Things Are Tough All Over

Long week. Not much time for posting, writing, or doing much of anything. Without disclosing too much about what I do in real life and all of that boring bullshit, much of what I’ve done during the day is try to reassure people that the recent economic meltdown isn’t effecting the company that I work for. I go through S&P ratings, advise that our financial investments are long term and less susceptible to the short term chaos and assure them that we don’t have much interaction with some of the more sufferable companies that are looking for government bailouts.
I hope the people that are picking up the phone and calling me are also calling up their county auditor and asking for an absentee ballot because they’re so ready to flush this administration out and any other similar facsimile.
I don’t understand how this presidential race is even close.
Solace comes in the insanity of 13th Floor Elevators, which aren’t that insane at all. But their “fuck all” attitude seems appropriately fitting at the moment.
AC/DC announced their tour last week…and I don’t have the money or time off to see it. Hopefully, this will indeed be an 18 month venture and they’ll make their way back around to the secondary market next year. The new single is surprisingly good, and it looks like the band is taking days off during the week, perhaps to save Johnson’s voice.
Nearly everyone I talk to is completely ambivalent towards the new AC/DC album Black Ice, which makes me feel old for some reason. For nearly twenty years, they’ve released nothing but sub-par material, which is frustrating considering how basic their formula is. The Young brothers seem to have a lot of worthy riffs inside of them, but the songwriting…surely not the band’s forte…is completely diminishing, as they’ve grown older when it should be showing some signs of efficiency and increased cleverness. “Rock ‘n Roll Train” is badass.
Fuck all the haters and snobs.
Here’s the part where I admit that I recently bought Rush’s Snakes & Arrows Live disc because I’m a douchebag and wanted to have an audio memento from that tour.
This has to be Rush’s tenth live album or something…remember when you could count on it every five albums?...and it really is a release that is no concern to a casual fan.
Also, there are hints that the wife is looking at wanting to see a show. The bands Metallica and Nine Inch Nails have been uttered. I told her that I saw Metallica back when they sold their soul to the mainstream on The Black Album and even produced a poster signed by the four (then) members. I have to admit that the package they have going on is pretty cool: for an extra ten bones you get to download the entire show afterwards. It’s a nifty way to give fans a memento that’s more reasonably priced than anything at the merch table and it’s a way to show fans that they recognize the web is a primary delivery source of music, whether Lars likes it or not.
Nine-Inch Nails is right in my back yard. I’m not a fan, but I’ve heard the stage show is pretty cool and that Boris is opening. It’s been a while since I’ve been more excited about the headliner of an arena tour than the actual headliner, so this may be worth checking out. For her at least.
But then it comes back to the economy. I don’t know about you, but that dude from the Beaver Brown Band was right. To go to any of these shows requires tickets, babysitter, parking, a few beers and, before you know it, you’ve dropped $200 for a night out. In club dollars, that’s over 10 shows. In family units, it’s a few weeks of groceries. In the real world, it means that bands had better start getting a handle on all of the bullshit extra charges or they’ll watch their own revenues falter.
I mean, fuck it, Chuck Berry is playing for free, man…