March 31st is the opening of concert season with Down n Dirty of Chicago, Bombay Black from Conway Arkansas, Heavens Rain of OKC, and Promises Revolt from random parts of Oklahoma.
The show will be in Norman ok. At The Hidden Castle venue. Its all ages and only a cheap as hell $8 at the door! Its a Friday night so there are NO EXCUSSES!
Its going to be a great time so mark your calendars and don't miss it!
Not to mention that the Garden of Evil and BleachBANGS will be there!
Yesterday, because of a list on McSweeney's Internet Tendency (What Your Favorite Classic Rock Band Says About You) our music appreciation cycle got temporarily disconnected from our History cycle. Usually we try to do these things in relation to each other. For example, while we were studying Vikings a few weeks ago, we were listening to reconstructed Norse music. My daughter, seeing the list over my shoulder (which is probably a prime advertisement as to why one shouldn't goof off on the internets when waiting for completed G.U.M. assignments), asked "what is classic rock?"
QUELLE HORROR!
So we did a listen through of a selection of classic rock bands, both from the McSweeney's list and also following a couple of rabbit holes where McSweeney's is lacking. David Bowie is a rabbit hole unto himself really, but I digress. Then a friend of mine mentioned that he was having a bit of difficulty explaining hair bands or glam metal to his son. Glam Metal is a bit after what I consider the "classic" rock experience and we didn't get through all the classic bands I would have liked to yesterday. I do realize that Classic Rock could be a multi-month course. I was only trying to hit the highlights in our little listening session yesterday.
In case you don't know, Glam metal was a fusion of two pop/rock music movements-- the "glam" rock scene of London, with its outrageous costumes and make up (Elton John) and the "heavy metal" scene, with its leather pants and shrieking guitars (Led Zepplin). This somewhat odd marriage produced a collection of young men in big hair, eye makeup, and leather pants. The zenith of Glam Metal was probably Bon Jovi, and the last band that can rightly be labeled Glam Metal, Guns n' Roses, were already on the cusp of the Northwestern "Grunge" scene that took over the early 1990s.
Russ Parrish performing with a Glam Metal Revival Band photo by Kate Patten, Rockerazzi photography
I say "young men" because I can't think of any acts that I would consider "glam metal" that are women's groups. There were plenty of women's groups playing concurrently, but none of them, not even The Runaways with the fabulous Lita Ford and Joan Jett, had the "glam metal" mystique. I think part of it is because poofy hair and cosmetics weren't at all unusual on women in the 1980s. Another feature of glam metal acts that is much different from their Glam predecessors is that Glam was often about cross dressing (Twisted Sister). However much eye makeup, lip gloss and hair product the glam metal band dudes were using, they were not so much cross-dressing as they were aping the opulent styles of earlier eras' courtiers. Madonna, perhaps, with her corsets and Marie Antoinette hoop skirts could be considered a close cousin. But her music was all strictly pop with not a single screeching guitar riff to legitimize it into the metal movement.
So for my friend's son and any of the rest of you who are interested in weird little pockets of Music History, I present to you a Glam Metal Band Playlist. I tried to keep it mostly safe for kids, though that's a little hard to do with an era of music videos that included cave women extras and Tawny Kitaen on the hood of White Snake's car. :) Keep one finger on the jump button just in case.
Perhaps you should watch School of Rock. That might be fun.
I think of Contemporary music as a way to explore topics ranging from political dissent, and social issues, to modern expressions of love and desire.
Kids are always asking what songs are about. A large percentage of said songs are about looking for sex, or love, being in love, or ahem---or what happens when you loose those partners and activities for whatever reason.
My eldest as a result can usually tell right up front when someone in song or in speech is making a double entendre. This isn't a bad thing. Since she doesn't care for that sort of thing, she tends to avoid channels or people who make such references too frequently or blatantly for her tastes.
tlryder
My daughter is very good at self-censoring too, so I don't worry too much about her media exposure.
I've been homeschooling my two kids since birth. They're both teens now and we're still at it. We've all learned so much and we're not done yet. Maybe we'll never be done, because learning is a lifelong adventure. We're not the stereotypical homeschooling family of today. I don't own a denim jumper. My husband has no interest in being the Patriarch of the House. We're not Evangelical Christians. We're all a bit left of Center. We all think that homeschooling just might be a way to change our world for the better. Welcome to our blog! P.S. We have a lot of pets. We call them our "furry children".
After planning and getting all the details of 2 awesome shows this last couple of weeks, and having them fall through, "for good reasons" but falling apart for me I'm a bit gun-shy now but I can't control the excitement of the next thing I have in the planning stage for October 8th! I Don't want to give details just because I'm superstitious. But I'm so pumped about this new development!
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