My Tea's Gone Cold and I Wonder Why Did I Make Tea, I Don't Even Like Tea

What up blog fans, today is the day you have all been waiting for, the end of the countdown to 30 for MTV, which actually already happened, and I'm only getting to 20 anyway, but not really the point, it's ends today with 2001, partly because I was in college at this point and didn't really watch MTV all that much, and MTV was becoming more and more about crappy shows, which it is now. Most of the time if you wanted to see Videos anyway, you had to turn into MTV2, which I would watch a decent amount, that was until they turned that into basically more of the same crap as MTV was, but we are getting ahead of ourselves now, cause first I got some other stuff for you:

So, I was watching Apollo 13 last night, not sure why, it came on after the Red Sox game was basically over and thought what the hell, not sure that I had ever actually seen the whole thing, or atleast not in a long time. Anyway, watching the movie, I kinda realized why they ended the Space Program, now I realize that these Apollo missions weren't with the space shuttle, but even still, I'm sure there is much the same issue. Basically there is a lot of crap that ends up getting left in space because of these missions, space junk as it were, and well, I don't know about you, but this seems like pollution to me, and we all know how the government feels about pollution theses days. This space junk is clearly causing global warning, Al Gore is pissed, so gotta end it, right? Oh, or it could be cause the government has no money, could be that, I'm no politician, so I just go with what I see in movies. Ok, the other than that I found kinda odd, at the end of the movie, they say that Bill Paxson character Fred Haise was scheduled to go on the Apollo 18 mission, but it was cancelled due to budget cuts, or was it? Apparently there is a new documentary coming out that explains what really happened with Apollo 18:

Ok, so maybe that isn't real, but whatever.

Well, Summerslam came and went, and while it was not quite as good as Money In The Bank, it did provide some shocking results, and if you haven't seen it, don't want to spoil it for you, but here's what went down in the Undisputed WWE Championship match, CM Punk pinned John Cena after the GTS, but Cena's foot was on the rope, which Triple H did not see, but ref's decision is final, so CM Punk was the Undisputed Champion, and then this happened (sorry it's backwards, it's for copyright issues):

Yup, Kevin Nash returned to beat up CM Punk allowing Alberto Del Rio to cash in Money In The Bank and fulfill his destiny. So, then the next night on RAW, there needed to be some kind of explanation, first from Triple H:

And then later Kevin Nash would explain himself:

Now, the most ridiculous part about all of this, is something that I meant to mention in my last post and forgot, and I'll get into a bit more in a moment, but Kevin Nash wrestled with Sean Waltman accompanied by Scott Hall (Who apparently was filming something for ESPN's E:60) vs Road Dogg and Billy Gunn, or whatever they were being called at the Gathering of the Juggalos 2 night before Summerslam, which just bogs my mind. Anyway, as it turned out, Alberto Del Rio successfully defended the title against Rey Mysterio, then after he attacked him, Cena came out and made the save, but then there was apparently an uninvited guest:

So, it might be kinda hard to see, but on the left side of the screen next to Del Rio when they show him after Cena says something, a little white mouse is running around, weird.

Ok, so now over the last weekend there was a festival held in Illinois called The Gathering Of The Juggalos, now, anyone who knows the group ICP is familiar with the term Juggalo, which is what their fans are called, and they have been having this Gathering for many years now, but this years was crazy, featured a ton of artist, some of which, simply surprised the hell out of me, some partly cause I didn't know they were still around and others cause well, what? like for instance Bobby Brown was there, and he brought his own stage:

Or how about MC Hammer:

and how can you have MC Hammer without some Vanilla Ice:


And what's Vanilla Ice without some Ice Cube:

and really you can't have an event this crazy without Charlie Sheen:

Well, anyway, looks like it was probably a ridiculous crazy time, and there were a ton of other artists their too as well as a whole bunch of wrestlers and other crazy unsafe stuff.

