Enough Already, Nuke Them.

Today I'm citing this article from MSNBC News.

I'm not sure if it's just that North Korea feels they aren't garnering enough attention from the US or if they feel they are important enough to necessitate the kind of attention they seem to be trying to get. In any case, I will say what I thousands of Americans are thinking. Bomb 'em. Level the country, and turn it into a parking lot.

Now all the leftist kumbiya - la - la - la morons who protest every five minutes, will stand up and say, "No, because if we start dropping nukes, they start dropping nukes and then the planet will be decimated." Wrong. What will happen if we drop a nuke and annihilate a population of people is everyone will back off for another 50 to 60 years and refer to us as the sleeping giant you don't want to wake.

The problem is that this country has allowed the Liberal idea of politically correctness to run rampant so that even war has to be politically correct. The only problem with this is that war cannot be politically correct. It's war. It isn't pretty. Angry, stupid, power-hungry people do violent things and you have to step up to the plate, grow a pair, and stop them. And this cannot be done if we are running around under the veil of Liberal ideas.

Someone needs to stand up and tell the Liberals to sit down, shut up, and watch how the game is sucessfully played. We didn't get where we are by playing cute little mind games. And we won't continue to be a force to be reckoned with if we allow this small minded, neandrathal system to continue to convert us.

Marriage.

For the summer, I was employed as a contract DJ who primarily did wedding receptions. Something about marriage bugs me. At least in other people. There seems to be a very primal inability to say to oneself, "I can't marry this idiot, we don't match at all. We have nothing in common. I hate Pasta and he owns an Italian restaurant." etc. etc.

In America, and, I imagine also abroad, people toss conventional common sense out the window and marry because of instinct. More to the point, they get married because they think they're supposed to.

For women, their biological clock goes off early. Seems to be around 22. They get the voice. You know the one. "Got to get me a man..." Over and over again in their head repeating and intensifying until they find one. And half of the time (statistically) he's the wrong one. I saw one wedding this year where I believe the couple were truly in love. They knew each other since high school and were simply gaga eyed over each other.

Men are different. Statistically now, men are waiting until around 30 to tie the knot. This, according to "experts", is because men are focusing on job and career goals first, and then worrying about a wife and family. So you ladies have to endure the biological screaming until he's 30.

The statistic I quoted earlier, you know, about women marrying the wrong guy - has to do with the staggering divorce rate in this country. Most couple literally utter the vows, hoping they really don't have to be kept, thinking in the back of their mind, "If this doesn't work, I can always get divorced."

This whole thing, and I mean marriage in general, strikes me as a very selfish idea in our society. It's fine to get married because you're truly in love and have found your soul mate. However, it's a bad idea to marry if you simply think of the whole thing in a half-assed kind of way. After marriage comes kids, then a divorce destroys their world and sends them into a lifetime of late night counseling sessions, and neither parent cares. They just want out!

This country needs to start taking this ceremonial proceeding the way it was originally intended. As a life time commitment, not as something they can get out of later. Don't let your marriage be "just another statistic" - use your friggin' head for a change.

The Top 10 Bands of 2003

This list was a bitch. But I was very careful not to log anyone from the American Record Labels. These are tough to do becauseyou can just have a top 1 list and list 20 bands. This one will be long so sit down, wring your knuckles and read on.

