Local music

On a side note… if the music scene continues to ignore you… who cares…

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Are you one of those musicians always getting ignored in your music scene??? Ya know, you try to get your music out there the best you can and people around here always act like you’re nothing? You release mp3’s of your songs or videos of yourself performing your songs and you don’t get many views/plays? If you make albums on CD… you submit your albums to online websites to get reviewed but you keep getting rejected? You try to contact local online promoters hoping to give you a shout-out of your music and you get nothing? You don’t even get a write-up in the newspapers or any of that stuff? People you know well refuses to go to your gigs and they don’t support your music. Other musicians pretending to support your music when they really don’t. They seem to support their friends music more than yours. You get the deal here.

I’ve been through all this shit myself but you know what? Who cares… it just proves that this scene promotes music in a negative direction and not positive as they all think. What I explained in the paragraph above, I’ve seen other musicians go through the same thing — not just me.

It’s really hard to get recognized in your area, it really is. We all try our best to become successful — even me.

The thing is, if people continue to treat your music negatively, who cares. Just worry about your own music and care about that only. Who cares about what everybody else thinks. If people don’t wanna believe in you, what you wanna do is keep playing your music. Keep making music and create your own scene/community. Prove everybody wrong that you can be something special. Music should really be for you, anyways.

Who cares about getting popularity or being successful. As long as you’re writing songs/playing covers… you already are successful. You’ve come a long way. Try not to let the negativity around people intimidate you. In my opinion, success in music is not getting lots of fans and getting your face everywhere as much as possible. Success to me is being able to write a song or master a cover song and being good at it.

Let people in the scene live in their own fantasy worlds and do your own thing. A true “local musician” is not worried about becoming big. They just do what they love, that’s it. These are guys who don’t mind playing in crap bar rooms or playing regular house gigs… they don’t care to hit the big stages and make lots of money — they just wanna ROCK!!!! \m/ To me, that’s more successful than anything. Even if you suck and can land a gig at a crap bar or a cafe… you’ve already came a long way, right? Think about it.

I’m doing fine and happy what I’m doing. Even though I haven’t been playing gigs or open mics lately myself, I’m just happy making music for the internet. I don’t see other local music websites and blogs writing about my music but I’m cool with it, ya know? I have my own blog here, that’s all I need. That’s part of why I started a blog years ago so I can promote my music and get it out there my own way. It works. If I never had a blog… then people wouldn’t have known about me being a musician.

I try my best to get people more interested in my music more than my online web presence.

It maybe hurtful that people around here don’t care but take that as a compliment. It could be that they might be “jealous” a little bit and they don’t want to admit that you’re talented. If people think you suck, don’t let it bother you.

Just do what you love and don’t trust anybody. Believe in your own dreams and goals… not worrying about what everyone says or thinks about you.

Kev

movies

Watched “The Purge” last night and I thought the film was great!!!

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Last night, I finally got around to watching “The Purge”, the latest horror film starring Ethan Hawke. The reviews of this film were mixed but did people watch the same film I did? I thought the film was really good and didn’t find anything wrong with it.

The story takes place in the 2022 in which the United States has become a nation “reborn”. The new United States now has a New Founding Fathers of America and because of it… crime and unemployment is very low because the new government started a yearly thing called, ‘The Purge”. “The Purge” is a yearly 12 hour period where murder would be legalized during those 12 hours. During those 12 hours, law enforcement and emergency services are shut down. “The Purge” happens once a year. James Sanding is a rich man who lives in Los Angeles with his family and he got rich selling home security systems. During “The Purge”, James tries his best to protect his family from a group of masked people and a man known as the Polite Leader (pictured above).

Many are saying that the script to this film was pretty bad and the characters were bad as well. I’m like, really? I thought the script and the characters were fine to me. It’s just a movie, that’s all it is. I actually thought the story was pretty realistic and something like this could happen in real life. What would America be like if there was a time where murder would be completely legalized for a day? I thought the film was kind of creepy and had me at the edge of my seat.

I thought Ethan was good in this movie like he always is good. I really liked Rhys Wakefield playing the Polite Leader too… he was a badguy you wanted to hate. I thought the movie ended pretty good too. Nothing wrong with the film at all. I refuse to get into details about the plot ’cause I don’t wanna give too many spoilers.