Ok, so now it's time to conclude the MTV countdown with 2001, but before we do, what the hell is wrong with me, how did I leave my favorite song of 2000 out of the last post, it's disturbing that I did that and well, yup it;s Disturbed:

And for some reason I forgot that AC/DC was back, but they were:

But now on to 2001, and this next thing is a little confusing, so just try to follow me, and no not that song, I'll get to that later. in 1998, when Female artists decided to thank people, Alanis Morrisette and Natalie Merchant were well know, and got the word out, but there was another female singer, this one was British, who noone really knew and randomly had a song on on the soundtrack to some British Gwyneth Paltrow movie called Sliding Doors, remember when Gwyneth Paltrow thought she was British, so every movie she did she had to have a British accent in, or maybe it just seemed that way, anyway the song was called Thank You and the artist was Dido, the song wasn't released as a single and noone really thought much of it, even when she included it on her debut album in 1999. Now here is where things get confusing, Eminem decided to sample it for his song Stan on his 2000 Album the Marshall Mathers LP, then right around the same time at the end of 2000, Eminem released Stan as a single along with a controversial video that actually featured Dido:

and while this happened, Dido decided to release Thank You as a single and had a music video for that:

So, it was sorta a double edged sword, that song was everywhere in one form or another, not surprisingly the Dido version had more success on the charts, probably cause that was actually more of a song then Stan, but whatever.

Moving on, as I previously ask you to Follow Me, that was a big hit to, by Kid Rock's DJ Uncle Kracker, yeah, I have no idea what the hell was going on then:

But hey, Kid Rock wasn't gonna let his DJ out do him, so he was back with a new album, new single and a new Girlfriend, Pamela Anderson, and they would be featured in the music video:

Now, Pamela Anderson was actually in a good amount of music video much that way I talked a little while back about how Jack Black made his way into some music videos, but now Jack Black actually had a reason to be in one, as his band Tenacious D released an album:

Some new blood was still making it's present felt on the scene, Linkin Park continued their success:

Alien Ant Farm reminded us that Michael Jackson used to be pretty good:

Drowing Pool had everyone hitting the floor:

Nickelback was telling us about how we remind them about what they are, or something like that:

Crazy Town took a random instrumental Red Hot Chili Peppers song and turned that into a hit:

We also got our first ever cartoon band, the Gorillaz, who had a big hit with the help from Del and for whatever reason Clint Eastwood:

Train started annoying everyone:

Puddle of Mudd let us know that they enjoyed getting their ass smacked:

Saliva was throwing it's hat into the rap/rock game:

But it wasn't just about debuting bands, there were also a bunch of bands putting out their sophomore efforts, such as System of a Down:

Slipknot were back with some pretty heavy stuff, definitely their most heavy and radio unfriendly album of all, but despite that, it they did manage to get some airplay with this song:

P.O.D. released their 2nd album, and had a pretty cool video for their song Alive:

Meanwhile Staind was back with their most successful album and song:

Incubus was back with their followup to Make Yourself, with Morning View and had some hits including this one, Wish You Were Here:

But it wasn't all about new bands making their marks and continuing their success, it was also about some bands basically making what would be the end of their runs, like Limp Bizkit:

and Creed:

Now sure, these bands didn't really go away or anything like that, but really that haven't been as successful or relevant since these songs.

U2 also continued the success they had with the release of All That You Can't Leave Behind, with Elevation, also had a huge tour this year as well:

And finally, the man, the myth, the legend, the Prince Of Darkness Ozzy Osbourne was back with a new album, and he would be back on MTV for quite some time, first with some music videos:

And I guess that's a good place to end this, as Ozzy and his Family would go on along with Jackass and the continued success of Real World and shows like that would take over MTV with Reality shows. Now, I'll admit it, I watched the first season of The Osbournes, cause I knew they were crazy and it would be entertaining, but much like anything, once they became award of the success of the show it got ruined and that was that. MTV2 still continued to show a lot of music videos, and I did watch that and saw a bunch of cool videos over the next couple years. They even had this pretty cool show, where they would show a video, and then they would have 3 videos that you could go online and vote for, and the winning video would come on next. But ultimately MTV2 would follow in MTV's footsteps and become all reality and other crap, plus with the internet as it was, it became very easy to just go online and watch any music video you would want, so there really was no reason to watch MTV and have to wait for your favorites to come on, and that was that, and this is that and this is this, so hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane. Guess I'm gonna need something new to write about now.

