Tag Archive for: Music

XM Radio

I have to say one of my favorite features of my new car is XM satellite radio. I always wondered who would pay for radio. The quality is not that great, it’s radio so you hear the same stuff over and over, and there are way too many commercials. With my car I received three free months of XM’s service. Of course they give it to you free hoping they’ll hook you and have you purchase the service after the three months are up. Well, I’m hooked. XM takes all my preconceived notions about radio and throws them out the car window. The quality is fantastic, there is a great mixture of songs and stations, and very few commercials (the commercials I have heard are usually for other XM stations).

I love XM. There. I said it. The programming is perfect for me. I love old school hip hop and guess what, there is a station for that. I love liberal talk radio, and guess what, there’s Air America Radio. Now, St. Louis does have an AAR affiliate, but it’s not a dedicated affiliate, meaning they have other programming on the station as well, and the signal is very weak. It’s nice to be able to turn it on whenever I want and listen. I also love being able to listen to XM online. I listen to it quite a bit at home. It will be really nice when I travel. I’ll never have to search for a local station and hope they play good music. I have my 10 or so favorite stations on XM that I can listen to across the country. I’m definitely keeping the service after the free three months are up.

Tupac: The Best of…

Interscope Records recently released two separate Tupac CDs entitled 2pac: Best of Thug and 2pac Best of Life. I love Tupac’s music. I have been a fan of his for years and have every album he’s released, as well as numerous books on him. This is getting out of hand. I’m tired of record labels milking his legacy for all it’s worth. I mean, it’s one thing to continually put out new material, but when you release two Best of cds that have almost the exact same track listing as the Greatest Hits cd that was released a few years ago you are destroying his legacy. Quit trying to make money off of him. Quit trying to sucker consumers into thinking they are buying something new. It’s getting old. Also, quit putting out really shitty remix albums of his music. The Nu Mix Classics albums are completely horrible. Stop paring up crappy would-be producers with Pac’s music. That’s just wrong. If you want to get into Pac’s music, buy the Greatest Hits double album and not the Best of two separate discs.

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Tupac Shakur Legacy

2pac legacy
I was at the mall Christmas shopping today and came across a book while waiting in line to check out. It was in the Bargain Books section. The book is Tupac Shakur Legacy. Originally priced at $45, I picked this gem up for $4.99. It’s kind of sad that it went for this cheap. I was even more shocked when I opened the book and saw just how cool it is. The book is about Tupac’s life, but the way it presents it is great. I’ve seen this done with World War II books before, but never a biography. What it does is includes reproductions of things from Tupac’s life with it. There’s programs from when he attended his school for the performing arts, poetry written in his own handwriting, pages from the Gridlock’d script, his recording contract with Death Row Records, and various other documents. It is a really cool book. I’m so glad I went to the mall today and saw this.

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Sammy Hagar is a Tool

St. Louis has always been a strong supporter of Sammy Hagar. His shows sell out here whenever he plays, the radio stations have always been friendly to him, and I’m sure he’s sold a great deal of records in the St. Louis area. That all may change thanks to his recent show where he revealed just how immature he really is. Before I continue I must state that the story I’m telling is not one I personally witnessed. I was not at his show, but what happened has brought up a heated discussion on radio shows and the internet. According to one fan, this is what happened:

About midway through his set Sammy hoisted a Miller beer and said it’s Miller Time !!!!!

The crows booed loudly, as you would expect in St. Louis.

Sammy then went off about how he went to the A.B. people and wanted to make a Cabo Wabo beer. But, A.B. turned him down and have decided to supposedly go with a Jimmy Buffet Beer-Tequila product instead.

So, Sammy blasted their decision, and said how he would NEVER drink an AB product, and would never serve Carona at Cabo again.

Then, he asked the A.B. employees in the audience to raise their hands, and then told them to go ask the A.B. people about the meeting.

The crowd’s frenzy was gone, and the love affair with Hagar was over for many.

He then mentioned it again a few songs later, and said he has already reserved a date to play Busch Stadium this summer. Although Sammy referred to it as “Miller Stadium.” Loud boos followed, which Sammy snickered at.

“We’re friends with Miller now.” he said defiantly. Several fans flipped the bird at the shows conclusion, and boos were heard among the applause.

Seriously, how immature can you be? Your concert is not a place to air out your grievances because a company didn’t want to do business with you. And, as anyone in St. Louis will tell you, coming into our city and talking bad about our beer is on the same level as going to Mecca and criticizing Islam or to Vatican City and criticizing Catholics. St. Louis is a proud city. We are proud of our city, our baseball and our beer. Talk smack on any of those things and you’ve declared war. Grow up Sammy.

New Music

I need some new music. I’ve gotten CunninLynguists’ Dirty Acres album, but I’ve had that for a while now. It’s definitely a great album, and I listen to it all the time, but that’s the problem. I need to mix my music listening up a bit so I don’t burn myself out on it. It’s really that good of an album that I’ve been listening to it non-stop for about a month or so. I need someone to recommend some good music. I like pretty much anything except for country and death metal. If you’re a regular reader you’ve seen me post or talk about music from a wide variety of genres, from hip hop to jazz and electronic to rock, and pretty much everything in between. So my friends, what will it be? I need something good.