365 project, "i can't always hold your hand, but i will always love you"

174.

Artist: Dan Andriano In the Emergency Room
Album: Hurricane Season

I was having a really spectacular day today. I got to spend the morning with my nieces, teaching the younger two how to sew, and then talked to my big sis about the upcoming camping trip, and then I came home to a never-been-used sewing machine that someone I know gifted me out of the goodness of her heart. I have spent today full of love and smiles, and I know that sounds cheesy, but I don’t care. I love the summertime. It brings out the best in me, and days like today remind me that even though I have my rough days (just like everyone) that there are some really spectacular people in my life, and that my life is charmed. (seriously, who else gets a job and a brand new sewing machine just by posting on facebook that they need one? I tried the boyfriend thing once, but everyone just laughed at me. I think I might attempt that request again soon…)

I cannot even explain to you guys how excited I was about the sewing machine. Actually, I can. My cousin Kenny had an extra ticket to go see The Starting Line tonight. He was willing to give it to me for free, just so that someone would use the ticket, and I decided I would rather stay home and sew things. The enormity of that is astounding.

Anyway, so picture me, sitting in my room watching the Phillies kick the Pirates asses, and then watching a new Phineas and Ferb, and then watching “The 90’s Are All That” on Teennick. Life is good. I am a happy camper. All of the sudden I hear this clicking noise, like a bug hitting against my ceiling. I won’t get into the gory details, but I will say that a side light that stays on all night and a less than totally functioning window equaled a bug plague of Biblical proportions in my bedroom….at three am. I tried to sleep through it, but I could hear them swarming around and I couldn’t deal with it, so I bug-sprayed the life out of those suckers, flushed a few stinkbugs down the toilet, and am now sitting here downstairs at the computer sufficiently skeeved out and kind of scared of my stupid bedroom.

I realize that this has absolutely NOTHING to do with the album I am talking about tonight, but since it was just released, I don’t have any fun stories that go along with it, and now that I’m in a less happy mood than I was all day today, I am sitting here listening to it on spotify.

Like I said in the last entry, I love Alkaline Trio, and I love acoustic music, so this album for me is a winner. I don’t necessarily subscribe to the “Matt Skiba is god” notion, mostly because I believe that God is God, but also because, as it turns out, most of my favorite Alk3 songs are not Skiba songs, but rather Andriano songs. I realized this several years back when I had the absolute pleasure of seeing him play a solo gig, along with Chris Conley of Saves The Day and a big hairy guy from one of those “deer” bands, but I don’t recall which one. This was before I even really listened to Saves, so the only songs I really knew were a few from Conley and most of Andriano’s stuff. I remember thinking then that I really hoped he would put out a solo album, because I dug what he was throwing down, and while it is several years later, I am glad to see that my request was granted.

I haven't listened with the intensity that I wish I was able, but it is my belief that most of these songs are written as love letters to his wife from the road, which makes them even more beautiful, as far as I am concerned. If you want to check his stuff out, my suggestion would be to listen to either On Monday or Me and Denver. Both tracks come in the middle of the album, and both are highlights as far as I am concerned. My goal is to own this album one day, but for now I will continue to listen to it every chance I get on spotify.

365 project, "been on top of the world since about six months ago/marking the first time i laid eyes on you"

173.

Artist: Alkaline Trio
Album: Damnesia

I love Alkaline Trio. I love acoustic music. This album is awesome. End of story.

365 project, "come and go with me/to my Father's house/come and go with me/to my Father's house"

172.

Artist: Audio Adrenaline
Album: Hit Parade

The third concert I ever attended in my life was an Audio Adrenaline concert. I am amazed at the vivid memories I have of that night, although most of them are hazy. I know that I went with Devon (who I haven’t even spoken to in years. I *think* we are facebook friends)  and that we danced like fools to the song Hands And Feet. I feel like there was a lot of merch on that church pew, but if you asked me to tell you what we bought that night, I’d be unable. I am pretty sure that I had an Audio Adrenaline poster, so its likely that came from this concert. I also can’t remember definitely how we actually got to the show that night, but my guess would be that Kathi drove, since most of the concert-attending I did during my short stint at Waynesburg happened with Kath.

One of the first CD’s I bought when I was getting my toes wet in the CCM pool was Wow 1999. It was two disks and it had over 30 tracks of the best of CCM for that year. The first disk was the more rock and roll stuff, and the second was more of the mellow, Praise & Worship kind of stuff, so the first disk got a few more spins. On that disk was the song Chevette, and listening to it now I don’t understand it, but at the time, I thought it was a fantastic song.  

Speaking of that song, I remember watching a football game in the kitchen with my parents one night while I was still in college, or just out, and seeing a commercial for one of the major car companies. At the end of the commercial, the announcer said “and hey, no one ever wrote a song about their Chevette.” I IMMEDIATELY called Kathi, and she had seen the commercial as well. I wanted to call someone to yell at them, because that obviously was a lie, but this was before the internet became a staple in everyone’s homes, and well before the advent of Google, so I didn’t know who to call. Someone must have done something, though, because I never did see that commercial again.

There are so many fun songs on this album, and there are a lot of memories wrapped up into those songs. I don’t care how cheesy it is, the song DC-10 still makes me dance around like a maniac (even at four am, which was the case early this morning.) Dancing around my living room took me right back to that dorm room in Burns Hall and the dancing that happened up there. I had really bad luck when it came to roommates at Waynesburg, so I spent a lot of time alone in the room, which sucked for socializing, but was fantastic for dancing.

I don’t know what has come over me lately with this onslaught of old CCM stuff popping up to be listened to, but it is making me remember who I was, and I’m wondering if maybe I am on the road headed back to a similar version of myself.

I need some help from you

I decided last night that I was going to try something different and go to bed before midnight. This was a great plan until I got to my room and discovered something was amiss. If you have ever had the displeasure of being around a broken refrigerator, you know the exact smell that I was smelling upon entering my room…it’s the way the air in the walk-in cooler at Wawa would smell when there was something wrong with the motor.

