MUSIC
Geek. From Silicon Valley
to suburban garages, the
Geeks were taking over
the world. The summer of
1995 was no exception.
“Geek Rock” was at its
height and Weezer were
leading the way for a new
generation of rockers who
were far less “cool” than
the groupie-laden bands
like Van Halen, Aerosmith
and KISS.
In the fall of 1995, Matt
Sharpe, the bass player for Weezer, started a
side project with Patrick
Sharpe, Weezer’s drummer. The project was
called The Rentals, and
they released a record
called “Return of the
Rentals”. The group had
a hit with a song called
“Friends Of P”.
What I loved about that
song was the Moog synth
mixed with layers of guitar,
bass, violin, and happy
catchy female backup
vocals. Here is a link to the
song.
For those of you who ever
wondered who P is, it is rumoured that P is Paulina
Porizkova, the wife of “The
Cars” frontman Ric Ocasek. Ric had produced
the first Weezer record.
During that time, Paulina
made a claim that no
one had ever written a
song about her, so Matt
took on the task and it led
to a top ten hit.
The Rentals are anything
but prolific and I had not
heard anything about
them in years. In fact, they
quietly broke up in 1999.
So when I found out that
they are releasing a new
record this year, I became
excited.
Rentals form, this song’s
driving guitars, sunny harmonies and lyrics about
freedom
are
reminiscent of a band I used to
love. The single is called
“Thought
of
Sound”.
Check out Thought of
Sound on YouTube.
Lyrically the song is about
freedom. It celebrates
love of sound. “There is
nothing more beautiful right now than the
thought of sound… The
sound of pure emotion lifts
up from the ground. You
are free as a sunset, you
are free like the thought
of sound.”
This song reminds me of
why I got into the music
business in the first place
and brings me right back
to a time when I felt endless possibility working in
the music industry, a time
when the music made me
feel so free.
Now with Patrick Carney,
the Black Keys drummer,
The Rentals are about to
release a third record in
August entitled “Lost In
Alphaville”. The lead off
single was just released a
few days ago. True to The
Since 1994, Rishi Gerald, founder and CEO of RishiVision and
entrepreneurial coach, has empowered thousands of businesses.
Rishi has an MBA in marketing and entrepreneurial studies and a BBA
in accounting. He has spent nearly twenty years coaching, consulting,
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