Twostepcublog

    " Headstrong " - Trapt from the album Trapt (2002) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #16 (three weeks) Weeks in the Top-40: 17   Today's song comes from the band Trapt, who came together in the suburbs of the Bay Area in the late 1990s. Touring right out of high school, the group sold copies of their self-released album Amalgamation , in 1999, before being signed by Warner Brothers Records. With lead singer Chris Taylor Brown, guitarist Simon Ormandy, and bass player Pete Charrell along with new drummer Monty Montgomery, Trapt released their eponymous first album on the label in the late fall of 2002. It was preceded earlier in the season with the lead single "Headstrong". Written by Brown, Ormandy, and Charrell with Jeffrey Unbankes, the lyrics are a swirling stew of angst sprinkled with a helping of mind control paranoia. Painting broad strokes of commercialism, their only defense of repeating "headstrong" ad nauseum , like those people who think broadca...

    "Only God Knows Why" - Kid Rock from the album Devil Without A Cause (1998) Billboard Hot 100 peak: #19 (two weeks) Weeks in the Top-40: 12   Oh, man.   I knew the day would have to come that I would have to cover this cretin. Thankfully this living cold sore only made the top-40 three times, so there's that. But the timing of this with his sit-down comrade-fest with fascist Nazi Tucker Carlson is weird.   Sooooo.   Today's song comes from Robert James Ritchie, the rich son of a local Michigan car dealership magnate that decided that he loved the hip-hop in his McMansion in the far suburbs of Detroit. Dubbing himself "Kid Rock", he came under the wing of DJ/producer Derrick "D-Nice" Jones of the seminal rap group Boogie Down Productions, who helped him sign with Jive Records in the late 1980's. He released his debut album Grits Sandwiches For Breakfast in 1990, which I'm positive is something he has never ate or had his butler make, ...

Hey guys, it's time for my top 100 tunes for the week. This week Sara Bareilles makes it a hat-trick on top, while Neon Trees (pictured above) jump into the top-5. Former big hits by Robyn, Alexis Jordan, Lady Antebellum, and Goldfrapp drop out of my list, while songs by Usher, Katy Perry, and the Swedish House Mafia have the biggest jumps. Likn-O-Rama is still in effect, so you can click on the highlighted names of any of the artists to go to their website. And here we go.... This Week Song/Artist (last week's position in parentheses) -------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. King Of Anything - Sara Bareilles (1) 2. Misery - Maroon5 (2) 3. If It's Love - Train (3) 4. Mockingbird - Rob Thomas (4) 5. Animal - Neon Trees (7) 6. Dynamite - Taio Cruz (16) 7. Glitter In The Air - Pink (5) 8. California Gurls - Katy Perry f/ Snoop Dogg (8) 9. Lisztomania - Phoenix (13) 10. Fire With Fire - Scissor Sisters (15) 11. I Like It - E...

After months of hate speech running to a boil since President Obama's election, it was only a matter of time when some anti-guvmint kook took drastic action. Corporal Coward first class Andrew Joseph Stack apparently set fire to his house and then took his plane and flew it into the IRS building in Austin, Texas , killing himself and injuring 2 people in the building and leaving one more missing. It's very lucky that more people weren't hurt or killed, as the gas-full plane slammed into the building causing the damage above. That day, Stack changed his website to a long rambling anti-tax anti-government screed that somehow includes rants on communism and capitalism. I'm not going to give voice to this blather, as you can read it in any of the links to news stories, other than note that there was nothing in it that would discern from the extremo-libertarian slash teabagger mentality that conveniently only surfaces when there's a Democrat president who just happen...

