Greatest Videos Ever: Institutionalized

Sometimes I try to do things but it just doesn't work out the way I want it to, and I get real frustrated and then like I try hard to do it, and I like, take my time but it just doesn't work out the way I want it to. It's like, I concentrate on it real hard, but it just doesn't work out. And everything I do and everything I try, it never turns out. It's like, I need time to figure these things out, but there's always someone there going “hey mike, you know we've been noticing you've been having a lot of problems lately, you know? You need to maybe get away. And like, maybe you should talk about it, you'll feel a lot better.” And I'm all like “oh, nah, it's ok, you know. I'll figure it out. Just leave me alone, I'll figure it out, you know? I'm just working on it by myself.” And they go “well, you know, if you wanna talk about it, I'll be here, you know? And you'll probably feel a lot better if you talk about it. So why don't you talk about it?” I go “no, I don't want to! I'm ok. I'll figure it out myself!” But they just keep bugging me, they just keep bugging me, and it builds up inside.

So you're gonna be institutionalized.
You'll come out brainwashed with bloodshot eyes.
You won't have anything to say.
They'll brainwash you until you see their way.

I'm not crazy - IN AN INSTITUTION!!!
You're the one that's crazy - IN AN INSTITUTION!!!
You're driving me crazy - IN AN INSTITUTION!!!

They stuck me in an institution,
Said it was the only solution
To give me the needed professional help to protect me from the enemy, myself.

I was in my room and I was just like staring at the wall thinking about everything, but then again I was thinking about nothing. And then my mom came in, and I didn't even know she was there. She called my name and I didn't hear her and then she started screaming “Mike, Mike!” And I go “what? What's the matter?” She goes “what's the matter with you?” I go “there's nothing wrong, mom.” Shes all “don't tell me that! You're on drugs!” I go “no mom, I'm not on drugs. I'm ok, I'm just thinking, you know? Why don't you get me a Pepsi?” She goes “No! You're on drugs!” I go “mom, I'm ok. I'm just thinking.” She goes “No! You're not thinking, you're on drugs! Normal people don't be acting that way!” I go “mom, just get me a Pepsi! Please, all I want is a Pepsi!” And she wouldn't give it to me! All I wanted was a Pepsi, just one Pepsi, and she wouldn't give it to me! Just a Pepsi!

They give you a white shirt with long sleeves!
Tied around your back, you're treated like thieves!
Drug you up because they're lazy!
It's too much work to help a crazy!

I'm not crazy - IN AN INSTITUTION!!!
You're the one who's crazy - IN AN INSTITUTION!!!
You're driving me crazy - IN AN INSTITUTION!!!

They stuck me in an institution,
Said it was the only solution
To give me the needed professional help, to protect me from the enemy, myself.

I'm sitting in my room, when my mom and my dad came in. they pulled up a chair and they sat down. They go “mike, we need to talk to you.” And I go “ok, what's the matter?” They go “me and your mom, we've noticed that lately you've been having a lot of problems, and you've been going off for no reason, and we're afraid you're going to hurt somebody, and we're afraid you're going to hurt yourself. So we decided that it would be in your best interest if we put you somewhere where you could get the help that you need.” And I go “wait, what are you talking about, WE decided? MY best interests? How do you know what MY best interest is? How can you say what MY best interest is? What are you trying to say? I'M crazy? When I went to YOUR schools, I went to YOUR churches, I went to YOUR institutional learning facilities? So how can you say I'M crazy?”

They say they're gonna fix my brain.
Alleviate my suffering and my pain.
But by the time they fix my head,
Mentally I'll be dead.

I'm not crazy - IN AN INSTITUTION!!!
You're the one who's crazy - IN AN INSTITUTION!!!
You're driving me crazy - IN AN INSTITUTION!!!

They stuck me in an institution,
Said it was the only solution
To give me the needed professional help, to protect me from the enemy, myself.

Doesn't matter, I'll probably get hit by a car anyways.

Self Promotion of the Shameless Kind

The Agenda and our friends Turf War will be rocking the Soul Bar in Augusta, GA on Saturday May 8th. it's our first time back to the Garden City since August. looking forward to this one.

M.I.A. "Born Free" = Best Video of the Year....just kidding

This video is kind of silly if you watch it more than once. THIS is some bullshit Rage would make. It's all so 90s, beating me over the head with it's preachiness. Goddamn it. Let me be apathetic to the plight of the opressed peoples of the world. fuck M.I.A.

