#Rock and Roll Nerd

[grahamstoney]

The Power Of Music & Comedy: Tim Minchin

New Post has been published on https://grahamstoney.com/music/the-power-of-music-comedy-tim-minchin

The Power Of Music & Comedy: Tim Minchin

Tim Minchin is a thoughtful performer who combines the power of music and comedy to both entertain and impact his audience, while expressing what is on his mind in an engaging and memorable way.

I first came across Tim when a friend offered me a ticket to his Sydney show during the Ready For This? tour in 2009. While I’d never heard of him before, I was immediately drawn in by the proficiency of his piano playing, the intellectual nature of his comedic observations, and his bizarre teased hairstyle.

Tim’s meteoric rise to fame was captured in the documentary Rock ‘n’ Roll Nerd, named after one of his early signature tunes that expressed ambivalence at not fitting the traditional rock star mould:

While he achieved success as a musical comedian in a relatively short period of time, it came after many years of playing keyboard in an 80’s rock cover band. At the beginning of his career he as constantly under pressure to create an income as his wife was keen to give up work and start a family. They were both overjoyed when she became pregnant, but this also ratcheted up the pressure on Tim to provide for his family financially. A particularly vulnerable moment in the documentary happens when his wife has a miscarriage while he is on tour, and we get to see Tim in grief revealing his sensitive side. There is more to him than just his on-stage trickster persona. The one silver lining in this cloud was that gave him some breathing space to launch his career, move to London and become successful before they became pregnant again.

Giles Hardie said that Tim’s success was often a reflection his past experiences, describing him as a “jack of all trades” and quoting co-star David Duchovny from TV series Californication calling him “a high-energy dude” with a “comedic soul”. In an interview with Leigh Sales, Tim described his joy in musical collaboration and the difficulty of avoiding celebrity narcissism.

His song Canvas Bags drives home the importance of taking reusable shopping bags to the supermarket with a degree of repetition bordering on the absurd. We don’t even use canvas bags much in Australia, but with this song in my head, I always remember to take shopping bags every time I leave the house:

One of the hallmarks of a great artist is getting referenced in other artist’s work, and the inclusion of Canvas Bags in the Four Chord Song by The Axis of Awesome is a nod of respect from his comedy colleagues:

Tim frequently tackles important issues in his music, such as the foolishness of belief systems based on pseudoscience in his 9-minute beat poem Storm:

His song Prejudice uses an ironic twist to assault racism:

Tim isn’t afraid to offend his audience, using profanity to highlight the distorted priorities of the Catholic Church’s response to child sexual abuse by priests in Pope Song.

If you think the song is offensive, how could that possibly compare to what some priests have been doing to children with the protection of the church?

Neil Genzlinger says Tim “looks like a character out of ‘Sweeney Todd,’ alternates between absurd, low-key monologues and incongruously comic songs, accompanying himself with gleeful piano pyrotechnics.”

While his ability to weave his comedic genius into his songs is the underpinning of his success, he also has the ability to write sensitive songs. White Wine In The Sun describes the strong emotional dynamics in families as the basis for our feelings of safety and security in the world. Even for atheists like Tim and I, spending quality time with family on Christmas Day feels special, and hearing this song always makes me tear up as I think of Christmas Days spent with my own family in the sun together:

Social issues have always been a significant influence on Tim’s work, and his ability to write, record and produce catchy, quirky and relatable songs rapidly allows him to respond to newsworthy events in a timely manner. Come Home (Cardinal Pell) expressed the outrage that many Australian’s felt at the perception that Cardinal George Pell was avoiding Australian justice by hiding out in The Vatican:

However, Joel Hodge considered it “name-calling and abuse”, saying Tim “seems more interested in provoking reaction than dealing with the facts”, and that “it gives an indication of the level of public debate in Australia”. Gerard Henderson described the song as “abusive”, calling Tim a “militant atheist musician” and accusing him of engaging in guilt by association.

