Rand’s Righteous Links
Well, I’ve finally found the time to check all the links on this site! And boy were a lot of them useless! So, without further ado, here are all my favorite links... updated... although the format still leaves much to be desired aesthetically. You CAN’T HAVE IT ALL!
Friends
Clay Robeson. Clay and I became friends during a Penn State Thespian production of The Pied Piper of Hamelin. We were dancing rats. He was the rat king. Clay currently resides in Boston, my favorite city on the east coast. I wish I could visit him more often. Or that I lived in Boston.
The Chady Family. Pete and Christine Chady are dear old friends of mine. Pete and I met at Penn State, where he was my next door neighbor in Atherton Hall, the scholar’s dorm. As he was a bizarre fellow with a great talent for playing guitar, I spent much time calling upon him and annoying him and siphoning off his friends (for instance, Karen Markie, who shaved me a mohawk; and Jason Zanitsch, my favorite roommate). The following year, Pete and I (along with Jaosn, Michael Chen and Mark Arner) rented ourselves a little house known as the Vatican, from which spring music eternal. Every two years since 1990, a group of us gets together to record our own Christmas album for friends and family. His wife, Christine, and I traditionally attempt to get our own schmalzy duet ballad included if we can.
Todd Richards. Todd and I were best friends when I was in tenth grade and he was in eleventh. We even formed our own pop/rock band, Oddlot, who recorded the infamous French Album in the spring of 1988. Having journeyed across two continents together and endured more big hair than two men should be allowed to sport, we remain good friends even now. He lives in Cleveland is a radio DJ on... uh... some radio station... the call letters elude me at the moment, but he got to interview Mick Fleetwood, and that alone is enough to place him permanently in my pantheon of parea.
Sam Huckabee. Sam and I have worked together on a couple of a shows for the State College Community Theatre (Boal Barn) and for Penn State Thespians. When Jason and I were roommates, Sam was a regular feature in our apartment for movie night, games night, coffee house night and for the Christmas recording sessions. Sam is also a wicked good sax player, and is featured on our “Christmas in State College Blues” jam sessions.
Bill Ung. Bill is a friend of my sister’s in Southern California. He’s stuck by my sister in some tough times and has always looked out for her.
Sydell Payne. Sydell kicks a$$. Years ago (December 1996), I wrote and directed a children’s show, Goldilocks, Cinderumplestiltskin, the Really Ugly Duckling, and Other Loony Legends! It was based on The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Stories, Sydell played my hip-hop gangsta Granny to Little Red Riding Hood as well as a fierce Maggie the Cat in the Cinderella portion of the fairy tales (I based Cinderella on Elaine from Seinfeld with the step-mother and step-sisters lifted right out of Tennessee Williams plays).
Ryan Johnson. Ryan is yet another friend from Penn State Thespians. He now lives and works in D.C. and plays a pretty wicked guitar, although he hasn’t bothered to update his website since November of 1997. That was when he came up for our Christmas jam (my old roommate Jason and record a Christmas album together with friends every two) and lent his talent to “I Believe in Father Christmas,” an old ELP song, and an original piece, “Christmas in State College Blues.” Although the former is obviously the more artistic piece, the latter is my own composition and has significant personal significance. This message brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department.
Tony Cingle. Tony is my old road trip buddy. We used to drive to Jersey to visit my best friend, Adam Fitting, who, in spite of being a computer consultant, doesn’t have a website (that I can find, anyway). I took him to the beach for the first time, got him his first yoo-hoo (mind you, he was already 19 at the time!) and showed him places where cousins don’t marry, far, far away from his home in Snow Shoe, PA. Yuk yuk. Tony is teaching these days and looking to head west to Californy.
Music Related Links
These are some of my favorite recording artists, although the list is not even remotely complete. I’m an absolute audiophile. Or is it stereophile? Whatever; you be the judge — I own an absurd number of compact discs (over a thousand), not to mention my beloved collection of vinyl (about three hundred albums and a hundred singles).
Joni Mitchell. Joni is a lyrical goddess; I believe her to be the greatest lyricist of the last century. My favorite albums of hers are For the Roses and Hejira.
Stevie Nicks. Ah, the high priestess of rock and roll! Stevie was the first female rock star I was ever in love with. As a child I actually hated her voice. Then when I was twelve I saw the video for “Gypsy” on MTV one morning before school. My life was forever changed... her free-spirited, bewitching appearance left me in a rapture, and her stream-of-consciousness lyrics touched me like nothing before.
Dave Matthews Band. I think that I nearly wore out my copy of Under the Table and Dreaming within a month of buying it... I just played it nonstep throughout the entire summer and fall of 1995. In 1997, I caught them live at Penn State with my mother. Don’t ask me what they were doing with my mother!
Peter Gabriel. I find Peter Gabriel to have the most sensuously spiritual music. I first encountered his music when I was twelve and moved to California, where I was suddenly exposed to an enormous palette of artists that I had never been aware existed. I can’t think of any of his songs that I don’t like.
Sting. Sting has always been one of my favorites for not caring about what the mainstream is listening to and simply delivering intelligent lyrics and innovative arrangements. I mean, is there anyone who doesn’t like Sting? Anyone who matters, anyway?
Billy Joel. I grew up hearing Billy Joel on my parents’ turntable and learning his songs on the piano. A fantastic story-teller and one Hell of a pianist... I can play some of his easier pieces.
John Hiatt. Hiatt is an underrated, intelligent, reflective country/folk/rock singer/songwriter with a somewhat twisted sense of humor; Walk On’s “Ethylene” is a perfect example of this, perhaps the most honest, albeit slightly unflattering, upbeat song about true love to ever find its way onto a pop album.