Please Come To Boston

Ok, so I'm back in Boston now, after a lovely week vacationing in Maine, but still don't have to go back to work yet, got another week off, which is awesome. Don't really have a ton of stuff planned, but got some stuff going on, but the big thing is that I don't have to go to work. So, if anything has anything going on, or doesn't have anything going on and wants to hang out, I'm up for anything

Ok, so last week when I was watching Stand By Me, didn't realize that it was actually the 25th Anniversary, now I knew that the movie came out in 1986, so 25 years ago, but it didn't realize that it was almost to the day. I watched it on the 7th, it actually was released on August 8th, 1986, but close enough. Then later in the week, I was watching the Family Guy episode where they do parities of Stephen King movies, and of course Stand By Me was one of them. I still find it crazy that they actually got Richard Dreyfuss to reprise his role, and then got Roy Scheider to do a little bit, which he must have recorded pretty much right before he died, cause it didn't air until well after he passed away.Anyway, if you have never seen it, it does a pretty good job making fun of some stuff.

Watched a couple movies while I was in Maine, first of which was Your Highness, starring Danny McBride, James Franco, Natalie Portman, Zooey Deschanel, the guy who played the bad guy in Last Action Hero and a bunch of other people who I don't really know or remember or care about. It wasn't good, not really sure what else to say, not totally sure what exactly they were trying to do with this movie, but it really wasn't very good. Danny McBride is a funny dude, but I feel like he works better in a secondary role, unless he's Kenny Powers, but he can't always be Kenny Powers, which I think it part of the problem. If you are just flipping channels and it happens to be coming on HBO or something, it's worth a watch, but I wouldn't go out of your way to watch it or Netflix it or anything like that.

Next up I watched Limitless with Bradley Cooper, Robert DeNiro and a bunch of other people. I was decently surprised by this one, it wasn't terrible, which I was kinda expecting it to be, I could have been better obviously, and I'm not totally sure that Bradley Cooper was the best pick for the role, but I guess he's a name and whatever. DeNiro looked like he kinda phoned this one in, but at this point in his career, I think that's all he really has left, or cares, not sure. Anyway, it was a decent flick, worth a watch, better then Your Highness, but still not sure it's worth going out of your way to see.

This morning I actually watched Blown Away, which I had seen before, but it just happened to be on whatever channel I had left cable box on and it was just starting. Plus it takes place in Boston and it actually has an all-star cast, lots of oscar winners in it, Jeff Bridges who won best actor for Crazy Heart, Forest Whitaker who won best actor for The Last King of Scotland, Tommy Lee Jones who won best supporting actor for The Fugitive, Cuba Gooding Jr has a small role, he's actually not even credited, I'm guessing he's buddies with Forest Whitaker and he was just like, be in this scene for no reason and sit next to me, but still he won best supporting actor for Jerry Maguire. Also Lloyd Bridges, even though he never won an Oscar, he probably should have for Airplane, but it's also fun to see a father and son acting combo. Finally Mike Starr, no not the Alice In Chains guy who was on celebrity rehab and died, no the fat guy from Dumb and Dumber, Uncle Buck, Goodfellas and of course his legendary role in Cabin Boy, or maybe he doesn't really need to be mentioned, but he is in the movie. There was one really big thing that bothered me about this movie, so Jeff Bridges is seeing this women and she's in the Boston Pops and they are preparing for the 4th of July show at the esplanade, and at one point they say something like, we only have 3 weeks to prepare. Then right after this he proposes to her, and someone they had a huge wedding before the 4th of July. What? how on earth did they put together that wedding so fast? Makes no sense. Other then that, and some of the lines are pretty corny, but they make some good use of some U2 songs with all the Irish stuff connected to the movie, and they do a good job of incorporating Boston, which at the time wasn't being used for like 5-10 movies a year like now, it was actually a bit of a rarity back in those days cause of all the taxes and everything, people didn't like to film. Of course they do have the obligatory scene at Fenway. This is a good movie, it did ok at the box Office bringing in 30 mil, little bit of a disappointment given that it was supposed to be a big summer blockbuster, being released on July 1st, 1994. Biggest problem I think it had, was will all the bombs and the crazy guy trying to get revenge and the renegade cop trying to stop him and defusing all the bombs, well kinda sounds like another movie that came out that summer, yup Speed had just come out on June 10, 1994 and well, that got the jump on Blown Away and did just a bit better making 121m. Not to mention that there may have been some confusion cause there was a movie called Blown Away that had come out in 1993 starring Corey Haim, Corey Feldman and Nicole Eggert, so clearly people didn't want anything to do with that movie, so rather then take the risk they they may accidently end up seeing that one by mistake, just went to see Speed instead.