I did everything I could think of to get my air conditioner back up and running, but unfortunately when I woke up this morning my bedroom was still nice and toasty. Then, when I came downstairs, my mom informed me that someone had vandalized a few of the cars on the street, mine included. It wasn’t a huge deal, thankfully, and my mom and dad cleaned it up before I even had the chance to notice, but the fact that someone could be so disrespectful really burns me up.

I also realized soon after all of that that tonight is the Kevin Devine concert up in Asbury, but I don’t think ½ tank of gas and 20 bucks is enough to make that happen, so I have to miss out on that. I hate missing concerts, and I hate it even more when its an artist that I really love seeing.

So all of this is to say that I am in a rather grumpy mood this afternoon. My immediate answer to the situation at hand was to listen to Brand New’s Seventy Times Seven on repeat, because that is my go-to song when I am angry, but I realized that I don’t have any other songs to go to when I’m angry with the world, so I thought I would turn to you guys for some help.

Leave me a comment, here or on my facebook page, and let me know what songs you turn to for comfort when you are having a less than stellar day. I really need to build up my angry/rage/hate playlist.

365 project, "Where do you go when you're lonely? Where do you go when you're blue? Where do you go when you're lonely, i'll follow you"

171.

Artist: Various
Album: Music From the WB Television Series One Tree Hill

I showed up to the One Tree Hill game late into the show’s run. As a matter of fact, I believe that the show is in its 8th season now, and I have only seen the first six, only in reruns (or seven and five, I can’t be bothered to be too sure.) I don’t know what finally pushed me to start watching these shows, but it was likely a YouTube video of a song that I like featuring clips from the show. I will say one thing about this show with the utmost certainty, it has a rocking soundtrack.

I knew about this show well before it actually went into production, actually, and that is the exact reason that I never bothered to watch it. This is probably going to sound like a petty and ridiculously dumb story, but for the sake of the honesty I have so far practiced in this blog, now is not the time to chicken out and leave out details.

You may or may not be aware of this, but I spent the summer between my junior and senior year of college interning for MTV in seaside heights. I did a lot of different things during that summer (including, but not limited to counting spoons to make sure we had enough for one Puff Daddy (I think) and babysitting Johnny Knoxville (in which I was asked to stop looking at him while he was eating. I don’t know how else to keep an eye on someone without actually keeping an eye on someone, but such is the entertainment business lifestyle) but the two main duties I had were working on Direct Effect and TRL. While working on Direct Effect had its moments, it was weird because I didn’t know most of the artists that came through, and spent a lot of time researching hip hop, which was interesting but not really something I cared a whole lot about.

TRL was actually less fun, though. We only filmed at the beach house a few weeks out of the summer (recording more than one show in a day in order to be aired during the weeks following) and the second time TRL came down for recording, they brought their own interns from 1515, leaving us with nothing to do at all. (I spent that day reading a babysitters club book. True story.)

Carson Daly didn’t always host TRL towards the end, so while they were there we got to spend some time with the other VJ’s that were shooting the show, both of which were WAY nicer to us than Carson Daly ever was (he always has been and always will be a toolbag.) Aside from Daly, we got to spend a lot of time with Damien Fahey, Quddus Phillipe, La La Vasquez, and Hilarie Burton. Can you see where this is going?

Because Hilarie went to school with some of the other interns, she was the one most likely to talk to us, and she didn’t have that “im a star and you are a peon” quality that so many people in a position like hers might have. She was pretty awesome to be around, actually. But then she announced that she was leaving MTV to go be on a WB show, and this really annoyed me for some reason, even though soon enough I was leaving MTV, too (I only wish to star in a WB series.)

So I ignored the show. I used to make fun of Michelle and Brooke for having their One Tree Hill nights, and if I happened to be out that way on the night that the show was on, id make it the plan to be out of there before it came on so that I wasn’t subjected to nonsense. But eventually I came around, and I am so glad that I did. I have actually started listening to a lot of different artists solely based on hearing their clips used in the show, and there are days where the titles of the episodes make me dance like a little kid-one of the re-runs that ran today was entitled “The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows.” See why i might like the show so much?

 This picture makes me way more nostalgic than i really expected. I wonder what Q is up to these days?

365 project, "and you're pushing three decades with that bottle now/and i didn't sign up for this kid shit now"

170.

Artist: Brian Bonz and the Dot Hongs
Album: From Sumi to Japan

I LOVE BRIAN BONZ.

There, got that out of the way. Its true, though. I adore this guy and it kills me that more people don’t know his music, because its damn good stuff. By looking at him, you wouldn’t expect his voice to be so beautiful, he’s even said himself that he looks like a 12 year old (and Anne Marie most certainly agreed with that) but then he opens his mouth and starts to sing, and appearance matters little because his voice is so smooth and soothing.

His voice isn’t the only thing I love about this album. The songs themselves have just the right amount of hook to bring you in but not so much that they come off cheesy. I fell for this guy’s music the very first time I heard him. For the longest time my favorite BB song was Judy and the Alpha Queen, but lately I cannot get enough of the song Kid Shit.

I have been fortunate enough to see Brian Bonz quite a few times, as a solo artist and before he stopped touring as a member o Kevin Devine’s Goddamn Band. Every time has been a special treat. One of the good things about liking indie artists is that I can afford tickets to their shows. You may or may not be aware of the Adele debacle that I just went through, trying to get 150 dollar tickets to a show that sold out to brokers in less time than it takes to listen to one of her songs. I can go see Brian Bonz for usually 10-12 dollars a show and get a much more intimate concert, and have some interaction with the band. When it comes to concerts, I think the opposite of the old adage “you get what you pay for” is true, at least in my experience.

So am I bent out of shape that I didn’t get Adele tickets? A little, because they were for someone else and he is not happy, but would I rather see Brian Bonz? Absolutely. No doubt about that.

365 project, "unite, ignite and spark to burn so bright the sight will blind the blind of this our modern time"

169.

