Saturday, June 25, 2011
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
365 project "we're holding hands in the rain/s-saying words like 'i love you'/d-d-do ya love me?/Yeah!"
155.
Artist: The Avett Brothers
Album: I and love and you
At one point back in the fall of 2009, there was a stretch of face book status updates that all said the same thing, and it was something that I hadn’t quite yet figured out. All of my hipster friends were posting “Brooklyn, Brooklyn, take me in.” I understood why one of them would, as he lived in Brooklyn at the time, but I was having a hard time understanding why people on the west coast were posting this as well. I figured it had to do with music that I just hadn’t heard yet.
I was right. Not too long after, someone posted the video for the song I and love and you and I finally understood what was going on. There was a new band in town.
The thing about the Avett brothers is, though, that while I should have been drooling over this band this entire time, I really only started paying attention to them very, very recently. More recently than even id like to admit. I mean, they have had a home in my itunes for a good while now, probably a year or so, but I never actively sat down and listened. It just wasn’t really my thing. I don’t know what the hell was my thing over this past year, but it wasn’t the Avett brothers.
And then I heard kick drum heart and was kicking myself for not paying attention sooner, as this is quite possibly one of my most favorite songs ever. Its so happy and perky and upbeat and sweet, and I am left wondering why it wasn’t part of my life sooner. This is the kind of song that makes me want to be in love, not the comfortable sweats love, but the kind of love when everything is still fresh and new and exciting and every minute you get to spend with your significant other is magical.
My latest Avett brothers obsession is January wedding, which also finds its home on this album. Its another song that just makes me want to be in love. Even though the song has a tinge of sadness running through it, its still that pure, true, happy love that is what I long for and what I fear ill never find.
I don’t listen to the radio. I find most of what comes over the airwaves to be trite and merely a caricature of what music should be. Once in a while, though, there will be a gem like the Avett brothers that someone with some sense decides to add to the rotation, and it restores my faith in man, and in good music.
Artist: The Avett Brothers
Album: I and love and you
At one point back in the fall of 2009, there was a stretch of face book status updates that all said the same thing, and it was something that I hadn’t quite yet figured out. All of my hipster friends were posting “Brooklyn, Brooklyn, take me in.” I understood why one of them would, as he lived in Brooklyn at the time, but I was having a hard time understanding why people on the west coast were posting this as well. I figured it had to do with music that I just hadn’t heard yet.
I was right. Not too long after, someone posted the video for the song I and love and you and I finally understood what was going on. There was a new band in town.
The thing about the Avett brothers is, though, that while I should have been drooling over this band this entire time, I really only started paying attention to them very, very recently. More recently than even id like to admit. I mean, they have had a home in my itunes for a good while now, probably a year or so, but I never actively sat down and listened. It just wasn’t really my thing. I don’t know what the hell was my thing over this past year, but it wasn’t the Avett brothers.
And then I heard kick drum heart and was kicking myself for not paying attention sooner, as this is quite possibly one of my most favorite songs ever. Its so happy and perky and upbeat and sweet, and I am left wondering why it wasn’t part of my life sooner. This is the kind of song that makes me want to be in love, not the comfortable sweats love, but the kind of love when everything is still fresh and new and exciting and every minute you get to spend with your significant other is magical.
My latest Avett brothers obsession is January wedding, which also finds its home on this album. Its another song that just makes me want to be in love. Even though the song has a tinge of sadness running through it, its still that pure, true, happy love that is what I long for and what I fear ill never find.
I don’t listen to the radio. I find most of what comes over the airwaves to be trite and merely a caricature of what music should be. Once in a while, though, there will be a gem like the Avett brothers that someone with some sense decides to add to the rotation, and it restores my faith in man, and in good music.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
365 project: "but i got too much pride inside to hide or slide, ill do as i decide"
154.
Artist:blues traveler
Album:Four
I kind of cheated a little bit with this one, as I don’t actually own the CD, nor have I ever. I did, however, borrow it from the library, though, and because blues traveler has a kind of important place in my heart and my history, I decided that I’m going to go for it and use it in this project.
As many of my stories from more recent years, this one also happens at bonnaroo. The first time I saw them was at ‘roo a few summers back. I cant remember the exact year, though I believe it was the same summer that we saw radiohead down there. I wandered off by myself to see blues traveler, because no one else that I was with was interested in seeing them. I don’t remember a whole lot from that show, aside from the fact that it was one of the BEST performances I had ever seen.
I say that a lot about things I’ve seen down on that farm, but mostly that is because that is the truth. I feel like when a band shows up down there, they are there to bring it…playing a festival like that is what id imagine to be the equivalent of game seven of the world series…all on the line, you know? I think anyone that has been to bonnaroo will tell you that some of the stuff that goes on there is stuff that one would never see when dropping 50 bucks to go see one of these artists on tour. The collaborations that happen down there are really just mind-numbingly awesome (or maybe it’s the drugs).
I cant recall if there were any collaborations in That tent that first time I saw blues traveler.* I can tell you, however, that it was something id looked forward to since 1994 or so, so it was a pretty big deal for me. John Popper is a showman. That harmonica was just about the sickest thing id ever had the pleasure of hearing under that big Tennessee sky. I cant tell you if it was the excitement of being down there, or if it was the freedom of being alone, or if the crowd’s energy just lent itself to such an amazing performance, but I walked away from That tent after their set and couldn’t believe how incredible the band was.
They played a shorter set on the sonic stage a little bit later, and I only was able to catch the last few songs due to some scheduling conflicts, but they closed out that set with a cover of what I got by sublime, and that song, on top of being as close to the stage as id wedged myself, made me want to stay in that moment forever.
I got the chance to see the band again at ‘roo last summer, but the magic was lost the second time. I don’t know if that was because of how horrible of an experience ‘roo ended up being for me, or if it was something else, but I just wasn’t feeling it. It is quite possible that I had such high expectations stemming from the first experience that I thought this would be a life-altering performance. I could just be older and more jaded these days, and incapable of an experience like that one again. I sincerely hope its not the latter.
*looking through videos on YouTube i just found one of john popper and g. love getting down and dirty with a couple of harmonicas. I'm getting too old to remember all the awesomeness that has been my life up to this point.
Artist:blues traveler
Album:Four
I kind of cheated a little bit with this one, as I don’t actually own the CD, nor have I ever. I did, however, borrow it from the library, though, and because blues traveler has a kind of important place in my heart and my history, I decided that I’m going to go for it and use it in this project.
As many of my stories from more recent years, this one also happens at bonnaroo. The first time I saw them was at ‘roo a few summers back. I cant remember the exact year, though I believe it was the same summer that we saw radiohead down there. I wandered off by myself to see blues traveler, because no one else that I was with was interested in seeing them. I don’t remember a whole lot from that show, aside from the fact that it was one of the BEST performances I had ever seen.
I say that a lot about things I’ve seen down on that farm, but mostly that is because that is the truth. I feel like when a band shows up down there, they are there to bring it…playing a festival like that is what id imagine to be the equivalent of game seven of the world series…all on the line, you know? I think anyone that has been to bonnaroo will tell you that some of the stuff that goes on there is stuff that one would never see when dropping 50 bucks to go see one of these artists on tour. The collaborations that happen down there are really just mind-numbingly awesome (or maybe it’s the drugs).
I cant recall if there were any collaborations in That tent that first time I saw blues traveler.* I can tell you, however, that it was something id looked forward to since 1994 or so, so it was a pretty big deal for me. John Popper is a showman. That harmonica was just about the sickest thing id ever had the pleasure of hearing under that big Tennessee sky. I cant tell you if it was the excitement of being down there, or if it was the freedom of being alone, or if the crowd’s energy just lent itself to such an amazing performance, but I walked away from That tent after their set and couldn’t believe how incredible the band was.
