music

Black Sabbath’s “13”, I think is the best album released this year… so far, anyway…

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When I first heard the new Black Sabbath album, “13”, I was like… eh? It’s okay but could have been better but now I think this album is the best album released this year. It’s definitely a grower for sure. I can’t stop listening to this album. I’m always throwing it on my CD player and keep coming back to it. This is the best thing that Ozzy has done in a long long time and I’m very proud of him. Really, I am. Ozzy’s solo career haven’t been that great over the years and now that Sabbath is back — he’s back to making kick ass music again. The songwriting is really good on this album. Tony still has the great riffs and the sick guitar solos. Sabbath still has the vintage heavy sound they’ve always had; however, they have a more modern sound this time around. They want to fit with the current metal sound a little bit which is a good idea. They don’t sound as scary and dark anymore like they used to but this album is still a pretty sick album. Loved it. Ozzy, Tony, and Geezer still has it.

As far as Bill Ward goes, who needs him? Sabbath has went through like 20 different drummers over the years, and don’t blame the band for the Bill Ward departure. Black Sabbath said repeatedly in interviews that they really wanted Bill to be a part of this reunion but Bill wanted no part of it. It was all Bill’s decision alone that he wanted out. It’s lame blaming Sharon Osbourne for this too. Band lineups changes over the years, it happens. Despite Bill not being in the band, their new album, “13”, was no. 1 in various charts all over the world… and that includes the Billboard Top 200 in the US. So the album is successful without Bill, anyways, so who needs him, right?

Congratulations to Black Sabbath. After a 30-50 year career… everyone still loves Sabbath.

I don’t see this album being the final Sabbath album ’cause the guys have been talking about doing more after this one. As long as Tony is still alive, they’ll keep doing what they do. I’ve always loved Sabbath with Ozzy fronting. Dio-Sabbath was cool too, though.

Black Sabbath being successful proves that metal can get big again. I wish metal would take over the mainstream again.

Kev

Politics/war

It really seems like liberals are only allowed freedom of speech these days…

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It really is hard being republican/conservative. As some of you already know, I have a strong belief in conservatism. It’s what I truly believe in. When you’re in a public forum like facebook, and your friendslists is full of liberals… they’ll all come after you when you publicly speak your views on current politics. Yes, my personal facebook page is full of liberals. I almost came close to deleting them all a couple of times but then I thought to myself for a few minutes and decided that would be a bad idea to do. So I figure, if those liberals find what I say offensive… they can either delete me or block me instead which is better. I do have some conservative people in my friendslist in facebook but not too many. I wish I had a lot more right-wingers in my friendslist, though, ’cause that would be pretty helpful.

The thing is, when you surround yourself with liberals… you have to watch what you say almost all the time. No matter the conservative topic you want to talk about like anti-Obama stuff, gay marriage, abortion, gun control, etc. — you better be ready for a heated debate. You better be ready for those liberals to get all over you. They’ll accuse you of being misinformed and uneducated when you attack Obama and all that stuff. If you’re conservative, they’ll find what you say is dark and offensive ’cause you have opposite thoughts than they do.

I guess that’s part of why there is a left wing and right wing part of politics. It’s to help keep people separated. That’s why there is a republican and democrat parties. They don’t want to keep people with different thoughts into one group so they get divided. There’s a pretty good reason why they keep ’em separate ’cause it’s almost like a football team. You join liberals and conservatives into one forum, there’s going to be a heated flame war.

That’s why I mostly like to discuss politics with other people in republican/conservative forums in facebook so I can be away from the liberals. If you discuss politics with other conservative people, there will be no heated debates. It’ll all be mature and intelligent discussions with no negativity. Other conservative people will have no problem with what you say.

Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are going through the same thing, I see. They’re being kicked off their radiostations because liberal people, don’t like them. Uggggggghhhh…. those liberals are damn annoying, they think the world revolves around them.

I don’t see how my politics are dark and controversial, ya know? I just pretty much talk about the same stuff other conservatives talk about. Liberals think we right-wingers are bad people and uneducated? Well, we would think the same as the left-wingers. It’s a back and forth thing, ya know what I mean? It really does seem that the liberals win at everything, these days. It’s ridiculous but it’s all politics.