So, Summerslam is tonight, huge match between CM Punk and John Cena to determine who really is the WWE Champion. I have a feeling that CM Punk is gonna win this one, but I also have a feeling that this match could be a long one, cause as of right now there are only 5 matches listed for the event. John Cena Vs CM Punk with Triple H as the guest ref to determine the real WWE Champion, and if you didn't see the contract signing on Monday, well you missed some good stuff, so here it is:

Good stuff, then we got Christian defending the World Heavyweight Title vs Randy Orton in a No Holds Barred match, which could be good, Christian made some interesting comments at the end of Smackdown, basically insinuating that he's got something or possibly someone up his sleeve for Randy Orton, which that said, I guess it sorta depends on what that is, but I still see Randy Orton winning this one and getting the title back. Next up we got Sheamus vs Mark Henry, this one could go either way, they seem to be trying to push both of these guys and I think these 2 matches are very dependent on each other, cause whoever wins this match I think will be next in line for a title match, so it could go anyway combination wise, but the best bets are that if Orton wins the Title Henry would win this match and it Christian keeps the title, then Sheamus will win this match, so going with that theory and that I think Orton will win, I think Henry wins this match. Then we got Wade Barrett vs Smackdown's Money In The Bank Winner Daniel Bryan. I think Daniel Bryan will win this one somehow. Finally Beth Phoenix takes on Kelly Kelly for the Divas title, I think Beth Phoenix will win this one. That's it, that's all the matches announced so far, with Barrett vs Bryan just being announced on Friday. So, what does this all mean, well could mean that Alberto Del Rio plans on cashing in his Money In The Bank, but then what about Rey Mysterio, who is scheduled to get his rematch for the WWE Title on Raw tomorrow, live from his hometown of San Diego. How about The Miz, John Morrison, R-Truth. Tag Titles, US Title, IC Title, which for whatever reason was won on Friday by Cody Rhodes, why they match didn't just happen at Summerslam, I'm not sure. Seems like there is a lot of stuff that is just gonna happen without being advertised, and since they are in LA, and The Rock did get some mentions this past Monday, will The Rock show up? Should be interesting.

Ok, so last time out dug into 1999, but like with 1998 went a little fast and forgot some stuff, but it's all good so much like last time it carries over to 2000, so with that said, it's time to party like it's 1999:

Ok, so interesting thing about this, cause obviously this song did not come out in 1999, but Prince did do a new version of it that year and also played it on New Years Eve heading into 2000 and said he would never play it live again, but he then did in 2007, so never take Prince for his word. But this song has some interesting connections, first of all it was created using the central riff from Monday, Monday by the Mamas and the Papas:

Prince then reused the verse melody when he wrote Manic Monday, which he then decided not to record himself and instead gave it to the Bangles:

Also, people sorta accused Phil Collins of kinda ripping the song of when he made Sussidio:

Phil Collins even admitted that he had been listen to that album alot when he was touring with Genesis prior to him recording that song and could have used it as influence, but if you ask me it's another one of those Dani California/Mary Jane's Last Dance situation.

