Have you ever thought about the origins of some of the band names we hear now as commonplace? Ever wondered how (or more importantly, why) some of those bands chose their monicker given the universe of options?

The Cracked article "The 25 Most Ridiculous Band Names in Rock History" delves into some of these intriguing decisions, such as why Nickelback chose their name (oh dear), what would make The The think that was a good idea, why Mr. Mister believed they were onto something, and plenty more. 

Some of the analyses (for want of a more appropriate word) are adult in nature so you have been warned. Such as the reflection on Russell Crowe's band Thirty Odd Foot Of Grunts - who I might add I had the tedium of enduring live once - summarised as "You'd think a guy who lives on a secluded all-male ranch and is constantly dodging gay rumours would have come up with something that sounds a little less like a gay porno".

To enlighten yourself further view the full article "The 25 Most Ridiculous Band Names in Rock History". 

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Paul Doolan provides online keyboard recording sessions for bands and solo artists. 
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A "rider" is the list of amenities (read: demands) required by a band, to be delivered by the host venue when on tour. 

Arguably the most ridiculous rider in history is that from Van Halen's tour in 1982. You may have heard of the "no brown M&Ms" requirement, but that's just a small, small part of it. 

Immortalised in the form of an infographic by The Smoking Gun - Van Halen's 1982 Tour Rider. 

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Paul Doolan provides online keyboard recording sessions for bands and solo artists. 
Want to add keyboards to your track? Learn more now. 

Listening to some classic 80s tunes this Sunday morning, as you do, I noticed some noteworthy similarities. Yeah, yeah, pop music follows some pretty typical chord formulas (Axis of Awesome's 4 Chords song is a superb collation). But how about this... 

First, I heard Roxette's "Listen To Your Heart" (1988). Notice the big rock kick-in just shy of 50 seconds in. 

A short time later I heard Heart's "Alone" (originally written in 1983, this version released in 1987). Skip ahead to 50 seconds in (yep, 50 seconds again) - sound familiar?

Soon after in the (amazing) playlist came another Heart track, "What About Love?" (1985). Skip ahead to 24 seconds and you may feel like you've heard this all before. Even more interestingly, the big rock kick-in happens at - you guess it - the 50 second mark in this song, just like in "Alone". And just like in "Listen To Your Heart". 

I wonder. Did Roxette mean to sing "Listen To Your Heart", or "Listen To Your Old Heart Albums"?

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Paul Doolan provides online keyboard recording sessions for bands and solo artists. 
Want to add keyboards to your track? Learn more now. 

I couldn't stop laughing out loud when looking through this recent list of the "30 Worst Rock Tattoos of All Time" courtesy of Loudwire. 

Some of the titles on this list hilarious are hilarious, as is the undeniable regretfulness of the subjects, permanently inking themselves with very very badly chosen, misspelt or poorly executed tributes to the bands they love. The descriptions of these shocking tattoo examples also are just brilliant. e.g. "Deplorable Dave Grohl" with its description "You could have at least asked for the Foo Fighters frontman’s nose not to disappear halfway down his face or to at least give Grohl some teeth instead of a mouth like a hastily-carved Jack-O’-Lantern".

If laughing at the unfortunate bad choices of others sounds like something you're into, check out the full list of the worst rock tattoos of all time.  

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Paul Doolan provides online keyboard recording sessions for bands and solo artists. 
Want to add keyboards to your track? Learn more now. 

Many people take pride in feeling they know about the next "big thing" before everybody else. Heck, by the time everybody else knows about a hot new talent, they're probably not as good anymore, right? Sound familiar?

If not, then you're fortunate to not have been exposed to the "Haven't you heard them yet / you have to hear them" type me-first-ism that can be rife among music fans. 

A funny exposé on this sort of behaviour appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live earlier this week. In this short clip, a reporter met concert goers on their way into Coachella 2013, asking them if they were looking forward to a series of artists - none (bar one) of whom actually exist! The responses are classic. You just can't be seen to not be across one of the underground acts at the festival... It has to be seen to be truly enjoyed!