10. Angel Dust - I don't know much about this Thrash / Punk band other than to say their music rattled my stomach and re-alligned my perception. From the web: Angel Dust was created in the middle of the achtizger years, before 1989 there was a temporary conclusion. In this time two albums were brought in, the debut "Into The Dark Past" and "ton of Dust You want for Decay". With the debut album Romme Keymer singing and playing guitar took over but it then became too much and he concentrated only on the guitar. This had the consequence that a singer had long ago. This was also found with S.L. Coe. The second album was brought in, did not achieve however despite best criticisms not the commercial success of the Debut. Various smaller tours and single appearances with Blind Guardian, tank pool of broadcasting corporations, paradox, Sodom and Destruction followed. After the sold off tour with Running game provided in January 1989 for a further high point in the career of Angel Dust, it found a sudden end in the autumn of the same yearly: because of in and external problems dissolved the volume. To let revive in the Neunzigern more frequent tried those volume again, times with a new singer, times with a new guitarist. Only 1997 were it then so far, it a Promo CD were brought in. Were from the Ur-members only Dirk Assmuth (drums) and Franc Banx (bass) represented. In addition Franks brother steven (keyboard) came, Bernd Aufermann (guitar) and Dirk Thurisch (vocals - guitar). Then actually everything went quite fast. Since Angel Dust is resident exactly the same as Skirt the Hard in Dortmund, Dirk Assmuth brought a copy to that CD in the RH office past. Afterwards several offers of other disk companies, after a comparison were actually received, Century Media was the best. One signed and in the late summer 1998 the album "Border OF Reality" was published. Angel Dust Website.

9. Dragon Force - Epic Metal, Soaring Vocals, downloaded like crazy on MP3.com. They amaze anyone who come near them. From the web: There is definitely a formula we stick to, catchy and fast. We personally think the faster songs of all the Power Metal bands we listen to are the coolest. We think, so why have two fast songs and the rest midtempo? Why not have all the songs fast and the whole album be good, that was our idea, the way we wanted to do it. The next album will be the same formula, fast like now. There's kinda two sides to this, some people say "All the songs are fast, there's no variety", but when you make too much variety people criticize you for having no personality and not having your own sound. We stick to our formula to what we think sounds good so the next album will definitely be very fast, catchy and melodic and plenty of guitar solos and things like that. Apart from a ballad there is pretty much not going to be a midtempo song. Dragon Force Website.

8. Kamelot - More of a Neo Classical sound here. Also Epic Metal with a guy who should just get over it and grow long hair like his band mates on lead vocals. From the Web: Thomas Youngblood and drummer Richard Warner founded Kamelot in Tampa, Florida back in 1991.
In 1994 the band signed a deal with Noise Records, and the release of the debut Eternity followed in August of the next year. Press praised the album as one of most promising debuts of all time.
In 1996 the successor Dominion hit the stores, an opus that was even more diverse and varied than the debut.
Then in 1997, drummer Warner as well as singer Mark Vanderbilt had to be replaced. Kamelot found more than just mere replacements in Casey Grillo and former Conception singer Khan, who had already joined the band during the production of the third album Siege Perilous. The new line-up undertook an extensive tour of Europe during the fall of the same year only to return to the ´Gate Studio` in Wolfsburg twelve months later to produce the fourth studio effort The Fourth Legacy.
The summer of 2000 brought the ´New Allegiance Tour` through Germany, Austria, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Greece and Spain during which the recordings for Kamelot´s first live album The Expedition were made. Only a few months later the band presented their fifth album entitled Karma, which took Khan, Youngblood, Grillo and Barry on yet another European tour.
Now the new opus Epica follows seamlessly; here Kamelot combines all the fortes of the previous productions with new ideas and majestic sounds. Kamelot's Web Site.

7. At Vance - This band is very influenced by the Classical sound. So much in fact, they've done between 3 to 5 classical covers. Along with that they did (get this) an Abba tribute. A very diverse band who's lush mix of guitars, keyboards and vocals leave little to be desired. Maybe a rock opera? That would top it off ahd rocket this band to the top of the list. AFM Records - Home Of At Vance

6. Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Christmas Music with a full orchestra plus a heavy metal band. A Christmas fan's dream! From The Web: Trans-Siberian Orchestra was formed in 1996 by Paul O'Neill who immediately approached long time friends and collaborators Robert Kinkel and Jon Oliva to form the core of the writing team.
While producing and writing for a number of years with various rock groups Paul was always looking for ways to make the music have greater and greater emotional impact. He tried to write the music that was so melodic it didn't need lyrics. And lyrics that were so poetic that they didn't need music but once you put the two of them together, the sum of the parts would be greater than the whole, and you couldn't imagine them apart. Once he'd done this, he was still looking for a way to take it to even greater heights and he realized that putting the songs within the context of a story would give it a third dimension that would make that additional emotional impact possible.
Hence, he started writing not just albums, but rock operas.
He realized then, that there was an inherent problem recording rock operas within the standard rock and roll band makeup. Rock operas by their nature need the voices to change as the characters change. Rock bands normally only have one (or if you're lucky) two great vocalists to work with, therefore limiting how far you can go. You're forced to make the music fit the band, as opposed to allowing the music to go wherever it needs to.
With Trans-Siberian Orchestra, first the music is created with no artificial limitations, and then we seek out within the classical, rock, Broadway and R & B worlds, the very best singers and musicians to bring each song to life. This also in many ways forces us to operate on a higher level. This environment has the additional benefit of causing a cross pollenization of musical ideas, creating hybrid forms of music that normally never would have occurred, such as an R&B singer doing a classical style melody and bringing gospel touches to it that causes it to glitter in ways that even the creators could not have predicted. Another very important aspect in the creation of the band, is that there could be no limits on the members; we mix all races and ages.
The young get to mine the experience of the old musicians, while they can't help to be inspired by the enthusiasm of people just entering the business. This has created a vast constantly changing musical group that even we do not know what it is going to do next.
Once when asked what Trans-Siberian Orchestra was about, Paul O'Neill replied, "It's about creating great art. When asked to define what great art was, Paul said, "The purpose of art is to create an emotional response in the person that is exposed to that art. And there are three categories of art; bad art, good art and great art. Bad art will elicit no emotional response in the person that is exposed to it, i.e.; a song you hear in an elevator and it does nothing to you, a picture on a wall that gives you the same emotional response as if the wall had been blank, a movie that chews up time. Good art will make you feel an emotion that you have felt before; you see a picture of a forest and you remember the last time you went fishing with your dad, you hear a song about love and you remember the last time you were in love. Great art will make you feel an emotion you have never felt before; seeing the pieta, the world famous sculpture by
Michelangelo, can cause someone to feel the pain of losing a child even if they've never had one. And when you're trying for these emotions the easiest one to trigger is anger.
Anyone can do it. Go into the street, throw a rock at someone, you will make them angry. The emotions of love, empathy and laughter are much harder to trigger, but since they operate on a deeper level, they bring a much greater reward.
The Official TSO Web Site.

5. Ken Tamplin - Wow, what a voice. Don't let his music get away from you. You'll miss great guitar playing, great harmonies and great song writing. From the web: Ken Tamplin has always been referred to as a "singer's singer" while guitarists have hailed his playing, songwriting and production among some of the biggest names in the business. At a very young age Tamplin joined his first professional rock group Joshua and has expanded on to other well known groups such as Shout and the famed rock group Magdallan which he partnered with long time friend and guitar virtuoso Lanny Cordola.
Tamplin then went on to be asked to sing for such groups as Foreigner, Skunk Baxter, Jeff Lynn, Geazer Butler, and even Peter Frampton. In time, Ken became known for his production abilities which has led to many film scores and source music for such features as Inspector Gadget, Perfect Storm, The Waterboy, Charlie's Angels, Mod Squad, Wild America, Major League III as well as a host of TV series' such as Melrose Place, 90210, The X-Files, Baywatch, the theme for Ace Ventura (Nickelodeon), Spin City, On Disney Now!, and Entertainment Tonight.
Ken has also found success in national television commercials for Nestle, Hotwheels, and Acura, as well as Japanese TV commercials for Ford, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, Japan Airlines, Lux, and Shakey's. Tamplin has even written header spots for people like Rush Limbaugh.
Ken's Home On The Net Free Samples Of Tamplin Tunes.

