wordtravelsfast

Thursday March 19, 2009

I got up and had breakfast at the hotel. made to order omelets ROCK! and Francesca even more so for getting us the free breakfast coupons!

I made certain to be up and ready to go, because I had to get over to the first day of the Twangfest parties. I shared a cab with Dave and Rob to get over to Jovita’s. the guys got a meal inside and I sat with them as Hot Club of Cowtown started their set. I didn’t need food yet.

psa start:
pause for SXSW advice: always eat when you can, drink water when you can, use the toilet when you can, and sit down when you can….all of these things will help you survive long days and nights. also, partake of the free drink and food as much as possible, it will help cut costs.
:psa end

Shortly after the guys finished their meals, the This is American Music portion…once again, Grand Champeen, Glossary and Two Cow Garage rocked the patio of Jovita’s. Plus, it was great to see young Calder Lewis & how much he’s grown since last year! And, he’s a big brother now too!

after the TiAM sets were done, I hitched a lift back downtown by literally squeezing into the backseat of a mustang convertible between Dave & Daryl. I think I might be married to them both now. I probably should have shared a cab with others, but it was too late by the time I thought of that.

I decided to skip the New West party this year. last year, I was more than happy to get there and move right up front for Old 97’s and The Drams. this year, with confusion about the lineup, I decided not to go. My consolation was that I will be seeing Mark Olson & Gary Louris in Scotland at the Darvel Music Festival.

I got to the Northern Ireland party at Latitude 30 between sets, so I got in line for some food. General Fiasco were about to play and I was pleased because they were the band I didn’t want to miss! they’re just babies! ok, not really, but they’re soooo young and so adorable! I can’t tell you how many times I used the word adorable while in austin. granted, mostly speaking to myself, but there were a lot of young bands so young that you just wanted to pinch their cheeks (and no, I did not do that to anyone)

I really liked the mp3 from General Fiasco and their set was impressive. I didn’t get to see them again, but they seem like a real fun band. It will be interesting to see where they go with their music.

This is about the time where my afternoon became full of missed connections. I tried to catch Elliott Brood at convention center, but missed them and caught some of Justin Townes Earle. Then I tried to catch An Horse, but where I thought they were playing, had 6 guys setting up on stage…clearly not An Horse!

at this point, it’s about 5pm and I quickly went over to check out Henry Clay People. loads of energy from the stage and once again, adorable. But it’s the energy that really pulls you in. they were having tons of fun, whether you were or not. Clearly they love to play and go full on every time. I hope to see them again.

after The Henry Clay People, I decided to take a break, head back to the hotel and get some dinner.

For the night, my first stop was Latitude 30 and Frank Turner at 8pm. A buzz in the air, great crowd, great venue (in my opinion) and proper air conditioning. Holy Moley! Frank Turner is amazing! A bunch of us were there, and I think we thought he’d play solo acoustic, but he had a full backing band. Steve Soto and the Twisted Hearts who apparently had just met Frank Turner that morning (obviously, they were able to learn the songs beforehand) I can’t wait to see him again (and I did)! I’m sorry I missed him at last year’s SXSW…so many bands/musicians so little time.

this has got to be my favorite picture of SXSW: Frank Turner is a butterfly!

I confess, I almost had one by accident, and then I realized that from where I was standing, all 5′2 of me & how I was taking photographs, I could easily get a good one once the butterfly image came back around on the screen behind him. I don’t know if anyone else captured a shot similar but this one happened to be when he was speaking between songs and I just had to…I hope he doesn’t mind!

the 9pm slot was a toss up, but I opted for Eugene Francis Jr. & the Juniors since they were playing just before the Heavenly States. I’m glad I did, I had fun, the band had fun and we all got free records, along with a free “shaker” for an audience participation song. they were little wrapped matchboxes.

