The Flaming Lips In Concert

By Justin Cates

I made a quick trip to Buffalo in mid-July for a highly anticipated live set from professional weirdos The Flaming Lips.

I enjoy their music for the surprising number of beautiful melodies often interspersed amongst 8 minute tracks of ambient noise. And that sums them up, you have to be willing to take the strange with the easily accessible.

As a strange man myself, both bits are enjoyable as I can indulge my own eccentricities while still catering to the musical needs of my more mainstream companions.

The Lips have long been known for their over-the-top stage performances featuring among other things front man and likely alien Wayne Coyne crowd surfing in an enormous plastic bubble or cradling a baby doll as pictured above.

Then there are the fantastic lights, smoke and confetti reminiscent of a New York City ticker tape parade.

Things were slightly subdued at Artpark in Lewiston, NY as they have been this entire tour. The band's most recent release The Terror represents a darker chapter in their catalog and so it's no surprise that some of the craziness has been tamped down.

But even so, "subdued" in this case meant Wayne Coyne clad in a green spacesuit perched atop a myriad of chrome spheres as umbilical cords of light emanated energy in time with the music.

It was a wonderful experience with few stones left unturned in terms of the setlist. About half of The Terror was played as the crowd was continually urged by Wayne to be happy and keep partying. 


They also dipped liberally into the back catalog with classic tracks like "Race For The Prize", "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Part 1", "Do You Realize?" and perhaps my personal favorite, "A Spoonful Weighs A Ton".

It was uplifting and mellow and colorful and unexpected. Everything one could ask for from a show was granted in joyful abundance.

As Wayne stated a while back in a Reddit AMA, "I think like all artists and musicians, we want to know that we disturbed the comfortable and comforted the disturbed."

On this night, they certainly did. 

Football Season Is Here

There's lots of content coming this week (no, seriously) but we start with something epic.

A man going by the Internet handle VTimHokie85 has been making these terrific Hollywood-style trailers for Hokie football for several years, but this one may well be the most epic.

I challenge anyone, regardless of team affiliation, to watch this and not get fired up.

I do not recommend watching it when you're halfway through a cup of coffee. The intoxicating mix of caffeine and adrenalin takes a while to leave your system.

Virginia Tech opens the season August 31st at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta against the two-time defending national champions and No. 1 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide.

Bands You Should Know: Haim

By Justin Cates

As you may have noticed recently in addition to our now trademark woeful lack of posts, I've ceased posting our somewhat popular recurring feature "Cover Tuesday's".

Essentially, I ran out of good versions of cover songs and stopped temporarily for fear of pushing mediocre content on the world–not to say that's stopped me before.

I don't really mind posting a rant that no one cares about—that puts me in company with about 15,000 other bloggers—but pushing mediocre music suddenly turns me into MTV and I WILL NOT become TRL 2.0 (unless MTV or some other network wishes to pay me an exorbitant fee, in which case I will quite quickly "sell out").

At any rate, I'm going to start posting about mildly obscure bands because there a few greater joys than discovering new music. 

To start with, I present Los Angeles rockers Haim (rhymes with lime).

The group features the Haim sisters sisters Este, Danielle and Alana along with drummer Dash Hutton.

Haim's first album Days Are Gone doesn't drop until September, but they've created plenty of buzz with their debut Forever EP released in 2012.

The songs are an interesting brand of funky, offbeat indie pop that makes for an excellent summer soundtrack.

Most articles about the band seem to try and paint them as some kind of modern take on seventies pop. I can't really comment on that specifically as apart from Zeppelin and Little Feat I've always been mortally terrified of that decade from a musical (and cultural) standpoint*.

The EP's title track, "Forever" is the catchiest cut on the record and the performance below from their appearance on Late Night with David Letterman was how I stumbled upon the group.



"The Wire" is a track from their new album that is incredibly catchy. Admittedly, the drum track is borrowed quite directly from The Eagles which does not please The Dude.

*For the sake of full disclosure, I did at one point own a Bee Gees Greatest Hits cassette and I quite enjoyed it.  

Back on the Air With The New ACC

Editor's Note: My apologies for the weird font issue in the final section. I hate Blogger with a violent passion and will be moving to a new service as soon as I find one that suits our needs. Also, we just went over 100,000 page views all time despite our recent bout of woeful inactivity. Thanks for stopping by.

