2 Artist that you're not listening 2, That you should be listening 2

1. Lee Fields & The Expressions

Since the very first time I heard the bass line intro to "Ladies" I knew I had struck gold on that late night I scavenged Itunes for music that I could feel in the soul. I thought to myself "who is this man"??? Is it the second coming of James Brown?? I then noticed that the album entitled "My World" was released in June 2009. I couldn't believe it. After downloading and listening to a couple of his tracks on Itunes his tracked called "Ladies" quickly sky rocketed to #1 on Jason's Iphone top 10 for the year 2009 beating out tracks from bands such as The Temper Trap, and MSTRKRFT



2. Mayor Hawthorne and the County

I found Mayer Hawthorne the same day as Lee. I was like a kid at a candy shop that evening. I was a downloading feen, and as fast as I was downloading the songs the more tracks I found that I had to have. Although, I like Lee better both have uniquely different styles that make them equally great. He will be playing the Coachella music festival this April, and it will be an act that I won't miss.

DEFTONES ARE BACK!

It has officially been 1 year, 4 months and 13 days since Chi Chengs (pictured to the right) tragic car accident that left him in coma. I saw Chi's second to last performance on September 19, 2008 at the Majestic Ventura Theater performing with Deftones. He played amazing that day and it was very surreal because not more than a couple weeks later on November 4, 2008 he was injured in an automobile accident in Santa Clara, CA. Prior to the accident the Deftones had written a whole album entitled "Eros" but was never released due to Chi's accident. Deftones frontman Chino Moreno in a recent interview explained that Eros will likely be released eventually, “when the time is right– hopefully when Chi is back on his feet.” He said it would be "to hard to tour an album with all the memories of Chi attached to it.”

Since "Eros" was on hold the Deftones began writing a new album with Bassist Sergio Vega entitled "Diamond Eyes" and is scheduled to be released in May. I have never been so anxious to hear an album in my life. Deftones are by far my favorite band, and I understand that although Chi will be greatly missed for the time being the Deftones have to move on. "Rocket Skates" and "Diamond Eyes" are the first 2 songs that I've heard from the new album and I can't get enough of them. I love the way Chino writes, he is my favorite lyricist of all-time. His metaphors and lryics are often trivial but I get him or maybe I don't but I try to. When Spin magazine recently asked Chino in an interview "What direction are you going in lyrically in the new album" he stated:

"Well, I've been wanting to record a fantasy album like White Pony, where the lyrics are less, 'This is my life and this is what we're going through.' It helps take us away from reality. I don't like listening to people's problems -- I like music. Music has been smothered with that complaining since the early-'90s. It gets old. Instead of going to the opposite side of the spectrum and listening to Black Eyed Peas, which is just straight silly, I choose to listen to more instrumental music. I do very little singing about myself on this record. I love songs where I can totally take myself out of being human. I can sing about really odd things, and they don't necessarily have to pertain to me at all. It paints a picture. Those are the kind of lyrics I grew up with -- like the Cure. Really visual images and no storytelling."

I can't wait.....

Here is the chorus for the " Diamond Eyes"

Time will take you away with me
once and for all
Time will see us realign
Diamonds reign across the sky
Shower me into the same realm

LADY GAGA is a Phony and a Fake

I'm no Perez Hilton blogging about the lives of celebrities and their drama filled lives. I can honestly care less about celebrity gossip; however, one thing I am very passionate about is art in just about every form possible. One of my pet peeves is lack of originality from an artist, and what really sets me off is an artist who steals ideas from other artist and gets all the credit for it. Another thing that pisses me off is when people start jumping on a bandwagon they have no idea they're on. Last Friday I noticed many people on Facebook posting about the new Lady Gaga Video, and prior till today, I haven't had the time to see what all the hype was about. Needless to say I stood in complete astonishment of this "Telephone" video. People were saying how she is the greatest, and how her video inspires them and blah blah blah. I wasn't hating on that prior till today because honestly I thought she was an innovator and her music was good. I'm not hating on this song either because it's decent; however, this video is a complete fraud. Let me explain to you why...

First, she obviously tries to reinterpret Madonna's style in her own little way in this video. Which I'm sure Madonna was probably one of her main influences and of course she paved the way for Gaga I get that. What I don't get was how Quentin Tarantino would give her the permission to utilize the "Kill Bill" plot and the Pussy Wagon for this video. I'm sure she was trying to pay homage to movies that she likes as you can also see at the very end their is a reference to the movie "Thelma and Louise".

Secondly, WTF were they thinking or not thinking when they poison a dog in the video and show it dead on the floor??? Seriously, what relevance does a dead dog have in this video? I don't see that as art I see it as stupidity and I hope PETA jumps all over their ass, like they did Michael Vick.

Lastly, and this sets me off the most...Is how she totally stole and idea from an artist who hasn't even really made it mainstream yet. I discovered the Dominicana artist known as "Maluca" a few months back. She is an artist signed under the label "Mad Decent" owned and ran by the talented DJ Diplo who is known for collaborating with many artist in producing, and remixes. He is the guy who launched the career of artist like M.I.A. Diplo produced a song for Maluca called "El Tigeraso". The video of this song dropped a couple months back and ironically Gaga in her latest video is sporting the same hair-do as Maluca did in her Tigeraso video (Shown in the pic above). Coincidence?? I think not...

