Cru Jones Society

Yesterday was Election Day, but you already knew that. And if you came here for any election news then you are shit out of luck. I’m no political expert, nor do I play one on T.V. Besides there are probably several dozen websites covering the new President and other election related topics, sites like this one, or this one, and for our younger readers: Myspace.

So instead of half assed information on something important, I will be supplying half informed opinion on something trivial. So I present for your reading pleasure, or at least distraction, the five most popular bands to come from Colorado, and why I hate them. Continue Reading »

 Halloween is on Friday. We here at CJS enjoy the holiday and will be bringing Halloween themed post to you all week. So carve the pumpkin, set out the candy bowl, and get your costume. Oh and if you’re in Colorado be sure to bundle up.

Most of us celebrate Halloween once a year, maybe twice if it’s on a weekday. There are some people who try to celebrate it all year. For the most part they are goth kids who have nothing better to do because they don’t have any friends.  However there are few who not only dress like it is Halloween all year, but also have found a way to get paid for it.

As you may have guess these people are musicians, well kind of. Here are five of the biggest acts to milk Halloween all year round, because to some a suit and tie is a costume. Continue Reading »

Some how I ended up reading an interview with Yuri from MxPx. I’m not sure which is more tragic, me reading the interview, or the fact that his name is Yuri. He mentioned that the band was just putting the final touches on a cover album. He said it was going to be an all 80’s cover album, but that it wouldn’t be the same old 80’s covers. Whatever Yuri, you go back to being the most unlikely chick magnet since this guy. The mention of the cover album got me thinking about my favorite cover songs. Now I thought I would share with everyone my five favorites. So if you’re tired of listening to the versions of songs with the “you fucked up” noise that Guitar Hero brings, give one of these ones a shot. Continue Reading »

My work jukebox decided to play a record form my childhood the other day. A song that I didn’t even know I still knew. I don’t know why, but I really enjoyed that last sentence. The song was “The Teddy Bears’ Picnic” - a song that has been around since nineteen ought seven. This song was a staple in my house growing up, yet when I mentioned it to a friend who is only two years younger, they said the first time they had heard of it was a week earlier. This shocked me; I was under the impression that everybody knew this song. So I’m using my position on this website to inform the masses about the greatness that is the Teddy Bears’ Picnic. As I looked further into the lyrics, I had some thoughts. It’s dark for a children’s song. So cuddle up with your favorite stuffed friend (mine is a mouse I call Eekers) and read on. Continue Reading »

As was stated on Friday the Olympics have come to an end. The closing ceremonies were as massive, spectacular, and as bright as the opening ceremonies. Now there are two years until our lives are distracted by sports that usually warrant a quick change of the channel. And two years of CJS post that don’t revolve around world-class athletes from throughout the globe. Records were broken and good times were had, but now we can return to our lives. I used this weekend to take that first step towards my normal life. Maybe it was more of a leap than a step. You decide. Continue Reading »

Zebrahead released a new album, entitled “Phoenix”, on Tuesday and I haven’t been so excited for new release since Rancid’s “Indestructible” five years ago. I planned to have “Phoenix” in my disc player before the day was through. Little did I realize that this seemingly simple scheme was going to prove more difficult than previously predicted. Continue Reading »

You know when you look through your CDs and you’re profoundly dissatisfied with every disc in your collection? You look at your tired collection of music and wonder how you’re ever going to fill all the slots in your 6-disc changer. You’ve listened to everything in your collection at least a dozen times and can’t fathom listening to any of them a 13^th.

When this happens to me I try to remember where I was when I bought the CD. I think about the circumstances that surround my understanding of that disc - memories, events, drunken good times, whatever. This usually propels me to pick up something I haven’t listened to in a while, or at least haven’t thought about in a different way.

Recently I took my Fenix TX self-titled album out of its dusty sleeve and popped it into my changer not thinking too much about it. As soon as the first notes of “Flight 601 (All I’ve Got Is Time)” crept into my ears and filled the air of my little car, I was no longer my 26 year-old self creeping along Speer Blvd. to get to work. I was back in my Volkswagen Jetta with its new after-market CD deck flashing it’s electric blue lights at me while I sat in the parking lot of Ulysses ball fields smoking a clove with my good friend Carson.

