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, 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.
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