Archive for the 'old school' Category

Thank You Note

Posted by Brendan on May 13th, 2008 filed in friends, old school, youtube

For this guy.

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Friday Videos: Merle Haggard, Rebuild America First

Posted by Brendan on May 25th, 2007 filed in Democratic Idiocy, calling bullshit, gop crime, old school, politics, war, youtube

A must see, even if you don’t like country music.

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An Early Jerry Falwell Memory

Posted by Brendan on May 15th, 2007 filed in death, hardcore, just desserts, old school, sheer unadulterated joy

Back in 1984-1985, I was in my first hardcore band. We went through a number of name changes before we decided on Nerve (our guitar player Chris Shea came up with that one).
One of my best friends at the time, Kelly Bray, was our singer, though the two of us wrote songs [...]

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Friday Videos: Shape Note Singing

Posted by Brendan on April 27th, 2007 filed in Philadelphia, old school, singing, youtube

Last night I did shape-note singing for the first time, also referred to as Sacred Harp from the most popular shape-note songbook, a style highly popular in the rural south in the 19th and early 20th Century.
The dominant religion at the time, the Baptist faith, largely prohibited musical instruments in worship, so hymns were sung [...]

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“The Awful German Language”

Posted by Brendan on March 9th, 2007 filed in old school, random, writing

Via FDL commenter Eli:
Mark Twain’s The Awful German Language is a reminder that any successful contemporary American satirist or humorists stands on the shoulder of giants. I couldn’t hold in the belches of laughter reading Twain’s experiences with German. A sample:
There are ten parts of speech, and they are all troublesome. An average [...]

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Get on the Good Foot: James Brown, 1933-2006

Posted by Brendan on December 25th, 2006 filed in Rock-n-roll, funk, old school, pop culture, r&b, soul, super rock, youtube

Godfather of Soul, Hardest Working Man in Show Business, is Dead.
No PCP jokes, please. I only saw James once, and the man was a force of nature. Watching him perform on the steps of the Art Museum about two years ago, I was stunned to realize he was 70. The [...]

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Friday Videos: Dead Kennedys, “Kill the Poor” and “Police Truck”

Posted by Brendan on November 17th, 2006 filed in Rock-n-roll, hardcore, old school, punk rock, youtube

Kill the Poor, 1979

Police Truck

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American Hardcore: Disappointing

Posted by Brendan on November 12th, 2006 filed in hardcore, old school, punk rock

I finally made it out last night to see the documentary, “American Hardcore”, which I have written about extensively. As I’ve written in previous posts, the music was immediate, aggressive almost to a fault, and the basis of my political consciousness. I was very excoted to see the movie.
Perhaps I got my [...]

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More on Hardcore and Political Consciousness

Posted by Brendan on September 19th, 2006 filed in biography, blogs, culture, hardcore, old school, politics, punk rock, youtube

In 1983 I was an angry, lonely, and misunderstood 13-year-old. Most of this was rooted in what was going on at home: my mother had surrendered to her alcoholism and spent half of her time in a staggering, unpredictable drunken rage, and the other half in her room with the door locked, recuperating from [...]

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This Is True.

Posted by Brendan on September 15th, 2006 filed in Rock-n-roll, old school, punk rock

THE BAGS
Oaf Records
Night of the Corn People
21 songs
Nope, it’s not a new Bags album. But at the same time, it is. This is a re-master of a 1991 release, with some bonus tracks, so if you’re a Bags fan (and if you’re not, what the fuck is wrong [...]

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