Entries tagged with media:music [i may be a bird in a cage but at least it's your cage]

Livejournal! I am not dead. I am currently so exhausted I want to die, but I am not dead! I just kind of ... acquired a life, I guess? Started doing ill-advised things like going to five shows in the same week? I don't know.

What I have been doing:

-- Taking photos. You can see how busy my year has been, a lot of it contract work for pub companies and a music blog I started working with, here. Or here, which features one bathroom self-portrait for every show I've been to. Which is, as of right now, 61. Uh. My goal of 100 shows this year is going to be blown right past, I suspect.

Slightly less overwhelming is here, my personal favorites set for 2011.

-- Watching baseball. The UNC baseball team has had a quietly, surprisingly excellent year, and while they are no rivals for the 2007 or 2008 or 2009 teams in my affections, they are a good deal of fun. They scored a totally random national seed in the NCAA tournament and will hopefully make a serious run at getting back to Omaha this year.

-- Dating. Met a dude New Year's Day, got serious, broke up, starting over with him, slowly. Dating takes up a lot of time, you guys.

-- Watching Doctor Who and Game of Thrones. I gave up on How I Met Your Mother and Bones when I started dating the Cowboy in January, because I had no time all of a sudden and also I really wasn't enjoying either season, frankly, but Who and Game of Thrones are really doing it for me lately. I love everyone on Who, but especially Rory, and Game of Thrones is so fucking gorgeous and fucked up, so I'm loving that, too. The violence makes me cringe -- less spurting, please, HBO -- but I'm digging it.

The Cowboy and I are watching The Wire, too. It's awesome, as everyone told me it was. I'm just slow.

-- I am home today and thus able to post because my car died on I-40 last night. Only upside: I have the savings to fix it, it died in a completely convenient non-dangerous spot on the highway, and I have the vacation time to take today off unexpectedly. I am listening to podcasts and reading YA novels while I wait for the mechanic to call me back and tell me what's wrong (the mechanic and my father both THINK it's the alternator, but neither was positive).

-- My Flickr PRO account is about to expire and I have no money to renew it because see also DEAD FUCKING CAR GODDAMNIT LIFE.

-- I also have no money to buy art on Etsy like I want to but that's less of a pressing professional problem. Fuuuuck being broke. And also living somewhere that I love but where I have to own a car.

-- I made a really good pot of coffee this morning.

-- So far my five favorite albums of 2011 are: Ha Ha Tonka -- Death of a Decade; the Booze -- At Maximum Volume; Dave Hause -- Resolutions; the Smith Westerns -- Dye It Blonde; the Low Anthem -- Smart Flesh.

-- I am going to have a caprese salad today for lunch.

-- I am on Twitter as brandnewkindof. I mostly twitter about stupid baseball player hair, beer, music and photography. I don't autofollow back -- I use it professionally, to follow people I know IRL, and to get college baseball info -- but if you feel like following me for short album reviews and griping about mullets and opening bands, go for it. If I don't follow you back, I promise it's not personal.

-- That's all I've got! Need more coffee.

-- How are you guys? What are your favorite albums of 2011? What's taking up your time this year? I miss you. I keep trying to post and then just ... not. But I will do better.

Music:: TBJ_Ep_719 -- Score Media -- The Basketball Jones (Audio)

Mood::

anxious

There are 21 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

Happy Memorial Day, y'all. If you have it off, I hope you're enjoying it. If you're not in the States or you have to work, I hope it's bearable. I hope everyone's thinking of your soldiers today either way.

Catch-up, catch-up:

Everyone who has asked me what I've been up to lately has gotten the same answer: running around shooting indie hipster bands, watching and obsessing about all levels of baseball, hanging out at the farmer's market, drinking beer. Seriously. I'm really good at all of those things, though, so it's okay.
No, really, I've been busy: between doing things out of the house and being, you know, an introvert who also needs serious recharging time, the last few months have been frantically busy for me. June doesn't look any less packed, nor does July. It's good to be busy, I think. It keeps me focused on things other than my brain spinning like a hamster on a wheel. Lots of outdoor concerts and baseball games coming up, and that's always good. Music outdoors is amazing.
So far the best album of 2010 is the new Black Keys album, Brothers, followed closely by the Drive-By Truckers' The Big To-Do and Eli 'Paperboy' Reed's Come and Get It. Blues, rock, soul. Yes, please. Go get 'em all.
The best show I've seen in 2010 was Superchunk at the Cat's Cradle a few weeks ago, followed closely by the Drive-By Truckers' two night stand at the Lincoln in Raleigh back in February, and Brian Fallon and Dave Hause acoustic at the Black Cat in DC in January.
The best baseball I've watched was Carolina's three game sweep of Virginia Tech, but the game that meant the most was getting to see ex-Heel Dustin Ackley play Double-A baseball in Zebulon, NC, over the weekend. And not just because the whole Carolina was bizarrely and traumatizingly in attendance, and also I bucked up and told Coach how much his teams had meant to me over the last few years. (It helped that I was tipsy. I was surprisingly concise and coherent and not at all weird for being drunk on Yuengling, frankly.) But because Dustin is amazing and lovely and I miss seeing him wear Carolina blue so much it hurts like a broken heart. I was very proud.
I am not watching much TV at all right now: with How I Met Your Mother and Bones done for the year, it's me and Doctor Who and that's it. I will probably watch all of Friday Night Lights season four over the summer. And Psych comes back soon, right? But mostly, if our TV is on, it's tuned to baseball, or it's playing a movie we've seen a million times or TiVoed episodes of Ace of Cakes, The Best Thing I Ever Ate, and Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Duff + tasty things + restaurants I could visit on road trips = happy Min.
Although also: June 24, 2010, new Futurama episodes. 26 whole episodes! Very exciting.
Yesterday I got to have breakfast with ipso__facto and The Mets Fan and The Mets Fan's Chef Cousin. We ate at Ye Olde Waffle Shoppe and then took a lengthy hike around campus. It was hot and gross, but the company was excellent. I miss seeing Lala regularly and was glad to have any time with her I could. ♥
I'm weirdly sad and restless today. Cleaning the bathroom didn't help. I'm pretty sure that a beer at 10:18 am won't help, either.

I'm still here and reading. Mostly I'm just so busy out running around that I forget to actually talk, too.

Mood::

lazy

Music:: Seed Bombs; Boysenberries; Rendering Plants; California Olive Oil -- Podcast:Talk -- KCRW's Good Foo

There are 5 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

I have what I call a bus friend -- a regular rider of my bus who I have also regularly seen out at shows, who I often chat with in the mornings, but who I rarely see outside the bus or dirty concert venues -- who I shall henceforth nickname Trees, based on his real name.

Anyway, this morning Trees and I were talking about the Rosebuds show from the weekend, and stuff we're going to see, and he asked me, what's the best show you've ever missed?

For example: he once walked out of a $5 Arcade Fire show at a tiny basement venue (the Cave, for Triangle-ites and ex-Triangle-ites) during the opener because he was tired. He also saw the Flaming Lips soundchecking at the Cradle, had no idea who they were, and skipped the show; he has since become a big fan. I sincerely regret missing any and all of the early Chicago dive bar Fall Out Boy shows. (He laughed at me when I said that, and I told him that I sincerely and unironically loved Pete Wentz and all P.Weezy stands for, including really ugly boots and loving Patrick Stump, and Trees told me that he could respect my love but he would never understand it.) Wilco played Carleton's spring concert my sophomore year and I was in London at the time. I'm pretty sure there were things at the Cave at Carleton that I would regret missing if I could remember what they were. Any of the Truckers shows in the Triangle between August '05 and April '07, which are, respectively, the dates when I moved to the Triangle and when Jason Isbell left the band, and also the Tres Tangled Truckers show (Caitlin Cary, Kevn Kinney, Jason Isbell) at the Pour House in Raleigh in December '05. REM ever before Bill Berry left. The Pixies reunion shows in Chicago.

So. It has to be, through timing and location, something you could have seen. (Because if we're talking history, I wish I could have seen Skynyrd in the 70s and the Truckers doing Southern Rock Opera start to finish at the 506 and Sam Cooke anywhere ever, but I wasn't alive for two of those and I was in Minnesota for the third.) What's the best show you've ever missed? Go.

(In other news: our electronic timesheet system hates me, I think one of my earbuds is breaking and I don't want to buy new ones, the bra that was fine when I left the house is now incredibly uncomfortable, our hot water heater seems to be busted again -- I had a shower like the ocean in December this morning, and I couldn't skip showering because I rode the exercise bike this morning and, well, gross -- and it's incredibly gloomy and foggy today. FAIL, WEDNESDAY. Also, I want spring to be here. Is it spring yet?)

