MachineGun Mojo: Definitely got my Mojo on! =)

"I got one more song for all you fuckers on a Wednesday night!" screams out "Rooster" (Josh) of MachineGun Mojo in the dim- lit, brew- flowin' Double Door in Chicago.
As electric guitars fill the air, I think to myself- they should call it "Just Jam"! Everyone and their mother could enjoy this track. The Double Door's bathroom stalls are lined with graffiti, one particular amuses me. It reads "Prome trace acid val"- two of which I've never even heard of- you don't need any of those to dig these guys though, some whiskey will do!
These guys rock hard, their whiskey- infused sound has a Kings of Leon quality to it, especially in "Hannah". Another one of their newest, unreleased tracks has Zep- like lyrics "...by myself, used to have a woman but she left me for someone else..." sound familiar, anyone? If not, well then hey hey what can I do?
Some tunes incorporate Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls" as well as The Beatles "Hey Jude" and "With A Little Help From My Friends", but you can only get that live! Their on- stage presence is wicked, especially as Rooster rocks out in a jacket that reminds me a bit of something Brandon Flowers of The Killers and Caleb Followill of Kings would pull off if they ever produced a hybrid.
After the show, the band and I get to talking. I see their potential right away- with their harder sound and the few songs that have Kings quality- just about anybody will enjoy them.
Hard should be expected though when you've got MachineGun in a title, but groovin' follows right alongside as Mojo kicks into full gear.
Shawn on second guitar is a bit skeptical of my determination so he blatantly states, "Thanks for your interest but we don't need your help."
I take it personally and come to my conclusions about him rather quickly but soon bassist Matt joins us. They give me some sage advice that I have heard somewhere before, "this industry will chew you up and spit you out. You're a good- looking girl. People will use you. If you aren't smart you can get in with the wrong people and all the people who could have been good for you won't give you a second glance," thank you Anastasia Ganyuchenko and Joel D. Barnes of LePassage- for scaring the crap out of me for all the right reasons.
Matt looks me square in the face and says "Look, we're not trying to be assholes but what can you do for us? Be more specific."
And I don't have an answer. Nothing.
All I can do is tell him how much this industry has and continues to save me. I'm just a fan. I have so much to learn and take in. I'm sure the band has other influences within their music but I might not hear it just yet. There is so much music out there and I'm still a student, I always will be.
What I got out of my first live experience with these guys though was a genuine, whole- hearted talk about the reality of it all.
All too often we hear "You will never amount to anything."
But we want to challenge the very people who tell us so. Sure it gets tough. Really tough. Giving up seems the best option at times but I'm not giving up on my dream- or these guys, because it's all a part of it.
I'm a firm believer that music brings us hope. So I can just hope that you enjoy the sound, the groove, the vibe- as much as I enjoyed "Jammin'" to it. Thanks again Marley- for allowing your words to cross over all divides.
If it's what you love- you'll get paid after you haven't been and you'll go big after you've been small- you just have to be persistent.
I don't want these guys to go big and be at Lolla '10 because I want a cut of it. No, it has nothing to do with that. I'm a fan and music is my passion and these guys deserve to be heard. Music, just like anything in this world, is something we share with one another because it makes us feel.
And with these guys, all I feel like is putting my "dancing shoes" on as Rooster's most devoted fan mentioned before the show.
This rocker chick knows exactly how to have a good time- black T with a skeleton drawn onto the front, ripped jeans and sneakers- that's my kinda girl.
"I love when he brings out the acoustic," she says.
"It's about you, isn't it?"
She just smiles and we both start to dance.
As Elaine Miller's character of Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous says, "Take a look around. See what you like."
And so that's what I ask all of you to do, if you're so inclined. Take that look around, listen to MachineGun Mojo yourself just to see if "Hot Damn" really is something you and your mother could groove to!

If you want to see more pictures of the show, become my friend on Facebook and a fan of MachineGun Mojo! You can find the links right here on my blog!

Miller's character also said "Follow your dream" just after "See what you like".
That is exactly what these guys and I are set out to do. But fans are always the biggest critic, so hear them for yourself and decide, could you jam to "Hot Damn"? Because I sure can!

back to basics...

Hey there,
It's been quite a while since I've blogged last. Last year close to the end of first semester in Chris Salituro's Sociology class to be exact (great class to take, if ever considering it!)

As mentioned in the about me section, rather the "just me, my thoughts, and my music..." section, you will come to find that this is really what it is all about. I am not here to make enemies, I am just here to write about my thoughts on different subject matter along with personal experiences.