In the wake of the recent bush fire disaster and the coronavirus lockdown, Tim featured on HouseFyre with Briggs, expressing the frustration that many Australians feel with our political leadership’s response in recent times of major crisis:

It got played on Rage last Friday night, a sign of success and mainstream acceptance in the Australian music industry.

Music is unique in its ability to affect us emotionally, and comedy is unique in its ability to disarm our prejudices and highlight inconsistencies in ourselves which we could otherwise easily ignore. By combining the two, Tim Minchin has tapped into a powerful force to not only entertain, but also to enlighten his audience and inspire social change from a grassroots individual level.

#Canvas Bags #Come Home (Cardinal Pell) #Four Chord Song #HouseFyre #Pope Song #Prejudice #Rock and Roll Nerd #Storm #The Axis of Awesome #Tim Minchin #White Wine In The Sun #Music

[artofdansan]

day 6 of jashtober!! featuring illustrated versions of all the VGM references in Nerd (each inspired by the original vids’ visuals!!)

#he’ll literally always be #a rock n roll neeeeeerd #chonny jash #cj nerd #cj ego #chonny jash fanart #jashtober #jashtober 2023 #inktober #video games #video game art #pokemon art #undertale #undertale art

[omegalomania]

gray, pete wentz, p. 138 // none of this rocks, joe trohman, p. 116-117

#fall out boy #gray #none of this rocks #POSITIVELY ENAMORED WITH THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE DESCRIPTIONS OF PATRICK HERE. #AND THEY'RE BOTH CORRECT. THATS THE THING. #pete in his fictional autobiography: patrick is a sweet lovely man who lights up the whole room i want to name my son after him #joe in his memoir: so this weird lookin nerd rolls up to me and starts nerding at me so i start nerding at him right back

[alliterative-endlessknot]

It’s Little Richard’s birthday! You can celebrate one of the foundational figures of American music by watching our video on the history of rock and roll!

#little richard #little richard birthday #rock & roll #rock and roll #rocknroll #rock #etymology #history #words #language #linguistics #word nerd #wordnerd #history of the english language #historical linguistics #history of english #lingcomm #lingblr #music #video #youtube

[unh0lyhum4n]

#I’m team music cuz my autism makes me sound sensitive #I also don’t want to ever verbally communicate w ppl lol #music nerd #band kids #rock music #lyrics #I take everything literally so tryin to understand lyrics hurts my brain #music #poll #pop music #rap music #metal music #country music #rock n roll

[greensparty]

Remembering Mojo Nixon 1957-2024

Funny cowpunk musician Mojo Nixon has died at 66. I first became aware of him in the late 80s with songs and videos like "Debbie Gibson is Pregnant with my Two-Headed Love Child" (which had Winona Ryder as Gibson in the video) and "Don Henley Must Die" (which Henley joined him onstage for once). He did a ton of MTV promos in the early 90s as well.

Rock 'n' Roll Comics did unauthorized bios of musicians in comic book form, but the issue they did on Mojo Nixon (his bio was featured in the ZZ Top issue) was the only one that was authorized and done in collaboration with Nixon. In 2005, he appeared in the documentary The Story of Rock 'n' Roll Comics and even contributed music to the doc.

He also was a DJ, a columnist, an activist, and he acted in quite a few movies. I didn't catch it at the 2022 IFFBoston, but the documentary The Mojo Manifesto: The Life and Times of Mojo Nixon played there.

The link above is the obit from Rolling Stone.

#mojo nixon #rip #rock 'n' roll comics #the story of rock 'n' roll comics #the mojo manifesto: the life and times of mojo nixon #music nerd #film geek

[weezer-blog]

Rock and roll over rivers !!!!!

#weezer #rivers cuomo #brian bell #matt sharp #90s #mikey welsh #weezer memes #alt rock #blue #nerd rock #fun fact #rock and roll over by kiss was the album that made rivers fall in love with music #great album! #love me some kiss overhated band riv riv gets it

[thecryptkeeperskeeper]

"Come on, sexy."