Music:: The Blue -- Jason Isbell -- Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit

Mood::

grumpy

There are 15 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

I need Folie a Deux to leak so that I can finish my top 10/top 25 albums of the year list. That's the only album I'm waiting on hearing before I post my list, so if Peter could just leak that shit already, that would be A++.
I went to a show last night that was a great performance (Hayes Carll) marred by a seriously creepster crowd (sketchy guys so drunk they were slurring and stumbling and trying to touch my boobs; the venue owner -- who I know and like -- not in attendance to hide behind; the bartender -- who I also know and like -- preoccupied by some personal shit going on at the same time). Considering that it's the first really terrible crowd I've been in this year, I suppose I should be thankful. And on the plus side, Hayes was utterly fantastic, and I had another slightly-disastrous-but-at-least-I'm-learning outing with the new camera (I managed to overexpose most of what I took; I saved a handful doing some post-processing, but still frustrating). Photos are here.
I didn't post in depth about the Centro-matic show a few weeks ago -- it was epic, and perfect, intense, sad, hopeful, and I've had a hard time explaining why "perfect and epic" is the best description for that show to people who don't know Will Johnson's music, which frustrates me because I want to explain how amazing it was -- or the AA Bondy show last week, but they were both great in totally different ways. AA Bondy is adorable and funny and drunk and he married the only sister in the Felice Brothers family and his real name is Gus. ♥
Other things I need: photos of celebrities -- either candid or in photoshoots -- with cameras. Post them in my comments! I want to look at pictures of famous people with cameras!
The Hush Sound recorded a Daytrotter session that was posted on Monday. Daytrotter is one of my favorite indie music sites out there, and triskellita will verify that I've been bitching about wanting a Daytrotter session from the Hushies since August, so I am feeling very much like I have won the internets this morning and made this session appear with the power of my mind. (No, seriously, Daytrotter is amazing. Go dig through their archives and see all of the people who have recorded sessions for them. And they're all great recordings, too.)
Today it's sunny, and I'd rather be out in a car with the windows cracked down just enough for some fresh air, and something good on the stereo, and good company in the passenger seat, and cameras in the back seat, just looking for something strange and beautiful to shoot. Alas, instead I am at work, accomplishing nothing, and also I'm hungry.

Mood::

restless

Music:: Among The Pines -- AA Bondy -- Daytrotter Session

There are 3 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

Because I have little to say otherwise, a poll.

[Poll #1282546]

Who has covers of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" to send me? GIMME THOSE DYLAN COVERS.

Mood::

lazy

There are 39 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

First, a PSA: I have been seriously bad at answering comments lately. I promise to try and get better sooner rather than later; regardless, I am always reading and enjoying anything you say. I'm just crap at responding these days.

Anybody who's a fan of the Old 97s should listen to last Thursday's Fresh Air, because Rhett Miller is so fucking amazing, and Terry Gross is such a kind, smart interviewer -- Rhett talks about the new album, and his kids, and why he's glad he didn't marry anyone he dated in his 20s, and his teenaged suicide attempt, and the Kingston Trio, and just. *hearthands beyond belief*

True fact: I can never tire of listening to musicians and songwriters I respect hugely talking about the musicians and songwriters who inspired them. It's one of my favorite ways to discover new bands -- for example, if Jason had never raved about Slobberbone in print, I probably would have eventually discovered the Brent Best Extravaganza That Is Slobberbone, the Drams, And Whoever Brent Plays With The Next Time He Gets Bored And Changes His Band's Name, but I did it faster because someone I respect respects Brent's crazy face. Then after I was done thinking about that, I had to spend some time thinking about my favorite songwriters ever; I think, in no particular order, the top five of all time for me are Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Rhett Miller, Mason Jennings, and Jason Isbell. Mike Cooley would come in on the tail of those five in a very close sixth. You?

(Yes, I know that not everyone thinks of music in terms of songwriters. But if you do, share.)

Internets, what I need today are all your covers of either the Band or the Rolling Stones. Extra bonus points for covers specifically of songs from Sticky Fingers. In return:

[Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit -- "Sway"] 8MB, .mp3. Live soundboard recording.

[Jason Isbell, Rob Malone & Brian Ferris -- "Moonlight Mile"] 12MB, .mp3. Live (but clean) recording.

