ipod shuffle

everybodys doing it...first 10, no skipping.

1. i will (no man's land), Radiohead - mellow loveliness.
2. chicken out, Gomez - gomez puts on a great show. check them out.
3. donna and blitzen, Badly Drawn Boy - from one of my favorite movies About a Boy
4. sometimes i make you sad, Supergrass - i should've gone to the concert where they opened for pearl jam in idaho...
5. american girl, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - dan's favorite band
6. crush with eyeliner, R.E.M. - i went through a rem phase during early college years. i still like 'em. emily made probably 10 volumes of tapes (yes tapes) of pure rem goodness that i listened to too much.
7. we haven't turned around (x-ray mix), Gomez - what are the odds? two gomez songs in my 10.
8. kate, Ben Folds - fun and peppy.
9. china roses, Enya - this song reminds me of my mission. enya was probably my favorite mission- acceptable music, and i listened to it until we got robbed and my tape player got stolen. (does all this talk of tapes date me?)
10. full flavor, Unified Theory - i have memories of going to the unified theory concert with trevor, emily and amy at liquid joes. at the t-shirt/cd/goods table they were selling unified theory thongs. yep.

there you have it.

the middle-aged square guy

last week we went to the modest mouse concert...some highlights

• rilo kiley opening - with jenny lewis not only singing, but playing the guitar, bass, keyboard, and cowbell (not all at the same time).
• dan feeling like the middle-aged square guy amongst the mostly young crowd
• seeing people older than me there
• hearing the "cool" teenage boys scream like little girls when modest mouse came on stage
• watching the little nerdy guy in the green shirt do the "twist" in the middle of a mosh pit
• getting a night out away from our 2 (yes 2!) kids - thanks mom
• 2 drummers in matching stripey tank-tops
• sometimes three drummers plus a guy playing marracas
• modest mouse putting on a great show

this is a video from a dashboard - one of modest mouse's more recent songs. i thought this video was also appropriate for today (international talk like a pirate day).

i had a good excuse. i promise.

for my birthday (in june) alyssa sent me a gift certificate for itunes (thanks alyssa). well, i finally got around to setting up an itunes store account and made my first purchase. i somewhat openly admit the first song i bought was "dream weaver" by gary wright. i know that is something that shouldn't me admitted, but i had a good reason i promise. annie calls eva "weva". so that nickname has transformed into "dream weava". dan was trying to play it on the guitar, but since neither of us knew how it went except for the chorus, we decided to download the song. i guess itunes wasn't impressed with our musical taste because when i clicked buy song a pop up appeared that asked "are you sure you want to buy this song?" i must be getting old. even the computer gives me crap about my musical tastes.

potato wave?

my brother stuart sent me this link. I love pearl jam, however, often i can't understand the lyrics. this video cleared up my questions about yellow ledbetter. check it out. it is pretty funny. i love the "make me fries" line and the part about anna nicole.

pearl jam video

80,000 hippies in one place

last weekend was bonnaroo, a big music festival in manchester tennnesee. it was so fun last year, and we heard so many great bands. i have been reminiscing about it lately, but unfortunately couldn't go this year. but here are a few pictures from last year.








keep your calanders open for next year if the lineup is good. or alternatively, vegoose in october.

suggestions please

a couple of music items of business:

• the other month for our ward talent show i performed wilco's "im always in love". i need some new songs to work on, but i'm not sure what to learn since i've been kind of a music slacker lately and i mostly listen to the radio or nursery rhymes. "old mcdonald" or crappy radio "hits" just don't motivate me to practice the guitar. so any suggestions would be appreciated.
• also, any good songs for exercising (for when i eventually decide to go work out). i've been trying to make a playlist on my ipod, but could use some suggestions.

thanks

ok go

i might go to the gym more often if they had a class like this.

bdb and adem

last night dan and i dropped the girl off at my parents' house and went to the badly drawn boy show at urban lounge. since we didn't get there early enough to get one of the seats around the back, we decided that we might as well get close to see. so we went up front (front row) like the hard core groupies.

the opening act, adem - a guy from the UK, was reminiscent of the badly drawn boy show at the zephyr about 5 years ago. with adem asking the audience (remember we are at a club/bar) to be quiet. at least he wasn't yelling and swearing at the audience like bdb at the zephyr. anyway he was pretty good once the crowd calmed down. he even played one song with handbells, and one on the ukelele. i'll probably look into him some more.

the badly drawn boy part of the show was actually pretty good despite damon (aka-bdb) complaining inbetween every single song about the sound. most of the time it was just to the rest of the band, but being a few feet away we were able to hear everything. apparently, since the stage at urban lounge is so small, they weren't able to get all of their amps and stuff on stage, so they were going to play a more acoustic type show. however, when so many people showed up the sound was all messed up apparently. i couldn't tell, i don't think anyone else in the audience could tell, but i guess part of the privelege of being a "rock star" is being able to be tempermental. after the first couple of songs, i wasn't sure he was going to finish the show. but they stuck it out and played for about 2 hours. playing many songs from the new album as well as plenty of older songs. they even managed to cover part of "like a virgin" and ended the show with a rocking version of journey's "don't stop believing." it was great being so close that we could see everything that was going on including bdb spilling a couple glasses of beer and the bass player trying to get one of the roadies to take his picture. it made me a little nervous however when during "possibilities" bdb came to our side of the stage and was doing a little dance about 2 feet away from us. his pants were pretty low, and i just didn't want them to fall down and show us more than we paid for. dan was very impressed with the roadies who always seemed to be one step ahead even when at the beginning of the concert, bdb scrapped the song list and just started playing whatever he felt like. at one point near the beginning of the show bdb was frustrated trying to get the cigarrettes out of his pocket and the roadie handed him an pre-lit cigarette on his way up to bring a replacement beer. overall it was a very fun show to attend and going to live shows always inspires me to practice the guitar more, and revives my dreams of being a rock star.

not too shabby

the 2007 bonnaroo lineup was announced the other day. we went last year and there was an amazing lineup including radiohead, beck, tom petty, bela fleck, and others. this year we aren't planning on going, however i'm not going to rule it out yet. some bands i would like to see include, but are not limited to: the police, widespread panic, ben harper and the innocent criminals, wilco, the flaming lips, the white stripes, the string cheese incident, damien rice, ween, gov't mule, galactic, john butler trio, and xavier rudd. that's a pretty decent lineup and if it weren't so far away and we had unlimited funds i'd probably go fo sure. i might have to settle for gomez friday at suede.

you're not that big

that is what i say to the opening band at the ben lee concert on friday. the first band (john ralston) had some feedback problems at the beginning of the set, so the lead singer walked off and didn't come back on to play. he left the poor keyboardist and other members to work on the technical difficulties, then they didn't even play. when you are an unknown opening band, you can't afford the luxury of walking out of shows. i think. anywho, under the influence of giants, the second band, played an entertaining set. however the lead singer's femininity was distracting, not to mention his eighties sailor themed womans cardigan and michael jacksonesque squeals. the bass player had some good moves and a cool beard. the third band, rooney, played well, although they played too long, and the singer had to keep begging the audience for applause. finally ben lee shined in his performance as well as his gold metallic suit. he is such a happy little fellow. he even scored more points for covering modest mouse. if only it wasn't so dang cold in saltair and blair hadn't eaten the carnitas burrito from betos for lunch...