February 2009

There were 23 posts published in February 2009 (this is page 4 of 4).

C.A.T: Led Zeppelin


Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin (1969)
Yeah I know, not the most exciting choice for a classic album tuesday, but I feel like you gotta throw in some of the more recognizable classics every once in awhile. So why don’t we take a look at why this hard rock debut album has become such a staple of the genre and still lives on as vigorously as ever.

It all started with the disbanding of The Yardbirds. It was the summer of 68′ when guitarist Jimmy Page found himself as the only remaining member, still left with the band name and contractual obligations. Recruiting studio bassist John Paul Jones, vocalist Robert Plant and drummer John Bonham (Both from the group Band of Joy), this quartet started off touring as The New Yardbirds.

Later donning the name Led Zeppelin, the guys headed into Olympic Studio’s in the fall of 1968 to record their landmark self titled album. Recorded in a surprisingly brief amount of time, this blues infused orgy of masterful riffs and powerful rhythms would forever shape the genre from then on.

Something about the production and atmosphere this album carries with it sends shivers down my spine. Songs like “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” and “Dazed and Confused” have such a dramatic impact with their otherworldly tones and masterful musicianship. It’s fitting that Zeppelin have been given the moniker of “Hammer of the Gods” as their sound is nothing short of epic.

It’s hard to think of a lot of groups that inspired such a broad amount of musicians. In my experience, anyone who begins to embrace rock music or play guitar has gone through some sort of Led Zeppelin stage. They play it to death on the radio and you don’t have to go to far to see some kid in a Guitar Center jamming away at Zeppelin classics. I’ll keep it brief here as I don’t have much energy or enthusiasm towards writing today. It rocks, it rolls and does everything in between for plenty of good times.

Favorite Tracks: “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You”, “Dazed and Confused”, “Good Times Bad Times”

Any Given Sunday


Though I’m sure you’ve all heard about the Steelers big win yesterday, giving them the most superbowl wins out of any NFL team to date, I felt that I should briefly acknowledge Superbowl 43 with an own analysis of yesterday’s events.

The Game
I wasn’t planning on watching the Superbowl this year considering I had little to no interest in either team succeeding, but the time came and I decided I’d give it a shot. To be honest I really enjoyed watching these two teams duke it out. I figured the Steelers would just womp Arizona right out of the gates but by golly Kurt Warner and company gave them a run for their money. There was even a point that I thought it was over for the Steelers but leave it to a risky toss to Santonio Holmes and you got yourself one helluva ball game. Not to mention there was linebacker James Harrison’s ridiculous interception leading to a 100-yard touchdown. Sometimes I find it’s a nice change of pace to watch a game that I’m not so emotionally involved in, by which I mean watching two teams I have no preference towards. So overall it was a pretty good game, pretty, pretty good.


Half Time
Been a lot of great classic rockers filling this spot for the last four or five years and this year was no exception. Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen and The E Street Band brought fourth one of the most energetic and entertaining half time performances I’ve seen in many moons. The boss commanded the stage leaping all over the place, giving Clarence a high five, chatting on stage with Steven and even power sliding into a camera. They pumped up “Tenth Avenue Freeze Out”, “Born to Run”, “Working on a Dream” form their latest album (Picked that up last saturday and it’s awesome) and “Glory Days” (with football revised lyrics). Topping it of with some fireworks here and there the performance proved be to be a solid showing.


The Commercials
I’ve never cared Superbowl commercials, because I really don’t like commercials in general. The ones they show at the Superbowl are no different aside from the fact that they cost like infinity million dollars to make and then air. It was pretty weird to see a MacGruber ad for pepsi, featuring Richard Dean Anderson (the original Macgyver who was also on Macgruber on last week’s SNL) so that was interesting. It seems like almost half the commercials were for Bud Light, mostly featuring a bunch of horses with the exception of that one with Conan O’Brien and H. Jon Benjamin.

For the most part I more of look forward to new movie trailers, so I was glad to get a brief look at The Year One with Jack Black and Michael Cera. It was like 30 seconds long but I’m still excited. Land of the Lost looks like it could be entertaining and as for the rest I really don’t know. I still can’t believe they’re making a G.I. Joe movie, that sounds like a train wreck just waiting to happen.


Other Thoughts
It was pretty cool that NBC aired a new extended episode of The Office after the game. I enjoyed it and especially liked Dwight removing the face from a CPR dummy. I’d seen Rainn Wilson interviewed by Al Roker earlier that day about the episode and was glad to see Rainn wearing a seahawks jersey (He’s from Seattle for those that don’t know.) He was all like “Yeah go Seahawks! We did it, we made it!” funny guy.

That’s all I got for now with the second time I’ve reported back ti you my thoughts on the Superbowl. I did it last year too on my blog The Ottman Prophecies.