Griffdawg's Choice Nugs: The Offspring-Nitro

This is GriffDawg checking in from the Basque Country-

Discovering new music is one of the raddest things around.  Rediscovering music is just as cool.  I love finding an album that I used to listen to all the time but have not heard in years.  Listening to that music takes me back to a different point in my life.  It helps provide me with perspective.  And, most of the time, I can still sing all the words!

I recently rediscovered the album Smash by the Offspring, which is a classic album from my childhood.  One of the reasons I stopped listening to this album was because The Offspring started making horrible music like “Pretty Fly for a White Guy” and other such horrible songs.  After making such horrible commercial music, I became embarrassed to listen to them.  However, now enough time has passed so that we can listen to Smash, appreciate it for what it is, and not think about how bad of a band the Offspring became.

The album is one that can be listened from front to back.  The band captured an amazing energy and the bottom line is that it fucking rocks.

I have a great idea, listen to Smash, grow your hair long, scream along, rock out, and drink a Budwiser!

Download The Offspring Nitro (Youth Energy)

Matt & Kim-Good For Great

I remember feeling Matt and Kim's unbridled joy at doing what they love when I saw them play live for the first time, headlining Kohoutek 2009 (the annual music festival thrown by my alma mater's next door neighbor college). Other than their song "Daylight," which was making its way around CMC laptops, I knew almost nothing of the two before the show. After an energetic 50 minute set, which saw them run through their entire catalog with a short little "Final Countdown" cover and a crowd-surfing Kim mixed in, the crowd still hadn't gotten enough. They wanted more of the feel-good music which had been making its way out of Kim's drum set and Matt's keyboard/synth. Didn't work. It wasn't because the duo didn't want to keep going. It was, and I remember laughing so hard when Matt told the crowd, that they didn't have anymore music to play!

With the release of their new album, Sidewalks, Matt & Kim ensure that they'll keep the good vibes going for a little longer. The ten-track album feels like a natural progression to Grand. Their joy-of-life style still shines, but this time with a little added musical omph. The two have almost adopted a little hip-hop flavor to their style, and your favorite rapper's favorite rapper would probably love flowing on some of their beats. A standout track is this jamandahalf, "Good For Great." This has become the soundtrack to my 15 minute walk to the school I'm teaching English at, and always manages to make the increasingly cold mornings feel a little better. This song is all about living to the fullest, not being afraid to get a little roughed up, but more importantly, not being afraid to live.

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 Matt & Kim-Good For Great (Jamandahalf.com) by jamand1/2

Luis Prima-Buona Sera

Only eight lines long, Luis Prima's "Buona Sera" manages to both tell a story, exude raw emotion, and capture the sound of an era perfectly. Telling the quick story of a man proposing to his lady in Naples, Luis Prima injects so much energy and life into the song and lyrics that its hard not to want to pull your signorina close to ya and cut a rug to this jam. If only a simple story about love, this song wouldn't make it what it is. But throw in a mean trumpet solo, the best backup singers this side of the I Threes, and an infectious joie de vivre, and you got yourself a jamandahalf.

I only knew "Buona Sera" as a standalone jam, but reading into Prima's history, you really get a sense of who the man behind the jam is. Prima, a Sicilian-American, was a presence in the music scene for five decades and adapted to rapidly changing musical styles. Impossible to think of today, Prima had a jazz band in the 1920s, a swing outfit in the 30s, a big band in the 40s, a Vegas show in the 50s, and a pop band in the 60s. All the while, Prima infused whatever he did with a gregariousness that is easily apparent on the track. Prima also dabbled with movies, making appearances in Hollywood flicks with Bing Crosby, and women (Prima had five wives). If you think you've heard Prima's voice before, it's because you probably have: he was the voice of King Louie in the Jungle Book, a classic flick if there ever was one. A man who seemingly lived a life of relentless energy, Prima made a bonafide classic with this track.

  Louis Prima - Buona Sera by jamandahalf

Justice-Phantom Part 1.5 (live)

There's not much more Euro than techno music. For some reasons, most Americans don't get it. We need guitar riffs and lyrics about hard living and our dog leaving us. On the whole, we look for that perceived realness, and love those sing-a-long ballads that everyone knows the words too. Doesn't have to be the best music, but we like those catchy tunes, songs that we can feel good singing at the top of our lungs. And you sure daggone it can't sing along to no euro techo!

Other than techno (and by techno I mean trance, electronica, house etc), what else does europe have that the US hasn't adopted in some way? Great espressos and mixed coffee drinks? I can go to the Mickey D's around the corner for a uber french McCafé any time of the day. Tight jeans and skinny shirts? Have you seen a hipster lately? Even our health care will soon (hopefully) be a couple of shades more Euro soon. But one trend that has never truly caught on is music that I will fit under the giant umbrella of "techno." Despite some artists like Tiesto, David Guetta, Calvin Harris, etc, getting some festival love and larger tours, I would say that American society as a whole just hasn't accepted this music yet, hasn't made it their own. I mean, shoot, I've been trying to convert moose for years; no luck. And he's more american than corn bread and miley cyrus.

But listening to this jam and a half, one wonders when will people start realizing the energy, the emotion, the rawness of a lot of the techno music out there. Constantly evolving, changing, and reaching higher heights,  today's scene could be compared to what happened to hip hop in the late 80s and early 90s: DJs who pushed boundaries, the infusion of new sounds, the reawakening  and revitalization of a style of music. Justice, the french duo, are among the leaders of this current wave, and have a distinct sound, harder than other djs, but without missing any creativity or complexity. Phantom Part 1.5 stands out because no matter whether the beat is building up or dying down, whether it's using a sample of their own song or whether they're just using a pounding bassline, it's pure, unfiltered, energy. The crowd is living for each new movement, each subtle change, and the fusing of their noise and the music of two musicians who after only one album are among the masters of their craft, combines to make a jam and a half.

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