I didn’t really watch much of the Grammy Award’s but apparantly Snooki from MTV’s Jersey Shore interviewed the band Phoenix for MTV on the red carpet.  Anyway Snooki an orange Muppet looking person hasn’t been known to be the brightest of the cast from the Jersey Shore is given orders to go up to the band and ask them various questions and hilarity consumes the whole interview.  Phoenix being from France had no idea who she was and what she was talking about in regards to the Jersey Shore and Snooki obviously having no depth in music besides DJ club music, had no idea who they were.  So it was an awkward/hilarious interview to say the least and has been posted on various music websites for the past few days.  What I find most hilarious about this interview is the fact that she asks “Do you have Guido’s in France?”  Probably the dumbest question I’ve ever heard considering if she knew her own heritage and that obviously the term comes from Italian Americans and that they most likely only reside in Italy and not in France.  Either way how could Phoenix flinch to anything she had to say since they won Best Alternative Album for the year and probably could care less about the awkward interview.  The interview is posted below for your enjoyment.

Snooki Interview on Spin.com

It’s not all about food and animals! Here are some more paintings that just had to be in White Trash Cupcakes!

Mimi Treglia - 1

Mimi Treglia - 2

Mimi Treglia - 3

Ok it’s been a while. Hope everyone is having a good new year! Well my website is almost done and I’ve been painting up a storm! I have been asked to be in an upcoming art show in Downtown Santa Ana. For all of you who are unfimiliar with areas of California, downtown Santa Ana is basically a hip/lofts over homes kinda area with Art Walks every month. I’m super excited! Also I will be in more shows as the year moves on so keep on the lookout for info I post!

If your life was put into a movie or if you just were walking around all day, what would be the music that would be playing in intense, emotional, epic or powerful parts of your life.   In other words what album would you think best describes the way you live or would just seem fitting to be playing about yoru life.  Music is a representation of your personality and how you interpret things, like a Rorshach Ink Blot can be interpreted different by a person depending on their perception of things.  Would your life be an epic ochestrated sountrack like Lord of the Rings, a pedal to the floor action packed metal soundtrack, or a Juno type indie soundtrack that just portrays the average person going through a difficult time.  I’ve decided which is probably no surprise that I would choose Modest Mouse’s The Moon And Antarctica because the album is diverse with it’s life questioning lyrics, cold sounding tracks and upbeat jam sessions that would seem to fit in any situtation you run into in life.    What would your album be?

This year we will be getting a tent at The Bamboozled in jerz.  You can guarantee our whole tent will be front row for these guys leaving the tent virtually unmanned, at which point we will probably get robbed blind.  Watch this vid all the way through and you’ll get it……..

and my personal favorite…….

CNN department which handles the Money side of news just did a pretty interesting article on the music industry’s profit decline in the past 10 years.  Interesting enough it’s been cut totally in half since the rise of Napster and free filing sharing over the internet, no surprise there.  The article goes on with several interesting points as well as how the industry still hasn’t been able to utilize monetary gains through this new technology and how they could.  The article is linked below.

CNN Money on Music Industry

For anyone who is old enough to remember or who has HBO, you must have seen Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure either as a kid or recently on TV.  The movie is the classic bromance movie where two idiots, in a going nowhere band are about to flunk out of History which will cause them to not graduate High School.  If this occurs Ted will be shipped off to Alaska to join a military academy which will cause the break up of Bill and Ted’s band Wyld Stallyns.  Though which may seem incignificant at the time to everyone around them, it’s catastrophic to the future of the world where Wyld Stallyns music has become the key factor in the cause for world unity and peace.  To make sure this doesn’t happen a professor from a notable University in the future travels back in time to make sure they pass their history test, how you ask?  By having them travel back in time with a time machine phone booth to kidnap various historical icons to help them pass their history final.