In conclusion, this is a step back for Lady Gaga. It's no wonder the great Michel Gondry won't work with Gaga as he states in a recent interview "Don't bother to call"
and goes on saying

“I’m not interested, to me, it’s like a form of Marilyn Manson. It’s hard for me to talk about it; I’ve seen a couple of videos of hers, and not for very long. I stop watching them each time because I don’t think there’s melodies…. The music to me is very expected. I don’t think there’s anything in the tone or the melody that makes me say, ‘Oh, there’s something going on.’”

He also says and suggests that perhaps she’s considered high art because of the way she dresses. I think this guy knows what he is talking about he is the best director around no doubt. What's your opinion???????

Urbane Culture, Pomona CA

URBANE CULTURE meets the 1st and 3rd mondays of each month at 370 S. Thomas ave. Pomona. It's an event that allows poets and muscians to display their art in spoken or musical form. Yesterday was the first time I attended this awesome event. I really like the venue, it was small but brought a close and intimate feel with the artist. It has an elevated stage with good lighting to highlight the artist. The floors were filled with pillows were people would sit on them indian style and the inter perimeter of the building had couches. I always thought my writting ability's were good but this was an eye opener. These talented artist blew me away with their poems about life, love, pursuit of happines, tragedy, and faith. I stood and marveled at some of their ability's to stand in front of a crowd and to speak the words that were sown upon their hearts without looking at a single sheet of paper. I was also amazed at some of the depth of the poets emotions as they spoke to us in almost as a form of therapy for themsleves. A group of artist known as aerosol love letter campaign (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aerosol-Love-Letter-Campaign/295250995275) were the feature artist. They came all the way from the Bay Area to the the city of Pomona to perform. They're 3 of them in the group and all were equally talented in their own retrospect. After the show I walked a block away over to the the DBA wine bar and had a Pomona Queen to cap the night off. I love Pomona!

The Temper Trap

After a long day of work, I couldn't wait to get home, get dressed and get my ass down to Hollywood for the show at the Henry Fonda Music Box. I got to Abel's house rather quickly considering the traffic hell I had to go through to get there. I filled up the Mariachi Flask with some tequila and we were off to the City Of Angeles. We stopped by the 101 Cafe in Hollywood to get some food.
This was the first time I had ever been to this place but it looked rather familiar. We took a seat at one of the booths and Abel asked me " Does this place look familiar??? This is where they filmed scenes from the movie Swingers" Go Figure..haha
Well I guess the only place that I haven't been to from the movie Swingers is the Derby which I hear got shut down.....Anyway the food was good for the price and it was really close to our final destination the Henry Fonda. The Music Box is a really cool venue. I dare anyone who goes there to try and find the men's restroom without asking anyone where it is...Good Luck with that......The opening band "Darker my Love" was pretty good...they had a southern style vibe...they had alternating singers and one was way better than the other...They were a decent opening band I doubt they make it big; on the other hand,

The Temper Trap was amazing from beginning to end..Awesome guitar riffs followed by great vocals. The singer is just phenomenal, I can't even count how many times I got the chills from his voice.
He has an extremely high picthed voice that he sings in an octave that most men could never hit unless someone kicked them in the nuts. I give them an 8.4 out of 10.0 points

El Día Internacional de la Mujer

Yesterday was "El Día Internacional de la Mujer" (International Women's Day) so I decided to take the two women I love and appreciate the most to dinner. We went to this place that I found on YELP.com a few weeks back called Casa Adelita in La Habra. This place is simply amazing. The food is very traditional and just about as close as you're going to get to real authentic food from Mexico. I ordered a Molcajete for my mother and I, which honestly could have fed the whole table. It was really good and it was the first time I ever had a Molcajete. I recommend it to anyone who eats at the Casa Adelita. My Sister ordered the chicken soup which she described as being "delicious". My Mothers "Niece" whom I have never seen before and is supposedly my cousin ate of all things french toast....( What a burn, their is nothing wrong with eating breakfast for dinner if you're at IHOP but at a traditional Mexican establishment I find it kind of disrespectful). Anyway I was very excited to have a dinner with my mother since I don't see her very often but since she brought a guest to dinner, their wasn't much conversation due to the language barrier. Ashley don't speak spanish and that girl don't speak english??? I conversated with my sister while my mother conversated with her alleged niece; nevetheless, I enjoyed the company of my loved ones after a long day of work and school. I got to admit though the HIGHLIGHT of my day was drinking a Modelo Especial in a frosty cold mug! Off the Chain!!

Greetings Brethren and Sistren

They're many reasons I named my Blog "Jason's Cellar Door". I first heard the term in one of my favorite movies Donnie Darko, which to this day, I still can't understad the concept of and might never get it (Kind of like Women??). Secondly, The word is refered to as one of the most beautiful words or phrases in the english language in terms of the pure sound of the pharse not the meaning. Lastly, I felt the name was appropriate becuase I would like to communicate my inner most feelings and thoughts, so "Jason's Cellar Door" would be used as a similie to describe what's lurking under the superficial that is concealing the depths of my soul. Maybe I over thought this just a little bit but here are the keys to my world "Proceed with caution. Cause fear, is no longer an option "-Slug from Atmosphere