I missed The Heavenly States at last year’s SXSW and while they played a bunch of times this year, I almost was going to miss them again. I made sure that didn’t happen. I really love their entire album, and I seriously can not sit still when “Lost in the Light” is on…it’s a repeat worthy song. Since I had yet to see them live, I was concerned I’d anticipate it too much. They totally proved me wrong and rocked through their set mixing old and new stuff. And of course, “Lost in the Light” I’m so glad I finally got to see them and I hope they make it to the East Coast soon.

after the Heavenly States’ set, I decided to try the almost impossible task of seeing four, yes FOUR bands in one hour! I hustled over to The Rio to catch The Lost Brothers. I really liked them at the Belfast-Nashville party. I caught a couple songs…

then, I ran back up to 6th St. and stopped at the Velveeta Room to try and catch Elliott Brood (my 2nd attempt) only to be informed that they were at capacity and I could wait and be first in the badge line. I replied: ’sorry I don’t have time for that’ so it was on to Two Hours Traffic.

No line to get in El Sol y La Luna, but I had a police officer check my ID. I wonder if they randomly chose to be there or if the club asked them to be there. My friend, John, from The Successful Failures had been texting me earlier in the day, but we had yet to meet up. He was at this show, but I couldn’t find him. and while my verizon text messages were going through, I don’t think his iPhone was getting them in a timely manner. I stayed for 3-4 songs, and then went over to catch the end of Glossary’s set at Habana Calle 6 patio. I chatted with Kelly for a bit, got a new t-shirt from her and also chatted with Chris from Magnolia Summer. I missed their set, but promised I would be seeing them at the Twangfest party.

I was going to stay for The Monahans, or go see Blind Pilot again, but opted for a beer with Brooke & Craig in the hotel, before heading out to see The Wrens at 1am. This is where Kiki, my other roommate for the week was planted all evening. I’m pretty sure she was in Austin specifically to see The Wrens. I’ve never been a fanatic but thought it would be fun to be with a group of people for the 1am slot. We walked over to the venue, The Prague, which didn’t really seem like a rock or music venue. After 15 minutes, which included me sitting on a couch at the back of the room, and chatting with a really really drunk guy who practically sat on my lap, I gave up. I realized I could be seeing others who were already playing. I skipped through a few places on my way back up 6th St. since most of the bands on my list were playing well off 6th. I now wish I had gone to see 18th Dye, but what can you do? like I say, if I was meant to see a band, I will.

bands for day 2:

Hot Club of Cowtown
Grand Champeen
Glossary
Two Cow Garage
General Fiasco
Justin Townes Earle (3 songs)
The Henry Clay People
Frank Turner
Eugene Francis, Jr & The Juniors
The Heavenly States
The Lost Brothers (3 songs)
Two Hours Traffic (3 songs)
Glossary (3 songs)

tally for Thursday: 13 (9 full sets)

it was a slow day, I guess!

While I got started early in my preparation for SXSW this year, I still ran out of time. I found in the preparation I did, was that nothing was really jumping out at me as a must see. Since 2008 saw my first SXSW in 13 years, and the whole event had changed so dramatically since then, I kept with the Zen approach to SXSW: If I’m meant to see a band, I will see them. With all the preparation, it’s really just a guide to help make game time decisions. Plus, it’s all subject to change at the last minute and if you arrive at one venue to see a certain band and they’re not there or another has taken that slot, you gotta learn to move on to another show, and let it go. For any given slot, I had about 10 bands, with some slots not really having anyone rise up and shout at me “See us!”

On my flight from DC, I had the 390 or so remaining mp3s to listen to one last time and narrow it down further. Between that and taking a realistic look at distance between venues and reasonably getting from one to the other, I started the balancing act of who might take the lead. I fell asleep in the “S” bands, about 20 minutes before prep for landing.