Anyway, for New Year's Eve I did not go see Prince, but what I did go see was Smackfest 2000, which took place at the Bayside Expo Center, and featured Godsmack, Staind, Reveille and Tree. It was good show, I mean I was only 18, so it's not like I could go out to bars and stuff, so it was a pretty good time. But also brings me to my point, cause 1999 was a big year for Godsmack, after bursting on the local scene in 1998 with their self made album, which I bought, and interestingly enough, their single at the time was recorded after the recorded the rest of the album, so it actually came attached to the CD, kinda weird, but Whatever, and yes the pun was intended, anyway, they then got single to a major label, tweeked the album a little bit and it sold a lot of copies and the rest as they say, is history:

Godsmack would go on to release their second album in late 2000 and have more success. Also getting their break in 1999 before getting huge in 2000 was POD:

The whole rap rock thing was getting huge at this point, and another band that came along called Papa Roach:

Papa Roach unlike POD decided to drop the whole rap rock thing a few years later after it was no longer cool. But that didn't stop other bands from keeping it going, like these guys:

Course the forefathers of this whole Rap Rock thing were still doing their whole thing, as Limp Bizkit followed up their 1999 awful release with their 2000 terrible release:

Kid Rock trying to keep the momentum of Devil Without a Cause, but not yet ready to release a new album, released an album full of some of his older stuff that people hadn't heard, but in doing so also made a pretty terrible song that sampled Metallica, called American Bad Ass:

Meanwhile, Korn followed up their Freak on a Leash video, with Falling Away From Me, ok, so technically this was 1999, but still, here you go:

The whole Rap Rock thing actually brought some rap acts over to do some rock, Cypress Hill was one, and they went as far to do 2 different versions of their single, Rock Superstar:

and Rap Superstar:

Pantera was back with what ultimately would be their last album:

1999/2000 was a very interesting couple of years for music, cause while the music industry was seeing a huge boom in album sales, including the fastest selling album record being broken multiple times, maybe in connection with the success of TRL, but first Backstreet Boys would break the record, which at this point was held by Garth Brooks, who had broken Pearl Jams record, with their album Millennium, which actually game out in 1999, and had this crazy video:

but that record would not last long as in 2000, N'Sync would obliterate the record, whereas Millenium sold a little over 1.1 million, N'Sync's No Strings attached would sell 2.42 million in it's first week, thanks in part to this number:

But even if that had not beaten Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears would have when her album sold over 1.3 million in its first week:

Then a week later Eminem 2nd album came out and sold 1.76 million copies in it's first week thanks in most part the this song:

So, while all of these album were putting up record numbers, there was something else going on at the time, as the internet and mp3s were starting to become a problem for the recording industry, thanks in large part to Napster, which made it very easy to go on and download any song you want and then with the increasing ease of burning CDs and broadband, why would you buy an album when you could just download it and burn it to a CD? One band that hated this was Metallica, but instead of making an album that year, they just made a song for the Mission Impossible 2 soundtrack:

Nu-Metal was still making it's way onto the scene, with some more bands making their mark, or continuing their runs, including Slipknot, who had 2 different videos for their song Wait and Bleed:

Deftones also had a big year with the release of their Album White Pony and their hit song Changes (In The House Of Flies):

Incubus burst on the the scene in late 1999 early 2000 with this hit:

3 Doors Down released their first hit, which would later become Jason Varitek's first and only walkup music:

2000 had a few one hit wonders including this number that probably ranks up their as one of the most annoying songs ever:

Meanwhile, this next song probably came out at the worst possible time for me, as I was graduating from High School, so of course this song would come out and be popular and I would have to hear it over and over and over again:

Meanwhile, J5 made their first major mark in 2000:

They lost out to Mudvayne for the MTV2 award:

Pretty sure that was a Buzz Clip, yeah remember Buzz Clips and the Buzz Bin, they were videos by bands and groups that were a little bit under the radar, but where making some noise or a buzz as it were.

The Offspring and Green Day both release albums on 2000, and to be quite honest, they weren't very good and they didn't do very well, but they did have some singles and videos, The Offspring for whatever reason brought in Redman to say one line and sampled Rob Schnieder's line from Waterboy:

Green Day on the other hand wanted to be in the Minority, which is probably a good name for this song and the album was named Warning, which was also good, cause it was a Warning that only a Minority would actually like this:

2000 saw a couple of big returns, first Bon Jovi made a big return and had a huge hit:

and then after a couple not so great albums, U2 would return with a pretty solid album, best since Achtung Baby, which really isn't saying much, but still, and had a huge hit with Beautiful Day:

Finally 2000 marked the end for another band, well, atleast until the reunited, but not the point. Zach De La Rocha would decide to leave Rage Against the Machine in October, but Rage would still release an album of covers and had a pretty big hit with Renegades of Funk:

Ok, folks, next time out, I will finish up this little countdown with 2001, until then have a good one. I will have a good time not working, so hooray for me.

