as you might have gathered, i am now a huge fan of the online mp3 site, emusic.
the genesis of this infatuation came from a conversation with a friend who told me that he had just signed up for a site that gave him 50 free downloads to keep during a trial period and then 40/month for $9.99/month. i kind of took this as a "if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is" kind of thing. but my curosity was piqued so i checked it out. at first i was convinced that it was some kind of subscription service like napster or rhapsody. i looked and looked through the "terms and conditions" but found no such strings, and it looked like there were no usage limits or proprietary encoding. (at this point i probably sound like a paid endorser, but i'm not). so, i started looking for music to see what kind of choice i had. i found a lot of stuff, in fact, most of the music that (if you read my sidebar) was stolen previously. all of the music is from independent labels, so pretty much right up my alley...and i found a lot of stuff in that alleyway. so i signed up for my 50 free downloads, 5 minutes later i had 1 left. so then i activated my first month's subscription and i now have 2 total downloads left and 30 days to wait until my account reloads OR i can buy a 50 download "booster pack" for $14.99....which will probably happen here pretty soon... 88 downloads in about 15 minutes, that's some sort of record.
so, needless to say i am now up to my elbows in music and will need to buy a bigger ipod soon....i do accept donations for this worthy cause.
also, on my sidebar under the "recently purchased" section will now be a list of emusic albums that i have downloaded.
if you decide to try this out, even the free trial, click on the banner on my sidebar...i get more downloads if you do that.... yay for me!
peace.
12.16.2005
support independent music...
11.29.2005
wwfsmd...
i don't know why it took me so long to share the good news...
for more truths and the complete story, visit:
www.venganza.org
and to all of those who believe that pirates really can save us from ourselves, i say:
yarrr
11.28.2005
check it out...
i stumbled across these guys today and thought i might share them with all of you. hailing from Echo Park, CA, they have a couple of ep's out and just signed with The Militia Group. sort of a garage-esque jangly sound with good harmonic guitar parts overlaid and vocals very reminiscent of one of my personal faves, red animal war. look for their first full length out on said label in mid-2006.
here are some songs:
- detox
- the easy life
- same as it was
and mainly because i started thinking about them, not for comparison sake:
the first full length, breaking in an angel, was put out on Deep Elm and i have since been smitten. taking their name from a line in the book red badge of courage, these guys play smart, angular rock with heart-on-the-sleeve post-hardcore breakdowns that punctuate the songs lending intensity to already emotionally-charged compositions. the intelligent and insightful lyrics are conveyed with distinctive and urgent vocals. i would recommend any album by these guys, but especially Breaking in an Angel, their first and most raw effort.
from Breaking in an Angel
- weak bones may break
- hope
from Black Phantom Crusades
- still
- right now, today, i don't believe in hell
from Polizida
- satellites
- mexico
11.11.2005
if everyone jumped off a cliff...
the boys at wicked chops wrote about this first, but i would also like to put in my 2 cents....or 2 pence in this case.
according to the BBC, the UK is looking at banning all internet poker ads that induce people to gamble, as in offering free entry into tourneys and free grand prizes like cars, trips, and other assorted awards. "why?", you ask, because they do not want to encourage people to start down the road toward a gambling problem.
now, i understand that gambling can become an addictive habit, like alcohol, smoking, or narcotics...all of which have their respective "anonymous" clubs, gambling included. this is a touching concern for the UK govt. to have for its citizens, and commendable, too ... if it weren't so hypocritical.
the national lottery in the UK is much like the lotteries you know and love in the US, you buy a ticket (there's a bunch of ways to play) and there are drawings or scratch-offs....and it has its own tv show...on tv, where ads run (or adverts), in between the parts of the lottery show. people watch this show, where the amount of the prizes are shown and inducements given for playing the lottery, and then spend their hard-earned money on a chance, nay, a gamble, that their ticket will come up a winner. tv > inducement > gamble > gambling problem ... does this not follow the same formula that the govt. accuses the poker industry of following?
it would appear that the state is allowed to induce you to gamble, but no one else is ... especially if the gambling requires skill. one assumes that you just cross your fingers as the logo suggests, instead of using your brain.
question: if the state is trying to protect you from yourself, who is protecting you from the state?
11.10.2005
my feet literally haven't touched the ground....
...for the last few weeks. i can't even begin to explain how instupituously busy i have been. needless to say that we are now homeowners (in debt up to our eyeballs) and more well-travelled than we were before.
the weekend to start the madness was like the movie four weddings and a funeral, only with just 3 weddings and no funeral, so it would be more like a sequel: more weddings and a wedding then a conference. minneapolis followed by denver and then big canoe.
then a day later i went to sao paulo, brazil for a week to a non-profit conference that we organized. i would like to tell you about the city and its urban sprawl and overwhelming poverty, but all i saw was the hotel, the conference center, and the inside of my eyelids.
...or was it...
there are some of you who might appreciate this - it was about 12.15am one morning and i had just returned to my room where i turned on the tv in the hopes of having it lull me to sleep. as i was flipping through the channels, i saw a familiar face....i thought and looked more closely and sure enough it was a very young looking Mark from the upcoming season of the Real World/Road Rules Challenge: Gauntlet II and several previous challenges. the premise appeared to be that a hitchhiker had stolen his truck and wallet and so he himself was hitchhiking, some guy picked him up and picked him up and after 30 seconds of conversation offered him a job as a lifeguard at the santa monica beach club. he arrived, blah, blah, blah, bad plot, stupid movie...falling a..sl..eep...him and woman walking to jacuzzi.... then all of a sudden its all asses and elbows, and i'm wide awake. some of you might point out that i should have seen this coming, but i was tired so leave me alone. anyway, that prompted a quick channel change (lest it somehow show up on the hotel bill even though i never pressed any buttons, i swear, i think Cine Action becomes Cine Erotica after midnight) and a note to self to tell the wife....because she likes Mark and its fun to crush people's perceptions of other people.
i really am truly sorry that this is the best story that i have to tell after so much time off, but other stories would be work-related or inside jokes, and that's just not cool.
anyway, i just got done with the madness and am moving this weekend into the new ITP (for ATL people) residence, where i shall be able to again live a normal life and have extra time to write and look for music.
unfortunately, i have had no time to look for or buy new music although the list is getting longer of bands to check out and music to buy, beg, borrow, or steal.
i'm open to suggestions for music and anything else you might like to suggest to me....please keep in mind i'm not very flexible.
some tracks that have nothing to do with anything:
last days of april - i'm calm now
antarctica
- absence
- full crescent crusade
dntel - life is full of possibilities
starflyer 59 - wake up early
bear vs. shark
- 5,6 kids
- the great dinosaurs with fifties section
- seven stop hold restart
joan of arc - white out
::beaner::
10.18.2005
cause and effect....
so i first remember hearing about Reggie and the Full Effect when their album promotional copy came out, mainly because it was so good and so weird in so many ways. it came out when emo was burgeoning right around 2000 and some of the songs were awesome post-punk power pop masterpieces with tguk and anniversary-ish keyboards, some were more like an emo Adam Sandler. my memory is not always what i would like it to be, but i don't remember not thinking that "Reggie" was the keyboardist from tguk. however, apparently there was this whole "thing" over his real identity that i just found out about, whatever. the band consists of James Dewees (the keyboardist and one-time drummer for seminal hardcore band Coalesce) and that is it, just him and his weird sense of humor.
