#Rock and Roll Nerd

[grahamstoney]

The Power Of Music & Comedy: Tim Minchin

New Post has been published on https://grahamstoney.com/music/the-power-of-music-comedy-tim-minchin

The Power Of Music & Comedy: Tim Minchin

Tim Minchin is a thoughtful performer who combines the power of music and comedy to both entertain and impact his audience, while expressing what is on his mind in an engaging and memorable way.

I first came across Tim when a friend offered me a ticket to his Sydney show during the Ready For This? tour in 2009. While I’d never heard of him before, I was immediately drawn in by the proficiency of his piano playing, the intellectual nature of his comedic observations, and his bizarre teased hairstyle.

Tim’s meteoric rise to fame was captured in the documentary Rock ‘n’ Roll Nerd, named after one of his early signature tunes that expressed ambivalence at not fitting the traditional rock star mould:

While he achieved success as a musical comedian in a relatively short period of time, it came after many years of playing keyboard in an 80’s rock cover band. At the beginning of his career he as constantly under pressure to create an income as his wife was keen to give up work and start a family. They were both overjoyed when she became pregnant, but this also ratcheted up the pressure on Tim to provide for his family financially. A particularly vulnerable moment in the documentary happens when his wife has a miscarriage while he is on tour, and we get to see Tim in grief revealing his sensitive side. There is more to him than just his on-stage trickster persona. The one silver lining in this cloud was that gave him some breathing space to launch his career, move to London and become successful before they became pregnant again.

Giles Hardie said that Tim’s success was often a reflection his past experiences, describing him as a “jack of all trades” and quoting co-star David Duchovny from TV series Californication calling him “a high-energy dude” with a “comedic soul”. In an interview with Leigh Sales, Tim described his joy in musical collaboration and the difficulty of avoiding celebrity narcissism.

His song Canvas Bags drives home the importance of taking reusable shopping bags to the supermarket with a degree of repetition bordering on the absurd. We don’t even use canvas bags much in Australia, but with this song in my head, I always remember to take shopping bags every time I leave the house:

One of the hallmarks of a great artist is getting referenced in other artist’s work, and the inclusion of Canvas Bags in the Four Chord Song by The Axis of Awesome is a nod of respect from his comedy colleagues:

Tim frequently tackles important issues in his music, such as the foolishness of belief systems based on pseudoscience in his 9-minute beat poem Storm:

His song Prejudice uses an ironic twist to assault racism:

Tim isn’t afraid to offend his audience, using profanity to highlight the distorted priorities of the Catholic Church’s response to child sexual abuse by priests in Pope Song.

If you think the song is offensive, how could that possibly compare to what some priests have been doing to children with the protection of the church?

Neil Genzlinger says Tim “looks like a character out of ‘Sweeney Todd,’ alternates between absurd, low-key monologues and incongruously comic songs, accompanying himself with gleeful piano pyrotechnics.”

While his ability to weave his comedic genius into his songs is the underpinning of his success, he also has the ability to write sensitive songs. White Wine In The Sun describes the strong emotional dynamics in families as the basis for our feelings of safety and security in the world. Even for atheists like Tim and I, spending quality time with family on Christmas Day feels special, and hearing this song always makes me tear up as I think of Christmas Days spent with my own family in the sun together:

Social issues have always been a significant influence on Tim’s work, and his ability to write, record and produce catchy, quirky and relatable songs rapidly allows him to respond to newsworthy events in a timely manner. Come Home (Cardinal Pell) expressed the outrage that many Australian’s felt at the perception that Cardinal George Pell was avoiding Australian justice by hiding out in The Vatican:

However, Joel Hodge considered it “name-calling and abuse”, saying Tim “seems more interested in provoking reaction than dealing with the facts”, and that “it gives an indication of the level of public debate in Australia”. Gerard Henderson described the song as “abusive”, calling Tim a “militant atheist musician” and accusing him of engaging in guilt by association.

In the wake of the recent bush fire disaster and the coronavirus lockdown, Tim featured on HouseFyre with Briggs, expressing the frustration that many Australians feel with our political leadership’s response in recent times of major crisis:

It got played on Rage last Friday night, a sign of success and mainstream acceptance in the Australian music industry.

Music is unique in its ability to affect us emotionally, and comedy is unique in its ability to disarm our prejudices and highlight inconsistencies in ourselves which we could otherwise easily ignore. By combining the two, Tim Minchin has tapped into a powerful force to not only entertain, but also to enlighten his audience and inspire social change from a grassroots individual level.

[beccawise7]

Mood. ☕️💜🖤☕️

[artofdansan]

day 6 of jashtober!! featuring illustrated versions of all the VGM references in Nerd (each inspired by the original vids’ visuals!!)

[alliterative-endlessknot]

It’s Little Richard’s birthday! You can celebrate one of the foundational figures of American music by watching our video on the history of rock and roll!