[Steve Earle -- "Dead Flowers"] 7MB, .mp3. My favorite cover of my current favorite Rolling Stones song.

[Guns N' Roses -- "Dead Flowers"] 4MB, .mp3. This is actually a surprisingly delightful cover.

[Cowboy Junkies -- "Dead Flowers"] 10MB, .mp3. Frustratingly poor cover -- I'd love to hear Margo do this in a studio setting, because her voice is just exactly the right sort of plaintive for this song.

[Townes van Zandt -- "Dead Flowers"] 7MB, .mp3. A lot of people have covered this song, but none so well as Earle and van Zandt. Now if Justin Townes Earle could get on following in his daddy's and his namesake's footsteps ...

Now you share!

... and speaking of my obsessive need to collect all music ever, why is it, internets, that I can desire William Beckett's high school acoustic album and have it within half an hour, but no amount of searching will cough up the power pop album made by Murry Hammond and Rhett Miller pre-97s? FAIL, INTERNETS. (In case any of you are hoarding it and don't know what it is: the band was called Sleepy Heroes, and the album was Under the Radio Sun. GIMME THAT ALBUM.)

Music:: Salome -- Old 97's -- 1999-07-09 @ Bijou Theater, Knoxville, TN

Mood::

sleepy

There are 25 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

I don't know, internets, it's Monday and it took me forever to fall asleep last night even though I was exhausted, and then I had really weird creepy dreams about vampires -- you lie, Gerard Way! They wanted to hurt me! AND YOU WEREN'T IN MY DREAM TO SAVE ME -- and it took me twice as long as it should have to run my errands because I kept doing stupid things like forgetting my wallet and this is about all that I can cope with.

[Poll #1213721]

You can tell me why I'm a bad person for making you choose in the comments, or tell me why you voted how you voted, if you want. No being mean to anybody for their choice, though. I'm too tired to cope with mean.

(For me it's that I don't dislike the Beatles, I respect them and what they did for rock and roll, but I just vastly prefer the Stones. And also dudes I love covering the Stones. Also also, Trompe Le Monde is totally my favorite Pixies album, which has nothing to do with the Stones or the Beatles but I thought I should share.)

Mood::

exhausted

There are 35 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

schoolkids closing signs
Originally uploaded by minervacat

I knew, logically, that in today's music economy, the local independent record store wasn't a sustainable model, but frankly, seeing this sign in the window of Schoolkids Records on Franklin Street this morning made me cry on the street, holding my coffee cup and my mystery novel. (Another thing that made me sad this morning: the admin assistant in my boss's office told me that she thinks the Triangle music scene is boring and unfriendly. "It's all indie emo crap," she said. She, however, is a Widespread Panic fan of the sort who follows the band around, so as much as I'm fond of her as a person, I do view her music scene complaints with a heavy helping of skepticism. Ooooh, look, there's my music snob showing!¹) Schoolkids has been on Franklin Street for as long as I can remember; longer than I've been alive. But they couldn't make enough money to meet their overhead, because nobody buys CDs anymore -- I don't buy CDs anymore, and if I do, I rip them to iTunes and then never listen to the actual disc ever again; I hardly even listen to CDs in the car since I got the new stereo, and that was the last place I actually used CDs -- and even if they did a thriving selling-tickets-to-Cradle-shows business, that isn't enough to keep a place alive. I bought a CD there a couple of weeks ago because I was too lazy to order it from Bloodshot directly. I bought my mom a couple before Christmas. Every other CD I've bought in the last two years has been at a show or directly from a label.

Anyway. It bummed me out. Maybe it's a little partially my fault, because I did stop buying CDs; but more than that, I blame the music industry, the big labels, for creating a business model that didn't match what their consumers wanted. I don't expect to get my music for free, but I still didn't want to pay $17 for a CD, even to support a band or a record store I loved. RIP, Schoolkids. Y'all rocked, and I'm sorry I didn't do more to support you.

Apparently I am doomed to spend the rest of my week hanging out at the coffee shop, because my torrent of the Jason show from Friday is crawling down at an appallingly slow pace. I keep getting tracker errors, so I can connect to peers but none of the seeders. But I will keep trying, because this show included several of my favorite Jason tracks, the song I requested, a Dylan cover, and a Will Johnson cover that was so beautiful it made my stomach hurt.

