I woke up this morning with the inexplicable need to listen to Dio. "Holy Diver" is a pretty incredible song, but check out the video:
I woke up this morning with the inexplicable need to listen to Dio. "Holy Diver" is a pretty incredible song, but check out the video:
I'm trying to post more often on art is the new religion, so here's another roundup to catch you up through mid-March.
3/5: Drink To Good Times
Have I told you lately that I love PJ Harvey's Uh Huh Her?
3/6: That little girl is going to break that little boy's heart
In anticipation of seeing my dear friend David Poe at SXSW, I shared a live performance of one of my favorite songs of his.
Another longtime friend of mine, Chris in Ann Arbor, says he enjoys reading my blog but that I shouldn't point out when I'm writing about my friends. I think it would be weird to pretend I don't know someone I'm writing about. Hmm, thoughts?
3/12: car radio, i hardly knew ye
RIP car radio, 8/2007-3/2008.
3/13: SXSW: Motörhead at Stubb's
Lemmy's jeans appeared to have been painted onto his body. He is a fascinating character.
3/14: Bon Iver is breaking my heart
I somehow missed all of Bon Iver's many showcases at SXSW.
3/15: iPhone Hack
It was Case's idea. And it worked!
3/16: This is the room one afternoon I knew I could love you
I believe this is the first poll I've ever posted on AITNR. Please take a moment to vote.
I finally got around to buying two sets of acoustic strings this weekend so I could re-string my guitars. The old strings have been on for WAY too long, so long that I kind of forgot how much a set of guitar strings costs. Lucky for me, the dude at the music shop gave me some sort of buy-one-get-one-free deal that I only realized after I got to my car and looked at the receipt. Thanks buddy!
My old strings had been on for so long that my stringing technique was a little rusty, and I promptly broke the high E string, rendering the other five strings kind of useless. (Do people call it the "high E string"? I am not a professional.) Note to self: It would have been wiser to start with the sturdier E string first. And don't forget to allow that "give" before you start winding.
This is mainly for Simmons, but also for anyone else who might be a fan of The Gutter Twins, Screaming Trees and/or The Afghan Whigs:
Fire up your DVRs because The Gutter Twins are playing Letterman tomorrow night. Look for my roommate behind the keyboards!
I haven't done a roundup since February 4th. Here's what's I wrote about on my other blog, art is the new religion, during the rest of February*:
2/6: I found the simple life, ain't so simple
The genius of David Lee Roth.
2/11: A Not So Happy Birthday
Sharing music-related memories of my father, on what would have been his 74th birthday.
2/12: Dschinghis Khan & Diamond Dave
Amusing.
2/14: Louder Than Love
Thinking about my early crush on Soundgarden on Valentine's Day.
2/19: Where Is My Mind?
Yoav's cover of Pixies' "Where Is My Mind?" is intriguing, but unfortunately the rest of his music is not. Also, props to KGSR's Jody Denberg for playing it, and congrats to my friend Andy Langer on his new gig at the station.
Right side, left side, back door:
"Don't forget us. We are Motörhead. We play rock n' %$*@ing roll."
I saw Motörhead today at 3pm at Stubb's. I ended up with a VIP wristband thanks to my friend Steve, so I watched all the madness from the balcony, far away from the inebriated rockers in the mosh pit. When you get the chance to see Motörhead for free, you go.
If I were in the office today, I would lead an impromptu dance party to this song I just found on art's blog. As it is, I will have to settle for an impromptu dance party in my home office.
My posting pace ground to a halt while I was in SF, but here's an update of what happened on AITNR in the second half of January.
First of all, huge thanks to one of my favorite human beings John who linked to AITNR on his MySpace and spiked my traffic for two crazy days. That was really exciting and flattering - truly a high compliment!
Also, thanks to vanity searches on Google I've gotten comments from some of the people I've written about, including nice words from a CBC Radio 3 Reporter/Producer, someone at My Damn Channel and the author of the Rahsaan Roland Kirk bio I mentioned. This is also really gratifying. My post about Wainy Days still ranks on the first page of Google search results - thanks TypePad!
And now for the roundup:
1/14: Record Shopping
My sad little boombox finally died, so I hooked up my portable record player and fell in love with my vinyl collection all over again. It also gave me an excuse to check out some record shops in Austin.
1/15: Wherefore Bill Withers?
Proving once again that you can never know what people are really going to respond to, this post about Bill Withers garnered the most comments I've gotten on AITNR - perhaps ever - ringing in at 9 comments so far. I think that sad little prawn threw everyone over the edge.
1/17: Speaking of Engelbert Humperdinck...
Another record I picked up on a whim during my record shopping excursion. You have to watch a few moments of the video I posted because it's simply unbelievable. Warning: you will not be able to un-see any of it.
1/18: Tonight's Showalter
I went to see Michaels Ian Black and Showalter at Mohawk in Austin on a night when it was 36 degrees out. It was an outdoor show. A big part of both of their acts was making fun of how poorly prepared the venue was for the weather and the turnout. Also, Michael Ian Black had a whole bit on Texas pride that was really spot on. He gets it. In this post I don't review the live performance I went to, I just link to Showalter's own internet interview show, specifically to the episode featuring Zack Galifianakis whose last name is harder to spell than my own (but only one letter longer).
1/21: Cut Copy
I know as a general rule that if I want to keep people coming back to read my blog, I should update about five times a week. But often I just work late and don't have time. This post is a half-hearted effort to post something anyway, and there's really no there there. Cut Copy has a new record coming out -- see, now you don't have to click through to read this post. I think I'm going to go back to the rule of thumb that if I'm not inspired and/or I don't have enough time then I just won't post. Which explains why I didn't post at all during my trip to SF.
1/31: Hallucinating to The Mars Volta
I have a ton of respect for this band, but they might have pushed past the point of no return for me.
2/1: Bright Moments (In the Key of W)
The Mars Volta got me to thinking about Rahsaan Roland Kirk and why I love him so much. The fact that we can watch videos of Kirk on demand makes up for a lot of the meaningless crap on YouTube. Bonus: the author of the Kirk bio that I linked to commented! So I'm promoting John Kruth's book here too.
This song was magically stuck in my head this morning, and I want it to be stuck in your head too. Feel free to clap along:
Anyone care to translate what rolls across the screen in the beginning?