[souven]

abt me ⋅˚₊‧ 𐙚 ‧₊˚ ⋅

haiii everywan i'm shio, i use she/her prns & i love love love 60s-90s music (mostly rock, metal nd grunge) and old hollywood nd i'm a massive NERD when it comes to the beatles (i love thwm alot)... i'm also 14 teehee (don't be wweird), hoping to find some moots/friends on here 🦢🪷

dni : zionists, basically anyone who fits basic dni criteria 😋

[greensparty]

Remembering Mojo Nixon 1957-2024

Funny cowpunk musician Mojo Nixon has died at 66. I first became aware of him in the late 80s with songs and videos like "Debbie Gibson is Pregnant with my Two-Headed Love Child" (which had Winona Ryder as Gibson in the video) and "Don Henley Must Die" (which Henley joined him onstage for once). He did a ton of MTV promos in the early 90s as well.

Rock 'n' Roll Comics did unauthorized bios of musicians in comic book form, but the issue they did on Mojo Nixon (his bio was featured in the ZZ Top issue) was the only one that was authorized and done in collaboration with Nixon. In 2005, he appeared in the documentary The Story of Rock 'n' Roll Comics and even contributed music to the doc.

He also was a DJ, a columnist, an activist, and he acted in quite a few movies. I didn't catch it at the 2022 IFFBoston, but the documentary The Mojo Manifesto: The Life and Times of Mojo Nixon played there.

The link above is the obit from Rolling Stone.

[weezer-blog]

Rock and roll over rivers !!!!!

[delilah-briarwood]

Six Sentence Sunday Saturday

Time Is An Illusion (ty @spottedenchants for tagging me!)

Rules: Every Sunday, share six sentences from your current WIP and tag six friends. Sunday is only a suggestion, please post your own any time in the week!

Original fiction be upon ye

The throne room swirled in smoke and tension as two figures stood within it. Despite the crackling of flames and consistent slamming on barred doors, the room could not have felt more silent. Two pairs of eyes met, each daring the other to speak first. The Gunslinger and the Princess. Former sisters. Former twins.

.

.

.

Uhhhhh I have No Idea who to tag who hasn’t already been tagged so I’m just gunna guess/tag blindly @bisexualoftheblade @queerbutstillhere @blackm00n5 @quinn-of-aebradore @isaacle97 @theparallaxview or just anyone that wants to do it!

[arsmoriendiii]

nerdddd #mine ✨

[crossbonessmash]

Mossy Grave

Original composition in the works.

[esonetwork]

ESO Board Silly Ep 40

New Post has been published on https://esonetwork.com/eso-board-silly-ep-40/

ESO Board Silly Ep 40

In this podcast episode, the hosts discuss the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s latest nominees, debating the merits and impact of artists like Mary J. Blige, Sinead O’Connor, Mariah Carey, and bands like Foreigner and Styx. They express surprise over certain acts’ absence and discuss the fan vote’s limited influence on the induction process. The episode also includes a welcome to a new board member, Jen. Why not join us for all the fun, and help support your friends at the ESO Network for as little as a dollar a month? https://www.patreon.com/esonetwork

[mspi]

There's nothing wrong with bagpipes unless you can't play them right.

That's like claiming you don't enjoy catching people singing karaoke at bars. I feel you on this one even though my classmates and I had to try it once when we met up at Japantown in San Francisco. None of us have a good vocals for singing tunes, but we were there just for fun.

Hanging out away from our work at the university brought us some much needed relief.

Back to the bagpipes, they're something I grew up hearing at school because it was attached to church and we had some Scottish students. The cemetery city wasn't far from us either.

Don't believe me? Wyatt Earps ashes are burried at one.

Swinging back to bagpipes:

They're things I regularly heard in primary school during funerals in the adjacent church. Surprised I never tried to study it to maybe help out ppl having services in the cemetery I always visited to talk with 🦆s.

No worries, I highly doubt my skills could've hit to this man's level.

The Bagpiper Thunderstruck

-- dnagirl

20.04.2023

[alliterative-endlessknot]

It’s #BarbershopMusicAppreciationDay! Check out this video to learn about its connection to Rock and Roll

[scrval]

serval definitely has a decent level of experience and knowledge with most instruments. specifically, aside from the guitar, i'm thinking she's well-versed in drums, bass, and keys. basically she could fill in for everyone in a rock band if she really wanted to LMAO... it gets put into good use whenever she's writing songs and she wants to block out the other parts as well, though i believe she's the sort of person to let others do what they want with their own instruments before giving her own input

in my heart of hearts, if serval weren't a guitarist, she'd be a drummer instead. there's something about keeping her own tempo and being able to freely manipulate the beat of a song that feels like it fits her vibes... tho i may be biased as a drummer myself oops

[bookaddiction14]

Someone’s prob caught this long before me, but:

In Lord of the rings (fellowship) we see the ring leaving Gollum and bouncing and rolling down the rocks:

The ring wanted to leave Gollum and therefore did.

It’s then picked up by Bilbo unwillingly; has an ‘unexpected journey’; and stays with him.

But when Bilbo is leaving, he decides to leave the ring with Frodo. The ring however, wants to stay and keep wielding its power and influence over him.

And when, at Gandalf’s insistence, Bilbo drops the ring, it still doesn’t want to leave him:

Which is why it falls flat, no bouncing or rolling away. It thuds to the floor like a child might stomp its foot when not getting its way.

I dunno how i’ve never caught this b4, and I may just be stupid and ppl have spoken bout this b4 but i’m a nerd and can’t help but mention it unprompted.