You see, when I watch movies… I don’t go by other peoples opinions. I go by my own opinion alone. I’ll like a film whether everyone hates it or not. I won’t hate a film ’cause Roger Ebert or other movie fans hated it. I don’t follow popular opinion.

I thought “The Purge” was one of the best films of 2013 and I really mean that too. I would probably add the BluRay of this film to my collection pretty soon. I’m already looking forward to seeing what they’re gonna do with the sequel too. “The Purge” is mysterious for now but we’ll know more information on how the new United States started the yearly “Purge” in the later sequels.

I respect this film ’cause they did something different and challenging. Something original for once. This is a nice idea they’re doing.

Kev

Kev Brock music

More on cover songs…

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I’m planning on doing a lot more covers for a pretty good reason. I have something to prove with my music. People seem to not be taking my music and talent seriously. I’ve been overlooked for years and this is my way of hoping to get a bigger audience and more listeners. Little more recognition. When I keep saying that I have improved my singing greatly… I wasn’t lying and you can probably see that in those Lou Reed tribute videos. This is only the beginning, folks. You haven’t seen nothing yet. I’ve been working on my singing a lot as you can tell and taking my vocals more seriously. I wanna perform more covers to test out my singing. You can really prove yourself with performing covers than originals, in my opinion.

I got more covers coming along the way and already started working on three different ones.  There’s too many cover songs I wanna do.

I was proud of how my Lou Reed tribute came out; although, I wished they would get a lot more views. They will though, give it more time — people will find ’em before you know it. I plan on doing more ten song tributes of other artists sometime down the road maybe Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Bowie, The Beatles, The Clash, Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, etc.

I just wanna show people that I can be a “musician” and playing covers will show that.

Don’t worry though, I’ll get back to writing originals again ’cause I love doing that too. Doing cover songs will help me for more inspiration on writing new originals too.

I try not to judge my own talent like a lot of musicians do around here. I can never tell if I’m good or not so I just let the listeners do the judging. That’s how you wanna do it, ya know? Just put my stuff out there and see what kind of feedback they get. I never go around saying, “I’m so good and great”. You wanna let the people tell you that. It’s okay to say that you’re proud of your own music, though, nothing wrong with that… just don’t be an egomaniac about it.

If you can play covers and master the song well — then you have talent. It’s just as simple as that and a lot of famous songs are very tricky to do. They maybe easy to play on the instrument but the singing can be quite challenging.

No matter what you think of my music, you should still give me the “kudos” for trying to do songs like Megadeth “Sweating Bullets”, Whitney’s “I Will Always”, Bowie’s “Rebel Rebel” and all that Lou Reed stuff ’cause they weren’t easy for me to perform. I think I wanna try performing Megadeth “Sweating Bullets” again. Haven’t performed it in a long time so I’ll have to re-learn it. I plan on playing more metal stuff on acoustic too. Gonna try Iron Maiden’s “Fear of the Dark” and maybe some Metallica songs.

I got tons of ideas.

Kev

movies

Did Suzanne Collins rip off “Battle Royale” for the “Hunger Games” books/movies???

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Last night, I finally got around to watching, “Battle Royale” which is a Japanese film that is made available for streaming on Netflix. After I watched, “Battle Royale”… I immediately thought to myself… is Suzanne Collins “Hunger Games” a complete remake/ripoff of “Battle Royale”? That’s what it felt like to me. The plot and idea to “Battle Royale” was very much the same as “The Hunger Games”… very close to it. All these kids get together and get forced to play this game where they fight to their death. I read that “Battle Royale” was too adapted from a Japanese novel of the same title. The thing is, “Battle Royale” came out earlier before Suzanne Collins published, “The Hunger Games” novel in 2008.

Did Suzanne Collins steal the story and rip off the idea? Seriously, if you haven’t seen “Battle Royale” or “Hunger Games” watch both films and you would see that they are almost exactly the same except the only difference is both of these films were made in different countries. Plus, “Battle Royale” is even more dark and more violent than the “Hunger Games”.