I arrived in Austin in the early afternoon. I was happy to leave the dreary weather of DC for the bright blue sunny skies of Austin. I have been going non-stop since the beginning of the year, so it was nice to get away. This time around, I stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn, pretty much right at Red River and 6th St. I was so exhausted, I just relaxed in the hotel until it was time for the annual Postcard from Hell meetup at Serrano’s. Last year was my second SXSW, but the first meeting up with a bunch of Postcarders.

After dinner, drinks and the hellos, most of us were off to Beerland for 3 of the 4 bands from This is American Music: Glossary, Two Cow Garage and Grand Champeen. It’s always great to see these bands. We missed The Drams of course, but still a great night. Instead of the rotating of band members on stage, all three bands just played their own sets straight on, with a few guests here and there.

Official Day 1:

Got up early for breakfast (free, thanks to roommate, Francesca)
I walked over to Fader Fort to get the wristband since I could see the location from our room on the 17th floor. While walking over there, I managed to meet two guys from DC, too funny. Even funnier is the fact that I would never use the Fader Fort wristband. To top it off, said wristband fell off my wrist not once but twice. The 2nd time, I couldn’t get it back on, so I ditched it.

I went back over toward the convention center on my way to Latitude 30 for the Belfast-Nashville party. It was early, but I wanted to make sure I was in and could see Bap Kennedy for the very very short set he was going to play. I didn’t know until I got there when he’d play. A slight detour to go inside the convention center to meet up with Francesca and get her sorted with my wristband option on my badge.

Stood outside the Belfast-Nashville party and chatted with a local, Tim, for a bit. A bunch of Postcarders started arriving and they let us in. The British Music Embassy parties were my favorites of last year. Free drink, free good food and great music. Oh and real toilets and great air conditioning help too! I saw Keegan Dewitt, The Lost Brothers, Ten from Tennessee, Bap Kennedy and Roman Candle.

moved on from there to the IODA party at Emo’s Annex. This is where I saw Frightened Rabbit last year, on the first official afternoon and was taken away. This year, when a few of us got there, there was some horrific sound on stage that was supposed to be a band. definitely not my cuppa.

Soon, Blind Pilot took the stage and despite some sound issues, a bunch of us really were into it. I had them on my list a couple times, and made note to try and see them again. They seemed like a great bunch of people, with great songs, a great sound. I was loving the banjo. However, the thing about these day time parties outside is that it’s rushed and hot.

Next up on same stage was We Were Promised Jetpacks. I confess to being a Frightened Rabbit fangirl and these guys were on my radar because of numerous mentions from the FR boys in interviews, etc. I’ve just been on a huge Scottish music kick anyway, so why not another? I keep saying, the music coming out of Scotland right now, is like it’s 1992 all over again, except I’m not relying on the UK mags and 120 minutes and WLFR to keep me in the loop. Anyhow, I really liked We Were Promised Jetpacks, they have the bit of raw energy like FR, but don’t quite hit me in the gut like FR. I also made a note of trying to see them again.

after that, I moved on to try and see the Pains of Being Pure at Heart. the outside stage where they played was packed and crowded with no way to get in to actually see them. I ditched the idea, thinking I’d catch them again. So I caught a song or two from Tallest Man on Earth who was playing inside. I like his stuff well enough on recordings, but I wasn’t feeling it this day in the live setting. I also caught the end of Megafaun’s set, which little did I know, I’d do this at least once more before the week was out.

I thought I RSVP’d for the British Music Embassy Launch party, but apparently, I hadn’t. for some reason, it was the only party of the BME I didn’t rsvp for. I took this as a cue to take advantage of the time to take a break. I headed back to the hotel to dump out my bag of things I’d collected, rest my feet and prepare for the night’s festivities.