By Justin Cates

There's been a significant blackout here on the blog for the month of June. I apologize and will explain in due course. For now though, I'd like to extend a fairly warm welcome to the three new members of the Atlantic Coast Conference: Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Notre Dame.

Their membership formally kicks into effect today and brings the number of conference members to 14.5 as Notre Dame is only partially in for football because, well, they can I guess.

Despite being driven by the ever-changing landscape of college football, the move really serves to solidify the ACC as the best basketball conference in the nation.

As such, given the current toxic nature of the Virginia Tech basketball program, I don't expect to see the Hokies compete any time soon even though the conference may well be an eight bid league come the big tournament in March.

It will be interesting to see how these programs evolve in the two biggest sports, football and basketball. I'm particularly curious to see how these hoops squads evolve from the physical post play of the Big East to the fast-pace style employed by the bulk of the ACC.

These schools have three of the finest coaches in college hoops so they shouldn't have a problem, still it's a vastly different style. Also, we call fouls.

I'm particularly excited for Syracuse to make only their second ever trip to Cassell Coliseum. It marks the only time since 1978 when the Hokies upset the No. 10 Orange by 17-points likely inducing a number of facial cringes in Jim Boeheim.

Syracuse was the only one of these new schools not to come to Blacksburg during Tech's brief stay in the Big East, likely because they are special.

They will fit in well with the Carolina schools who as all new members will quickly find feel entitled to things which they are not.  

But enough negativity, welcome friends! Try the barbecue and don't get too comfortable.


Erick Green Drafted in NBA's Second Round 

ACC Player of the Year Erick Green was selected by the Utah Jazz last week with the 16th pick of the second round (46th overall). He was promptly traded to the Denver Nuggets for their first round selection Rudy Gobert (27th pick) and cash.

Denver thinks very highly of Green who led the nation in scoring this past season. If he makes the squad, he figures to help a lack of depth in Denver's backcourt. They are led by former North Carolina star Ty Lawson at point guard with veterans Andre Miller and Andre Iguodala the other major guards.

Iguodala has already met with the Detroit Pistons so he may be on his way out. That would leave Denver perilously thin at the guard spots. If Green has a good summer league, it wouldn't surprise me at all to see him suit up in the NBA next season.


Hokie Baseball Coach Pete Hughes Heads to Oklahoma

Virginia Tech is fresh off hosting their first NCAA baseball regional and posting 40-22 record, but they'll have to follow it up with a different head coach.

Pete Hughes decided to take the top job at Oklahoma last week after Sooners' coach Sunny Golloway left for Auburn.

Hughes spent 7 seasons in Blacksburg, rejuvenating a program that had languished at the end of legendary head coach Chuck Hartman's tenure. 

As has become his custom, Tech athletic director Jim Weaver quickly hired Hughes' top assistant, pitching coach Patrick Mason.

Mason has himself led a turnaround during his three seasons in Blacksburg vastly improving Tech's pitching staff. He announced at his introductory press conference that assistant Mike Kunagonis would also be staying with the program as associate head coach.   


     

How ESPN Killed Tim Tebow's Career

By W.T. Salisbury M.D.

Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow is currently in the process of washing out of the NFL, and if you're one of those people who can't stand him, you have ESPN to thank.

The mothership went out of it's way to push the "Tebow angle" because they thrive on beating a dead horse, reviving it, and beating it again.

It's no secret that personalities were instructed to mention Tebow as often as possible. Former ESPN college basketball analyst and current CBS punching bag Doug Gottlieb mentioned this fact a while back on The Dan Patrick Show.

I was told specifically, 'You can't talk enough Tebow.' I would jokingly throw it into a segment. 'I gotta find 15 seconds here to talk about Tebow, all right let's move on and talk about Major League Baseball.'

And this is what ESPN does now. Rather than report the news they attempt to create it in the most haphazard of manners.

What the actual story consists of is inconsequential. Whether it's Brett Favre coming out of retirement, anything someone like Tebow or LeBron James says, or a big upcoming event they're broadcasting, ESPN loves to jam it down our throats until we finally say, "Man, this must be a big deal".

