chris | word

I can’t remember the first time I heard a Van Halen song or what song it was. It may have been something from Van Halen II like “Bottom’s Up” or “Beautiful Girls” or it could have been from Women and Children First and been a song like “Romeo Delight” or “Everybody Wants Some.”

Whatever song or album it was, it was certainly a log time ago. A simpler time to be sure. A lot has changed since that time. I’ve aged and gotten a bit slower but I think, in some ways, a bit smarter.

Over the years I’ve also tried to stay current with Van Halen and their music. That wasn’t made easy by the fact that their last album, Van Halen III, came out in 1998 and, to be fair, wasn’t really all that great.

It seems things are looking up a bit now with the band’s new album A Different Kind of Truth. It’s out today, I’ve listened to it and so far, I like what I hear. Also, it’s nice to see David Lee Roth back where he belongs.

Speaking of that, I came across this video of Roth interviewing Eddie and Alex Van Halen. It’s pretty interesting and contains info I didn’t know about the band and it’s history.

Also, it makes me worry a bit that Eddie isn’t long for this earth. The years (and the other stuff) have not been kind to him.

Enjoy.

This is a very interesting read especially coming from a guy whose company also has DRM on its music from iTunes. Still, you have to give him credit, he sure seems to be pretty darn smart. I guess you have to be to do what he’s done with Apple over the years. Enjoy.

over at LAist we are doing our “best of” picks to end the year. yes, i know it may seem a little trite but its still a bunch of fun too. you can check out my pics for best music, blogs, tv shows, movies, bars, restaurants, etc. over there. they will be coming out a piece at a time, starting with music.

or, for your convenience, they can all be found below. enjoy!

best movies:
munich
brokeback mountain
good night and good luck
syriana
capote
serenity

best tv shows:
veronica mars
battlestar galactica
my name is earl
the office
rome
out of practice

best bars:
father’s office – santa monica
firefly – studio city
starlight lounge – studio city
cat and fiddle – hollywood
roof bar at the standard – downtown
el centro – los angeles

best restaurants:
hugo’s – studio city
lala’s – studio city
arroyo chop house – pasadena
ciudad – downtown
great india cafe – studio city
jar – beverly hills
doughboy’s – los angeles
taco bell – anywhere at 2 am

best blogs:
engadget
the superficial
the unofficial apple weblog
LAist (so i’m biased, so what?)
sploid
starbucks gossip
digg (not really a blog exactly but still interesting)

best cd’s:
coldplay – x&y (i play this all the time and like it more and more)
death cab for cutie – plans
fall out boy – from under the cork tree
franz ferdinand – you could have said it so much better
the white stripes – get behind me satan

also, i am still listening to these cd’s from 2004 and before (some, way before. oldies but goodies, as they say).
coldplay – a rush of blood to the head
interpol – antics
zero 7 – simple things
the crystal method – vegas
the killers – hot fuss
black rebel motorcycle club – b.r.m.c.
miles davis – the complete birth of cool

and that be that. enjoy the rest of 2005.

Ok, I went to see brother Sam’s band, The High Violets, last Wednesday night at King King, which is a cool space, btw. As I said in my previous post, I had never seen him live with this band before and I was looking forward to it.

Well, the vote is in and all I can say is “fantastic”. I really liked it. They did a great job. I know, we are related and all but rest assured, if he sucked, you folks would be the second to know (I would tell him first, of course).

I want to encourage the kid and would have probably put it better than “well, that really blew” but I would have told him what I think. He deserves the truth. I would expect no less from him. Although, I never do anything that someone could say “that blew” about so no danger there.

So, it is with great pleasure that I say his show rocked! If I had anything bad to say it would be that the set was too short. I wanted more and so did the audience. They were in to it.

The band needs more songs. I know they are working on more and will have a CD out soon so expect me to be pushing that when it becomes available. I also tried to take some photos with the Treo and you can see those at the flickr moblog. Although, the Treo is not a very good low-light camera. I’m dumb and didn’t bring the good camera. Oh well, live and learn. Maybe next time.

Cheers.