After doing a little google research, I haven’t seen Suzanne Collins herself said anything about “Battle Royale” on whether or not that’s where she got the idea from. No interviews about that or anything. I was pretty surprised to see that these two films were very similar.

On top of that, I find “Battle Royale” to be 10x’s better than the “Hunger Games”. “Battle Royale” is more intense, violent and gruesome.

I LOVE watching Japanese movies on Netflix. I’ve been watching a lot of them. Japan can make way better movies than the United States for sure.

Kev

Politics/war

72 years ago today, the Japenese attacked Pearl Harbor, never forget…

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How come you don’t see facebook all over this? It’s trending on twitter but facebook silent. Shame. Never forget people. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and got us into WWII. Not too long ago I read a whole book on WWII titled, “Total War – The Story of World War II” which was about 1,000 pages thick and I’ve read the whole thing from start to finish. I’ve become a big history/political buff lately and this is interesting stuff to learn. Learn your history, folks. It’ll do you some good, trust me.

Kev

Politics/war

Why I have been silent on Nelson Mandela…

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Some of you may wonder why I have been silent on Nelson Mandela. Why I never wrote a tribute/obit on him or anything like that. Well, there’s a pretty good reason for that and I’m about to explain. Facebook and other social networking sites have been on a Nelson Mandela love fest. Worshiping the man like he is some kind of hero. I understand people respected him because of his anti-apartheid movements but I think people are wrong worshiping him. Nelson Mandela supporters have been accusing us of not knowing much about Nelson Mandela. They’ve also been saying stuff like, “Why worry about Paul Walker’s death when people should care more for Nelson Mandela”… people been saying that stuff like that a lot.

First of all, you can’t compare an actor’s death to a man who was a communist and terrorist leader. Secondly, Paul Walker was a good guy and Nelson wasn’t. Big difference between the two. So if you wanna know why I and some other people have been silent about Nelson Mandela this is why. A lot of us know about Nelson’s evil past. Here are a few things you should know about Nelson Mandela… prior to his presidency he joined the South African Communist group, was in prison for 27 years for committing 127 acts of public violence (that includes blowing up a school bus, I think), he was friends with many dictators around the world and that includes being friends with Gaddafi, was on the Most Wanted terrorist list until George W. Bush took him off in 2008, and he was co-founder of a guerrilla warfare terrorist group. Look this stuff up, people. It’s all out there.

So if you wonder why some people have been silent about Nelson Mandela, this is why. The man was a communist and murderer. Some don’t post about him ’cause they refuse to support a bad man. They believe he doesn’t deserve the respect. If people know about the bad stuff that Nelson has done in the past, then they are smart and educated while all the Nelson lovers are dumb and ignorant.

You never saw people grieving for the 4 Americans of the Benghazi attacks of Sept. 11th, 2012. Today’s the 72nd anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attacks and you don’t see anyone posting about that. I’m about to make a post about the Pearl Harbor attacks in a little bit, never forget that either. Nobody grieved for Margaret Thatcher when she passed on.

I never wrote about Nelson Mandela ’cause he was a bad man. Period. End of story. I’d say good fuckin’ riddance. Let the man rot in hell for all I care. I didn’t post this in facebook ’cause I refuse to get into a controversial debate about this so I would write about my thoughts here instead.

Kev

movies

Disney scores full rights for “Indiana Jones” franchise from Paramount…

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Ever since George Lucas announced retirement from Hollywood last year, he gave up the rights for his Lucasfilm company and sold it to Disney. This gives the rights for Disney to make as many Star Wars movies as they wanted; however, people wondered what’s gonna happen to the Indiana Jones franchise since it’s owned by Paramount Pictures. Now you no longer have to worry about what’s gonna happen with Indy ’cause the franchise has been bought by Disney. Paramount has agreed to sell the full rights to Disney. Which means that Disney now owns the first four Indy films: “Raiders”, “Temple of Doom”, “Crusade” and “Crystal Skull”. This also means that Disney has the full rights to do whatever they want with the character. Make as many movies as they want: sequels, prequels, reboots, etc.

