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The Musica – #57bmf4ever

I’ve discovered there are unexplained things that happen after a loved one dies to remind you their spirit surrounds you. It usually comes at a time when you are really missing your person (which can happen everyday) or it can come just randomly for no reason at all. Now almost five years later I still crave and hope for those moments. Tears still hit and my love for BMF is just as strong as ever. I call these the signs of 57 and I write it about it a lot and I think about it all the time. It thrills me and makes me smile. I had one of those signs happen today.

Naturally Jeff had lots of music equipment and in 2006 I gave him a Olive Musica server with a 160GB hard drive for his birthday. The Musica is a wireless media hub that connects to the digital music library on your computer and has capability to rip and burn CD’s directly to the machine. It was considered a break thru technology in 2006. Jeff wrote lots about it over time and he loved it’s capabilities even though now it’s pretty obsolete considering today’s technology. The company who produced it is now defunct and I laughed when I saw their original website is for sale for $9995. Olive was a small company selling expensive equipment that could only be purchased directly from them. Jeff was very grateful for his birthday gift that year. He spent many hours sorting and moving downloaded MP3’s and burning his collection of CDs to it and I think it holds over 10,000 songs. It’s one of those items I’ll always keep because it holds his vast digital music collection and he loved it so much. (Article about the Olive Musica)

Unfortunately the Olive Musica had problems from the get go. In fact Jeff had to send the Musica back to Olive to fix technical glitches more than once. But he remained a loyal fan and was still using it when he died in 2016. He had recently upgraded his sound system during a remodel at the punk rock house and the Musica was a favorite component. He liked being the expert on the sound system and he controlled the music around our home. I liked most everything he liked except maybe Unknown Hinson. I knew little about how to use the system even though he tried to show me many times and he put together detailed instructions in the months before his death. Still it has been pretty much over my head.

After Jeff died the time came that I moved and everything was carefully packed and put into storage. When I had a system installed at the new place, I told Ben the sound guy that it was very important the Musica be carefully integrated. Ben understood and installed the Musica but warned it might turn tricky since it was an outdated piece of equipment. He was right. It has rarely worked properly. Disappointing for sure but with so many resources to play music I finally just stopped thinking about it. Until this morning when the Musica came on without assistance and played four BMF hard core songs to remind me to never forget. I wished it would have played all day but I’ll take what I get. Thank you 57. I love you. ~mc  #57bmf4ever

Olive Music Shiznet

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Little Stevens Underground Garage A Go Go

We headed to the show early with the intentions of hanging out in the loft till the show started but since I forgot the keys we decided to go on in the Variety Playhouse to grab a good seat and drink beer. We were treated to a black and white movie theater on the walls of the theater. Four screens plastered the walls on both sides with old B-Movies with a great soundtrack of garage band gems played in the background.

A band that won a contest to open the show began shortly that was ok but for us just that….ok.

Next up were The Charms that quickly gained our attention with their hard hooks and energetic lead singer, Ellie Vee. The band looked and played tough. I would like seeing this band play live anytime. The band was tight as hell and Ellie has a voice that is both sweet and in your face with tons of soul that flows naturally. The guitar player, Joe Wizda is like some freaky virtuoso type that will both amaze and astound you with his playing.

Next up came the Chesterfield Kings….WOW is the best description of this show by a band that has been around since 79′. Pure Rock and Roll swagger at it’s very best. The lead singer moved all over not only the stage but took off into the audience not just once like some singers do now but roamed all over the place including the seats halfway back into the venue. He stood on the seats, threw newspapers that got in his way, tumbled, tripped and drug his CORDED mic all over the place. At one point when we was ‘walking’ from one side of the audience to the other even the roadie needed a hand with that long mic cord and the audience stepped up and helped to surf the cord over their heads to the other side…once it reached its destination it quickly had to be moved back up on stage where Greg Prevost, the lead singer began an on stage love/lust session with his mic stand. I got some great photos of Greg all over the place here.

Next up were the Supersuckers. If you like the Supersuckers I would say they put on a good show. While not my personal favorites the highlight of the show was when Eddie Spahgetti made “bass guitar stars” out of the entire band and even let the members from the other bands on the bill in on the action. Funny stuff that ended with a killer version of “Frankenstein”. The Supersuckers website has a cool blog style page that Eddie writes on about the tour.

