Carbon Leaf - Radio Radio Indianapolis - 10/19/2014

 Clearly, this is a promo shot, I didn't take it.  I do have one picture from last night of me and Barry, but I look awful in it and you'll never see it.  :-)

Artist: Carbon Leaf
Venue: Radio Radio Indianapolis
Date: Sunday, October 19, 2014

Set List (again, dismally out of order, and potentially not complete, but as usual, I forgot to make notes so this is the best I could remember the next day):

What About Everything?
Life Less Ordinary
Love Rain Down
Februaery Detailles
Alcatraz
The Boxer
The Donnybrook Affair
Ghost Dragon Attacks Castle
When I'm Alone
Paloma
Comfort
Raise the Roof
One Prairie Outpost
She's Gone (...For Good This Time)
Two Aging Truckers
Ragtime Carnival
Tombstone vs. Ashes
Let Your Troubles Roll By

Last night we broke from tradition and, instead of going south to Nashville, we headed north to Indianapolis for our second Carbon Leaf show.  The first time we saw them live (in Nashville) was so stinking good, we were super excited to see them again.  For this tour, they're on the road in support of their latest release, Indian Summer Revisited.  Because a record company the band is no longer associated with owns the master recordings of their beloved 2004 release Indian Summer, they decided to re-record the album so the ownership of the songs and the recordings is now with the band, where it belongs.

This was the only show I've been to (that I can think of) that didn't have an opener and I was really okay with that.  I mean yes, I've found some of my favorite artists via them opening for other people, but sometimes it's nice to skip the formality and just get down to business.  It seemed like there was a quite a wait between when the doors opened and when Barry, Terry, Carter, Jon and Jason took the stage, but good company (and perhaps a bit of vodka) made the wait totally enjoyable.  This was our first time at Radio Radio which is a neat little venue in downtown Indianapolis.  With a 250 person capacity, a beautiful glass-topped bar and plentiful seating, it's a cozy place perfect for an intimate show.

When it was time for Carbon Leaf to take the stage, they did so with seemingly boundless energy and crowd support, just like the last time we saw them. The set list was heavy with songs off Indian Summer, which is cool because they're all crowd favorites.  However, this time it seemed that they were playing them with such renewed vigor, they felt like brand new songs.  It seemed as though, in working with them so extensively, the band had breathed new life into these songs and the audience reciprocated that.  Personally, I was excited to hear them perform "Paloma" and "When I'm Alone", a couple of my favorites.  They are both such beautiful songs and it was amazing to ride along on the ebb and flow of them.

While they stayed primarily in the newer albums, they did dip back in the catalog and pulled out "Comfort" from Love, Loss, Hope, Repeat and crowd favorite "The Boxer" from Echo, Echo.  Both songs were apparently well known by the crowd and we all sang along enthusiastically.  The sing-along aspect of the evening reached its peak during "One Prairie Outpost" during which Barry was able to stop singing completely and just let us handle that for him.  I love when that happens, but I have to say that my favorite part of a Carbon Leaf show is when they all gather around one microphone.  Sometimes the songs they play in this format get a bit lost in the chatter of the rude people in the back of the room, but I still love them if only because the band seems the happiest playing around a single mic like that and it's fun to be a part of it.

Just as the last time we saw them, they closed with the absolutely perfect "Let Your Troubles Roll By".  I'm not sure I've ever heard a better song to close with.  After the show, I visited the merch table and picked up one of the few Carbon Leaf albums I didn't already have.  Because the guys always mingle in the crowd after shows, I was able (with a lot of encouragement from my friends who are much cooler characters than I am) to speak to all five of the band members and get their autographs.  They're all incredibly friendly and, even after all these years performing, they seem truly grateful that people come out and listen and enjoy their shows.  I had a lot of things I wanted to say about how wonderful the show was and how amazing Indiana Summer Revisited is, but I'm mostly just happy (and eternally grateful to my friends) that I even manged to talk to them and not say anything too embarrassing.  This was the last show for us for the foreseeable future, and I can't think of a better way to wrap up the year.

