Your Morning Music Breakdown

Welcome to Friday.  We’re kind of in a crunch today.  We saw a midnight showing of Funny People last night.  Are we getting too old for that soon?  Probably not.

Now we’re working an AC/DC concert tonight.  None to thrilled.  We’re not fans.

Oh well, we’ll try and work something out for today.  For now, shoot to thrill.

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Puck the Media Interview: Mike Lange, Part 2

(Ed. Note: And now, after the jump, Part 2 of our conversation with Hall of Famer Mike Lange.)

Your Morning Music Breakdown

It’s Thursday.  Get here soon, Friday.

Part 2 of our Mike Lange interview is up Friday.  Funny story, I had finished the transcribing of it and decided to split into two parts.  So I copied it to eventually be pasted.  But then, I accidentally (being the idiot I am) copy-pasted another image and therefore lost all that material.  I would have to transcribe it all over again.

But it was worth it, if only because Mike Lange is such a terrific storyteller and all-around hockey treasure.  I sure hope you like reading it as much as I enjoyed hearing it.

Now on with the day.  There’s nowhere to hide.

Puck the Media Interview: Mike Lange, Part 1

Let us start out by stating this: we may be the first to interview legendary Pittsburgh Penguins play-by-play man Mike Lange without mentioning the Jean-Claude Van Damme film Sudden Death in which he and Paul Steigerwald appeared as themselves.  We are sorry, but we try not to ask questions that we’ve heard before… so that counts.

From the e-mail exchange and the responses Mr. Lange sent to us, it is 100% certain that he is a class act all the way.  Please read this entire thing.  If every person we interviewed, and this is nothing against any of our previous guys, put as much detail into these as Mike Lange has done (and previous subjects such as Jack Edwards and Joe Beninati did) we could (and maybe would) publish a book of all of these.  Gosh, what wonderful information this is to have as a college student wanting to get into this business.  Simply fantastic.

In part one of our discussion he tells us about, after the jump, his entry into the hockey world, Lemieux and Crosby, what he thinks of Randy Moller, and a bunch of other stuff that’ll leave Penguins fans and general puckheads alike smilin’ like a butcher’s dog.  We know we were.

Your Morning Music Breakdown

Wednesday already.  We have a question for you folks:

Name the least appealing game on the NHL schedule for the 2009-10.  We want to see if it shows up on the national television schedule.

We have an interview being posted today, so it’s time to get Grandma into the fastlane, the bingo game is ready to roll.

Now let’s go.  Make up something to believe in your heart of hearts.

People Who Hate Music Will Hate This Week: EA Releases NHL 10 Soundtrack

Every year, each of the EA Sports franchise games has their own sort of sound.  From FIFA’s combo of world music and techno, to Madden’s running around the “Top 40” gamut.  The NHL has a weird mix of modern-day alternative rock, which is essentially punk, indie rock, metal and the despicably genre of bro-rock.  Oh, and “Rock You Like a Hurricane”.  Here is this year’s soundtrack to NHL 10.  You can find all the EA Sports soundtracks here.

• Alexisonfire “Young Cardinals”
• Cancer Bats “Deathsmarch”
• CKY “Hellions on Parade”
• Disco Ensemble “Golden Years”
• Dragonforce “Heroes of Our Time”
• Eagles of Death Metal “Anything ‘Cept the Truth”
• Earl Greyhound “Oye Vaya”
• Green Day “Know Your Enemy”
• Megadeath “Peace Sells”
• Metalkpretty “Wake Up! Wake Up!”
• Ministry & Co-Conspirators “Keys to the City (Chicago Blackhawks Theme Song)”
• MxPx “Kids in America”
• Nickelback “Burn it to the Ground”
• Papa Roach “Into the Light”
• Priestess “Raccoon Eyes”
• Rancid “The Bravest Kids”
• Scorpions “Rock You Like a Hurricane”
• Thousand Foot Krutch “Fire it Up” 

Your Morning Music Breakdown

Good morning.  Definite discussion of the Islanders situation today.  Perhaps more.  Enjoy the day.

