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Sunday, May 25, 2008
5/25/2008 05:41:00 PM So, I caved and bought some bunny ears the other day. I know I can live without television....but without any internet, I felt I could occassionally use some other medium to waste a few hours of time here and there. Of course, they'll only be good through February before the big switch to digital sweeps the country, but I only need the distraction until August when my roomates move in, and I'll be able to transfer my boredom to become their problem, haha. For right now? I'm sitting on a couch in Sverdrup at Webster, stealing their free wireless internets. Hey, my username and password still work. That's not my fault. That's just begging for me to come use it, right? Next. I think I may go to Blockbuster and try to rent a video game for the Nintendo 64 I aquired for $10 (What? While moving in, I was reminded of how great thrift stores and Craigslist are). This weekend has been extremely long, due to the holiday, and I won't have worked Friday-Monday. I'm running out of things to do. At least...things to do alone, when you're trying not to spend to much money--which definitely exludes drinking. Though there are always coffee shops, with free wireless.... I also kind of want to go to Target to see Jason Mraz's new cd on the shelfs. It came out Tuesday, and I've already downloaded it, but seeing it in a tangible package will be a nice reminder that I should legally pick it up as soon as I can. Wednesday, May 21, 2008
5/21/2008 12:56:00 PM I feel like its been months since school ended, and it's only been a week. Yet, here I am, new house, new car (not to mention broke as hell), and a new group of hang out buddies, which of course means new hang outs. I feel like I'm not even in the same place. Ha, mentally and physically. It's so weird how everything changes so fast. Thursday, May 15, 2008
Just because its SOOO good
5/15/2008 02:37:00 PM Here's the Swell Season show @ the Pageant in St. Louis for download. I promise its worth a listen, if you so choose to do so. http://www.sendspace.com/file/oef96q Wednesday, May 07, 2008
The Swell Season
5/07/2008 11:50:00 AM One of my favorite concerts of all time. Hands down.  It wasn't blow your mind amazing, it wasn't chalk full of excitement, electricity, dancing, or anything like that. It was just simple, and simply wonderful. Around this time last year, I remember reading an Entertainment Weekly magazine (for it had my music crush at the moment, Amy Winehouse on the cover) and reading about this new Irish musical, "Once", that was that was reviewed (even though the film didn't come out in the US until the following January, and I was absolutely crazy trying to find it until then). Fact #1: I love the Irish. #2: I love musicals. #3: I love singer songwriters. So when I read that this film was a contemporary musical, starring two actual musicians, it was like that Savage Garden song, "I Knew I Loved You Before I Met You"...rather, "before I saw/heard you." Anyways. The show was way more than what I expected--which was that they would just play the soundtrack from "Once", which honestly would have been perfectly satisfactory. After all, I fricken love the music from that film. But Hansard and Marglova have continued working together since then (obviously, forming "the Swell Season") and they had plenty of new tunes, just as great or even better than the first batch. And of course there's that whole thing about how you already know these musicians are fantastic live and stripped down, if you saw the film.  There were some really, just calm, beautiful songs, with heartbreakingly gorgeous harmonies/melodies. Sam even cried. Multiple times. Then there were the ones where they totally just jammed out. Or when Glen used his magnificent screaming in anguish thing he does, which gets me right in my heart parts every time (especially if my heart-parts are located in my pants...is that innappropriate?) He did a kick ass cover of a Van Morrison song that is to die for. I almost thought he was gonna die for a moment, the poor guy practicaly rips his heart out all over again with every song about heartbreak he sings.  You can tell he wears his heart on his sleeve, and before every song he would start to give us a little intro about what the song was about, which would turn into rambling about how ridiculous it is that all the organs in your body communicate so well, yet the head and heart muscles stop talking at birth, and then somehow make a Freaks and Geeks connection to the song. Truly Adorable. He knew that he was rambling a bit to much at times, and even apologized for treating us all like his therapist.  They were apparently just as taken with us, as we them, because the atmosphere for the evening was so great that they not only tried out multiple songs that had never been played before (if one time in rehearsal doesnt count) but they also came back for almost another full hour for the encore, and had a couple stagehands/other musicians come out and sing a song or two, as if they were playing back in a pub in Ireland; totally relaxed, hanging out, listening to some music. The opening act was even a busker from Ireland, Damien Dempsey. He totally brought the feel of Grafton Street to the Pageant. Also noteworthy, an amazing interlude provided by violist (and member of Glen's band, The Frames) Colm Mac Con Iomaire called "The Blue Shoes." It was just great fun. I'm smitten. If I could marry that evening I would--committment phobia and all. If you never saw "Once" or