Yo!

A little more substantial than, say, um, "Walking The Dog"....

The Hindsight File

We've all been there: I should have made that phone call. I should have bought that lottery ticket. I shouldn't have eaten the worm from that bottle of tequila.... And of course, I should have bought that CD when I had the chance because now it's out of print and the only place I can find it is maybe on ebay or amazon where it will cost at least three times the price of what I could have paid when I saw it in the record store where instead I spent my money on a CD or tape that I don't even care about anymore and now every time I look at my collection there is a void that I know can never be filled because I blew it when I had the opportunity and now I wonder "what the hell was I thinking by passing that over." And now I present a few such examples of such shortcomings in my collection....

Various Artists/No Wave—Now, a rare, hard-to-find sampler featuring The Police, Squeeze, Joe Jackson, et al. Then, a rare, hard-to-find sampler featuring The Police, Squeeze, Joe Jackson, et al. I saw this at ear X-tacy in Louisville (the original store next to Great Escape) around '85 or '86. At the time, I was still a HUGE Police fan and was pretty keen on Squeeze as well. I think I was intimidated by both the fact that I didn't have a turntable at the time and the fact that it was pricey (something like $14.99). I rue the day I didn't make the buy....

Eraserhead Soundtrack—Had several opportunities to buy this at Cut Corner (R.I.P.) in Lexington. I hadn't seen Eraserhead, there were no tracks listed on the sleeve, but it was on I.R.S. (still one of my favorite labels). I had and have bought soundtracks without having seen the movie and without tracklists, so why I dropped the ball on this one is beyond me. I was probably too busy spending my financial aid money on some crap to alter my music collection to impress some girl (I made some really stupid purchases). This is a lot easier to find, but at this point it's hard to justify spending the money on it.

Negativland/U2—Another ear X-tacy find. I must have stumbled across it while looking for New Order. Now, I already owned (and still own) Escape From Noise. I already knew the controversy about this album. I remember there being a handwritten tag on the packaging saying that it was rare and out of print! I failed.

Pylon/Hits—This is perhaps the most embarrassing of all because, gulp, I owned this at one time. I bought it (I think) at Cut Corner and really liked it. Prior to buying, I knew little of Pylon: R.E.M. covered "Crazy" and I had actually seen them open for R.E.M. in Lexington. I really liked that CD, but there came a time in '93 when I was selling off CD's (and plasma) to buy food and pay bills. I swore that this one be one that I'd re-add at some point. I'm still waiting....

A Little Gomez

Just because it's Monday....

Popscene

This song just sounded particularly good today....

Fathers' Day Comes Early

Great venue. Opening band plays an ace cover of "Psycho Killer" as lead singer drinks from a bottle of Jack. "All Ages" label leans a lot more toward the O-30 crowd than the U-21. Ice cold PBR 24oz. cans for a fiver. And Gomez flat out rocked.

As I've said earlier, Gomez are a band that have really grown on me over the past year, especially, and I was really excited when I found out that they were coming to Kentucky twice in as many weeks. The first show was in Louisville (which would have been really cool, especially since they played a free show earlier in the day at ear X-tacy), but the older kids had baseball/softball and it was our baby's first birthday.... Had to take a pass on that one. Last night, however, they played in Covington, which, in addition to not conflicting with games or birthdays, was about an hour and a half closer. And, my wife kicked in that my going was my Fathers' Day gift. Back in the day, I'd go to see whichever bands I wanted, whenever I wanted. Marriage and (particularly) parenthood has changed this and Gomez were the first show I've been able to go to since I saw The Police almost two years ago at Churchill Downs, and quite honestly, one of the few I've really wanted to see.

I'd never been to the Madison Theater before, but it was really easy to find and was a really nice venue for a show. I went with a buddy of mine and we managed to snag a table and chairs with a great view of the stage. Heck, in a place that size, you'd have to try to not have a good view of the stage. The opening band, Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit were good: solid, bluesey, Southern rock. Not to label it or anything, but worth catching if the chance should arise.

Of course, Gomez were the reason I went to the show and I was blown away. I've heard recordings of several of their concerts, and seen some youtube videos, but I wasn't really sure what to expect. Phenomenal. Great set list. Tight arrangements. Jumping between older songs and those from the new album, I barely missed some of the songs I was counting on hearing ("Silence" and "Chasing Ghosts With Alcohol" to name two). Even "See The World," which is high on the list of "least favorites" even sounded pretty good. "How We Operate," "Love Is Better Than A Warm Trombone," "If You Ask Me Nicely," "Ruff Stuff," "Airstream Driver," "Whippin' Picadilly;".... Awesome. Busting, out of nowhere, "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp." Brilliant. Closing out with "We Don't Know Where We're Going." Incredible. The guy I went with who had heard virtually nothing by them before last night was even really impressed. I'm sorry for resorting to such excessive use for superlative adjectives, but I really, really had a good time.

What a great Fathers' Day present. Thanks kids. I love you. And my ears that rang all night love you....

In Which Bugs Gets His Ass Kicked....

I love this cartoon.

96 Tears In 96 Eyes....

R.I.P. Lux Interior

Airstream Driver

A new song from Gomez was just released and is available for free download from the band's website. Gomez are a band I just recently got into, although they've been around for upwards of ten years or so. The first song of theirs I heard was "Silence," which appeared on a promo CD included in a magazine. Although I really liked the song, I didn't pursue any of the band's albums (come to think of it, I wasn't pursuing much of anything, musicwise, at the time). My enthusiasm for the band really took off about two years ago when I discovered that they had several concert recordings posted on the Internet Archive. So, I downloaded a couple (that at least included "Silence," the one track I knew) and had a listen. I was really impressed. I admit, I don't like all their songs, but overall, I really like the sound. It's nice as well to not get into a band fifteen minutes before they break up (The Police, tragically, come to mind). And despite their sometimes being lumped in with other "Jam Bands," I think they are miles away in terms of writing songs that can be belted out in three minutes. As for the new song: it's pretty good, and I'm actually looking forward to the new album coming out this Spring.

Batman: The Brave & The Bold

If you haven't had the fortune to catch this show yet, you are missing out. I stumbled across it, actually, while trying to find out what time Star Wars: The Clone Wars was airing for my son. This show smacks the Jar Jar out of SWTCW and I'd say it rivals Batman The Animated Series for coolness. Each week, The Caped Crusader teams up with a lesser known DC superhero to kick butt, similar to the old DC team-up comics I used to love. The episode featuring the origin of Plasticman was really good, and the Christmas episode with Red Tornado was a hoot. It's a series that looks great, sounds great, and is extremely welll written. This week's episode airs this Friday at 8:00 on Cartoon Network and features Wil Wheaton as the Blue Beetle. This clip gives a pretty good idea of what the show is like....



The preview, by the way, was nicked from Wheaton's often humorous blog, which he nicked from Comicmix.