the song that caught my attention back then was called "dwarf invasion", it was written about, well, a dwarf invasion. the lyrics went something like this:
" (hoch hoch.....[repeated many times in background])
hallo americans
this is claus from common denominators
that's the band you are listening to right now
we are from finland
this is our debut album here in america, das grund
this is the dwarf invasion blah
one two three four
you are not my friend
you are my foe
you are two feet tall
you have got to go
this is dwarf invasion (dwarf invasion)
dwarf invasion (dwarf invasion) (dwarf invasion) (dwarf invasion)
shut up dirk
this is not a friend
you are very small
you can barely stand up to me
you can't play basketball
this is dwarf invasion (dwarf invasion)
thank you very much for having us in your country
we'll see you next year
goodnight
go back to the room
go back
so not the most serious thing i have ever heard, but it was funny and the rest of the album was good.
reggie fell off my radar for a little while during the time that screamo and other harder versions of this music occupied my music listening hours, and, to be honest, stuff that was less of a joke and more serious.
pick back up in the present day and i just heard i song from their new album Songs Not to Get Married To on Vagrant that i really like. apparently he just got a divorce, hence the name of the album, and the new stuff is a little different than it used to be, here is a quote from the man himself:
"This is my new record. It is a little less silly than the last three, but I recently got divorced and lost everything so I don't have much to celebrate these days. However, I am still a happy camper, just single camping now. I hope you enjoy the new record and if my ex-wife is one of those unknown people who gets one of these bios…wow, you scored hella good huh?"
so, yeah... there's no bitterness there. a little more of the Coalesce side of him comes through in some metal-ish songs, but there are also some pop gems included.
anyway, all of that to say that i liked the song and thought that you might also enjoy it, so here you go:
- get well soon
and some other songs from the new album:
- what the hell is contempt?
- what the hell is stipulation?
and an old song just for the hell of it from promotional copy, mainly becuase i can't find the dwarf invasion mp3 anywhere on the whole wide worldwide web:
- from me 2 u
::bye bye::
10.13.2005
i just couldn't stop laughing....
i found out this morning that one of my good friends (who i love dearly) is thinking of getting a new puppy. when asked by my wife what breed, she replied "a golden doodle".... dead silence on my end while this was being relayed to me. i finally broke down and asked what a "golden doodle" is and was directed to www.atlantagoldendoodles.com . apparently, this is a mix between a golden retriever and a poodle. i did some research and found a link to www.goldendoodles.com, where i also found a breed called a "labradoodle".
let the hilarity ensue....
in light of my recent discovery of these cross-breeds, i have some suggestions for other crosses that might involve the ubiquitous poodle:
weinoodle
rottwoodle
shitzoodle
st. bernoodle
great doodle (the mechanics of this breeding session would be mind boggling)
australian shepoodle
chihuawoodle
i also found this quote on www.goldendoodles.com:
"The size of the Dood depends on its parentage."
it just seems so obvious that the parentage having something to do with the size of the ... oh wait, they didn't, did they? they did...
what happens if you get a golden shower from a golden doodle?
10.12.2005
out of necessity...
so now that my favorite poker blog/news site has my blog linked on their page, i feel compelled to update and post more...also i just wanted to.
Brunch for the Bayou - this was a great event and in its entirety (auction, poker tourney, donations, etc) i overheard someone say that they were going to clear about $50k for Operation: Home Delivery and Habitat for Humanity. the tourney itself went well (mostly because i was the tourney director, ahem) and was won by Sammy "killer" Reid, go here for a complete update.
i was watching steven's untitled rock show on fuse while doing something else that needed decent background music and as i was about to turn off the tv and head to bed and i hear the opening notes of one of the best songs ever written... "seven" by Sunny Day Real Estate. in high school (when the album diary came out) my parents didn't pay for MTV so i never got a chance to see this video on alternative nation or 120 minutes, and believe it or not this was the first time i had ever seen it. it was low tech brilliance at a time before internet and digital editing on home pc's... i salivated over every second of it, and marveled at how young Jeremy looks, especially with the nose ring. ahhh, the good old days. i listened to the whole album on my hi-tech ipod today and loved it again. i could almost close my eyes and be back in high school.
i just followed a bunch of links while looking for links and spent a lot of time reading old forums and message boards from when SDRE broke up what seems like a milion years ago and then got back together....all of that to say that i have used up all of my blog time this evening.
there is more to write about, but that will come at a later date...i promise.
9.23.2005
let's make this short and sweet...
when it comes to reviewing albums, i'm not very good at the superfluous flowing descriptions of the sound contained within a record. the stuff that usually ends up not telling you anything at all about whether or not you will like the album, just leaves you with an adjective overdose.
so my new addition to this blog will be short/sweet album reviews that will tell you if i like the record or not, and that is it. of course, you then would have to trust my judgement which is your own decision anyway. i like what i like and can't be held liable for an album that you buy and don't like....although i'm sure that i will end being sued by a disgruntled reader for misleading album reviews...
also keep in mind that i don't have unlimited funds or labels sending me stuff to review, so i have to buy albums that i think i will like to start with, so a lot of my reviews will be positive.... unless someone, or a label, wants to provide me with material for reviewing ..... (anyone, hello?) in which case, there would be negative reviews to balance out the glowing reviews, presumably.
on with the show:
minus the bear, menos el oso, suicide squeeze (2005)
"brilliant. buy it if you like the old stuff, buy it if you've never heard it....just listen to it."
statistics, often lie, jade tree (2005)
"awesome. the whole album. start to finish. emo-tronic."
(i already talked about this band, see below, and i might copyright the name of my new sub-sub-genre so back off)
death cab for cutie, plans, atlantic/barsuk (2005)
"spectacular, just absolutely spectacular. no major label letdown, just more of the same beautiful songcrafting."
that is all for now, or at least until i can buy more music.
later...
9.20.2005
the numbers don't lie...
statistics ::
hailing from Omaha and the scene that has produced so much incredible music recently, Denver Dalley is one hell of a one man band. the guitarist and co-songwriter of the much-lauded band Desaparecidos, and oft-overshadowed by the wine drinking, Wynona Rider dating frontman, Conor Oberst, Denver has begun to cast his own shadows as the impoetus behind statistics. he plays all instruments (with a little help from some friends on a few tracks) and writes all songs, and does both of these very well. the music is straight-foward rock with some electro-pop influences and nostalgic guitar work that starts as a one would think a singer-songwriter would start an album, soft strumming and picked guitar with soft vocals ... then in comes the drums and the bass and the rock. dynamically varied and musically delicious, i love this stuff. this is what i have come to expect from middle america, from the early-90's through to today, solid and refreshing music that consistently helps to define the genre. get these songs and then turn up the volume and bask in the glow of all that is good in music:
- final broadcast
- reminisce
- another day
(*buy* the new album often lie from Jade Tree Records)
check out some other tunes from Jade Tree Records:
the loved ones - the loved ones
strike anywhere - chorus of one
despitado - burning house
breather resist - a social worker's nightmare
onelinedrawing - we had a deal
jets to brazil - resistance is futile
the promise ring - why did we ever meet
9.16.2005
these are crazy, crazy nights... oh yeah...
so sorry to have been gone so long .... there has been a major family emergency, a brother with bruises on his brain, and house contracts falling through, work, commute, no laptop, etc....
i don't like excuses but those are my reasons for being absent.
i have my laptop back, and i almost have it back to where it was before it decided to go on vacation. this will make it much easier for me to post.
i have music to talk about, and poker, and college football (the Dawgs are 2-0, although i don't feel as good about that as i should) and other things, which will also make it easier to write.
however, this will all be started next week as it is my 1 year wedding anniversay this weekend and i will be otherwise occupied.
so please keep coming back as i get back on track/into the swing of things/on top of things, and other assorted cliches about getting knocked down and fighting back up (can i escape this post without using another cliche...)...., ....; ....: .... . .
double points if you can name the artist and song referenced in the title of this post
(negative double points if you have to use a search engine to get the answer).
answer to follow...
