All posts by Kev Brock

I'm a musician, singer/songwriter, blogger, writer, poet, bodybuilder, movie lover, music lover, video gamer, history/political buff, conservative/republican, etc. I like to do a lot of things.

To those who are either loved or hated… don’t worry about it… just be you…

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I seldomly re-share life inspiring memes through facebook ’cause most of them are total bullshit, but I only re-share the ones that reminds me of myself and ones that actually makes a lot of sense. Well this one actually makes a lot of sense.

I’m sure some of you go through the same thing. You’re either loved or hated by people. Yep, I go through the same thing myself and I’m okay with that. I know a lot of people in my life and there are those that love me out there and there are definitely those that hate me too. I’ve always got a mix of love and hate online and offline. I can never understand it but that’s the way life is, I guess. You can’t make everybody happy and that’s all there is to it, ya know? I try my best to make people happy, but I know I can’t do that.

I do find it funny how much hatred some have of me out there and it’s interesting how some would have raging tempers over the way I talk and the way I think. You know what? I don’t give a shit really. I’ve had plenty of people over the years of my life who I thought was a friend and stabbed me in the back. That’s cool, though. You just got to learn to accept it and keep moving forward. That’s all you can do. I’m fine with a mixed reaction toward me as a person ’cause all I care about right now is music and bodybuilding/fitness.

Whether people like you or hate you, it shouldn’t matter. Just be you. Over the years, I’ve learned to be me no matter the situation. It may have pissed people off over the years but that’s tough. There’s nothing wrong with being yourself. Of course, there are gonna be people who think it’s wrong and if they don’t like the way you act, they’ll try to control you. It’s interesting how people think it’s okay to try and change you just because they don’t like who you are. I’ve dealt with that shit for many years. Not just in the internet world, in the real world too.

People don’t like your attitude? Fuck ’em. People don’t like your opinions and views in certain topics? Fuck ’em. People don’t like the way you are as a person? Fuck them. Once again, just be you and there’s nothing wrong with it.

Yeah, I definitely did meet people over the years that either loved me or hated me. Once again, it’s all fine and good. Life is good for me either way. It’s not the end of the world if people decided not to like you. It’s your life that matters, not theirs.

Seriously, I did all I can to become a positive person and be good to everyone but no matter how positive I try to be, there will always be someone who won’t like me but that’s okay. Just keep being positive and be good to everyone ’cause that’s probably why you get haters to begin with. That’s the way I look at it. You’re definitely gonna get jealous people ’cause they know you’re a good person.

With that being said, I am who I am and I won’t change for anybody. You shouldn’t either. Live life the way you want to and screw everyone.

Kev

Happy Birthday, Ric Flair!!!

RicFlairRoyalRumb92.jpg

Ric Flair is one of the reasons I watch professional wrestling. I’ll never forget the night when I witnessed Flair winning the WWE Championship for the first time at the Royal Rumble 1992 which took place at the Knickerbocker Arena (now the venue is called “The Times Union Center) in Albany, N.Y.. I was there that night at the Rumble ’92 ppv. I didn’t get very good seats; I remember sitting at the very top, but I could still see the ring pretty well from way up there.

The Rumble ’92 was indeed one of the greatest Rumble ppvs in the history of wrestling. I’ll never forget that night ever and I was fortunate enough to be there to watch it live in person. I got to see so many legends that night I remember… Hulk Hogan, Jake the Snake, The Undertaker, Owen Hart, Jim Neidhart, Rick Martel, Mr. Perfect, Tito Santana, Roddy Piper, Sid Justice, The Macho Man, Greg The Hammer Valentine, Big Bossman, The Legion of Doom, Jimmy Snuka, etc. That was such an incredible night — I still remember it like it was yesterday. I still like to re-watch the Royal Rumble 1992 every now and then

I respect Flair so much. He has done so much for the wrestling business over the years. Ric has worked for pretty much all wrestling companies. He went through the AWA, the WWF/WWE, WCW and TNA Impact. The only company he didn’t work for was ECW obviously. My respect for Flair is pretty immense.

Thanks Ric for all you do.

