Vision The Kid

Summer (Then & Now) is VTK’s tribute to Summer, summer, summer time.

Stream it on youtube above or at these fine establishments

Reverbnation

Soundcloud

Bandcamp

New songs released all week. EP available for DL Tuesday 21st.

The third track off You Ain’t Gettin’ Laid Dressed Like That is for all those curmudgeons trying to hold us youngins (and not so young dreamers) back from our dreams cuz they missed out on theirs…

Also stream it at:

Reverbnation

Bandcamp

Soundcloud

Much love! #Gettinitin

Song #2 officially leaked! It’s called Mind’s Eye.

Check it out on youtube or these exceptional sites:

Reverbnation

Soundcloud

Bandcamp

Stay tuned all week as we drop more hot fire! EP available for FREE download June 21st.

We’re leaking the first song off Vision the Kid’s EP You Ain’t Gettin’ Laid Dressed Like That.

Check it out on youtube above or at any one of these fine music streaming sites.
Reverbnation

Soundcloud

Bandcamp

We’re dropping a new FREE song everyday this week until next Tuesday when the EP is available for digital download!

The release show is Saturday June 11th at O’gara’s in St. Paul. At which point physical copies will be available.

Starting Monday June 13th – Monday June 20th VTK will be leaking a song a day on these sites:

Bandcamp

Reverbnation

Youtube

Starting June 21st the entire EP will be available for Download at the sites above (minus youtube) as well as many others.

Don’t forget: June 23rd Vision the Kid will be performing at Battle of the Beasts at Gasthof’s in Northeast Minneapolis. Come out and vote!

Oh snap, did I mention I have a trailer for my upcoming album Lost Summer due out summer 2011?

Did I mention I’m an 8-bit character in it? And that I turn into a vampire and slaughter the love of my…well, I don’t want to ruin the ending, you’ll have to watch.

Brief note, this metric is a cure for: hipsterness, too-cool-for-school-ness and basic stuck-uppery regarding music and all things pop culture.

There is a small, simple metric I use to judge whether a musical act is worthy of existing. Have they created 2 songs I thoroughly (I mean deep tissue massage thorough) enjoy? It’s called the Foo Fighters metric.

From my perspective, The Foo Fighters have never proven their worthiness to exist. Even as a innocent tween in the early 90′s, when Nirvana ended I was like, “what the fuck, Dave Grohl?”. Needless to say, I have never enjoyed a single Foo Fighters song to the point where I can say “this is excellent. I’m going to purchase this song or at least remember it so at some point in the future I may play it for my own pleasure without much ado”. Your personal feelings about the Foo Fighters aside, feel free to use this metric when smugly deciding the fate of any recording artist in existence (myself included).

Slight addendum: this metric can work on a scale. If the artist in question has a Motley Crue-level back catalogue of bullshit, the 2 songs you enjoy may have to be THAT much stronger, to sustain the amount of mass needed to keep them in orbit before there decades of bullshit pull them into a firey, merciless sun…or something like that, I’m not sure how physics works in space, or in general.

From this metric, let me share with you a brief list of artists that are suprisingly worthy of existance:

George Michaels (Wham material included)
David Guetta (for all his potential evil “I Gotta Feeling” is the best of pop-catchery and “Sexy Bitch” is the most unintentionally hilarious chorus I’ve ever heard on the radio)
Sonny and Cher
7 Mary 3
Death From Above 1978 (perhaps not surprising that they should exist, but that I like their music, given the other artists mentioned here)

And some who are not:
Nickelback
Pitbull
3 Doors Down
Fat Joe
Marcy Playground

Now, when applying this metric, you may notice a slight tug at your once callused heart. To allow say, Wham, to exist you have to put up with all the other terrible music they sweated out so profusely from their technicolor jumpsuits. Surely this is the inherent weakness in my metric, you say. And much like all my answers at a job interview, i say, “my weakness is my strength”. Let me explain.

This metric allows the listener to come to terms with what music they truthfully find worthwhile. If you like two George Michael songs EVER you have to secceed the fact that he should exist and come to terms with what that means for you respective masculinity/femininity/coherent sense-of-self. If your world quickly starts to crumble DO NOT CONTINUE to use this metric. Go back to making your hot pockets and listening to whatever you think your friends think you should like.

