Scream and wail...see who cares...

So long, Blogger...

2011-01-15T08:41:00.002-05:00

If you are checking this site, this is the last post you will probably see. As of now, I've switched everything over to WordPress. All of the old posts and comments are over there too, and WordPress allows me the ability to do a couple of things that I couldn't with Blogger. So long Blogger...we've had a good run...

Visit the new site at screamandwail.wordpress.com

2011 Reading List

2011-01-08T21:12:00.003-05:00

Going to try to log each book that I finish this year. I'm making it a personal goal to actually finish books this year.

Date Finished Book Name
1/8/11 I'm A Stranger Here Myself - Bill Bryson
1/9/11 Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin - Stephen Jay Gould.

Favorite Music of 2010

2011-01-05T22:03:00.005-05:00

It's that time of year again, faithful readers (both of you). January brings with it my annual recap of the music that moved me the most for the past twelve months. I used to do a Top Ten list, then a Top Ten-ish list, but I tend to find that my tastes vary so much week-to-week that there would be fourteen or fifteen albums that could fit into a "Top Ten" based on my given mood. So I've decided this year to just rank the albums that I really find to be solid albums (some great, some good). Everything below the top five changed spots at least once or twice, but I really think this list accurately represents where I am right now. But enough for the intro...

...okay, maybe not. A couple other notes:

-Hookiest song of the year: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Beat The Devil's Tattoo. This was one of the first albums that I picked up this year, and the title track (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYkhNWIdra0) blew my doors off from first listen. I'm pretty sure that it has been stuck in my head since March. BRMC at their best.

-Most disappointing albums of the year:
Neil Young – Le Noise. Just Neil and a guitar and Daniel Lanois. My disdain for Lanois producing "skills" grows year-by-year.
Kings of Leon – Come Around Sundown. Great first single. Mediocre My Morning Jacket the rest of the way.
Finger Eleven – Life Turns Electric. F11, whom I used to love dearly, releases their second turd in a row, though at least it has 4/5 songs that are marginally listenable and the lyrics aren't quite lame enough to sound like cast-offs from Amy Lee of Evanescence's 10th grade songbook (like their last album)
Linkin Park – A Thousand Suns. I get them trying new things, they just don't do all of them very well. Another album with 4/5 listenable songs.

Now, on to the good stuff.

1. Viva Death - Curse The Darkness. I've tried not to be abnormally biased, given that this album is 100% the brainchild of Scott Shiflett with a big assist from Chad Blinman, but I genuinely do think that this is the best album of the year from start to finish. My longer review can be found here (http://screamandwail.blogspot.com/2010/07/viva-death-curse-darkness.html). Curse The Darkness covers the most sonic ground on the album, and nails each style it goes for, whether that be “zombie surf rock,” “post-punk,” trippy space rock or tribal, drum heavy sounds.

2. Bad Religion – Dissent of Man. My favorite punk album of the year, though admittedly that list isn’t nearly as long as it used to be. Most music that gets passed off as punk nowadays has been passed through such a watered-down Blink-182/Good Charlotte filter that it is not recognizable as being from the same genre that the old staples used to reside in. Thankfully Bad Religion is still raising the flag for the old school, now thirty years deep into their career. The Dissent of Man is their fourth very solid album in a row, making the Brooks Wackerman era a perfect 4 for 4. While not quite a home run, it is certainly a stand-up triple. Where the album errs is in its length…15 songs isn’t exactly an epic from a punk standpoint, but if the Gregs had decided to pare a couple songs off the tracklist (namely “I Won’t Say Anything”), it may have been #1A at the very least.

3. Josh Ritter – So Runs The World Away. It is probably safe to say that Ritter has shaken off the “next Springsteen-meets-Dylan” tag and arrived as his own artist. While I don’t think it is quite as solid as “The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter,” SRTWA highlights Ritter’s continuing evolution as an artist. While the music isn’t as much of a departure from his last couple albums, the lyrics show Ritter testing boundaries by taking listeners on a voyage that includes stops in the Southern Pacific, the Mississippi delta at the turn of last century (the John Hurt-inspired “Folk Bloodbath”), a North Pole expedition (the Poe-inspired “Another New World”) and the Egyptian exhibit at a natural history museum (“The Curse”). Perhaps a bit too ambitious, but with his first full-length novel due out in 2011, it makes sense that Ritter would be pushing his limits to the brink. Great stuff.

