Written on Sunday, the 17th of July, 2005 at 4:30 pm and was filed under:
Wallowing,
Music
Despite the bombastic nature of my blog, I’m a quiet, relaxed person. I’m actually shy, which I overcome by putting on my comedy face and promoting laughter. I can share words with a confident swagger, but sometimes when I am picking those words for just one person they become much harder to put in order. In a conversation I can just pick up on the tone and topic and run with it. What do you do when contacting a person with unknown expectations? Anyway, I’m doing my best to be relaxed about the whole thing. I hope she’s at least flattered. I’m going to go do something fun in a temperature controlled environment now so I can figure out if I am sweating because of the campfire I have going in my bedroom or if I’m just nervous. At least I get marshmallows. Delicious.
Of course, as I started to write this post a problem developed with Samba on my linux box so I was cut off from music just as I figured out which Mountain Goats song Dallas Orbiter played last night: Back in Black — the Palmcorder Yajna mix. Now there is a singalong song. Everything is fine again, but restarting cost me two hours of music logging that would have put the Mountain Goats up pretty high in my stats. Well, audioscrobbler got it.
No booze jokes today. Sorry it took so long to send that email yesterday.
Read 3 comments...
Written on Sunday, the 17th of July, 2005 at 4:19 am and was filed under:
Music
404′ed! The Soft Rocks
Awesome! Redstart
Rock! Dallas Orbiter
What a great night of rock. Stan was salivating over the Wrens concert, but I went to the Dallas Orbiter show, which was the second D O night in a row. All I said about the Friday show was that Orchestra Hall doesn’t have any bass, but that spacy feeling that was washing over me wasn’t just the Nut Brown Ale. Apparently the monitors were lacking and the plexiglass in front of Greg was keeping anyone from hearing him. That spacy feeling was the band all kind of doing their own thing simultaneously. Tonight was tight and loopy.
Here’s the set list:
Sweet Home Alabama (cover)
Sweet Home Alabama (cover)
Sweet Home Alabama (original)
Back in Black (cover)
et cetera
There was a Mountain Goats cover in there, a Wire cover, that other song that they do that I love that I can’t remember the name of (although it was very likely the first Sweet Home Alabama). When I left I was two CDs heavier. I had been so thoroughly rocked out that there was no rocking left in me.
Greg still hasn’t posted the pictures that I took at the Kitty Cat Klub. Everyone was raving, and I haven’t even gotten to see them.
Leave a comment...
Written on Saturday, the 16th of July, 2005 at 2:23 am and was filed under:
Diversions,
Music
Things that were lacking tonight:
- Orchestra Hall apparently does not have bass bins. There was no bass in the show. No bass drum. No bass guitar.
- Orchestra Hall apparently does not have hard alcohol
- Orchestra Hall apparently does not have ANY alcohol
I am going to go pour the rest of the bottle of tequila into the rest of the pitcher of orange juice.
Leave a comment...
Written on Thursday, the 14th of July, 2005 at 4:24 pm and was filed under:
Music,
school
The power went out towards the end of class today. Apparently I was the only person who had the childhood experience of making ooo ooo ghost noices when the lights were turned off in elementary school. The professor (no, not the real professor, but the PhD candidate who replaced the real professor for half the lectures) continued by flashlight, and the class lit their notes with either cell phones or their laptops.
I just got an email from Gerg, whose band (Dallas Orbiter) is playing Orchestra Hall at midnight on Friday, and then the Hexagon Bar at eleven on Saturday. There is a strong chance that I will be at both of those shows, because I am still their number one superfan, and both are free. I have not yet heard back about the proposed Tacos Morelos / Walker Art Center date, but if that works out for the weekend it will likely take precedence — although both shows are late enough that I would be free by then anyway.
Uh oh, looks like I can’t walk home from the Hexagon.
Oh, hey, Haley Bonar is playing the Turf Club tomorrow. I almost forgot. Of course, I have only listened to the one song, so even though that song is spectacular and breaks my heart into a fine dust, maybe I should check out some more before committing myself. Maybe I could live dangerously and visit Saint Paul AND Minneapolis in one night. Oh! I could even take the 16, just like old times!
Apparently this is the summer that I turn 20, not the summer that I turn 30.
Leave a comment...
Written on Wednesday, the 13th of July, 2005 at 11:33 pm and was filed under:
Diversions,
Photography,
Music
This was yet another copy of the logo, but upon viewing my front page I decided that was way too much.
How about this instead? Stan is selling an effects unit and a sound module on ebay. Lisa wanted pictures, so here they are:
Leave a comment...
Written on Wednesday, the 13th of July, 2005 at 11:10 pm and was filed under:
Diversions,
Music,
Comics
While watching the Daily Show I put a little sauce on the logo.
