Memorial Day Hangover Music: Nineties Edition

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Memorial Day filled with grotesque self-indulgence as only America can serve up.

Hopefully, somewhere between adult beverages and ill-advised water sports you had a chance to think of those who currently and previously served in our armed forces. You know, the reason the banks were closed?

Anyway, I'd imagine most people don't feel in top form today if they went all out yesterday, and there's nothing that fixes...well, anything like music.

I've chosen songs from the nineties because (excluding the very end) it was arguably the best decade of the modern music era. I've casually defined that as anything post-1975 in my own mind because tunes from before that are virtually untouchable in a critical or artistic sense.

The music of the first half of the nineties was a complete turnaround from the glossy, over-produced filth of the eighties.

Gone were the "Phil Collins drum sound" and the excessive synthesizers, replaced by angst-ridden wailing guitars, esoteric lyrics and jeans with holes and flannel shirts.

In short, people stopped being stupid and started rocking again.

I do find it odd that after getting away from the pop nonsense of the eighties, the end of the nineties and the subsequent decade saw a return to the over-polished bubblegum pop of before...but WORSE.

We can only hope these things are as cyclical as they've been in the past, but I worry as the coming generation is clearly filled with impatient knuckleheads with the attention span of goldfish who are want to babble incoherently in some kind of bastardized Internet-speak. I'm not even sure most kids today know how to use a pen and paper.

But I digress. I realize this was a bit heavy for curing hangovers.

I've tried to avoid enormous hits with these songs with some obvious exceptions. I love how nineties videos didn't need a plot or obvious meaning. Just loads of weird imagery. That should calm the nerves, eh?

Irish Lax Reaches NCAA Tournament for Seventh Consecutive Year

This Sunday at 5:15p ET on ESPNU/ESPN3 the Notre Dame Men's Lacrosse program will play host as a #4 seed to the visiting Yale Bulldogs in the NCAA Tournament.

After an opening season loss the Irish won 10 games in a row, including the program's first ever victory over the Syracuse Orange. Head Coach Kevin Corrigan couldn't refocus his team after the momentous win, though. In the quarterfinals of the first ever Big East Lacrosse Tournament as the Irish squandered countless opportunities to St. John's.

Despite the loss in the Big East Tournament, the Irish did manage to win the Big East regular-season title with a perfect 6-0 record.

What is more, they have higher hopes at returning to the national championship game over Memorial Day weekend. Two years ago they lost in their only previous trip to the title game in a low-scoring battle with the Duke Blue Devils.

The road back to the title game starts this Sunday, and here's hoping the Irish look more like the team in the highlights below than the one that fell apart against St. John's.

Former Hokie Star Austin Wates Makes a Great Catch

Austin Wates was one of many Tech baseball players I covered during my time as the "Voice of English Field".

Austin was an important part of turning Tech's ACC baseball fortunes around, and his play in college led to him be selected in the third round of the 2010 MLB Amateur Draft by the Houston Astros.

Wates hit .300 with 6 home runs and 75 RBI during his first season of minor league ball for the Lancaster Jethawks of the California League.

Those numbers earned Wates a promotion to AA ball this year where he's currently hitting .295 for the Corpus Christi Hooks.

The other day, Austin pulled off this impressive over-the-wall catch that has made him a viral star.

Tenacious D and the Rize of the Fenix

Brian and I have a special relationship with Tenacious D.

We've never met Jack Black or Kyle Gass, but it was the intensely rocking and hilariously profane stylings of their 2001 eponymous debut that inspired us to create our own comedic rock duo, and eventually, a real band.

We played that album constantly, shaking Brian's little white Honda and belting out every single lyric while shuttling back and forth between school, golf practice and local pizza joints. 

Calling ourselves "The Deuce"—likely because there were two of us and you can make a bathroom reference from it—we would get together in our free time and Brian would play riffs he came up with or actual songs by artists ranging from Green Day to Van Morrison and I would freestyle silly lyrics over them.

Windows Sound Recorder was the medium of choice at the time. Even then it was an archaic program with few features beyond the record button, but we used it to make several albums of songs such as "I'd Like to Bang the Olsen Twins" and "Putt-Putt Prostitute". 

It's a long way from GarageBand and ProTools.

It was crude and kind of good, and from those humble beginnings rose a real semi-professional band, Cutting Room Floor.

That was all thanks to the D. 

And so we followed their career as Jack Black became a big star and eventually got a movie  and album made called Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny. 

Despite being a critical and financial failure, fans like us found it to be typically gut-busting and the music was outstanding. 

Now we have been given the next chapter in the D saga, Rize of the Fenix.

The album is set for release May 15, but you can stream it all now on their SoundCloud account and watch the video for first single "Rize of the Fenix" below.

Kage (left) and Jables (right) will rock your socks off once again.

Everything about this album screams vintage D, from the extremely phallic "Fenix" on the cover  to the silly little skits between JB and KG sprinkled between songs. 

After giving this album a couple of listens I think it's very solid indeed and fits nicely with the other albums in their catalog. 

"Senorita", "The Roadie" and "The Ballad of Hollywood Jack and The Rage Kage" are outstanding tracks steeped in the flavors of the D's best work.

Jack Black shows off some truly powerful vocals and utilizes a number of styles to change the mood of several songs.

Black's vocal range is truly terrifying. He can softly croon then scream over a guitar and it all sounds beautiful. Plus, JB's classic vocal fills are back in full force.

Kyle Gass provides his delightful harmonies and adds tasty guitar while Dave Grohl's drumming is top-notch throughout. 

All in all, it makes for a well-rounded, wholly inappropriate album that will more than please any fan of the group.

At this point there's simply no denying it, Tenacious D really is the greatest band in the world.  