Catch you at the next "Obesity Epidemic" gig!

Recently while preparing my post on The Minor 6th Interval (in 50 awesome examples) I was searching for a YouTube clip of the theme from the UK TV show The Bill. 

In searching around I found the following video showing Bill Bailey's take on the changes to "The Bill" theme. I couldn't have agreed more! The change from 7/4 timing to more standard 4/4 always bothered me! I never watched the show, but certainly knew the theme tune and it's memorable atypical time signature. 

An entertaining discussion on the dumbing down of The Bill's theme tune. 

I've played with some amazingly talented and consistently quirky drummers in my time. Stumbling across this list today I was nodding along thinking of a few guys I've played with who demonstrated some of these "characteristics". 

One great drummer I used to play with had a habit of humming or vocalising rhythms while he was playing - it became apparent when we were listening back to his isolated track after a recording session and trying to pinpoint where the sound was coming from... it was his own voice.

Here's a shortlist of some of my personal favourites:

• Click / grind their teeth to create rhythms (I'm not a drummer and I have seriously seen a dentist about this myself...!)
  
• Practice far too fast for their own good
  
• Sneeze mid-song and try their best not to lose time
  
• Try to throw the bass player off in rehearsals for laughs
  
• Fail to explain 7/8 to the guitarist
  
• Buy far too much food at service stations
  
• Count into the wrong song
  
• Panic when they can’t remember how the next song starts, then breathe a sigh of relief when they hear somebody else play the intro
  
• Play the kick drum when the sound engineer yells “bass please”
  

Just kidding drummers! I'm sure if you pulled together a list of all the nerdy things keyboard players do I'd be red-faced. For more of a laugh read the full compiled list of silly things drummers do over at the Drummer's Database site. 

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Paul Doolan provides online keyboard session recordings for bands and solo artists. 
Want to add keyboards to your track? Learn more now. 

For a while now I've been following the videos of cdza, or collectivecadenza as their YouTube handle would have you know them - and here's another classic. A 5 minute live take presenting the history of misheard song lyrics. Brilliant. 

I was just forwarded a clip of this brilliantly entertaining piano duet performed by Chico and Harpo Marx. 

I'd never stumbled across this clip before or seen the Marx Brothers film it came from, The Big Store (1941). 

What a classic. Truly entertaining still more than 70 years later. At the risk of sounding like a nostalgic old man, you just don't see much entertainment like that these days! 

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Paul Doolan provides online keyboard session recordings for bands and solo artists. 
Want to add keyboards to your track? Learn more now. 

Often I post less than positive comments on the state of the music industry. The difficulty on getting yourself heard as an artist, the popularity of television shows revolving around people singing covers, and the popularity of Auto-Tune. 

This post is like an ad break from those "heavy" thoughts - simply to draw attention to an app which is likely to be very funny very quickly (then become very old very quickly!). It's called Songify, released July 7 2011 on iTunes.

As a precursor to understanding Songify, it is recommended that you become acquainted with the work of The Gregory Brothers. These guys first came to my attention when I saw the clip below.

The Gregory Brothers commonly take recordings of (usually already comical) footage and use Auto-Tune among other tools to put the words to music. In the example above, Antoine Dodson was originally providing a report to camera crews of a crime scene. Next thing he knows he's a YouTube sensation with videos, albums, TV interviews and T-shirts baring his name. 

With the release of Songify, anyone with an iPhone, iPad or iPod can take a recording of their own voice and it will automatically turn it into a "song". The results do get a laugh as you hear the most mundane comments turned into the kind of thing you hear on the charts. The app is free and incredibly fast and easy to use.

Does it make anyone a musician? No! Is it funny? Yeah. Will it have longevity? Absolutely not. 

Enjoy for a few minutes until you're sick of it!