Kev

10 songs that Smashing Pumpkins should play on reunion tour that are not on Billy Corgan’s tour list…

https://www.instagram.com/p/BfiugheDYDc/?utm_source=ig_embed

Yeah, I’m posting that list again so I can name a few of my choices of Pumpkins songs that should be played on the tour that are not on this list.

Here they are:

“Bodies” from the Mellie Collie album

(I was surprised that Billy neglected this song from the list. This is a fucking tight song and it should be played on the tour. I love this song!)

“Fuck You (An Ode to No One)”

(Another sick song off of Mellie Collie and I can’t believe Billy forgot that one)

“I Am One”

(Another badass song from their earlier days that they neglected from the list. This is probably my favorite song off the Gish album)

“Once Upon a Time”

(I love the “Adore” album. Since the Reunion Tour was meant to play songs from the first five albums, this song counts. This is my favorite song off of “Adore” and I  hope it gets played on the tour)

“Daphne Descends”

(Another brilliant song off of “Adore” that should be played on the tour. Fuckin’ love this song so much! “Adore” wasn’t everyone’s favorite Pumpkins record but I loved it and it’s an underrated album for sure!)

“Tear”

(Another sick song off of “Adore”. I’m not ashamed to love this album even though fans called it the worst album. I didn’t think so. It’s a great record!)

“I Of the Morning”

(This is in my opinion the best song off of Machina/The Machines of God. Can’t believe Billy didn’t think about this one.)

“Glass and the Ghost Children”

(This song is pretty awesome. Another favorite song of mine off the first Machina album. Long track but really really good stuff. I hope Billy plays this one. Even though this song wasn’t a smash hit, it still gets a lot of attention.)

“Cash Star Car”

(Probably the best song off of Machina II. This is my favorite track off the album. Fucking tight)

“Quiet”

(Probably my favorite track off the “Siamese Dream” album. What was Billy thinking when he didn’t include this song)

There you have it! Enjoy!

Kev

Billy Corgan shares list of songs for Smashing Pumpkins tour… yeah, you want a full fledged greatest hits tour, you got it!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BfiugheDYDc/?utm_source=ig_embed

Pretty cool. Billy Corgan shares a list of songs the Smashing Pumpkins plan to play at the new tour this year. This isn’t a setlist ’cause if you read above, it’s a list of songs they plan to play so the order would be different at each show. He is also asking for fans input on what songs they would like to hear on the tour. Songs that aren’t on this list.

The Pumpkins doing a cover of Led Zep’s “Stairway”? Well, that should sound interesting! Can’t wait for the bootleg youtube video of that one.

Kev

Turns out the Smashing Pumpkins already have several new songs to play on the tour and they’ll probably release a new album this year too…

More good Smashing Pumpkins news. Not only will the band reunite to play material from the band’s first five albums on the tour, it looks like they are going to be releasing a new album this year after all. Billy Corgan revealed the Pumpkins already have 8 new songs and Billy revealed the names of them. They’ll probably play the new songs on the tour. The band will also hit the studio as soon as possible to record these new songs and they’ll probably write more new songs for the next album. The band will be working with iconic producer, Rick Rubin. Billy is also working on a new solo album as well.

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/smashing-pumpkins-song-titles-2018/

Yeah, I predicted that the Pumpkins will release a new album too and I was right. What will the new Pumpkins songs sound like? Will they be heavy and rocking songs like they used to sound like or will they be ballads? Probably a little bit of both. That’s what I love about Corgan’s songwriting. His songwriting is always unpredictable. Sometimes his songs are heavy & rocking, sometimes he writes happy songs and he writes a lot of slow ballads too. I’m sure the new Pumpkins record will have some heavy rockin’ songs on it ’cause Billy would know what the fans would want. Hopefully the new album will be heavy rockin’ like “Siamese Dream” and “Mellie Collie” were.

Speaking of the Pumpkins, I’m gonna have to try and collect the rest of their albums for my Ipod this year ’cause I love their music. I bought “Siamese Dream” for my Ipod earlier this year ’cause I used to have the album on CD but don’t know what happened to it. It’s good to have that album again. I also need to buy “Mellie Collie” from ITunes soon ’cause I used to have that album on CD but want to get it back. I have “Oceania”, “ZeitGeist” and “Adore” on physical CD. I also need to get “Machina I & II” and “Monuments to an Elegy”.

