List O'Best B-Sides of One Hit Wonders

A lot of the music I listen to is not of the popular stuff or mainstream; not to say anything bad about them, but there are a boatload of hidden gems out there that don't get the light of day. The beaten path is so much better than the manure field of crap that is shoveled over the radio. It just don't appeal to me. Now that not to say that in the field of shit there's some golden nuggets that's not corn that come out but don't get another chance. And like all albums, the back catalog is just as epic as the hits or better (in most cases). We all have that album that we listened to a thousand times front to back cause it was complete. Well guess what? Those one hit wonders are on the same boat. This here is my ode to those that gave it the old college try, took the stage, and was never to be heard from again. 

Now the rules for this list is simple. The artist had to have just one popular hit in their respected genre; even if they released other singles they can not be as well known as their main single. The artist must also not suck (but that's a given). With that being said, let's get it on...

• Dishwalla "Charlie Brown's Parents" : Most infamous for their single "Counting Blue Cars" got major play in the mid 90's just prior to the humble beginnings of TRL. It was a pretty good single, but whether it was their record company or piss poor management, they never branched out passed. And because of that, most people missed out on this golden nugget. It starts soft but then gets down and dirty with some grungy harmonics and proclaimed what was popular than and now, angst against authority not listening to either youth or sub-ordinances (take your pick). Either way it was catchy and little to no one knew it. So check it out, you can thank me later.

• Darwin's Waiting Room "All I Have Is Me" : Unless you're a fan of rapcore (like myself) or any bands local to the Miami area, Darwin's Waiting Room would probably pass you by faster than a speeding bullet.  Although, they did have a hit with "Feel So Stupid (Table 9)" that was just about all the fame the group had.  Too bad because they could've had a lot of potential for a whole lot more than a rapcore fad that lasted from 1998 to 2003.  This particular track although it sounds like most of their album, it kinda stands out in my book.  I tend to gravitate to this track whenever I have their CD in the car.  It's definitely one of the best closing tracks of an album that I've heard ever and it completes its epic journey without it feeling like some drawn-out rock opera.  Definitely pick it up or get it on download if you don't have it already.

• doubleDrive "Gone" : If you know me and follow any other of my music posts, it's pretty damn hard for me to not mention doubleDrive. And yes, the did have airplay with their single "Imprint". But this is from their first album that didn't get that much publicity. "Gone" starts it off as a slow guitar riff than powers up once the first verse begins to start. It then goes to some signature guitar solos and everything seems to complete once it ends. Not many songs can even claim that.

• Bloodhound Gang "The Ballad of Chasey Lane" : Just when you thought a song about sex from these guys couldn't get more graphic with "The Bad Touch", this (pardon the pun) peters out. A song about a lust lorn fan and his obsession with an infamous porn star. Lyrics alone is funny as hell, and I also have to give them props from being from Philly. But what makes this for me is the video (warning NSFW, hence why I didn't put a link to the video, but feel free to Google it.) If you thought their one hit video was a taste of low brow, than this is well below the mark; but it fits the song so well.

• Monster Magnet "Evil (Is Going On)" : If you know them you know they're more known for acid rock, pretty much you would have to either be in a trip to listen to it or it'll drive you to use and abuse. Their best (and probably only known) single "Space Lord" was played and played on MTV back in the mid 90's but this is from 1992. It's the only song probably out of their element. With blues and jazz engulfed in the track you would never known it was Monster Magnet without picking up the album work for it. Now that's a rare gem for ya.

• Alien Ant Farm "Summer" : This is that rule I mentioned that they might've had other singles but only one that stood out come into play comes in. I actually heard them the first time with their previous single "Movies", but it was their Michael Jackson cover of "Smooth Criminal" that gave them their popularity and fizzled out afterwards. This track however is a B-Side of theirs that uses the seasons as a metaphor of a relationship. It's catchy just on a lyrical basis alone, and the way it takes me in a melodic trance each time is just awesome. But honestly, most of their catalog is just epic with sweet hooks and an amalgam of great lyrics and well timed solos and bridges. It really surprises me that they're only a one hit wonder, even with a small handful of singles around them, it's only that one that sticks to most peoples head.