On Location in Maine

I am on vacation, 'bout damn time, been since the beginning of March since I had my last and have only been off for 1 day in the meantime. So, it's time to relax and do nothing for a while, forget about all the other BS and kick back. Weather was good yesterday, but looks like the week  might not be so great, which kinda sucks, but whatever still beats working. Gonna take in a Sea Dogs game on Thursday, that should be good, Hadlock field is a great place to watch a game and I look forward to getting a Sea Dog Biscuit, which for the uneducated is basically a Chipwich, although I grew up knowing them as Hoodwiches, but whatever you want to call them, they are probably my 2nd favorite Ice Cream novelty, with the first of course being the old WWF Ice Cream Bars, which I have covered here on the Blog before, although Drumsticks, especially the chocolate ones are up there also. Anyway, lets get to the randomness

Red Sox made a move, I know it was a week ago, but haven't posted since then. They got Erik Bedard, not terrible, would be better if the big reason for the move was because Buchholz may not return this year because of his back issues. He had a decent first start, he's still just coming off the DL, so he's not 100% yet, but he pitched well, if the bullpen hadn't sucked, and the offense had been better, could have been good enough for a W. Bullpen also blew it on Monday night, specifically Bard, only bring this up, cause I was at the game, and totally randomly was in the same row as some people I know, what are the odds of that, also given that fact that these same people randomly also have season tickets in the same section as me for the Bruins, what the hell?

So, this is random, but today on TV, both She's The Man and Just One of the Guys was on, pretty sure there are only a couple people who will understand why the was significant, and who knows if they are even reading this, but there it is. Now, I didn't actually watch either of them, but just happened to notice they were both on. Well, I know I sorta mentioned this in the blog before, but She's The Man, basically the same story as Just One Of The Guys, although apparently She's The Man is based on William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, but whatever, you be the judge:

Well, I guess She's the Man does have David Cross in it, plus the dude that plays the teacher in The Killing, but  Just One Of The Guys has William Zabka aka Johnny Lawrence, although he isn't really featured at all in the trailer which is weird considering they do mention The Karate Kid, plus apparently has it's own theme music, which is always a plus.

Was watching Stand By Me earlier, which actually brought up an interesting question here, cause it came out in 1986, one year after The Goonies, both of which by the way star Corey Feldman, but here's my point, both are set in Oregon, which is interesting, originally the Goonies had a scene where they all get covered in leeches, but it was cut out of the script, but Stand By Me features a scene where they get covered in leeches. Also The Goonies has the scene where Chunk is telling them the story about how he got fake vomit and then make everyone throw up at the movie theater, which am I wrong, seems very similar to the pie eating contest scene.

Kinda weird with these coincidences, no? The thing that makes the whole Oregon this even stranger, is cause the original story was set in Maine, Stephen King, so obviously, so why move it to Oregon, just cause they filmed it there? Which also brings up another good point, cause The Goonies was filmed in Oregon too, as it was set there, so Corey Feldman spent a lot of time in Oregon, wonder if he's still welcome there. River Phoenix did deliver a great line at the end when he said to Wil Wheaton after he says "See ya" and he says "Not If I see you first" but then he died, not just his character, but him too, his character died in a much more respectable way then he did, but whatever it happens. Speaking of dying..