Though the plot is absolutely absurd and Bill and Ted’s characters are two surfer dude stoners who say nothing but “Dude” and “No Way!” the movie is classic and absolutely hilarious with Alex Winter as Bill, Keanu Reeves as Ted and George Carlin as Rufus.  The movie makes various references to classic metal acts and when something goes their way they always tend to airguitar to each other.  The soundtrack is filled with classic songs and to see important figures in history acting like complete dudes is just priceless.  The scene where Bill and Ted go to get Socrates they keep calling him So- Crates and get him to come along by singing a line from a Poison song as if it’s some philosophical line.  The movie is a classic in the music and comedy genre and for anyone who hasn’t seen the movie I won’t spoil the obvious ending but you can pick up the movie along with the equally hilarious sequel for like 20 bucks.  It’s for people who are only “Non, Non Henious”

A friend of mine works for his college radio station and was fortunate enough to get an interview with Matt Taylor who is the bass player for the band Motion City Soundtrack.  He has forwarded me the interview and I felt it was only fitting that we put it on the blog since he is an avid reader himself as well as a random guest blogger.  The interview can be seen below

February 1, 2010

Interview with Matt Taylor (Bass/Vocals Motion City Soundtrack)

Interviewer: Andrew Robinson

My Dinosaur life is the new record. This is also your first Record with Columbia. How does it feel to be back on tour?

“Its still very fresh to us. I wouldn’t even say the songs are comfortable yet. Hopefully it doesn’t show. Every time we play a new song I am thinking very hard and hoping I don’t forget a part or something. It’s really fun. I really miss playing new songs. You get used to playing your old songs and kind of just turn your brain off. That’s  my favorite part about being back on tour. You get back on stage and feel very vulnerable whereas after two years of touring, you kind of get used to it and you can turn off your brain and just go crazy. “

Would you say your currently still developing these new songs in your live set?

“Yea actually we are still doing that. We only had about three days of rehearsal and that was like two weeks before the tour started because we had other promo stuff to do. There are actually songs we haven’t even played yet. There are a couple songs we really had to think. Pulp Fiction is a very keyboard heavy song and we only have one keyboard player. So we had to figure out what parts are absolutely necessary and then have other people play them and then mimic the other parts on guitar and bass.”

Your drummer Tony Thaxton broke his arm last year just before you guys were about to start recording. How did this effect how the songs were written?

“It completely through us for a loop. We had the general outline of the schedule set in place so the second that happened, we had to throw on the breaks and immediately everything was pushed back a few months. We knew we weren’t going to track without him. We knew we weren’t going to hire someone else to come in and play the parts. And we still had to write songs. We weren’t finished writing. Luckily we had gotten two sessions of writing in. We had a good handful of songs and a lot of ideas, but we didn’t have finalized ideas by any means. So we ended going to back to LA while Tony was still in a cast just to be together and get some ideas flowing. He was even playing with one arm. And we actually had two or three songs that made the record from that session.  But we were all very discouraged, especially Tony. It’s hard to play with one arm and make the songs sound very rockin’ you know. The songs didn’t sound anything like they were suppose sound to. We ended up cutting that session short. Basically that forced us to work on our own more than we ever had before. When we used to write records we’d all get together and work in one room. But this time around, Me Justin and Josh would open up pro-tools and send ideas to each other. Josh would send me guitar and I would build some bass on it. Justin would get a vocal on it and I would build some harmony’s. We would just piece it together that way. So we were still writing while we were apart.  I personally would like to do that again as well as write together. That’s what we did this time. We had both.”

Can you describe working with Mark Hoppus (Blink 182)?

“Obviously we went back because we love the guy. I think that sometimes when you go to major label there can be a lot of pressure or people put pressure on you, but fortunately we didn’t feel that and we don’t feel it. It’s been a very smooth transition. Part of the reason we went to Mark or the main reason for me was because he’s very comfortable to work with. That’s the most important thing for me. A knowledgeable producer is great but if the guys going to make you uncomfortable or make you feel like to you don’t play well, it’s not really going to work out. That was the motivation going back to Mark. We knew that we liked working with him and that we could be comfortable doing whatever we wanted to try.  We went into this knowing we wanted to make a more raw sounding guitar heavy record and obviously he was a big supporter of that. He’s really just one of our friends”

Would you say the rawness of the record was a natural development of the band or a conscience decision?

“That would be the one conscience decision we made as a band. We knew we just wanted to rock a little harder and have a little more crazy raw energy. That was the only concrete idea we had. As far as the explicitness of lyrics, that always just happens. The lyrics come last. Justin will come in and sometimes spend a day, sometimes a month on the lyrics. He always lets us have our say, but the good thing is that we can totally just let him run with it. It may be obvious or not but that guy just loves words. We were just talking about the song disappear today in an interview and how Justin just wanted to actually make those words sound ugly. Not just the meaning but the actual pronunciation of the words. He actually thinks about English as a language and the sounds of words. There’s a lot of stuff going on. “

How is your audience responding to the new songs in your live shows?