Trust me, I would love to have more bands and other acts out there, but like my rule stated from before.  Only one-hit wonders, and I made a stretch with Alien Ant Farm enough as is, possibly even with Monster Magnet.  Most of my taste either gravitate to either well established bands that made it some what, or stuff that no one ever knew of.  And that might be a subject of another post, but as for this one; I'm calling it a one-and-done.

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

p.s.  In no way did any of the following bands ask for any endorsement nor knew of their wonderful music mentioned on this blog post.  It's all of my effort alone to enrich everyone to something outside of the stereotypical norm.  Enjoy.

Death to WoW (and other MMORPG's)

I just want to point out that I LOVE RPG's, there, it's on the table. Take it however you want. But bullshit like World of Warcraft and other MMORPG's makes me wanna puke. Both things are wastes of time, no doubt about that, but one is definitely the worst of the two evils. And I'll be more than happy to explain why...

Maybe it was one of my roommates when I was in the Marine Corps staying up all night playing Everquest, maybe it was all of my techie friends that did nothing but game and go to the movies and various cons, maybe it's the simple fact that I hate paying over and over again for something I already bought to keep playing it; the fact of the matter is they friggin suck ass. Let's take into the concept how much time it continually takes to play it. A normal videogame has an end to it eventually. RPG's in particular have a structured story line that may stray off a linear path for other missions but never to far from it's main objective which is to continue to an epic end. MMO's however, seem to be an abyss of never ending suckatude that engulf it's prey in quests and quests that amount to nothing once their done, if they are ever done. Now I know that there was some kid a few years ago in Taiwan that "beat" WoW, but that was before Cataclysm came out and made more useless crap for the kid to try to complete. What's the point of playing to no end, the whole purpose of any game; from sports to videogames to friggin solitaire; there's a definitive end to declare whether someone won or lost. Or at worst case a stalemate, it ends at a decision. It shouldn't have to just be left with the players doing nothing when it ends. To be in videogame purgatory is a fate worse than game-glitch death. 

Speaking of videogame purgatory, we as a gaming culture have from time to time leave our controllers and our keyboards for other recreational activities, such as watching a movie in a theater or even, *gasp*, human interaction. But from my experience that's not the case for the most part with MMOers; and while I'm at it, some hardcore gamers as well. I'm just saying it is pretty damn easy to do. You get up off your cardiac-arrest-waiting-to-happen ass, step outside of your home into the daylight (if you know what that is by that point), and breathe in some fresh air. Go out for a while, pick up a basketball game with people at a local park, go to a bar and have a beer or two with friends instead of resting in whatever virtual inn and restoring your avatars HP. This is a call to restore some of your HP; this is your panacea, your cure-all. Get a life outside of the raids and gold mining. Raid a house party or even throw one of your own. You'll be surprised that having a one bedroom apartment can hold more than one person at a time. Perhaps someone of the opposite sex (or not if you swing that way, but most gamers I know don't so take it however you want...)

And since I can't think of a good segway to talk about raids and other crap of that nature, I'll just get right into it. What the hell is it with needing to synchronize your schedule with other local players for a play date to complete a mission. It's kinda codependent of that group needing to do a medial task if you could just take the time, level up, and defeat it yourself and reap the rewards for yourself. I'm sorry if that sounds selfish, but I feel that if there's gonna be a symbiotic relationship in a videogame it should be between the player and the game in it's achievements, not between two people making the videogame it's proxy. Its kinda lame in my opinion. I come from the old school where if there were a videogame involved with multiple people, if was either a two player game or at most a LAN party. Good times bringing your tower or laptop to someones place, hook them up to the router and kick each others asses playing Counterstrike custom maps and maybe the occasional Diablo.  (Now before you call me a hypocrite, Diablo and Diablo II were RPG's with a LAN-based element to enhance gameplay during the infancy of battle.net and the whole MMO uproar. You still reached an end point in the game where you could either win or lose. So thats my peace on that before you start pointing the finger).

The fact of the matter is that there were effort in coordinating it with people and playing together with people near by. You can see them, talk to them, cuss them out when they totally screw you in the game. There's little or none of that personal interaction with MMOs, which is another reason why I dislike them.  I remember the glory days of multiplayer gaming where you actually were playing on the same damn screen, interacting with each other.  When it was a phenomenal feat playing four players at once you had to have a four-tap or some other kind of adapter, and you were the godfather of videogames in your neighborhood because you had that.  What ever happened to those times.  Why can't we go to a friends house anymore and pick up a couple of controllers or at worse case scenario, bring back LAN parties. Get back to basics and start something that's home-brewed.