Bands I Love: NIRVANA

NIRVANA

#1 on my favorite bands of all time list. (it was so obvious that you shoulda seen it coming 100 miles away).

number of years i have been listening to them: since 1991…just like everyone else my age.

how i got into them: when i was 13 years old Blond Jesus appeared to me in a dream and told me that listening to Public Enemy and Guns N’ Roses was cool and all but that if i was ever going to truly become a sullen and moody teenager with no real career prospects later in life that i needed to dedicate my teen years to a band with a depressed lead singer who talked more shit than a 15 year old girl and had some major drug addiction issues. and thus a young life was ruined just before it could ever start. punk rock obsession and poor fashion choices would follow..
also i saw the video for "Smells like Teen Spirit" one afternoon and it melted my brain.

favorite album: In Utero

favorite songs: radio friendly unit shifter, school, dive, aneurysm, drain you, oh the guilt, i hate myself and i want to die, negative creep, pennyroyal tea, dumb, etc. all of them.

direct influence on my musical taste: duh. i was 13 in 1991. Nirvana is WHY i love music so much. sure i might have very well become a music nerd without them, but it’s doubtful that i would have evolved so quickly and become such a sponge for new shit if it wasn’t for Kurt’s own music snobbery. all that would come after owe the debt. yeah, Nirvana is my favorite band in the same way that the Beatles are my dad’s favorite band. i’d be fucking lying if i tried to claim something else.

Bands I Love: SONIC YOUTH

SONIC YOUTH

#2 on my all time favorite bands list.

number of years i have been listening to them: since 1992

how i discovered them: the Nirvana effect. i bought 1991: Year Punk Broke on VHS for the Nirvana moments but fell in love with Sonic Youth.

favorite album: this changes every couple of years....but right now EVOL is #1.

favorite songs: schizophrenia, star power, the diamond sea, mote, genetic, 100%, shadow of a doubt, the world looks red, tom violence

direct influence on my music taste: if the term Indie Rock is in fact in a dictionary somewhere, then the picture right next to it would/should be Sonic Youth for their combinations of inventiveness (is that even a word), integrity, and overall quality output for nearly 30 years. if you are like me you probably discovered Sonic Youth as a result of getting into Nirvana. i bought a copy of 1991: The Year Punk Broke which starred Sonic Youth, Nirvana, and Dinosaur Jr on their 91 European tour together. i instantly fell in love with Sonic Youth, i went out a bought Dirty, Daydream Nation, Goo, and Sister (which took me about a month to find) and listened to them constantly. i then traveled farther back and bought a cassette copy of Confusion Is Sex which helped send me down a path into noise band addiction for a good long while. when DGC re-released all the bands old albums on CD i bought every single one that i didn’t already own. i also went and saw Sonic Youth every time they played Athens or Atlanta during my highschool years. thanks to Thurston Moore’s record snobbery and desire to namedrop his love’s and influences in interviews i learned about No Wave, Japanese punk rock, forgotten 60s Psychedelic bands, Sun Ra, and discovered that The Stooges’ Fun House was indeed the greatest album ever created. Sonic Youth was that band i listened to that i didn’t worry about the jocks and preppy douchebags getting into because other than Dirty none of their albums were that commercially appealing to your average 90s southern suburban poseur. and so they were more than any band i listened to in all of highschool, 100% mine.

Bands I Love: The Jesus and Mary Chain

THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN

#3 on my favorite bands of all time list.

number of years i have been listening to them: since 1992
how i got into them: saw the video for "Reverence" on 120 minutes. went out and bought Honey’s Dead the next week. that’s right kids. there used to be a time when you found out about cool bands via MTV. i know right.

favorite album: Psychocandy and Darklands

favorite songs: taste of cindy, the hardest walk, i hate rock n roll, april skies, kill surf city, everything’s alright when you’re down, far gone and out

direct influence on my musical taste: the whole reason i gotta into shoegaze, spacemen 3, and any fucking band that used feedback like an instrument.