Fandom Fest (and Yes, Record Shopping)

Because of the experience we had this weekend, I'm going to stray a bit from my normal topic here, but because I love you, I'll get back to it a bit before I go.  Louisville, KY hosted Fandom Fest this weekend, for those of you who aren't familiar, Fandom Fest is like ComicCon but with more stuff.  It includes a lot of horror movies things (it used to only be horror movies) and anime and steam punk and lots of cool stuff.  Anyway, this year it turned into a colossal clusterfuck and our little corner of the internet is swirling with negativity about the event.  In light of all that, I just wanted to share our Fandom Fest experience this weekend. 

 

It all started with them moving the Kevin Smith/Jason Mewes event to Wednesday night because of a scheduling conflict.  This was not the fault of the organizers and I don't blame them for it.  That evening, while much too late for a work night (again, not their fault or problem) was fun and I'm honestly glad it was moved because if it had stayed on Saturday I'm sure the organizers would have figured out some way to screw it up.  We picked up our prepaid tickets on Thursday after work and that went fine.  We spotted a couple guests in the lobby and it seemed like a good start to the convention.  Friday we arrived around 4pm because that was our best guest as to when the vendor hall should be opening.  One program said noon, one said 4pm, one said 5pm...it was hard to tell.  There was a HUGE line forming to enter the vendor hall.  A security guard told us that only VIPs were allowed in currently, which seemed odd since it was already 20 minutes after it was supposed to open to everyone, but still we went over to the Convention Center to check out that hall.  Again, another line.  This time the people there were bragging about being in line for 2+ hrs and the vendors there weren't even finished setting up so we went BACK over to the hotel and went down the escalator into the back of the vendor hall.  After browsing there, we went back across the pedway (AKA the pizza oven) and finally made our way upstairs to the main vendor hall.  Here we found all the comic book artists and authors and some celebrities and other artists and various vendors...basically the stuff we wanted to look at and spend our money on. 

 

Now you have to understand that we only found this stuff because we have been to other conventions (namely the ones put on by Wizard World in Columbus, OH and New Orleans) and we KNEW there had to be more than what were finding.  There were NO signs anywhere.  The volunteers has absolutely no idea where anything was or even which building things were happening in.  I've seen a lot of people saying that the staff and volunteers were rude and, in all honesty, we didn't have that experience.  Everyone we encountered was friendly enough (of course, some more than others) but they just weren't any help at all.  I don't blame them for this.  They can't tell me what they don't know.  I felt sorry for them that they were thrown into this huge group of people and given absolutely nothing to work with.  That's not fair to the convention goers or to the volunteers and the organizers should be ashamed of themselves for doing that to them. 

 

We came back on Saturday and brought my Husband's cousin to see Stan Lee.  We had purchased a photo op ticket for him but he had to work in the morning so we came and had our picture taken with Mr. Lee.  We arrived about 10am for the 11am photo op and when I tell you that we were greeted with mass chaos, it really is an understatement.  The VIPs were lined up in the hallway, that much had been accomplished, but everyone else was just in a group milling around.  An hour before the photo op they hadn't even BEGUN to line up the general admission photo op people yet.  Myra Daniels (one of the "organizers") began telling a crew person that they needed a bullhorn to announce where people needed to line up, etc.  Seriously??  At 10am on SATURDAY?  DURING the convention...THAT'S when you figure out that you're going to need a bullhorn to announce when/where to line up?  What about some ropes and signage to get/keep people in line?  Holy crap.  Anyway, finally a lady with a "crew" t-shirt and a healthy set of lungs began yelling out for Stan Lee photo-ops and gathering people in a line.  We lined up quickly (but honestly only got in that line because I heard Myra talking about getting people lined up and followed her around until the line got formed) and got our picture.  But I've seen reports of people who waited 4+ hours to have their picture taken with Stan Lee and it never happened.  I have no idea where those poor people where, but I can easily see how they got told to stand somewhere in some line by some clueless crew person and just left there.  So sad.  We spent all of our time in line trying to help people who couldn't even figure out where to buy tickets or find the vendor halls and couldn't find a crew person who could help them.