I think Billy is a very talented songwriter and he’s a good live performer too. I can’t stop listening to his solo album “Ogilala” too ’cause that album is pretty amazing stuff.

Kev

5 years ago today, the PlayStation 4 was released…

I have several hobbies in my life. Other than music, guitar playing, bodybuilding, yoga, reading, writing, watching movies, watching pro wrestling, some photography… video gaming is one of my favorite hobbies. I love video gaming… it’s something I’ve always grew up on. When I was a young child, video gaming all started with Pong and then comes the Atari which I was obsessed with. I’ve always played video games over the years: the original Nintendo, Super Nintendo, PC Gaming and the PlayStation. I never played much of Sega over the years, though. I also loved going to the arcades a lot at the malls when arcades used to be big back in the day.

When it comes to PlayStation or Xbox, I prefer the PlayStation more than the Xbox. Why? Simply because the PlayStation has better selection of games. They have my Tomb Raider and God of War games which I really like.

I’ve had the PS3 for several years and now here comes the PS4 which came out 5 years ago. Yeah, the PS4 came out 5 years ago, but I was real late getting it, though. I finally bought my own PS4 like a year ago now. I got like 15 games with it now: “Batman: Arkham Knight”, “Skyrim SE”, “Uncharted 4”, “Until Dawn”, “7 Days to Die”, “Evil Within 2”, “Star Wars Battlefront 2”, “Friday the 13th”, “Minecraft”, “Overwatch”, “Deus Ex: Mankind Divided”, “WWE 2k18” and a few Call of Duty games.

Yeah, the PS4 quickly became addicting ever since I got it. It has the best graphics, best sound, best menu features, etc. The PS4 is cool and I thought Sony did a great job with it. I’m late getting into the PS4 but late is better than never. It’s a great console.

Some of you may ask, will I get the PS4 virtual reality thing? Ya know the PS4 VR. I wanna get it and will get it sometime in the future. I want to see what virtual reality gaming is like myself.

Congrats to Sony on 5 years of PS4. Even though the PS4 has been around for 5 years, they already becoming big and successful which is impressive.

https://blog.us.playstation.com/2018/02/20/playstation-4-5-years-ago-today/

Yeah, I’m a video game nerd and proud of it.

Kev

Happy Birthday, Kurt Cobain…

I don’t know why Nirvana gets so much hate. They still do get a lot hate after all these years. I’ve always loved Nirvana ever since they started emerging in the 90’s and still love them now.

I love Nirvana so much ’cause they prove a rock n’ roll band doesn’t need to take themselves seriously just to rock, plus they made great music. I’ve followed Nirvana’s career for years and still follow everything they release. Even if the band’s career only had three albums, I thought they wrote beautiful music. I loved everything they wrote. “Bleach”, “Nevermind” and “In Utero” are all rock masterpieces for sure.

I remember buying the Nirvana album “Nevermind” when it first came out in the 90’s and I still have that same CD sitting on my CD shelf now. I’ve had that album on CD ever since I was a young teenager in high school. In high school, that’s when Nirvana started getting big. I would play the “Nevermind” album over and over obsessively and still listen to that album a lot. That’s an album I’ll never get tired of listening. “In Utero” was a great record too, though.

I love Nirvana. It’s a shame their career was short lived. Love ’em or hate ’em, they changed a lot of people’s lives especially mine. I’ve always been loyal to this band.

Kev

 

What’s wrong with shredding and playing fast notes on guitar? That’s the kind of guitar player I want to be!

When I first started out on guitar, I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. I was only able to play basic open chords back in the day when I was starting out. I was a shit guitar player back then. Have been shit for a long while admittedly and now I’ve been doing all I can to improve myself. Take my guitar playing to the next level.

A lot of people want to knock people who shred and play fast. People call it “noodling” and shredding all sounds the same, blah blah blah. You get the deal. That’s why instrumental shred music is so underrated and overlooked. People always say when playing lead guitar solos, “less is more”. They always say don’t overdo yourself. I disagree. I would say play as many notes as you want in a guitar solo and play shred all you want to. You can play a lot of notes in a guitar solo as long as you make it sound musical and it can work.

