"Why the hell are you listening to John Mayer?"

My sister actually asked me this question soon after I woke her up this morning; my response was something along the lines of "I realize I woke you up at the ungodly hour of ten a.m., but that doesn't give you the right to invoke that name in my house!"

I should mention that there are a few music artists whose names you don't mention unless you want to see me go from Normal Bitch Mode to Super Hella Flaming Bitch in about .008 seconds: John Mayer is one; Bono is another. And actually, those two are pretty much it; pretty much anyone else is at least up for discussion

But I digress. The point is, I was not (nor would I ever be caught dead) listening to John Mayer. I was, in fact, listening to Yoav, an Israeli-South American musician who-- get this-- makes acoustic electronica. Seriously. Every sound in his songs is either vocals or produced by a guitar. It's very cool stuff . . . not to mention, the closest I will be venturing to pretentious hipster coffee-house music. Anyway, his album Charmed and Strange is available on both iTunes and Amazon, plus he does have a Myspace page, so you should check out his stuff (especially "Adore Adore" and "There Is No One") if you get the chance. He entered my radar after Modwheelmood remixed a couple of songs (though I still haven't managed to locater those tracks) and I finally decided to download him after somebody on Echoing The Sound linked to a video for "Club Thing".

Anyway, again, some cool music for you to check out. I probably won't put up anymore blogs this week, since I work all weekend and will be occupied with completing my sister's move into my place as well. So-- Have a good weekend, everybody!

Okay, it's time to stop making shitty covers of "Enjoy The Silence"

I'm sick today so instead of cleaning my house (which is what I should be doing), I find myself parked in front of the computer with a box of tissues, a bag of cough drops, and a bottle of water, trolling YouTube for videos. I started out looking for Depeche Mode's creepy video for their new single, "Wrong"-- which has, by the way, been irrevocably lodged in my brain for the past two days-- and ended up searching for videos of "Enjoy The Silence". I still haven't found the original video, but I did find plenty of covers. Bad covers.

Seriously, what is it about this song that makes shitty goth bands want to record their own horrible remakes of it? Isn't that what karaoke is for? I mean, sure, I love NIN's "Discipline", but you won't find me in a studio, recording my own "re-interpretation" of it, and why? Because 1) it's unnecessary, as I could never hope to capture the brilliance of the original, and 2) I'm pretty sure TR would hunt me down and threaten to rip my cunt off if I tried to. (Though maybe not, since Maroon 5 still hasn't been punished for their "acoustic" performance of "Closer".)

Perhaps it's the lack of consequences that makes crappy bands so bold about putting their inane takes on "Enjoy the Silence" out there-- after all, when was the last time you ever heard Martin Gore threaten to rip somebody's cunt off? At any rate, the crappy covers are out in full force. Behold, the guilty:

• BREAKING BENJAMIN is responsible for this atrocity; keep in mind that this group has a history of ruining great songs (Tool's "Sober" and NIN's "Hurt") and therefore deserve no mercy.
• Euro cheese-metal outfit LACUNA COIL covered the song for their 2006 album Karmacode. The fact that Cristina Scabbia is totally hot still doesn't excuse how cheesy and ridiculous their version is.
  
• As if I didn't already hate HIM enough, they offer THIS version of the song. The accompanying fan-made slide-show doesn't make me like it any more. As a matter of fact, I managed to listen through all the way to the other two covers (to make sure they entirely sucked, of course) but only made it through til the 1:35 mark on this one.
  
• At this point, you might be asking yourself, "So, how would one go about stripping a song like 'Enjoy the Silence' of all its inherent sexiness and making it suitable for play in, oh, elevators and supermarkets?" The answer to that would be to let KEANE (aka, the British precursors to The Fray) loose with a tambourine and keyboard.
  
• IT DIES TODAY (the name and the lead singer's Danzig hair both scream OMG WE'RE SO GOFFIK!, but they're actually just more cheap pseudo-metal) offer their take on the classic. As the band name would suggest, yes, it sucks.
  

Mike Shinoda's remix isn't technically a cover, but it does suck, so I'm including it here for your listening, uh, pleasure. Considering that Shinoda is a member of Linkin Park, it really shouldn't come as a surprise that his remix tries to recast the song as a nu-metal freakout; what is surprising is the number of people who seem to like it. (On a separate but related note: People who comment on YouTube videos are mostly wankers.)

Of all of these, I think I'm most offended by Keane's version, since they've managed to water down a great song and make it into what is essentially mall muzak. Of course, it's my opinion that both Keane and the Fray should be put onto a space shuttle and blasted into orbit around Jupiter, but I think their cover actually justifies that sentiment.

By the way, I did finally find the video for "Wrong", but not on YouTube. Here's a link if you want to see it; with its use of the rewind-narrative and multiple car crashes, the creepy clip reminds me slightly of NIN's video for "Deep"-- except better and without a stupid plot that attempts to tie-in with a movie, TR's dubious acting "skills" ("I'mma make a withdrawal!"), and inexplicable green goo.

Also, if you're looking for a really good Depeche Mode remake, Modwheelmood covered "Home" at a gig in 2006, and I know there's a soundboard recording of it floating around on YouTube somewhere.

I'm going to go take more cold medicine now, so this will be all for today!

What the hell is I Don't Like Where This Is Going?

Hello all-- and by all, I mean all three of you who will probably be reading this. This is my very first-ever blog at I Don't Like Where This Is Going . . ., and I'm still figuring out this whole "blogging" thing. I've had a Myspace account for the past three or four years, and have filled my blog there with endless rants on music, politics, my job, and life in general. I Don't Like Where This Is Going . . . is, I hope, going to be sort of a catch-all for the miscellanea that drifts in and out of my head: rants, music and concert reviews, my take on TV and movies, and probably the occasional "OMG, the strangest thing happened at work today!" (although, I'll try to keep the last one to a minimum, since my job is pretty boring and nobody really needs to know about it). I also hope to eventually post some of my creative writing; that is, if I ever figure out how to free it from the curse that is .wps format. (Apparently, nobody uses Microsoft Works.)

Anyway, a bit about myself: I am 24 and work in a supermarket. I have two semesters of community college under my belt, but that's the extent of my formal education. I used to be a really bright, creative person-- writing, painting, drawing, and so on-- but have fallen out of that habit, so I'm hoping that having some place to spew will help kick-start me again. I'm a music fanatic with a diverse list of favorites, which I won't go into much detail about here. My favorite band is Nine Inch Nails, with Modwheelmood coming in a close second.

I also should mention that I live in a trailer park, and that my younger sister, K, is moving in with me. I have a cat who is spiteful and therefore shall not be named, and a dog, Maynard (yes, he's named after that Maynard) who is 70-80% blind. Besides the fact that he's adorable, it's fun to watch him bump into things and then look surprised about it.

Anyway, I think that's going to be about it for now. I'm running on about two hours of sleep right now (fun fact about me: I am a chronic insomniac, thanks in part to a crazy work schedule) and am coming down with a head cold. So . . . hopefully, I'll see all of you later!