Let’s make the donuts.  Didn’t we have some standards once?

Puck the Media’s Monday Morning Music Meeting

(Ed. Note: This is a new feature that we’re going to do every Sunday we aren’t vacationing until at least September, in which we extol the virtues of one record, past or present, that you need to hear.  Basically, it’s amateur music critic hour, so bear with us.)

Artist: The Gaslight Anthem
From: New Brunswick, New Jersey
Members: Brian Fallon (lead vocals/guitar), Alex Rosamilia (lead guitar/backing vocals), Alex Levine (bass/backing vocals), Benny Horowitz 
Title: The ’59 Sound

 What Other Critics Have Said (So you can call us on our b.s. for ripping them off):

“Everything here ought to make music fans both young and old proud to have working ears. Different from any other New Jersey punk band out there, The Gaslight Anthem isn’t recycling anything in a tired fashion – they are reinventing the classic Americana tradition we still proudly reflect on, and doing it in a way that so many other bands wish they could have done”

-Chris Fallon, Absolute Punk

These songs are simple, mostly, but they’re executed perfectly. Fallon and guitarist Alex Rosamilia do this thing, mostly on the quiet bits, where their guitars wrap twinkly harmonies around each other, getting loose and intricate without being showy about it. And when the guitars turn into chorus-firepower, it just kills because it’s been so long since we’ve heard anyone pull that off with such panache.  

-Tom Breihan, Pitchfork Media

The Gaslight Anthem have crafted some of the best stripped-down soulful rock music ever put to tape – Remember where you were when you first heard “The ’59 Sound.”

-Dan Smith, Sputnik Music

 

Chances are you’ve heard a lot of the features that make New Jersey’s The Gaslight Anthem great.  Probably all of them.  The too-earnest-to-be-as-cliche-as-they-should-be lyrics of their heroes, Bruce Springsteen.  The range of the guitars, mixing from the 80’s weeping of The Cure to the jangle of R.E.M. and Social Distortion.  The big beat drums Benny Horowitz plays.  Oh, and a band from South Jersey with a singer in leather jackets and a Jewish drummer?  Yeah, it’s hard to say the visage of The Gaslight Anthem is something you haven’t seen before.

But perhaps you’re young like me, and you’ve never heard a band of people near your age put it all together before.  Maybe all you’ve got are your parents Tom Petty tapes, or that copy of Born in the U.S.A. that’s in every house in this country.  Maybe, just maybe, you’re tired of hearing classic rock on a classic rock station, and you’re waiting for some guys who don’t look like they’re getting ready to head to the retirement home to make The Great American Rock Record.  Even if you’re old enough to know what music video really made Courtney Cox famous, perhaps you just want to hear a new voice to sing you all those great songs.

Well here it is boys and girls, young and old.  This is the record that will save American Rock and Roll.  Trust me, it is dying.  Have you looked lately at what’s on the rock charts in this country?  Either you’re too old to name any of them, or you’re young enough to be embarrassed at out badly they are and how they’ll be dated in about two years (I’m talking to you, Linkin Park).  The ’59 Sound is bar none, the most timeless record produced in years, maybe decades.

Now, I’ve written about 500 words without telling you what makes it great.  Let the songs speak for themselves.  In nature, they are basic.  Very few solos, yet each member shines at some point.  Horowitz’s drum fills intensify the groovin’ “Miles Davis & The Cool”.  Rosamilia’s guitar riff on “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” is as intoxicating as anything you’ll drink at the shore this summer.  Levine’s bass is a constant presence throughout.

As for leader Fallon?  The boy with the Springsteen-ian daddy complex and aforementioned leather jackets and hair grease?  Meet your new rock god, America.  He comes off as superhero-esque as any of the singers he’s talking about.  He swaggers with Mighty Mighty Bosstones frontman Dickie Barrett in the background of “The Patient Ferris Wheel”.  He croons sadly on “Here’s Lookin’ at You, Kid”.  He defines The Gaslight Anthem’s edge, sound, and range.

