'Merica Notes

Nirvana was an American rock band formed by singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1987. Nirvana went through a succession of drummers, the longest-lasting being Dave Grohl, who joined in 1990. Despite releasing only three full-length studio albums in their seven-year career, Nirvana has come to be regarded as one of the most influential and important alternative bands in history. Though the band dissolved in 1994 after the death of Cobain, their music maintains a popular following and continues to influence modern rock and roll culture. In the late 1980s, Nirvana established itself as part of the Seattle grunge scene, releasing its first album, Bleach, for the independent record label Sub Pop in 1989. They developed a sound that relied on dynamic contrasts, often between quiet verses and loud, heavy choruses. After signing to major label DGC Records, Nirvana found unexpected success with "Smells Like Teen Spirit", the first...

Today is Valentine's Day, but this is not about that... I've recently heard this song by a relatively new rapper by the name of Tom MacDonald. I've also heard the cries of so many people on the internet labelling this song as "white guilt", "racist", and "cultural appropriation". To be perfectly honest, I love this song. Everybody wants to sh*t on Tom MacDonald because he's telling the truth. God forbid a white man be able to discuss race in 2018. I think the real reason everybody feels the need to hate on this song is because it takes on a subject that nobody thinks any white person should talk about. It's sad to me that in 2018 I'm not allowed to have on opinion on racism, yet I'm blamed for it. Racism can come from any race, not just white people. If someone is too stupid to grasp that fact, maybe the should take a good look at the NBPP, or South Africa, or the Middle East, or Antifa, or any gang in Chicago.   We can'...

Alex Deibold, 31, has some unfinished business at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The 31-year-old snowboarder, who first hopped on skis when he was just 2 years old and started snowboarding at age 4, nearly made Team USA in 2010, only to just miss the cut. But, undeterred, he stormed back four years later at the 2014 games in Sochi, where he took home a bronze medal in the men's snowboardcross event. Since then, he's been training as hard as he can to land on the medal stand again -- that is, when he's not mountain biking, backpacking, rock climbing, surfing or working at the Sports Garage bike shop in Boulder, Colorado, in the off-season. Deibold sent Billboard his training playlist before jetting off to Pyeongchang, admitting that it is a little "all over the place." And he wasn't kidding -- from old-school metal by the likes of Motorhead and Motley Crue to new-school rock from White Buffalo and Deer Tick, Alex has the perfect combo...

With the 2018 winter Olympics taking place in Pyeongchang, South Korea this year I felt as if it would be appropriate to include that unforgettable theme song we hear for the Olympics on NBC. Now, Bugler's Dream is not the actual theme song of the Olympic games- but it is rather used primarily by NBC and its affiliates. Nevertheless, that's what most of us recognize the most. It's those first few memorable notes and the bass drum opening that make the song so catchy and iconic. "Bugler's Dream" is very well known, especially by Americans, as the theme music for the Olympics and its widespread in ABC's and NBC's television coverage of the games. It is considered to be a symbol of the Olympics. Arnaud's piece is very stately, beginning with a timpani cadence that is soon joined by a distinctive theme in brass, which harmonizes perfectly. The musical theme of "Bugler's Dream" is based on Joseph-David Buhl's "Salut aux étenda...