Please feel free to comment or just enjoy, and if you don't enjoy, that's fine too. =)

The Final Blog =(

After a semester of sociology I feel that I have been able to open my mind to all kinds of people and appreciate the many things that make us up as individuals rather than as a general group. For so long, I’ve picked up on words and terms given to a general group and would then unintentionally label a person by this specific group rather than come to understand whether or not this small part of them was even voluntary or involuntary. Although I would never repeat these words aloud, they would simply come to my mind because I heard them around me constantly. Throughout this course, we have learned about being sociologically mindful of those around us, understanding the many agents of socialization that make up every aspect of us, and through this I have learned to truly appreciate every person for what they’re worth.
I haven’t changed my mind at all about the type of person I am and the type of person I hope to one day become. I still do think that what realm of society we are a part of is an agent of socialization in the type of person we are. Sadly, the media greatly affects us in what we wear, what we eat and don't eat, etc. I’m sure that if I was in the lower-middle class, I wouldn’t be as concerned with material things, instead I'd probably just be trying to get by. For this very reason, so much of me wants to just get up and leave this area and see all the world while trying to help those less fortunate than myself. We have done plenty of simulations in which we have seen how hard it is for people to make it in this country even though we present ourselves as “the land of the free,” freedom certainly has a price to pay. I have gained much more respect for the many people around me who face different struggles and hardships day to day while I have been fortunate enough to learn in a classroom setting and soon will be going off to the college of my choice.
I think that this class has put the world into perspective for me, I have come to an understanding with so much that I hadn’t before and I just hope that as I go on through life I will continue to stay sociologically mindful of the many people and situations I encounter.

"Crash"

We've been watching the film Crash in class all week and it was a really intense film that has put so much into perspective for me. Without even knowing it, we classify people by their race and generalize about them. The film showed how a number of characters of different descents were all intertwined in some way. It's funny because in life, we go through everyday without truly knowing the many people around us but inadvertently size them up simply by looking at their faces among the sea of many faces.
I finally started to hear myself make comments or look at people and realize that I do it too, I size people up way too quickly. The movie was very powerful, every moment was important because it justified the next one, you never got too close to any one character because they all made a significant difference.
I was moved by the main character being racism, as Sal likes to say. I think that's why the audience can never truly get to know one specific character, because they are all of equal importance, they all connect in the way that we do in everyday life. Sure, the plot may not be realistic, but every day people are being discrminated against and being wrongfully judged.
I gained from this movie insight on myself and how I can potentially better myself as a person. I just hope to change my own view of that stereotypical perspective we all have of one another, break that barrier, and be open to everybody and their differences.

Graham: It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something.

Race Relations

Here in America, we classify everybody by skin color, by "race." But what is it really? Upon reading Mixed Blood, I came to terms with the fact hat depending on where one lives, they may be a different "race" entirely. "Race" is not biological, it is a classification depending on where exactly a person is at the moment.
In America for example, race is based on one's skin color, not including their hair, their eyes, their nose, their lips, just solely their skin color. Why is that? Why is it that I'm white and your black and he's Asian and she's Hispanic? What if my mom was Hispanic, my dad was Black, my grandpa was Phillipino, well hey now they have a new term for that too, multiracial. So many prejudices have been made based on "race," so many judgments have been made based on a social classification. How do we end this? How do we put a stop to limiting the way we view other humans, just that, humans. No white, no black, no Asian, no Hispanic, no nothing, just human. We all have vast differences and are so similar that rather than judging one another in a negative manner for something as simple as our skin color, we should just come to understand what's underneath it all.

digging a hole too deep...

As we played Monopoly in class through the class structure found present in the U.S. I realized that it is very hard for somebody to be able to climb up that structural ladder especially when at the way bottom of the totem pole. I was a lower class blue collar worker and I ended up with not very much more than I started up with. We've been trained to think that in America, the land of the free, we can do anything and become somebody. However, I now realize why the poor struggle so much, tend to abuse drugs, and get in trouble with the law, because the hole they find themselves is too deep to find a way out of.
Morgan Spurlock's 30 days episode about poverty in the U.S. had also given me insight into just how difficult the impoverished have it. As much as people may try to dig themselves out, the lack of health insurance, the minimal flow of money coming in, and other such things prevent them from moving up in class because they can barely get by.

You Are What You Make...

In class this week, we discussed social class and watched a film about the many classes that make up our society as a whole. Although we may not pick and choose our friends based on what class they are in, what jobs their parents hold, and in what way they dress, we have subconsciously become a product of the class we are in. When in a certain class, one has the mindset of what kind of job they will hold in the future, whether or not college is or is not an option, perhaps even when the next getaway to Paris will be. In each crevice of society is somebody and that person will belong to one class or another.
The determinant, at least I believe it is, is the money one is making and the work they're doing to get this money. There is no breaking a barrier in classes because although we want to look to everybody as an equal, we set certain standards for ourselves that we then believe everybody else should abide by. However, everybody may be in a different financial situation, in a different "class" then ourselves, and they can't go about making the same goals as we do, because maybe their goal is just to get by.
Some of us are just lucky to be able to make big plans in this life, some of us are lucky enough to get a vacation in sometime during the year, but some of us are just trying to get through it all, one meager meal at a time.
So when you look all around you, where do you fall in? Where do your best friends fit in? Where do we all fit in?