June 14

I've talked about emo as a misused appelation before, but I just realized that I have yet to demonstrate what emo is. Today, I can rectify that, thanks to Bob Nanna. After the dissolution of his first band Braid (which fans and critics would either call emo or post-hardcore), he formed Hey Mercedes, which comfortably wore the emo badge on the arm where its sleeve was supposed to be. It's all there: the soft-loud-soft rocksong structure, the sentence fragment songtitles, the replacement of cockrock bravado with confessional yearning...

It's not hard to see what some people don't like about emo: confessional intelligence in the wrong hands sounds like a bunch of whiny smartasses. Which is probably why emo resonates so well with teenagers, then tends to get outgrown fast.
Bob Nanna moved on, too. He now plays in the band Certain People I Know, and has his solo project The City on Film. Plus, he's got a day job, at Threadless.com. Among other duties, he's written songs about several of the ubiquitous T-Shirt. Over 150 of them. Each song is linked under its inspiring t-shirt, but there's links to all the songs on his profile page.
Meanwhile, here's footage from the first public performance of Certain People I Know...

November 19

Sometimes it's about the clip. I mean, Happy Birthday, Jodie Foster; Happy Birthday, Grizzly Adams; Happy Birthday, Allison Janney and President Garfield and Savion Glover...
But today is Keith Buckley Day - as in, lead singer of Every Time I Die. You can consider this a belated nod to Keith's brother/bandmate, who celebrated his birthday on the 15th (when he celebrated Judge Wapner Day.)
Their new album came out in September, and they've got this new video, which feels like a stroll through a house full of psychotic tattoos...

They're finishing up the year in Europe, touring with Killswitch Engage. So, it looks like a few more years before Keith goes back to teaching high school English...

September 8

This is not a rebel blog. But today seems to be full of rebellious sorts. If it’s your birthday, make sure you’re not part of the machine! Follow the examples of your brethren – I mean, DON’T follow- that is… You know what I mean, right?

Pink’s got plenty to celebrate besides her birthday today: her blockbuster world tour hits stateside next week. Also, she may be reconciling with her muse/ sort-of-ex-husband, after all. Also, I just discovered that she goes by “P!nk”, which makes her easier to google, so thanks for that, Alecia…
I’ve had a bear of a time trying to find Pink’s latest video to share, what with her being a Universal Music artist. Since I started this column, I’ve been sampling all the YouTubes-to-come (Hulu, Joost, Dailymotion, Fliiby, etc.) in search of videos to share. It seems like the bigger the act, the harder a lockdown from the record label. If they were trying to sell the music video, I’d understand, but why block a four-minute commercial for your own product?
Anyway, this is yet another videosite I discovered, just to share P!nk’s latest. It was either this one, or I learn Russian, so enjoy…


Brendan Kelly is the bassist for the Lawrence Arms, a band that’s more punk than you. In fact, they’re the only band I’ve ever heard of that’s permanently banned from the Warped Tour, for saying that Warped was siphoning bands from the underground venue system to fuel their shopping-mall concerts. True or not, outing Warped on a Warped stage is like calling the bride’s gown ugly when she’s standing at the altar. These days, neither Warped nor the Lawrence Arms have anything to do with the other, and everyone’s fine with that.


Fad Gadget (born Frank Tovey) was the Bering Strait between New Wave and industrial, straddling the line between the aggressive performance art music of the 70’s and the 80’s synthpop to come. He became most renowned for his on-stage prescence (tarring and feathering himself and stage diving into an audience, playing electric razors and power tools as musical instruments,) but when you set aside the antics, the sound keeps up with contemporaries Gary Numan and Depeche Mode.
“Ricky’s Hand” is my favorite, but this German TV performance of “Collapsing New People” is just bizarre enough to stick in your retinas…


Finally, today’s Slim Thug day in Houston. This compatriot of Mike Jones got the same affinity for that Robitussin rap-style coming out of Texas. He doesn’t just sling the words; he started his own label (Boss Hogg Outlawz) once he realized how successful his mixtapes could be. He can say, with all authority, “I’m the Boss….”

Come to think of it, I like The Lonely Island’s version better…

September 6

First, let’s spotlight Tony Thaxton and Motion City Soundtrack. Tony's the current for the band, who’ve been something of a Warped Tour staple the last few years. All I've found out so far is that he likes Star Wars and Ben Folds. Their 2005 "Commit This to Memory" album was leaked the day after it was mixed, which has made the band gunshy about internet press. Their new album finally has a title("My Dinosaur Life"), but no release date yet.
I’m a sucker for animation, so here’s their video for “It Had to Be You”

Motion City Soundtrack - It Had To Be You
Uploaded by epitaphrecords. - Watch more music videos, in HD!
The coolest birthday I share, according to my babymomma, is Eugene Hutz, mastermind of Gogol Bordello. Everybody needs to experience a bit of Gypsy punk, especially live. Guitars, accordions, harajuku girls – a Gogol Bordello show is like the circus come to town. No wonder Madonna keeps trying to steal his cool.
They’re touring North America next month. If you can’t wait – or can’t make it (like me) – their live CD just came out, too.
I was going to throw "Start Wearing Purple," but milady talked me into posting something even catchier:


Now here’s another somebody that’s definitely under-celebrated. Jane Curtin is one of the original cast-members of Saturday Night Live, and one of the best straight foils in television. She got the most screen time at the Weekend Update anchor desk, providing set up and reaction for the crazy characters and commentaries from the other cast members. The closest to a crazy character of hers I can remember is Mrs. Conehead.

