SPAZ SPEAKS: Music is NOT Wallpaper!

I, too, am guilty of this evil in which I speak of....

There are times when certain songs become so overplayed, so ingrained in your psyche, that you begin to not notice them anymore.  Whether they come up over the loud system in a store or perhaps in your iTunes shuffle, on your tape deck, in a record store, whatever....these songs, which used to give you goosebumps, become nothing more than part of the scenery, not unlike wallpaper.  I mean, it's there, but you don't really notice it anymore...almost like it's NOT there.

I mean, how many times have you cranked up the radio when "Yesterday" by The Beatles comes on?  Maybe once since 1987? 

How many times have you stopped dead in your tracks just to listen to the majesty of Zepp's "Stairway To Heaven"? Well, apart from your kid brother playing the opening riff over and over when he first got his guitar.... (which makes me wonder: has that simplistic opening riff to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" replaced "Stairway To Heaven" as the song that beginners want to learn first? I certainly hope not...)

Do you even notice Mick Jagger's backing vocals on Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" anymore? What, you didn't ever notice them before?

After awhile, just like anything else, we take music and entertainment for granted. It fades into the background and we just stop noticing.  I don't think we ever stop caring about it.... its just sort of there.  Not unlike a cat.  What, your forgot you had a cat, too?

How is it that we lose those feelings for something that once made us feel so alive?  And once lost, can we find that feeling again?  Thankfully, I believe that we can. All it takes is for us to try to revisit the moment we first heard a particular song... the moment it slipped right down into the soul and took root....

For example, about 10 years ago, A Flock Of Seagulls' "I Ran" came on the radio.  Normally, I admit that I would have just turned it off because I've heard it so many times. And to be honest, it was strange that I was listening to the radio in the first place because I always have a plethora of new stuff to listen to or CD-R mixes that I make myself...
But anyway, I was about to turn off the car and head into Target or wherever I was going. But then I heard that guitar riff.  I've heard those guitar riffs so many times, I almost forgot they were there.... but they leaped out at me right away.  I paused and thought back to the time that I first bought that album at Licorice Pizza so many years ago.  I remember first hearing that track when I threw the album on, before radio picked up on it and played it to death.  I think I had heard it once or twice on KROQ, but when I played the album for the first time, it was really when I fell in love with the track...  My memories took me back to that first time, the excitement of hearing something NEW.
Then, suddenly, that song clicked again with me.  It had been 20 years or so since I listened to it from beginning to end, but for the first time in ages, I wanted to hear it again!  I finished my shopping and rushed home and threw it on the CD player.  I probably listened to it five more times that day. I'm glad to say that I still love hearing it today.... I still hate the video, though!




A more recent example would be Squeeze's 'Someone Else's Heart", which is from the East Side Story album, one of my favorite albums of all time.  Now, I never stopped loving this track, but it became just another song that played on the iPod that became a part of the background... something that didn't leap out and kick me in the head when I heard it....
Just the other day, it was on an '80s mp3 comp I was playing in my car.  It came on and I almost skipped it to see what was next, but I decided to let it play.  Then, I began to remember just what an exciting time it was for me when this album came out.  And I remembered how cool it was to hear Chris Difford actually singing instead of croaking his way through the song (as he did on previous albums... the song "Cool For Cats" is a great example)... and suddenly, I was totally digging the track again!  I played it once more before I arrived at work to begin my day...




There are other examples, but I won't bore you with them.  What I'm trying to say, though, is that music makes up the soundtrack of your life and you have to stay connected to it in order to make it mean something years down the line.  As I have proven, I am guilty of this as well, but I also spend enormous amounts of time reconnecting with it all, over and over again.  Sometimes, I lose the plot.  Other times, I still get those goosebumps decades later.  But the important thing is that I am at peace with music, whether it's Pilot's "Magic", Spandau Ballet's "True", Buddy Holly's "Words Of Love", Elvis' "Suspicious Minds", The Fixx's "Saved By Zero", Paul McCartney's "My Love", George McRea's "Rock Your Baby" or the two aforementioned examples.

