If you haven't made it to the voting booth just yet, here’s a little something to help your decision. One heartbeat from the presidency, folks...
10.31.2008
10.29.2008
Finally... MTV remembers what (part of) their initials stand for
Well, hidey-ho, everybody. MTV has gone back to the future by putting every single video from their entire archive up on their new website. Every free second I had over the next two months is now accounted for. See you in 2009!Here’s one to start you off:
10.25.2008
The Roundup
Things I’ve been into lately:
The Apple Juice Kid, Miles Remixed. I like when DJ’s hook up classic jazz: the Verve Remixed series being the most high-profile example. This album sticks entirely to the works of Miles Davis, but still comes off as a diverse mix. Great stuff, and best of all, available as a free download.
Dead Confederate, Wrecking Ball. This Athens, GA-based band has created the perfect marriage of Southern classic rock, Neil Young-influenced grunge and Brit rock.
Matthew Sweet, Sunshine Lies. Definitely nowhere near as consistent as some of his great albums from the 90’s, but he can still turn the most innocuous song into a work of jangly, toe-tapping beauty. I bought the deluxe edition from iTunes (for an extra $3, you get 6 extra songs), and it was well worth it — the bonus tracks are some of my favorite songs.
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Harmless and cute, but funny — good date movie. I think Michael Cera’s ability to play the awkward indie kid is still second-to-none, but he’s starting to seem a bit like a one-trick pony. One more movie like this, and the backlash will be in full effect.
The Venture Bros. Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim has accounted for quite a bit of my TV watching in recent years (Robot Chicken, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, The Brak Show, Sealab 2021), but nothing comes close to The Venture Bros. What started out as a simple Johnny Quest spoof has become a smart, wickedly funny action-adventure story with as many pop culture references crammed into each episode as humanly possible. With the first two seasons on DVD and Season 3 currently in reruns on CN, I’ve been watching at least an episode a day for the past month or so, and I still want more. Bring on Season 4.
“Lost” anticipation. Is it 2009 yet?
10.24.2008
10.21.2008
Old Friend
Matthew Sweet / The Bridges at The Fox Theatre. I’ve been a Matthew Sweet fan since the early 90’s, and it’s been nine years since I last saw him (NINE YEARS!?!). During that period he’s put out a couple good albums (Kimi Ga Suki, Under the Covers Vol. 1) and some that are best forgotten (Living Things), but his recently released Sunshine Lies seems to be a return to the sound that made his earlier albums so successful. My brother got me tickets for my birthday, so he and I made the trek to Boulder to check out the show.
First up were The Bridges, an Alabama band made up of 3 sisters, their brother, and a cousin. Since Matthew produced their debut album, they were a natural fit for the opening slot. With 4 females contributing vocals, they have a very lush sound (imagine the Dixie Chicks if they played power pop instead of country), and you could definitely hear the Sweet influence in the song structures and harmonies. I was impressed enough that I’ll track down their album. I might have been persuaded to buy it at the merch table on the way out tonight, but I didn’t feel like fighting my way through the line of dorks awaiting their chance to hit on the hottie guitarist (not that she wasn’t worth standing in line for).
Matthew and band came on around 9:15. Without making too many excuses, there were a lot of factors working against the show (cold, rainy, Monday, the Broncos on Monday Night Football, playing in a college town when his audience has gotten quite a bit older than that), and it was reflected in the size of the crowd. I’d be surprised if there were much more than 100 people in the room. I think the band noticed, and it probably took some wind out of their sails and kept the show from being as good as it could have been. I don’t think it helped that they started to lose some of the crowd during the first half of the set, which contained mostly new songs, but they recovered in the second half, which drew pretty heavily from Girlfriend. Actually, I was surprised at the fact that the setlist ignored so many albums. Other than “Sick of Myself” and one song from Living Things, the entire setlist came from Girlfriend, Altered Beast and Sunshine Lies. I was bummed not hear anything from In Reverse or Kimi Ga Suki. Then again, the set was short — only about an hour and then a two-song encore (both Girlfriend tracks) — so there weren’t many opportunities to delve into the back catalog.
I don’t want to say the show was disappointing, because it definitely wasn’t. It was more like when you catch up with an old friend that you haven’t seen in years, and after a few minutes, you realize things have changed so much that you can’t just pick up right where you left off any more. For starters, Matthew’s gained a pretty shocking amount of weight since I last saw him 9 years ago (to the point that I’m actually worried about his health), which did take some getting used to. Plus, I was bummed to see so few people at the show, because I think after 11 albums, he deserves better, but I blame that partly on putting the show in Boulder instead of Denver. I’d be surprised if he has many college-aged fans these days, and I bet he could have easily drawn three times that crowd if the show had been in Denver, closer to an older fan base. Finally, I think he’s at that tipping point in his career where the audience wants his greatest hits, but he still wants to play the new songs, so the energy level just felt a bit off all night — huge drops when he played new stuff, big spikes when he trotted out the oldies.
That said, the band sounded tight once they got going. Yes, I wish the show had been longer, but despite some things not being perfect, getting to hear “Girlfriend,” “I’ve Been Waiting,” “Divine Intervention,” “Ugly Truth Rock,” “Sick of Myself,” and “Someone To Pull the Trigger” played live again made the night worthwhile.
UPDATE: Just for old times’ sake...
First up were The Bridges, an Alabama band made up of 3 sisters, their brother, and a cousin. Since Matthew produced their debut album, they were a natural fit for the opening slot. With 4 females contributing vocals, they have a very lush sound (imagine the Dixie Chicks if they played power pop instead of country), and you could definitely hear the Sweet influence in the song structures and harmonies. I was impressed enough that I’ll track down their album. I might have been persuaded to buy it at the merch table on the way out tonight, but I didn’t feel like fighting my way through the line of dorks awaiting their chance to hit on the hottie guitarist (not that she wasn’t worth standing in line for).
