Now Who Do We Find at D-Days?

If you've been a long time reader, friend, or passerby, you know of the quest every D Days...the quest to find...Tom Brokaw.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with D Days, ( I actually get readers not from this area, which leads me to think two things.  1.  That's awesome.  2. What is wrong with you!?  Just kidding, keep reading!) D Days is my alma mater's yearly parade/reunion/football game/drunkfest that happens at the beginning of every October.  We've covered it before here, so that will be the last refresher.

The running joke for the past few years has been #findbrokaw.  That plan would ultimately serve two purposes.  A promotion for this website (the first year we actually put #findbrokaw pictures around campus, even though I didn't live here at the time.  The winner got...haha NOTHING!  There was a shot of liquor promised, plans fell through, I'll still pay up if you find me) and second, to somehow find Tom Brokaw and buy him a drink.

Did we find Tom Brokaw?  Yes, yes we did.  Was it at D Days?  Well...



Not exactly.  He was here to promote his book basically at a discussion on our campus about Russia's influence on the election (I'm sure some Trump's avoided it, thinking it's fake news and all...).  But a few things before we get in to who we find next?  Brokaw was found, just a few weeks later.  Is he going to be back at D Days?  Who knows?  He's getting older, he seems to have claimed the University of Iowa now (stupid, I know), and he may have had some bad press this past year...so we found him.  It's time to move on to a new hashtag find (#find!).

But who?  Who should we set our sights on trying to find this year for Dakota Days?  I have compiled a list to figure out just that (oddly with current events, I've found everyone I've needed to find this past year, but you'll find that out in a future blog)!

Let's begin with the obvious.

Jim Abbott



Still the greatest USD president of all time!  Will he be here?  Yeah, probably.  Will he be hard to find?  Yeah...probably not, huh?  But will it be worth it.  Duh.

This dude is the Bret Hart (look it up) of presidents, the best there is, the best there was, and the best there ever will be.  He will be under strong consideration.

John Thune

That's gonna be a hard pass (pun both intended and not intended).  Also can you believe this photo exists!?  Incredible.

Eugene



Eugene is going to be there!?  I'm so down on this.  Eugene, you might be reading this blog, so I'm going to find you, I'm going to buy you a shot, and then we're gonna talk which one of your wrestlers needs a charismatic manager.



All white suit.  Maybe I'll have a walking cane with powder in it?  Just a thought.  We'll discuss at D Days after Pro Wrestling at the Eagles in Vermillion, SD at 6 PM!



The Squabbit



It's time for you to show your face buddy!  I heard about you in 2005.  Why haven't I seen you, huh!?  Who are you avoiding?  What are you avoiding!?  The guy DEFINITELY is gone who told us about you.  He's probably living, hopping train to train just to avoid the memory of you...and I want to know why!

Mary Hart



We can't get Pat O' Brien for obvious reasons (seriously Pat, come back!  We have Pepsi), so let's go with Sioux Falls own, Mary Hart.  Why haven't you been to a D Days Mary!?  Maybe they could make you like a parade marshal or something!?

On a related note, we need a big name to come every year and be our parade marshal.  If SDSU can get Joey Fatone for a pillow fight, you're frickin' right we can get Chris Kirkpatrick.  He's not doing anything, I know this, my cousin met the guy!



I'll even take him with or without the haircut.

Finally...the main event.  Who do we need to find this D Days you may ask!?

Kyle Jensen



This photo is the reverse photo of the John Thune one.

In my experience there is a Mount Rushmore of USD sports fans.  In no particular order its:

1. President Abbott
2. Nick "Tick" Severson
3. Bad Green
4. Kyle Jensen

This man should be flown in the night before the parade every single year.  It's not that expensive.  People should pool money together to bring him and his family out here, just so their kid can get some candy in the parade.  Then get him the heck out of here the next morning.  He will be the D Days version of Santa Claus, except instead of gifts he will come bearing U S D Coyotes!!!! chants.

Let's make this happen.

If you have anyone I missed, feel free to comment on my FB page, or in the comment section here.

What's coming up next on this site?  Two things... a new "Favorite.  Biggest.  Best" with a twist.  And the long awaited "People Who Need to Go"...that one won't make anyone mad...

Thanks for reading.

Jeff Kleeman

PS  People I don't want to see?

Limp Bizkit Style! (Favorite. Biggest. Best)

Last week I got to experience one of the best rock bands ever, live and in person Metallica.  It was an amazing show!  They played almost all of their hits...they had Jim Breuer open, and we left with :20 seconds left of Enter Sandman so my wife could get to work, it honestly was everything you could ever ask for in a show!  But it got me thinking, who was my generations (age 32-40) band?  THE BAND!?



Clearly each decade had a band or two that were theirs.  The 60's you liked the Rolling Stones or the Beatles.  The 70's you had Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin.  The 80's you had Guns N Roses or Metallica.  The early 90's were Nirvana...but after them, who?  Who is our biggest band after Nirvana? 