#they're gay your honor #nerd x punk gfs #rock n roll high school

[delilah-briarwood]

Six Sentence Sunday Saturday

Time Is An Illusion (ty @spottedenchants for tagging me!)

Rules: Every Sunday, share six sentences from your current WIP and tag six friends. Sunday is only a suggestion, please post your own any time in the week!

Original fiction be upon ye

The throne room swirled in smoke and tension as two figures stood within it. Despite the crackling of flames and consistent slamming on barred doors, the room could not have felt more silent. Two pairs of eyes met, each daring the other to speak first. The Gunslinger and the Princess. Former sisters. Former twins.

.

.

.

Uhhhhh I have No Idea who to tag who hasn’t already been tagged so I’m just gunna guess/tag blindly @bisexualoftheblade @queerbutstillhere @blackm00n5 @quinn-of-aebradore @isaacle97 @theparallaxview or just anyone that wants to do it!

#my writing #wips #original work #original fiction #Joey’s writing #behold a creation #dear friend #nerd friend #rock n roll friend #bird friend #femme fatale #purple hivemind #<- Squad tag for the Essek server because there’s So Many of you

[theenterprisestrikesback]

Wanna mmmmmm..... Rrecommend me stuff??

#geek #nerd #media #music #albums #rock and roll #rock fandom #old time radio #podcasts #manga #manga newbie

[the-vampire-of-hawkins]

Hey there! So random question, if one had to go out of Black Sabbath, Metallica and Mötely Crüe who’s going?

Jesus, this is hard!

As much as it pains me to say it, I’d get rid of Mötley Crüe. Here is my reasoning:

Black Sabbath was founded much earlier than the other two bands (1968) and is considered to be the band that founded metal music as we know it today, which is true in many ways. The band is also inherently tied to the genre of horror, taking its name and naming its first track after a horror film. The experience of guitarist Tommy Iommi’s injury at an industrial sheet metal factory that severed two of his fingertips resulted in him crafting new fingertips from a detergent bottle, creating a sound that is unparalleled in terms of how dark and deep it is.

Metallica, founded the same year as Mötley Crüe (1981), is one of the most influential bands of all time. Their third album, Master of Puppets, led the band to commercial success, but it wasn’t until the release of Metallica that they appealed to mainstream audiences. The album showed the music industry that there was indeed a place in the business for metal music, and without it, so many metal bands we love would never have been given a chance.

(I still love Mötley Crüe, though).

#eddie answers #🎸; rock n roll #ooc: I’m a nerd and I went off sorry #black sabbath #metallica #mötley crüe #motley crue

[alliterative-endlessknot]

It’s #BarbershopQuartetDay! The history of this musical form is closely connected to the history of Rock & Roll, in spite of its seeming distance from those roots today. Learn more in our video about the history of Rock!

#barbershop quartet day #barbershop quartet #barbershop #rock & roll #rock and roll #rocknroll #rock #music #music history #etymology #history #words #language #linguistics #word nerd #wordnerd #history of english #history of the english language #historical linguistics #lingcomm #lingblr #video #youtube

[arsmoriendiii]

nerdddd #mine ✨

#my car #do you like it #the clash #bob dylan #my brother made the bob dylan one #joy division #nirvana #mgmt #vampire weekend #the doors #radiohead #music #music nerd #bumper stickers #rock n roll #punk rock #new wave #grunge #classic rock #ian curtis #joe strummer #thom yorke

[lllluka]

That take is without a doubt the most ignorant take I’ve heard on rock music since a 1990s Catholic mass. First off, a lot of music is about drugs sex and money, because you know, people like drugs sex and money. Second, rock music from a lot of different eras had actual themes, you can’t just be like “oh political rock doesn’t count cuz it has themes I agree with” just because artists talk about drugs sex or money as well. Third, repetition is how all music works, you keep to a beat and follow it through the song, haven’t you ever heard a songs chorus? Like did you watch Stranger Things Season 4 and then agree with Jason?