Today marked the day that Scott Brown of Massachussetts was inaugurated the 45th president of the United States.... No, really... Actually, as Brown became the junior senator of Mass, the senior senator of ass , Richard Shelby (R-Dickweed) proceeded to become the congressional version of a fifth-grader by putting a blanket hold on Obama's nominations for positions that were sent to the Senate. One? No. Three? Try more than 70. In response to a question from the Press-Register, Reid spokeswoman Regan Lachapelle confirmed that Shelby has placed a "blanket hold" on most pending nominations. By placing a hold, a single senator can stop the Senate from voting on a particular nomination, often as a way of gaining leverage on an unrelated issue. It is not clear when Shelby placed the hold or how many nominees are affected. While individual holds are not unusual, Gary Jacobson, a congressional expert at the University of California at San Diego, said he knew of no previous us...

This week's Republican Douchebag award winner goes to Kansas (as in "What's the Matter With...") Rep. Lynn Jenkins, who would've won the C U Next Tuesday award for female douchbaggery if I had read this two days ago. Jenkins held a town hall meeting , which apparently for her means Republican party campaign meeting, last week in Hiawatha, Kansas. In heralding what she feels as a new wave of Republican hopefuls that will save this great land from the dictatorship apparently secretly imposed on us by our rightfully (for once) elected president, she invoked the insightful and colorful phrase "Great White Hope". As in "save us from the scary black man". As in its most famous usage, the search for the boxer that would wrest the heavyweight title from the first black champion, Jack Johnson . That hype culminated in race clashes that followed Johnson's victory over rascist goon James Jeffries. Lynn, dear, don't pretend you don't know how ...

Aah, so many choices. But the top gun right now is the cheerleader for torture, Dickbag Cheney. For your unwillingness to go away into the sunset, possibly knowing you may in some way be held somewhat accountable for your actions, you get this week's Douchebag award. And while we're at it, can you just admit that the waterboarding/walling/insect thing/whatever had nothing to do with getting information. You just liked the idea of causing pain to a horrible man (that Khalid Mohammed guy) who had done horrible things, and deserves the worst imprisonment that the Geneva Convention could provide, until he dies and goes to hell, where if you are religious , you know he will answer to a higher authority. In doing that, as well as the same with others who did not do the same, ended up turning them into victims in the eyes of the world. And stop with the lying that these "released memos", which in fact were put out under Freedom Of Information Act lawsuit, had nothing reveali...

I had touched upon the recount in the Franken-Coleman election in the Minnesota Senate election - which is leaving Minnesota without a second senator for going on 5 months now. Watch Gov. Tim Pawlenty make a complete pussy out of himself on the Rachel Maddow show. Shut the fuck up, Tim, and go back to sucking John Cornyn's dick.

I knew it. The Republican wingnuts in Alaska, seeing their corrupt money machine ex-Senator Ted Stevens get off on a technicality , are trying hilariously to start a clamor to get newly-elected successor Ted Begich to resign . Cries (or more like lies) of "he was framed" resound. Mind, it doesn't matter that it was the Republican-biased Justice Department that fucked up, and in no way did Eric Holder exonerate Stevens, but did a "pity fuck" pardon because he's old. I mean, where's the same justice for Gov. Siegelman of Alabama, whom was railroaded by a Karl Rove-driven monkey trial? The Anchorage Daily News article ( click here ) was in the comments plenty of repuke lemmings calling for Begich's head, even though #1) Stevens is still almost assuredly a criminal , and #2) Begich ran a campaign that avoided using the trial for his own gain. TO that, the best response was from a commenter AngryBlakGuy at Wonkette ( here ) Dear GOP Suck my ballz Sin...

Well the lil' ole Republicans were gettin' their feelins hurt by being called out by President Obama (among others) for the stream of televised whinefests over his proposed budget, without offering any concrete plan of their own. And because we've inherited an economic mess and a fiscal mess -- (laughter) -- this budget makes the tough choices necessary to cut the deficit by the end of my first term in half -- even under the most pessimistic estimates. We've already proposed $2 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade. We'll continue making these tough choices in the months and years ahead as our economy recovers. And to a bunch of the critics out there, I've already said, show me your budget. (Laughter.) Show me what you want to do. (Applause.) And I'm happy to have that debate -- because I believe in the vision of the Democratic Party. (Applause.) Well, the Villagers were called, that there will be a big! news! day! for the GOP. Of course, the V...

