Music

Missing a show twice

 

Saturday night. Josh called from Common Grounds to remind me to come to the Holopaw show. It’s a bit after 11, so I still have time to see them. When I get down there it’s some sort of free event and Neko Case is a surprise opener! She starts playing Buddy Holly’s “Baby Won’t You Come Out Tonight?” with the rockabilly “go baby, go baby…” and I’m thinking Kathleen needs to be here. Since she loves Holopaw I don’t know why she didn’t wanna come but I run toward the entrance to head out and go get her. When I get out in the parking lot I realize it’s raining and I’m not wearing shoes. I run back inside and start waiting in line to talk to the doorman, because CG has some weird policy now where you have to check your shoes in at the door. As I start to get frustrated, I wake up.

Not only do I miss the dream show with Neko Case and Holopaw, but I check the clock to see it’s past 5 and we’ve missed the real Holopaw show as well. My brain is mocking me! At least earlier that evening we got to see Neko Case on Austin City Limits (wow). I’m so pissed at myself because I’ve been waiting to see Holopaw for several months and I don’t know why I didn’t just buy an advanced ticket as a reminder.

PlayTagger bookmarklet

 

PlayTagger loads del.icio.us’s Play Tagger in the page, which allows you to listen to (and bookmark) mp3 links.

Get it

PlayTagger

Shamelessly self-promoting test links

Brittle Stars – So Unfair
The French Horns – Brighter Now

Previously powered by…

This page used to have a bookmarklet that did a similar function using the open source XSPF Flash Music Player, but SourceForge now prevents direct linking to the SWF files. Rewriting the bookmarklet to use PlayTagger is easier than explaining that you have to host your own SWF and adjust the bookmarklet accordingly.

WDHV and Maria Taylor

 

WDHV 101.7 is a little FM station in Trenton that plays some great pre-70’s classic country. The other day I caught the tail end of “Talk Back Trembling Lips” from 1963 and the rhythm section and reverb filled the van so nicely–it made my morning. They do slip in later stuff and even up to the awful she-thinks-my-tractor’s-sexy “big hat” country, but it’s in moderation and all played by people who actually seem to remember this stuff.

I mention this because this week I’m helping sabotage statistics by recording my radio listening habits for Arbitron (think Nielsen for radio). Three things are great about this: 1. Per day, I only listen to maybe 45 mins of NPR and 10 minutes (if I’m lucky) of some hodunk out-of-area oldies station. 2. They bribe you with dollar bills in the envelope…$10 so far, and since Arbitron works for the LPFM-hating NAB, I’m happy to take their money. 3. This makes twice that I was randomly selected to do this, first being probably a decade ago.

Tonight I’m going to see Mates of State, Maria Taylor and papercranes at Common Grounds. Maria is/was(?) one half of Azure Ray, who put out a great debut album and some OK follow-ups. It’ll be nice to finally see the Mates outside of Wayward Council, they’re sometimes a little much for casual listening, but a blast live.

Malmö Gearlust

 

I’m totally spoiled having a big back room dedicated to making and recording music, but sometimes you can still dream.

Check out this amazing pic of the “Mothership”[1] in Sweden’s Gula Studion. Gula was built as a sister studio to the perhaps more famous Tambourine Studios, birthplace of most Cardigans and Eggstone albums. More than the gear; the space, atmosphere, and natural lighting is wonderful. Two more pics of the great room from the Gula site.

Eggstone update! A bit of googling around just unearthed a copy of the ridiculously OOP last Eggstone album on Amazon UK for £7. The order is in, I hope this works out. At least one other seller out there is holding out for $70. I wonder what Josh paid…

[1] pic from an excellent article on the recording of the first Franz Ferdinand album.

Feeling better, thanks

 

Wednesday morning I came down with a cold/virus/something and for three days my temperature bounced between 97 and over 100. Wed evening I had terrible abdominal pain and was paranoid it was some sort of appendicitis or something so we spent two hours at the Shands emergency clinic until I just couldn’t stand to sit there anymore (we heard some people had been waiting 5 hours). I took a triple dose of Advil and went to bed. Thursday was dull, I don’t remember much other than being supremely frustrated not being able to sleep from coughing. I came to the conclusion that I’d just have to sleep sitting up somehow. I tried this in bed, on the living room sofa and finally made it to sleep out of pure exhaustion, but only after Kathleen gave up trying to get any sleep next to me and she slept in the guest bedroom. Fed up from my 3 hrs of sleep, Friday I went to a walk-in clinic, where they tested for the flu (negative) and sent me home with antibiotics and cough medicine with codeine. I’ve been able to sleep, but I have to admit regular old Nyquil knocked me out better than the codeine has.

And now it’s a cool Sunday night. Kathleen and her mom are doing something in the craft room, Evey is roaming trying to figure out who to hang out with. Laundry’s spinning, The Last Beautiful Day is sounding great as ever. I rearranged my office desk a bit and I don’t know if it’s more attractive or comfortable, but it’s at least different and a step away from the standard level of mess. Over the weekend Kathleen finished painting the office and we finished watching season 1 of the sci-fi series Farscape. I upgraded to WordPress 2.0 and finally took my Jazzmaster to a friend to have the new bridge and tailpiece installed. We’ve loaded up the van with a bunch of equipment that we’re glad to see out of the house. Today’s been a nice time of checking off todos after a mostly wasted week.

Lilys interview

 

A brief history of one of my favorite bands. It’s hard to describe to non-musicians how Kurt’s music stands my ears on end. Of course there are the straight-up hooks for the kid in me, but there’s also the complex harmonies for the music geek in me. A piece like “The Tennis System (And It’s Stars)” is like a dozen Pet Sounds tunes rolled into 7 minutes, but little traces of ingenuity spill out subtlely throughout the albums. For further proof the world is small, two of my friends from Gainesville are now Lilys members supporting the new album. Can we finally get a FL Lilys show, guys?