Thursday, February 07, 2008

I’m Going To Throw Up

I’m Going To Throw Up

Please, please, please help me understand!

Why do bands/musicians take a perfectly (in most cases) good song and screw it up. What is the obsession with covering songs? Okay, I can understand when you may take a song that is not that good (maybe this is all relative) and you make it better or at the least, don't trash it. Apparently this is too much to ask for a lot of bands. I know that imitation is one of the highest forms of flattery or maybe the original musicians don't really own the songs and that is how they end up getting raped, for lack of a better term, by some girly hip-hop band.

I just recently listened to a cover of "Such Great Heights" - Postal Service, by some group, if you want to call them that, called Iron & Wine. Terrible (said like Charles Barkley for added effect)!!! Don't take a great poppy, electric, entertaining and up beat song and turn it into a funeral procession. Why, why, why must great songs be ripped from their original genre or worse yet, put on some commercial about mood enhancing drugs. I always used to hear that music was not for the money, but for the music. I don't think this exists any more. I am not a musician. I have no musical talent. I have not been on the inside of any bands or around the business, so I am not informed at the least. I still want to understand why this happens. Is it just about the money? Is it because you are flattered that someone likes your song that much? Is there some sort of musicians' code that makes you okay with this? What is it?

For those that cover songs. Is it because you are not able to come up with songs of your own? You want to create some early notoriety? I once heard a band say they did a cover, because they were a huge fan of the band/song they were covering. What the HELL!!! Are you serious!?! You just slaughtered the song of the band you claim to be a big fan of? WOW!!! If I were a fan, I would want to do some kind of justice to the song/band I say I am a FAN of!

Please someone help me obtain some answers. Are there any musicians or someone that is more in the "know" than I am, that can help me with this struggle? I just don't understand. I bet I am blind to a lot of cover songs that are played by some of my favorite bands, but at least they sound good. Is it just my own bias toward my favorite bands and musical tastes that makes me see past this? All I know is when I hear bad covers, I hear BAD covers. Please let me know what you think.

- Dr. Worm

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Friday, January 04, 2008

Starting the New Year off right, with a “cold”

HAPPY NEW YEAR... and then it hit me. I was enjoying a great New Year day. Slept in, kicked it around the house, and went to a movie, without a care in the world. Work the next day, but that is okay, because I am having fun. I felt fine, or so I thought. I bit of a scratch in the back of my throat and a runny nose, but it is just a cold. Wrong, wrong and wrong. The movie theater was a little cold. THE MOVIE THEATER WAS A LITTLE COLD!!! Oh cruel world! Why have you bestowed upon us such things as bacteria?

No sooner than I had exited the movie theater did the uncontrollable chill hit me. You know what I am talking about if you have ever had any spectacular illnesses. It’s the chill that will not go away. You pile on blanket after blanket and then lay there trying to convince yourself that this is not happening. I will just sleep it off. I have to warm up soon, right? Then your wife comes in, touches you on the head, and says you are on fire. Huh? I am freezing. Temperature is taken and it is way higher than it should be. Damn. Wife looks at throat and there are white spots all over it. DAMN. Time check; it is after ten at night. DAMN! Do we go to the doctor? Not a big fan of hospitals, but the decision is easy when you are shaking so bad you can barely stand and throat is so swollen you cannot talk. Off to the ER. Funny, didn’t I spend Christmas evening in an ER as well?

Covered in many layers of clothing and blankets, I felt like the kid from The Christmas Story (didn’t watch that this year, damn). I got in, filled out the paperwork, and they took me back to a bed rather quickly. Thanks to the nice nurse and her magic, heated blankets, seriously these blankets were awesome, I warmed up rather nicely. Took about an hour for a doctor to get to me, but I didn’t really care, because I was covered in magic blankets. The doctor took one look at my throat and said, “strep”. What I already knew, but did not want to hear. Straight penicillin was prescribed and I begged for something to take the pain and swelling from my throat. A couple Lortab and we were out of there.

I get dropped off at home, another trip through the freezing cold – should have asked for magic blankets to go - and my wife and sister in law are off to get my prescription. I don’t let my wife know enough that I love her. It is times like these that she truly needs praise. My wife is a super hero. I love her so much for helping me through this. She made me soup, brought me medicine, stayed up late with me and just put up with a whiny sick guy. Thanks sweetheart.

Well, it is three days latter and I am ready to do New Years all over again. This time without the ~GRAPHIC~ bloody phlegm balls, raw and savaged throat, having soup for every meal and forcible coach zombie syndrome (look it up). Today I actually went and got some solid food and a shake. I was very sick of soup. I have tried to do a little more today, not too much though, to get myself going again. I will have to have some fun this weekend, if I am up to it, and then it is back to work.

All in all, I consider this a great start to the New Year. Things can only get better from here. The ones I love the most, were there for me. That is the most important thing. I can always count on them and I will need more of it this year. So, I will start of the New Year with a “thanks”, not a whine, whimper or complaint. Thanks. Thanks for my newly found and increasing health. Thanks for my wife and family. Thanks for all that I have, because there are plenty of people who don’t have much. Oh, and (insert sound of phlegm being hacked up as throat clears) HAPPY NEW YEAR HIPPIES!!!!!


- Dr. Worm

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