Matthew and band came on around 9:15. Without making too many excuses, there were a lot of factors working against the show (cold, rainy, Monday, the Broncos on Monday Night Football, playing in a college town when his audience has gotten quite a bit older than that), and it was reflected in the size of the crowd. I’d be surprised if there were much more than 100 people in the room. I think the band noticed, and it probably took some wind out of their sails and kept the show from being as good as it could have been. I don’t think it helped that they started to lose some of the crowd during the first half of the set, which contained mostly new songs, but they recovered in the second half, which drew pretty heavily from Girlfriend. Actually, I was surprised at the fact that the setlist ignored so many albums. Other than “Sick of Myself” and one song from Living Things, the entire setlist came from Girlfriend, Altered Beast and Sunshine Lies. I was bummed not hear anything from In Reverse or Kimi Ga Suki. Then again, the set was short — only about an hour and then a two-song encore (both Girlfriend tracks) — so there weren’t many opportunities to delve into the back catalog.
I don’t want to say the show was disappointing, because it definitely wasn’t. It was more like when you catch up with an old friend that you haven’t seen in years, and after a few minutes, you realize things have changed so much that you can’t just pick up right where you left off any more. For starters, Matthew’s gained a pretty shocking amount of weight since I last saw him 9 years ago (to the point that I’m actually worried about his health), which did take some getting used to. Plus, I was bummed to see so few people at the show, because I think after 11 albums, he deserves better, but I blame that partly on putting the show in Boulder instead of Denver. I’d be surprised if he has many college-aged fans these days, and I bet he could have easily drawn three times that crowd if the show had been in Denver, closer to an older fan base. Finally, I think he’s at that tipping point in his career where the audience wants his greatest hits, but he still wants to play the new songs, so the energy level just felt a bit off all night — huge drops when he played new stuff, big spikes when he trotted out the oldies.
That said, the band sounded tight once they got going. Yes, I wish the show had been longer, but despite some things not being perfect, getting to hear “Girlfriend,” “I’ve Been Waiting,” “Divine Intervention,” “Ugly Truth Rock,” “Sick of Myself,” and “Someone To Pull the Trigger” played live again made the night worthwhile.
UPDATE: Just for old times’ sake...
10.15.2008
Humble Pie
So I can’t remember how I ended up there, but at some point during my browsing tonight, I discovered that the newly-internet-friendly Metallica has a YouTube channel where they’re encouraging their fans to post videos of themselves playing along to Metallica songs. This one was pretty good:
And then, I watched this:
Every time I start to feel good about my guitar playing, something like this comes along to remind me how much I suck. Guess I’ll be practicing this weekend...
And then, I watched this:
Every time I start to feel good about my guitar playing, something like this comes along to remind me how much I suck. Guess I’ll be practicing this weekend...
10.06.2008
10.03.2008
Ranting and Raving
Not surprisingly, The New Yorker has endorsed Obama. Also not surprisingly, they give an excellent, clear, carefully considered, and factually-based argument in favor of Obama.
Sadly, I’m afraid this kind of endorsement won’t be enough. If this election was going to be decided simply on cold hard facts and rational thinking about who is going to be the best leader for this country in crisis, Obama could schedule his inauguration right now. Unfortunately, we live in Reality TV Nation, where the presidential election has become nothing more than a popularity contest in which the future of our country hinges on who can come up with the best sound bite. Maybe I have too little faith in the American public, but I have a feeling there are a lot of fairly intelligent but lazy people (along with a whole mess of total idiots) in this country who have been sucked in by the Republican misdirection, and are going to base their vote in the most important election in half a century entirely on the image of a pitbull with lipstick. Look over here, public. Watch the pretty lady, don’t think about that stuff that hurts your brain like the economy (which, by the way, we have no solutions for, because we don’t actually want to fix it). Call me a pessimist, but I fear for the next four years.
On the other hand, if McCain wins, maybe California and New England will secede from the U.S., and I can move back near a beach.
P.S. Have our standards really become that low for our leaders that anyone can crow about how well someone did in a debate just because she didn’t screw up? The whole VP show was pretty disappointing anyway. Trading 30-second sound bites doesn’t really qualify as much of a “debate”.
UPDATE: Happily, I was wrong, and the American public exceeded my expectations for once.
Sadly, I’m afraid this kind of endorsement won’t be enough. If this election was going to be decided simply on cold hard facts and rational thinking about who is going to be the best leader for this country in crisis, Obama could schedule his inauguration right now. Unfortunately, we live in Reality TV Nation, where the presidential election has become nothing more than a popularity contest in which the future of our country hinges on who can come up with the best sound bite. Maybe I have too little faith in the American public, but I have a feeling there are a lot of fairly intelligent but lazy people (along with a whole mess of total idiots) in this country who have been sucked in by the Republican misdirection, and are going to base their vote in the most important election in half a century entirely on the image of a pitbull with lipstick. Look over here, public. Watch the pretty lady, don’t think about that stuff that hurts your brain like the economy (which, by the way, we have no solutions for, because we don’t actually want to fix it). Call me a pessimist, but I fear for the next four years.
On the other hand, if McCain wins, maybe California and New England will secede from the U.S., and I can move back near a beach.
P.S. Have our standards really become that low for our leaders that anyone can crow about how well someone did in a debate just because she didn’t screw up? The whole VP show was pretty disappointing anyway. Trading 30-second sound bites doesn’t really qualify as much of a “debate”.
UPDATE: Happily, I was wrong, and the American public exceeded my expectations for once.
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