 

Later when we finally found the Stan Lee Q&A (after being told it was in 3 different rooms) it was also not lined up yet, but that was okay because it got pushed back...another changed in the schedule which was not announced at all to anyone.  So we formed a line for that too and waited.  It was so frustrating that we, the attendees, had to form the lines and tell each other where to stand and what we were waiting for and where things where happening and at what time and the crew/volunteers/security just stood there and looked at us because they had no idea if what we were saying was even correct information.   There were panels that were moved, rescheduled and flat out cancelled for no apparent reason.  In the lowest move the weekend, the organizers had the absolute balls the tell a room full of people that Colin Baker's panel was cancelled through some fault of Mr. Baker's when he was in his room waiting to be called down!!  That is just disgraceful.  I understand that we will never come back to Fandom Fest, but I hope he doesn't let the experience color his opinion of all of Louisville/Kentuckiana.  As has always been our experience at conventions, the celebrities and vendors at this convention were gracious and friendly and it was awesome to see them.  I can't imagine what it's like to do what they do for their fans at these events all weekend (of course, hugging strangers and kissing babies is really not my thing, so it would be unbelievably exhausting for me to do that sort of thing for 3 days solid) and for the organizers to treat them like crap is nothing less despicable.

 

Afterwards, we even stopped at the store in Louisville of one of the vendors and the owner expressed some concerns about the event.  Turns out the vendors were told some things that were misleading (or altogether untrue) and they weren't satisfied with their interaction with the organizers either.  Sounds like to me that we need to keep having a convention in Louisville, we just need to have someone else run the thing.  Luckily for us we've been to other conventions so we knew what a fiasco this was right from the very beginning.  Had this been our first experience, I'm not sure we would have ever gone to another one.  As it is, I'm not sure we'll ever go back to this one because frankly, I don't want to give the organizers another penny of our money, which sucks because it is so close to home.  Anyway, in the end, we managed to have a good time but only because we have a knack for having fun in a face of adversity.  :)  We bought some cool stuff, for instance this wire angel made by a local artist:

 

and this zombie gnome that (even those he's solid concrete) will decorate our hearth...

 

 and of course I couldn't pass up this catbat print, because for some reason every time we go to one of these things, I get something cat related...

 

After all that craziness, we went record shopping to sooth our souls (or, you know, my soul at least) and we finally got to stop at Better Days Records in the Highlands.  Seems like there is never a place to park there, or we always pass the place up and traffic is too crazy to try to turn around and go back, or some other force of nature has always stopped us from going there.  But today we were determined and where there's a will there's a way and what do you know, we got in there and on the back wall in the rack I found THIS!!

 Matt Nathanson's newest release "Last of the Great Pretenders" on vinyl!!  I was so excited to find an actual physical copy of a Matt Nathanson record on vinyl right here in Louisville that I took like 4 pictures of it.  Yep, the store owner now thinks I'm nuts.  And probably more so because I didn't buy it, but I've already bought it twice so...  If you don't have it yet, buy it, it is some kind of wonderful.  As soon as I wrap my head around the whole thing I'll write it up.

 

I was also pretty amazed to find a copy of The Mountain Goats' "All Hail West Texas".  Not sure why, just didn't seem like the kind of thing I'd run across so close to home and I was proud of them for stocking it and displaying it prominently.  

 

Before we left I did buy Jack White's "Blunderbuss" and a Carpenters album (now surely you didn't read all the way down here to start judging me now, did you??) and then grabbed a few out of the $1.00 bin to make an art piece for my treadmill room.  Of course, I grabbed some good stuff like Foghat and Fleetwood Mack and if they play I won't use them, but if they're all scratched to piss at least I'll still be able to put them to good use.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It's the most wonderful time of the year!  And by that I mean the holidays - because this is the time of year when I'm forced to shop, which I have a general distaste for.  What's wonderful about that, you ask?  Because to ease the sting of shopping in a mall, I see no other option than to sprinkle the day with visits to local record stores!  So I'm here to share with you my haul so far this holiday season.