9.09.2005
hurricane relief gambling...
the guys over at wicked chops poker are hosting a NLH tourney with raised funds to go toward the Katrina relief efforts. this is a great opportunity to play some un-free poker (my favorite)and contribute to a good cause.
here are the details:
When: Sunday, September 25th at 12pm.
Where: Copeland's of New Orleans Restaurant at Tower Place in Buckhead
What: No Limit Texas Hold'em tournament
Entry: $100 - Proceeds go to Habitat for Humanity’s "Operation Home Delivery"
Prizes: Will be announced early next week.
Register: Email your name and phone number to contact@wickedchopspoker.com
there are only 60 spots available, so sign up now!!
plus .... i will be a dealer at this shindig, so feel free to come and hurl insults at me while i desperately try to do math in my head figuring out split pots (you only get to insult me if you have paid the fee and are playing, no showing up just for heckling purposes).
9.02.2005
changing gears? entire mindsets and strategy...
forget about just changing gears during a sit'n'go or a tournament, i have discovered that changing mindsets and strategies for each separate game that i play is even more crucial and possibly more difficult and costly.
if you read this blog, then you know i work for a non-profit and if you know what that means then you also know that i don't make a lot of money. i also live in atlanta where there are no casinos and buying into games is technically illegal.
put all of this together and it means that i play a lot of free poker, only cash games if and when i can afford them( i know, if i were good enough i would be able to continually stake myself with cash game winnings, but the cards just don't fall like that sometimes).
however, even free poker is not just free poker, there is internet play and live tournament play....here i will discuss the 3 mindsets and the trouble that exists when i am living in all 3 of them at the same time.
internet free poker: i have started playing on espn.com at their single table tournament site which is infinitely preferrable to the come and go melee of the other free sites. even in this format though, one encounters the neverending line of "all-in" players who usually go out by the second or third hand. once this has run its course and you have folded even the pocket rockets you were dealt because someone will chase a flush or straight to the river no matter what you bet, my real single-table tourney internet strategy begins: i will limp in and call almost anything before the flop and will chase almost anything else. of course there are exceptions to this rule as there are every other, obvious folds and even more obvious bets can be seen for what they are when a flop comes off. there is still some "reading" of other players involved but when it comes down to it free is free and you can only really start playing real cash-game style poker when you get to heads-up action. following my earlier statement, there are caveats to this also, but fewer. i have had some success with this "style" but am hesitant to improve my game because ... what is the point of becoming a really good free poker player? except maybe trying to win a satellite to get into another satellite to get into an .... ad nauseam, at which point i would probably suck it up and pay $60 to get myself a few rungs up the ladder.
look for me: i play under the name chazbeaner.
live free poker: to the untrained eye and the guys who scoff at the thought of lowering theselves to this point, the style of game play at these events is not the same as it is on the internet. you cannot call everything before the flop and you most definitely cannot chase everything to the river. i'm not sure why the mindset is different, especially since most of the same people that play online play at the local watering holes, but it is. here you have to play super-tight from the get go and when you do come into a hand you have to come in strong and come in with the nuts, or else. there are chasers out there and they will suck out on you sometimes, but when most people playing are there just trying to outlast their buddy at the next table for bragging rights, they will fold and give you the pot. this is not to say that this is surefire and at live games, there is a lot more reading happening, but if you can pull those people out of the sea of strangers you can take their free poker money. unfortunately for me, i usually get sucked out on by someone who has no friends in the room....or is just a better free poker player than i am. this will segue into the same question i asked in the previous section .... what is the point of becoming a really good free poker player? apart from winning the $50 bar tab at the end of the night, which i guess is some incentive.
live not-free poker: this is what i would play every day if i could. the rush, the adrenaline, the anticipation of pitting yourself against someone else for actual monetary stakes....that's what it is all about. style, reading opponents, everything i put in quotation marks earlier actually counts in this game. i'm still learning to apply and use odds, but i don't have a left brain so math and probability are not my fortes while a hand is running its course. however, i crave the psychological aspect of these live cash games....watching, reading, noting moves, movement, raise strategy, calling strategy, folding strategy... knowing just what it takes and how much of a raise or bet it will take to get someone to lay down their hand. the money winning plays a small part, but the competition and mindset is just addictive for me. i've been told that i have a "tight-aggressive" style, but i'm not sure what that means... i just tend to go a lot on feeling and what my gut instinct is telling me about a hand. sometimes my gut lets me down, but like i said i'm working on tempering that instinct with math. i just love it, every second of it ... unless it is 2am and my alarm is set to go off 5 minutes later, in which case i will forego the 4-way battle to the death and just divvy up the money ... i'm also a realist.
so anyway, i've said all of that to say this: changing mindset and strategy is extremely important to me and has actually helped me prepare for changing gears within a tournament style cash game. however, it can be costly if i don't do it.
take this 4 day stretch for example:
Saturday night: played a single table cash game and won $50 (i know small potatoes, but whatever...it's $50 more than i had when i started). felt good, played relatively well, not any embarassing suck outs on my part to keep myself in the game.
Monday night: sat down at my friend's computer to play a single table espn tourney. started playing immediately like it was a cash game, took me too long to remember to adjust and i went out 4th....i was raising with a decent hand trying to push people out and getting called and sucked out on, also bluffing and then getting called and just straight up beat. started a new table, adjusted my mindset and strategy, and won the table.
Tuesday night: went to play a live free game at a local bar, sat down and started playing free internet poker.... i was calling and chasing and getting my ass beat like a delinquent child. i tightened up and started coming correct, but by that time my stack had dwindled and i ended up all in a little while later with Kh8h and going down hard to pocket Q's. frustrated i paid for my bar tab with my own money and went home.
i play free poker because it is what i can afford, but give me a cash game and one mindset to live with anyday.
espn.com has part I of a Phil Gordon column about mastering the fundamentals of poker: position and dominated hands. good read and a great reminder that poker is not always trickeration and check-raises.
and since i started writing this post they have put up a Steve Rosenbloom article about cracking aces, changing table strategy, and tournaments with quick blind levels.
you see, the changing table strategy part is in there, i should definitely be writing for ESPN.
don't even wonder....there is still no word on the laptop i may or may not have once owned....yarr.