Tebow in particular has been the goose that lays the golden egg. The trouble is, rather than let the eggs come when they're ready ESPN decided to scream in the goose's ear to goad it along.

"I want to control the news cycle NOW!"

Eventually, the poor beast became so stressed out by these fools that it couldn't lay any eggs at all.

Having no alternatives, they killed, cooked and carved the bird devouring it whole only to move on to the next unlucky fowl.

If it wasn't clear, Tim Tebow is the goose in this scenario.

Certainly, the fact that Tim Tebow isn't a very good quarterback is also a factor in his being blackballed. But he's at least as capable as a host of second and third string backups throughout the NFL.

Most young guys with raw talent and a flawed throwing motion would get a chance to naturally develop behind a more polished veteran. For example, Philip Rivers throws a football like I discard an empty beer can but he's now a veteran Pro Bowler.

Sometimes patience pays off, sometimes it doesn't. Backups wash out all the time—even former first round draft picks—but rarely do they receive attention like this.

ESPN went out of their way to constantly bombard us with Tebow coverage, even injecting him into unrelated stories. They oversaturated the market with Tebow nonsense to such an extent that he became a "circus" and too big of a "risk" for teams to consider bringing him on board.

Now, ESPN has the gall to report on how he can't find a job as a free agent because of this "circus" that their very network had a significant role in creating.

Tim Tebow minding his own business. HOW DARE HE?!

It's the worst kind of non-journalism. ESPN doesn't report the news, they make it. It's manufactured in a gleaming, high-definition studio trimmed with neon backlights and greed all quaintly nestled in rural Connecticut.  

Nothing Tebow does on his own really stirs up controversy that isn't created by the media.

Does he talk about his religion? Yeah, but only when he's asked about it. He doesn't go out of his way to mention it when being asked football questions.

Even if he does bring it up, it's to thank his Lord and savior for his blessings which seemingly every marginal athlete does when interviewed postgame.

Again, he is flawed as a player even though he has the intangibles of "heart"and "toughness" which every hack of a general manager and hard-nosed coach claims to want in a player.

Truth is, they don't know what they want. You hear people whispering with increasing volume that Tebow will have to change positions to stay in the league.

Right. That makes sense.

Because I'm sure a former quarterback drafted in the first round will draw far less attention as a back-up tight end. No way SportsCenter would play that story on loop 24/7.

These people are incompetent boobs of the first order.

The NFL won't make a move because of the feared media distraction and ESPN won't shut up about the media distraction even though THEY ARE THE DISTRACTION.

Coming up on SportsCenter, can Ouroboros perform in the clutch? Stephen A. Smith will scream at you about it...

ESPN has become Ouroboros, the mythical serpent that eats its own tail. It is a neverending cycle of fake arguments and hot air that tries in vain to re-create itself but succeeds only in driving the wedge further between viewers and their programming.

One can only hope the monster finally does devour itself, if not for Tim Tebow's sake, than for the sanity of all.

Cover Tuesday: Celluloid Loves Got A John Frusciante

Full disclosure, I have a soft spot for the Bee Gees. I obtained some kind of greatest hits compilation as a child on cassette tape and while disco music is generally detestable, I found a lot of their songs to be quite good.

"How Deep Is Your Love" would have to be up there as far as the group's best work is concerned.

It's a song that transcends the perception that many people have of the Bee Gees as the disposable soundtrack of the seventies. They should be known for more than being the soundtrack for John Travolta and that terrible Sgt. Pepper's movie they made.


This is a very touching song and this rendition by the Red Hot Chili Peppers' John Frusciante is stark and lovely. Also, you can't miss Flea performing a bizarre take on "If You're Happy and You Know It" during the first five seconds.

Next is a rather hilarious version of Elton John's classic "Tiny Dancer" as interpreted by rocker and sometimes comedian Dave Grohl.

This performance comes from the now thankfully defunct Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn–current host Craig Ferguson is infinitely funnier. Dave appears to have just wandered in off the street, not even bothering to spit out his chewing gum before leading the crowd in a rousing rendition of this cut.

This isn't a cover, but it is awesome. As if you needed more reasons to love Dave Grohl, here he is teaching Tenacious D's Kyle Gass how to write a hit.