 My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges (vinyl)

I saw this record at Joe's some time ago and picked it up and carried it around and pondered over the price tag and put it back.  We danced around like that for a while.  Somehow I had managed to never really hear anything by MMJ and I couldn't decide if I wanted to spring for the vinyl or just get a $10 download from iTunes.  So I put my quandary out there on twitter and received instant feedback.  Mostly in the form of "seriously, you even have to ask?" and mostly from one Dylan over at MoreThanAFeeling (trust me, you can trust his opinion) and Mr. Aaron Tap.  At that point, it was pretty much a no-brainer.

 

If you haven't heard this record, you really should.  I can't say that it's my favorite record of all time or anything, but it is pretty amazing.  The vinyl version is 2 LPs and includes a CD.  I'm not sure I've ever heard an album that covers this much ground.  I spend the entire time totally fascinated with Jim James' mind. 

 



 Divine Fits - A Thing Called Divine Fits (vinyl)

 

I picked this one up on a whim.  I had heard good things about Divine Fits and they're opening for The Black Keys in Las Vegas December 30 & 31, so I was intrigued.  There is a bit more synth on this one than I'm used to, but I dig it.  I haven't listened to it enough to get too in depth, but so far so good.  I also absolutely adore the cover art.  It looks like a photograph but (upon reading the liner notes) I discovered it's actually a painting (you can tell once you know) and it's just stunning.  I plan to look up the artist and see what else he's done.

 



 AC/DC - Black Ice

The Goo Goo Dolls - Dizzy Up the Girl

Cage the Elephant - Cage the Elephant

 

I found these in various used CD racks around town.  The new AC/DC album sounds pretty much like every other AC/DC album ever made which is just fine with me.  I love them, I've loved them forever.  "Shook Me All Night Long" was the first song I ever knew all the words to (which believe me, raised a few eyebrows on the school bus when I was a kid) so their music is pretty ingrained in me.  Some of my favorite memories from high school have this band playing in the background.  Good stuff.

 

As far as I'm concerned, The Goo Goo Dolls aren't a whole lot different than a lot of other bands that were around in the late 90's, but there are a couple songs on Dizzy Up the Girl that I happen to adore.  Namely "Slide" and "Black Balloon".  Still, I've never owned the album before, so when I saw it in the $1.99 box at a local head shop, I scooped it right up.  I haven't had a chance to listen to the whole thing yet; I hope I'm not disappointed when I do.

 

At some point somewhere I heard about this band Cage the Elephant.  I heard how unique their sound is and how everyone should be listening to them.  I added them to my "want" list and didn't give it much more thought.  Well I came across this CD for some absurdly low price so I grabbed it. On the way home I popped it in a lo and behold I already knew them!  Anyone who had listened to the radio in the last 5 years has surely heard "Ain't No Rest for the Wicked".  If not, do it.  Now.

 

 Matt Nathanson - Some Mad Hope

Wilco - Sky Blue Sky

Dr. Dog - Takers and Leavers (EP)

The Black Keys - Chulahoma

 

These last four came to me during a trip to Grimey's in Nashville, TN.  Pretty much the best record store east of the Mississippi.  I ended up in Nashville for 3 days for a work thing and since it was the Monday - Wednesday after Thanksgiving, nobody I knew was over here playing so I spent the one free night I had at a record store (big shock, I know).  Grimey's is a crappy looking place in a questionable neighborhood that's hard to get into.  It's hard to park and a bit challenging to find the entrance (it's on the back of the building, upstairs - downstairs is a music venue called The Basement) but once you do, it's absolute heaven.  They have everything imaginable packed into a fairly tiny space.  There so much vinyl I almost OD'd on it.  I loved it.  I wish I was there right now. 

 

Anyway, I picked up Matt Nathanson's Some Mad Hope which is a truly beautiful album.  I already have it on iTunes but I wanted a physical copy too.  So now I have one.  I also got Wilco's Sky Blue Sky because, once again, I've heard good things about them.  I haven't listened to it yet, but when I do, I'll let you know.  I got a couple EP's, Dr. Dog's Takers and Leavers and The Black Keys' Chulahoma.  Both are really good and really good examples of the bands' work. 