When the New York Dolls hit the stage all eyes were glued. The band ripped into a couple of classics then launched into some new numbers. They sounded great, looked great and really seemed to be having fun. Of course Sylvain Sylvain garnered much attention being the local guy (lives in Decatur). Great show, great sound. Long live the New York Dolls.

Click here to check out all the photos of the show.

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The Unsatisfied – The Way to the Crumbs

MusicFilter Album Review

The Unsatisfied – The Way to the Crumbs

October 24th, 2006 by BMF

First off, before you read this go BUY(download) THIS CD HERE. I’m not trying to sell this CD I’m only trying to save you a step before you read this long ass rant about how fucking awesome this band is. (2011 update)

Anyone who knows us here at MusicFilter knows we LOVE the Unsatisfied already. There is plenty to read about our past with the Unsatisfied but long story short: Imagine the ultimate punk/rock lead with the ultimate rock/punk band. That is the Unsatisfied and they do not disappoint.

It has been a while since they put anything fresh in our brains but finally “The Way to the Crumbs” has been released online and soon will come out in your local record store. On first listen it is classic Unsatisfied. Listen some more and you will hear some suprises. Listen some more and you will begin to FEEL it in your guts. Listen some more and you will begin to do rock star poses and play air guitar.

The record begins with “The Bitten Hand” …..driving guitar…driving vocals….”do you remember when you fucked up?”….cool cool song…cooler chorus. Next song up is “The Dominant Divinity”…the fucking music on the disc will blow any punker’s mind any metal heads mind…any music lovers mind. It is TIGHT, HARD, GROOVIN’, and RELENTLESS. Eric is the perfect Himalayan salt on the cucumber.

Miss Chicky says that “Lora Tab” is absolutly the BEST SONG TITLE EVER….I agree. Once again the band is fucking rocking and fucking rolling here. But this is ERIC’s song. His time. Very cool and Very good.

“My Eutopia (is turning to shit)” is MY FAVE of this CD. Spelled wrong? or Spelled on purpose it DOES NOT MATTER…this is FUCKING ROCK AND ROLL and this song FUCKING rocks and rolls your ass off. Great hooks. Great lyrics. Great feel. Eric’s voice is incredible and band follows his lead. This song alone is worth the price of the whole CD.

I’m not sure what “Across the Rubicon” means and I don’t really give a crap. I do know what fucking Rock means and this song helps define it. This is punk rock man.

I’ve said it before in reviews of past stuff but this band is a fucking TRAIN that will not stop.

I could go on and fucking on about how cool these guys are. I know they are cool. I’m trying convince YOU they are cool. I love music. I love punk rock. I love rock and roll. I love Jerry lee lewis and the king. I love Johnny Cash and Johnny Rotten. The Unsatisfied will SATISFY all your needs if they come close to what mine are in music. 5 stars. A+. Recommended.

I can’t wait to see them play live AGAIN. The Unsatisfied always SATISFY.

The Unsatisfied

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Olive Musica Shiznet

 

I thought we had an incredible music situation in the punk rock house before I got the Olive Musica for my birthday. Before we enjoyed our two 300 disc cd jukeboxes but lacked the ability to keep an easy to use database of our music that we could explore on our computers, we lacked the ability to move music from our computers seemlessly to our home audio system without burning a disc, and we wanted to be able to play music from our computers and hear it directly through the home audio system.

The Olive Musica has changed all that for us. Now we can do all of the above (less playing directly from the puters but that will soon change according to the guys at Olive Media) and much more.

The Musica connects wirelessly to our computers allowing us to directly import music right onto its 160 GB hard drive. It rips cd’s directly to the hard drive then allowing you to sort the entire album or single songs from the album into a custom made playlist, of which you can create as many as you want. It plays from one playlist or as many as you want randomly.

Thats all I can think of right now but the features and capabilities seem to never end and I’ve had it since August 4th. As I find and remember more features I’ll add them onto this post.

It plays internet radio that has 1000’s of cool stations.

I will say that the Musica is doing everything I always had on my wish list for our audio set up here and more.

 

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