Admittedly, I do have aspirations to become a shredder and virtuoso type of guitar player. I want to play like all of my heroes. Lately I’ve been listening to all the shred guys like Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Jason Becker, Yngwie Malmsteen, Alan Holdsworth, Al Di Meola and others.

I’m trying to solo like a shredder. I want to do all the crazy techniques like fretboard tapping, whammy bar tricks, sweep picking, pinch harmonics and all that stuff. I’m still trying to improve my perfect pitch and ear training which is getting better. You gotta have a good ear if you want to be considered a virtuoso and you also got to have good knowledge of music theory which I do. I studied pretty hard on music theory over the last several years and I pretty much know music theory pretty well now.

I don’t necessarily care to melt people’s faces and knock people’s socks off — all that is fine — I just want to play and improve myself. Keep moving forward in my guitar playing and take it to the next level. Just want to write bad-ass rock songs, ya know?

I really love playing lead guitar, though. I’m loving that a lot more than playing rhythm guitar. I’ve always learned that if you want to be a guitarist, you should learn both rhythm and lead. I feel that you can’t separate the two. If you play guitar, might as well play both. You’re not a real musician if you don’t play both.

When it comes to guitar solos, I’ve always loved improvised solos. Ya know, just wing it out. I love spontaneous guitar playing. I’m not a big fan of guitar solos that are written out. I like jamming. I love shredding and improvised jams.

When it comes to scales, I don’t go too crazy on scales. The only scales that I usually solo on are major/minor pentatonic scales and the modes. I love modal soloing too and I experiment with that a lot.

As for how fast I can play when playing along with a metronome, I’m not a speed demon yet ’cause the fastest I can play on a metronome as if this point is about 90 bpm or a little over. Shredding means playing over a 150 bpm. I still have ways to go but I’m working on it. I’m really working on trying to improve my speed too. I want to be able to shred on both acoustic and electric.

You can achieve all of your guitar playing goals. Just gotta work hard, practice and it’ll all pay off before you know it. Just gotta stick with it and don’t give up.

Kev

Yes, the local music scene in this area is crap… it’s time for you all to understand that…

Whenever I criticize the Capital Region music scene, it’s always looked at as “controversial”. Why? It’s because not many wants to be honest about the music scene. Not a lot of people wants to be real about it. It’s just that the local press and local music blogs on the internet always want to promote the music scene as positive and lovable. No one out there wants to be real about it. The thing is that the local press and local internet blogs that are out there wants to make the Capital Region music scene look like a big music scene when it isn’t really. The reality is the music scene is pretty much a “shithole”. There is nothing here and that’s the truth that no one wants to talk about.

There is a lot of talent out there around this area but there are not much venues to play at anymore. Venues come and go around this area for sure. It’s gotten much harder to book gigs in this area as well.

I can sit here and talk about all day why this music scene is so bad. One reason is that this scene can be pretty cliquey. There’s always heated arguments of “professionals vs. amateurs” and “originals vs. covers”.

The bigger problem with this area is that if they feel that if you’re not a professional enough musician then your reputation could get destroyed just like that. If they feel you’re not a real musician then they will feel you do not belong. If they see you as a hobbyist kind of musician, they’ll start to feel more superior. If you’re not professional enough then it’ll be harder for you to get gigs around here ’cause of the huge egos and stuff. Yes, there are a lot of huge egos around here. Not just musicians… promoters and venue owners can be huge egos too. There are too many around with a rock star attitude and acting all pretentious. It’s crazy.

When I first started playing out in the past, I’ll admit I had some ups and downs playing gigs myself. I had to go through a lot of negativity, drama and crazy stuff just to get myself playing. That’s all I want to do is get myself out there and play music like everyone else. Of course, you’re going to have to deal with huge egos and haters who want to see you fail. That’s the name of the game, I guess.

People around here will never admit that this scene is so bad ’cause they can’t handle the truth. I think they all know, they just don’t want to say it publicly.

Another thing I hate about this music scene is that this music scene is pretty liberal with their politics. Yeah, Hollywood has a  liberal problem but the Capital Region music scene is much worse. Local musicians and bands can too be a bunch of liberal loudmouths. This is another reason I refuse to play around this area again. Whatever happened to keeping politics and music separate? I also feel like I’ve been totally blacklisted from the music scene ’cause of my conservative politics and support for Donald Trump. I don’t give a shit, though. If they can talk politics then I can too.