So, stop looking at music as wallpaper, as something that is 'there' and let it sink back into the places it used to inhabit so many years ago.  Get in touch with that music lover inside of you, pull out those old records, tapes, CDs or mp3s and throw yourself a party.

Music matters.


Peace, love and pancakes,
Stephen SPAZ Schnee

SOULSAVERS/The Light The Dead See: Available May 2nd, 2012!

SOULSAVERS

THE LIGHT THE DEAD SEE

5.22.12

2012 follow-up to their critically acclaimed album Broken (2009). Soulsavers, the music and production team of Rich Machin and Ian Glover have been a growing force since 2003's debut Tough Guys Don't Dance. 2007's It's Not How Far You Fall, It's The Way You Land brought their dark flair to a wider audience. In 2009, third album Broken confirmed that Soulsavers were moving away from early electronica to earthier guitars, use of space and what Machin described as "a soulful twist".

THE BEASTIE BOYS' Adam "MCA" Yauch Dies at 47

The Beastie Boys' Adam Yauch (center)

ADAM YAUCH

August 5, 1964 - May 4, 2012

It is with great sadness that we confirm that musician, rapper, activist and director Adam “MCA” Yauch, founding member of Beastie Boys and also of the Milarepa Foundation that produced the Tibetan Freedom Concert benefits, and film production and distribution company Oscilloscope Laboratories, passed away in his native New York City this morning after a near-three-year battle with cancer. He was 47 years old.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Yauch taught himself to play bass in high school, forming a band for his 17th birthday party that would later become known the world over as Beastie Boys.

With fellow members Michael “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Adrock” Horovitz, Beastie Boys would go on to sell over 40 million records, release four #1 albums–including the first hip hop album ever to top the Billboard 200, the band’s 1986 debut full length, Licensed To Ill–win three Grammys, and the MTV Video Vanguard Lifetime Achievement award. Last month Beastie Boys were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, with Diamond and Horovitz reading an acceptance speech on behalf of Yauch, who was unable to attend.

In addition to his hand in creating such historic Beastie Boys albums as Paul’s Boutique, Check Your Head, Ill Communication, Hello Nasty and more, Yauch was a founder of the Milarepa Fund, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting awareness and activism regarding the injustices perpetrated on native Tibetans by Chinese occupational government and military forces. In 1996, Milarepa produced the first Tibetan Freedom Concert in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, which was attended by 100,000 people, making it the biggest benefit concert on U.S. soil since 1985’s Live Aid. The Tibetan Freedom Concert series would continue to stage some of the most significant benefit shows in the world for nearly a decade following in New York City, Washington DC, Tokyo, Sydney, Amsterdam, Taipei and other cities.

In the wake of September 11, 2001, Milarepa organized New Yorkers Against Violence, a benefit headlined by Beastie Boys at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom, with net proceeds disbursed to the New York Women’s Foundation Disaster Relief Fund and the New York Association for New Americans (NYANA) September 11th Fund for New Americans–each chosen for their efforts on behalf of 9/11 victims least likely to receive help from other sources.

Under the alias of Nathanial Hörnblowér, Yauch directed iconic Beastie Boys videos including ”So Whatcha Want,” ”Intergalactic,” “Body Movin” and “Ch-Check It Out.” Under his own name, Yauch directed last year’s Fight For Your Right Revisited, an extended video for “Make Some Noise” from Beastie Boys’ Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, starring Elijah Wood, Danny McBride and Seth Rogen as the 1986 Beastie Boys, making their way through a half hour of cameo-studded misadventures before squaring off against Jack Black, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as Beastie Boys of the future.

Yauch’s passion and talent for filmmaking led to his founding of Oscilloscope Laboratories, which in 2008 released his directorial film debut, the basketball documentary Gunnin’ For That #1 Spot and has since become a major force in independent video distribution, amassing a catalogue of such acclaimed titles as Kelly Reichardt’s Wendy and Lucy, Oren Moverman’s The Messenger, Banksy’s Exit Through The Gift Shop, Lance Bangs and Spike Jonze’s Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait Of Maurice Sendak, and many more.

Yauch is survived by his wife Dechen and his daughter Tenzin Losel, as well as his parents Frances and Noel Yauch.