managed to miss the Oscar-Winning (literally, these adorable troubadors won an Academy Award) performance of Falling Slowly, please please, check out some of these tunes here: http://www.myspace.com/oncethemovie. or here: http://www.myspace.com/theswellseason Aside from the afore mentioned track, I highly recommend "When Your Minds Made Up", "Lies" or "If You Want Me" from what's available on their myspace players, for a nice introduction. Okay, fine. Just to include a video, and a perfect example of the screaming throat amazingness that I referenced (as well as one of my favorite songs), here's "Say it to Me Now" from the opening of "Once". P.S. If you have no idea what I meant by "busking" or "Grafton Street", this video should clear that up... OR! If you're too impatient to listen to a new song, you can hear Glen the way I first heard him (not that you also can be on a bus in Ireland, listening to an album of pop cover songs), singing Britney Spear's "Everytime", (which is completely gorgeous when he sings it), or Justin Timberlake's "Cry Me A River". As the name of the cd we were listening to said, they are obviously "Even Better Than the Real Thing". Sadly, this cd is out of print (it was just for charity) but I managed to get one after coming back to the States, and it's amazing. If you like, I'll make you a copy. Or send you the mp3s. Saturday, May 03, 2008
Uh Huh Her
5/03/2008 03:36:00 PM  Last night I finally attended my first concert at the Duck Room, inside Blueberry Hill (the usual hangout for Chuck Berry, who plays about once a month). It was kinda cool just cause it's in the basement, and the room is set lengthwise, so that everyone is close to the stage, just spread from left to right, so the gigs are always pretty intimate (once I got there, I was even more upset that I missed Sara Bareilles at the same venue in February). Oh and there's a bar on the back wall, opposite the stage. Which is important to the story. When I told my brother the name of the band I was going to see, he replied, "sounds a lil gay"...and admittedly, it was. I have never been around so many drunk-off-their-ass lesbians in my life. Literally off-their-asses...I saw a girl fall down the stairs, haha. Also, it marked the first time (at least in my adult-life, and when I wasn't on some sort of exploratory adventure) that I was in a men's room. It only made sense that with a basement full of women (we all know what the lines are like for the restrooms, anywhere with a surplus of ladies) and only about 5 men in attendance, that half the line would get fed-up, and decide to take over the boys bathroom. It was hilarious. Originally Kat and Sam were gonna come with me, but they both backed out individually, leaving me to fend for myself. Which was no big deal, I've gone to plenty of concerts by myself before, and plenty where the crowds were almost entirely female (I mean, hello..KT Tunstall, Brandi Carlile, Kelly Clarkson, Jason Mraz?). The concert was actually much better than I was expecting. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love their music, but with Electro-Pop-Indie artists I usually don't expect the live shows to be that great. Simply for the fact that so much of the unique sound is created in a studio and not often reproduced live. Obviously, a prime example of a contradiction to this belief are Mute Math. Which I was reminded of mainly because the drummer Josh was absolutely ama-za-zing. He was freakin crazy. In a good way. Crazy good. He might just be my #2 favorite following Mute Math's own, Darren King (aka, King of my heart. Or my ears...?). Josh  Wait...I just realized Mraz'z drummer (whom I am also fond of) is also a King...Adam King. I shall have to find out this Josh's last name and see if there's a trend... Anyways. He and Jacques (the self pro-claimed handsome, charming and always debonaire, guitar player) added so much to the songs, they rocked my face off. As did the ladies in their dresses and pumps. Jacques  UHHeels  I don't know how the hell they wore those things for the whole show. I had tennis shoes on, and my feet hurt like hell. Of course I was standing for four hours on concrete, and they were were on a wooden? stage for only two. Still. I usually can't go more than 20 minutes in anything resembling stillettos, and there were plenty of femmes in the audience with me (again on the concrete for hours), and I didn't see any of them remove their heels either. Dresswear and Footwear aside, as I started to say above, the band surpassed my expectations and actually rocked it out live. I loved the new songs, and the older ones from the EP sounded even better with all the bass and drumming blaring its way into my skull, amidst the synth pop melodies and vocal harmonies. Cam on Keys  Leisha on Bass  So I didn't regret going at all in the end. Especially since I considered not going because of A) going alone and B) running the risk of becoming a non-fan if I saw them live and they sucked. PLUS, I got to meet the band. Which includes Ms. Leisha Hailey, who plays the oh-so-hilarious Alice on the L Word (hence all the gay ladies in the crowd), and got my poster signed. The album, "Common Reaction" should finally be out August 19th, I believe...even though that flyer above says May 20th (the label pushed back the release date to allow time for more promotion, allegedly).
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woo! go Nintento 64! I hope you find some quality entertainment. I'd die without internt...
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