“Previously on Smashing Happy…” My last post was about how I have this little dream of changing the world.   Not like I’m an overachiever or anything haha In all seriousness, it has been my goal for a long time to help inspire people through music.  I shall blog about it later, but there was a “let there be light” moment in my life that I can directly attribute to music.  I ‘m not going as far as to say that music saved my life, but it had such a profound impact on my world that I happily felt obligated to do what I could to recreate that moment for as many people as possible. It was slow at first. :: inserts comment as to how Rome wasn’t built in a day here :: There was broadcasting school and then commercial radio… and then the point where I realized that commercial radio had no room/potential to achieve my goals.  Long story short, I have spent the last fourteen  years of my life in the trenches, passing out/mailing/posting flyers, writing news articles, hosting a local college radio show, booking bands, oh yea and I may have kinda-sorta made a several thousand band t-shirts at some point in there. So as I’m looking at my resume last week I started to think that I might actually be “livin’ the dream” right now.  I started thinking about all those bands that I helped out in college, how some went on to play all over the world, and how some bands I have worked with over the last seven years have gotten to play huge-multi thousand seat venues. But as I write this now I sit here and contemplate on whether I even have the right to be thinking that I had an impact on any of that at all.  I start trying to quantify my “help” in comparison to the ass-kicking, hard-work, the blood, the sweat, and the tears that all those bands had to put in just to make it to where they are (or where they were if they have broke up by now) Well. think I have an answer.   I came to the conclusion that to give myself credit for something  like the Rationales playing The Pavillion, simply because I made shirts for them over the years is well, to say the  least, “absolutely absurd”.    I dunno, I guess I just have to look all the different things I have done and understand that they all have different levels of impact.  Sure, I have made shirts for a multi-platinum selling artist (and on a side note The President of the United States as well), but I’d be sure as hell to bet (that as minuscule of an impact on their careers it was) that the shirts I made for The Rationales had way more of a relative impact than the much larger runs I did for Paula Cole.  Or to be a little more realistic, booking bands like Harris and Aloud in the Fox Common at UMASS Lowell back when they were just getting started had a bigger impact on their careers than tons of of other things I’ve done. I guess there is no real way to tell when, or if anything I have ever done, has been big enough to have  had an impact…but I sure as hell am giving this world a run for its money! I was going to end this post with that last line , but I just want to say thanks to every band I have ever worked with/for over these years. From Will Brierly and the Roller Holsters and Will Dailey, to  Life Electric and elusive Evil Us’s.   I actually pay myself sometimes to do this, and I couldn’t have done it without them…and yes even the crappy “something-big-has-come-up-so-we’ll-tell-you-when-our-set-is-going-to-be-and-how-long-we-play” type bands. I guess after reflecting on this I can say I am half living the dream… I mean I’ll never really be able to tell if I’ve had any serious impact on much, but I feel great knowing I’m trying to do my part, and that I’m closer every day to the point where all that effort is paying for itself. Thanks for reading this… talk soon!  I think I’m going to tackle one of the 8 virtues I hold to heart….either Honesty or Humility… if I get any request in the comments I’ll just do whatever gets the most comments will be the one I do. Till then… Buenos Nachos!

Additionally, if you are interested, v1interactive is the developer of Disintegration. It was founded in 2014 by Halo creative director Marcus Lehto and SOCOM director Mike Gutmann.

1. Easy – Faith no More: The moment when Mike Patton made some strange ewww sound…

I’m not quite sure what to think about this one…did he really just “drop a deuce” on the audience?… cause there, right before the solo starts good ole MP just busts out a big ‘ole nasty, right out of an Ernest Movie, “ewww”  was he just disgusted that he had to sing as wussy as he did in this one?  That The Commodores actually broke up in the first place?  Maybe it was that he wished he got stuck with better looking crossdressers in his video… oh wait?  Did I just see Dee Snyder in there?

Whatever it is, does anyone else find it odd that when he sings it that he looks like he’s actually taking a crap on the audience?  Oh GG Allin would be rolling around in his grave if he ever saw this one!

If you don’t want to watch the whole video click here for this pretty much cued up More Than Averagely Awkward Moment… although I will say that this cover is pretty fantastic and worth the listen!

2. Johh Hiatt and Matthew Sweet – Girlfriend: John makes it obvious that he really has no clue as to what he is singing

Ever have that moment when you’re talking at a show and all of the sudden you sound like the biggest idiot cause the music stopped and whatever you were saying was obviously taken out of context (NSFW).

Well this was John Hiatt’s (and Matthew Sweet’s) moment when they were “covering” Sweet’s “Girlfriend” as a duet.  Just like on the record the tempo slows for the last vocalization of the song’s title word.  Hiatt tries to slow down, but only after it is awkwardly too late…. he’s left hanging on a prime-time mid 90′s VH1 special, and Matthew was left to share a laugh between he and his drummer at John’s expense.