One thing for sure though, it’s amazing to me the Capital Region music scene are so tolerant with others views in politics (note the sarcasm). When I talk my right-wing politics,  I’ve had musicians around the area refusing to support me ’cause of it and maybe this is why the local blogs refuses to write about me ’cause of my political views. Oh absolutely I’ve been attacked by many in the Capital Region music scene ’cause of my right-wing stuff. It does sickens me that most in the Capital Region are pretty liberal… even some of the most established musicians and promoters are pretty liberal. There are conservative musicians around here but not many. I’m sure they’ve been blacklisted from the scene too.

Would I ever get back out to play music live again? I’d like to but it’s pretty unlikely. This scene sucks. It always did. It’s not always fun being a musician, there’s always going to be ups and downs like I said. I might hit a few open mics but that’s about all. I’m not sure if I’ll play an actual gig around here, though. This scene is too much for me.

However, though… I do love playing music live for the internet and I’ll always do that. When I start writing songs again and learning new covers, I would video tape myself performing them. I still have plans in doing a home show for the live internet and I’ll probably do that on FB Live sometime. Sounds like fun.

Kev

 

Billy Corgan is under fire for flip flopping on reunion tours/greatest hits shows and excluding D’arcy from the group… bullshit…

Well Billy Corgan is getting attacked everywhere on the internet since the Smashing Pumpkins reunion has been announced. Even the press have been attacking him too. Why are a lot of people attacking him? Well like the title of this post says, he’s being attacked ’cause he flipped his feelings on reunions/greatest hits shows, and he is also being attacked for excluding D’arcy from the original lineup.

In the past, Billy used to have negative feelings on reunion tours and greatest hits shows ’cause he never wanted the Pumpkins to be a nostalgia act.

https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/5-times-billy-corgan-said-reunions-were-bullshit/

So let me get this straight… fans of the Pumpkins have begged Billy to bring back the original Pumpkins lineup for years. Billy actually listened to the fans and gave them what they wanted and now they are hating?

I’m reading about this through the press and I’ve read the back and forth texts between D’arcy and Billy.

Billy wanted D’arcy to be part of the original lineup, but for some reason Billy refuses to have her as a bass player. He wanted her to participate in other things for the other shows and maybe that’s why D’arcy refused to be a part of the lineup ’cause she wanted to be involved in everything. To me those text messages D’arcy posted, she could be selecting certain messages just to make Billy look bad publicly so that might not be the whole conversation. Billy does have a point however that nobody has heard her play bass in years so nobody has any idea what she sounds like.

On top of that who cares if they move on without D’arcy. I’m just glad the band is back after a long hiatus. Besides, legendary bands reuniting without their founding members happens all the time.

Like I said before, Billy may have flipped on reunions/greatest hits shows but maybe he changed  his mind? He wants to celebrate the history of the Pumpkins with us. That’s what it’s all about. Fans begged Billy to play the old songs at the concerts again and he’s giving us that. Why is he being attacked for that? Well, jealousy is the only answer I can think of. Can’t think of no other reason.

A lot of critics and haters are thinking the Pumpkins reunion tour won’t last and tickets won’t sell well ’cause of Billy. Well, make no mistake about it, haters. This tour WILL BE very successful and I predict most of the shows will sell-out. A lot of people in America still love the original Pumpkins line-up.

Band feuds sucks, but that’s the name of the game in the industry. The industry is tough. You gotta deal with a lot of huge egos and band drama. That’s the way it is. Billy had feuds with Jimmy and James Iha in the past but those three guys are cool with each other now obviously. Apparently, they’re still having problems with D’arcy and looks like Billy wants nothing to do with her at all. I can’t blame him. She seems like a piece of work and toxic.

What’s even more pathetic is that fans are attacking Billy simply ’cause he appeared on Alex Jones show a couple of times and they’re boycotting the Pumpkins for that reason.

Just stop complaining and enjoy the music! The Pumpkins reunion is gonna be killer and I can’t wait for all the live bootleg youtube videos of the shows.

Kev