Funky Fun in T.O.
For all of you who don't know, T.O. is how the "cool" people and/or tourist board calls Toronto, Ontario.
I had a pretty meaningful experience about individuality, the consumer economy, the artist, and art this Friday. As part of frosh, we got to see the Matthew Good Band. They played songs from their new album - a new genre I like to call "Whine rock" -not emo, but just top 40 rock, about how tough life is, but not artistically, musically, or lyrically inventive. Examples: Nickelback, Creed, other bands. As of now, the top 40 is divided as such - rap, Britney Spears pop, whine rock, and pop punk. Being on the top 40, I'm betting the school had to pay quite a bit to get him there. Not much, but a bit.
They had a few songs I could stand, and Matthew Good himself seemed like a good guy, urging the crowd to donate to Amnesty International. But I'm betting a lot more people went over to his merchandise booth, with CDs, shirts, stickers, and other stuff to show how cool and individual they are by supporting a band that's on the top 40. No Amnesty International stand. (Maybe if they sold more t-shirts and were on the top 40. )
For his Amnesty work, I can forgive him naming the band after himself, which is the biggest case of ego fellation I've seen since the days of the Pharoahs and their big ass Pyramids. (Let's celebrate my leadership by working on a big ass triangle building! Better get cracking, I just turned ten!) I mean, there's still plenty of names out there besides your own, Matthew. I can imagine this on his gravestone:
"I am Matthew Good, rocker of rockers, /Look upon my tunes, ye funky, and despair!" (Read Ozymandias by Shelley, you'll get it in context).
By the way, the other members of the Matthew Good Band are Dave Genn on keyboards and guitar, Ian Browne as the drummer, and Rich Priske as bassist.
(P.S. - I didn't like the concert).
Now, normally people require near-death experiences to see Heaven on Earth. All I had to do to see something that was darn close was to go to a little square on Yonge and Dundas on Friday, and unlike a Good band that was bad, this musical masterpiece was free. They featured God Made Me Funky, a band that proves a finer world can be reached. First off, it proved that equality can be reached. They had an equal number of black guys to white guys, I think they had a hispanic guy, and an Asian woman singing with them. They also had this one fat black guy who rapped, and he should be praised for very seldomly used fashion statement - the cape. He had a big red cape on with his Adidas jogging suit. If rocking was measured on the Richter Scale, that fashion choice would ensure San Fransico wouldn't exist. GMMF re-did old songs, such as Jungle Boogie and Let's Get It On, which were better than anything on the top 40 today. They did it for free. They didn't sell any CDs afterwards. They just advised people to go to their website: http://www.godmademefunky.com/. (The Internet is free, too) Their music was good; unlike Matthew Good, whose primary motive was probably to get this done and get people to buy his T-shirts and CDs, these guys primary motive was to make you dance. And a bunch of students from Ryerson actually got up and did that. They were distinctive, well-done, and got down. It was a great experience, and it really affirmed for me why I went to Toronto in the first place. Because back home in Regina, you couldn't really hear that, you could just hear about it.
So yeah, check out God Made Me Funky. It's divine.
C'est l'amour qui flotte dans l'air à ronde.
This is the love that floats in the air to round.
I had a pretty meaningful experience about individuality, the consumer economy, the artist, and art this Friday. As part of frosh, we got to see the Matthew Good Band. They played songs from their new album - a new genre I like to call "Whine rock" -not emo, but just top 40 rock, about how tough life is, but not artistically, musically, or lyrically inventive. Examples: Nickelback, Creed, other bands. As of now, the top 40 is divided as such - rap, Britney Spears pop, whine rock, and pop punk. Being on the top 40, I'm betting the school had to pay quite a bit to get him there. Not much, but a bit.
They had a few songs I could stand, and Matthew Good himself seemed like a good guy, urging the crowd to donate to Amnesty International. But I'm betting a lot more people went over to his merchandise booth, with CDs, shirts, stickers, and other stuff to show how cool and individual they are by supporting a band that's on the top 40. No Amnesty International stand. (Maybe if they sold more t-shirts and were on the top 40. )
For his Amnesty work, I can forgive him naming the band after himself, which is the biggest case of ego fellation I've seen since the days of the Pharoahs and their big ass Pyramids. (Let's celebrate my leadership by working on a big ass triangle building! Better get cracking, I just turned ten!) I mean, there's still plenty of names out there besides your own, Matthew. I can imagine this on his gravestone:
"I am Matthew Good, rocker of rockers, /Look upon my tunes, ye funky, and despair!" (Read Ozymandias by Shelley, you'll get it in context).
By the way, the other members of the Matthew Good Band are Dave Genn on keyboards and guitar, Ian Browne as the drummer, and Rich Priske as bassist.
(P.S. - I didn't like the concert).
Now, normally people require near-death experiences to see Heaven on Earth. All I had to do to see something that was darn close was to go to a little square on Yonge and Dundas on Friday, and unlike a Good band that was bad, this musical masterpiece was free. They featured God Made Me Funky, a band that proves a finer world can be reached. First off, it proved that equality can be reached. They had an equal number of black guys to white guys, I think they had a hispanic guy, and an Asian woman singing with them. They also had this one fat black guy who rapped, and he should be praised for very seldomly used fashion statement - the cape. He had a big red cape on with his Adidas jogging suit. If rocking was measured on the Richter Scale, that fashion choice would ensure San Fransico wouldn't exist. GMMF re-did old songs, such as Jungle Boogie and Let's Get It On, which were better than anything on the top 40 today. They did it for free. They didn't sell any CDs afterwards. They just advised people to go to their website: http://www.godmademefunky.com/. (The Internet is free, too) Their music was good; unlike Matthew Good, whose primary motive was probably to get this done and get people to buy his T-shirts and CDs, these guys primary motive was to make you dance. And a bunch of students from Ryerson actually got up and did that. They were distinctive, well-done, and got down. It was a great experience, and it really affirmed for me why I went to Toronto in the first place. Because back home in Regina, you couldn't really hear that, you could just hear about it.
So yeah, check out God Made Me Funky. It's divine.
C'est l'amour qui flotte dans l'air à ronde.
This is the love that floats in the air to round.
posted by Marshall McMahon at 9:40 PM
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