Cru Jones Society

Earlier this year I talked about the amazing punk rock shows I have taken in up to that point. “Actually this has been one of the best concert years for me as the bands I have wanted to see not only tore shit up, but were on tour with some fairly awesome bands.” That’s what I had said and we were only half way through the year. I also went to the Westword Music Showcase as well as seeing Rancid with Blink 182. Both incredible. But none of these would even compare to the Bouncing Souls recent visit to the Mile High City.

Every year in the Souls hometown they play their “Home for Holidays” show. Something many bands do, not a big deal. Last year, or the year before, I would be terrible at writing someone’s biography, the Bouncing Souls decided to try something different and wanted to play songs they haven’t played in some time. So over the four night holiday show they played all their albums start to finish in order. They apparently enjoyed themselves and the audience must have as well because the Bouncing Souls opted to do this same gimmick in 6 other cities across the nation, and Denver was chosen as one of those cities.

This seemed like a rare opportunity and I didn’t want to miss any of it. So I bought tickets to all four shows. I wanted to see every song, what? How do you see a song? I also thought this is probably one of only two bands I would spend four nights watching. The other being Rancid, though they have like a million more songs and that would be rough. Continue Reading »

In most cases I couldn’t care less about the number of times I do things. I used to count the number of times I’ve seen bands, but as I started to see some bands more and more, in addition to my problem with numbers, I gave up. But recently I have become totally aware of the number of plays counter found on iTunes. I was drawn into it, completely fascinated by it. Then I got angry as I noticed it would go up even if I only listened to the last 15 seconds of a song. I do that a lot when I am making mixes. It’s important to me how a song ends and how that ending works with the start of the next song. I’m sure there some psychological disorder I can classify that behavior under.

Anyway, I started using this information when I made mixes. When I chose a song I would see how often I played that song and if I was close to too much and should choose a different song. I think that’s more of that disorder coming to the surface. Eventually this led me to figuring out which songs I have played the most. I was a little surprised by the results. Not so much in the fact that these are bad songs, but more in they are not really the ones I would have expected. Though if they were what I expected, then I probably wouldn’t have written about them.

So I now give you the Top Five Most Played Songs on Hart’s iTunes. Continue Reading »

It’s the music craze that sweeps the nation every August – Songs to Close Out Your Summer! Order it now for 3 easy installments of $19.95! You’ll get five discs of the “best” music from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and today! Order now, and we’ll throw in this handsome pancake flipper, which will be perfect for that one time a year when you get a bug up your ass to eat pancakes! Operators are standing by!

Or you can just start to bid adieu to patio time with these good jams that E Dagger compiles for his birthday every year. This year I turn 30, and everyone asks me if I’m dreading it like we live inside a sitcom or something. No, I don’t dread it, and why would I?

There’s nothing I can do about it, and more importantly, I’ll finally establish some additional instant professional credibility without having to do anything. That happened when I got married – I’m pretty sure the thinking is “If he was at least smart enough to convince some lady to commit to him, he’s not a total assweasel.” – and it’ll happen again when I turn 30. Being in your 20s and trying to advance in a professional environment is a lot like trying to get laid while having a visible cold sore on your lip; you can do it, but it’s going to take a shitload of legwork.

Anyway, let’s check out this year’s playlist. For reference, here are the playlists from 2009 and 2010 . Enjoy the warm weather while it lasts because winter is right around the corner. What’s hot, DJ Roomba?  Continue Reading »

We ain’t got no place to go/so let’s go to the punk rock show/darling take me by the hand/we’re gonna see a punk rock band/there’s no use in TV shows/radio or rodeo/I wanna get into the crowd/I wanna hear it played real loud

I may have expressed once or twice my love for punk rock as well as my predilection for live music. So when I get the chance I always try to combine these two loves, and so far this year has helped me feed this addiction quite well. Actually this has been one of the best concert years for me as the bands I have wanted to see not only tore shit up, but were on tour with some fairly awesome bands.

I have been so blown away by these shows that I just want to sing their praises, and hopefully convince you to check out some of these bands next time they swing through, unless you buying a ticket somehow keeps me from getting one, then fuck you, you stay home.

Now, as the wracked with grammatical errors MxPx song suggests, let’s go to the punk rock show! Continue Reading »

Maybe it’s the dawning of a new year or maybe it was the Salt N’ Pepa and TLC rocking the pub the other night, whatever it was it has caused some nostalgia in me and I was thinking about some of the awesome (read: awful) music I used to spend a lot of my time listening to. Turns out I used to be into a lot of non-threatening rap music which is odd considering now my iPod is filled with a lot of angry punk rock chalk full of violent imagery.