Right-wingers are pretty well informed and intelligent people. We know our stuff. It seems that there are no right or wrong answers in politics anymore ’cause everyone wants to tell their own version of the truth. Even if Obama does get impeached and arrested for the horrible crimes he committed (like Benghazi, Operation: F&F, drones, IRS/spying, etc.)  — you can betcha there are gonna be angry liberals protesting and rallying to get Obama freed or to get pardoned and all that stuff.

This world is messed up, man. If us right-wingers aren’t allowed our freedom of speech, then the liberals don’t deserve it either.

Kev

Politics/war, TV

Do I think Hillary Clinton deserves her NBC biopic mini-series starring Diane Lane?

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What do you think my answer will be to the question in this title? Do I think Hillary deserves her biopic film that NBC is planning to do in 2016 as part of the next elections? Well, obviously, you can betcha I’m gonna say no to that one. What NBC is doing, they’re rewarding an evil woman. An evil woman who is a liar, criminal, and murderer. We can’t have that. Hopefully, she’ll be exposed for Benghazi even before this mini-series happen. Of course, this biopic is planning to make her look good for the elections. In the biopic, they’ll make her look like a sweet and powerful lady for sure. The biopic will ignore all the bad stuff she has done over the years. Especially Benghazi.

I’m not gonna knock Diane Lane ’cause she’s a tremendous actress (She had a role in, “Man of Steel”, too). I’m just knocking NBC for giving Hillary this opportunity.

If Hillary does happen to become the next president (wouldn’t surprise me)… it’s gonna be scary. She could be ten times worse than Barack Obama. Liberal political figures are absolutely horrible and evil.

Maybe you guys are right. Even if you all may agree that Obama/Hillary had something to do with Benghazi, they’re probably gonna get away with it, anyways. Obama serves his full 2nd term and Hillary will probably end up getting elected ’cause I’m 100% sure, liberal people will be all over her. She’s already getting tons of support from the liberals. It’s just sickening. I hate liberals, man. Hate ’em all.

They just ignore all the bad stuff these people in politics do and they still find them good people. It’s insane. Us conservatives aren’t like that at all. When a politician is bad, they’re bad — doesn’t matter if they’re right/left. A lot of us right-wingers didn’t even like George W. Bush as president. We’re pretty honest people while those damn liberals live in fantasy worlds and they’re all misinformed. Even if it’s proven that Barack & Hillary were totally responsible for Benghazi, they’ll still call them heroes.

That’s all politics, I guess. You’ll come across a lot of weird people in the political world. Nobody knows what reality is anymore.

Kev

Local music

5 reasons why musicians are sometimes horrible at supporting local music…

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If you want to get yourself into your local music scene and become part of the local music community… there’s a few things that I need to warn you about. First of all, the local music community is not always going to be so kind and friendly. You’re going to meet a bunch of crazy and untrustworthy people. You need to watch out for that stuff. Secondly, don’t make the mistake that you need to support every musician you see. You don’t have to like everybody you see and meet. You need to worry about yourself and your own music. Not worrying about whether other musicians like you or not.

After years of being part of the music scene in the Capital Region… I would have to say that musicians are sometimes horrible at supporting local music. As a matter of fact, I would say that they are horrible at it most of the time actually… here are 5 reasons why I think that is… these are just my observations…