They played a shorter set on the sonic stage a little bit later, and I only was able to catch the last few songs due to some scheduling conflicts, but they closed out that set with a cover of what I got by sublime, and that song, on top of being as close to the stage as id wedged myself, made me want to stay in that moment forever.
I got the chance to see the band again at ‘roo last summer, but the magic was lost the second time. I don’t know if that was because of how horrible of an experience ‘roo ended up being for me, or if it was something else, but I just wasn’t feeling it. It is quite possible that I had such high expectations stemming from the first experience that I thought this would be a life-altering performance. I could just be older and more jaded these days, and incapable of an experience like that one again. I sincerely hope its not the latter.
*looking through videos on YouTube i just found one of john popper and g. love getting down and dirty with a couple of harmonicas. I'm getting too old to remember all the awesomeness that has been my life up to this point.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
365 project "there was no party/there were no songs/'cause today's just a day like the day that he started"
153.
artist:Ben fold
album:Ben folds live
i don't like Ben folds much. in fact, i wouldn't even own this CD if it weren't for ex-chad buying it and leaving it in my car at some point right before the split. its not that i don't appreciate his music, because it is quality stuff, i just never really got into it. i guess its that whole "oh, its all over the radio so i hate it" mentality that i have had for the better part of my life. its probably something i should work on changing, but I'm 31 and my life is nowhere near what i expected at this point, so my musical snobbery is just going to have to remain for a bit longer while i work on those things.
there are some things that come to mind when i listen to this album, though. my favorite story is one from bonnaroo, because at this point in my life, what story isn't from bonnaroo? anyway, wayyyyy back in 2008, Benny boy played 'roo, and because he was smack dab in the middle of two bands i really wanted to see (bright eyes and death cab, I'm pretty sure) and i figured why the hell shouldn't i see Ben folds? i may not be a huge fan, but i know his stuff and can probably sing along to most of it. seriously, who doesn't know the lyrics to brick?
anyway, there were a billion people at the which stage, which is the name of the stage. what stage is the other, bigger stage, and then there's this tent and that tent, but that's for another time, really. (keeping track of all of this is especially fun when you are wrecked...not that id really know, but...)
between where we were sitting (back towards the bobble heads) and which stage, there are a few trees, which are awesome for shade, but suck for sight. one of the dirty, stinky hippies (everyone is dirty and stinky at bonnaroo, and he was wearing tie-dye, which probably means he is a hippie) decided that he was going to climb up one of these trees to get a better view of Mr. folds himself. the timing of this was priceless, as Ben was just about to rip into not the same, which (the word, not the stage) is totally about some drugged up dude climbing up a tree and spending the night there, only to come down with a firm belief in Jesus Christ that he did not have going into the night.
the humor might be lost on you, i don't know if it translated well here, but it was laughable at the time, for sure.
artist:Ben fold
album:Ben folds live
i don't like Ben folds much. in fact, i wouldn't even own this CD if it weren't for ex-chad buying it and leaving it in my car at some point right before the split. its not that i don't appreciate his music, because it is quality stuff, i just never really got into it. i guess its that whole "oh, its all over the radio so i hate it" mentality that i have had for the better part of my life. its probably something i should work on changing, but I'm 31 and my life is nowhere near what i expected at this point, so my musical snobbery is just going to have to remain for a bit longer while i work on those things.
there are some things that come to mind when i listen to this album, though. my favorite story is one from bonnaroo, because at this point in my life, what story isn't from bonnaroo? anyway, wayyyyy back in 2008, Benny boy played 'roo, and because he was smack dab in the middle of two bands i really wanted to see (bright eyes and death cab, I'm pretty sure) and i figured why the hell shouldn't i see Ben folds? i may not be a huge fan, but i know his stuff and can probably sing along to most of it. seriously, who doesn't know the lyrics to brick?
anyway, there were a billion people at the which stage, which is the name of the stage. what stage is the other, bigger stage, and then there's this tent and that tent, but that's for another time, really. (keeping track of all of this is especially fun when you are wrecked...not that id really know, but...)
between where we were sitting (back towards the bobble heads) and which stage, there are a few trees, which are awesome for shade, but suck for sight. one of the dirty, stinky hippies (everyone is dirty and stinky at bonnaroo, and he was wearing tie-dye, which probably means he is a hippie) decided that he was going to climb up one of these trees to get a better view of Mr. folds himself. the timing of this was priceless, as Ben was just about to rip into not the same, which (the word, not the stage) is totally about some drugged up dude climbing up a tree and spending the night there, only to come down with a firm belief in Jesus Christ that he did not have going into the night.
the humor might be lost on you, i don't know if it translated well here, but it was laughable at the time, for sure.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
365 project "there are things that used to make me smile/one of them was you for just a little while"
152.
artist:alkaline trio
album:from here to infirmary
have you ever driven down the east coast and through the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel? while it looks really pretty in pictures, as a girl who is terrified of drowning and therefore has an irrational fear of water, this was pure torture. this is the kind of stuff that I've had nightmares about since i was tiny. i love the ocean, as long as i can see the sand and still feel it under my feet. in this instance, i could not, and i was freaking out.
Chelle, Chris and i were on our way to see the boys play a gig somewhere in VA, and Chris had volunteered to drive. we were listening to alkaline trio because that's what we did quite often (he is the reason that i really paid any attention to this band) and chatting about nothing significant. i saw that we were approaching a bridge and braced myself. chelle already knew i wasn't going to handle it well, but i don't think any of us really were aware that this wasn't any normal bridge. i can hold my breath crossing the Delaware memorial and I'm actually really okay with the Philly bridges. but this was 20 miles of bridges and tunnels, and i couldn't handle it.
i remember sitting in the passenger seat of Chris' car and having my whole body turned in his direction. the car was quiet because i had stopped talking, and i was flailing my hands. he took his right hand off of the steering wheel in order to hold my hand and try to calm me down, and i yelled at him to keep both hands on the wheel. looking back, its kind of comical, but at that moment i was sure that he was going to flinch and drive into the endless body of water that was level with the side of the bridge.
do you know what was playing on the radio as all of this nonsense was happening? Armageddon. the lyrics at the end of the song are just the words we sink over and over. awesome, right? i remember stopping the freak out for long enough to sit still, look him dead in the eye and say to him "can we skip the rest of this song?"
every time i hear that song i think of him and that night.
artist:alkaline trio
album:from here to infirmary
have you ever driven down the east coast and through the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel? while it looks really pretty in pictures, as a girl who is terrified of drowning and therefore has an irrational fear of water, this was pure torture. this is the kind of stuff that I've had nightmares about since i was tiny. i love the ocean, as long as i can see the sand and still feel it under my feet. in this instance, i could not, and i was freaking out.
Chelle, Chris and i were on our way to see the boys play a gig somewhere in VA, and Chris had volunteered to drive. we were listening to alkaline trio because that's what we did quite often (he is the reason that i really paid any attention to this band) and chatting about nothing significant. i saw that we were approaching a bridge and braced myself. chelle already knew i wasn't going to handle it well, but i don't think any of us really were aware that this wasn't any normal bridge. i can hold my breath crossing the Delaware memorial and I'm actually really okay with the Philly bridges. but this was 20 miles of bridges and tunnels, and i couldn't handle it.
i remember sitting in the passenger seat of Chris' car and having my whole body turned in his direction. the car was quiet because i had stopped talking, and i was flailing my hands. he took his right hand off of the steering wheel in order to hold my hand and try to calm me down, and i yelled at him to keep both hands on the wheel. looking back, its kind of comical, but at that moment i was sure that he was going to flinch and drive into the endless body of water that was level with the side of the bridge.
do you know what was playing on the radio as all of this nonsense was happening? Armageddon. the lyrics at the end of the song are just the words we sink over and over. awesome, right? i remember stopping the freak out for long enough to sit still, look him dead in the eye and say to him "can we skip the rest of this song?"
every time i hear that song i think of him and that night.