“Its been really good. I’m actually surprised. We’re doing like seven new songs a night but people are really getting into it so it depends where we are. The UK is very similar to here. They actually rival our shows here.  Australia is good too but it really depends on how often you go. You really have to keep at it and keep playing in those places if you still want people to go. “

Motion City Soundtrack will be playing February 2, 2010 on late night with Jimmy Fallon and you can follow their tour (The Dino Trail) at their website www.motioncitysoundtrack.com

I’m gonna keep this short and sweet, I didn’t really watch the Grammy’s but if Taylor Swift has album of the year then where is the music industry going? It’s no wonder most bands stay on indie labels or just produce their own if they have the money. So Taylor Swift is one of the few mega pop stars who writes her own shit, so she has to get the award right? Give me a break.

Big thanks to Eamon Daul, Michael Migliaccio, and the rest of their team that went over to haiti to aid in the relief…..  Heres a tear jerker courtest of  nothjersey.com…..

Ramsey Rescue Workers Help Victims in Haiti

Eamon Daul and Michael Migliaccio of Ramsey say they couldn’t just sit back and relax when Haiti was devastated by an earthquake on Tuesday, Jan. 12, collapsing buildings, terminating communications and injuring and killing thousands of people.

“There is an expression: ‘Think globally, act locally,’ ” Mike Adams, the borough’sEmergency Management Coordinator, said. “But their efforts are an example of thinking locally and now acting globally. They have expertise and enthusiasm for helping other people, and they would be a natural team to send.”

Both men have hooked up with organizations helping with the relief effort in Haiti.

Migliaccio is with Our Chance International, a Saddle River charity that dispatches emergency medial technicians to disaster-struck areas, and Daul is with the trauma team made up of nurses from Hackensack University Medical Center.

A call to Migliaccio in Haiti could not be returned last week because, according to the cell provider, no signal was available. His mother, Elyse, said she hasn’t heard from her 25-year-old son since Friday, Jan. 15, when he sent her text message upon arrival in Florida to transfer to flights heading to Haiti.

“We are anxious,” said Elyse Migliaccio, who added that her son has been a member of the Ramsey Ambulance Corps and Rescue Squad since high school. “We are also proud and we understand this is a monumental undertaking, but necessary.”

Daul’s father, Richard, said his son packed his emergency technician’s equipment and personal items days after the earthquake to treat patients in a tent hospital at the airport near Port-au-Prince.

Through the medical center, Daul, 30, a Hackensack emergency room nurse, and two colleagues teamed up with Project Medishare for Haiti, a relief group associated with the University of Miami.

“It’s just like him to go there — I wouldn’t expect anything less,” Bridget Kelly said of her brother, Daul, in a phone interview last week.

Daul’s mother, Kathy, said her son called her sounding “a little sad” on Sunday, Jan. 17, a day after his arrival to Port-au-Prince, because of conditions in Haiti.

She said she routinely jots down what is sa2id between them during their “short” telephone conversations. That Sunday, she said, the three words she was able to make out were “dying, dangling, amputations.”

“I am pretending I am not nervous,” she said.

But, at the same time, she said, “I am glued to the TV.”

“He is smart and healthy,” she said of her son. “He will be OK, I think.”

Daul has been for the most part unreachable, as cellphone reception continues to be unreliable.

He has been able to send sporadic text messages with choppy phrases to the Suburban News.

“Phone comes and goes. Text seems to work best, but $$$,” he said in a recent text. “[Been] spending the day setting up clinics in different parts of the area. Treating 40-60 people.”

Another says, “Staying with a local family that…feeds and boards us and ferries us everywhere.”

Daul’s father said his son has been active in the Ramsey Ambulance Corps and Rescue Squad throughout his adult years.

He has been working as an emergency room nurse at Hackensack for roughly a year, and finished his nursing studies at Seton Hall University. He also received a master’s in public health from St. George’s University in Grenada. Daul has also participated in various relief efforts involving other disasters, such as 9/11 and Hurricane Ida.