I started the 8pm hour with a young band from Oklahoma City, OK called Crocodile. As I walked into the Wave (one of the worst venues of SXSW), Slobberbone was on the downstairs PA. nice! Crocodile was upstairs on the rooftop. I really liked the mp3 on the sxsw site. and read some reviews about them. A keyboard driven pop trio with boy-girl vocals. I thought they were adorable. Adorable would eventually be a much used adjective this trip.

next up was Capsula. they were on my list last year. I don’t think I saw them, will have to check my notes. a garagey rock trio from Spain. despite sound issues, they tore through their set and commanded the stage. I thought some of the Postcard boys might like the bass player, who was wearing basically a tee shirt as a dress. On my way out, I caught the end of Thee Headliners set.

from here, I kind of jumped around a bit. I went and caught Two Dollar Bash for a little while, and then split some time between The Ugly Beats and Trainwreck Riders, but ultimately headed over to the Central Presbyterian Church a bit early to make certain I’d catch Camera Obscura at 12 am. This was my first year with a badge and when I arrived at the church, the line was down the block and there was also some confusion. Two badge holders were in front of me were also confused about the line set up, there were two lines: one for non-wristband/badges and one for wristband/badges. I decided to walk up to the door and ask, and I became the first person in the badge line.

See? it never hurts to ask and you can be nice about it!

I got inside to catch the end of Department of Eagles, St. Vincent’s set and of course, Camera Obscura! It was a bit odd to be sitting in a church pew watching bands. I was on my own, but started seeing friends arrive, which prompting tons of text messages from me, indicating things like “I just saw you walk past. I’m up front to the left, 4 pews back!” never would I imagine I’d be sending texts like that!

I wasn’t supposed to take pictures in the church, since I didn’t have an official photo tag on my camera, but I snapped one or two anyway:

the timing of Camera Obscura’s set unfortunately ran a bit over, and resulted in people leaving a little early to go catch the 1am slot somewhere else. Traceyanne Campbell watched people leave regularly and kept lamenting about it. I felt as if we should’ve let her know not to take it personal! I stayed ’til the end of their set. Afterward, I met up with Tom, Mike, and Bill inside the church, and we walked back to 6th St. together. None of us bothered to try and catch that last time slot somewhere else, so I walked down 6th toward the hotel, got some snacks for the room, while Mike & Bill grabbed a slice of pizza.

bands seen so far:
Glossary
Grand Champeen
Two Cow Garage

Keegan DeWitt
The Lost Brothers
Ten from Tennessee
Bap Kennedy
Roman Candle
Blind Pilot
We Were Promised Jetpacks
Tallest Man on Earth (2 songs)
Megafaun (3 songs)
Crocodile
Capsula
Thee Headliners (2 songs)
Two Dollar Bash (half a set)
The Ugly Beats (half a set)
Train Wreck Riders (3 songs)
Department of Eagles (2 songs)
St. Vincent
Camera Obscura

tally for Tuesday: 3
tally for Wednesday: 18 (11 full sets)

I started my twitter account ages ago, however, I never really updated it. I figured why would anyone care where I was or what I was doing at any given moment. Then I realized, I wouldn’t have to tweet everything. Plus, SXSW ‘09 was coming up and those of us on Postcard from Hell would utilize it to keep connected in Austin.

I logged back on and started adding more connections and using apps like Tweetdeck, etc.

I’ve been addicted to google reader, and I believe on one of my RSS feeds, I found out about The Twitchhiker He planned an attempt to travel the world raising awareness and funds for Charity:Water all through the kindness of Twitter users. You can read all about the rules and guidelines for his travel on his blog

I found his idea intriguing, went to his twitter page and started following him. As his journey started, I had hoped he would make it to DC. As I started to realize this possibility, it was also going to be tricky for me to participate by offering to help while I was in the thick of a Board of Directors meeting for the Alliance for Community Media

Fortunately, he was due to arrive in DC Saturday afternoon, March 7th. Luck was on my side, and we finished our board meeting early that day.