Artist: OC Supertones
Album: Supertones Strike Back

In college I was obsessed what the song Little Man. Listening to it now, I can’t remember being that girl. I can’t remember the words to the songs on this disk. I don’t remember a whole lot about that time in my life. Its both sad and disturbing to me. My convictions were so strong and I was so sure about my faith. While I wouldn’t say that my faith has wavered, I am pretty sure that I am not as strong a Christian as I was then.  I am still a believer, and I don’t think anything could happen to make me question that decision, however, the strength of my convictions is something that could be questioned, and rightfully so.  I will say that I am thankful every single day for God’s unconditional love…and a song on this album, Grace Flood, is a perfect song to listen to whenever I need to remember that.

As I was driving to Jay and Steph’s the other morning to watch the baby girls, I was listening to this album, and upon hearing the song Unite, I had a sudden flashback to a concert that I had totally forgotten about. I don’t remember a whole lot about it, just that it was dark, and it was up near college. I think it was at Brookdale Community College. I know that Laura was there. I am pretty sure that Lou and Sarah would have been there, too. I also remember someone in an orange supertones shirt getting up on stage and dancing only to find out down the line that it was someone from frenzyboard.  I don’t remember who else played that gig. I don’t even remember what year it was. I am pretty sure that a band that we weren’t too fond of played, because I remember vaguely standing outside of the gym around a square couch-y thing and there being some hacky sack nonsense going on. Of course, all of this could be totally made up. I don’t even know what happened to a lot of my pictures in order to go back and look to see if any of this happened or if it was all in my head.

I feel like I should have stronger ties to this band, or at least this album because the song Little Man is the reason I started listening to them in the first place. It is so weird to me that I have a whole mess of albums that used to mean so much to me and now I can’t even remember the lyrics.

365 project, "i called you so many times today/and i guess its all true what your girlfriends say"

168.

Artist: The Police
Album: Every Breath You Take: The Classics

Oh, The Police. 

Do you want to hear about the biggest disappointment I have ever had, at least as far as music-related expectations? The answer is when I got the chance to see The Police at bonnaroo back in 2007. I was so excited to see this band that I had grown up loving, and could not wait until they took the stage.

Unfortunately, their set left me less than satisfied. The sound was awful, and they only played for about an hour and a half, when they were allotted a three hour timeframe. There was no jamming out or mixing it up, which is, at least to me, the heart and soul of a set at bonnaroo. It was just frustrating to watch and left a bad taste in my mouth. The set that they did play was not terrible in terms of songs, though. It had a lot of my favorites, so I wasn’t totally disappointed, I guess. I just wished that they played longer, and that I could actually hear what was happening.


Here is a copy of the setlist, nabbed from stereogum.com:
01 “Message In A Bottle”
02 “Synchronicity II”
03 “Walking On The Moon”
04 “Driven To Tears”
05 “Voices Inside My Head”
06 “Truth Hits Everybody”
07 “Every LIttle Thing She Does Is Magic”
08 “Wrapped Around Your Finger”
09 “The Bed’s Too Big Without You”
10 “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da”
11 “Walking In Your Footseps”
12 “Can’t Stand Losing You” > “Regatta De Blanc”
14 “Roxanne”
________
15 “King Of Pain”
16 “So Lonely”
17 “Every Breath You Take”
________
18 “Next To You”

Like I said, they hit on a few of my key favorites, which made the entire experience suck a little less, and the song I was most happy to hear was “cant stand losing you.” I don’t know what it is about this song that makes me so happy, because its really not a happy song at all, but I get giddy as a schoolgirl when I hear it.

I can remember once, back at Waynesburg, watching a flyers game and listening to this song on repeat until it was over, because we were losing and I didn’t want to see that. I cant remember if we had a TV in our room or if I was getting updates online via my roommate’s computer, but I know that I was aware of the score and freaking out over the idea of losing that game.

For as much as a ticket to this tour went for, im glad I didn’t pay for it outwardly, and that we saw them at the festival. The awesomeness of other bands that weekend can overshadow the disappointment I felt after seeing The Police. 

365 project, "think i'll lie in the sun for a while/maybe inside out/I've been leaving messages for you/i'm sure it will all work out"

167.

Artist: The Newsboys
Album: Step Up To The Microphone

This was the first album of which I owned multiple copies.

The summer after my freshman year of college, I was very excited to be going to Creation with my friend from high school and her mom and brother. It was originally supposed to be an outing for our entire group of friends, but I was the only one who showed any interest, so that was how it went down. I distinctly remember listening to this album a lot while we were there. I had my mom’s portable CD player with me, and while I am sure I brought more than just this album, it is the only one I have any memory of, and I know that I listened to it over and over and over again during downtime back at the campsite.

Creation was always a good time, but I was always burnt out on it well before the festival was over, and was always beyond ready to come home when the time came. I did get to see a lot of bands that I really loved at that time, though, and generally got to see some awesome friends while I was there.

This particular year, the Newsboys were playing and I was super excited to see them, because for a while they ranked up there as one of my most valuable bands. I remember being really excited to go to their booth that day and pick up a new Newsboys shirt, but when I got there, I discovered they were running a special…buy the CD and get a cassette of the album for free. Never one to pass up a deal (even when its something I obviously don’t need, much like in this case) I opted for the disk instead.

I don’t know that I ever listened to the cassette, because who listens to cassettes? I am not even entirely sure that I know where it is these days. I know that I never opened the plastic on the second CD, and had thought for a long time about giving it away as a prize on our radio show in college, but I don’t think I ever did that, either. I have no idea what happened to that disk, either, but I’m pretty sure that it is no longer in my possession. Money well spent, huh?

things that make you go hmmmmmm.....

I was checking AP.net today, and came across this article, with this link.

that last link is to a countdown. 122 days, three hours and nineteen minutes from right now. it is currently 3:41pm , which leads me to believe this to be a show, because what else happens at seven pm.

today is the 203 day of the year, so add 122 days to that, and we are at day 325, which would be November 21st. of this year, a Monday. the band played their last show on November 22, 2003, so this is almost eight years to the day. they already have a DVD and a live performance CD out, so its doubtful that its either of those things, especially because new media is typically released on a Tuesday, and as we have already established, this  countdown is for a Monday night.

with my recent re-interest in this band, im definitely going to be keeping my eyes and ears open to see what else is up...maybe ill be selling those Brand New tickets in order to pay for a plane ride to Denver...