9.01.2005
it's times like these...
i just sat and watched the images of the hurricane aftermath last night in shock.... what can you even say. the pleading phone calls from nurses in dire need of help all the way down to the pictures of dogs sitting on rooftops waiting for someone to come and get them. the lawlessness and desperation were something out of an apocalyptic movie, gangs have raided gun shops and are terrorizing those that survived with ak-47's, even hampering search and rescue and evacuation missions. what in the hell is happening...?
it also seems that the majority of the newscasts have focused on the major city of New Orleans. however, in my humble opinion, based on the little information available and the images that i have seen, Mississippi might have suffered the most devastating loss. more than the majority of the state's income is generated by the casinos lining the coast that antiquated laws dictated be built on floating barges. of course, if they are floating and the water that they are floating on raises, so do the buildings... and when the water moves inland, so also do the structures. this is why the casinos that were forced to float are now located where they should have originally been, on land....actually across the coastal road and on top of apartment complexes and other assorted unfortunate buildings.
i have never been to Biloxi, Tunica, or even New Orleans but i know someone who has...
snake over at Wicked Chops Poker has written an excellent post about the hurricane and its effect on the gaming industry along the gulf coast....and the memories he has of the trips made and, if i know him, the money made in those poker rooms. go there and read and then take his advice and see if there is something you can do.
i guess you just couldn't ever imagine that the memories you have of a place might actually outlast the place itself.
i will be at the 2006 Whiskey Fest on sunday at park tavern in atlanta, watching some cover bands (which for some odd reason i have a soft spot for, especially 80's cover bands...in fact, i saw a band called member's only in Athens about 4 years ago, anybody know if they still exist?) and drinking some delicious nectar.
more importantly, the event has now become a relief fund raising effort for the hurricane victims. there are many events like this that will be going on this weekend and for the next several weeks, and i encourage you to get out or pick up a phone or click on a link and help out in any way that you can.
by the way, still no laptop....awesome.
8.29.2005
still no laptop and it's been 2 weeks...
needless to say, i'm frustrated.
so my brother told me to check out Hail Social after he caught them opening up for Rainer Maria and i'm glad that he did. i really like what i have heard from these guys so far. it is very much along the lines of a lot of indie rock that is coming out nowadays sort of an updated garage sound, but this is done well and has a little more emphasis on the rock part of that description... and its a little less choppy and more smoothed out than most stuff than you will hear in this genre. vocals can be key to me for a band, and these vocals are dynamic and strong, the sound is carried by sustained and melodic underlying guitar lines. i also like to hear the bass and drums working together as they should as the percussive segment of the band, instead of the bass mimicing the harmony line or the vocals. this is just and all-around great sound and very attractive to my ear. also the graphics are sweet (said like Kip)...i mean, come on, it's a skull with an old-school skater-wave haircut....that's just cool. anyway, as always i will let you make up your own mind...here are some songs:
- start/stop
- get in the car
- and as always you can *stream* music at their myspace page.
and just in case you don't know who Rainer Maria is, here are some of their tracks:
- the double life
- ears ring
- artificial light
i know that my posting frequency has to be higher to keep people interested but without a computer it is just a pain in the ass to get it done, so if you are still reading i appreciate it greatly.
i have a lot to write about and i am storing posts in my head for when the laptop comes back...
you see, college football starts this weekend and i haven't even written one word about the upcoming season... and apparently the popular pick amongst sports writers is a first week upset of Boise State over Georgia .... what!! are you kidding me, they might be good on their smurf turf but between the hedges? no way... there will be more to come on this, but possibly not before this game actually takes place so i may be eating my words before they have even come out of my mouth.... but i highly doubt it, very highly, higher than highly, "Hi, Lee!", "are you high, Leigh?".
god i hope the geek squad gives me back my laptop soon...
8.23.2005
a quick fix...
here are some new/old mp3s for your perusal, as you'll remember the original format of this blog...
new::
Breather (shoegazer-ish, noise pop...again a discovery courtesy of mystery&misery)
- all fall away
- stay in love
- cleopatras dream
- drawn
- stars (live)
- all fall away (migraine mix)
John Vanderslice (new album pixel revolt available for pre-ordering thru Barsuk)
- exodus damage
- trance manual
old::
The Get Up Kids (R.I.P... god rest their souls) tguk just broke up and played their last show on 7/2/05 in KC...although i wasn't a huge fan of their newest efforts, i lived, ate , and breathed their first few releases... and the news of the end of their 10-year run gave me a little bit of a lump in my throat, kind of like one of the final nails in the coffin of the mid to late-90s emo/indie scene that gave birth to me. they have realeased a live album which is now available in stores and, if it does truly capture their live performance energy and features some old stuff, it should be one hell of a sing-along treat...here is a taste of them live and some older studio greats:
- ten minutes (live)
- woodson
- red letter day
the gloria record ... also now defunct but another band whose members, in one form or another, helped to shape my musical development (this is also a clue pointing toward the revelation, which may also be built up now beyond all expectation).
- tired and uninspired
- ascension dream (ram)
- the immovable motorist (ram)
- cinema air (ram)
8.21.2005
word verification...
so i've been getting "comment spam" on my innocent little blog and apparently the only way to combat this is to use word verification in the comment's section. all this means is that you have to type in the letters that you see before you can comment, something that a spam program cannot do. please don't let this discourage you from commenting as i would love to hear from each and every one of you... although i'm not sure that the level of commenting could get much lower... so keep up the good work and thanks for all of the feedback! ahhh, sarcasm...
what have we become...
...i just saw the m&m's commercial featuring the Iron and Wine cover of such great heights followed by a jaguar commerical with hardcore days and softcore nights by Aqueduct...
apparently i wasn't the only one paying attention to TV Licensing 101.
i'm not sure what to do, can i have a musical crush that essentially has a commercial jingle... in all reality, am i going to stop listening to either of the afore-mentioned artists...? probably not. if anything, this situation just goes to show the increasing parity and a leveling of the playing field between indie and major labels when it comes to exposing their bands to mainstream audiences.
8.18.2005
abort, abort, abort...
so the laptop crashed... and it will be out of commission for about 2 weeks and they will probably have to replace the hard drive, brilliant... re-installing all software programs, reorganizing all the music... just damn.
all of that to say that i will post as often as i can from the varied and sundry places that i can get to a computer, so please be patient and if you read this regularly know that you might be the only one...
here is my latest music crush:
hailing from oklahoma these guys put out an EP and full length (this year) on Barsuk Records, former home of the ever popular and increasingly influential Death Cab for Cutie. this is the kind of electro/synth-pop that i love, some guitars and/or piano but mostly synthesisers with underlying boom-bip beats and immediately catchy melodies. i have had some mp3s on my ipod for a few months but i only just finally bought the full album. my measure of a good album is one that you really want to start again when it is finished so that you can experience it again, it's been a while for me on that count....so i sing this album's praises. have a listen for yourself, especially the g'n'r song....perfect:
- assignment #1: heart design
- growing up with g'n'r
- dinner mints demo
- post rock & slightly seasoned
please be patient and keep reading.
btw... this was not the "revelation" that i mentioned before. that will be my cliffhanger to keep you coming back...
8.16.2005
a little help from my friends...
if i were to try and go legit and get my own site and then posted a select few songs from my own back catalog, would i get slapped with a C&D, or worse, a lawsuit? is it considered illegal if it is just a few songs to showcase an artist or something? does anybody know the correct answer to this?
...or, can anyone recommend a good web hosting service, taking into consideration that i know nothing about building websites?
8.15.2005
"you go and save the best for last"...
so the last day of the conference was by far better than the first 2 days combined....for me anyway. i have so much to write about and so many pithy comments to make that i have actually been trying to put off writing this post because it looms in my mind as this monster that deserves all of my time and goodness, it needs to be funny and poignant and blah.... anyway, yesterday i was recovering from the day that you are about to read about by going to a wedding shower in big canoe, ga, so that gave me excuse #1, then it was the end of the weekend and there was laundry, etc...(excuses #2-7) and then there is this introduction and explaining why i'm not writing about that day that is helping me not write about the last day....
so i'll just get on with it... i'm going to be horribly original and just work my way through chronologically:
12pm (noon) - finally get out of bed after watching nick cannon's "wild 'n out" and laguna beach for like 2 hours... like, oh my god.