Hokies Hire Former Assistant James Johnson as Head Basketball Coach

What a strange two weeks it's been.

James Johnson was just beginning his new job as an assistant coach at Clemson when Seth Greenberg was unceremoniously fired in a move that baffled the entire college basketball world.

Now, after being spurned by a number of potential suitors with "bigger" names, Tech athletic director Jim Weaver wiped the egg from his face just long enough to find Johnson's phone number and get him to come back to Blacksburg.

Let it be clear, I think Johnson will be a good choice. He was Tech's top recruiter during his five seasons under Greenberg. He was the lead recruiter on Robert Brown, C.J. Barksdale, Cadarian Raines and Erick Green. The team, not surprisingly is very excited with the choice.

 Erick Green tweeted, Yessss I’ll be back next year  and Cadarian Raines added via the often non-sensical social platform, I'm happy as hell right now!! #Hokies.

Much of the rest of the team expressed similar sentiments, so it would appear the bulk of the current players will remain at Tech which was becoming a serious question mark the longer the search for a head coach continued.

         

Johnson hopes to step out from the shadow of his deposed

 predecessor.

Johnson is a Virginia native and played his college ball about an hour away from Blacksburg at Ferrum College.

He knows the area well having been an assistant at Ferrum, Longwood, Hargrave Military Academy, Old Dominion and George Mason just in the Commonwealth alone. There were also stops at College of Charleston, Penn State and Elon.

He has loads of experience as an assistant at schools of various sizes and locations and his local knowledge and connections in the mid-atlantic should help Tech keep recruiting on roughly the same level as under Greenberg.

Speaking of Seth, he had this to say regarding Johnson in last year's basketball media guide:

“JJ is the elder statesman of our staff and is tremendously invested in Virginia Tech basketball. He is one of the elite recruiters in all of college basketball and a terrific on-floor coach. His genuine concern for our student athletes and their development both on and off the court is well documented. He is a head coach waiting to happen.” — Seth Greenberg

Time will tell how things work out for JJ, but given the horrible position the program was put in by the athletic department's timing, this is probably a best case scenario.

Tech simply wasn't going to attract a big name, certainly not the people rumored to be involved. The job is hard to begin with and Jim Weaver just proved what kind of support at a successful hoops coach can expect at Virginia Tech if things turn slightly sour.

To those concerned that Johnson wasn't Tech's top choice, fear not. Seth Greenberg was at least Weaver's fifth choice during the last coaching search (names like Lon Kruger and Jim Baron come to mind). He lucked into something with Seth, and may just do it again.

No thanks to timing.

Seth Greenberg Fired In Awkward Press Conference

Seth Greenberg was fired Monday during a bizarre press conference that was scheduled before the coach was even notified that his “contract had been terminated”.

The second-winningest men’s basketball coach in Virginia Tech history was let go after a nine-season run in Blacksburg and a 170-123 overall record.

Greenberg’s most impressive feats were his 61-67 mark in ACC play and three victories over the No. 1 ranked team in the country (Duke, UNC, Wake Forest).

He lifted Tech a notch or two as he stewarded Tech’s transition into the ACC, but things had stalled a bit and Greenberg was not without his faults as a coach.

That said, the callousness with which this firing materialized is surprising.

Greenberg deserved to know last week when athletic director Jim Weaver was suddenly overcome by an epiphany that Seth isn’t on the same page with him and the Tech athletic department family.

You can’t praise Tech’s family atmosphere in one breath and then cut ties with a coach who was doing his job, hosting a recruit the day you fired him.

If nothing else, it makes the athletic department look like a bunch of bumbling fools trying to jack up the website hits by teasing the presser for a fired coach.

Jim Weaver may not have thought this out

At best it’s inconsiderate and unfair, at worst it’s a calculated, cold-blooded move.

It’s hard to say any of this is calculated though. Many surmised that Weaver must have had someone ready to take the job already by making this move a month after most coaching moves occurred.

That doesn’t appear to be the case so far and that’s no surprise.

Some 40 schools have hired a new coach already this offseason. As Ken Pomeroy tweeted yesterday, “If you're firing your coach on April 23, that coach better have done some Brad Greenberg-type stuff. Otherwise, awful move.”

That is of course a reference to Seth’s brother Brad who got in some trouble during his brief stint as the head coach just down the road at Radford.

There’s never been anything to indicate Seth cut corners. He was aggressive in recruiting and had to work harder than a lot of coaches to overcome the various obstacles Tech faces in an area dominated by ACC flagship schools like Duke and North Carolina.

Seth Greenberg was exactly what Tech needed for a time, a firey, brash personality who wasn’t afraid to stick his nose in the face of Coach K and to challenge the ACC elite.

The players bought in and realized Virginia Tech wasn’t just a bottom of the league program as many had predicted, but a team capable of finishing in the top third.

It’s no surprise that over time Seth’s personality wore thin with people. Blacksburg isn’t used to big personalities. We’re used to ‘aw shucks’ Frank Beamer and the rock and stability of the football program.

Seth Greenberg is one of the most demonstrative and entertaining coaches to watch.

Still, I will remember Seth for the excitement and energy that he infused in a dormant program.

I loved his sometimes brutally honest media relations and can’t wait to see him on ESPN. He will instantly be their best analyst when they or some other network hires him.

He has two ACC Coach of the Year awards, one NCAA Tournament appearance and a plethora of NIT bids to show for his time storming up and down the sideline in Cassell Coliseum.

Many of the most exciting athletes in Hokie hoops history have come through during Seth’s time, and he leaves having helped build a beautiful multi-million dollar basketball practice facility that has helped make Tech’s facilities relevant.

Say what you will about Greenberg, love him or hate him, he gave Virginia Tech everything he could and did a great deal to advance the program.

If you can’t see that, you’re certifiably insane.