Led Zeppelin Stairway to heaven… I know, its cliche, but it’s the original song that just keeps building and building until is rocking your balls off… if you want to go deeper try Achilles last stand… you’re probably saying “damie, that song is 11 minutes long, and hammers from the start”  to which my response is fuck you, it’s my list, it’s led zeppelin, and if you can’t appreciate the way bonham is smashing those drums through the floor then i can’t help you

Pearl Jam – Rearview mirror – for my money, their best song.  I always listen to it twice.

Prince – Purple Rain – try watching the movie, then listening to that song as he closes it out with the guitar… I can’t keep my eyes dry, and I know Patrick you can’t either

speaking of Patrick, Navar’s Big Orange just goes off… thank you PB, BB and JM

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Wet Sand – John Frusciante kills it at the end.  Anyone who thinks they can keep making songs like that without him is a retard

Metallica – One – ’nuff said

Guns ‘n Roses – Double talkin’ Jive – get the money motherfucker… Slash does some work… and if you can get some footage of him doing it live back in 92-94ish, i strongly recommend it

Dire Straits – Brothers in Arms – i found a live version of this song where Mark Knopfler really uncorks it  at the end

Great White – Rock me – this is the rural minority after all… just staying true to the roots

Queens of the Stone Age – 3′s & 7′s – just an awesome song…

Tool – Forty Six & 2 – another awesome song…. Eulogy should be given a listen too

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Sometimes I can be a real sucker for the cool.  And to be honest, I haven’t listened to much new music this past year or two, so with a few extra bucks in my pocket and a well-produced NPR segment on new music on the radio, I’m ripe for the cool’s bidding.  At least I’m not ravaging Starbuck’s checkout line tunes…anymore.  Actually, as I think about it, the only music I purchased (a loose and loaded word in music these days) during 2009 was Pearl Jam’s Backspacer and two oldie replacements: Citzen Cope’s Greenwood and the perfect It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back by Public Enemy.  By the way, I demand all three be tetris-tiled up in your ipods– Pearl Jam and Public Enemy are political Rural posts for another day.

For me, the consumption and discovery of new music is not a regular occurrence and it can’t be tracked with the tides.  In between these evolutionary moments I fill up on too much Frat-Rock and Metal (I always have Metal).    In 2005, between recording Touch of Class and Swallowed by The Wolf I dug into bands like Razorlight, …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Say Anything, Aimee Mann, and The White Stripes while cultivating my passion for old Sad Bastard music ie. The Band, Van Morrison, Tom Waits, and Bob Dylan.  All I can say is that when I dig into new music, when I’m looking for answers– these seem to be the times when I become more creatively rigorous.  It’s a good feeling and, if the planets align, songs begin to develop, albums start coming together.

I knew nothing about Ok Go when they popped in for an interview on Morning edition last week– I didn’t even know that they were the band from the infamous  treadmill video.  Although their NPR interview was extremely pretentious and the humor annoyingly nerdy and esoteric (as some of their concept-album is), the music carried something that stayed with me after the radio program was long gone.  It had a pulse– it carried threads that the band members claimed wrapped a common concept– music born from the words of an old book by General A. J. Pleasonton in 1876 titled The Influence of the Blue Ray of the Sunlight and of the Blue Colour of the Sky.  So it occurred to me that although these might not be rural men whom I’d sit at the Stardust One with, their musical priorities and intentions seem to be something I share.  And with a little help from Fredonia’s own Dave Fridmann, master of the cosmic Flaming Lip’s sound, I decided to break back into the world of the unknown melody.

Slim’s Top Ten is full of this Super-Cool-Kid rock, so I’m pretty sure there’s a place for Ok Go’s Of the Blue Colour of The Sky (2010) as we enter a new decade with potential for new RuralMan favorites.  It rocks and grooves.  It’s a bit heavy and trippy.  It bends the ear and mind.  I can’t stop listening.

PS. Check the Prince-scream during “Skyscrapers.”

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But this w/e is more than just fun; in fact it’ll take on a serious tone for about two hours. That’s because I’m seeing the St. Bonaventure Bonnies take on the #5th ranked Syracuse Orangemen at the Carrier Dome. This one has the makings of a game that could get ugly quick. I mean, I expect a 50-point blowout. A game chalk-full of rim-rocking alley-oops that would make Dr. J blush. Three-pointers from all over. A defensive stifiling. A dismantling like no other. Hopefully the Bonnies will call their dogs off at the intermission.

Looking forward to it, indeed.

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-Domingo Ortega

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