speakerBrain

For decades the best way to hear new music was to turn on the radio. Sure, you might get stuck with white dudes ruining great songs. You at least heard something new, and could change the station if you wanted something else to come through your speakers.

Now you can’t even change the station if you want something new.

Next month we say goodbye to another rock radio station, WBCN in Boston. Not that rock radio has been stellar lately. We’re just seeing a severe shift to top-40 radio strangling everything else.

And when’s the last time anyone thought listening to radio is about discovering new music? Apart from college radio, it’s the same songs everywhere. People who listen to the radio have no desire to find an alternative. They’re not really into music; they’re into something melodic playing in the background.

The great law peoples of Britain granted Amy Winehouse and her ex-hubby Blake a divorce after the torture never stopped for two years.

They were a match made in reality TV: Blake was in jail six months after they married, yet it was he who filed for divorce after he found out Amy was banging other guys. This all happened between drunken benders, public fights, multiple arrests, all while Winehouse’s star elevated her as one of the worst pop stars of the decade. How did VH1 not pick this up to go back-to-back with "Flavor of Love"?

When the Pixies played the Avalon in Boston back in 2004, their first gig back home in a dozen years, it was touching to see Kim Deal tear up at the end of the set after two hours of bliss for us fans. The opening "act" was drummer Dave Lovering doing his magic act for some ladies. All night the 'Doolittle' songs littered their set, and my fondest memories are mainly those songs. "Debaser" was their opening tune. They teased the audience all night by playing the opening few notes to “Here Comes Your Man” before every other song. Frank Black maniacally laughed through "Mr. Grieves." It was so good I bought the show on CD before I left.

Now Frank Black tells Spin magazine the band is officially going to play some US dates on their ‘Doolittle’ 20th anniversary tour. Including Boston. The heroes return home!

If any kind of news would brighten my day, it would be the potential demise of a band like Panic at the Disco!

Except when the band splits into two pieces.

Now two bands have the ability to write heart-on-the-sleeve notes about things that stopped mattering junior year in college, both with the attention of major record labels and radio stations. This is why I do not listen to the radio much.

Satriani. Hagar. Anthony. That horrible drummer from RHCP (a funk-rock band with a shitty drummer all these years? yes it's true). CHICKENFOOT.

The three best comments I've heard on Chickenfoot so far:

1) "I heard Sammy singing, 'Oh! YEAH!' and I thought 'Oh! NO! You fucking suck!'"

2) I told my best friend about there being a new supergroup, and he immediately asked, "Which members of Van Halen are in it? Every supergroup nowadays has gotta be an offshoot of Van Halen...."

3) Chickenfoot: the square version of peace:

Isis is one of those bands some of my friends have been into forever. I have heard their music countless times. A few years back I picked up “Oceanic” and began loving them myself. After a string of excellent albums the band closes out the decade with “Wavering Radiant,” officially tossing their hat in the ring for best band of the decade.

Isis wastes little time punching out a riff and barreling into the opener “Hall of the Dead,” setting a medium tempo from the start. It’s obvious the band is not going to have Turner sing as much as he did on “In the Absence of Truth,” and I think it suits the music better when he swaps between growling and showing off his vocal pipes. “Ghost Key” follows up with a floating synth riff and alternates between quiet and loud, keeping a similar pace as the opener. By the end of “Hand of the Host,” the band seems to have hit cruise control on the tempo and is trying to get the most out of it, a severe change from everything they’ve ever done.

“Radiant” is divided into two clear halves with its intermission-style title track.

Forget all the plastic surgery, child-molestation cases, and putting nets over his kids’ heads while in public for a moment. I’m not going there today.

Michael Jackson is responsible for the two greatest pop songs ever written.

At the tail end of 1969 the Jackson 5 dropped their first single, “Want You Back,” on the unsuspecting world. By the time you realize fingertips have tickled a piano your ears pick up the guitar strumming the beat. The piano riff is shaking your hips for you. A spaced out clap lets you know your feet are gonna be joining your hips in a few seconds. As the lead guitar flows over the rhythm and the strings take things a little higher, the pulse builds over a 20-second introduction to a song that makes anyone within shouting distance bust a move and a child’s voice unleashes an affirming “Uh-huuuuuuuuuuh” over the dance party.

I never thought anyone would ask the most breast-obsessed live act I’ve ever seen, Blink-182, to headline an event called FREE VIRGIN FEST.

How many people do you think are going to get the wrong idea with THAT title?

Before Heart decided to release album after album of hair-band pop in the 80’s to support Ann Wilson’s growing waistline, the group blessed us with some great kickass rock albums to close out the 70’s. Now the sisters Wilson have not only announced working on a new album, they've announced a children's book based on their 1978 album Dog & Butterfly.

Often times I wonder why bands do this non-music crap. Heart has released one album in the past 15 years, which nobody bought, and now they're going to not only put out another album nobody wants, they're going to throw in a children's book no one will buy.

And you're gonna read your child a book written by THIS woman?

In late May legions of emo-metal fans were delighted to the latest morsel dribbled out by rock’s biggest boy band, Linkin Park. The song, titled "New Divide," scored the band their third top-ten hit after debuting at #6.

The song has caused a massive controversy among bored and angry suburban 16-22 year olds. Why? Many claim it sounds exactly like previous hits "Crawling," "Somewhere I Belong," and the group’s contribution to the first Transformers movie, "What I’ve Done."

Text messages flew between teens sitting next to each other in their parents’ half-finished basements upon first hearing the song. One exchange between a pair of soon-to-be college freshman caused a new divide in their friendship. As the song ended one of the youngsters, John, texted "OMG new LP rox!" to his buddy Grant. Grant’s reply? "AYSOS? old Transformers song." It got heated after a few more texts resulting in John typing out "4Q" before storming out of the basement to hide in his pitch-black bedroom.