1pm - 2:30pm - eat mellow mushroom for lunch, for the second time in as many days....its just really good food...
3pm - 3:45pm - watch more of the same MTV drivel and nap some more...
4pm - 5pm - this was the first AMC+F event of the day that we attended. it was a panel entitled DIY: true confessions of indie artists and entrepreneurs. this was the first industry panel that i have ever been to and i was very underwhelmed and unimpressed. apparently, the people who work behind the rock stars run on the same schedule as their puppets and show up a good 20-30 mins late. however, this wasn't as bad as the constant stream of people that were coming and going while everyone was trying to listen. its very hard to concentrate when people are trying to give you demos and cds in the middle of the panel and then coming back 5 mins later to reclaim their wares when they realize that you really aren't as important as they might have thought (yes, this actually happened to us...humbling to say the least). although, concentrating on the panel might have been easier if i didn't hear a constant stream of self-promotion coming out of most of them. one guy kept talking about this super-influential band that he was in from 1971-1974 that never recorded a retail album and only distributed to rock journalists....hey thanks, now i know what it takes to put out an album....to nobody. this other guy's position was that being on an indie or major is irrelevant because they are all being bought out by each other, brilliant!, just what i like to hear from a panelist talking about indie artists and entrepreneurs. the most helpful and interesting people of the whole lot were John Szuch (owner, Deep Elm) and Shaun Rogers (vp int'l marketing/a&r, SubPop). they described what it's actually like for indie artists to get heard and what the labels can and cannot do to help (tv licensing, promotion, etc....). it was very informative and i would kill for Shaun Roger's job. most painful moment: a panelist referenced how many albums Death Cab had sold on SubPop before going to Atlantic, Shaun looked a little exasperated as he pointed out that Death Cab was on Barsuk and The Postal Service is on SubPop. (i'm a snob...)
oh, i almost forgot ... 2-foot long fingernail girl was there with her entourage, but left 10 minutes into the thing as part of that neverending stream i mentioned.
5:30 - 7:30pm - i didn't think that my second opportunity to see second shift would come so quickly....but it did and at the tiny tapas cafe, fuego. this performance, with my readiness in place, far outstripped the performance at 10high. i thouroughly enjoyed the show in this small space, and i realized that i have always enjoyed shows more in smaller spaces....so i may stick to those from now on. the guitar parts were more distinguishable, the vocals were clearer, and it seemed that the band was really playing off the crowd. here's the thing that struck me the most: i was singing along to some of the hooks....already, after only one live performance....apparently i wasn't as distracted the first time as i thought. this is huge for me because i'm not usually much of a sing-alonger these days and i rarely find songs that stick in my head after one listen....even if they do it's usually from a CD or radio source, not a live show. me and my "asst. editor" have moved from enjoying the live show to wanting to hear something from the studio to clarify their sound even more in our head-ears. good stuff...good times.
8:00 - 10:45pm - we left the small party and went to the big party.... downtown rocks, known as dtr to the cool kids, is a free concert series put on by 99x at underground in which thousands of teenagers pack themselves into the narrowest street in all of atlanta and crowd-surf and mosh to the filler music between sets....needless to say, not my scene. it quickly becomes my scene when the words backstage/vip become involved. i now will go into this completely elitist and self-serving rant about how cool it is to have access: it is really freakin' cool.... i was standing just a few feet from Butch Vig and couldn't say a word to him, what do you say to the guy who produced Nevermind, Gish, and Sonic Youth? exactly, mouth agape wonderment....nothing, speechless, and i'm a total dork. one i recovered, we went up to the vip "loft" that overlooked the street and ate free food and drank free booze and hung out with "the beautiful people"....which was also pretty cool. standing apart from the unwashed masses and observing is definitely an experience, people do really stupid shit in crowds....it was so stupid that shirley manson stopped singing and pointedly asked a few members of the crowd to join the army if they wanted to fight and leave the rest of us to enjoy the music ... i thought that was great.
11:00pm - 11:10pm - we were advised to go and see a band named lennex play at future (while trying to find a link for this club, i found a posting for a vampire meet-up there, but no website, a sign of things to come). there were pictures of naked anime girls on the walls, then a little guy dressed inleather carrying a whip... somthing should have tipped me off as to the sound of the band, i'm not sure what but i feel like i should have noticed something.... the band was "incubus doors down" or "three doors incubus", maybe "incudoors down"...i'm done now. anyway, there was a trumpet and we left....what is it with random brass instruments and bands?
11:15pm - 11:50pm - back to the loft, more drinks, food and hanging out with other people who felt out of place... who feels in place at these things? everybody i met got in through a friend of a friend and couldn't believe they were hanging out there ... is there just one central friend that everybody in atlanta knows?
11:55:30 pm - 11:56:30 pm - i tried to be cool while introducing myself to John Szuch(the deep elm guy) while he was standing in line for a drink at underground and failed miserably... but at least i said "hi"... he told me to joing their e-mail list and check out their new bands, i said ok.... but the new will never be the old (pop unknown, camber, brandston, planes mistaken for stars, the appleseed cast, etc...) , oh well....maybe i'll give it a shot.
12:00 (midnight) - 1:00am - why is it that the 30-year-old guys rocked my face more than any other "new and upcoming" band that i saw all weekend. i haven't seen five eight play in about 4 years and they have/have not changed a bit .... they still write really good pure rock songs in the old-school athens way, but the songs also have a great indie-rock edge that i am in love with again. the self-titled album put out last year is light years better than the good nurse album put out on deep elm, for the love of all that is holy...buy it. oh by the way, you have never seen such a good live show, mike was actually hanging upside down from the framing of the stage, throwing guitar stands, and yelling at the crowd...it was awesome!!
here are some songs from the new album:
- criminal
- i'm still around
- magnetic fields
- the liquor song
- square peg
- bad juices
find some of the old stuff from their site and give it a listen also, you won't be disappointed.
1:00am - ? - hanging out, drinking, sleeping ... weekend done.
i will now return to a regular schedule and normal, regular guy postings.... i already have a huge emo-geek revelation to make, maybe tomorrow, or maybe i'll take a day off.
8.13.2005
day two...
my plans for last night completely went to pieces as far as the list that i put together earlier.... instead i went to the loft to attend the 99x local's only event. i would like to say that i made a good choice, but, apart from hanging out with some really good friends, good friday experiment was the best band that played last night and remains the best that i have seen this weekend...
the whigs put on a high energy show and play some good tunes but did not hold my attention as much as i thought they would. anyway, i can't even find any tracks of theirs so that you can make up your own damn mind...
this is a very short post because i am hungover as well.
8.12.2005
holy crap i forgot about the breakdancers...
the only reason that we stayed at the loft so long was to watch these 2 guys freakin' kill it on the dance floor while dj quiz was spinning... it was like poetry, so fluid and captivating. this was the closest i have ever been to people who actually know what they're doing, not the drunk guy at the wedding reception who does the worm and then spins into a little pose at the end....this was body-bending slack-jaw inducing "fo' real" breakdancing... and that's all i have to say about that.
i've been told to go see the whigs at the loft tonight, so i'll probably do that.