I was 18 again. The heat outside told me it was summer. I wasn’t driving to work to face another day of answering emails and trudging through endless meetings; I was an 18 year-old kid getting ready to ship off to college. I had just graduated high school. I was living large. I had a manual labor job at the baseball fields and got an astonishingly high $9/hr. Those first dulcet guitar notes paving the way to pop punk sweetness completely encapsulated my summer of 2000 and in the 3:28 of listening to “Flight 601,” I re-lived the entire thing. Does this ever happen to you? Here’s what happened to me… Continue Reading »

Most of my afternoon is spent with very little interaction with other people. Since my afternoon tasks involving nothing more than basic motor skills, my mind has time to wander, and a-wandering it goes. For some reason my mind always seeks out my internal jukebox and puts one or two songs on repeat. It picks some of the most random songs too - never anything I’ve recently listened to either, just pieces of songs that exist in my brain in that void between hockey stats and movie quotes. What follows is a list of the top songs that get stuck in my head at work. Continue Reading »

After spending last Saturday cowboying it up with Buffalo Bill, small children, and as many hicks as the town of Golden could produce; I desperately needed to get back into my element. My solution? A punk rock show. Luckily for me there were two that evening. The Offspring, Dropkick Murphys, Paramore, and several other bands were playing a large venue show put on by the local alternative rock station. On the other side of town, in a smaller locale, Rancid, MxPx, Murphy’s Law, and I Am Ghost were set to rock out. While I do enjoy Dropkick Murphys and a Few Offspring tunes, my heart will always belong to Rancid, so I made my way to that show. And I do not regret it at all! Continue Reading »

I recently purchased two CDs at Wax Trax, a local independent record store that used to be the source of virtually all my ska and punk CDs because it used to be that you couldn’t find them anywhere. Since the MP3 boom several years ago, trips to Wax Trax and stores like it have decreased for me, and when I paid $37 for my two new discs, I remembered why.

I could have bought these same items for less than $20 on iTunes, so essentially I’m paying $17 for mediocre cover art and liner notes I could have probably found online. This availability does come at a price however. It means you’ve probably bought a fair share of weird crap, horrible crap, and other assorted crap you never listen to 10 minutes after purchase. The impulse buy is easier than ever, and I’m here to show you my music buying misjudgments. Come inside and I’ll show you that iTunes is responsible for a good chunk of the bizarre weirdness that is my collection. And considering I don’t even mention my purchases of Jamiroquai, Alien Ant Farm (something besides “Smooth Criminal”) or the Scissor Sisters, that’s saying something.

Join me, won’t you? Continue Reading »

Just waking up in the morning gotta thank god
I dont know but today seems kinda odd
No barking from the dogs, no smog
And momma cooked a breakfast with no hog

Since I’m a dorky white guy, this is naturally my favorite Cube song. It’s also a song that paints a grim picture of urban life where it’s not that things go right to constitute a good day, it’s more that they don’t go wrong and you finish the day with minimal threats on your life and fewer harrowing experiences than normal. This song is urban poetry at its finest and says more about inner city strife than a year’s worth of op-ed columns. Conversely, it’s also been appropriated by frat guys everywhere as a Saturday afternoon drinking anthem, which, by my estimation, misses the point completely. Although I’m guilty of doing this in college myself. Whatever…

This annotates the dichotomy of rap music beautifully. Rap used to stand for a particular set of politics and reflected a portion of the population that until it had rap, had virtually no voice whatsoever. Since the movement went mainstream, rap’s inclusion of political, sociological, and even controversial material (aside from almost trite depictions of violence and misogyny) has been ever dwindling. With ephemeral, meaningless garbage like Soulja Boy and Flo Rida polluting the airwaves, rap stands as a mere parody of itself these days. It used to be fucking scary, now it’s a pure clown act.

The reason I bring this up is because Cube tickets go on sale this Saturday. Having never been to a rap show in my life (unless you count the Kottonmouth Kings, which you shouldn’t - they’re terrible), I have intense curiosity about the experience. But thinking about what a scary dude Cube used to be - and the resultant thuggish crowd that would come out to see him perform - I find myself conflicted about buying tickets.

It’s possible I’m overthinking things - I mean, what kind of real thug has time to go to a concert, anyway - and the crowd will be filled with gawky, uncertain, douchy white guys like me, but still.