Monday, June 13, 2011
365 project: "and now i cant live without you/and i dont want to/ive done that all of my life until now"
151.
artist:Eisley
album:combinations
Mandy burned me this disk when it leaked, and while she seemed pretty excited to hear new stuff from Eisley, i still wasn't sure how i felt about Sherri and therefore wasn't sure if i wanted to hear the new album. really, i think, what i was afraid of more than anything was an album of songs full of hate and disdain towards Jesse Lacey, and i knew i wasn't prepared for that. the CD hung out on the shelf. i may have picked it up once or twice but mostly i didn't bother with it.
I researched it and talked to Mandy about it, and once it was determined that i wouldn't be offended, i gave it a listen, but upon listening decided that i didn't like it much, and that was that. it did, however, end up in my itunes, and therefore in my ipod, where it was stuck for a billiondy years because my computer crashed right after that and i wasn't able to change the contents of my ipod for a few years after that.
this proved to be a great thing for this album, and it kept popping up and i eventually got tired of skipping it and started listening. and, much to my dismay, i started to really like the songs on this album. and as it turned out, the front runner for my favorite song on the album turned out to be the one i feared the most-the song that she wrote about Jesse Lacey that made the cut.
well, i guess i cant say for sure who it is about, but as far as I'm concerned its about him. so there.
today all i wanted to do was listen to eisley. it started because Nicole posted a Kanye video on facebook, and i countered that with the Sherri Bemis cover of that same song, heartless.
****
sorry. i got distracted and started watching animaniacs clips on YouTube and now I'm too tired to finish this, and don't know what i was trying to say, anyway. damn 90's cartoons :)
artist:Eisley
album:combinations
Mandy burned me this disk when it leaked, and while she seemed pretty excited to hear new stuff from Eisley, i still wasn't sure how i felt about Sherri and therefore wasn't sure if i wanted to hear the new album. really, i think, what i was afraid of more than anything was an album of songs full of hate and disdain towards Jesse Lacey, and i knew i wasn't prepared for that. the CD hung out on the shelf. i may have picked it up once or twice but mostly i didn't bother with it.
I researched it and talked to Mandy about it, and once it was determined that i wouldn't be offended, i gave it a listen, but upon listening decided that i didn't like it much, and that was that. it did, however, end up in my itunes, and therefore in my ipod, where it was stuck for a billiondy years because my computer crashed right after that and i wasn't able to change the contents of my ipod for a few years after that.
this proved to be a great thing for this album, and it kept popping up and i eventually got tired of skipping it and started listening. and, much to my dismay, i started to really like the songs on this album. and as it turned out, the front runner for my favorite song on the album turned out to be the one i feared the most-the song that she wrote about Jesse Lacey that made the cut.
well, i guess i cant say for sure who it is about, but as far as I'm concerned its about him. so there.
today all i wanted to do was listen to eisley. it started because Nicole posted a Kanye video on facebook, and i countered that with the Sherri Bemis cover of that same song, heartless.
****
sorry. i got distracted and started watching animaniacs clips on YouTube and now I'm too tired to finish this, and don't know what i was trying to say, anyway. damn 90's cartoons :)
Saturday, June 11, 2011
365 project "so i'd walk soft if i were you/you could cut up your feet/for now it's just who i am/but its not who i'll be/oh hopefully"
150.
artist:Kevin devine
album:brother's blood
i own this album on both vinyl and plastic. i bought the CD up in Brooklyn, i believe, at a show in Williamsburg, and i bought the record out of a box on a farm somewhere in Tennessee (for the record, its killing me that I'm not on that farm right now...).
today was the first day id actually listened to the record, so it was the first time I'd pulled it out of the cover except right after i bought it, because i wanted to see what it looked like. the vinyl is beautiful...its pink and blue swirled and kind of pearlized. i remember being so excited about it when i first got it, and then my immediate next thought was "what the hell am i going to do with this to keep it safe til 'roo is over?" because it was about 110 degrees down there that weekend. i didn't mind it for me, but its not that great of a condition for a record, especially being kept in a car or a tent.
i ended up putting it in my suitcase and hoping for the best. that wasn't the worst of what my poor record went through before taking its rightful home in a crate. this poor album, along with most of my other belongings that i had taken down to TN with me had been taken hostage.
I've told this story a bunch of times, and its one that I'm sort of glad happened, because its one of those stories that no one would believe if i said it happened to a friend of mine instead of to myself. the long and short of it is that i was supposed to go to bonnaroo to work, but once we got down there the girl i was with decided she didn't want to do that anymore, so we slept in a parking lot, bought tickets the next morning, and then she went to find her boyfriend and that was the end of that. i didn't see her again from Thursday afternoon after we set up the tent until some time after we got home and i had to meet her at a freaking police station to get my things back. so much drama. hahaha.
all's well that ends well, though, and i spent tonight listening to that album that had been held hostage last summer.
how about i show you some pictures from KD's set down there?
in the background of that last one are the guys from Manchester Orchestra and Kenny from The Starting Line/Person L.
artist:Kevin devine
album:brother's blood
i own this album on both vinyl and plastic. i bought the CD up in Brooklyn, i believe, at a show in Williamsburg, and i bought the record out of a box on a farm somewhere in Tennessee (for the record, its killing me that I'm not on that farm right now...).
today was the first day id actually listened to the record, so it was the first time I'd pulled it out of the cover except right after i bought it, because i wanted to see what it looked like. the vinyl is beautiful...its pink and blue swirled and kind of pearlized. i remember being so excited about it when i first got it, and then my immediate next thought was "what the hell am i going to do with this to keep it safe til 'roo is over?" because it was about 110 degrees down there that weekend. i didn't mind it for me, but its not that great of a condition for a record, especially being kept in a car or a tent.
i ended up putting it in my suitcase and hoping for the best. that wasn't the worst of what my poor record went through before taking its rightful home in a crate. this poor album, along with most of my other belongings that i had taken down to TN with me had been taken hostage.
I've told this story a bunch of times, and its one that I'm sort of glad happened, because its one of those stories that no one would believe if i said it happened to a friend of mine instead of to myself. the long and short of it is that i was supposed to go to bonnaroo to work, but once we got down there the girl i was with decided she didn't want to do that anymore, so we slept in a parking lot, bought tickets the next morning, and then she went to find her boyfriend and that was the end of that. i didn't see her again from Thursday afternoon after we set up the tent until some time after we got home and i had to meet her at a freaking police station to get my things back. so much drama. hahaha.
all's well that ends well, though, and i spent tonight listening to that album that had been held hostage last summer.
how about i show you some pictures from KD's set down there?
365 project "and i'll be ready on that evening/when you're starved for my attention"
149.
artist:Copeland
album:beneath medicine tree
everything about this album is beautiful. the songs are beautiful. the artwork is beautiful. the memories associated with this album are beautiful. even the vinyl itself is pretty damn beautiful.
see?
i was trying to decide what exactly it was i wanted to say about this album. because its been around for so long, and its such a favorite, the stories that i have that go with it are pretty vast, as well. i remember going to see them with Chris and nearly falling apart when they played coffee. i also remember that Mandy couldn't make it to that show so Chris used the extra ticket so that he could go outside and catch a cigarette and be able to get back inside. i still think of him every time i hear coffee, actually...if its not too late for coffee/ill be at your place in ten/we'll hit that all-night diner and then we'll see...
but the story that really stuck out the most is a silly one from a few years back. chelle and i decided that we were going to surprise the boys and show up at their gig in Michigan, but they kind of figured it out, so we needed to distract them. we made up a story about her dropping me off at the airport after purple door that summer so that i could fly out to California to interview for a job out there. (when i was a senior in college, my roommate Danny and i had talked a bit about moving to California together to get jobs in the industry, but right before graduation he started dating some chick and decided that he no longer wanted to go to Cali.)
at any rate, we took this plan to the extreme, so much so that chelle actually called an airline while we were on the road to ask about flight information from Philly to LAX. we had the whole thing pretty well orchestrated, and it was a lot of fun to try to trick the boys.
we ended up showing up at the bar in Michigan a few nights later, and wore fake mustaches as "disguises." we blew our cover because we were morons and parked right behind Martha Plimpton (the band's trailer) and one of the guys (maybe Tim?) caught us because he came outside to get something.
our attempt the following summer to surprise them in Tennessee worked out much better.