After SNL, she played straight-laced Allie in “Kate and Allie,” and the human professor in “3rd Rock From the Sun,” two award-winning performances on two very successful sitcoms. So why isn’t she a bigger deal? Because she’s so great at playing the normal woman pushed too far.

Thanks for the laughs, Jane.

September 3

I’m apologizing in advance for today’s column. Some days give me more to work with than others. Today was kind of slim pickings.
If you’re new, welcome; if you’re not, welcome back. And if you have a birthday today, here’s a couple of people you share it with:

To most of the US, Jennifer Paige is a one-hit wonder, via 1998’s “Crush.” Her greatest hits CD came out in 2003; fortunately, she had better success in Europe, so there's more than one song on the disc.

She's officially crossed the pond, and is working on her first non-English release.

For those who prefer slashing guitars and Cookie Monster vocals, turn your ears Norway way. Terje “Valfar” Bakken, vocalist and player of every instrument in the band Windir, took the black metal sound that predominated the local scene and took it in other, majestic directions. He distanced himself from the black metal title (and scene), even though his 1999 album is considered a classic by metal snobs of all stripes. He died of hypothermia in 2004, but his music continues to find new fans.

Tomo Milicevic, guitarist from 30 Seconds to Mars: also Eastern European, also celebrates a birthday today, also hardcore. In his native Bosnia, as a teen, he was standing on the street corner, looked down, and laughed when he saw that someone had shot him in the leg. At the hospital, he asked for the bullet as a souvenir, but was denied…
Here’s the 13-minute epic video for “From Yesterday”:



Rina Koike is a Japanese child actress, currently doing the rounds in Sentai shows. Mostly, she’s known for her portrayal of Sailor Luna in the live-action Sailor Moon TV series. Apparently, Sailor Moon’s cat advisor Luna gets transformed into a nine-year-old schoolgirl with fuzzy blue ears.

For those of you thinking, “WTF was that?” this is only the tip of the iceberg. I love finding stuff like this. There is so much bizarre stuff from the land of the Rising Sun that you, too, will come to understand the meaning of the phrase, “That’s SO Japan!”
This, by the way, is Japan, level 1.

If you know a birthday somebody that I should write about, e-mail me at TheLeroyGrey@gmail.com. Thanks, and happy birthday, whenever you are...

September 1

Sometimes I think like a journalist; sometimes, I think like a fanboy. Looking over today, I found a quartet of reality TV stars, and started concocting an insightful analysis about the nature of acquiring 21st century fame. But then I saw some of the other birthdays that I just had to talk about instead.

Joe Trohman’s the lead guitarist for Fall Out Boy. And just how out there does Fall Out Boy have to be when the lead guitarist is the Ringo Starr of the band?
I haven’t given their latest album a chance; I can’t listen to them without reflecting on how star-baiting and studio-dependent they’ve become. But I still got a sweet spot for “Under the Cork Tree,” when the CD sounded like the band does live.


As long as I’m talking comic books, I have to mention birthday boy Jhonen Vasquez, the creator of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Invader Zim, and the man who made Hot Topic a mint. If you want to raise your children to be world conquerors, read them “Squee” when you tuck them in at night. He’s put down the pens for a bit, and returned to his college major: film. He directed this music video for Mindless Self-Indulgence:

It hints at what he might unleash on the world when he finishes his first feature-length film. And now you know as much about it as I do.

While we’re talking about more-than-average Joes, let’s talk about Joseph Williams. Joe was the lead singer for Toto, during their “I’ll Be Over You” era. He was Matthew Broderick’s singing voice in “The Lion King.” But we’re talking about him for his songwriting, a talent that he may have inherited from his father, 45-time Academy Award nominated composer John Williams.
While John Williams is celebrated for his music, he’s not hired much for his lyrics. Son Joe got the assignment of writing two songs for “Return of the Jedi:” the Ewok celebration song, and “Lapti Nek,” a dance track by the Max Rebo band, the house band of Jabba the Hutt.


Conway Twitty always existed in another universe to me. Growing up in Georgia, I used to see the bumper stickers everywhere for “Twitty City”, some family vacation rite of passage in the South. I thought it was some sort of amusement park (that was Dollywood,) instead of another would-be Graceland constructed by country music’s appeal for a whiter Elvis Presley (He was rock and roll enough to inspire the 60’s Broadway play “Bye Bye Birdie”.)
Twitty City’s now a facility for the Trinity Broadcasting Network, and country music today sounds more like the Eagles. But, since I never miss a chance to play a birthday song, here’s Conway Twitty’s “Happy Birthday Baby.”

Tomorrow: we rock out. I promise...