365 project, "What's good and bad/flows from the hands/of the God with the perfect plan/filling us with joy/all of this will glorify"

166.

Artist: Five Iron Frenzy
Album: Upbeats and Beatdowns

Growing up in suburban South Jersey didn’t really provide us with too many options when trying to waste a night. There were nights of underage consumption of adult beverages, but that was never really my scene, and by the time I was in college and coming home to visit, I was totally over that, so I found other things to do.

For a long time, one of those things was to drive aimlessly around with the stereo on full blast. A car full of kids and a tank full of gas (gas was cheap 10 years ago) and nowhere to be. Most nights, though, those trips ended up at the only 24 hour establishment around that wasn’t a diner-the local Wal-Mart. I don’t remember if we usually made a purchase or if we just goofed around, but there was definitely goofing involved. We weren’t mean or disruptive. We didn’t destroy or steal. We just hung about and talked about things until we got bored and decided to head home. It was brighter inside Wal-Mart, and I’m sure that occasionally one of us needed something, so the trips weren’t always for nonsense.

During this period of time, I was hanging out with a group of friends who regularly referred to our group as “the family.” Now, just because I am from Jersey and was part of a group that I called “the family” does not mean that I was ever affiliated with the mob. I’m not Italian. Also, I’m too much of a wuss to “whack” someone. At any rate, we were as close as they come, and we spent a lot of time together when we were all home. Also, we all really liked Five Iron Frenzy.

This is all leading up to a story that will take me about three seconds to tell, but that is still one of my favorite memories from this part of my life (minus the zucchini muffin hat, but that’s a story for another time.) One rainy night, the gang was walking up to the entrance, and we must have been listening to the song “anthem” recently, because one of us starting singing “a nation stands with heart in hand…” and the rest of the group joined right in. We were all band/drama/choir kids, so calling attention to ourselves was no big deal, which meant that in that rainy, nearly deserted parking lot, we could sing just as loudly as we liked.

By the time we were walking through the entrance to the store, we were about to the end of the song, and when we finished, the greeter started clapping and said “that was you guys singing out there? That sounded awesome!” I don’t know how awesome we actually sounded, really, because by the end it had turned from singing to screaming, I think, but we must have caught her attention in some way.

I miss those nights. I am also slowly realizing how many records have memories linked to parking lots.

365 project, "when all the stupid things/so overwhelming to me/like paying my bills/or showing up for work early/or laughing at your jokes"

165.

Artist: Rilo Kiley
Album: Take offs and Landings

I was made aware a few hours ago that Wednesday marks the 200th day of the year, and I’m only on album 165, so I have a slight feeling that I’m not going to finish this project exactly on time, but I’m not so far behind that ill take forever to catch up, either. At any rate, I am going to try to do more albums in a day in order to try to get caught up to at least a respectable place on the timeline. We shall see how that goes.

I don’t know what ever possessed me to pick up this album, but I know that when I first listened to it, I wasn’t impressed. That seems to have happened a lot right around the same time, and I find it amusing that my record collection was more indie rock than I was for a while. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, but the time after college was spent trying to figure out who I was (to some degree I’m still working on that) but a large part of that was trying to determine what post-college genesis was supposed to be listening to…what music turned me on at 23, 24, 25 years old?

I had this album, and it was on my ipod throughout those lost years, so I’ve spent some time with it, but this is one that truly fits the theme of this project as it’s not something that I know really well and I need to spend some time with it to get to know it better. I always found it amusing how quickly I latched onto Jenny Lewis’ solo project or Jenny & Johnny, and even to some degree The Elected without ever really being a Rilo Kiley fan. It was never that I disliked this band, per say, but I think that I heard about them too late to be relevant and that when I did listen I still wasn’t sure where I was going, so they just sat on a rack on my desk for years and hung out collecting dust.

As I sit here now and really pay attention to what is going on in these songs, I realize that this album was absolutely meant for 31 year old me, and I can see why 24 year old me wasn’t really so interested. There is a lot of talk of loneliness and distrust, and of broken hearts and brokenness and, while I wasn’t totally unaware of these things, I really hadn’t had a chance in my life to experience them. College was good to me, and even coming right out of school I was surrounded by friends, and was even seeing someone. I had no use for sad songs about going insane and being totally alone.

Now this is not to say that I am totally alone now. I know that I am not, but my social situation is terribly different all these years later. I have friends, but everyone works and is paired off and does their own thing. Many of them have kids. I don’t dislike their kids, but because I don’t have my own, I am just automatically left out of family-outing type situations. That’s really okay, because stuff like that just reminds me of my singledom. Would I like things to be different? Would I like to be in their shoes, doing the happy homemaker thing? You’re damn straight I would, but that’s not what the cards had in store, “And sometimes, lonely hearts, they just get lonelier And lonelier, and lonelier, and lonelier.” 


“for the rest of my life, I’m gonna search for someone just like you.” 

my response to an NPR piece

NPR’s All Songs Considered recently did a piece entitled “Cry Baby Cry:Songs That Make You Weep.” While I admit that some of the songs on their list were touching, there weren’t any that would bring me to my knees like some of the songs that I listen to with any regularity, so I decided that I would compile my own list. I have been toying with this idea for a while anyway, so what better time than now.

I am a terribly emotional girl. I cry at the drop of a hat. I cry when I am happy. I cry when I am sad. I cry when I see a cute puppy or when a little kid does something sweet. I cry like a baby at movies, even when I couldn’t care any less about the outcome. I cry a lot. I am a big baby.  I do not deny this. it’s a frustrating trait, mostly, because there are times when the waterworks begin that id rather not deal with them, or more importantly, when id rather not let someone else see that they got to me, but I feel like my natural reaction when faced with anything out of my routine life is to cry.