I don’t think that I have had this much fun since I made the Team Kickass logo
Leave a comment...
Written on Wednesday, the 13th of July, 2005 at 10:45 pm and was filed under:
Music,
Bikes
Did I say “lay down some tracks”? What I meant to say was “knock the dust off of the four track, take it downstairs, and screw around for a while.” Noah came downstairs because he loves the drums and thinks that my set is his. Eventually I convinced him to let me play my set, but after only three songs my right shin started to burn out. This is no good at all, since the Four Negations is supposed to be a punk band, and I will have to play fast and hard with no practice through our setlist. We haven’t written any songs yet, but at least we have enough titles to get started, plus a rough sketch of an album cover. That has to count for something.
However, the drums that I recorded weren’t punk at all — I was just playing along to “Merchants of Soul” by Spoon, something else, and “Daft Punk is Playing At My House” by LCD Soundsystem. More generally, I was freaking the funk rather than slamming a beat along to move a pit. Uh, I’m not a great drummer, but sometimes you have to go have some fun. I will theoretically be able to slice these beats up later in one of the many music programs on my computer that are merely gathering electronic dust, so it was worth my time.
Lisa has been ragging on me to go visit one of the apparently many thrift stores nearby. I almost took the blue meanie (eventually I will settle on a name for that bike, but not tonight) and even got as far as bringing my helmet to the bottom of the stairs before remembering that I am a lazy bastard. I took the car and surveyed the array of bikes loitering in front of the thrift store. They were a dirty and ragged lot, and only a Raleigh ten-speed even slightly caught my eye. I gave it a miss, though, because the last thing that I need is another basket case of a ten speed locked up in the garage and giving me the evil eye when I don’t ride it. Apparently Boot is coming over later, maybe he can advise me on wheel purchases and derailleur adjustments. Maybe he will turn up his nose because I didn’t come out to see the nonet play (although he will likely just chalk that up to my general lack of class).
Back to the Four Negations, since that was how this all started. Currently I have Andy and Adam vaguely on board, which is the best that one can hope for, given that this is all just the fever dream of a sleepy student stuck in an extremely tedious class. Yes, I can play several instruments, no I can’t play any of them well. Yes, I can dissect a beat in infinite ways and reassemble it in horrific patterns, but honestly, where has that gotten me since 1991? This, like everything, is just a joke, a grand ruse, a terrible scheme to distract myself from the tedium of day to day life.
Noah got a tiny acoustic guitar for his birthday. I have seen them before and I know that they cost around $30. I can’t keep it in tune, but I can tune it and play it, which is endlessly entertaining. Maybe I should take beginning guitar next semester as an elective so I can spend loan money on an acoustic. It’s just so much work to plug in the electric guitar, and then I always worry about pissing off the neighbors. On the other hand, my neighbor Jesse (hooray) plays the trumpet, so he might not care so much as long as it is during normal hours. We’ll see what happens.
Oh yeah, I had an EPA and a Hefe, because we have both in the fridge all the time. Did I mention that I get free Summit? If you were to come over and relax on the deck you could enjoy one with me. I also deliver.
Leave a comment...
Written on Wednesday, the 13th of July, 2005 at 7:22 pm and was filed under:
Music,
Food
Rumor has it that I might be heading to the basement to drink beer and lay down some tracks for the new band, since I have the four track, a cassette, a microphone, and a fridge full of delicious beer for the drinking. I sure hope that I like Summit, because that is what I will be drinking. Is today a Pale Ale day? Perhaps Hefe Weisen?
Leave a comment...
Written on Wednesday, the 13th of July, 2005 at 1:44 pm and was filed under:
Music,
school
We call him him “New Gabe.” I was listening to mp3s, but then he told me that he had found out the name of the song that I remembered from Radio K back in the day: “Make Me a Sandwich” by TS/MattiX, probably off of the Mechanical Man E.P. released on Deviant Subculture. Zach said that he would use his secret former-DJ powers to see if he could get more info for me so that I could acquire that song for my own nefarious uses. After that, I put on Radio K, and Zach told me to turn it off because his speakers were better, so he put it on. Gabe should be gone every day.
Read 105 more words, see one more image, and read 2 comments...
Written on Saturday, the 9th of July, 2005 at 2:56 am and was filed under:
Music,
Nerdity
It’s summer, and I have carefully configured my schedule to maximize my non-school-and-work time. That mean that you all benefit from my easy availability (assuming that you operate on some sort of normal schedule or preferably one a few hours delayed and powered by the internet) and my constant posting of rambling, punchy, and witty blog posts. I benefit by having reduced my stress levels to record lows — witness my general non-freakout over having my financial aid suspended. Sure, I made some wild posts and I had a little trouble sleeping, but it was nothing like finals week where my brain came to a rolling boil and foamed up over the top of my head.
Read 568 more words...