It’s also possible Cube ruined his street cred by driving around those bratty kids for two movies and chasing a gigantic snake around the Amazon, but still.

The overarching mythology of what Ice Cube is, what his tenure in N.W.A. means, and the specter of my memory of being frightened of all rappers as a child (aside from kiddie fare like Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer, naturally) prevents me from immediately jumping on the bandwagon and buying tickets.

What about everyone else? Would you see Cube? Do you even like Cube? Am I a quasi-racist tool for worrying about this? Feel free to leave a comment. Let’s discuss…

edagger@crujonessociety.com

Everyone has a few favorite songs they like to workout to. Since I’m a neurotic and hyper-anal freak, I not only agonized over creating a short, 12 song mix, I analyzed it too!  Take a peek at how I get down while torturing myself on the elliptical trainer. Did your favorite song make the cut? Check it out after the jump. (By the way, I almost put a picture of Richard Simmons on the front page, but realized I didn’t want to look at it for several days any more than you do. Enjoy Kiana Tom instead. You’re welcome. Continue Reading »

With Streetlight Manifesto in town tonight, I thought we’d revisit the last time they came through our fair town. I wrote this review 1/7/08 and present it now for your enjoyment.

Artist: Streetlight Manifesto w/Grand Buffet and The Stitch Up
Venue: The Bluebird Theater - Denver, CO
Date: 1.6.07

Streetlight Manifesto is about as big as it gets these days for a ska band. They have a small but intensely loyal fanbase. They’re like the Mad Caddies (my favorite band) - the only difference is that Streetlight can actually sell out the roughly 400 person capacity Bluebird Theater.

Continue Reading »

With punk rock and metal taken, this was all that was left for me. What am I going to do: Write about rap music? Like all white people, I enjoy the politicality of artists like Public Enemy, N.W.A and KRS-One, the style and flow of Jurassic 5 and Tribe Called Quest, and the ridiculous absurdity of Ludacris. And of course, these 10 songs.The rest? Pandering, posturing, unrelatable, irritating bullshit. Jay-Z and Young Jeezy can eat a big bag of dicks.

On a similar note, contemporary country is awful in virtually the same way. I’m not going to pretend to know anything about Gretchen Wilson, Big & Rich, Kenny Chesney,¹ or any of the other current popular artists outside of what sneaks into my head via radio advertisements/sporting events/bowling alleys. And no, I don’t want you to email me and tell me why you think these people are great. I don’t care.

Continue Reading »

(Editor’s Note: This is the second of a three part series. Catch Part III tomorrow when E Dagger returns to conclude things with “Why I Love Old-School Country Music.” Once again though, please welcome Senor Limon to the Cru Jones Society!)

There are more qualified people to be writing this article. I’ll come right out and say that I’m no metal-head. I’m a punk rocker. But, given that the “why I love punk rock” article was already taken (and stated with more grace and clarity than I could have hoped I might add). I’ll take a stab at metal.

Now, I was never the angry adolescent who spent all of his time wearing black and listening to a single White Zombie track on repeat alone in his room for days on end (but if I was, it would have been Super Charger Heaven), but I started listening to metal when I was an adolescent who happened to be pretty pissed off at stuff. I don’t really remember being pissed at anything specific, but I was pretty good at being equally pissed at just about everything. Ten years later, I’m still pissed off, but my psyche has developed to the point where now I’m able to be pissed off at specific things, and fortunately for me, there is an Alkaline Trio song for just about all of them. But there I go talking about punk rock again.

Anyway, I hope someday I’ll be a crotchety old man who sits with a shotgun in his rocking chair on the front porch who no longer has the energy or mental faculty to keep up with the big bad world and is once again blissfully pissed off at everything and everyone. God help the kid whose Frisbee lands in my front yard.

Continue Reading »

(Editor’s Note: This is the first of a three-part music features series. Look for Part II “Why I Love Metal” tomorrow. Making his debut will be Senor Limon. Today, please welcome Lee S. Hart to the Cru Jones Society.)

Why do I love punk rock? When I was posed with this question, and the task of putting the answer into essay, I was stoked at first. I thought, “Great, I’ll have this done in no time.” Then I sat down to write it and apparently overthought it. Suddenly I felt like I was trying to explain why I love breathing, or beer, or sex - just a basic of life. Something I love that is truly fantastic requiring no thought.

Continue Reading »