Monthly Archives: March 2007

Tonight’s Soundtrack

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Hefty doses of “Neon Bible” the awesome new album from the Arcade Fire. Molly, you’re right, I LOVELOVELOVE “Intervention” (damn, an organ entry gets me every time!), I also love “Windowsill”, love the lyrics of “Ocean of Noise” and oooo “The Well and the Lighthouse” I like that one too. The only track I’m feelin’ iffy about is “Antichrist Television Blues” which sounds a lot like Bruce Springsteen to moi.

I’m alternately listening to Neon Bible’s 11-songs with a one-song breather in the middle: “Communist Love Song” by Soltero (MP3 linked here), which is making me happy and breaking my heart at the same time (and ain’t that just the trademark of truly great songs). It starts out slow, but ends up all in a rush…

If you would stick up for me
In the face of great adversity,
Know that I would do the same,
Know we are the same.
If you would stick up for me,
Speak kindly and poetically,
You can be my personal
Ambassador to the world.
And if you’re ever less than certain,
I will be your Iron Curtain.
I will be your Berlin Wall,
And I will never fall.

Truth in Advertising.

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While I most definitely am not a Sox fan (hello. CUBS.), I do find some of their new El advertisements really hilarious. Like this one:

We haven’t won a championship in, like…months.

Hilarious, no? On the other hand, I am not a fan of the new Illinois donor ads that say “I am going to save a life, are you?” Um hello but you are not necessarily saving a life by signing up to be an organ donor. Sure, IF you get in some crazy accident that kills you BUT leaves all your organs intact, your organs MIGHT save someone’s life. But there’s a lot of other possibilities for your death that do not leave you either a good donor or saving someone’s life.

Quote of the Day

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Reading Alicia’s archives: I absolutely do not believe that everything happens for a reason; I never did, and I still don’t. I believe that we fashion sense out of the things that happen, and create a kind of meaning in the result. And at the end of the day, you just gotta plow on through!

Agreed. If you believe “everything happens for a reason” I think you’re reaching for straws. And if your version is “it’s God’s will” well, then I just have to laugh. There’s this little philosophical concept called “free will” you may want to acquaint yourself with.

In Concert: Aqualung. Pete Yorn.

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Bonus opener: Minibar. Later they functioned as Pete Yorn’s band. They were better as that.

The dude from Aqualung has such a pretty, pretty voice but he sounded much better at Lollapalooza which is pretty much the opposite of what you’d expect. I mean, big windy loud outdoor concert or inside at controlled venue, aren’t you expecting the latter to be the better sound? I felt like both the bass and the guitar player were turned up way too loud so whenever they joined in, you could barely hear the singer. Some songs sounded good, but most sounded muddled.

Pete Yorn, on the other hand, his songs sounded pretty good, but his stage banter? Oh so lame. (Rivaling only Rachael Yamagata in that respect. Singing = great; her banter = Not.) “I wrote this song on the East Coast. The East Coast of the United States.” Wow, so informative! And of course, to be followed by a song that never once mentions either the East Coast of the US (or anywhere else). Next one: “I learned this chord. So I wrote this song with it.” Seriously, Pete? Stick with the singin’. The singin’ sounded great although every song was definitely played as pepped up and ROCK as possible, even songs that are very slow and melancholy on the albums. It felt almost like Snow Patrol: rocking anthemed out on every song. UP UP UP. Sometimes I like a little down.

So: good, but none were great, compounded by what was thought at the time to be a caffeine withdrawal headache, or possibly an allergy headache, but turned out to be buddha-only-knows what kind of murderous horrible headache. And unexplainable, considering the SIXTEEN hours of sleep I pleasantly got the night before. Yup, 3:30 pm until 7:11 am. Woot.

In Concert: Ben Kweller. GOMEZ (!!)

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I cannot see Ben Kweller without thinking of Leif Garrett. He’s a better musician, but he’s got the same hair, and he’s got a total 70s poppy sound. He was just as enjoyable as at Lollapalooza even though the mix seemed off (his vocals were LOUD compared to the rest) and the place wasn’t very full as he started pretty much right on time (what’s up with that. crazy, eh.).

As to Gomez…. Gomez was AWESOME. I have told you a zillion times how much I loved their album last year (“How We Operate”). Seeing them live, you know it wasn’t a fluke. Swapping between three leads, great guitar playing, intense moody songs, as well as lighter-hearted fare. Lovely. Really lovely. They’ve got such interesting (and interestingly different) voices; the harmonies were really great. Highly recommended.

Best of February.

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February’s over? I personally happen to love February but I have to admit, I was pretty much of a schlub all month.

Let’s see, the best gig I went to in February had to be…the Essex Green opening for Camera Obscura because, horror of horrors, I only went to one concert all month! (What was I doing with my time?)

The best book I read in February…well I guess that would be Proust Book 3 (or “The Guermantes Way” as it’s called in this translation) but I’m not done reading it! I started it Feb 1, I believe, or Jan 31, and I’ve still got (exactly) 104 pages to go… Doh! That said, I did have some pretty unexpectedly busy weekends in the month, so what’s a girl to do?

Only one concert? and one book? OK, this is pretty pathetic so far…

The best movie I saw in February was by far Blood Diamond, although I may have personally enjoyed Music & Lyrics a little more. You know, it had music, and it wasn’t as heartbreaking.

I am all about not getting my heart broken in February since I certainly get it broken every other stupid month of the year.

As for tunes in February, I’ve been all over the place. Obsessively listening to the soundtrack for Music & Lyrics, enjoying the new Fall Out Boy, listening to lots and lots of Rogue Wave especially after a (new?) single played on FNL, digging The Bees (US) and Midlake (who I told you about twice (1, 2) and then finally got…very ’70s peaceful, easy feelin…), and listening to some stuff I bought at the very end of January that didn’t get much play that month (new Youth Group!!!! “Casino Twilight Dogs” (*LOVE*) and The Guggenheim Grotto). Still lovin’ the Shins although my ear can’t recognize what’s the new album and what’s old…

Random personal highlights of the month were: a) Ame came to visit!; b) I went “home” (to NYC) and quilted with Jackie (and ate with Em, Stephanie and Jenn!) and saw Shawn and the kids!!!; c) new specs; d) brunch with the Strizz and her man!; e) Steph and Mark slept over in a storm; f) another night at the darkroom (hey Chicago Amy! Tracy and I missed ya!); g) finally finding yummy Chinese in Chicago!; h) flowers from MaryKay (so sweet!); and i) we got some snow!!!!

Lowlights: a) Bears lost the Bowl; b) new computer didn’t work for a week and had to be dragged back and forth to the store; c) even OLDER! Ah, well. On to March…