Oh, and what a range it is.  From the heartland-punk of “Film Noir”, to the 80’s, bass-heavy “Old White Lincoln”, to a point where the band actually swings on “Casanova, Baby!”  They literally pull all of it off without sounding as if they’re stretching or not sounding like themselves.  Fallon’s voice fits over almost anything.  A recently recorded cover of Kelly Clarkson’s “I Do Not Hook Up” proves that, for sure.

But what about the lyrics?  If a band’s got the sound and it ain’t got the words to make it interesting, then why buy any rock record?  Fallon’s re-telling of the classic tale of yearning for pretty girls, getting clean and getting out to something better is given substance through personal tales of self-discovery and pain.  Like when he laments about being “Better safe/than making the party.  And I never had a good time” in “Great Expectations”, or the pure tear-jerking heartbreaking of “Here’s Looking at You, Kid”.  

Like I said, this is the record you’ve been waiting for.  It sounds good in the car, in the headphones, at a party.  There’s minimal filler (one track, “Meet Me By the River’s Edge, overdoes the Bruce-worship a bit) and it’s a record that’ll pass you by in a flash.  That’s the beauty of The Gaslight Anthem, in summation.  They know what they’re here to do, and they get it done without ever overstaying their welcome, so you’ll have them back again and again and again.  Boy, I hope we get to hear something like The ’59 Sound again.

Your Morning Music Breakdown

Back after another sort of week off.

Gah, what are we going to do this week?

We don’t know yet.  Some Islanders opining.  What we can tell you is that we will be posting an interview with Pittsburgh Penguins radio voice and all-in-all hockey legend Mike Lange at some point.

And take note, we will be taking next week off.  But we will be doing a “Best of” week.  Best of interviews, features, op-ed pieces, etc.  So you’ll get to re-discover some of the very few highpoints of the first 9 months of Puck the Media.  Thank you for letting us live this long.

Now let’s go on with the day.  No surrender, my Bobby Jean.

Likely “Wednesday Night Hockey” on TSN Schedule

Oct. 7
10:00 Montreal vs. Vancouver

Oct. 14
8:30 Edmonton vs. Chicago

Oct. 21
8:30 Vancouver vs. Chicago

Oct. 28
7:30 Montreal vs. Pittsburgh

Nov. 4
8:30 Calgary vs. Dallas

Nov. 11
7:00 Edmonton vs. Buffalo

Nov. 18
9:00 Colorado vs. Edmonton

Nov. 25
7:00 Toronto vs. Tampa Bay
9:30 Phoenix vs. Calgary

Dec. 2
7:00 Vancouver vs. New Jersey

Dec. 9
7:00 NY Islanders vs. Toronto
9:30 Atlanta vs. Calgary 

Dec. 16
7:30 Phoenix vs. Toronto
10:00 Anaheim vs. Vancouver

Dec. 23
7:00 Ottawa vs. Pittsburgh
9:30 St. Louis vs. Calgary

Dec. 30
7:00 Montreal vs. Tampa Bay
9:30 Toronto vs. Edmonton

Jan. 6
7:00 Toronto vs. Philadelphia

Jan. 13
7:00 Vancouver vs. Minnesota
9:30 Pittsburgh vs. Calgary

Jan. 20
7:30 St. Louis vs. Montreal
10:00 Vancouver vs. Edmonton

Jan. 27
7:30 Montreal vs. Tampa Bay
10:00 St. Louis vs. Vancouver

Feb. 3
7:00 Ottawa vs. Buffalo
9:30 Philadelphia vs. Edmonton

Feb. 10
7:30 Washington vs. Montreal
10:00 Edmonton vs. Anaheim

Mar. 3
7:30 Vancouver vs. Detroit
10:00 Minnesota vs. Calgary

Mar. 10
10:00 Vancouver vs. Phoenix

Mar. 17
9:00 Calgary vs. Colorado

Mar. 24
7:30 Montreal vs. Buffalo
10:00 Anaheim vs. Vancouver

Mar. 31
7:00 Carolina vs. Montreal
9:30 Phoenix vs. Calgary

Apr. 7
7:00 Toronto vs. NY Rangers
9:30 Colorado vs. Edmonton