There was a planned tweetup with The Twitchhiker and some other DC area users and I made the decision to make sure I went, but I was also going to help move him along the next day, by driving him to Frederick, MD to meet up with @Yenra

The thought of meeting up with 4 other people for drinks, whom I do not know, and have had brief exchanges on twitter somewhat terrified me. Many who’ve met me in my post college years, are surprised when i tell them I am terribly introverted. I was painfully shy and somewhat anti-social as a young child. I’ll never completely overcome it. I continue to learn how to cope.

an extroverted introvert as my friend, Jeremy has described me.

So despite being exhausted, nervous and all sorts of emotions, I pulled myself together as best I could, took metro down to Capital Hill and met up with @Twitchhiker, @katyhaltertop, @ateedub, @wonderchook

It was long before we were all talking with one another almost as if we were long lost friends. I try to push myself into new and fun situations like this as much as I can handle. And every single time, I’m very pleased I’ve managed to do it.

I had an absolute blast spending a unseasonably warm, yet welcome Saturday evening with some great people, enjoying good food, good drink, and great company!

here and here are the Twitchhiker’s blogs about his time in DC, along with Twitchcast #4
where we go around the table over pitchers of margaritas and say hello and who we are and what is happening.

I was a little out of it, the next morning, when I had to get up and get myself downtown to pick @Twitchhiker up and drive him to Frederick. I was slightly hungover, and exhausted and it showed. I don’t drive in DC all that often and my gps was not being completely accurate. I’m relatively new to the whole gps phenomenon, so I must remind myself that I have a really good sense of direction without computers and satellite. You wouldn’t know it that Sunday morning!
I got him to @yenra and wished him well on his journey.

I did my best to keep up on where he was and tried to help rally other twitter users in other towns to help him move along in his goal. As it got closer to the start of SXSW, I had hoped that he wouldn’t get to Austin until a bit later than he did. How cool would it have been if I could have helped a second time in a different part of the country? Alas, it was not meant to be. I missed him by 3 days.

In the end, not only did he reach & surpass his goal of raising funds for charity:water but he made it to the South Island of NZ to Stewart Island. Not all the way to Campbell Island, as hoped, but extremely impressive in my book!!

It wasn’t until a while after I sent him on his way that I realized a tiny bit of personal significance in my donations to Charity:Water. I did not grow up in a 3rd world country. I grew up in rural Southern NJ, close to Atlantic City. We had well water, and a cess pool for waste. As the youngest of 4 children, in a family of 6, I knew how to use water wisely. If you took too long in the shower, you’d get a yell up the stairs from Mom, or someone would flicker the lights (the switches are on the outside of the door!) or pound the door to ‘finish up’ I’d also learn to turn off the water while lathering up. You get the idea….around the time I was in high school, we learned that some neighborhood wells were tainted.

Our house was about a mile from the nearby landfill (now long closed, and currently a golf course) and it was determined that the landfill could be tainting the local well water. For a few months, while we waited for “city water”, large blue plastic containers of water were dropped off for us to use for cooking and drinking. Unfortunately, this water made us sick. We went back to drinking from the tap.

Eventually, the house was connected to the city/county water lines and eventually sewer lines and we don’t really know if our well was tainted or not. I also never had the supposed benefit of fluoridated water. I use that excuse at the dentist ALL the time, although I do know there’s lots of controversy of whether or not fluoridated water is good or bad for you.

No matter, clean water for drinking and cooking and bathing is not something to be taken for granted. Mind you, my situation in my childhood pales to what those in underdeveloped countries must endure. For me personally, it gave me a whole new meaning of significance of not only contributing my time, and assistance to @Twitchhiker, but also an added significance to the monetary donations to charity:water.

I have a ton of stuff to write about, including my WAY long overdue SXSW recaps.
must get better at updating here!

I’ve been neglecting this for quite some time…
have tons to update, but I’m still recovering from my time in Austin for SXSW this past week.

stay tuned.

I’ve been having a bit of a busy January and now it’s almost over! I have a lot of catching up to do!