One more thing I just want to point out. This is a rant about the effects of MMORPGs to their players and how it corrupts any other means of assistance outside of it's symbiotic grip. Not at all an attack to the gamers themselves. So don't start the hating on me for that. It's an opinion piece that I see is an epidemic. Just stop and literally smell the friggin roses before they lay them on your casket. And find something else besides bitching about mis-scheduling of raids and lag on servers while your gold mining. I have plenty of friends that play, but they can turn the game off, can you?!?

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

Vending Machines

They're are few mundane things that really sets me ablaze. One of those things are vending machines. At times they're the greatest thing to have ever graced a break room or any other waiting vestibule, and at others their the bane of our existence and dollar bills. 

You know when you glance by one and you see all of those goodies that it offering you and it lures you to who out your wallet and spend spend spend... It entices you with their ice cold beverages and the high calorie, high carb, low nutrition candies and pastries, and yet, that's THE NORMAL STUFF!!! It's the other crap they put in that to the machines that are off the wall. Let's take a stroll along the off the wall weirdness that is vending machines. 

One thing I've noticed is the tender machines take. When the hell would someone break a $20 for a Twix bar?!? It used to be if you didn't have change you were screwed. Don't get me wrong, I love that little bit of convenience that they implemented into them. Since the introduction of the dollar feeder I was impressed. Now a days you can get a Pepsi by coins, bills, credit card, thumbprints and retina scan, hell, even telepathic inception so I can think it as soon as I get there and debit my account... It seems that no matter how you want to pay for it, they got you covered.

Now that we covered how to pay, lets get into what we're paying for. When you usually think of vending machine goods we think of a candy bar or can of soda. Normally that's all good, maybe the occasional bag of chips or an ice cream bar. But from what I'm seeing is that vending machines are automated quickie-marts. They house everything from gum, to aspirin, to 5-hour Energy, to diapers and wipes, to just about everything. Whatever happened to being the weirdest thing to buy from a machine was condoms, tampons, and cigarettes; and those were in bars, not in the front entrance of a mall. I just don't know when did we get so inept to needing such things at a moments notice that we need to have it along with our Butterfinger?!?

Speaking of Butterfinger, who the hell are these people that fills these machines. Just about everywhere I see them they put the inconvenient of snacks in these things. Why do you put something as fragile as Butterfinger or a bag of chips at the TOP OF THE MENU!?! I know that it probably don't apply to chips much, even though I hate half the bag being crumbs, but Butterfinger of all things? It's broken in half half of the time when I buy it at the grocery store, why take a potential good one and set it to fail from the top row?!? That irks the crap out of me. It's just as bad as when they put in sweet, beautiful looking pastries and smash the creme filling right out of it making a danish look like a drive-by Gingerbread Man massacre. (BTW, if you haven't played Texting of The Bread yet, try it, it's friggin' awesome.)  About the only "food" that can survive the vending machine gauntlet are gummies. Anything gummy is just about bulletproof from the tight quarters of it's screw-fed housing to the seemingly forever free fall from where it's placed within the machine. 

Like I said from the beginning this isn't a rant to discredit vending machines, they're actually a pretty damn good thing, just not a great thing. It definitely made some advancements since the old "exact change only, pull the lever and peanut butter crackers come out" (I still wonder if my old barber still have that machine), but it cod still improve on some things. If anyone of you out there reading this a vending machine engineer, just take note on what I've discussed. Or at least if your a vender, make an effort to not commit Butterfinger genocide. That really pisses me off. 

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

A little short this week...

So, this week I had my sons birthday and I tried to make the most of it. Well, really the wifie did most, but I was playing backup while she made arrangements. She set up the cake, did presents, the whole nine yards. Me however, had played interceptor with occupying him with videogames and horse-playing with him and his brothers. That, and I've been enjoying my new PS3 this past week if you haven't noticed on my twitter posts. So my hands were tied as you could guess. I'm so stoked for both momentous occasions. 

So ill have some hilarious crap within the next week, promise. It'll be a pretty damn good editorial too. I just got one thing to say as a preview: "Nobody better lay a finger on my Butterfinger..."

BootLeG sampler.. signing out...

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