I miss those road trips, and every time i hear the song California, i think of that instance.
artist:Copeland
album:beneath medicine tree
everything about this album is beautiful. the songs are beautiful. the artwork is beautiful. the memories associated with this album are beautiful. even the vinyl itself is pretty damn beautiful.
i was trying to decide what exactly it was i wanted to say about this album. because its been around for so long, and its such a favorite, the stories that i have that go with it are pretty vast, as well. i remember going to see them with Chris and nearly falling apart when they played coffee. i also remember that Mandy couldn't make it to that show so Chris used the extra ticket so that he could go outside and catch a cigarette and be able to get back inside. i still think of him every time i hear coffee, actually...if its not too late for coffee/ill be at your place in ten/we'll hit that all-night diner and then we'll see...
but the story that really stuck out the most is a silly one from a few years back. chelle and i decided that we were going to surprise the boys and show up at their gig in Michigan, but they kind of figured it out, so we needed to distract them. we made up a story about her dropping me off at the airport after purple door that summer so that i could fly out to California to interview for a job out there. (when i was a senior in college, my roommate Danny and i had talked a bit about moving to California together to get jobs in the industry, but right before graduation he started dating some chick and decided that he no longer wanted to go to Cali.)
at any rate, we took this plan to the extreme, so much so that chelle actually called an airline while we were on the road to ask about flight information from Philly to LAX. we had the whole thing pretty well orchestrated, and it was a lot of fun to try to trick the boys.
we ended up showing up at the bar in Michigan a few nights later, and wore fake mustaches as "disguises." we blew our cover because we were morons and parked right behind Martha Plimpton (the band's trailer) and one of the guys (maybe Tim?) caught us because he came outside to get something.
our attempt the following summer to surprise them in Tennessee worked out much better.
I miss those road trips, and every time i hear the song California, i think of that instance.
365 project "you promised you promised that you're done/but i cant tell you from the drugs"
148.
artist:jimmy eat world
album:futures
a few weeks back, livejournal's writers prompt question was something to do with an album or song that you cant listen to because of someone, and i thought about answering the question then, but decided that id been putting this album off long enough, and should probably just suck it up and listen to it for my blog. i was in my room, pulled the wax out of its sleeve, put the needle in the groove and tried to keep it together. my record player, however, had other plans for me, and wouldn't let me get past side one.
after fussing with the needle for about five minutes and not getting the response i desired, i shut the lid to my player and just left it alone. i decided that my record player knew what was better for me than i did, and just moved on, putting that record back into that dark corner of my mind that I've kept it for a few years now.
this morning, however, things were different. i woke up early this morning to a text message from the boy who is the reason i cant listen to this record without turning into a heap of emotion. i haven't talked to him in a while, but he decided at six thirty this morning that it was important to tell me that he was riding in a car, the driver put on your favorite weapon and they passed the genesis diner. it was such a bizarre thing to wake up to, and i struggled to figure out what to say in response to that message, so i sent back a smiley face, because what the hell was i supposed to say?
so i guess listening to this record today was my actual response to that message. there were a lot of albums that we listened to together, your favorite weapon being one of them, but nothing else reminds me of the time we spent together like futures. he had dl'ed the leak before the album was released, and from that point on, that was seemingly the only thing we listened to when we were together, which was most of the time at that point. id get done work at 11 and go to his apartment to hang out, or we'd go to the diner to sit and drink coffee until 3am and play rummy. i remember one night being really upset about the fact that the diner didn't have mixed fruit jelly, so when i got up to go to the bathroom, he got a small bowl from the counter and proceeded to make me some mixed fruit jelly out of what was on the table. that remains in my mind one of the sweetest things that anyone has ever done. its such a small gesture, but sometimes its the little things that mean so much. it meant that he was paying attention to me, and that was something i wasn't used to.
when things ended, i was a mess. i remember laying in my bed and not wanting to get out of it, i just wanted to die. heartbreak fucking sucks. you know that part of the book new moon where Edward leaves Bella and for "months" the pages are just blank? nothing happened? she just became a zombie? that was me. i just didn't know how i was going to pick myself up and get my shit together. but i did. eventually i figured it out and got back on my feet.
he still randomly pops up in my life, much like the text message this morning. i don't love him the way that i used to, for sure. its hard to give that back to someone who crushed me so badly, but i still care about him. i probably always will. i don't know if he knows that, but if he reads this, i guess he will. we have both moved on in our lives and are in totally different places now than we were when we met, but the time i spent with him did a lot to help shape the person i am now, for good, bad or otherwise.
one more quick story about this album...or at least about one of the songs. back in 2009, Christa and i went to see the Clarity 10X10 tour. jimmy eat world played the entire clarity album from front to back, and then for the encore they played a few of their other hits that have been released over the past ten years. i was dreading hearing any of the songs from futures, but knew that it was unlikely that i wouldn't, so i was gearing myself up for that. they played a few songs, work and pain if i remember correctly, and then moved on and kind of left futures alone, and i was grateful for that. then they played their last song of the night, 23. the second the first note rang out, i looked at Christa, she looked at me, and I'm pretty sure there was a collective gasp through the entire audience, as that song is just so emotional. I'm an emo kid. hell, i was an emo kid before anyone had decided what an emo kid was supposed to be. I'm not going to tell any lies in this blog, so in that i have to tell you that its possible that i cried during this song. and by possible, i mean, it happened.
artist:jimmy eat world
album:futures
a few weeks back, livejournal's writers prompt question was something to do with an album or song that you cant listen to because of someone, and i thought about answering the question then, but decided that id been putting this album off long enough, and should probably just suck it up and listen to it for my blog. i was in my room, pulled the wax out of its sleeve, put the needle in the groove and tried to keep it together. my record player, however, had other plans for me, and wouldn't let me get past side one.
after fussing with the needle for about five minutes and not getting the response i desired, i shut the lid to my player and just left it alone. i decided that my record player knew what was better for me than i did, and just moved on, putting that record back into that dark corner of my mind that I've kept it for a few years now.
this morning, however, things were different. i woke up early this morning to a text message from the boy who is the reason i cant listen to this record without turning into a heap of emotion. i haven't talked to him in a while, but he decided at six thirty this morning that it was important to tell me that he was riding in a car, the driver put on your favorite weapon and they passed the genesis diner. it was such a bizarre thing to wake up to, and i struggled to figure out what to say in response to that message, so i sent back a smiley face, because what the hell was i supposed to say?
so i guess listening to this record today was my actual response to that message. there were a lot of albums that we listened to together, your favorite weapon being one of them, but nothing else reminds me of the time we spent together like futures. he had dl'ed the leak before the album was released, and from that point on, that was seemingly the only thing we listened to when we were together, which was most of the time at that point. id get done work at 11 and go to his apartment to hang out, or we'd go to the diner to sit and drink coffee until 3am and play rummy. i remember one night being really upset about the fact that the diner didn't have mixed fruit jelly, so when i got up to go to the bathroom, he got a small bowl from the counter and proceeded to make me some mixed fruit jelly out of what was on the table. that remains in my mind one of the sweetest things that anyone has ever done. its such a small gesture, but sometimes its the little things that mean so much. it meant that he was paying attention to me, and that was something i wasn't used to.