 

Two girls I work with went to Grimey's with me and after we left there we stopped at Panera and got dinner.  We went back to the hotel and went our separate ways.  It was early, maybe 7:30pm or so and I happily snuggled into bed with my half turkey sandwich and half a greek salad and a diet coke and spent the evening talking to my husband on the phone and reading liner notes.  I got to unwrap the plastic from the cases (because even a lot of the used ones at Grimey's are wrapped) and inspect the album art and read lyrics and the names of producers and musicians and engineers.  I read every single "thank you" (and even found Aaron Tap and Paula Kelley lurking in there on Some Mad Hope) and date and city and it was wonderful.  They kept me company while I was away from home alone in a hotel room (for the first time ever, I might add) and just reinforced the importance of physical copies of music.  All that album art is put together for a reason - it's there to complete the experience of the album.  I think we owe it to the artists to go on the journey.

 



Fun Stuff

Some fun stuff has gone down recently.  Last week, my sister and I went back to Headliners Music Hall in Louisville (the site of the Aaron Tap meeting) and sold merch at Rachel Platten's show.  While there, we had the privilege of meeting Rachel, Craig Meyer (drums), and Madi Diaz who was opening for Rachel on her 53 Steps Tour.  Simply put, the show was amazing.  This two ladies are just so incredibly talented and have such beautiful voices.  Add to that how sweet they are when you meet them and there's no way you can't love them. 

I wrote up a little something-something about that night and it was posted on ourvinyl.com which was another cool thing that happened.  If you haven't seen it, you can read all about it here.  I took the pictures that are featured in the article myself that night.  Here are a couple more that weren't included.

Stein Stoess - Louisville native who opened the show

 Madi's merch case - truly full of tiny lights!!

 Madi Diaz - it's so hard to get a stage picture without someone's mouth open!

 Craig Meyer - drummin' it up! He was mostly blocked from my view by keyboard stuffs

Rachel and Madi right after singing Robyn's "Dancing by Myself"

Here is a little bit (literally just a minute) of Rachel and Madi singing "Dancing by Myself".  Of course now I wish I had the whole song, but it was so beautiful, so goosebump-inducing that I was way more interested in just listening to them sing it than I was recording it at the time.

As an added bonus, after Rachel's tour ended, Madi Diaz stayed on the road in support of Harper Blynn and returned to Louisville less than a week later!  They played a little bar called Zanzibar (or zBar) last night.  Because she is so freaking good and my husband hadn't seen her yet, he took me to the show last night.  As soon as her set was over he turned to me and said, "Okay, why hasn't she blown up?" to which I replied, "Because people are fucking stupid and they don't know what's good."  Seriously though, her voice is so good live that it's just ridiculous.  He is still talking about it today.

I had planned to buy an actual physical copy of her CD (can you imagine??) and have it signed, but her mom and some people she knew were at the show and when she had a free minute, she was talking to them.  Well what kind of asshat would I be if I interrupted a conversation with her mom??  Sure, maybe it's not too rude to interrupt someone to tell them that they're awesome, but I still didn't have the heart to do it.  I know she'll come back to Louisville one day and I'll tell her she's great then, it'll keep.  Anyway, we got to see a couple songs by Harper Blynn and they really are quite good, but mornings start hella early around here and I couldn't take another super late night during the week, so we had to shag out of there and get our old asses to bed.  Hopefully they'll come back thru Louisville soon too on a more hospitable night cause I'd love to see them, especially after I get a little more familiar with their music.

That's been pretty much it.  Not much else going on musically, I've been listening to Rachel and Madi a lot lately, sprinkled in amongst the usual suspects.  I'm also still waiting to someday get tired of Dr. Dog's Be the Void which I've been playing the shit out of for the last couple months.  I did craft a mind blowing play list that I've been listening to for weeks, I'll share that with you soon.

OurVinyl

In an inspired act of graciousness, the good folks over at http://www.ourvinyl.com/ have been kind enough to post a little blurb I wrote about Ryan Schmidt's "Go Where You Belong" (which, as you well know, I love fiercely) as the Song of the Day today.