Creed?



Nickelback?



No to all of them (although I came across a Nickelback song a while ago, and shockingly it didn't age horribly, I found it not...bad.  Shhhhhhh!  Don't tell.). 

And who would my favorite band even be?  All time it's the Beatles, and I really like the Strokes...but who is a sneaky contender for my favorite band of all time for pure rock?

Oh fuck...no way!?



Limp Bizkit?!  Could it be?  It...it is!



I love Limp Bizkit.  And I hope I don't offend Mr. Durst if you are improbably reading this, but I think the reason I like it so much, I don't have to think too damn hard about the music.  Fred, Mr. Bizkit, has basically 5 ranges of emotion:

1. Angry
2. Really angry
3. Angrily rocking out
4. Wearing hats
5. Songs that make him want to awkwardly dance and use of hands...



But it's all catchy!  It's all great...for the most part!  And if you ignore they came out with an album in 2011 (what the F!?) or legit have had an album in development for years after that, (the name you may ask!?  Stampede of the Disco Elephants...Limp Bizkit were either incredibly innovative with naming things...or never great with names...ever) they really had, at most, a limited time to deliver some arguably great music. 

Significant Other came out in 1999, that was my senior year of high school.  I was oddly shy at that time, so I spent a lot of time playing PS1 and listening to music at that time.  I listened and bought every type of music (thanks BMG!), but there was no album I played more than Significant Other at that time.  The next year I went to the midnight release at my local On Cue to buy Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water when it came out (I told you...not the best with naming things), it was arguably played more than Significant Other. 

They then followed that up with a criminally (see what I did Ras!?) underrated album in Results May Vary.  I liked it, it bombed, it was the beginning of the end, save for one last comeback with a song called "The Truth" which came out in 2005.  Then they were done.  And since then have there been any "new" bands to get as big as them? 



Go ahead, try to name someone as big.  Maybe Linkin Park?  But to me that's the same era, and Limp Bizkit was bigger.  Korn?  Comparable, but same argument.  Bizkit wins.  Green Day had the one brilliant album in the mid-2000's...nothing that great since (and they are a 90's band to me anyway).  Since then the biggest selling band is Imagine Dragons.  The best tours are nostalgia acts (sorry Metallica, that's you).  My favorite to listen to?  Besides a handful of new songs, I go to the 90's for my rock music. 

Rock is so different now.  Rock radio honestly sucks.  It's just the same old songs over and over again and then they throw in The Pretty Reckless every now and then because she's hot. 



She's Cindy Lou Hoo by the way in the Jim Carrey Grinch movie...think about that for a second...



Don't believe me on rock radio?  Go turn to your rock station now.  It'll be AC/DC...then a 90's rock band...then Ozzy, then Shinedown...then The Pretty Reckless, repeat.  Rock tours are nostalgia acts or recent ish bands that are good, but not great (and this is only my opinion, but bands like Five Finger Death Punch, Chevelle, Shinedown are good, and I love at least 2-3 songs by each BUT they aren't Metallica, the mystique isn't there for me.  If I met James Hetfield I would shit myself, if I met anyone in those bands above, I would literally have no idea.  I would have to ask Ras or Dino who they are.). 

We need some new music...and until we get that music I'm going to listen to what I like, and dammit, what I like is the BIZKIT! 

So what's this surprisingly, incredibly long intro leading up to?  We are doing a Favorite.  Biggest.  Best. Limp Bizkit.  I have recruited Ras and James to give their choices, as well as mine.  If you missed the last one, we covered blink-182 (arguably a band that should be in the discussion of best 90's band) with Beach which you can find Here!

Let's get started before this gets any longer!  And....go!

Ras's Selections:

Favorite: The Truth

Biggest: Nookie

Best: Full Nelson

I can't argue with any of Ras's selections, and I love the Full Nelson pick.  He dug deep in to that library.  The Truth is a song a lot of people haven't heard, and that's disappointing because it's really, really, really freaking good. 

James's Selections:

Favorite: N 2 Gether Now

Biggest: Nookie (a trend is developing!)

Best: My Way

My Way is arguably their 4th biggest song (full disclosure, I, Jeff, do not like Rollin'...blame the Undertaker.).  Clearly we all agree on Nookie, and N 2 Gether now is a classic that started them having a rap feature on their next two albums (Xzibit on Getcha Groove On and Snoop on the CRIMINALLY underrated Red Light, Green Light). 

Jeff's Selections:

Favorite: Re-Arranged

Biggest: Nookie (trend developed)

Best: The Truth

Nookie is clearly their biggest song.  Faith would be after that, then Rollin', then My Way...if I keep ranking them I'm just going to do another Limp Bizkit blog, and nobody wants that after this one. 