"that's how it was on the first day"...
so day one of Atlantis is over and it was quite an interesting day... i will start with the negative and move onto the positive to finish on a high note going into tomorrow.
lowlights:
1. parking - i feel like i spent most of the evening driving around trying to find a parking spot that wasn't going to cost me anywhere from $10 - $15. i have this inbred desire for the "quest" - the neverending search for the best/free parking, so i spent quite some time driving in circles around venues. i ended the night having visited 4 venues and only paying $5 total....score.
2. drop bombz collective - we went to the loft to try and catch some Arc the Finger Records acts (will be discussed later) and got there too early... we ended up enduring only as much of the "collective" as we possibly could, and being illegally parked was not worth the show. unfortunately we left to try and find better parking and never found any so we drove away for good apparently about 10 mins before all of the good shit dropped. they didn't so much as sample old recordings so much as play the entire songs with a beat underneath them and imcomprehensible rhymes over the top. i'm usually loathe to criticize any individual's artistic efforts, but i feel like they could have been more creative with their musical stylings.
3. unknown band at the star bar - there was a saxophone involved and a funny hat and an empty room, 15 minutes later we were gone.
4. it was my friend's bithday and he ended up as DD - and that just sucks all around.
highlights (starting at the beginning of the night):
1. Minamina Goodsong - i went back out to fuego to catch some of the devil stole the beat showcases that they were holding early in the afternoon. i arrived just in time to catch this hip-hop act and was much more impresssed than i thought i was going to be. These guys are one of the acts on Arc the Finger that I was going to try to catch at a larger venue later in the night. the beats were orignal and catchy the performance was not affected and did not feel overly rehearsed. the flow of the performance was very good and they had some damn catchy songs, here are a couple of them:
- big
- the porch
the album Four Farmer Circus just came out and can be purchased here...
2. Good Friday Experiment - wow, i was really impressed with this band... they followed minamina at fuego (odd mix) and began setting up your basic drum, guitar, bass things then came the myriad of piano and organ things and i began to became very intrigued. the sound is updated psychadelic 70's organ rock.... at times mellow and atmospheric and more like experimental noise pop in others, whatever you want to call it, it all equals good and a band that you should definitely check out:
- full crush
- early ideas about light
- halocline
3. Second Shift - on a night that was marked by almost empty venues where i had been, second shift packed out 10high, an indication of the solid local following that they have garnered through their live shows. admittedly, this was the first time i had seen them live. i have met the lead singer on a couple of prior occasions, and he is a super nice, quiet, almost unassuming kind of guy.... however, put him on stage and he becomes a performer, literally a young Mick Jagger/Scott Weiland-esque performance that fascinated me. honestly, because of my fascination i was thouroughly distracted the entire show, it was like someone had flipped a switch on the guy and all i could do was stare. i've heard of rock stars having on-stage personas, but never having met anyone like that i never really bought it, until now. i don't mean to harp on this, but it really was an interesting revelation. anyway, the more i dwell on the show and try to pick out other parts of the performance, the more i liked it as a whole. the band was good and cohesive, they know how to perform and keep the crowd engaged. if i had to describe the sound i would say that they are a filled-out garage rock band... so take say, the strokes, add fuller, more complex guitars with good solos and then give julian casablancas some speed and backing vocals. they like to stray away from the standard song structure which i appreciate, as it adds some uniqueness to their songs, but the songs maintain a singalong, hooky quality at the same time. i also would really like to see them at a different venue with a better sound system and better acoustics (the system at 10high has always sounded a little "muddy" to me, and that may be because it is such a small space), maybe when they open for Louis XIV at the roxy. to make a long story short, i hated when it was done that i had been distracted....needless to say, i'm really looking forward to seeing second shift perform a second time...
- power in numbers
- *stream*
that was the end of the night, then there was sleep and an early alarm... my sleepface has been stolen for sure now...
8.11.2005
you never forget your first...
so i have have had an internal conflict coming up to this weekend as this is my first article ever concerning event coverage. you see, i wasn't sure what tone to take... do i try to write as a jaded, cynical know-it-all music journalist (like most major publications do) which i'm not or do i tell the truth that having a media badge and some VIP access was really cool and, whether or not people thought i was much more important than i really am, almost everyone i met was really friendly and nice.... i ended up deciding to go with what i know at the risk of geeking out and sounding like a dork.
so last night was a night of firsts for me....
my first "industry" party which included my first experience of waiting behind a velvet rope followed by my first experience of "knowing" somebody to get me on the other side before the unwashed masses. thinking about it, if the party was a first for me then i guess that everything that happened once i crossed the threshold would be a "first" (first step, words, drink, food, person i met, etc...at an "industry" party). the party was held at club eleven50 in midtown which is actually a pretty cool little space for an event. i met a lot of really nice folks and the people watching was incredible (i saw this one girl with fingernails that, if i had to guess and they were straightened out, had to be a least 2 feet long...as they were they were all curly and mangled, as a master of the obvious i would say that they are an attention getter... but seriously how do you get anything done? apparently she has 2 assistants). the event was well attended but musically speaking not much to cover, there were a lot of local personalities and "celebrities" but as i mentioned before putting faces with names is not necessarily my forte. the dj for the evening was DJ T’Challa of local ATL hip-hop act Minamina Goodsong and, with my limited knowledge of dj'ing skills, it was good....well, people seemed to be having fun.
now for the good stuff... following the official kick-off party was my first "industry event after-party", the devil stole the beat (again, instead of listing all new things, suffice it to say that once i walked through the door all was new to me, words, steps, people, etc...). this is an event thrown by Caren West and Wicked West PR (the folks who are handling the media for Atlantis) across the street from eleven50 at fuego, and exactly the kind of party that i was looking for and thought i would find earlier in the night but didn't. the folks at WWPR are some of the nicest people i have ever met (no, i'm not sucking up) and they throw a great party. the dj for this event was jay harren host of the radio show sunday school (great show on sunday nights from 8-10pm) on local alternative station 99x, he spun a great mix of indie, classic, and new rock (including the remix of "banquet" by Bloc Party, which is a great remix). i met a lot of local atlanta band members and some other, i'll say it again, really great people. fuego will actually host the rest of the devil stole the beat event over the weekend. they have lined up an impressive collection of bands who will play 45 minute sets from the hours of 3-6pm daily.
tonight will be spent between several clubs and i haven't nailed down exactly where i will be and when i will be there, but i will see second shift play at midnight at 10high in VA Highlands....hopefully i will see you there.
here are some tracks from a couple of bands whose member(s) i met last night....enjoy:
passerby (raw recordings, but good potential. jangly, noise pop)
- symptoms
- majority
- fast one
- t-shirt
morning state (i really like this.... mellow in places then hooky and poppy in others... a great sound)
- stream the music here and here
oh, another first for me .... finding out how widespread the use of myspace.com is. apparently, every band from the largest down to the smallest have a myspace site with which to disseminate music and news. i am woefully behind the curve on this and one might actually be able to download mp3s from the band's sites but i can't figure out how, maybe you have to sign up to get access? i don't know, but i need to get caught up with this...
8.09.2005
updates abound....
i have added 2 bands to my list:
city sleeps
one way letter
this also means that i have nailed down my friday night whereabouts ... i will be in hell.