I realize I never got around to posting my top records of 2008. I got a bit overwhelmed with it and instead of just not contributing one to the various music lists I’m on, I put together a top 10 and then just listed alphabetically the rest of the records I listened to a lot in 2008. Forgive me, I had quite a rough December!

I’m pretty conflicted about everything, except my top two. There’s so much I never got around to buying in 2008, with a lot still in my list to buy from various places. I will have to say that while I’ve always loved music and it is truly my drug, I really think 2008 is when I’ve gone back to the true “kid in a candy store, oh, you really must listen to this….lots of exclamation points, etc” sort of feeling of music.

I know a lot of people feel it wasn’t a great year for music, but I’ve been diggin’ lots and lots of new stuff, and revisiting old stuff too (Feelies anyone?). The internet, myspace, facebook, bebo, google reader, and internet radio has really now more than ever made it a global experience for me. If I even tried to name all the great new bands I’ve found out about this past year, I’d truly explode!
here it is:

1. Frightened Rabbit-Midnight Organ Fight/Liver! Lung! FR!
I’m combining the electric and live acoustic albums since no matter how, where or when the songs are played, this album definitely rocked my world this year. They were on my radar before I started prepping for SXSW, but I must tell you, some times a live gig just punches you in the gut. It was that Wednesday afternoon day show, where I was feeling a bit glum, uncertain at how my experience of my first SXSW in 13 years would go…a bit bummed to be on my own so-to-speak, but then I realized I’m not sure if anyone would want to follow me all the places I wanted to go. the amazing raw energy and emotion in these songs and the performances that go into them is a lot like the raw energy and emotion that’s swirling in my head at any given moment. I realize and recognize it daily. and while it’s not necessarily the same things Scott Hutchinson is writing and singing about, I can completely identify with it.

2.Two Cow Garage-Speaking in Cursive
While I didn’t have an advance of this as some are so lucky to have had, I have been “friends” with a bunch of these songs for quite some time. It’s their best yet and as I always say, Micah and Shane are like the younger brothers I’ve never had.

3. Dropkick-Dot the I
must be Scotland’s most prolific band, with the first of two releases for 2008. While I’ve never met or spoken with any of them, it’s become sort of an inside joke that I’m their biggest fan! ok, maybe not really, but when I finally get to Scotland, the trip would not be complete without seeing them live! This record continues their lush Scottish pop sound

4. R.E.M.- Accelerate
I’ve been a fan since I was about 15 or 16 years old. I can appreciate and even love everything they’ve ever done, but I took on this record with reckless abandon, and it proves you can have fun with a rock n roll record and be socially/politically conscious while doing so.

5. Attic Lights-Friday Night Lights
I have had a couple tracks from blogs and the one on emusic for a couple months, but it wasn’t until I was seriously sorting out my top 10 that I just HAD to have this. And one night in the last week of December, I wasn’t going to sleep until I did. I listened to nothing more the last week of 2008 than this album. It definitely helped me out of the doldrums of December 2008.

6. Marching Band-Spark Large
As if my obsession with Scottish music isn’t enough, I’ve developed one for Swedish pop again. Thanks to listening to the “Three from Leith” podcast, I immediately downloaded this from emusic as soon as I could.

7. Oppenheimer-Take the Whole Midrange and Boost It
my Belfast friends, sophomore album is lovely. another band that is basically the younger brothers I’ve never had. I “adopted” them a few years back,
and might have frightened them initially. They are the first band I
didn’t personally know or had friends who knew them, crash at my place
when they’re in town. “Look Up” is a great pop song and the kids dance
to it (I have video proof!) no song is over 4 minutes and I love that
there’s a song called “Fireworks are illegal in the state of NJ”
because it reminds me of the night I was there with them in Atlantic City, on the beach setting off fireworks, knowing full well as the only American amongst 6 Belfast residents, that the AC police would show up almost immediately. In fact, of the times they’ve had brushes with the law in the US, I’ve been present for two of them!