Ani DiFranco. Then again, maybe “Untouchable Face” comes closer to expressing the realities of love. Nah, that’s about obsession -- but isn’t listening to “Both Hands” and “Thirty-two Flavors” a religious experience? She just played in Eisenhower Auditorium here at Penn State... dude, it was awesome!
Christine Lavin. Christine Lavin is a wacky folk singer with a great sense of humor (and I’ve sung backup onstage for her twice as a Sensitive New Age Guy!!! Yet another brush with greatness!). I’ve seen her live several times... I hope she doesn’t think I’m stalking her!
Ben Folds Five. BFF is one of the best bands to emerge since DMB. Innovative chord structures, arrangements and influences that range from Gershwin to punk, humor and angst, yin and yang, ping and pong sweetie darling. My mother absolutely loves “Uncle Walter,” although “Underground” and “Evaporated” are perhaps my personal faves. I’m quite heartbroken over their break-up and hope that Ben will continue to record solo.
John Gorka. John Gorka is a singer-songwriter from New Jersey. For years he was based out of Bethlehem, PA, although now he lives somewhere in the center of the country, like one of the Dakotas maybe or Wyoming or Montana, something like that. Which means I won’t have nearly as manyopportunities to catch him on the local circuit.
Dar Williams. Oh, what an incredible singer-songwriter. I have only heard her on the radio once, on a Pittsburgh talk show, but the odd coincidences surrounding the episode convinced me that fate wanted me to buy her Mortal City album. I had accidentally heard the disc in a listening booth when somebody switched the albums... I didn’t know what I was listening to, but I knew I liked it. The next morning, I awoke to the radio, and it was her singing “February” live. I called my best friend Fitting in New Brunswick and asked him if he’d ever heard of her... turns out she had just visited Rutgers, and he had met her and given her a pair of rainbow suspenders!
Michael Penn. Penn is best remembered for his hit “No Myth,” (aka Romeo in black jeans), but he has released several impressive albums of brilliantly crafted pop music with clever lyrics. His third effort, Resigned, is nothing short of a masterpiece, and I caught him on tour with his wife in February of 2000.
Aimee Mann. Michael Penn’s wife, incidentally, is Aimee Mann. Everyone remembers her from the video about the abusive jerk boyfriend, “Voices Carry,” when she was in the band Til Tuesday. She has had a solid career of pop masterpieces, all of which have managed to come in under the public’s radar, even the highly lauded I’m With Stupid, and the grammy nominated soundtrack to the movie Magnolia.
Tori Amos. Tori’s music came to me at a crucial time. I heard “Silent All These Years” immediately after a break up and rushed out to buy the album immediately. “Baker Baker” got me through being turned down by a love interest (she certainly knew how to time her releases in accordance with my emotional needs!). I haven’t been as pleased with her recent efforts, but, hey, an artist’s gotta grow however he or she feels is necessary.
Cyndi Lauper. Don’t laugh! She’s a very gifted songwriter with an incredible set of pipes. And she doesn’t just want to have fun anymore... check out Hatfull of Stars and Sisters of Avalon, her two most recent releases. She has some incredible material on there -- do yourself a favor and pick up at least one of these albums! Oh, and here’s another Cyndi site.
The Hooters. Remember them? An eighties phenomenon as far as the hits go, but they’ve had some good subsequent albums.
Crowded House. So what if they only had two top ten hits? All four of their studio albums (plus a greatest hits package) kick ass. If only their chord progressions didn’t always include at least one impossible chord, I might actually be able to play their stuff!
Del Amitri. These guys aren’t terribly well known beyond their occasional excursions into top 40 radio airplay, which are infrequent. I, on the other hand, find them quite engaging. Then again, I am stone cold sober... looking for bottles of love. Their first two albums, Waking Hours and Change Everything, were irresistable pop gems. Subsequent efforts haven’t lived up to potential.
Counting Crows. They’re a pretty cool band, even if half of their fan legions consist of stupid and hormonal bimbettes and half of what’s left is stoned off of their asses. I think their songs tell some pretty great stories, and they’re not too difficult to play. I do an acoustic piano version of “Round Here.”
Barenaked Ladies. The thing I love most about BNL is that one minute they can be singing something totally goofy and irreverent and witty, and one track later they’re exploring some very poignant topic... “Pinch Me,” for all its posturing as a pop song, is really a moving song about trapped potential.
The Wallflowers are a really cool group too. Great driving music. Sam Huckabee says that they are good in concert (I should be so lucky); she ran spot on their show when they came to Rec Hall at Penn State. Sheryl Crow opened for them and apparently sucked, which is too bad, cuz I really like her too.
Belle and Sebastian. I picked up a set of their CD EP’s and find them very interesting, albeit midly pretentious in an understated sort of way. Very creative.
Looking for guitar tablature to some of your favorite artists?
Other links
X-Files. I am an X-Phile! Moulder, you can abduct me ANY TIME. I think my favorite part of Thanksgiving is the FX X-Files marathon.
The Onion. It’s still the best news source there is.
Dilbert. Do you have a job? Do you have a functioning brain? If you answered yes to both of these questions, then you should find this amusing.
South Park. Because you can never have too much flatulence or dead Kenny.
The Simpsons. It’s still one of the best-written shows on TV. You really have to know it all, from high-brow scientific theory to the lowest common denominator of popular culture, to catch all the jokes, and that’s what makes it so good.
Please let me know if any of my links are not working!