One might think that because I cry so easily that I could throw ten random songs up here and call it a day, because what the heck, I cry at anything right? But that is not the case, really. There are only a handful of songs that really have what it takes to make me well up, but when they do, dammit, they get me good.

Jimmy Eat World-Drugs or Me

Colin Hay-I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You

Etta James-At Last

Eve 6-Inside Out

Copeland-Coffee

Death Cab For Cutie-A Lack Of Color

Oasis-Wonderwall

Martina McBride-This One's for The Girls

365 project, "too old to be wild and free still too young to be over the hill/should i try to grow up but who knows where to start"

164.

Artist: Kenny Chesney
Album: Greatest Hits II

Wow. There was a time in my life, albeit brief, that I listened to Kenny Chesney pretty much nonstop. It all started with a Tim McGraw CD, but Kenny became my go to guy for country hits.

Several of the songs on this album take me back to specific instances, but the song with the most attachment for me is When The Sun Goes Down. My initial memory of this song is that of singing it to a kid we worked with all of the time just to annoy him. This poor kid, named Justin, worked with us for a while and for some reason became the butt of every joke that happened during the course of a night at Wawa. One night, Justin told us all how much he hated Kenny Chesney and country music in general, and that was all the fuel that the fire needed to just go at him relentlessly. Of course, we all immediately started singing the song, and that continued on for the rest of the 8 hour shift. The next night that we worked with him, he made it seem like he was over the whole “hating Kenny Chesney” thing, so it kind of dropped off, until he accidentally made a comment to me about it.

Now, generally speaking I try to be a nice person, and to do the right thing. I have been the butt of many jokes in my lifetime and I know how that feels, and I know that I didn’t like it, so I try to not be too harsh on anyone without just cause. For some reason, though, during this span of my lifetime, I felt the need to be an asshole all of the time. (Actually, I know the reason. Hanging with assholes will turn you into one, too, if you aren’t careful.) Anyway, as soon as he bought it up again, I decided that was the appropriate time to change my ringtone from whatever song it was at the time to When The Sun Goes Down. We then spent most of the next few days texting and calling my phone to make the song go off, that is, when others weren’t helping the cause unknowingly.

Later that Spring, I attended my first ever Bonnaroo, and still hadn’t changed my ring tone, and I remember being in the middle of a texting conversation and Sandy finally freaking out and telling me that I needed to change my ring tone or put my phone on vibrate because she was ready to smash it. Hahaha. She spent that whole trip making fun of my love for country music as well as Brand New. Guess who listens to country music now?


My other memory of that song still cracks me up to this day, and now that I think about it, I don’t know how funny this will be if you don’t know my sister, but I’m going to tell it anyway because my blog, my rules.

My sister, her bff Kristin and I all went to see Kenny Chesney, Sugarland and someone else who I can’t think of right now during the same summer as all that fun that I just told you about. It is entirely possible that some tailgating may have occurred, and that certain members of our party were completely trashed by the time Kenny actually took the stage. The show goes on, Kenny and the band play all of the latest and greatest, and everyone has a fantastic time. Towards the end of the set, the opening chords of When The Sun Goes Down ring out, and everyone gets all excited, of course. Between screams, my sister turns to Kristin and I and says “imagine if Uncle Kracker came out right now” and we laughed it off, but then mere seconds later who should take the stage but Uncle Kracker himself. I don’t even know if my sister heard the rest of the song because she just kept yelling “it’s Uncle *effing* Kracker!” Sometimes when we are together and that song comes on, I like to yell “it’s Uncle *effing* Kracker” at her, just for fun.

I guess I retained some of those asshole qualities.

365 project, "i want to know your fears, from your feet to the back of your ears"

163.

Artist: Say Anything
Album: …Is A Real Boy

If my memory isn’t totally failing me, I have only seen Say Anything in concert one time. They toured with Saves The Day a few years back and I was on those tickets like white on rice. I had just really started getting into Saves The Day, and I LOVED …Is A Real Boy, so I was under the impression that this was a cant miss show.

I wish I would have missed it. Saves The Day were awesome, but I’d seen them before, and knew I’d see them again. Say Anything was just flat. I was very, very disappointed in their set, enough so that it tainted seeing Saves The Day. (Jason, I don’t know if you are still reading this at all, but I am pretty sure that you were at this show and that it was the first time I’d ever talked to you outside of Wawa.) Of course, though, Saves pulled the shit show out of the gutter, and when Kenny Vasoli from The Starting Line joined the boys on that stage, I had all but forgotten about how much I hated Max Bemis at that point.

I really was in love with this album. I think that I want to know your plans is a super sweet song, and I love that I can listen to Admit It!!! and laugh at myself, even if it is the hipster caricature  of who I really am. I am aware of the fact that I fit into the hipster stereotype, and I’m mostly okay with that, because if anything is going to define me, I’m glad that it’s the music that I listen to, but I think that life is too short to take such nonsense so seriously, so if I’m going to be made fun of for going “analog baby, you’re so post modern” then by all means, have at it. Its not like Mr. Bemis doesn’t poke all sorts of fun at himself throughout the album.

About a month or so after this disappointing concert, my friend and I were lucky enough to, after waiting in line for hours and hours, score wristbands to get us into the myspace secret show that The Starting Line did at the stone pony up in Asbury Park. This actually ended up being the last time we saw TSL before they broke up, because while we were AT their show at Bamboozle the next day, it was the same set, and we both, along with about 150 other kids, fell asleep on the pavement outside Giants Stadium. Anyway, the show kicked ass because I don’t think TSL have ever failed to put on a stellar show, and afterwards we happened to catch Kenny outside. He needed a sharpie to sign posters, and Mandy had one for him, and then we got to talking, and the subject of that show a month or two prior came up.

“oh, yeah, that wasn’t a good night for Max. he was having a bad night that night.”