So, Amy Winehouse died a couple weeks ago, and while it wasn't what I would call a shocker given her history, there is something interesting that came of her death, and this will probably be debated for a long time. She was 27 when she died, and she has now been put into the 27 Club. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the 27 Club, it is a group of musicians who all died at the age of 27, here is the list:
Robert Johnson who was a Blues musician and died in the 1930s, don't really know too much about him, but I guess he was the original member of the club, but im reality, the next 4 are what really got this whole thing going.
In 1969 the founding member of the Rolling Stone Brian Jones died after he "left" the band, but in reality was kicked out cause of him being unable to perform due to his drug use, on July 3rd, he drowned in his swimming pool, probably cause he was messed up at the time, but whatever, wouldn't be the last founding member of a huge popular band for that time period to drown, Dennis Wilson ring a bell, although he was not 27, not not the point, moving on.
A little over a year later on September 18, 1970 Jimi Hendrix, and I don't think I need to explain who he is, died after a night of partying and taken some sleeping pills, and choking on his own vomit, he was 27, then less then a month later on October 4th, Janis Joplin died of a suspected Heroin overdose, she was 27.
Then to bring it all back full circle on July 3, 1971, Jim Morrison died, of what was called Heart Failure, there was never an autopsy, he was found in the bathtub of his Paris Hotel, so something tells me drugs or alcohol or something was involved. So there you go, even if you don't could Robert Johnson, that's 4 major rock stars dying at the age of 27 in the span of 2 years, pretty crazy, but then,
Almost 23 years later, Kurt Cobain killed himself, as I have previously discussed on the blog, at the age of 27. So, now 17 plus years after that now Amy Winehouse is dead at the age of 27, now to me, she doesn't really fit into this group, and that's in no way meant to be disrespectful in anyway, cause there have been many other artists that have also died at the age of 27, but weren't put in the 27 Club, but whatever, I guess that's just like my opinion man.

Alright, so last time out I talked about MTV's turning 30, which happened last Monday, and I was doing a countdown to it, kinda fell off the pace, but whatever, gonna keep going until the 20th year, cause that was about the time I stopped paying attention to MTV, especially in terms of music anyway. So last time out I discussed 1998, but I definitely rushed it a bit an missed a few things, a couple I did on purpose, and I'll explain later, but there were a couple that I shouldn't have missed at all, and so I'm gonna go back before I go forward. 1998 saw the return of the Beastie Boys, and they had a new DJ with Mixmaster Mike, and were getting all intergalatic on us:

The next song that I can't believe that I left of, was actually featured on the Godzilla soundtrack, and no I'm not talking about Puff Daddy doing some crap version of a crap Led Zeppelin song, man did that song suck, not only so I not like Puff Daddy, but I don't like Led Zeppelin, so, put them together, absolute crap. No, the song I was talking about was from Rage Against The Machine, and it's interesting that this was included on the soundtrack, given the song is pretty much just ripping the media, conglomerates and movies and stuff, even making fun of Godzilla in the song, but whatever, typical label, since the soundtrack was on Epic records, which was RATM's label, they probably made them do it, so they decided what the hell, lets make fun of the movie and see if it still gets on, and it did, and they made a video:

Also in 1998, which, I really can't believe I left this out, Pearl Jam released a new album: Yield and holy crap, they actually made a Music Video for the song Do The Evolution, and actually released it in the United States and on MTV, the last video they made was for Oceans back in 1992, but they never released it in the US or on MTV, so the last video before this one was for Jeremy, but if should be noted, that even though they did make this video, they weren't exactly in it:

Ok, so these next few artists, they may have had their stuff initially come out towards the end of 1998, it wasn't until 1999, that they really got popular. First off, this next guy, much like Rob Zombie did in 1998, broke away from his group, in this case House Of Pain and released a solo album, but interestingly enough, was not his first solo album, before he joined House of Pain, Everlast actually had a solo album back in 1990 called Forever Everlasting, but it didn't do very well, then he joined up with some guys to form House of Pain, but House of Pain had ran it's course, and he was looking to do something new, but then crazily while doing it, had a heart attack, but he recovered and had a huge hit with What It's Like:

Another guy, who had a similar situation, well, minus the House of Pain thing, was this next guy, Kid Rock, who actually had a major label album back in 1990, but it didn't have any success, then after having some indie albums, was back on a major label in 1998, and after having a little success with his first couple singles, he DJed the 1998-1999 New Years Eve party for MTV, and right after that blew up with this song:

He would go on to have much success after this especially with the TRL crowd, and speaking of which, at the very end on 1998, this next artist made her debut and would be a staple of MTV and TRL for years and years and still now, in fact she'll be performing at the TD Bank Garden tomorrow night:

Then as 1999 kicked off, this next individual would make his mark on the music world, including MTV and the TRL crowd and much like Britney Spears, would be around for years to come, and is still around:

Of course, this whole thing was pretty confusing, here's this new guy named Eminem with his first song called My Name Is, and the whole time the song tells us his name is Slim Shady, um, what the hell man, which is it? When the album came out it was at least called the Slim Shady LP, so for people who didn't understand what his name actually was, if they saw that, at least it was easy for them to find I guess.