Sugarbear and I were at the local Wegman's last week, and I was in a quandary on whether to pick up possibly the last affordable chance to get one of the most flavorful cheese ever - Roquefort . Only made in the same-titled town in the south of France, Roquefort makes an awesome blue cheese sauce for steak, as well as being a savory cracker spread. Well unfortunately former U.S. Trade Representative and culinary cunt Susan Schwab (as in, my vagina's so nasty that CSI has to Schwab it for evidence) did a proverbial middle finger to France by imposing a 300% duty on the cheese rendering it possibly unprofitable to market in the states. The semi-official explanation/bitch is that it was retaliation for the European Union banning US Beef with hormones. Yeah, God forbid they would want to control a potential health risk from our shitty agricultural policies. Sue, and I don't give a shit is you don't like me calling you Sue, don't let the door hit your fat Republican a...

Fuck the Philadelphia Flyers. Repeat, FUCK them. Ed Snider, owner of the Flyers, has injected politics into hockey by inviting self-described "hockey-mom" and proven hate-mongerer Sarah Palin to "drop the puck" at the upcoming Flyers-Rangers game this coming Saturday in his arena - an arena that consqeuently that was financed with the help of taxpayer money. And this is while and Palin-McCain coward show has been travelling around Pennsyltucky promoting a false "domestic terrorist" connection from Obama serving on a charitable board set up by the Republican Annenberg family with Joseph Ayres, a former militant activist who has (even beyond the tenuous connection) paid his debt to society for any wrongdoing and is a vital member of the University Of Illinois faculty anyway. People have been driven to chants of "terrorist" and "Kill him!" and "off with his head" at their Nazi-ist rallies. Infusing a sports event with this shall...

see Sarah Palin pictures

There's not enough Cee U Next Tuesday awards for this bitch. As I write, the snoozefest of the KKK/Republican convention is going on in Minnesota. In order to make this hot-air factory at all palatable to the US public and the media, John McCain pulled the crass political stunt of nominating Sarah "Miss Congeal" Palin to be his running mate, ensuring the TVs get nonstop coverage of the Jerry Springer show that is this moron's "life experience". Who the fuck is Sarah Palin? Hell, the fucking republicans don't even know... (Mind you, this is the fucking national chairman of the party!) I honestly think the Republican party really thinks this is a game - not a campaign for the future of our country, and it's all about the unending news cycles of stories about how much of a cuntmobile this Sarah Palin and her dysfunctional family is. Observe... 1) Imagine a Democrat nominating someone under investigation. For anything. The pissypants hired hands that...

Last night had Barack Obama gave the speech that catapulted him squarely in the final race for the presidency. That same night, the Republicans for some crazy reason (maybe to steal some limelight or Clinton supporters?) shuttled John McCain into Louisiana to give a speech. Now mind, irony of ironies had befallen them, since the speech was preempted mid-ramble to announce Obama's reaching the required delegates (how's that for timing?), but either way that didn't detract from the utter suckfest that his "speech" was. Besides the visual impact of the yellowed rest-home teeth over a lime-green backdrop with only emphasized his pale complexion (and what the fuck is going on with the left eye there? I'm definitely thinking mild stroke) and a filmstrip wheeze of a voice, McCain's input into the "national discussion" involved him whining about not being Bush, and that he has the experience to lead America to better programs. Well, fucktard, where were...

Hey boys and girls, now from the makers (well, maker) of the "Cee U Next Tuesday" awards, it's time for the Republican Douchebag of the week. And of course, what is more apropos than the current Republican candidate for president, John McCain. In Jon Stewart's words, he courageously "went near where black people live" and made a speech/pack of lies (for him, it's usually the same) in New Orleans about Katrina. Whoever did this video is a friggin' genius for summing it up... Yes, John, you're fucking full of honor. Having cake while almost 2,000 people died. You're no hero, you're fucking Marie Antoinette, douchebag.