8. Dropkick-Patchwork
the 2nd release of 2008. I joked that they aren’t working hard enough and 2009 should see 3 records, not just two. This is the more “alt-country” album of the two. more pedal steel and banjo. I didn’t have as much time with this one, but a couple of the songs are ones I go to regularly and any time the songs come up on shuffle, I turn it up and sing along.

9. Neil Halstead-Oh! Mighty Engine
another late edition…riding the train home to NJ for Christmas, I hadn’t put together a playlist of my potential top 2008 records, but I did have a video podcast on my laptop that I watched of Neil Halstead perform most of the songs off this record, and realized I needed to get the album asap. I heart Neil and my favorite show I’ve ever seen of his was solo acoustic matinee at IOTA one year. you could hear a pin drop it was so quiet and the crowd so attentive.

10. Elliott Brood-Mountain Meadows
Postcarder (www.postcardfromhell.com), Tualla gets credit for turning me on to them. I tend to hit repeat on “Miss You Now” a lot. this was a tough spot to fill, because there’s
so many records that could have been here too.

here’s the rest, in alphabetical order that were in consideration…as I said, there’s a ton I never got around to buying, and my head’s a swirl in sorting it out. these records just didn’t get as much spin or didn’t stand out, but are still favs. I really do think that my listening habits have been affected by the shuffling on ipod:

Beach House-Devotion
British Sea Power-Do You Like Rock Music?
Broadfield Marchers-The Inevitable Continuing
The Broken West-Now or Heaven
Roger Bryan & The Orphans-Recovery
Pelle Carlberg-The Lilac Time
The Decks-Becoming Nightblind
Dr. Dog-Fate
The Duke Spirit-Neptune
Electric Touch-Electric Touch
Escape Act-Loosely Based on Fiction
The Explorers Club-Freedom Wind
The Fratellis-Here We Stand
The General Store-Mountain Rescue
Green Peppers-Adventures in the Slipstream
Mic Harrison & The High Score-On the Right Side of the Grass
Juliana Hatfield-How to Walk Away
Have Gun, Will Travel-Casting Shadows as Tall Giants
The Heavenly States-Delayer
Cliff Hillis-The Long Now
Hollow Horse-Escaping from a Submarine
Japanese Motors-Japanese Motors
Julie Ocean-Long Gone and Nearly There
The Lodger-Life is Sweet
The Meadows-First Nervous Breakdown
The Mural and the Mint-Private Pockets
Old 97’s-Blame it on Gravity
Popup-A Time and A Place
The Quarter After-Changes Near
Will Quinlan & The Diviners-Navasota
Ryebender-Hollow and Drifting
She & Him-Volume One

Top songs of 2008:
1. Frightened Rabbit-The Modern Leper
2. Two Cow Garage-Skinny Legged Girl
3. The Heavenly States-Lost in the Light
4. Dropkick-Breakdown
5. Marching Band-For Your Love
6. Attic Lights-Bring You Down
7. Elliott Brood-Miss You Now
8. R.E.M.- Man-Sized Wreath
9. The Fratellis-Acid Jazz Singer
10. The Lodger-The Good Old Days

I’m sure there’s tons I’ve forgotten, but most of what’s missing from my list compiled here, isn’t here because I haven’t bought it to add to my collection yet.

ps. I want to give The Swimmers and IKE records an honorable mention.
I had both in 2007 at official cd release parties, so I included them
in my 2007 list.

just when I think everything’s going great again…
so far December 2008 has not been good to me.

I’ve really been in good spirits up until recent events.
December 8th, car accident…literally *JUST* after I’ve finally gotten over the one from February 6, 2005.
then, I end up with an upper respiratory and ear infection, which started December 13th and I’m still trying to recover from at this very moment.

It’s a bit frustrating, since I had all this momentum both professionally and personally to tackle a bunch of projects that have been on my to do list.