1999 saw an influx of a lot of pop crap, thanks alot in part to the boy band craze, but also, Britney Spears opened the doors for other young pop stars, such as Christina Aguilera:

Nashua, New Hampshire's own Mandy Moore:

and the women who is currently engaged to Needham, Massachusetts own Eric Johnson, and yes, I did go to school with him, he was a Senior when I was a freshman, but whatever, anyway Jessica Simpson:

Now, rock music would pretty much pick up in 1999 where it left off in 1998, Korn did make a pretty sweet vudeo for Freak on a Leash though:

Now, if you are thinking to yourself, hey, that animation looks kinda familiar, well, that's cause the same guy that did that video did the Pearl Jam video, so there you go. In addition to Korn continuing to do what they do, Limp Bizkit was continuing to suck, with a new album worth of crap, and this song:

Now, while Fred Durst was busy putting out terrible music, he was searching for new talent to sign to his label and in 1999, he found a good one out of Springfield, Massachusetts, in the way of Staind, who would break out that year and had a big hit with Mudshovel:

Staind was one of the new bands that came out in 1999, which started pioneering the new genre known as Nu-Metal, and while Korn may have been considered the first, they were busy at this time along with Limp Bizkit focusing more on hip hopish, rap rock stuff, but other bands like Staind and this next band would bring this genre to the forefront over the next few years, and System of a Down had a big hit in 1999 with Sugar:

Red Hot Chili Peppers were back in 1999 with John Frusciante and a new album called Californication and had a big hit with Scar Tissue:

Now, while I already mentioned this band earlier cause I forgot to mention their big hit from 1998, Rage Against the Machine release a new album in 1999 and had one of their biggest hits with Guerrilla Radio:

Metallica was trying to get crazy and decided to do a couple concerts with a orchestra and put out a album which featured a new song No Leaf Clover:

Now, in 1999, Jack Black was not really known yet, he was an actor who had done bit roles here and there in a bunch of different movies, but had yet to have his big break out, which would come in 2000, but in addition to movies, Jack Black was also doing music with his buddy Kyle Gass, in a group called Tenacious D, which at this time, noone had really heard of either, but somehow he was buddies with some musicians and ended up in music videos, and 2 of them came out in 1999, first of all Beck had an odd video for his song Sexx Laws:

Then the Foo Fighters, still with the apparently endless battle against Foo, made a video for their song Learn to Fly:

I would be remissed if I didn't mention a huge infamous event in the music world in 1999, and that was Woodstock, for the 30th anniversary, they decided to do another concert, similar to what they did in 1994 for the 25th, but while, other then some rain and mud, the 1994 one went off without much of a hitch, which made it seem like another one wouldn't be a bad idea, for whatever reason things didn't work out so great at the 1999 one, there was riots, fires, lots of people got sick or injured, or beaten or raped or robbed, just lots of bad stuff going on. The angry aggressive nature of some of the music, such as Limp Bizkit, Korn, Rage, etc got a big part of the blame for what happened, although there were a bunch of the same bands that were at the one in 1994 and there were no issues, so who knows what the real problem was, they haven't had one since, but it seems like there are always big music festivals that are happening all throughout the summer, and there usually aren't many problems. While the 40th anniversary came and went without anything, I have a hard idea believing that they won't try it again for the 50th, but that is still 8 years away, but hopefully if they do decide to do it, they are better prepared and get things in order.

Finally, 1999 saw the debut of a certain individual on MTV, and at the time it seemed pretty funny, but it got old quick, and while this individual did everything he could to jump on his success, pretty sure he ran his course and is gone, but his initial show was pretty good:

Yeah, maybe he was just annoying to begin with, I don't know. Have a good one folks