when things ended, i was a mess. i remember laying in my bed and not wanting to get out of it, i just wanted to die. heartbreak fucking sucks. you know that part of the book new moon where Edward leaves Bella and for "months" the pages are just blank? nothing happened? she just became a zombie? that was me. i just didn't know how i was going to pick myself up and get my shit together. but i did. eventually i figured it out and got back on my feet.
he still randomly pops up in my life, much like the text message this morning. i don't love him the way that i used to, for sure. its hard to give that back to someone who crushed me so badly, but i still care about him. i probably always will. i don't know if he knows that, but if he reads this, i guess he will. we have both moved on in our lives and are in totally different places now than we were when we met, but the time i spent with him did a lot to help shape the person i am now, for good, bad or otherwise.
one more quick story about this album...or at least about one of the songs. back in 2009, Christa and i went to see the Clarity 10X10 tour. jimmy eat world played the entire clarity album from front to back, and then for the encore they played a few of their other hits that have been released over the past ten years. i was dreading hearing any of the songs from futures, but knew that it was unlikely that i wouldn't, so i was gearing myself up for that. they played a few songs, work and pain if i remember correctly, and then moved on and kind of left futures alone, and i was grateful for that. then they played their last song of the night, 23. the second the first note rang out, i looked at Christa, she looked at me, and I'm pretty sure there was a collective gasp through the entire audience, as that song is just so emotional. I'm an emo kid. hell, i was an emo kid before anyone had decided what an emo kid was supposed to be. I'm not going to tell any lies in this blog, so in that i have to tell you that its possible that i cried during this song. and by possible, i mean, it happened.
365 project "but as for me i wish that i was anywhere with anyone making out"
147.
artist:dashboard confessional
album:the places you have come to fear the most
i was OBSESSED with this album when it first came out. i was also obsessed with a boy that i worked with at the radio station. this story ties those two together.
one of the perks of working at the radio station was getting to borrow stuff out of the on-air studio. this was before burning Cd's was common practice, so it gave me good reason to go visit on Tuesday nights when this kid was doing his show. we had a lot in common-we grew up a few towns apart and we both had kick-ass tastes in music. he was adorable and i wasn't invisible to him, so as far as i was concerned, this was a match made in radio station Heaven...never mind his rampant drug-use or laundry list of other bad habits.
so anyway, one Tuesday night, as i did most Tuesday nights, i went up to the station to return the disk i had most recently borrowed, the one i had been borrowing frequently and was itching to actually buy for myself, which was, as you can probably guess, places you have come to fear the most by dashboard confessional. i waited for the "on-air" light to flick off and then went into to booth to return the disk to its rightful place on the wall, and the guy i spent most of my first year of Monmouth drooling over turned around and said "i KNEW you had that disk. i went to play a song from it earlier and noticed it wasn't here. it took me about three seconds to figure out who had it." we chatted a bit about who even knows what, i picked a song from that disk for him to play, we chatted a bit more and then i went on my way.
eventually i moved on from this obsession...from both of them actually. i ran into that kid about a year or two ago at a show at the northstar, and he was still a drunken mess. it took him a minute to figure out who i was, but once he figured it out, we talked for a while. i learned that he didn't change at all over the last ten years. id like to think that i have.
artist:dashboard confessional
album:the places you have come to fear the most
i was OBSESSED with this album when it first came out. i was also obsessed with a boy that i worked with at the radio station. this story ties those two together.
one of the perks of working at the radio station was getting to borrow stuff out of the on-air studio. this was before burning Cd's was common practice, so it gave me good reason to go visit on Tuesday nights when this kid was doing his show. we had a lot in common-we grew up a few towns apart and we both had kick-ass tastes in music. he was adorable and i wasn't invisible to him, so as far as i was concerned, this was a match made in radio station Heaven...never mind his rampant drug-use or laundry list of other bad habits.
so anyway, one Tuesday night, as i did most Tuesday nights, i went up to the station to return the disk i had most recently borrowed, the one i had been borrowing frequently and was itching to actually buy for myself, which was, as you can probably guess, places you have come to fear the most by dashboard confessional. i waited for the "on-air" light to flick off and then went into to booth to return the disk to its rightful place on the wall, and the guy i spent most of my first year of Monmouth drooling over turned around and said "i KNEW you had that disk. i went to play a song from it earlier and noticed it wasn't here. it took me about three seconds to figure out who had it." we chatted a bit about who even knows what, i picked a song from that disk for him to play, we chatted a bit more and then i went on my way.
eventually i moved on from this obsession...from both of them actually. i ran into that kid about a year or two ago at a show at the northstar, and he was still a drunken mess. it took him a minute to figure out who i was, but once he figured it out, we talked for a while. i learned that he didn't change at all over the last ten years. id like to think that i have.
Friday, June 10, 2011
365 project "please welcome my favorite band, uh, counting crows"
146.
artist:counting crows
album:across a wire:live in NYC (disk 1)
one of the things that i love most, and forgive me if I've mentioned this already, is the counting crows' ability to play one of their songs so differently in a live setting, but yet still keep it recognizable. sometimes "jammy" bands get on stage and you have no idea what the heck is even going on, or what song they are supposedly playing (DMB is definitely guilty of this, at least from the one instance I've seen them live...) but in my opinion, the crows' remain true to their songs. i know that there are a lot out there that disagree with me on this one, however i believe it to be true, and for the purposes of this blog, my opinion is the only one that matters.
i love the across the wire disks. i definitely prefer the VH1 disk to the MTV, but i think that's because the version of Anna begins on the VH1 disk is so hauntingly beautiful that nothing could top it. i mean, that song is beautiful to begin with, but the live version of it kicks so much ass it hurts three days later.
these are disks that make every road trip i take. these are disks that got me through years of college and life after college. they are my fall backs when I'm sad or scared or lonely or hurt...or happy, thankful, excited, or content. if i ever have kids, these will be the songs that my kids are raised on.
sophomore year of college out at Waynesburg, i had a class during the second semester that i had been warned about by everyone ahead of me in the department. "Krause is a hard professor and you really have to bust your ass to pass this class" was the general message. looking back, i think Krause paid the upperclassmen to say that, because, although i did bust my ass in that class, i got an A with really not too much extra effort. at any rate, i had received a card in the mail from my "granny" for my birthday and included in that card was a 20 dollar bill. i should have used that money for something practical, but i decided to reward myself, instead. the plan was that i could buy this new Counting Crows disk in the college bookstore that id been eyeing up if i got an A on Krause's midterm. the A was achieved and the CD was purchased, and obviously it meant a lot to me even then if i still remember the details of that particular purchase 12 years later.
I'm itching for the chance to see Counting Crows live again. hopefully that will happen soon.
artist:counting crows
album:across a wire:live in NYC (disk 1)
one of the things that i love most, and forgive me if I've mentioned this already, is the counting crows' ability to play one of their songs so differently in a live setting, but yet still keep it recognizable. sometimes "jammy" bands get on stage and you have no idea what the heck is even going on, or what song they are supposedly playing (DMB is definitely guilty of this, at least from the one instance I've seen them live...) but in my opinion, the crows' remain true to their songs. i know that there are a lot out there that disagree with me on this one, however i believe it to be true, and for the purposes of this blog, my opinion is the only one that matters.
i love the across the wire disks. i definitely prefer the VH1 disk to the MTV, but i think that's because the version of Anna begins on the VH1 disk is so hauntingly beautiful that nothing could top it. i mean, that song is beautiful to begin with, but the live version of it kicks so much ass it hurts three days later.
these are disks that make every road trip i take. these are disks that got me through years of college and life after college. they are my fall backs when I'm sad or scared or lonely or hurt...or happy, thankful, excited, or content. if i ever have kids, these will be the songs that my kids are raised on.
sophomore year of college out at Waynesburg, i had a class during the second semester that i had been warned about by everyone ahead of me in the department. "Krause is a hard professor and you really have to bust your ass to pass this class" was the general message. looking back, i think Krause paid the upperclassmen to say that, because, although i did bust my ass in that class, i got an A with really not too much extra effort. at any rate, i had received a card in the mail from my "granny" for my birthday and included in that card was a 20 dollar bill. i should have used that money for something practical, but i decided to reward myself, instead. the plan was that i could buy this new Counting Crows disk in the college bookstore that id been eyeing up if i got an A on Krause's midterm. the A was achieved and the CD was purchased, and obviously it meant a lot to me even then if i still remember the details of that particular purchase 12 years later.