You can go here to see for yourself (and check out my snazzy byline at the bottom while you're at it): http://ourvinyl.com/ryan-schmidt-go-where-you-belong/

While you're over there, check out the rest of the site too.  I'm a big fan of what they're doing, sharing the experience of music and encouraging diversity in our listening habits, so I hope to contribute more to the site in the future.  If I do, of course you'll know about it.

What Is Cool?

After work today, we went to Louisville and stopped at two of my favorite places to browse for music.  First was Half Price Books where I flipped through the records for a while before finding a little treasure trove of cassettes - can you believe that??  I don't actually own a cassette player anymore, but I'm searching for two things in particular that were only released on cassette, so I browsed their selection anyway.  (I guess if I ever get my hands on these two things, I'll have to find a cassette player somewhere!) My chances of actually finding either of them in a used book store in Kentucky are slim to none, but that doesn't stop me from checking.  Imagine how excited I'd be if I actually found one of them!!  Of course, I didn't.  In fact, I didn't find anything there which is highly unusual.

So then we went to my favorite part of Louisville and stopped at Electric Ladyland.  I love it there but I can only take it in small doses because it's a head shop at it's core and the incense is kind of overwhelming.  Anyway, after perusing their impressive but fruitless cassette selection, I browsed the records and found Huey Lewis and the News' Sports on vinyl for $5.99.  I was 5 years old when that record came out (no need to do the math...moving on...) so it's just part of my soundtrack.  And it's an awesome part. Just straight up 80's pop music goodness to it's core! 

I mean, even Patrick Bateman (in American Psycho) had this to say about it: "Their early work was a little too new wave for my tastes, but when Sports came out in '83, I think they really came into their own, commercially and artistically. The whole album has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost. He's been compared to Elvis Costello, but I think Huey has a far more bitter, cynical sense of humor."

Anyway, some total douchbag (who had just acted like a jerk while arguing with the girl working there about the price of a bong, incidentally) made a snide comment about the coolness of the record I was waiting to pay for.  What makes this funny is that I told my husband that I was going to lose all my cool points for buying that record but I love it and I was getting it anyway.  Clearly, I was correct in that assessment.

So what makes something cool?  Popularity?  Sadly, I think that is a lot of it in today's society.  If something is massively popular, it is somehow deemed cool even if it is fucking terrible and largely without merit.  Of course the hipsters would probably say the exact opposite - the less popular something is, the cooler it is.  But I think to them something being cool in the first place ultimately makes it uncool...or something like that.  Talent obviously has little to do with it because there are a lot of things that a lot of people apparently think are cool that involve no talent whatsoever...except perhaps a talent for packaging and bullshit.

Honestly though, the important thing to remember about coolness is that it doesn't matter.  Not one little bit.  If you find something you love, something that speaks to you, then that's all you need.  That's enough, perceived coolness be damned.

Happy Birthday To Me

So, today is my birthday and to celebrate, I bought myself a few things.  Here's what I got:

First was Ryan Schmidt's debut Burning Bitter Years (which I can only assume to be high school) that was released in June, 2007.  Check him out on the cover - can't you just see the young jumping off him??  I got this one because I knew I was going to buy his latest release as soon as it came out and I wanted the complete set.  I'm sure I'll give this one a thorough review one day, but right now I'm hung up on the song "Ten Days".  I'm not sure what it is about that song, but I just want to hear it over and over.

Next, obviously, was Mr. Schmidt's latest offering White Horse EP.  It came out at midnight on the 10th, but I wasn't still up then, so I got it at 6am so I could listen to it on the way to work.  He did a little live streaming show from his room the night before the release of this EP so I got to see the songs performed "live", which was cool.  If you missed that, you should be following him on twitter so you don't miss another one, because it really was awesome.  White Horse is going to be my focus on New Music Monday next week, so I'll leave it at that.

Tonight we went to our local record store where I was in search of....well, something cool.  And did I ever find it!  This album, George Michael's Faith came out in 1987 when I was 9 years old and my sister was letting me listen to it very shortly thereafter.  This record is straight up sweet nostalgia!  I love it.  Personally, I think George Michael is grossly underrated.  His vocal abilities were good enough that he was able to sing Queen songs without embarrassing himself.  His songwriting was provocative and sexy and the music behind them was straight funky - what's not to love??