  • Dishonesty – One big problem that musicians seem to have is all the dishonesty that goes around. A lot of them appear to like you and respect you. They seem to like your music… but then you seem to find out that they only like you ’cause you support their music and they don’t support yours ’cause when you ask them feedback to your songs… they don’t give much of an answer. They’re supportive of you just to be “friendly”. A lot of these guys refuse to be honest about your talent and songs ’cause they’re afraid it would hurt their reputation and professionalism in their own career. That’s why a lot of them appear to keep their criticism to themselves. Don’t always believe that musicians really like you ’cause you’ll start to see the signs that they really don’t.
  • Too much drama & negativity with other musicians – It used to bother me how musicians get into too much drama and negativity sometimes. It don’t bother me anymore ’cause I vowed to stay out of that stuff. Yes, musicians aren’t gonna get along with other musicians. It happens. It’s part of life. I learned that if you want to have a positive music career, you need to ignore the drama and focus on your own music. Musicians don’t get along sometimes and they have feuds ’cause ego & jealousy gets in the way. That’s pretty much, all it is. The world is not about pleasing everybody. Remember that. You’ll know who your true musicians friends are when they really believe in you and stick with you. I’ve had feuds and drama with other musicians in the past but I’m the kind of guy that moves forward and never looking back. If people give me bullshit in the music scene, I’ll just act like they don’t exist to me and move forward to my life. Works for me just fine! I have no plans in trying to reconcile with musicians that I’ve had feuds with in the past. I try to but it’s not worth it anymore.
  • Too many have strange delusions & live in different fantasy worlds – A lot of musicians make the mistake that the more successful they get and the more opportunities they get, they’ll think they’re an established act. They’ll appear to be acting like “legends” or even “rock stars”. Sorry but the more good stuff you get in your career (congratulations, btw) — you’re still a local musician. I’m getting real tired of musicians acting all cool and stuff just because they opened for this national act or played some big festival. All musicians these days want to see themselves as “professional” and they want to see themselves as “talented” musicians. Music shouldn’t be about getting bigger and trying to get lots of fans. Music should be for you but unfortunately, people don’t see it that way anymore. Everyone wants to be “big” these days.
  • Sometimes you’ll get outspoken musicians – When you want to go out and play. Get your music out there, chances are… you’re going to get some outspoken musician who is going to talk all kinds of negative stuff about you and your music. While most musicians will be afraid to be honest about your talent… some won’t be afraid. Some musicians will be openly honest about your music and some can get aggressive about it too. Harsh criticism like, “You suck, you should quit playing”… blah blah blah. You get the deal. They’ll talk about how you act online and at the shows. You don’t have to listen to these assholes. You don’t have to change to please these guys. Just being yourself and not listening to the critics is how you move forward in a positive music career. Don’t listen to the outspoken musicians who just want to talk shit. You’ll meet a lot of them. Trust me. You’ll certainly get a lot of bullying and harassment around here, for sure.
  • So called “professionals” putting down amateur musicians – There are a lot of talented musicians around here but we all need to be treated with equal respect, be it… amateur or professional. Whether you’re a professional or amateur, who cares. You maybe technically skilled and on a professional level but that doesn’t make you a better player than everybody. A lot of musicians have this problem. it’s all “ego” with them. If you appear to not sing well or know a few chords, those pros will appear to be anti-social with you. They seem to only support other musicians who are at the same level of talent as them. It’s bullshit and ridiculous but that’s how musicians are. I’m not saying I’m an amateur or a professional… I never saw myself as either. I always saw myself as a guy who liked to play music. You may know how to shred and improvise well on your instrument but don’t knock others that don’t. We all deserve to be a part of the local music community.

I know this is another post that musicians don’t want to read but it needed to be said. I’ve witnessed all this explained above and it still goes on to this day. That’s the way musicians are and will always be like that. It’ll be nice if musicians and bands will stop all the bullshit explained above so we can all support each other 100% if we want a good music scene but it’ll never happen. That’s why you gotta concentrate on you only if you want to have a good and positive music life. I’m learning from my own mistakes and past experiences.

Kev

Celebrity/musician deaths

RIP: JJ Cale 1938 – 2013

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The world of rock n’ roll music lost another great one. JJ Cale, a singer/songwriter mostly well known for his work with, Eric Clapton. JJ is Eric’s longtime friend, collaborator, songwriter, etc. Eric Clapton has covered JJ’s song, “Cocaine” for his solo album, “Slowhand”, which the song helped make that album become so famous and iconic. You can still hear Eric’s version of “Cocaine” on classic rock stations to this very day. JJ even collaborated on an album with Eric for, “The Road to Escondido” in 2006. JJ collaborated with Eric again for a song on Eric’s latest album, “Old Sock”. While JJ recorded a large number of his own solo albums… other bands & artists have covered his work too such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Tom Petty, and others.

JJ Cale is an important figure in rock n’ roll music so I thought this one would be worth posting. He doesn’t get a lot of recognition when he should but without him Eric Clapton’s solo career wouldn’t have mattered. Eric must be devastated over his passing — I would think he would be.