Somehow, that took away from how awful I had painted the picture in my mind. I mean, yeah, dude is a singer, and if hes out touring he should give the audience what they paid for, but I also know, as does anyone who knows anything about the band, that he suffers from some pretty serious depression issues and was going through a particularly rough patch during that point. Because of Kenny, I forgave that night, and even started listening to the band again. For the time in between these two shows, I was so angry with what had happened that I wouldn’t even listen to the CD.

I have one other story to tell regarding this band, although it doesn’t pertain to this album. There was a short while where I was kind of involved with this dude who, of course, turned out to be a total douchenugget, but at the time seemed sweet as pie. Around this same time, Wow, I Can Get Sexual, Too had just come out, and I thought it was the perfect ringtone for this asshat. Anyway, long story short,  a whole bunch of us were sitting in Chic-fil-a grabbing dinner, and although it was dinner time and rather full of patrons, it was also rather quiet in the restaurant. It was DEFINITELY quiet enough that when he called me and my phone started singing “I called her on the phone and she touched herself, she touched herself, she touched herself” it made people look. Needless to say, that ringtone got changed soon after that incident.

365 project, "just last night i woke from some unconscionable dream/had it nailed to my forehead again"

162.

Artist: The Shins
Album: Chutes Too Narrow

At 162 albums into this journey, I find myself very glad that I have been using tags to keep track of what albums I have and have not done. Last night I found myself clamoring for something that I haven’t used yet, and was shocked to see that I have not yet covered this album, as it is one of my more recent favorites.

I believe that there were a few times in the beginning of the year that I wanted to cover this album, but decided against it because in my mind this is a summertime album, and I wanted to wait until it was warmer and I could drive around blasting this CD with the windows down and the volume up. While running errands today, this is exactly what I did.

I find it hard to find fault with this album. From the handclaps at the beginning of kissing the lipless to the last soothing notes and the lyrical imagery of those to come, this album is flawless. Not only do I believe it to be perfect musically, but it holds some of my favorite lyrics of the last ten years. “you want to jump and dance/but you sat on your hands/and lost your only chance” gets me every time I hear it, and usually results in my rewinding to hear it again. Actually, all of the lyrics in the song gone for good are pretty poignant. This is another one of those times where I question if you have ever heard this song, and when you shake your head no at the computer screen, I implore you to stop what you are doing and check it out…and then so helpfully provide you with a link to a video on YouTube so that you might be able to hear the song without navigating away from my happy little blog.

I cant think of any specific moments involving this album that I can share with you. I know that I had a very hard time finding the Cd, and even worse of a time finding the vinyl. I remember finally buying the record one night on South Street at Repo Records (God, I miss having the cash to go visit that place) and still having it in my car the next day when I went to work (or I worked that night after a concert…that happened a lot more than I care to remember) so I was able to show it off to a girl I worked with who had almost as kick-ass a taste in music as I do.  I remember getting a text message from her some time later, after she had screwed up and blamed me, in which she told me that I was a piece of shit for buying records and that I was the reason my family was falling apart. My family’s demise was news to me, and I never knew that buying records deemed someone a lousy person, but there you have it. Funny…I still have that record but I don’t still have the friend. Just one more reason, I guess, that I prefer music to people.

365 project, "there is something/i see in you/it might kill me/i want it to be true"

161.

Artist: various
Album: Twilight Soundtrack


Say what you will about the Twilight movies, but their soundtracks thus far have kicked some major ass. It is actually kind of baffling sometimes how such mediocre movies can have such fantastic soundtracks. Most of the time when I fall in love with a movie’s soundtrack, the logical next step (or parallel step, at least) is to watch the movie until I can quote it line for line (re: Angus, Empire Records, Almost Famous, Forrest Gump), and I guess to a degree that can be said about Twilight, because in the interest of full disclosure, I will tell you that I can and have been known to quote at least a few lines from this flick.

Yeah, I know, I have seen all of the Twilight releases at midnight. I am aware. But I have also seen all of the Harry Potter movies at midnight for the last six years and have never seen any of them again after that (guys, I even drove six hours after work back in October to see Part 1 with Devin in New York.  Do you know when the next time I saw that movie is? This coming Thursday, at the theater right before we see Part 2.)

There is something magical about the Twilight soundtrack. That sounds so cheesy and im sorry for being that way, but it’s the truth. Eyes on Fire by Blue Foundation is such an incredible song, I didn’t listen to anything else for a good month after I first heard that song. I still end up repeating it a few times when it pops up in a play list or when my ipod is shuffling through.

Because the soundtrack came out before the movie, I knew that there was an Iron & Wine song in the movie, and that it was going to be used during the prom scene. I was slightly pissed about this, because I have been an Iron & Wine fan for a while now, and I didn’t want to lose my band to teeny boppers, but thankfully most of the Twihards ignored them again after a brief stint, and they came back to me mostly unharmed. One of the defining moments of my life was during an Iron & Wine show (which I have talked about before, so I won’t get into again) and I didn’t want to lose how special that was because I lost my band. Thankfully, they have musical acts like Justin Beiber and the Disney Channel stars to cling to, and they left the grown-up music to the grown ups.

This is not to say that this soundtrack is full of hits. There are some misses. I am not a Linkin Park fan, so I really could have done without them on the soundtrack. The song isn’t bad as a song goes, its just not something I’m really thrilled about hearing. I kind of feel the same way about Muse. I actually get those two bands confused in my mind…I walked out of a festival where one of them was headlining, but I cannot for the life of me remember which one it was, and since Mandy doesn’t read this, I don’t know that ill ever remember (I do, however, remember being totally trashed by 10am in the parking lot before we went into the festival. I don’t forget the important parts.)

Bella’s Lullaby, however, is the most horrendous thing I have ever had the displeasure of hearing. I read the books. I know what the song is supposed to sound like. I know that the crap that Carter Burwell penned for this song is not it. This song sounds like someone with no piano experience sat down one day and just started tinkering around with the keys, and it was recorded and claimed to be written for the movie. I mean, this song is such a joke that whenever it pops up in the car when I’m with Nicole, I look at her and just say “tinker, tinker, tinker” until she distracts me or I break into laughter and the juvenility of the song. Edward is 100+ years old. I think he’d be able to write something a little more…substantial. Ugh. That song depresses me.