4. XFACTORX - A band from Connecticut who's re-lighting the new England Metal fire with a little Napalm. Very Iron Maiden. From The web: Despite the main scene in metal music seems to be only devoted to progressive metal or extreme & dark bands, ther's like a new wave of heavy metal growing slowly but surely. The U.S. scene seems to know a burst out of new talents , like Enertia, The quiet Room, & mainly more. X Factor X is surely one of the bands that will meet a large success in the forthcoming years. No prog metal, this time, just heavy rock played at its best. In fact, X Factor X remains me the cult U.S. band Obssession that relased excellent albums in the 80's. It's impossible to let insensible to this kind of groovy songs, with an excellent play & composition. More, the band innoves ( like on BAMF) & owns qualities that are rare for such a youg band like in the song "Nightmare 7", that is surely one the best one they composed. . Their musicianship is totally impressive & they all have an over the average technical level. One of the best point in this band is surely the singer. Main ones in melodic metal band are copying some famous singer. This one has got his own voice & he knows how to use it at its best. Everytime, he succeeds in finding the best vocals line that suits to songs. His voice can be aggressive, raw like on "Lie" or sweet & hot like in the superb power ballad "Shadow". More, the guitar works is amazing & guitarist John masters his instrument & technical level. For the rythm section, they bring lots of arrangements in songs by a bass line "Lie"or a various play in songs " Devil's lobotomy". XFACTORX Web Site.

3. Tuff - Tuff is a band that never got as big as some of the names from Classic Metal (or the 80's if you must), but had some great songs that really delievered the goods. From the web: In may of 1987, a moderate amount of flyers were handed out on the sunset strip by the band to look for their new singer. One of these flyers made it back to little old Oshkosh, Wisconsin and after reading "singer wanted, David lee Roth, Vince Neil, Bret Michaels type" local guy Steve Lauxes (thats sexual spelled backwards) decided to give it a try. After spending a few years playing locally in Wisconsin the former frontman of "X-iter" and "talon" (a.k.a. "Tomi Gunn" not the Chicago/L.A. based Tommy Gun) realized it was time to make a move. "i flew to L.A. On a one-way plane ticket on June 26, 1987 and was confident I could fill the shoes" says Stevie, "after a few minutes in the same room we all knew it was right and I was the missing piece to the puzzle". That by chance flyer circulated two thousand miles to the middle of nowhere and look what happened. The first band meeting which took place at an apartment in Van Nuys, CA in early July 1987 would launch tuff almost overnight into the local, westcoast and national spotlight. Tuff played their first show with warrant at the Roxy theater in late august of 1987 and that would lead to one more support slot at the troubadour a month later. Then a headlining gig at the whisky a go-go on sunset strip in early November was the beginning of a Hollywood domination second to none. Tuff was soon to be known as the biggest unsigned band in the world. Undoubtedly the biggest southern California act since Posion or motley crue it wasn't long before tuff found them selves in tour buses and Winnebagos headlining clubs all over the west coast. All this and getting paid $ 500.00 to $ 2,000.00 a night. Tuff soon found second homes in phoenix, Tucson, san Francisco, Fresno, San Diego, salt lake city and several other cities along with ruling Hollywood. Tuff, along with establishing itself as a force in the Hollywood scene, never let up with heavy promoting, playing and eventually signed a recording contract with Titanium/Atlantic records in the late summer/early fall of 1990! Hooray! This contract came after 5 years of hard work and 3 years plus of pounding the streets of Hollywood with the lineup that would make tuff a household name. "bigger than batman", "better than sex", "in your face" & several other slogans adorned all of the tuff ads and flyers that covered sunset strip in the late 80's. However none was more gratifying to the band than the 2 page centerfold bam and rock city news ads that read "hell just froze over" Atlantic/Titanium recording artists! These ads hit in July of 1990 and the band played 2 sold out nights at the Roxy theater to announce the big news. The Tuff Homepage.

2. Thunder - Thunder is a metal band lead by a vocalist who has more soul than a Baptist Minister when he sings. Everything Thunder does is good. They have not done a lousy album. Thunder Online.

1. SPIT LIKE THIS - It's official. This is THE band to see, hear, taste, experience. Lord Zion and his crew of un-wanted houseguests will re-awaken your inner child and scare the crap out of your kids. You must buy their CDs. NOW. Radio's Avenger commands you. Go now to Spit Like This Dot Com.