Today, is a sad day for music. JJ was a talented guy and underrated. I personally find JJ’s version of “Cocaine” is better than Eric’s version. Eric’s version is good but JJ’s version is more intense, in my opinion. JJ’s version has more passion and meaning.

JJ Cale died of a heart attack… he was 74.

Kev

Random/off topic posts

Charlie Daniels inspirational quote…

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Charlie Daniels, the legendary country star famous for his hit, “Devil Went Down To Georgia” posted this inspirational quote today:

Real courage is tested and proven when you stand against the onslaught of popular opinion knowing you’re right Let’s all make the day count. – Charlie Daniels

So when I disagree with everyone else who seem to have the same opinions on everything that goes on in politics and current events… does that make me a bad and controversial person that some make me out to be? In reality, no… not at all. It’s a good thing to do is to disagree with popular opinion. It’s okay to stand against popular opinion. You don’t have to side with everyone on everything. You know what that’s telling you when you do stuff like this? It shows that you are brave. Not afraid to be honest even if it might upset some people.

I’m not trying to explain myself or to defend myself, just trying to make a point.

I just think having the same opinions as everyone else is pretty lame and I don’t have to be like that. It’s okay to be different and there’s nothing wrong with it at all. Don’t get me wrong though, I do side with everyone on some things but it happens very rarely.

I just think life is better being honest and realistic. As long as I’m getting people going, getting people pissed at my thoughts… it lets me know that I’m doing okay and I might be saying something right.

Kev

Local music

Thanks Valentine’s and RIP…

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IMG_0237

 

The photo above was taken at Valentine’s Music Hall in Albany on July 28th, 2006. It was during their evening Happy Hour gigs that I was a small part of. Valentine’s Music Hall has been at that same location for years. The venue had so much history. Albany’s longtime favorite music venue where musicians go there to play music, hang out, party, and most importantly where music fans go see bands play. I played there a bunch of times for their Happy Hour evening gigs and I thought it was a great honor. Glad, I got my chance to play at Valentine’s before it closed it’s doors.

Albany Medical Center is planning an expansion and they now own the building. AMC will be turning it into more offices I believe.

In the video below… the owner Howard Glassman, briefly explains the whole thing. He said he didn’t even know it was going on. He heard about it in the news like all of us and AMC wouldn’t even negotiate with him.

I’m glad I got to play there a bunch of times and see other bands there too. It was a pretty cool venue. It’s not just a venue for local bands… national touring bands have played there as well. I’ve had a lot of good memories there.

I never played their night time gigs. Just their happy hour gigs. At least, I still got to play there, though.

Shit happens, ya know? That’s the name of the game with local music. Businesses and venues come & go around here.

Kev

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Y1YPzDEQ9_k

Politics/war

Mother of murdered border patrol agent calls out President Obama over “phony scandal” comment…

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The mother of Brian Terry, the murdered border patrol agent who was killed at “Operation: Fast and Furious” speaks out on President Obama’s comment over “phony scandals”. She is outraged and offended over Obama’s comments which is understandable. She says her son’s death was too real and she even invited Obama to her son’s grave to have a long talk about it. She wants answers for her son’s death and just like with the 4 Benghazi victims, she got nothing in return.

Read the full story, here.

I understand how Obama may think these scandals maybe a little silly which is probably what he meant but Obama needs to learn how to word things better so he won’t upset people. Obama’s been upsetting people with his last few speeches.

Operation: F&F and Benghazi maybe slowly fading away from the media but we won’t forget about these two tragedies. Everybody knows that Obama has something to do with them. Even Brian Terry’s Mom knows Obama had something to do with “Operation: F&F”. It doesn’t matter how long ago these two tragedies were… we’re gonna get to the bottom of both of them somehow. The dead victims of both tragedies deserve their justices just like you think Trayvon deserve his justice like I said before.

Some of you guys kept saying that we should move on from “Operation: F&F” and “Benghazi”? Do you ever look at yourself in the mirror and see how much of a hypocrite you guys sound? This is a perfect example of liberals being hypocrites. They all whine and cry about Trayvon not getting his justice when you should do the same and move on since these tragedies happen all the time. Do you get the point of how this makes you a hypocrite? If you’re not gonna move on from Trayvon then don’t fucking tell me to move on from Operation: F&F/Benghazi.

