Bill Hicks - Voice Of Reason In A Mad World

Also check out Tribute to Bill Hicks

William Melvin 'Bill' Hicks (December 16, 1961 – February 26, 1994) was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, and musician. His material largely consisted of general discussions about society, religion, politics, philosophy, and personal issues. Hicks' material was often controversial and steeped in dark comedy. In both his stand-up performances and during interviews, he often criticized consumerism, superficiality, mediocrity, and banality within the media and popular culture, describing them as oppressive tools of the ruling class, meant to 'keep people stupid and apathetic'.

Hicks was 16 years old when he started performing stand-up comedy at the Comedy Workshop in Houston, Texas, in 1978. During the 1980s he toured America extensively and performed a number of high profile television appearances. It was in the UK, however, where Hicks first amassed a significant fan base, packing large venues with his 1991 tour.

Hicks died of pancreatic cancer in 1994 at the age of 32. In the years after his death, his work and legacy achieved acclaim in creative circles. In 2007 he was voted the fourth-greatest stand-up comic on the UK's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups, and appeared again in the updated 2010 list as the fourth-greatest comic.

Born in Valdosta, Georgia, Bill Hicks was the son of Jim and Mary (Reese) Hicks and had two elder siblings: sister Lynn and brother Steve. The family lived in Florida, Alabama, and New Jersey, before settling in Houston, Texas when Hicks was seven. He was raised in the Southern Baptist faith, where he first began performing as a comedian for…

It's Corman's world - we just live in it.

wait for the little yellow box countdown, then click on " continue".

Blue jeans, sock-hops and drive-in movies: the Fifties were America's age of innocence. But stalking the depths of its post-nuclear bliss, mass paranoia became fuel for Joseph McCarthy's brand of Red Scare terror propaganda. Bomb shelters were a deluxe feature in every American home, government-sponsored educational reels promised an imminent nuclear threat from across the Atlantic, and Hollywood, Babylon of the western world, hung on the brink of collapse. It was here, in the last-ditch machinations of a dying juggernaut, that a mild-mannered, civil engineer's son would become the most influential force in modern movie making.…

*** Sorry for the lack of posts...a little under the weather lately. :>) ***

The mixing of artistic oddity and bombastic folk melodies makes Chimney Choir's debut full length, (ladder), a snappy and unique listen. It's really good is what I'm trying to say here and you should give it a whirl. Chimney Choir takes traditional instruments, guitar, mandolin, banjo, piano, and augments them with kitchen sink percussion, occasional computerized sampling, and freaky vocal interplays.

(ladder) was recorded live and in front of an audience in a pipe organ chapel outside of Denver and at times it sounds like the Holy Spirit could've been involved. On "Ace Of Spades"

Kris Drickey takes the lead vocals and the result is a romp through a roaring 20's spaceship ride. Other highlights include the sing-a-long ready "All The Time"

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