I don’t know how many more years I can spend NYE/New Year’s day hoping for a better year, because every single time things start to get better, the universe slaps me in the face and tells me otherwise.

no matter, I’m doing best to keep things in perspective and while I believe I’ve deservedly sat dwelling on my latest misfortunes, I also know that I have to let go of things I can’t control and things in the past.

Time to focus on the future.

I’m am extremely grateful for my family, friends, and coworkers who’ve been very supportive and who’ve sometimes had to tolerate my wave of emotions not only the past few weeks, but years.

I’m very much looking forward to 2009.

(oh, and it will be nice to have my car back again…it’s still being repaired)

In the time since I posted about The Waxwings, I discovered that Kevin (used to play bass and sing backing vocals in The Waxwings) is now in London based band, The See See!

check them out here:
The See See on myspace

They appeal to the psychedelic pop sound I love. definitely fits in with Paisley Pop, Rainbow Quartz.

I could see them touring with The High Dials. oh, and don’t get me started about the time I saw The Sea Beggars in Montreal. Trevor from The High Dials used to be in the Sea Beggars…it involves a 10 year gap of time and me being silly and sending messages to people I’ve only spent one night hanging out with and thus having to discuss my uncanny ability to remember entirely TOO much. my memory is a bit insane, only in that I have such a good memory, sometimes TOO good.

have I mentioned that my earliest memory is getting a bath in the kitchen sink? I was about 6-8 months old….perhaps that’s another post for a later time.

Recent events have me going back to The Waxwings…there’s a lot to say in the few years I got to see and know them. One way to describe my love affair with their music is the whole “kid in a candy store” effect. music is my drug. and The Waxwings are a high for me.

It’s hard for me to pick just one song that I like most. Right now, I’m listening to Firewood and I remember when they played in live in the studio at WJSE (a job I hated for the most part, except for the time The Waxwings played at the Hard Rock Cafe in Atlantic City, with other friends, The John Faye Power Trip aka IKE….an idea *I* suggested) and I got to take them all to McGuire’s afterward. And the only reason I couldn’t take The Waxwings home to my house for a rock n roll slumber party, was that my parent’s house only had room for one band not two!

At any rate, I often wonder what the boys are up to. I know Dean has been touring with Brendan Benson’s band, then The Ranconteurs, and as far as I know, he’s still with Queens of the Stone Age.

The Waxwings’ music is timeless despite how many memories I have associated with it. I know not everyone can hear every band from everywhere, but it’s always fun to discover and rediscover music no matter where or when it’s from. when I was younger, I remember having to send for stuff overseas and really having to dig for music across the miles. The power of the internet has changed that dramatically. If you give me the chance, I will indeed tell you how amazing it is that I can connect with bands from all over the world, simply through myspace or facebook or bebo or podcasts or whatever. None of this stuff really existed when The Waxwings were really getting out there and releasing records. Hell, I wrote them a hand written letter telling them how much I loved their album. I used to do that all the time. I still do to some degree. It sounds corny but anyone who’s working their ass off creating something or doing something, no matter who they are can appreciate a quick acknowledgment of what it is they’re doing. I don’t do it because I want something, or to be recognized, or for my own acknowledgment. I do it because it’s genuinely how I feel.

you can find more about The Waxwings in the following places:
the waxwings website
last.fm
The Waxwings wiki

here they are at the Hard Rock Cafe in Atlantic City, NJ

and at the Velvet Lounge in DC

I just found these videos on youtube:

It’s raining…I’m sleepy…I’m at work…
I’ve having trouble focusing, but Marching Band is helping to keep me awake.

more people need to listen to this band…

marching band on myspace
marching band website
marching band on last.fm

I’m hoping to keep updating this blog more often, but I’m about to start working 7 days a week with a second job part time. I’m passionate about what I do, but I didn’t get in to it to become rich…famous, maybe, but definitely not rich.