Friday, July 28, 2023

3 Chords & the Truth: The Big (click) Big (click) Big (click)

A fair portion of the music we play on the Big Show falls into one of two categories -- stuff that's even (crackle) (pop) older than your Mighty Favog, and various records that (click) that (click) that (click) that (click) that (click) that (WRRRROOOOP!) are almost that old.

That's the beauty of 3 Chords & the Truth. That you'd be extremely hard pressed to tell that was the case, that is.

You see, your genial host works magic to make sure that's the case, to make sure even the oldest, scratchiest, snap-crackle-and-poppiest records get new life through audio science. Now, don't go getting a big head . . . you may or may not deserve it.

But the music does. The music deserves to sound just the way it did when it was new. And it deserves to make a good first impression (or 200th impression), so you'll fall in love with it, too (or fall in love with it all over again).

IS THE Brand X program on the radio -- or on the Internet -- all about love? Probably not. That right there is what makes the Big Show different . . . and better.

Sometimes, you just can't do that with a compact disc or download. Sometimes, if you already own the vinyl, why pay again to get the digital? And sometimes, you just gotta do what you gotta do. We're not fanatics here, after all.

I wasn't sure what new to say about this week's episode, being that all of them are pretty decent. So, I just thought I needed to say this. So I did.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Friday, July 21, 2023

3 Chords & the Truth: Sound advice

I favor playing music just the way it was supposed to sound when it came out.

I also have a soft spot for the high-fidelity miracle devices of my youth, like 1950s and '60s record changers. No, a mid-1960s LP is not going to sound as good as a well-recorded and mastered CD, but it's (first) going to sound the way it did when it was made, and (second) is going to be a hell of a lot more fun.

This is the kind of thing that makes music such an enjoyable obsession, especially for geeks like me who do shows like 3 Chords & the Truth.

AND THEN comes somebody like Jason Aldean to f*** everything up. Bad bro-country music (as if there were a good kind) with a deeply stupid, deeply bigoted, deeply deplorable message. The boy has both kinds of music -- shitty and hateful.

The music video for "Try That in a Small Town," by the way, is even worse. It manages to feature a Tennessee courthouse noted for a lynching that took place there. We won't be linking to any of it.

On the bright side, your Mighty Favog has a solution for shitty music by hateful people. We don't play it on the Big Show. At all. The farthest we'll "go there" is to warn you of its existence.

Consider yourself warned. And here's some more sound advice that has nothing to do with sound: Don't be a peckerwood who thinks it's some sort of a virtue to parade your hatefulness and ignorance for the whole world to see.

That is all. That is enough.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Friday, July 14, 2023

3 Chords & the Truth: Wired in

I was wired in, but then I shorted out.

Such is the life of your Mighty Favog as he continues with this enterprise we call . . . we call . . . we call . . . (looks at picture) 3 Chords & the Truth.

I know we play a whole lot of exemplary music on . . . on . . . on . . . (looks at picture) 3 Chords & the Truth this week, but I would have to look at the playlist to tell you what it is. On the bright side, I do not know why I came into this room, either.

Belle the Dog informs me that I came into this room to post this episode of the . . . the . . . the . . . (Belle whispers "Rig Row") the Big Show. Alrighty then. I shall do that.

Do what?

Oh, yeah. That.

Say goodnight, Gracie. Goodnight, Gracie.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Friday, July 07, 2023

3 Chords & the Truth: Talkin' 'bout my generation

This week's Big Show finds me feeling strangely groovy.

Must be that I'm into something good. But that can't be the reason for this feelin' I've been feelin'. After all, we're into something good every single week on this thing we call 3 Chords & the Truth.

And I'm not even wearing a paisley print shirt. Or bell bottoms.

Also, it's been raining, so we in Omaha certainly aren't having a sunshine day. I am seriously at a loss.

THE ONLY THING I can come up with is that, unlike Roger Daltrey's fervent wish, many of us folks who grew up in the 1960s and '70s did not, in fact, die before we got old. That's right, I'm talkin' 'bout my generation.

You can call me Boomer, and you can call me Jones. You can call me Beatnik, and you can call me Hippie. And you can call me Throwback, but you doesn't have to call me Relic. 

If you get the reference for the preceding paragraph, you may be chronologically challenged, too.

And, honestly, I have no idea where I'm going with this, apart from yadda yadda yadda Boomer. And that's suspect as well, being that Late Boomers like myself have little in common with Early Boomers, and it's been argued that we're actually a separate generation -- one called Jones.

We're kinda proto-Generation X, actually. What we started, they perfected.

But that's neither here nor there . . . which fits in quite nicely with the rest of this Big Show missive.

So, to not sum up because I never got to any point, let me just say listen to the program. Music good. Host not particularly unfortunate. Much grooviness.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.