Sometimes I feel like I should be grading these albums at the end of every entry. While that is probably useless and definitely arbitrary, if I were doing this, id give this album a B-. Yes, it kicks some major ass, mostly. Some of the low-lights are prevalent enough to bring the grade down almost two whole letters.

365 project, "i think it's brainless to assume/that making changes to your window's view/will give a new perspective"

160.

Artist: Death Cab For Cutie
Album: The Photo Album

I went to see Death Cab at the Tower Theater in Philly a few years ago. That trip was quite the adventure. The road that mapquest told us to take was under construction, and we didn’t know where we were going…and we ended up driving in circles in a rather less-than-good part of the city. After driving past the same cop two or three times, he threw on his lights and pulled me over.  I’m betting he was thinking we were in one of two situations-lost, which we were, or looking for drugs, which we were not. Anyway, he told us which way to go to get back to where we needed to be, and after a lot more cursing and slamming of the steering wheel, I finally found the theater.

For whatever reason, we were allowed inside the building, but not to our seats, so we were milling around in the lobby. I remember signing up for the XPN mailing list and getting a button and a bumper sticker for doing so. I remember scoping out the merch and thinking that even for a high-brow tour like they were doing, it was too expensive. I did, though, at that show buy my DCFC tote bag which I still use all the time, because it is just about the most awesome tote bag I have ever owned.

While we were looking at the merch, though (and here comes the point of all of this rambling), “cousin Kevin” pointed out The Photo Album and remarked how awesome of a disk this was. I replied that I did not own it, and he was shocked by this revelation. I considered, at that moment and for the rest of the show, going back to the merch table to pick it up, but decided that the cash I had left in my wallet would better be spent on gas and Wawa munchies on the way home from the show.

At some point after that, but still a while back, I decided that it was my mission in life to acquire every DCFC album that had been released to that point. I am thinking that this happened about the time that Plans was released, but there were still quite a few albums previous to Plans that I didn’t have, The Photo Album still, of course, being one.

I was unsuccessful on completing that mission, but I did, during that time, acquire The Photo Album. Hang me by my toenails and stone me in town square for being a hipster snob, but I love old DCFC so much more than the new stuff. Ben Gibbard just DOES sadness. I cant explain it any other way. If he was put on this earth to make music, the stuff he was making early on is the stuff he should have stuck with.

Songs like “blacking out the friction” and “Styrofoam plates” are two that have been staples in my collection since the day I bought this album. I spent some time researching “Styrofoam plates” because it HAD to be something that happened to him, the emotion was just too raw, so imagine my surprise when I found in an interview that he did not write that song based on his own experiences.

If death cab wrote more lyrics like the ones on this album, and fewer songs like “meet me on the equinox,” they would probably still have a hardcore fan in me. As it stands, though, I could take them or leave them.

looking back:one of the best nights of my life.

hahahaha. tonight is the three year anniversary of my awesome night at the Northstar Bar in Philly, where i was lucky enough to see Brand New as up-close and personal as things have been in a long time. i thought the best way to mark that occasion is to re-post the LiveJournal entry that i posted   right after i got home that night... set list, pictures and video included. that was one hell of a night. 


***************************













Guernica
Sic Transit
Quiet Things 
Shower
Okay
Bride
Gasoline
Sowing Season 
Archers
Jesus
Mix Tape
Flying at Tree Level
70x7
Jude Law
El Scorcho
Degausser 
You Wont Know
Oh Comely

yes, they covered El Scorcho. i loved this moment especially because i was singing the song earlier that night...we were all talking baseball (yes, six girls talking baseball, good times) and i told mandy that i have a crush on chan ho park. she asked if it was because he was japanese, and i launched into El Scorcho....later someone in the crowd dared jess to play it after he was messing around with some other guitar riffs, and he was like "dont dare me to play it like i wont play it. dont think i wont" or something along those lines, and they band played the entire song. it was sick. hahaha. http://www.megaupload.com/?d=KZFLFHZ8 if you want the audio. 





flying at tree level was incredible. that song is a b-side from deja entendu that until this tour hasnt been performed live. it was a sweet, sweet moment to see that song. 

the whole night was incredible. at one point i was just standing there, had my phone open to record a song and i just shut my eyes. the crowd was moving all around me, but i was perfectly still. it occured to me that i wasnt being touched and that jesse lacey was a mere ten feet from me...i decided that if bonnaroo isnt heaven, then that moment was. 

we were literally so close to the stage that i couldnt take pictures of derek or garrett, who were on our side. i got one of garrett when he moved closer to jess, but that was it. we were one row back from the stage, and there was no barrier. i thought i might die a few times, like during 70X7 and degausser, when the crowd really errupted, but the crowd was super awesome to each other, which i havent experienced in a while. 

this show not only killed me, but restored my faith in the possibility of a good crowd. 

when mandy and i got to the car we just kinda sat there for a few minutes before i drove away...we were both feeling pretty beat up. i felt sort of like i would had i just run a marathon. my entire body was just heavy and tired and sore, but it was worth every ounce of pain that i felt. 

i could go on for days about the show and how fucking awesome it was, but ill end it here. i put up more pictures on facebook, so go check them there if you are interested. hopefully ill figure out how to upload the ones from my camera in a timely manner so that i can share them, too. 

guys, brand new are back on top for me. 

"is this the way a toy feels when its batteries run dry?"

Today would have been my mommom’s 84th birthday, but unfortunately we lost her to breast cancer in February of 2010.  While she wasn’t the first person that I have lost, not even the first grandparent, she was the closest person that I have lost, and I miss her every single day.

Today is also Jesse Lacey’s birthday. He turns 33. In case you live under a rock and aren’t aware (or just haven’t been paying attention to this blog), he is the lead singer of my favorite band, Brand New.

Jesse wrote the song Guernica about losing his grandfather to cancer. From everything I have gathered, Jesse was very close to his grandfather and he took the loss hard. Being in your 20s or 30s and losing a grandparent is, in my experience, a harder thing to deal with than losing them when you are still small.