This doesn’t confirm that Indy V has gotten the greenlight yet but for a long time now… Harrison Ford has expressed interest in returning to the character for one more time. My question is will Harrison still do this film without George Lucas on board? Will Steven Spielberg still direct Indy V without George?

Deadline reports.

I’m actually kind of thankful that George is no longer doing Indy ’cause that’s an opportunity for a better film. While I did like “Crystal Skull” the last Indy movie, I’ll admit that some of it was silly as hell and had some problems. It’s just that I think that movie would have been a lot better if Shia Labeouf wasn’t in it… he pretty much ruined it for me. Other than that, the film was pretty exciting. I liked the idea of mixing Indy with sci-fi — I just wished the script was better.

I don’t care what anyone thinks — Disney can make as many Indy films as they want to sequels, prequels or reboots… whatever but nothing will top “Raiders”. “Raiders” is obviously the best Indy film. I love it so much. It’s one of those movies I can watch over and over and never get tired of it. “Raiders” is indeed an essential classic and an important movie. I thought “Temple of Doom” was a pretty amazing film but my heart will always be toward “Raiders”.

Lets hope Disney won’t remake, “Raiders” ’cause that would be really bad.

Kev

Random/off topic posts

Direct eye contact from women is a sign of interest…

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I love this advice by the PlayerSupreme. He gives simple advice that when women give you direct eye contact… that’s a clear sign that they are definitely interested in you and I agree. Over the years in my life, I’ve had plenty of women who I had direct eye contact with but never really had the balls to go up to her and say, “Hi”. When a woman is checking you out and she won’t stop… that means she probably wants to date you for sure. I’ll keep that in mind next time.

Check out this guy’s channel. His advice maybe directed at men who are “players” (aka men who date/sleep with multiple women) but still even if I’m not a player and don’t plan to be one anytime soon, I just like to watch his channel as a way for me to be more successful with women. I used his advice to be more confident around them and it’s working. This guy gives the best dating advice in youtube.

Kev

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDb3i89psN8

Random/off topic posts

Musicians should be allowed to cover songs for youtube… I think the “third party” notice is pretty unfair…

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As expected, I knew I was gonna get a third party notice for some of those Lou Reed videos and I ended up getting one for the “Perfect Day” song ’cause I made the song similar to the original recording. That’s okay, though. I’ll just ignore it and let it be.

I really think musicians should be allowed to put up cover songs for the internet. There should be absolutely no reason at all whatsoever for the music industry to sue people who puts up cover songs for fun. The music industry does this ’cause the only reason it’s a money making opportunity for them. Musicians putting up cover songs or downloading songs for free haven’t been a problem until Metallica came around and sued Napster. That’s when all the “copyright infringement” got started, I believe.

Musicians should be allowed to cover songs legally online. I don’t see anything wrong with it. Cover songs are important to do. They help get musicians recognized and get them out there. Covers are a great way to showcase your musical talent. Famous artists have no problem of us covering their songs as many of them are flattered that their work is being covered by other musicians in the world. This is just how the industry wants it to be.

While bands & musicians love playing music and enjoy what we do… it’s getting harder for us to express ourselves as artists ’cause all the industry does is exploit us for money. I really hate the music industry and hate record labels especially the major labels. They are a bunch of evil greedy bastards. Why would musicians wanna get signed and get controlled by these animals?

I kind of didn’t want to do the Lou Reed tribute at Youtube ’cause I was afraid of third party notices. I could upload videos to my site exclusively but I would need the “videopress” upgrade for that which would cost quite a bit.

Before google bought youtube, there was never a problem of uploading covers to youtube at all. It’s ridiculous. All of it.

I think someday musicians will be allowed to cover songs for the internet once musicians start taking a stand against the music industry… give it time. I can see that happening. The industry is getting worse. The labels are not only exploiting the artists on their rosters… they are even exploiting artists who are not even signed. They think they’re tough. They like to get all over us.

I’ll continue to upload covers for youtube. I’m not worried about getting fined or getting contacted by the labels. Those things happen rarely. Depends on how big your channel gets. I like youtube better in the old days. It’s just getting really bad these days.

Kev

The Official Music Website of Kevin Brock – Brocking N' Rolling