F&F/Benghazi are both pretty serious and they can’t be ignored. What do both Operation: F&F and Benghazi have in common? Yes, that’s right. They’ve been both left mysterious and they have no answers so that’s how you can tell that Obama definitely had something to do with both of them.

For him to call these two tragedies, “phony”, makes him a disrespectful and careless piece of shit.

Kev

Kev Brock music

Why I haven’t released new songs yet…

Pretty much the reason why I haven’t released new songs yet when I kept saying I was going to is that I’m still trying to teach myself better guitar. Trying brush up on my music theory knowledge and trying to improve that. I’m hoping to become a more professionally skilled guitarist. Study theory and practicing a little more challenging guitar instruction.

I have also been reading a lot of poetry still. I want to read a lot of poetry so I can help improve my lyric writing a little bit. Plus, to write poetry of my own, of course.

I’m always trying to find ways to improve my songwriting skills and I think this is the best way. Teach myself. I’ll publicly admit that I’ve been on a writers block in songwriting so to help get out of the rut… I thought I would practice more guitar. Learn stuff I haven’t learned yet. Take my guitar skills to the next level. Same with lyric writing. I’m still practicing my vocal chops too.

I really want to improve my skills. Not only for your listening enjoyment and hoping to get positive feedback on my upcoming songs but it’s something I felt like doing. After listening to all the negative criticism of my earlier songs… that’s when I realized, I needed to work on my talent and try to improve myself.

I really appreciate that some out there actually enjoy my music… it’s pretty flattering and I’m honored. I’m never giving this up. I will always try to find ways to improve myself musically ’cause that’s what a musician does. There are even plenty of famous musicians who don’t even know what they’re doing at all! They just play!

When I’m ready to start to release new songs, you’ll be the first to know ’cause you can betcha this blog will be the first place where you’ll hear a new song from me. What kind of music will I be doing next time around? Whatever I come up with, I guess. Acoustic rock, folk, etc. Just play whatever comes out. That’s what songwriting does.

I’ll be a songwriting machine again. I’m just trying to improve my musical talent all around. I don’t get bothered by negative critics anymore ’cause they inspire me to get better. The time will come, and I’ll be making new music again. I want to get back into it.

Kev

Politics/war

How much worse can Obama’s speeches get???

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*sigh* This is why I don’t watch Obama’s speeches anymore ’cause sure enough… all he’s going to do is spew out a bunch of lies and say dumbass things that’ll hurt peoples feelings. Like with his Trayvon speech, it was inappropriate for him to say something like, “This could have been me 35 years ago” and it gets even better. Just the other day during Obama’s speech on economics… he said something like we should take our focus away from these “phony scandals”.

There is nothing “phony” about our fellow Americans getting murdered through violent tragedies such as Operation: F&F and the Benghazi attacks. There is nothing “phony” about IRS targeting and spying either.

The only people that will eat up everything he says are his fellow liberals.

I think America is finally starting to see what kind of man Obama is ’cause his approval ratings has gone way down. The same goes for Congress. Congress’s approval ratings has gone way down too. Our whole government is a mess. Obama’s not the only problem.

When will those freakin’ democrats/liberals ever wake up? I don’t know, anymore. No matter the bad things Obama continues to do and no matter how bad his speeches get… his fellow liberals will always think he did nothing wrong. I think when him and Hillary finally gets exposed for lying about Benghazi… I think that will be good enough for the liberals to turn their back on him. They’ll wake up then, I’m sure.

Obama makes claims that he’s going to focus on improving the economy for the rest of his 2nd term but I’m not buying that at all. He kept saying that since the beginning of his first presidency so how can you trust the asshole? He’s never gonna improve the economics when he can easily do that. He’s just gonna make us worse.

This is why we badly need a conservative president in the White House. They would do a much better job running the country, trust me.

Obama’s been doing way too many speeches as of late. He needs to stop doing them and do his job. Actually do things instead of talking. He’s not fit to be president at all and we need to get rid of him. We will. He won’t even finish his second term. If we don’t get him for Benghazi, we’ll get him for something else.

Kev

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