I'm itching for the chance to see Counting Crows live again. hopefully that will happen soon.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
365 project"it keeps getting stranger by the day"
145.
artist:various
album:American Pie soundtrack
i have been driving around for the last two days listening to this album and trying to figure out what it was that i wanted to say about it. i guess i don't really have to say anything, i mean, these are my rules and i did complete the listening part, which is what this is really about, but what fun would this be with just album titles? exactly.
i still, though, don't know what i want to say. this CD does that time-machine thing that i know I've mentioned before in this blog. as i was singing along to the songs, i might as well have been up in the on-air studio at WMCX 8 years ago, because that's where i felt like i should be. I'm fascinated by the human mind. i cant remember most things anymore, but play me a song and i can recall the colors of the dials on the radio station in which i heard those songs most. its bizarre and rather amazing.
I'm itching for a change. the summer is upon me and being jobless for the next few months opens up a world to me that i was terrified to venture into before. the things that i wanted to hang around for last summer are complete...what's the point in waiting around for the beach if the only person that is around to go is four? i mean, i love that four year old very, very much, and he is the main man in my life, but arguing with a four year old can be tiresome and sometimes i just want adult company.
I'm weighing my options. trying to figure out what is the best move now. I've been praying A LOT, and like i told Rachel today at work, sometimes i feel like I'm screaming my prayers because i don't feel like I'm being heard. some of that fell together today. we will see. its really tentative, but this could be what i need to get myself together.
if that's the case, and if this all pans out, ill think of this album in the same regard as that concert a few Novembers back where all of this seemed to align for the first time.
artist:various
album:American Pie soundtrack
i have been driving around for the last two days listening to this album and trying to figure out what it was that i wanted to say about it. i guess i don't really have to say anything, i mean, these are my rules and i did complete the listening part, which is what this is really about, but what fun would this be with just album titles? exactly.
i still, though, don't know what i want to say. this CD does that time-machine thing that i know I've mentioned before in this blog. as i was singing along to the songs, i might as well have been up in the on-air studio at WMCX 8 years ago, because that's where i felt like i should be. I'm fascinated by the human mind. i cant remember most things anymore, but play me a song and i can recall the colors of the dials on the radio station in which i heard those songs most. its bizarre and rather amazing.
I'm itching for a change. the summer is upon me and being jobless for the next few months opens up a world to me that i was terrified to venture into before. the things that i wanted to hang around for last summer are complete...what's the point in waiting around for the beach if the only person that is around to go is four? i mean, i love that four year old very, very much, and he is the main man in my life, but arguing with a four year old can be tiresome and sometimes i just want adult company.
I'm weighing my options. trying to figure out what is the best move now. I've been praying A LOT, and like i told Rachel today at work, sometimes i feel like I'm screaming my prayers because i don't feel like I'm being heard. some of that fell together today. we will see. its really tentative, but this could be what i need to get myself together.
if that's the case, and if this all pans out, ill think of this album in the same regard as that concert a few Novembers back where all of this seemed to align for the first time.
Monday, June 6, 2011
so im finally listening to some new TBS stuff
Spin.com is featuring the new Taking Back Sunday song entitled this is all now.
I'm not going to lie to you. i am super freaking pumped about new TBS stuff. somehow, i got stuck in 2003 and I'm totally okay if music stays stuck there with me. however, i don't know how i feel about this song.
initially, i thought i was listening to the song breakfast by the newsboys. the guitar riff is really similar, but i suppose that its hard to not write something that sounds like something else these days.
i cant figure out why Adam sounds like he's spent the last ten years living in London. dude, you are from Long Island, so what's with the accent? maybe its just me, but i don't remember ever hearing that on any other TBS song that I've heard. I'm not really a fan of the autotuning that i detected, though it seems to be minimal, so i guess it could totally be worse.
i really, really love the chorus. a lot. i feel like this song, at least that part of it, could have been a b-side to TAYF which is exactly what i was hoping their new music would do for me. i have a feeling that this song is going to grow on me, and that I'm going to over-look the weird accents and autotune and fall deeply and madly in love with this album.
I'm actually salivating thinking about getting to drive around in my car and listen to it...
soon.
I'm not going to lie to you. i am super freaking pumped about new TBS stuff. somehow, i got stuck in 2003 and I'm totally okay if music stays stuck there with me. however, i don't know how i feel about this song.
initially, i thought i was listening to the song breakfast by the newsboys. the guitar riff is really similar, but i suppose that its hard to not write something that sounds like something else these days.
i cant figure out why Adam sounds like he's spent the last ten years living in London. dude, you are from Long Island, so what's with the accent? maybe its just me, but i don't remember ever hearing that on any other TBS song that I've heard. I'm not really a fan of the autotuning that i detected, though it seems to be minimal, so i guess it could totally be worse.
i really, really love the chorus. a lot. i feel like this song, at least that part of it, could have been a b-side to TAYF which is exactly what i was hoping their new music would do for me. i have a feeling that this song is going to grow on me, and that I'm going to over-look the weird accents and autotune and fall deeply and madly in love with this album.
I'm actually salivating thinking about getting to drive around in my car and listen to it...
soon.
365 project"and that cold day when you lost control/shame you left my life too soon/you should have told me/hey, but you left me far behind"
144.
artist:candlebox
album:candlebox
i had to run out to wawa to get milk earlier, and on the two-minute drive there, this song came on the radio. i had to get out right after it started, but made it back to the car before it ended, so i got to hear some of it. i decided on my way home from wawa that i was going to hunt this album down and listen to it today.
1993. i was 13 when this album was released. i remember hanging out with Brielle, which i did quite often, at some point after the release, and she played this album for me. early on in high school, i got a lot of my musical suggestions from Brielle, because she always seemed to know what stuff was out there that i was missing spending all of my time listening to the radio. i guess i have her to thank for my interest in indie stuff...because while this is still fairly mainstream, she was teaching me that there was other stuff out there besides what was being played on the radio.
anyway, Brielle gave me a tape one day, on side A it contained In Utero by Nirvana and the B side was Candlebox. I've always been a B-sides girl, i guess. i remember distinctly the feeling of being such a bad-ass because i was listening to a song in which the singer yelled "FUCK YOU" and at 13 or 14 years old, nearly 20 years ago, that was a big deal. I'm not going to lie to you, its still kind of a big deal to me to hear the unedited version. its possible that i still smile coyly when i hear him yell.
artist:candlebox
album:candlebox
i had to run out to wawa to get milk earlier, and on the two-minute drive there, this song came on the radio. i had to get out right after it started, but made it back to the car before it ended, so i got to hear some of it. i decided on my way home from wawa that i was going to hunt this album down and listen to it today.
1993. i was 13 when this album was released. i remember hanging out with Brielle, which i did quite often, at some point after the release, and she played this album for me. early on in high school, i got a lot of my musical suggestions from Brielle, because she always seemed to know what stuff was out there that i was missing spending all of my time listening to the radio. i guess i have her to thank for my interest in indie stuff...because while this is still fairly mainstream, she was teaching me that there was other stuff out there besides what was being played on the radio.
anyway, Brielle gave me a tape one day, on side A it contained In Utero by Nirvana and the B side was Candlebox. I've always been a B-sides girl, i guess. i remember distinctly the feeling of being such a bad-ass because i was listening to a song in which the singer yelled "FUCK YOU" and at 13 or 14 years old, nearly 20 years ago, that was a big deal. I'm not going to lie to you, its still kind of a big deal to me to hear the unedited version. its possible that i still smile coyly when i hear him yell.