If however, when using this metric, you notice yourself complimenting others more often, maintaining healthy eye contact and not being a stuck up cunt about rocking out (HARD) to Carly Simon during rush hour, welcome. You have just joined the enlightened few who know there’s no such thing as a “guilty pleasure”. Now wrap up in your snuggie and get ready for that Real Housewives marathon.

Is David Guetta evil?

Whether you listen to pop music or not you are affected by it. As much as you might try to avoid it it is all around you, like the smell eminating from your roommates unwashed laundry bin. You can shrug it off, stew with anger and lash out passive aggressively or you can step right up and face it. This is my attempt to face the unwashed-laundry that is the music of David Guetta.

You may recognize his songs (most famously: BEP’s “I Gotta Feeling”  , Akon “Sexy Bitch” , Rihanna “Who’s That Chick?” ) but either way you are probably familiar with his sound. Whether he’s produced it or not his techno infused pop music is everywhere on the charts, threatening world peace and even Usher’s career.

Brief aside: Usher was always an innovator, ahead of or just-on-the-edge of the current sound of pop/r&b. Until his last album which was filled with much Guetta-esque bullshittery. In terms of sound, he jumped on the techno-meets-pop bandwagon and his relevance sagged as a result. Ultimately, he’s still Usher but his last album was probably the largest artistic mis-step of his career.

This isn’t to say David Guetta was directly related in what may be called Usher’s musical missteps but rather, Guetta plays a central role in the state of pop music today. As he puts it it’s about…”this whole movement of creating this bridge between…urban and electronic music”. (Source) Whether that bridge was ever asked for or if it will remain un-burned-down after the fad of the moment has passed is yet to be seen, but we can rest assured, it is currently being built, and Guetta is one of the prime architects.

Back to the bullshit. You can probably hear it now: four on the floor kick drum, one million synths pulsing at a nearly unbearable BPM, auto tune to the tits and lyrics so escapist they would make a Jerry Bruckheimer script blush. This is, for better or worse, the current state of pop radio. It’s what bumps in the clubs, it’s on B96 and KDWB and most importantly for “pop” status, it is what teenage girls listen to. And I should know, I hang out with a lot of teenage girls.

So where does David Guetta stand in the current Mad Max landscape of pop music? With it’s Kesha’s and it’s Soulja Boys roaming the now dried and deserted plains ravaging eachother for a chance to devour the few remaining, innocent teen souls? He stands right in the goddamn middle…but is he evil?

Quickly side stepping centuries of philosophical and theological debate I’m going to posit this: Evil is determined by injury and intent. How much damage (injury) was caused by one’s acts? How much were those acts intentional?

In this case, the amount of damage Dave Guetta has done to the world looks something like this

David Guetta's music

But ultimately, it’s not his fault we’re listening to this bullshit, or maybe it is – perhaps that’s a debate for another article, one that ponders the very nature of free will. I can say his art design is his fault and he should be held accountable for every seizure it induces, along with all accompanying hospital bills. This is America after all, land of medical bills and litigation.

So if his music causes atomic-bomb-amounts of damage to the world but we (or someone at least) keeps listenting to this shit regardless, David Guetta is not Evil. He’s doing his thing and he seems to be having a good time with it. Also, I saw this video on line a little while back which gives him one extra gold star in my book but that is all! Only one gold star and half of it goes to Keenan Cahill anyway.

So if David Guetta isn’t evil what is he? Well this leads me to the query pondered in my next blog post. Does David Guetta deserve to exist? His fate, along with the fate of several other questionable musical acts, will be determined tomorrow in… The Foo Fighters Metric.

When I get a medical bill that isn’t covered by my insurance because all my benefits are deferred for the first year of my employment…at a temp agency. When I get a ticket on my windshield for expired tabs the afternoon that I renewed them on-line because I can afford a car (sort of) but not the privilege of off-street parking. When I can’t take a day off because I don’t receive PTO and I have to worry about how I’ll make it back home for my uncle’s funeral and still make rent. When I see my student loan bills. When I get laid off in the “Great Recession” and have nearly a year-long gap in my young employment history.

When I see my girl work two jobs to have $20 for herself at the end of the week. When I see my mom working 60+ hours/week right after they reduce her pay and cut her benefits as an educator. When my brother can get fired for any reason his employer chooses because they’ve devalued his work so greatly as to make him disposable. When I see powerful coroporations align with Governor’s all across the country to take what little remains of our rights as workers away.

That’s when I think of this song and thank god for Charles Bradley who, if only for the color of his skin, has very likely had a harder time then I trying to…”make it in America”.