How far I have come. Continue Reading »

Some mornings just start so nicely, you just awake in a good mood, there’s no barking from the dog, no smog, a breakfast with no hog, er wait, I like bacon. The point is everything in the world just feels right. Then you get into the elevator at work and the lingering aroma from the last occupant assaults your nostrils and sends the day down a whole new awful direction.

The weird thing is the smell wasn’t a fart, or a rotting corpse, or some other foul rancid odor. The scent that set me off was the fragrance of some, I’m presuming, woman’s perfume. Now for the most part I love the way women smell, usually they smell so pretty. This particular morning the perfume wafting through the tiny compartment was that of a cocoanut persuasion. It smelled like a goddamned pina colada in that elevator. Now I’m not against pina coladas, but if given options I wouldn’t drink one. But that is not where the problem lies. The problem comes from Rupert Holmes and his asstacular song “Escape (The Pina Colada Song).” Continue Reading »

As we get back into the swing of things here at the Cru Jones Society, we might as well stick to what we know. Last year I shared with you a playlist to close out your summer.  And yeah, fine, it was also my birthday playlist, but I’m willing to bet if you actually created that playlist for yourself, you had a damn good time drinking on the patio while it played in the background.

So, in keeping that same spirit, I present to you Songs to Close Out Your Summer Pt. II (aka E Dagger’s 29^th Birthday Playlist). Grab some beers, program your iTunes, and let’s enjoy the waning days of patio weather together. Continue Reading »

I have two giant cases full of CDs. One of them is filled with punk and ska discs and the other is filled with everything else. The punk case contains roughly double the discs of the “everything else” binder, which is another way of saying, I have fairly narrow tastes. Although I do have my moments of broadness.

I don’t visit the other case as I often as I do the punk one, so let’s follow Hart’s lead and see what are the five best ones from the non-punk world of music. Continue Reading »

This past Saturday I went down to the local record shop and partook in the activities of Record Store Day. For those who don’t know, this is a day devoted to celebrating independent record stores, place like Championship Vinyl from High Fidelity. There are special releases and live music; it’s like the end of Empire Records only not as over the top. Continue Reading »

During CJS’s impromptu 80s Week, we’ve covered two of the three biggest markers of 80s culture: fashion and movies. The fashion was pretty appalling, all things considered, but the movies consistently rank among our all-time favorites. But what of that all-important third marker? Yes, we have yet to touch on the ubiquitous song stylings of this decade.

Until now, that is. However, rather than devote thousands upon thousands of words to the already well-worn subject (you probably have VH-1 in your home – just watch that some Saturday if you want to re-live the 80s for several hours), we’ll narrow this down substantially.

Using an all-important and highly esteemed committee of one, I’ve chosen what I believe are the 3 Best Songs of the 1980s, and 3 Songs that Deserve a Fiery, Miserable Death in a Plane Crash to Hell. Why take a measured, nuanced view of an entire decade when you can boil it down into 6 probably unrepresentative elements instead, right? Let’s get started. Continue Reading »

From the raucous excitement of the road ahead in the CJS Road Trip Mix to the angsty fury of the CJS Punk Rawk Mix, we come now to slow it down and urge you to get close to the one next to you (or to whomever that increasingly attractive person you brought home for the local watering hole earlier this evening is), and cuddle up for a fierce session that if you’re lucky will include some heavy petting. While not quite the makeout session mix requested by CassieB in yesterday’s comments section (Ours would have included “End of the Road” by Boyz II Men and “Baby Baby Baby” by TLC), this is the grown up version.

This is your Love Lounge Mix. This is for when you get back to your place and need a little musical accompaniment for your wine, candles, and flavor-blasted Goldfish crackers (the snack equivalent of Spanish Fly, I’m tellin’ ya). I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine if I’ve made this mix for a friend, and if the mix was successful in scoring said friend any action. Sadly, I was well on the road to engaged by the time I made this, and closing the deal with your long-term girlfriend involves a slightly lower degree of difficulty. Besides, she likes it better when I obnoxiously sing “Everywhere” by Michelle Branch in a comical falsetto anyway, so this mix would have been largely useless.