Finally, I found a Concrete Blonde record for a price I could live with given I'm not familiar with any of their songs (that I know of).  I have heard so many people talk about them and how wonderful they are though, that I've had my eye out for something by them for a while.  Tonight I got Recollection which is their 'best of' collection that was released in 1996.  I'm really looking forward to hearing them.



Modern Love - ON VINYL

Right this very moment (yes, at 2:29AM the morning after Christmas) I'm listening to Matt Nathanson's Modern Love on vinyl for the very first time.  It is incredible.  I keep expecting to look up and see that a stage has been installed in my living room and that he's on it. 

The sound is so warm, so real, so alive. 

"Kiss Quick" is playing right now and I have to say, this is a close second to hearing it live.

So (even though I'm sure they won't ever see this), I'd like to take this late night/early morning moment to thank Matt Nathanson, Mark Weinberg, Aaron Tap and everyone else involved in the making of this record for creating this moment in time.  It is truly amazing.

Now I have to go flip the record...awesome.  :-)

Christmas Came Early

In an attempt to make this Christmas as not normal as possible (and because I got my husband a sweet-ass replica light saber that I could NOT keep secret any longer) we exchanged presents tonight.  And I got vinyl!!

Look:

That's Foo Fighters There is Nothing Left to Lose and The Colour and The Shape and Pearl Jam's Ten.

Merry Christmas to me!!

So Excited.

How has it been 2 1/2 hours and I haven't mentioned this yet??

I just bought tickets to go see Matt Nathanson at Headliner's Music Hall in Louisville, KY on February 24, 2012!!!!**  I got 4 tickets as my sister and her husband (of vinyl donation fame) will hopefully go with us. 

To say that I cannot wait would be a gross understatement. 

Also, I'm not sure if I mentioned, but my 2nd copy of Modern Love came in the mail the other day and it's red too!  There is a tiny flaw on the cover though, so this one will be my useable version.  Hopefully I can have him sign the other one at the show in Louisville - that would be pretty fucking sweet. 

**I was just re-reading this post and realized that what it was missing was exclamation points. (!!)

"MP3 of the Day"

I was cruising around over at The Huffington Post last night (reading about Alec Baldwin's latest exploits, of course) and somehow I ended up over at Spinner's MP3 of the Day page.  Honestly, I have no idea how that happened.  I guess it's something to do with that "surfing" thing we tend to do online.

Anyway, imagine my delight when I found out that I could (LEGALLY) download free music!!  It was late by the time I ended up there and I had a sweet play list and a game of Dr. Mario calling my name, but it appears that these are mostly independent artists with new (or debut) releases coming out in the next couple months.

I snagged 5 songs and will be passing judgement on them in the coming days.  I can already tell you that I really, really, strongly dislike one of them and I'm growing more and more fond of a couple others.  Fun stuff!!

My Current Addiction

This song was wrapped in an amazing bow (in the form of Matt Nathanson and Aaron Tap) and given to me as a gift November 5th at The Cannery Ballroom.  My packaging isn't as awesome, but here it is for you:

Genius.

I Thought of Another One!!

If any of you own the Matt Nathanson album At The Point then I am sure you are fully aware of his cover of Drivin' and Cryin's "Straight to Hell".  Before I owned this record, I had never heard the song.  In the interest of comparison, I went in search of it.  Holy crap - what a stinker!  I would rather paper cut the web between my thumb and first finger than hear the original version of this song.  Blech.

Here, give it a listen:

Now what made Matt Nathanson listen to that song and think, "I want to sing that - it'll be awesome!"??  But, believe it or not - he did it!  And it sounds awesome.  It's a great song when he sings it (so, yeah, it was probably a great song before he sang it, I just couldn't hear it that way).

For comparison:

See??  So much more wonderful.

Who Did It Better?

As you may or may not know, Matt Nathanson is somewhat known for doing covers during his shows.  He often works other songs into the middle his own stuff, or uses them as intros to his songs (he frequently leads into his *perfect* song 'Pretty the World' with Florence + the Machine's *less than perfect* 'Dog Days').  The amazing part about this is that his covers are always just as good and sometimes even better than the original. That is a rare thing. 