Both of my mom’s parents passed early in my life. I was 8 when my grandmom died and 14 when grandpop passed. I knew what was going on, and knew the gravity of the situation, but I can remember being more sad for my mom than I was for myself. I hadn’t had a whole lot of time to bond with them, especially my grandmom because I was still so small. My younger siblings don’t really even remember her. Losing my grandpop was a bit harder, because at 14 we had quite a good run. I have more memories of time spent with him because he was around for a while longer, and its much easier to remember things that happened at 12 or 13 than 6 or 7. I have just faint memories of my grandmom. I can remember the way she smelled. I remember her red fingernails and the lipstick on the cigarette butts in the ash trays. I remember going to church to hear her sing.

Grandpop and I got to spend a lot of time together. I have a ring on my bureau that he bought for me once when spent the day together for my birthday. It doesn’t fit my finger anymore, and I almost lost it when I was wearing it on a chain around my neck, so now it sits where I can see it, because that’s the only person that really needs to. It means nothing to anyone else.

But losing my mommom last year was such a different experience. My dad’s parents have been around for so long that I was beginning to believe that they had found some secret way to cheat death. But she was starting to slip. Her memory was going due to the Alzheimer’s and I believe fully that the reason that she waited so long to do anything about the cancer that she knew she had was because she didn’t want to be a burden on anyone, and knew that the cancer would take her long before the Alzheimer’s ever would.

In Guernica, Jesse sings about “being half a world away” when he got the call that, presumably, things were going downhill rapidly. In my own life, I was not quite that far away, but I was in Pittsburgh visiting with friends for my birthday. I remember getting snowed in out there and knowing that she didn’t have much longer to go. I was terrified that I wouldn’t make it home in time to say goodbye.

We dug that car out, and I sped back to jersey (getting a speeding ticket along the way. I guess the cop didn’t believe that I was rushing home to see my dying grandmother…I’m betting he’d heard that one before.) I did make it home in time to say goodbye, and was thankful for that.

I feel incredibly blessed to have had 30 years with her, and I cherish every day that I still have with my poppop.

Happy birthday, mommom. I know you are smiling down on us and keeping us safe.

And happy birthday, Jesse.

george michael's incredible beard: a mix"tape"

It has been a while since I have made a mix” tape” but I was feeling like tonight was as good a night as any to bang a new one out. 

This disk consists mostly of stuff that I have not been able to turn off lately. A lot of the songs are new, and most are covers, but there are some old gems thrown in there for good measure. This summer so far has been pretty crappy for me, and I think that reflects in the sounds of the songs that I am currently spinning nonstop. Am I depressed? Who knows. I might be. I’m definitely not in the mood for people or anything else, which I guess is good since I’m jobless and therefore cant afford to see people anyway. 

There are some absolute gems on this album. Sherri Dupree-Bemis’ cover of Kanye West’s heartless is gold. If you ignore everything else on this album, though, I still hope you take a few minutes to check out Birdy’s cover of Bon Iver’s skinny love. I still cannot fathom how a 14 year old girl can not only understand the mindset that Justin Vernon was in when he wrote that album, but be able to recreate the raw emotion that that song evokes. I am not ashamed to admit that not only did I have chills while listening to that song for the first time, but I cried. Please, I beg of you, take some time and listen to that song. 

The Hold Steady have made their way back into my heart, and that is reflected in their addition to my little mix. I am hoping to be able to scrape together the ducats to see them at Popped!Fest in September. The Hold Steady and The Shins on the same night…I might be in Heaven. 

This mix is mellow and kind of sad, but I think it would be perfect to close out a summer party or bonfire, or just to hang out on the front porch at night and listen to before bed, which is something I will probably do a few times myself before the summer is over. 

http://www.filesonic.com/file/1410198544/george_michael's_incredible_beard.rar

365 project, "I'll say oh if you love me the way you say you do/ I know I could always be happy with you

159.

Artist: The Wedding Band
Album: The First Dance EP

I don’t know if ill ever get married. Being 31 years old and as single as they come, im under the impression that it might never happen for me. I don’t want that to be the case, but I want to be realistic, too. This puts a romantic like myself in a really crappy situation. I believe in love, I just don’t believe that love believes in me.

But just because I don’t know that ill ever get married doesn’t mean that I haven’t planned my wedding. I am female, after all. I know that I don’t want anything big. I have seen my friends go through the wedding planning business, and I have seen what comes after…you spend 125 dollars a head on dinner for these people, and six months later you don’t even speak to them. That seems wasteful and silly to me.

I want to get married in a church, but I want a reception in a back yard with a swimming pool and a barbeque. Maybe that is considered “white trash” but I don’t care. It is what I want. I want to be barefoot in the summer sun with the people that I love the most. I don’t want to invite 500 people just so that I can have the owl plates that I can’t stop thinking about now that Devin brought them up. I am not really that greedy or materialistic, at least I believe that I am not.

Now, on the occasion that I do get married, I want my wedding to sound just like this album. It is only four tracks, and honestly, I don’t want a long, drug out ceremony, because that is boring to sit through. I just want to get to the party. This album is actually Mumford & Sons under an alias, but the album sounds just like you would expect something that they wrote to sound.  And if, for some reason, you don’t know what Mumford & Sons sounds like, shame on you. Stop reading right now and remedy that. Ill even provide you with a link so that you might educate yourself. That is, after all, what this blog is about.

Because the album is only four tracks long, its hard to chose a favorite. Thumper is the song that ends up on mix tapes when I want to add one of these songs, but she said yes is so damn cute I cant even stand it. I hope that in the case that I do get married, the man that I marry is this excited when I say yes.  Praise the Lord, glory, hallelujah, she said yes!

I invite you to listen to these songs, all four are on YouTube, and leave me a comment telling me which one is your favorite. Help me make up my mind!

And if the man that I marry one day reads this, plan on dancing barefoot to one of these songs at our reception. <3