Nonono! Anon, we literally have the same opinion here.

I'm talking about how Miraculous acts like these things are bad because they're somehow exclusive to modern music (which obviously they aren't).

I said "most" as a generalisation, but I understand how it could have come off like I was saying "it sucks" or "it isn't allowed to be like this" or something. That isn't what I was saying. I'm criticising media takes, specifically on 80s/90s American rock music that's shallowly idolised and pitted against modern music without much thought.

I enjoy rock music, and I happen to also enjoy a lot of music about sex, drugs and money. I don't think those themes make a song less worthy of appreciation or anything, I'm saying it's a frustrating take when people romanticise rock as something that has some moral high ground over other genres because it supposedly isn't like the "media today" that literally has the same themes. I'm not saying "political rock is different because it has themes I agree with", actually, I can get pretty exhausted listening to hot takes in songs. I was saying more "it's different" in isn't centrical to the themes I was mentioning before. Not that it was better or something.

Also, I know how repetition works. Miraculous doesn't. Half of their points about modern music/pop music or EDM is that it's 'cold and repetetive' and their insinuation is that it means that a song hasn't been written to be meaningful to somebody. I'm saying rock also uses repetition, and YES, sometimes to the point where it's just padding the song length.

Also, no. I don't watch that show.

#i really hate conflict so i struggled to publish this #satirical rock commentary is more my thing anyway #idk if you've heard tim minchin's 'cage nerd' but that's a good song talking abt the reality of fame & 'rock and roll nerd' #im literally a musician. my parents were musicians. rock was half of my upbringing idk how to explain this #long post #ml salt

[greensparty]

My Hot Take on Jann Wenner

Over the last few days, Jann Wenner did an interview with New York Times about his new book of interviews The Masters: Conversations with Dylan, Lennon, Jagger, Townshend, Garcia, Bono, and Springsteen. As a result of his comments, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which he co-founded, removed him from their board of directors. The comments he made when NYT asked why there were no black artists or female artists in the book, included:

“The people had to meet a couple criteria, but it was just kind of my personal interest and love of them. Insofar as the women, just none of them were as articulate enough on this intellectual level.”

He continued, “Stevie Wonder, genius, right? I suppose when you use a word as broad as ‘masters,’ the fault is using that word. Maybe Marvin Gaye, or Curtis Mayfield? I mean, they just didn’t articulate at that level.”

The next day he issued an apology:

“‘The Masters’ is a collection of interviews I’ve done over the years,” he continued, “that seemed to me to best represent an idea of rock ’n’ roll’s impact on my world; they were not meant to represent the whole of music and its diverse and important originators but to reflect the high points of my career and interviews I felt illustrated the breadth and experience in that career. They don’t reflect my appreciation and admiration for myriad totemic, world-changing artists whose music and ideas I revere and will celebrate and promote as long as I live. I totally understand the inflammatory nature of badly chosen words and deeply apologize and accept the consequences.”

Let me begin my response to this by stating that from a young age of about 9, I was a big fan of Rolling Stone magazine. Over the years many readers have complained and said it's not what it once was, they are stuck in the 60s, yada yada yada. I always enjoyed reading it and I am still a subscriber of their print and digital magazine to this day. Which is why Wenner's interview is so disappointing, anger-inducing, and frustrating.

If Wenner just wanted to release a book of his personal favorite rock stars, just say that. But to call it The Masters and for one of the leaders of music journalism to call it that, it's implying that these musicians are the high standard of rock history. For him to respond to why there were no black or female musicians in his book by saying that they "don't articulate at that level" is false, racist, sexist, vile and ignorant for countless reasons. Off the top of my head:

Rock music as a genre was based on blues music, which was invented by black musicians. Therefore there would be no Rolling Stones, Beatles, etc without blues music and those musicians in his book would easily attest to that.