Fri Aug. 12 - doors @ 6pm
hell(otherwise known as the basement) at the Masquerade: one way letter, city sleeps, goodnight city, lakeside, hank shaw, last november.
that takes care of three on my list.... any more help for me out there at all?
does anyone actually read this?
lost in a mythical city...
in preparation for going to the Atlantis Music Conference this weekend, i have been trying to narrow down the list of bands that i am going to see. here is my list so far:
jet by day
last november
the gates of berlin
the working title
the track record
so having said that, i would like any input that anyone has as to what bands need to be seen and which, if any, of the above i should skip. here is a list of the bands playing the Conference, please help me with my decision making process.... if you don't i can't be held responsible for the quality of music that will be posted this weekend.
i plan on attending the DIY: True Confessions of Indie Artists & Entrepreneurs panel on Saturday featuring label types like Shaun Rogers, VP of International Marketing/A&R for Sub Pop Records but more importantly in attendance will be John Szuch, owner of Deep Elm Records, and hopefully you will see an interview with him here post-facto....if he will talk to me, here's to hoping.
there are also parties of all types to attend; opening, VIP, "pool", and breakfast. i'm wondering if i will spot any music celebrities.... problem is, i'm not very up to date on my celebrity watching and knowledge, definitely not as much as this guy.
8.04.2005
one hell of a week...
so i've been quiet for a few days now but not for lack of desire (or good music, i even bought a CD) but for a lack of time, sleep, and an internet connection in my office....it has been the best worst week ever. i will now list the things that have conspired to render me with or, in most cases, without all of the aforementioned items:
1. scotch: NOUN: (used with a pl. verb) 1.The people of Scotland, 2. Scots English, 3. Scotch whisky. today, class, we will focus on definition number 3, which usually leaves one entirely unfocused.... so there we were, at an "Under the Sea" loft/warehouse party (all that was missing was Michael J. Fox playing Johnny Be Good on stage after not disappearing, i love those movies...i may or may not have owned the DVD box set at one point) and i had, for some reason, decided that scotch would be my poison of choice for the night(by night i mean day... starting at 3pm). girls may or may not have been wearing small bikinis, and the guys may or may not have been dressed like pirates (yarrr!!) and lifeguards, to be honest after too much of a bottle of whisky there are a lot of things that may or may not have happened. but i'm pretty sure i saw my brother there, and i know the local ATL hip-hop act Psyche Origami played and i think it was good .... i also was taken home....at 4am... with a sunday bruch date looming...
2. e-vet: NOUN: 1. (abbr.) emergency vet. also could be defined as "a good way to go broke in a hurry". i'm not complaining, thank god they exist, but for the love... i'm in the wrong line of work. anyway, earlier in the day the dog had an allergic reaction to a bug bite of some sort but it looked fine, we went out for a few hours, there was chewing, then bloody flesh-pulp, then came the e-vet, and now there are antibiotics, other assorted drugs, and that ridiculous looking "elizabethan" collar that they make the poor animals wear..... then it was 2am ... with a 6am alarm looming ... so i did what any red-blooded englishman who's been living in america most of his life would do and called in sick/late to work...
3. agitation: NOUN: 1. The act of agitating or the state of being agitated. so i'm not sure who this refers to, myself, my wife, or the dog. we, the humans, were agitated at the dog's constant agitation of his wound and collar ... at 4.30am in the damn morning, which is when i finally coaxed him down the stairs and out into the yard to relieve himself. i'm sorry, did i forget to mention that he started refusing to walk at one point because his collar kept getting caught on everything in sight, even the air itself.... by this time, i'm now functioning on even less sleep.
4. poker: NOUN: 1. Any of various card games played by two or more players who bet on the value of their hands. in this case various equals one, NLH, and i can assure you that the game i played in last night was decidedly on the "more" side of "two or more", although not quite to WSOP levels at times it felt that way as it took me 6 hours just to be able to finish in the money. i can also assure you that "the value of their hands" is a very subjective notion that usually is irrelevant if you are playing correct poker.... it would be more accurate to say "the value of the hand that one player can make the other player think that he has at any given time"(....unless you are playing free poker, in which case the concept of "value" is almost as meaningless as the term "bluff" and where "all in" and "call" seem to be the extent of most people's vocabulary.). fortunately, i was playing very un-free poker and with some very good poker players. i won't mention who or where (legal and safety reasons), but thanks for the invite guys .... the play was good, the cards were even better (for me).
5. profit: NOUN: 1. An advantageous gain or return; benefit, 2. The return received on a business undertaking after all operating expenses have been met. this "return" is what most companies and organizations use to purchase things like updated computer systems, software, and other such useful business aids. inversely, without profits one cannot buy those kind of items. i work for this antithesis, a non-profit organization, and as such there are no....well...profits with which to procure...well...anything. as a result of this, i found myself without my office internet and e-mail for the last 48 hours. to all of my friends in the corporate world, imagine what would happen if your entire head office was without an internet connection and corporate e-mail for 48 hrs., yeah exactly.... pandemonium. what happened at my office you ask? i can now challenge all-comers to a freecell deathmatch, and i will kick all of their asses. i would play spider solitaire but we run only Windows 2000 here at my office, no shit.
i think i'm done now and so is this week.... on to the next and a brief list of things that will contend to steal my sleepface in the coming days:
1. the wife got a job, so there will be celebrating...
2. i have media credentials for the Atlantis Music Conference, so look for posts covering this event and hopefully some new musical discoveries.
i bought the soundtrack for Friday Night Lights finally and it is awesome and so are Explosions in the Sky. if you missed my previous post concerning both of these things, read it.
here are some tracks for your listening pleasure:
Enon
- shave
- natural disasters
- believo!
- rubber car
- come into
TV on the Radio - dreams
Bear vs. Shark - 5,6 kids
Innaway - threat hawk
7.28.2005
i'm done now...
i'm now going to bring my aspirations and expectations down to the correct level.
thanks to one of my favorite music bloggers, mystery and misery, i have discovered the band The Potomac Accord, y me gusta mucho. here is how m&m describes the music (he does a fantastic job of it):
here are some songs:"The Potomac Accord create beautiful piano driven songs (along with a bass, violin, and percussion) that fall into the same realm of Mogwai and Godspeed You Black Emperor, but with emo-esque vocals (Slint and Cursive if you will). Their music is dark, melancholic, powerful, and full of passion (post-rock slo-core)."
(from In One Hundred Years the Prize Will be Forgotten)
- a quiet white
(from Silver Line on a Black Sea )
- are they careless
- maya
- to portland, maine
here is some other music from First Flight Records...
emery reel:
- his hammer is my axe
the floating city:
- kansas city
- where are you
anamude:
- urban comfort #2
the best post ever...
so my wife told me to write a post and title it "the best post ever" and then actually write the best post ever ... what kind of pressure is that? i mean, come on, the best post ever? do i find the most intense emotional music that will change my life and yours forever so that you will actually never read this blog again because you have finally reached a musical epiphany and no longer feel the need to explore or encounter new music of any kind... or do i write some interminable diatribe that lays bare the fabric of our society with cutting insight and scathing irony mixed with subtle, yet undeniable, humor while exposing my soul in an endearing and tragic manner.
i have no idea what any of that meant and i have now buckled under the weight of it all....
oh, the tortured life of a blogger.
i'm so emo right now... or am i
7.27.2005
dragonfly in the sky...
i'm pretty sure the reading rainbow song was "butterfly in the sky" but i have adapted the lyrics for my needs...
my best friend, and author of the blog chinese food or pizza?, is now the head chef of the restaurant Dragonfly in Tamarindo, Costa Rica...
i've never been so proud... *tear*
ironically though, he will be serving neither chinese food nor pizza...
7.22.2005
scary good...
these are things that are good, but sometimes in a scary way...
