Still Puzzled...

Allow me to recommend www.relevantmagazine.com [go there now]. What a great resource, what an entertaining read. Snippets:

Ever wonder how the U.S. military is getting Saddam Hussein supporters to cough up valuable information? They're playing them heavy metal music and children's songs. According to a U.S. sergeant interviewed by Newsweek magazine, Iraqi prisoners have never before heard the crashing rhythms, churning guitars and growling vocals common in metal, and it affects them like Chinese water torture. Songs of choice include Metallica's "Enter Sandman" and Drowning Pool's "Bodies." Also effective is the chirpy, sing-song quality of kiddy tunes, specifically the theme to "Sesame Street" and the music of Barney ...

File this under “who cares?” limpbizkit (that’s how it’s punctuated now) frontman Fred Durst recently announced the band’s new album will release September 2nd. If a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? If limpbizkit releases an album and no one buys it, will they finally stop making music? ...

I love the self-awareness and the slightly sardonic bent found within these pages. The mag's title is total truf: Relevant. That's it. I love things -- magazines, bands, artists and art of any kind -- that fill a void. Relevant does that, and no, I'm actually not paid by the mag... yet. Now that I'm pondering a switch of major [gasp!] in the fall, I think this is the my new mag of choice for which to write, if I can't create my own publication straight out of the gates [wishful thinking]. Many thanks to Erin Beneker for sharing this publication's existence with me, and if you're not a regular patron of her stuff at www.bennytown.blogspot.com, consider this your brotherly push in that direction.

Back to the subject of music, which is one of my gargantuan loves in life. Random musings:

I was quite stoked to hear an acoustic version of "Take Me Away" -- the latest underrated single from Lifehouse -- on Tuesday nite's season finale of Smallville [another guiltless pleasure of mine]. What song doesn't sound great -- if not better -- acoustic? I'm hardpressed to find one, so please feel free to indulge me. All I can draw up is Smashing Pumpkins' cover of "Landslide," and that just because of Billy Corgan's ingratiating whine. Back to Lifehouse [Life as a House?]: despite past radio overplay and subsequent backlash surrounding "Hanging By A Moment" [a great, great song when you hear it once a month], this is a good band. And, yes, I do own both of the band's albums.

Little-known facts: Lifehouse, formerly known as Blyss, started out as a worship band for a youth group in Malibu, Cali, at a church called Vineyard. That church is also responsible for birthing Kendall Payne's music into the world. If you haven't heard of her, you have now... download "Closer To Myself," "Scratch" and "It's Not the Time," for starters. Back to Lifehouse: Singer Jason Wade is the son of divorced missionaries. Indeed, he belts a throaty baritone that admittedly can be a bit annoying time to time and unabashedly rips off Eddie Vedder. That much I'll concede. But download his solo acoustic ditty "You Belong To Me" from the Shrek soundtrack, and you will not be disappointed. I included that track on "JP's Mellow Mix" [take one] that I handed out to a few ladies, and it simply made them swoon. Like ribbed sweaters, curly hair and the ability to dance, the song is a ladykiller.

I'm so ready for the new downhere record, entitled So Much For Substitutes, to drop June 10; not heard of this band? Think straightup Canuck rock. downhere is one of the more underrated bands I know of, and lead singer Marc Martel's voice is next to none... well, probably next to Sinatra, Bono and Chris Cornell, but that's about it. When this band played live in Warsaw's Central Park [not what you're thinking] last summer, I was pleasantly surprised. downhere's cover of U2's "Beautiful Day" was ultra-inspiring. Marc and the singer from Remy Zero are the best at channeling Bono's strong, soaring vocals. The band's set was tight and way too short, but after the music faded, the guys were so, uh, down-to-earth at their Mandated Table of Paraphernalia. I have to say this is the last great thing I remember coming out of America Junior up there. [Lord knows the people skills of customs officers at the border hit all the wrong notes.]

Heads up, Traverse City: A few great [or infamous, or both] summer concerts will be coming to my June-July-August home in Michigan. Hello, Norah Jones. G'day, Ben Folds and Hootie. Also making appearances: Chicago, Huey Lewis & The News, Peter Paul and Mary, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Judging by the summer lineup, I'm guessing the average age in Traverse City is 49.

And the Bloggie for Longest Personal Entry to Date goes to me. I could write for hours about anything and everything associated with music, and I've nearly done so. Life is a song, and mine is yet to be sung. I love music.