But for those of you looking to ease into a little action, I guarantee you this mix is as good as any, if not way better than anything you’d come up with on your own. And how could I make such an outlandish claim? Let’s find out, shall we? Continue Reading »

We try to stay open to all types of music, but when all is said and through punk rock is our main love. And when something brings as much joy as punk brings to our lives, we want to share it with those we consider close to us. So we conceived this mix to pay tribute to the different styles found under the punk rock umbrella. This is by no means an all encompassing list. It’s like using that little spoon at the ice cream shop to get a taste of the broad spectrum of punk rock. And we want you to feel more open to try punk rock so we didn’t pick an acquired taste like pralines and dick, but the more well liked flavors like triple chocolate fudge. So grab your spoon and try the 20 flavors we think you may enjoy. Continue Reading »

It’s Mix Tape week here at CJS and what are putting together some mixes for some of those special times in life where a variety is needed. We kicked it off yesterday with some of the songs that seem to always find their way onto our mixes. I can’t promise those songs won’t make it onto any of these, but we’ll do our best. Continue Reading »

Welcome to the 2^nd Monday Confessional of 2010. Not a lot of Confessors this week – one actually – and we suspect the nature of the question might be a tad esoteric. We asked you: When you’re creating a new playlist, what song always seems to find its way onto every mix? When you make as many mixes as Hart and Dagger, you take for granted that not everyone thinks as heavily about music as we do, and might not even make mixes at all.

Case in point: When we wrote our “Sweatin’ to the CJS” mix, many of you espoused to not even making workout mixes at all and just put the player on shuffle which strikes us a completely alien concept. But we make a buttload of mixes, and since this week deals almost exclusively with this pursuit, despite our low participation, we’re here to share our mixing peccadilloes with you. So grab your Mp3 player, and let’s see what songs often find their way onto the CJS playlists. Continue Reading »

The Cru Jones Society is proud to welcome our special guest for our Favorite Musical Acts 0f the ‘00s, and a good friend: Roxy. Roxy is a former station manager and primetime DJ at a prominent college radio station, and currently writes the excellent “Effortless Anthropologie” blog covering all the latest fashions from clothing store Anthropologie. We’re thrilled to have Roxy with us. Please give her a warm welcome to the Cru Jones Society!

When Dagger asked me to write this column, I was thrilled to an obnoxious degree. Music is such a huge part of my life even as artists and the industry conspire to kill my good vibes. Even though I live in New York, I attend a shamefully low number of concerts. Turns out what was fun at 17 (sneaking into clubs, waiting in line in short dresses while getting ogled, getting pushed around in the pits, dropping hundreds to see the cool bands) ain’t so fun at 27. Especially after you’ve been spoiled by working in radio. But thanks to the wonders of the internet and its magical tubes of wonder I am still listening to music pretty much 24/7. God bless the internets. In writing this column I only considered bands that have been around for at least 10 years. Not fair to include younger bands in my opinion. Continue Reading »

This list was more difficult to put together than the movie one. Since most of the decade was spent drinking it would have been very easy to pick nothing but party music. There was also my tendency to only want to talk about the albums Rancid and the Bouncing Souls released since 2000, but they have been rocking my soul since the mid 90s. But I combed through all my music and found the 5 acts that really seemed important to the decade. So crank it to 11 and let’s rock again. Continue Reading »

Our Best of the Decade feature rolls on. Thanks again to Rob Rector for offering his two cents on our movie series (Visit Natsukashi dammit!). This week we move to music as Hart, another very special guest, and yours truly discuss our five favorite music acts from the aughts. So strap on your headphones, settle in, and let’s talk some tunes. Continue Reading »

Monday Night Football is on tonight and the Green Bay Packers take on the Baltimore Ravens. Two teams that have names that are not completely dumb. Dealing with local history and daunting, soul eating birds. Unfortunately these are part of a small selection of non-asinine names used by teams or bands. There are a lot so we asked you: What are the best and worst team and band names out there? You responded in full force. So as usual the CJS staff is first and then we follow it up with your responses. Continue Reading »

Thanksgiving has come on gone, we hope you all enjoyed yours, but now Christmas is right around the corner and that means our local soft rock station is gearing up to over play their Christmas playlist, the cable network USA is going to put Elf on every night and of course TBS will have its 24 hour marathon of A Christmas Story. For this Monday Confessional we followed in this spirit of over indulgence as we asked: What is your most played CD and most watched movie? Let’s get to it so you can get back to watching your movie. Continue Reading »

Concerts are a staple here at the Cru Jones Society. We have spent many a night, and a few days, at concerts listen to music, drinking and growing friendships. And we’re willing to guess you have seen a band or two in your day. But like pizza delivery, televised sports, or two for one drink night, all good things have to start somewhere. With that we had one question for you: What was your first concert?

The responses this week run the musical genre gambit, from Alternative, country, and even some decade defining 80′s awesomness. We’ll start with the usual opening acts of Hart and Dagger and then what you have all come for, your responses. The stage is set so let’s get the house lights down and turn this mother out. Continue Reading »