August 2006

Brad’s Corner is a monthly commentary written by Brad about whatever he feels like. It’s supposed to be funny, interesting and thought provoking, but most geniuses are misunderstood. Check out the August 2006 edition of Brad’s Corner and see what’s on his mind.

Recently, there have been several passionate arguments in our forums over the topic of sports. It really fired up with the NBA playoffs. However, college football, pennant chases and the NFL’s coming season also sprouted up some emotion lately. The research and depth of people’s conviction is amazing. They are dead sure they are right, they won’t accept or allow another point of view, and for the football fans they’re happy because at this point their favorite teams are still undefeated. All of these wars of words got me to thinking. What if we as a music community and music fans of this scene took ALL the artists and everything else to do with this scene and unified our efforts to support them? What if we were all as passionate, convinced and defiant as Aggie fans arguing with Longhorn fans?

That kind of commitment is what created galleywinter.com and every other facet of supporting these artists as they battle “the man”. We need to get back to a unified effort. The sports analogy is supreme. Back in the day there were only a handful of artists to support. Pat Green, in effect, became our record-shredding legendary quarterback who left after his junior season for the NFL and hasn’t quite lived up to his potential. Just like with sports, his career has been the source of much debate. If sports pundits can argue over whether Vince Young will be a good pro quarterback, music fans should be able to discuss their opinions on Pat’s fledgling career without prejudice. Especially, if they were there at ground zero during his college career when the stadium wasn’t sold out, none of his games were televised and not that many people stopped at the gift shop to buy his jersey.

We must get back to the mindset we had during that championship run to Pat’s record deal. When it was us versus them. Meaning, it should be everyone that knows or loves something about this scene against anyone who is ignorant to it. Educate them with facts, songs, stories and your passion. Convince them that they aren’t seeing it right. Take them to a show. Explain why Randy Rogers Band is a better draft pick than Jason Aldean. And don’t just support the hot stars like RRB, Stoney LaRue and Wade Bowen. Or the veterans like Cory Morrow, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Jason Boland and Jack Ingram. You should push for the punters, kickers, offensive linemen and special teams maniacs that you enjoy just as much. And don’t forget next year’s recruits. There is a ton of fresh talent out there that doesn’t get enough love from the fans. Josh Grider, Drew Kennedy, Ryan Turner, Ryan James, and Jason Eady are all examples of the next big things. Go to the gift shop and be the first to buy their jersey now! And when all else fails login to a message board and talk smack about the team you don’t like. HA.

Minor chords:

-Ricky Bobby will go down as the best Will Ferrell movie to date. Any movie that goes after Nascar and Tom Cruise is bound to be a success. You just know there are rednecks somewhere who’ve seen the commercials and think it’s real.

-We’ve recently started up our own MySpace page, finally! Feel free to add us and leave a comment. Expect a Dateline NBC special about music fans duped into listening to new music soon.

-That My Fair Brady show where Peter Brady married the hot crazy chick is like wrestling right? It’s gotta be fake.

-Dave Chappelle’s third season was brief but brilliant. I liked a lot of the sketches but one of my favorites was the one about how Tupac keeps putting out records that mention things going on now. Find it on youtube.com. “I wrote this song a long time ago…” Hilarious.

-Sorry for the short length again. I’m still on summer break (for a LITTLE bit longer) from my real job but busier than ever with all the other kettles I have on the fire.

-This month’s recommended movie: Road House 2 That’s right folks. Dalton’s son is back and kicking some ass. It’s as gloriously bad as you would think a straight to dvd movie featuring Gary Busey’s son as the bad guy would be. But it’s so unintentionally funny, just like the first one, that’s it’s worth renting.

-This month’s recommended album: Jason Eady “From Underneath the Old”. A songwriter’s songwriter with a tremendous bag of songs and a voice full of soul. Pick it up if you’re looking for something meaty to bite into.

-Of all the things I’ve lost, I miss my mind the most.-Mark Twain