365 project: "the only girl i've ever loved was born with roses in her eyes"
143.
artist:Neutral Milk Hotel
album:In the aeroplane over the sea
name some of the albums that you heard once and you knew that in that moment, your life was being altered somehow. think hard about this, because I'm sure that if you are a music lover, you have at least one.
for me, that album is one that is full of tales of Anne Frank, a ghost, and a boy who has no bones and lives in a jar. this sounds absurd, and ill admit that i thought so too, at first, but after i got past the "I'm indie so i have to touch myself over this album" stance and really listened to it to base my own decisions on something, i realized that i absolutely love it.
after i had a chance to get to know this album initially, i found myself shoving it in the faces of everyone i thought had half a brain when it came to music. most looked at me like i was playing a joke on them. a few said things like "i can appreciate where the band is coming from...the craft of the album...but that it just wasn't for them."
but for me, this album is summer. this is the CD that we listened to on repeat 17 times on our way to Bonnaroo that summer. its the one that we always fell back on while we were out searching for that elusive spinner watch. hell, its the reason we even set out to find that watch to begin with. this album, sad as it is, is full of happy memories for me. memories of Saturday mornings in the car with my best friend and the adventures we got ourselves into. and of that concert where i thought i died and went to Heaven.
it was the concert where i finally paid attention to Kevin Devine. we talked to that man for nearly an hour, bought put your ghost to rest on vinyl, which he autographed for us, and he made fun of my name, lovingly, of course. it was the night that i got to hug Jesse Lacey, and the night that he told me that my name was beautiful. it was the night that i screamed "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" for the four-hour car ride home from Poughkeepsie. that night, Jesse and Kevin got on that little tiny stage, the stage that i was pressed up against, and together went through the first six tracks of in the aeroplane over the sea. Kevin told Mandy after the fact that when he forgot the words he looked down at her because she was singing them all and that's how he stayed on point. this is going to sound super corny, but from that moment in time, even as it was happening, i felt like there was a bond formed that night between Jesse, Kevin and the crowd in that tiny, hot, noisy room that no one that was there would ever understand.
Shit, man. that was a fantastic night.
artist:Neutral Milk Hotel
album:In the aeroplane over the sea
name some of the albums that you heard once and you knew that in that moment, your life was being altered somehow. think hard about this, because I'm sure that if you are a music lover, you have at least one.
for me, that album is one that is full of tales of Anne Frank, a ghost, and a boy who has no bones and lives in a jar. this sounds absurd, and ill admit that i thought so too, at first, but after i got past the "I'm indie so i have to touch myself over this album" stance and really listened to it to base my own decisions on something, i realized that i absolutely love it.
after i had a chance to get to know this album initially, i found myself shoving it in the faces of everyone i thought had half a brain when it came to music. most looked at me like i was playing a joke on them. a few said things like "i can appreciate where the band is coming from...the craft of the album...but that it just wasn't for them."
but for me, this album is summer. this is the CD that we listened to on repeat 17 times on our way to Bonnaroo that summer. its the one that we always fell back on while we were out searching for that elusive spinner watch. hell, its the reason we even set out to find that watch to begin with. this album, sad as it is, is full of happy memories for me. memories of Saturday mornings in the car with my best friend and the adventures we got ourselves into. and of that concert where i thought i died and went to Heaven.
it was the concert where i finally paid attention to Kevin Devine. we talked to that man for nearly an hour, bought put your ghost to rest on vinyl, which he autographed for us, and he made fun of my name, lovingly, of course. it was the night that i got to hug Jesse Lacey, and the night that he told me that my name was beautiful. it was the night that i screamed "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" for the four-hour car ride home from Poughkeepsie. that night, Jesse and Kevin got on that little tiny stage, the stage that i was pressed up against, and together went through the first six tracks of in the aeroplane over the sea. Kevin told Mandy after the fact that when he forgot the words he looked down at her because she was singing them all and that's how he stayed on point. this is going to sound super corny, but from that moment in time, even as it was happening, i felt like there was a bond formed that night between Jesse, Kevin and the crowd in that tiny, hot, noisy room that no one that was there would ever understand.
Shit, man. that was a fantastic night.
365 project: "it makes me ill/to see you give/love and attention at his will"
142.
artist:N*SYNC
album:no strings attached
this morning i woke up and just decided "hey, i want to listen to N*SYNC today."
***
i started this entry a few days ago and just haven't had the energy to finish it. i blamed everything from my fingernails being too long to type to my brain not being able to function on the blogging level. throw in an all day trip to the zoo and a lazy Sunday spent reading a book from cover to cover, and well, there you go.
so i have no idea where i was going with this post when i started it, and as you can see, there isn't much in the way of context clues. i have had a really rough few days and what i really want to do is lay in bed, listen to Bon Iver and cry, not write about N*SYNC.
this album came out while i was away at Waynesburg, and since i was stuck out there without a car, and the nearest mall was more than a half hour away, i had no way of getting it. i remember for some reason a girl in my dorm that i was friends with was going to the mall that week and asked me if i needed anything. i said i needed the new N*SYNC album and i had it in my hands that night. Tatia had also picked it up while she was home over that weekend, and we spent the rest of sophomore year listening to it.
i don't have any really good stories that go along with this album other than that. it just occurred to me right now that i actually saw this band in college after my first year at Monmouth. one of my roommates couldn't use her ticket and sold it to me, and i went with a bunch of my suite mates from that year. we were about the last row back in the meadowlands stadium and i don't remember anything. i think Christina Aguilera opened up for them, but i really don't remember even that much. we were so far back i felt like i wasted 60 bucks...i could have stayed home and watched music videos for free.
so yeah. N*SYNC. here's the thing. I'm still really into boy bands stuff. maybe that's why i don't like Nirvana like everyone else. Nirvana killed the boy bands scene, and that killed me. hmmm...
artist:N*SYNC
album:no strings attached
this morning i woke up and just decided "hey, i want to listen to N*SYNC today."
***
i started this entry a few days ago and just haven't had the energy to finish it. i blamed everything from my fingernails being too long to type to my brain not being able to function on the blogging level. throw in an all day trip to the zoo and a lazy Sunday spent reading a book from cover to cover, and well, there you go.
so i have no idea where i was going with this post when i started it, and as you can see, there isn't much in the way of context clues. i have had a really rough few days and what i really want to do is lay in bed, listen to Bon Iver and cry, not write about N*SYNC.
this album came out while i was away at Waynesburg, and since i was stuck out there without a car, and the nearest mall was more than a half hour away, i had no way of getting it. i remember for some reason a girl in my dorm that i was friends with was going to the mall that week and asked me if i needed anything. i said i needed the new N*SYNC album and i had it in my hands that night. Tatia had also picked it up while she was home over that weekend, and we spent the rest of sophomore year listening to it.
i don't have any really good stories that go along with this album other than that. it just occurred to me right now that i actually saw this band in college after my first year at Monmouth. one of my roommates couldn't use her ticket and sold it to me, and i went with a bunch of my suite mates from that year. we were about the last row back in the meadowlands stadium and i don't remember anything. i think Christina Aguilera opened up for them, but i really don't remember even that much. we were so far back i felt like i wasted 60 bucks...i could have stayed home and watched music videos for free.
so yeah. N*SYNC. here's the thing. I'm still really into boy bands stuff. maybe that's why i don't like Nirvana like everyone else. Nirvana killed the boy bands scene, and that killed me. hmmm...