The whole song is below, but to go right to the scene of this More Than Averagely Awkward Moment just click here

So What More than Averagely Awkward Moments in Cover Song History make your list?  Any Ideas of other bastard lists like this one?  If you do just put them in the comments!

Thanks for checking this out enjoy…you guys Rock!

A real genius/great philosopher (no not Val Kilmer in Real Genius) once said “[When you find something that you really want to do in life] you do that;  and forget the money…. because it’s better to have a short life that is full with the things you like doing, than a long life spent in a miserable way.”

I was going to put the following video as a link in the above paragraph… but this one needs to be embedded here.  The guys name speaking is Alan Watts and he rocks!

How would you answer that question?

As inspirational that I find that, I’ll be honest.  I don’t really know how great Alan Watts really was as, aside from skimming his wiki page, this is the only thing I have heard from him.

I saw that video a few years ago, and upon looking it up again I found a lot of other great and seemingly relevant topics to click on (which I will do at some point), but before busting out the word “great” I just had to vet my source.   What surprised me was that I found out that he died at the age of 58 in 1973.  I had to pause as that lecture sounds so relevant to today.  I got no sense of it being dated and I really think that is one of the not-so-obvious things that makes it as impactful as it is.

Well my personal answer to that question is an easy one… hands down,  it is to help inspire people (kids in particular) to do great things (specifically through music).  See, I don’t really care how it happens or who I am able to inspire, but if I could inspire kids somehow through music I’d be happier than ever… for the purpose of this post I won’t go into details, but I will say that it defines me as a person, how I act, who I want to be, and in general the virtues I hold myself to.

See, for the last 6 years I’ve been doing my best to get my t-shirt company (Audio Cotton) to a point where I didn’t have to focus so much on the operational things, but was more able to work on using it as a platform to help more people get exposed and inspired through local musicians… before that, I did whatever I could to learn, build a resume, and just completely immerse myself in whatever I could do to hopefully inspire or help inspire.  To help bands “make it bigger” and hopefully inspire people.  Inspire people to want to do all sorts of awesome things… just to put people in good moods, take people’s minds off of things, and all the other awesome things music can do.

My first stop?  The Connecticut School of Broadcasting…yep I am totally a CSB grad.  Well let’s just say after a few years, a local (cable access) “radio show”, and an internship at the Late-Great WFNX, I realized I wasn’t the best fit for being an on-air talent.  Sure I might not have had the “best” radio voice, but I still would have trained that thing harder thaaaannnnn A Wagon Fulla Pancakes training for the Champeenship!  My lack of fit was more than that, it was that my distractive nature wasn’t the best fit when one needed to be as sharp as a nail, and in a “split-second of a split-second” make things happen exactly when they need to.  Aside from all of that, my time at FNX taught me that commercial radio isn’t where bands “break”.

So with that path taken, I then took a step back went to school for Music Business, during which I interned/volunteered/worked at lots of places,  NEMO and the BMA’s, I managed a venue at school, hell I even got to be the PR Director of the largest student music association in the world!

All I knew, is that I wanted a resume before I graduated…. and when I graduated; a resume I had.  But there was one thing holding me back… at each of these above places, I would work hard, do the best as I could, but my lack of self confidence was telling me, “Dude, you are kinda sucking right now.  Do you really think they’re actually going to pay you for this?

Flashback to one of my first jobs.  It was a retail job selling shoes, and when I got there I was clueless, I felt like I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off instead of actually providing any real help to the customers, I didn’t feel like I fit in, and I almost quit just as many times as I thought I was going to get fired… and then it happened….

A pit in my stomach formed… one almost as bad as the time in the 6th grade that I got rejected by a Elizabeth when she found out that I had a crush on her…I’m talking “got hit with a bowling ball out of nowhere kind of thing” here….

…the store manager Keith told me to come into his office as soon as I was done with my customer…

I was so nervous, I must have been sweating worse than the time I was a big shot… hell my palms were sweating, and my palm’s Don’t sweat!  I close the door, and it is quiet for what seems like an eternity.  Just me and him and and an upside down piece of paper on his desk.  I just wanted this to be painless, rip the Band Ai… ::cough:: I mean “adhesive bandage” off, as fast as you can, tell me about the rabbits George, just lay it on me damn it!  And just when I didn’t think I could stand the pressure any longer… he says something like, “I need to give you this”,  takes the paper and hands me….

To be continued….

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Thanks for reading guys! If money were no object what would you do?  To find out what happens to our “hero” stay tuned to, “Grab That Cash, and And Make a Stash!”

And if you haven’t voted on “Get a Haricut“….” Do it!  Seriously, do it…vote on that puppy  we’ll blow it away” haha

Talk soon everyone!

-Kevin