New York City

Bands I Love: The Replacements

THE REPLACEMENTS

#4 on my favorite bands of all time list.

number of years i have been listening to them: 1986? this is a question i can’t give an accurate answer to. but pretty much since i was a kid.

how i got into them: my dad had Tim on record and so it's one of those albums i discovered when i started going through his music and stealing stuff.

favorite album: Let It Be, Tim, and Sorry Ma Forgot To Take Out the Trash are all equally tied.

favorite songs: can’t hardly wait (the unreleased tim version), i will dare, answering machine, left of the dial, sixteen blue, shiftless when idle

direct influence on my musical taste: my deep love of sloppy, drunk, heartbroken, rock and roll owes everything to these guys.

greatest songs ever: Cavern

LIQUID LIQUID "CAVERN"

MC Mutherfuckin' 5

rad cover songs friday playlist

1. sonic youth- sitting on a barbed wire fence (bob dylan)
2. the nation of ulysses- telepathic love (the wipers)
3. no age- male masturbation (the urinals)
4. the gun club- run through the jungle (ccr)
5. jesus lizard- wheelchair epedimic (the dicks)
6. the birthday party- loose (the stooges)
7. james chance- jailhouse rock (elvis)
8. the soft boys- cold turkey (john lennon)
9. television- satisfaction (rolling stones)
10. the feelies- paint it black (rolling stones)
11. husker du- eight miles high (the byrds)
12. the replacements- 20th century boy (t.rex)
13. mudhoney- fix me (black flag)
14. big black- he’s a whore (cheap trick)
15. the jesus and mary chain- my girl (the temptations)
16. the walkmen- fly into the mystery (modern lovers)
17. galaxie 500- ceremony (new order)
18. pixies- winterlong (neil young)
19. the flaming lips- ice drummer (alan vega)
20. primal scream- diamonds, fur coat, champagne (suicide)
21. revolting cocks- da ya think i’m sexy? (rod stewart)
22. the lost sounds- living in the ice age (joy division)
23. the rapture- dumb waiters (psychedelic furs)
24. le shok- mind your own business (delta 5)
25. the dwarves- hurricane fighter plane (the red crayola)
26. the icarus line- hit it and quit it (funkadelic)
27. harlem- no true love (the dixie cups)
28. the raincoats- lola (the kinks)
29. the stooges- ballad of hollis brown (bob dylan)
30. mission of burma- 1970 (the stooges)

click and download

Bands I Love: Black Flag

BLACK FLAG

#5 on my all time favorite bands list

number of years i have been listening to them: since 1991
how i got into them: i was already aware of Black Flag from childhood thanks to their inclusion on the Repo Man soundtrack (which was one of my favorite movies when i was growing up. we owned it on VHS and although i knew jack shit about Punk rock…i did know i thought it was pretty awesome.) but i can’t say i really began listening to Black Flag until years later. as i mentioned before, 1991 was a big year of discovery for me. it was 8th grade and i had just been introduced to the world of punk rock. i honestly don’t remember what magazine it was, but i wanna say Guitar World, that had an issue where they listed the 20 greatest punk rock records of all time and on that list were both Damaged and First Four Years by Black Flag...and so naturally being a kid who likes owning the essentials i purchased both of these cds.
favorite album: First Four Years
favorite songs: depression, six pack, nervous breakdown, gimme gimme gimme, slip it in, black coffee
direct influence on my musical taste: they are the yardstick by which i judge all other punk bands.

1970s KISS fans

Bands I Love: The Stooges

THE STOOGES

#6 on my all time favorite bands list

number of years i have been listening to them: since 1991
how i got into them: the year 1991 was a big year of discovery for me thanks to Nirvana and my subscription to SPIN magazine. i remember reading an article about the Seattle grunge scene and the two band names that got mentioned the most as being influential to it were Black Sabbath and The Stooges. i went out and found a copy of Iggy & The Stooges Raw Power at Wave’s music. the opening track "search and destroy" melted my face off and it was Iggy love ever since.
favorite album: Fun House
favorite songs: gimme danger, loose, tv eye, shake appeal, i got a right, real cool time
direct influence on my musical taste: my entire obsession with garage rock, proto punk, glam rock, and psychedelia can all be traced to my Stooges fandom.

Blondie Love

Pour a 40 out for the King of the Bastards

RIP Malcom McLaren

Greatest Songs Ever: "Out In The Streets"

THE SHANGRI-LAS "OUT IN THE STREETS"

Bands I Love: Joy Division

JOY DIVISION

#7 on my all time favorite bands list

number of years i have been listening to them: since 1994
how i got into them: i was listening to a mixtape i had made of my favorite New Order songs after school one day and this older goth kid from my drama class told me i should check out New Order’s original band Joy Division...and so i did. pretty solid move on my part.
favorite album: Closer
favorite songs: digital, she's lost control, twenty four hours, decades
direct influence on my musical taste: although i was already starting to get into post-punk, Joy Division sparked an interest in the darker/gothier stuff. also my first ever band in highschool (called the Prom) was a total Joy Division ripoff band. we were about 7 years ahead of Interpol...we shoulda stuck with it.

ART OF JOY DIVISION