A perfect example is his version of 'Alison' by Elvis Costello:

The orginal:

See?  Totally better, right??

More "New" Music, A Gift for Me

After someone inquired about my red vinyl copy of "Modern Love" recently, I did some looking around and found that not everyone who bought one got a red see-thru copy like mine.  So, because I'm a nerd like that, I have ordered myself another copy.  If this one is red too, then sweet, I'll get to watch the beautiful red vinyl spin on the turntable.  If not, then I'll play the black one and hide the red one away for safe keeping!  I would love to someday have the red copy signed (the cover, not the vinyl), we'll see if I can ever make that happen.  Oddly enough, even though I already own a copy, I'm still excited to get this one in the mail.  I wish I could go to an actual record store and flip through the stacks until I found it and buy it (there is just something cool about that), but nobody around here is carrying "Modern Love" on vinyl, so I have to click-and-wait.

This morning, while doing my usual VH1 and cereal routine, they played "Run Away Train" by Soul Asylum!  It's not even my birthday or anything!  I can't even count the ways in which I loved that song when it was new (and for about, oh, 3 years after it was new), but somehow I had never seen the video.  I'm guessing that was because we didn't have any music channels (or weren't allowed to watch them, I'm not 100% certain which), so the only videos I ever saw were at friends' houses or on Night Tracks on TBS - which, sadly was no longer on the air by the time 'Run Away Train' came out.  So I got to see the video this morning and that was cool, and only 17 years late.

Speaking of Night Tracks - did you ever watch show?  (Are you old enough to know what I'm talking about?) My dad used to let me record it (yes, on VHS...can you believe it??) and I would wear those tapes out.  My favorite episode had 'Dead or Alive' by Bon Jovi, 'One' by Metallica, and 'Fire Woman' by The Cult.  Man, that was awesome.

Vinyl District

If you aren't spending all of your free online time over at Vinyl District then what is your problem??  If you're like me, it is only because you didn't know it was there and now that I've enlightened you, you'll change your evil ways.

Earlier today I was followed by @Rachelanthecity over on twitter.  What possessed her to follow me?  I have no idea.  She (Rachel Hurley) has a very impressive resume both online and irl, so I'm glad to have her, no matter what level of insanity brought her.  Also, she is the editor of The Vinyl District - Memphis, so I was introduced to it through her profile.  I fucking love this website!!

There are interviews, articles, reviews, everything you could ask for.  And the best part is that it focuses on independent artists that aren't getting a lot of press elsewhere.  There is no way you could visit this site and not find at least one new artist to check out, every day.  Plus, there are several different cities represented, so no matter where you live, there is a Vinyl District for a city within driving distance of you.  Well, I guess that depends on what you consider driving distance for an awesome live show.  I focus on Nashville and Memphis, the former being about 2 1/2 hours from me and totally doable for an awesome night out.  But it's fun to check out what's going on other cities too and what artists are making noise there. 

Check it out, you'll thank me. 

Backstage Riders

Have you seen this list of backstage riders over at The Smoking Gun?

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/backstage

If not, you should check them out.  Who knows if they're real, but some of them are really hilarious.

The Music of Your Past

You can't borrow someone else's past.  If you don't have a history of listening to some album, or song, or band, you can't ever get that warm squishy, down-home feeling that you get when you hear something from your past.  Sure, you can start now, listen to some artist and build that feeling up, but it isn't the same.  If you have some song (or band) that transports you back to the time when you first heard it, or when it was all that played in your car or your room or whatever, then you know what I mean. 

So, I can't give you my past.  I can't make you feel for these artists what I feel, but I can let you hear what my soundtrack sounds like.  Enjoy.

Black  Crowes - She Talks to Angels

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Simple Man

Pearl Jam - Even Flow

Nirvana - Lithium



Just a few that came to me off the top of my head.  All very nostalgic and awesome.

Pressing Vinyl

We just got back from vacation and even though I'm back at work, my brain is still chillin' in New Orleans.  So until I can get a grip on reality again, please enjoy this video.  After watching this, you will appreciate more why vinyl costs $30 each.