In other random news, Ask MetaFilter continues to delight me. People ask the internets the weirdest shit, seriously. Also I drank too much coffee this morning and can't stop vibrating at high speed now. Then I forgot to eat because I was so annoyed at the torrent, which lead to me having a panic attack, and also my work motivation went on vacation with

insidian's work motivation. THIS WEEK IS A BIG FAILBOAT.

1: i know that i shouldn't judge widespread panic based on a single experience at one of their shows as the DD to a whole bunch of people on acid, all of whom behaved like complete jerks all day and had no idea why hanging out with 8 people who were tripping was absolutely zero fun for me. AND YET, I DO JUDGE. TAKE THAT, WIDESPREAD PANIC. clearly i'm still totally bitter about how much that fourth of july sucked.

Mood::

cranky

Music:: Please Be With Me -- Jason Isbell -- 2007-07-09 @ the 40 Watt Club, Athens, GA

There are 24 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

I did this meme because otherwise my choices for today were: be bored at home while waiting for contractors from Philly to call me back, or be bored in my boss's office while waiting for contractors from Philly to call me back and while a tiny adorable dude from London mumbles to himself as he attempts to import all our taxonomy data into our brand-new shiny management software.

I was not bored for exactly 11 minutes, and now I am bored again.

( that goofy last.fm music meme: list your top 25 overall artists, and then there are questions! )

Now I am going to eat some peanut butter.

Mood::

bored

Music:: Move -- Mason Jennings -- 1997-1998 @ The Cave, Northfield, MN

There are no comments on this entry. (Reply.)

For reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, a couple of weeks ago, right before New Year's, I was crying on the sidewalk in front of the Lincoln Theater in Raleigh in the rain, and a very nice lady that I identified through my haze of self-pity as a pretty big deal concert booker in the Triangle asked, very concerned, if I was okay. (I was. I had just gotten gut-punched by a song, in that dig your fingers into the soft spots under my ribs sort of way that music sometimes has, and it was a very cathartic cry, after which a whole bunch of grief and pain and sadness and anger I'd been carrying around without knowing it was gone.) And once I'd pulled myself together, she gossiped with me about a venue I love closing down, and Jason Ringenberg (of Jason & the Scorchers) playing a couple of shows with one of my favorite local bands ($2 Pistols) backing him as "the Scorchers" (and then, of course, the news came out over the weekend that the Pistols are calling it quits this year, and I'm missing two of their shows in February, including the Jason show, plus I'm missing a Bowerbirds show, which is all sort of a moot point because I'm seeing at least 8 shows between now and the middle of March, and who needs more music than that? ME, THAT'S WHO) and why it's hard to get Bloodshot artists to play down here. I think she was trying to cheer me up; mostly she did.

The point of this post being: that conversation has led me to torrent a 500MB file of seven Jason & the Scorchers albums, despite the fact that I am allegedly not allowed to add new music to iTunes until I get the library moved to a tiny Western Digital Passport drive, and I just. I blame bandom for this, okay? I always listened to a lot of music, but bandom reconnected me to discovering new music in ways that I hadn't in a while, not really since I left Chicago in '05, and then we started plugging into the local scene, which is fucking amazing, and I just. 500MB of Jason and the Scorchers, and that's not including at least three albums of theirs.

I don't even know, you guys. Somehow this is all Pete Wentz's fault, it really is. I've finally got a real job and real paychecks, and they're all going to support my music habit, both recorded and live. GODDAMN YOU, P.WEEZY, I BLAME YOU FOR THIS. I need to go to Music Lovers Anonymous.

Hi, I'm Min, and I'm addicted to music.

In other news: tuna salad & dill harvarti sandwich = win.

I want a nap SO DESPERATELY, but instead I am going to try calling our vendor in Philadelphia again and then ride the exercise bike.

Mood::

geeky

Music:: This Is How I Disappear -- My Chemical Romance -- The Black Parade

There are 15 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

i may be a bird in a cage but at least it's your cage

[no great harm]

[neither of the boys in my icon play for carolina anymore either and that makes my heart hurt, too]

[i'm too scared to ask the right questions]

[and every time i leave the south a word it stumbles from my mouth]

[whatever you wish to keep you better grab it fast]

[and i'm sick to death of love]

[destroyed your notion of circular time]

[when i know i lost my heart instead]

[downloading more music is an appropriate response to boredom, right?]

[and without you is how i disapppear]

July

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
31 1