- Tiger Woods / Phil Ivey ... you know the first name but you have probably never heard the second. Ivey is considered the Tiger Woods of poker, mainly because he is young, black, and scary good at what he does. there is a great quote about this parallel that I read in an article by ESPN.com Poker Analyst Steve Rosenbloom:
"Take Tiger in the sand. We see his situation, we watch him consider his options, we wait for something magical. Now take Ivey with pocket 5's in the small blind. Same thing."
Much like Tiger, Ivey is approaching the record books with alarming speed. Tiger has hit 10 majors at a younger age than Nicklaus did looking to equal the 18 major feat at a younger age than his idol, and so Ivey has reached his fourth WSOP bracelet on track to hit the record 10 WSOP bracelets at a much younger age than poker legend Doyle Brunson. According to Phil Gordon, if Ivey keeps playing at this level he will get his 10th WSOP bracelet within the next 4 years. To put that into perspective, Doyle Brunson just won his 10th bracelet at the age of 73...Ivey is only 28.
- there is a great, nay magnificent, scream from 1:25 - 1:30 in Iron Maiden's "The Number of the Beast". the scream is a little Roger Daltry-ish (listen to "Won't Get Fooled Again) but that doesn't make it any less brilliant. the song is good but scary lyrically, "sacrifice is going on tonight"....come on *shudder*.
still here...
7.21.2005
...and by request
here are some tracks i was told to check out and some that i wasn't...
sufjan stevens - the lord god-bird
the arcade fire - no cars go
the go! team
- huddle formation
- bottle rocket (this song is awesome!!)
the salty pirates
- the alien invasion
- i lost my virginity to the voice of Per Gessle
- my academic beard
joanna newsom
- peach, plum, pear
- what we have known
- bridges and balloons (cover by the decemberists)
elefant - now that i miss her
sigur ros - staralfur
that's all for now but i'm still here...
7.20.2005
...and i'm back in the game
it has been a long time since i have posted anything or actually even read a music blog and while i don't usually like to make excuses for things, i feel that there are some decent reasons to explain what has taken up so much of my free time lately.
1. we moved... from Denver to Atlanta about 3 months ago. I have a new job which is way better than the old job. this is where i work now...but i don't have a house yet, however thanks to my gracious in-laws, i do have a roof over my head.
2. i got caught up in the whole texas hold 'em phenomena that is sweeping the country, and i am still caught up in it. i played in a tournament last night and i may play again tonight. at the junction of the new poker craze and the increasing relevance of the blog craze comes the obvious "poker blog". i now spend some of the time i used to spend reading music blogs reading about poker instead, i need to learn to balance this out better. this is my favorite and this is also good. in my opinion, poker blogs got a shot in the arm during the recently completed World Series of Poker in Vegas because ESPN won't be showing the $10,000 buy-in NL "main" event until oct.-nov. and die-hard fans didn't want to wait until then to hear about the action, so the almost play by play blogging of media types at the event provided an insight into what i'm sure we will all still watch on tv in a few months.
3. playing poker online can be fun and is usually free, i play here and here and am thinking about going here because the Full Tilt team is sick.
4. i got burned out... i kept trying to find new and better music that no one had ever heard of ever, so i was spending a lot of time downloading and streaming trying to find the next big thing for me....i just got bored of listening to a lot of mediocre music and trying to be excited about it. sure, i found some good stuff but i found a lot of really bad stuff as well. i've decided to slow it down a little and ease back into things and post music that appeals to me, not just continuing to try and be the guy who "heard it first" or "posted it first" in this case.
some bands e-mailed me their mp3's to post, so i will do so. some of these i have heard great things about, some nothing at all....and i appreciate that i was probably just the recipient of a mass marketing tool but i appreciate the effort to sway the blogging world:
The Hypertonics - these guys have shunned record labels and the usual melee of shopping an album around and have just posted their entire album on their site....and it's good.
Soft
- droppin'
- all that you're shown
- you make me wanna die
- lucky jam
that is all for now, hopefully this will last.
(does anyone enjoy that i write this blog as if people read it...?)
3.06.2005
a quickie...
Areovox - hailing from the NYC, these guys put together some solid tracks.
have a listen:
Rewind 2001-1
1. Don't Fade Out
2. A Million
3. Beat You Up
4. Could've Been A Contender
5. Home
The Skyhighatrist EP
Running on Empty
Take Me Apart
2.25.2005
things that go bump in the night...
so there we were, just after the release of Full Collapse, Thursday was coming to town and opening for Rival Schools at the Echo Lounge in Atlanta, GA what feels like an eon ago. my reasons for going were twofold: firstly, i loved the album Full Collapse and was pretty much ga-ga over Thursday at the time. secondly, i also loved Quicksand and wanted to see the most recent incarnation of that splintered line up.
as expected, the live performance of Thursday was sublime and explosive all at once. i've only had a few live show experiences like that in my life (one of them being Sunny Day Real Estate at the Masquerade another lifetime ago). i was equally impressed with Rival Schools, but apparently the rest of the pre-pubescent crowd was not as the place was half-empty for their set.
i now get around to the point of this post...the band that played before Thursday was a little known outfit called The Ghost. i was extremely impressed with the energy and poise that they showed on stage, enough so that i bought their first LP This is a Hospital on the spot. i listened to it over and over for months to come. as you can see on my sidebar, i just bought their sophomore effort and am equally impressed. i would definitely suggest that you check them out:
Diffuser
Banished and Loving It
here are more mp3's from Some Records:
Innaway - Wild
The Exit - Let's Go to Haiti
The New Transit Direction - Survival 101
Rival Schools/Onelinedrawing - Take One For the Team
Hot Water Music - Radio Free Gainesville
Beyond - One Kind Word
2.23.2005
so there we weren't...
so i just haven't felt like updating much recently. i'm not sure why.... i found some good music and wanted to tell people about it but actually finding mp3's and writing about it has seemed like a chore in my head ... and i didn't want that. however, now i am ready to begin again. as before, several random things before the music:
- i have switched to Firefox ... and i love it, the more security warnings i hear about IE the more grateful i am that i took the leap.
- in the vein of being horribly behind the curve, i have also discovered download managers (i use this one), and am now getting music without even thinking, i just have to look at the screen and it starts getting stuff for me ... well, not actually, but close. it will work with Firefox if you make sure to add-on FlashGot.
- in the same spirit, but this time in the vein of being "un-hip", i am completely addicted to Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2005 .... another reason i have not updated my blog, i only have limited free time...what do you want from me?
- a new episode of The West Wing comes on tonight. i'm a little apprehensive about it because in the previews it shows Josh and Toby fighting and i'm not sure i want to see that...
- also, my "high speed" cable modem service sucks ass, sometimes it just stops delivering a connection while i'm in the middle of something ... like trying to play poker on-line ... then it will reconnect 30 seconds later and i will get kicked off the table where i was playing for taking too long and lose my money. sidenote: some of the people that play poker on-line are just straight up mean, a little trigger happy with the "abusive vote" that gets you kicked off. i tried to explain what was going on with my connection, but no ... goodbye beaner.
anyway, here is some music:
Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start - Internet EP
*(buy other stuff)
01. out to get me
02. dear erica
03. are we seeing this?
04. i'm growing out
05. track 5
The Lionheart Brothers
the pole dilemma
feed me eden
the sun in my eyes
Japancakes (from Athens, GA)*(buy)
The Waiting (live on KVRX in Austin)
i'm done for now, but i'm back...