Thursday, June 2, 2011
365 project "dont hate me/forever/i'm better late that never/i've failed you/i'm sorry/it's simply my life story"
141.
artist:MxPx
album:the ever passing moment
i know that i haven't listened to this album probably since sometime before my last radio show, so its easily been eight years. id wager a bet that its been even longer than that. i had actually forgotten about its existence until just the other day when someone somewhere posted "responsibility, whats that?" i knew by the person posting (i believe it was Jess perry or Jess perry related, but i cant find it now to be sure) that it was a reference to this song, and not just a random question.
since the reading of that post, this song has made its home in my head, so this morning before i left for work, i dug out my good ole CD binder and flipped through til i found this disk, and then proceeded to pop it in on the way to work. now, my drive to work takes about three minutes on a bad day, yet i was still able to get through the entire first track by the time i shut my engine off again. that's one of the perks to pop-punk albums...short songs.
it was weird to me how even though id forgotten about the existence of this album, as soon as it started playing i remembered all of the words to all of the songs. things like this make me believe that we should teach all important lessons in school via song...the only history stuff i remember to this day is the stuff i learned from school house rock.
i was never really a huge MxPx fan. I'm pretty sure I've seen them in concert a time or two, though, because my good friend in high school, Laura, was really, really into them. the only reason i ever even owned a CD of theirs to begin with was because of Laura. then the song responsibility hit the airwaves, and since it had a music video that featured George wendt (would you like to take a survey?*) it got some play on MTV and therefore became something i needed more of in my life. its sad to say how many album purchases were brought on by MTV, and its even more sad that there's no longer music on MTV.
see, now this is the problem i keep having with these entries...i tell a story, but they don't really have much of an ending. i am then left feeling like I'm stuck without a nice little wrap up or tie in, but i have no idea where to go from there. I've said all i feel like saying about the record? now what? i need to go back to school to learn how to write a proper essay.
*anyone who can tell me what that is referencing will receive a homemade cookie from me.
artist:MxPx
album:the ever passing moment
i know that i haven't listened to this album probably since sometime before my last radio show, so its easily been eight years. id wager a bet that its been even longer than that. i had actually forgotten about its existence until just the other day when someone somewhere posted "responsibility, whats that?" i knew by the person posting (i believe it was Jess perry or Jess perry related, but i cant find it now to be sure) that it was a reference to this song, and not just a random question.
since the reading of that post, this song has made its home in my head, so this morning before i left for work, i dug out my good ole CD binder and flipped through til i found this disk, and then proceeded to pop it in on the way to work. now, my drive to work takes about three minutes on a bad day, yet i was still able to get through the entire first track by the time i shut my engine off again. that's one of the perks to pop-punk albums...short songs.
it was weird to me how even though id forgotten about the existence of this album, as soon as it started playing i remembered all of the words to all of the songs. things like this make me believe that we should teach all important lessons in school via song...the only history stuff i remember to this day is the stuff i learned from school house rock.
i was never really a huge MxPx fan. I'm pretty sure I've seen them in concert a time or two, though, because my good friend in high school, Laura, was really, really into them. the only reason i ever even owned a CD of theirs to begin with was because of Laura. then the song responsibility hit the airwaves, and since it had a music video that featured George wendt (would you like to take a survey?*) it got some play on MTV and therefore became something i needed more of in my life. its sad to say how many album purchases were brought on by MTV, and its even more sad that there's no longer music on MTV.
see, now this is the problem i keep having with these entries...i tell a story, but they don't really have much of an ending. i am then left feeling like I'm stuck without a nice little wrap up or tie in, but i have no idea where to go from there. I've said all i feel like saying about the record? now what? i need to go back to school to learn how to write a proper essay.
*anyone who can tell me what that is referencing will receive a homemade cookie from me.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
365 project: "love me. hate me. make me live again. i need you around"
140.
artist:better than Ezra
album:greatest hits
at some point during what was probably my junior year of college, i was re-introduced to the song "at the stars" by better than Ezra, and of course fell back in love with this band that i had really appreciated back in the '90's. soon after, if not at that moment, i was talking to my friend Jeff, whom I've known since elementary school (we went all through school together, and then ended up at the same college, he's 2 years younger than me but i did two years at another school), and mentioned that i needed to find my way back to this band. of course Jeffy is awesomesauce and burned me CD, which if i remember correctly, had more or less the same track list as this greatest hits album. my only wish to Jeffy was that the disk contained at the stars.
i don't remember the reason why i picked up this greatest hits album, or even where i got it. its possible that i threw it into the cart on a shopping binge at target one day, as the packaging resembles the target packaging, but i honestly don't know. all i know is that once i put it into my CD player, ill listen and listen and listen and listen. i have such a hard time taking this disk back out of the player once i put it in. its hard to pick a favorite song from this album, and equally hard to pick a least favorite. i know that sounds like a cop out, but i really love all of the songs, some for face value and others for how i relate to them.
there is just something about the bands that came out in the '90's that i tend to identify with more so than any other artists. i guess its because this is the stuff that was on the radio when i was doing my "growing up" and going through high school and college. i turned ten in 1990, so most of my big events happened within that decade. i guess its the same reason our parents relate so well to the songs of the '70s.
but the thing about these songs is that, while i did hear most of them for the first time in high school, and while they related a lot to me in those and my college years, there are elements that i think still apply today. there's a line in the song under you that i have always found to be insanely romantic:
And Ramen Noodles at 4:30 in the morning,
When we barely could survive, I was never more alive.
in the context of the song, it is obvious that this is about living in and trying to make it in Cali, but as a 31 year old who hasn't quite found her way yet, this could absolutely be me...starving and living off of ramen, but having the time of my life doing it. secretly this is one of those things that i really want to experience. i want to live with someone i love, be poor and struggle a bit, but have a damn blast while its all going on. i think the struggle makes you appreciate everything you have that much more.
I'm done typing. go listen to some better than Ezra.
artist:better than Ezra
album:greatest hits
at some point during what was probably my junior year of college, i was re-introduced to the song "at the stars" by better than Ezra, and of course fell back in love with this band that i had really appreciated back in the '90's. soon after, if not at that moment, i was talking to my friend Jeff, whom I've known since elementary school (we went all through school together, and then ended up at the same college, he's 2 years younger than me but i did two years at another school), and mentioned that i needed to find my way back to this band. of course Jeffy is awesomesauce and burned me CD, which if i remember correctly, had more or less the same track list as this greatest hits album. my only wish to Jeffy was that the disk contained at the stars.
i don't remember the reason why i picked up this greatest hits album, or even where i got it. its possible that i threw it into the cart on a shopping binge at target one day, as the packaging resembles the target packaging, but i honestly don't know. all i know is that once i put it into my CD player, ill listen and listen and listen and listen. i have such a hard time taking this disk back out of the player once i put it in. its hard to pick a favorite song from this album, and equally hard to pick a least favorite. i know that sounds like a cop out, but i really love all of the songs, some for face value and others for how i relate to them.
there is just something about the bands that came out in the '90's that i tend to identify with more so than any other artists. i guess its because this is the stuff that was on the radio when i was doing my "growing up" and going through high school and college. i turned ten in 1990, so most of my big events happened within that decade. i guess its the same reason our parents relate so well to the songs of the '70s.
but the thing about these songs is that, while i did hear most of them for the first time in high school, and while they related a lot to me in those and my college years, there are elements that i think still apply today. there's a line in the song under you that i have always found to be insanely romantic:
And Ramen Noodles at 4:30 in the morning,
When we barely could survive, I was never more alive.
in the context of the song, it is obvious that this is about living in and trying to make it in Cali, but as a 31 year old who hasn't quite found her way yet, this could absolutely be me...starving and living off of ramen, but having the time of my life doing it. secretly this is one of those things that i really want to experience. i want to live with someone i love, be poor and struggle a bit, but have a damn blast while its all going on. i think the struggle makes you appreciate everything you have that much more.
I'm done typing. go listen to some better than Ezra.
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