The Truth is such an underrated song, and at the time, it was really exciting to see if that was the direction they were going in since nu metal was dead in 2005.  Unfortunately red hats stopped being sold, so with red hats went Limp Bizkit. 

That's it for this week!  If you want to do one of these Favorite.  Biggest.  Best.  Be my guest.  Literally!  A few of you posted last time, so maybe 3 Doors Down would be a unique one.  Or Incubus.  I'd LOVE to do Eminem, but that ones too easy. 

Next blog will be the long awaited "The Kind of People Who Suck"...clearly flat earthers and anti vaxxers make this, but we all know there are more kinds of people that suck. 

Until next time,

Jeff

Favorite. Biggest. Best.

Well I decided to start having some fun with this blog, and Dammit (you'll see what I did here)...I'm going to.

I love to debate music.  I like all kinds of music, really everything except country, and I really like to debate the best song of artists I really like.  What they would close their show with?  What is their best song?  Well that's going to be this blog series.

Each one of these I'll do with a friend of mine (Ras maybe with Nirvana?  Schempp with Dr. Dre, Kyle with Eminem, etc...I would say Dino, but he HATES being tagged in stuff so....).  Each will have the following three categories.

Favorite...which clearly is your favorite song by the artist.
Best...which you try to be unbiased and pick the best work.
Biggest...the most popular song, what would end him/she/they/it's set list.  Ex: Lou Bega would end with Tricky Tricky (clearly Mambo No. 5, but you see what I did there as well?  Get it!?).

This week I borrowed some time from Beach to see get his views on his favorite band of all time, blink-182.



There is NOBODY on this planet who likes blink-182 as much as Cory.  They are such a great band, one of my favorites as well, so I wanted to pick Cory's brain on them, simply because he knows so much about them. 

I'll start the blog with me, because not only am I super selfish, but Cory had a LOT of great info to say about blink, really interesting, good stuff that I wanted to include it over my opinion (you're clicking this for Cory, not for me). 

Cory, Zach G, and Jeff at D Days...it's Zach, trust us.  

So here is me and Cory's (Cory and I's) list of Favorite/Biggest/Best for blink-182.

Me first!

Favorite: Always

*this was almost Going Away to College or Reckless Abandon, super close on both.  Always has that new wave feel, pop chorus, I like it.

Biggest: All the Small Things

Best: The Rock Show

Best song has a TON of choices, but I went with The Rock Show, because I did.  But you're not here for me on this blog...on to the main event, you're here for Cory.

Favorite: Lemmings

Biggest: What's My Age Again

*Cory also included Dammit (which is...spoiler alert...next!) among the most popular of the fan base or Carousel

Best: Dammit

Now a quick review from Mr. Beach on blink-182, their albums, current status, etc...etc...etc....

Oooh look at me, I like fancy food!  - some idiot!

Best album is tough!  I love their first two albums, they are gritty, the guitar is quick, there aren't any bands like that out anymore.

I feel like the Take Off Your Pants and Jacket album has a perfect blend of them growing as a band and still being funny.  Plus it would be considered their sophomore album...even though it isn't...after the huge success of Enema of the State.



It proved they can still write another huge album and still fuck off and remain themselves..even though Dude Ranch will always be my favorite...but new Blink...



It's just that!  It's new.  The album(s) that came out are great sounding, I don't feel much from their lyrics as much as I did from the other albums...obviously old blink albums.  They are at a point in all of their careers (Mark, Travis, Matt) that they know how to write a good sounding song, but I feel disconnected with a band when the lyrics are just lyrics to help create a song, this is why I hate Weezer.



But new blink isn't blink...Matt has no guitar riffs like Tom and that's part of what gave blink their sound.  Everyone knows it's What's My Age Again after those first few chords, same with Stay Together For the Kids.  I think Matt was hired because he's in the same genre and has that falsetto voice.

I think they should have called it quits for a second time, either going back to +44 and invite Matt to that, or start a new band name with the trio of Mark, Travis and Matt.

Neighborhoods was a terrible album, there was no producer, no studio time where they were all together like in the other albums.  They literally passed back and forth guitar and bass riffs and then put lyrics to it.

Travis as quoted answering a question why even having a producer on the California album and he said, "So it doesn't come out sounding like Neighborhoods!".

I saw blink a couple times whey they got back with Tom, it was terrible, Tom was half-assing lyrics, not even in key, he clearly didn't want to be there.  It's prevalent on a lot of live videos he doesn't want to be there.

- Cory



So that does it for this first edition!  I added this .gif because it's quite possibly the best one of all time, and Tom is super weird now.  Also, when we review Weezer I feel Cory will not be a part of that one (he does love the Africa cover though!).

If you would like to do one of these with me, I'm down.  It's probably one of the most fun blogs I've written in a long time.  Next week, I'm going to try and get Brad for Outkast...or Schempp for Dr. Dre.

Jeff