles, World Peace is not far behind.  We will ignore for a moment that it is cold and rainy(again.)

My detail will be picking up the large take-out coffee.  I can see the contempt in the manager's eyes when I order it.  Oh, I'm sorry, do you to work a little harder?  Join the club.  We all work a little too hard with little, if any reward.  But if we can see children's faces light up when they find an egg filled with non-peanut treats inside we ALL win.

Enjoy the weekend folks.  And please give these NON- Foo Fighters songs a shot as Spring kicks into high gear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPtSKimbjOU    "Sail" Awolnation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L64c5vT3NBw   "Home" Cover of Edward Sharpe song as sung by

Jorge & Alexa Narvaez.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M8MLRf9Bsw  "Every Night is Friday Night (without you)"  live Old 97's



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