No black musicians could articulate at that level? Really? Did you really just say that Jann Wenner? Because Rolling Stone has often emphasized black musicians who were the architects of rock music like Chuck Berry, Bo Didley, Little Richard, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and more, which is why I'm shocked you'd say that. To completely dismiss black musicians like Curtis Mayfield, Jimi Hendrix, Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Prince, Stevie Wonder, Al Green, George Clinton, Otis Redding, Sly and the Family Stone, Michael Jackson, Smokey Robinson, Sam Cooke, Bob Marley, Run D.M.C., Public Enemy, Living Colour, and the Bad Brains is denying rock history.

Female musicians were often in the background of the early days of rock music, i.e. songwriters, singing in a vocal group, or a back-up singer. But again, Rolling Stone often emphasized female musicians with their frequent Women In Rock issues, most notably their 1997 issue with Tina Turner, Madonna and Courtney Love on the cover. But to deny female musicians like Tina Turner, Dusty Springfield, Ronnie Spector, Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, Diana Ross, Joni Mitchell, Debbie Harry, Patti Smith, Stevie Nicks, Madonna, The Go-Go's, The Bangles, Courtney Love, Fiona Apple, Grace Slick, Kim Deal of The Pixies and The Breeders, The Runways, Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Aimee Mann, Liz Phair, Sinead O'Connor, Annie Lennox, Siouxsie Sioux, Beyonce, P.J. Harvey, Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, Exene Cervenka of X, Tina Weymouth of Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club, Moe Tucker and Nico of The Velvet Underground, The Donnas, and their contribution to rock is irresponsible.

If he is just kissing up to his famous friends and trying to show off the people he's known in his life then that is separate from illustrating the "master of rock music." His apology was just plain egotistical, i.e. 'look at me, I've hung out with Lennon and Bono and I was trying to show that.'

In the last few years it actually seemed like Rolling Stone was trying really hard to prove they were not just covering white males and their coverage / artists on the cover has been very diverse.

In 2020 when they revised Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper was de-throned at #1 and replaced by Marvin Gaye's What's Going On. Whether you agree with this or not, it definitely seemed like RS was trying to prove it wasn't just a list of white males and the list as a whole emphasized many more hip hop and female artists than the previous iteration.

RS itself has been a very progressive publication in music history. A place where they report rock music and the culture around it, i.e. politics, film, art, TV, comedy, etc. They have brought in extremely talented writers like Kurt Loder, Lester Bangs, Ben Fong-Torres, Cameron Crowe, David Fricke, Rob Sheffield, Jancee Dunn, Kim Neely and more. And the magazine itself was a lifeline for music fans everywhere to get the chance to read about music news and musicians you might not be learning about in your regional press and radio (pre-internet era that is). It's too bad that Wenner, who founded this publication is unaware of how out-of-touch his statements are in contrast with what the magazine represents. It does need to be stated that Wenner has not been involved with RS since 2019 and the magazine tried to distance itself from him after his statements. As for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, there is a lot to criticize about it, but at its core they are an institution that celebrates the history of rock music and have inducted numerous black and female musicians. Personally, I am appreciative of the fact that they added my documentary Life on the V: The Story of V66 to their Library and Archives' Permanent Collection last year. But I digress. Wenner's opinions do not align with what the Rock Hall is and should be about. This is a clear example of someone who founded a magazine and co-founded a Hall of Fame that is about celebrating music past, present and future and all that encompasses, but yet the founder is completely misguided and ignorant.

In the end, we are all entitled to our own opinions and we can say whoever we want is the best. And yes, this could be a case of a grumpy old boomer looking at rock history through his very narrow tunnel vision. But I just expected way more out of him and less offensive rhetoric.

#jann wenner #rolling stone magazine #music journalism #in the news #rock and roll hall of fame #music nerd

[weezer-blog]

Photo taken on the set of the filming of the music video for Weezers debut single "Undone - The Sweater Song" circa 1994

#rock n roll #rock #alternative music #90s music #alternative rock #weezer memes #mikey welsh #pat wilson #weezer #blue #pinkerton #nerd rock #matt sharp #rivers cuomo #alt rock #90s #vintage aesthetic #vintage