4. Tony Sly - 12 Song Program. Previously reviewed when it first came out (http://screamandwail.blogspot.com/2010/03/best-of-2010volume-two.html), but it has held up over the year. No frills, just a great punk songwriter and an acoustic guitar (and the occasional drum loop).

5. Gaslight Anthem - American Slang – I loved this album when it first came out, but after four or five listens, it wasn’t quite grabbing me the same way. I put it down for a while, and just listened to each of the songs in the normal “shuffle” rotation of my MP3 player (not an iPod!!) and it gradually started to grow back into favor. I’ve got the utmost respect for Brian Fallon as a singer/songwriter, even if he is a Yankees/Jets fan. He really has the market cornered on early Springsteen, suburban American youth storytelling, but mixes it with the urgency of a three-chord punker.

The Other Stuff, that remains quite good.

6. The Black Keys – Brothers. Another album that could have been considerably higher on the list if it weren’t so damn long. Clocks in at 15 tracks, much like BR’s “Dissent of Man,” but this is no punk rock album. Solid delta blues straight out of a post-punk Detroit garage, when this album excels, it REALLY excels (listen to: Next Girl, Tighten Up, The Go Getter, etc). But the last three songs slowly meander to nowhere, making the listener wish they were left on the cutting room floor or, at best, were B-sides (do they still make singles anymore)

7. The Hold Steady – Heaven is Whenever. Probably the “rockiest” THS album, in that it features no piano/keyboards for the first time (prompted by the departure of the mustachioed Franz Nicolay). The result is an album that still contains THS’s trademark hooky guitars, sing-a-long chorus’ and epicly wordy lyrics from Craig Finn, but in some ways, the comparatively stripped down sound almost sounds bigger and fuller than their previous efforts.

8. Chris Shiflett and the Dead Peasants – self-titled. I’m gonna say that this album is the most “outside my comfort zone” of any album on the list. I really took a flier on it because A)it is the brainchild of Chris Shiflett and B) well, there really is no B. For those that are outside the loop, Shiflett is the lead guitar player for the Foo Fighters and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, and previously held the same role in No Use For A Name. As brother to Scott Shiflett, he also played baritone guitar on the first two Viva Death albums, and has fronted a couple other punk-inspired side project albums under the names Jackson and Jackson United. Dead Peasants is certainly no Jackson United (whose most recent album remains in heavy rotation in my playlist). Instead, the self-titled album is nine songs of countrified rock music, complete with all the pedal steels and twangy guitar riffs that you might expect on a Merle Haggard LP. I’ll admit that this was an acquired taste, but Shiflett’s songwriting makes it much more palatable, and in fact has made this one of my favorite albums of the year. Thanks to the Shifletts for broadening my horizons yet again!

9. Alkaline Trio – This Addiction. Alkaline Trio put out an album this year that sounds very much like…Alkaline Trio. They have a Springsteen-like formula for writing depressingly morbid (morbidly depressing??) 2:30 punk songs with just enough pop sensibility to make for a good, fun listen.

10. The Greenhornes – FourStars. Only learned of this album late in the year so I’ve only been able to listen to it a handful of times, but it is really a great listen. The first album in eight years for the Cincinnati-based trio finds them firing on all cylinders. Sounds are straight out of Liverpool via North London (yes, those are Beatles and Kinks references) in 1965. Timeless pop-rock music. Great listen.

11. The Dead Weather – Sea of Cowards. I’m a little late to the Dead Weather party, but I’ve had a growing man-crush on Jack White for some time now, so late this year I figured it was time to become more familiar with his non-White Stripes catalog. The Dead Weather sounds like a combination of The White Stripes (natch) and the Black Keys – Delta blues run through the a gritty, dirty, Detroit-garagey filter. Not for the faint-of-heart.

12. Titus Andronicus – The Monitor. Gritty indie rock from New Jersey with lyrics that invoke Springsteen (moreso than Gaslight Anthem, which is tough to do!) and Ritter (many, many references to old literature and Civil War history), with a perhaps the most raw, passionate, earnest vocals of the year (shades of Conor Oberst/Bright Eyes). Definitely deserves to be on the myriad year-end “Top Ten” lists that it shows up on.

13. Joey Cape – Doesn’t Play Well With Others. What can I say…when you are a sucker for a genre (that being the punk rock frontman playing solo acoustic material), you are a sucker for it. Been a fan of Joey’s work for years now. His album is a little different than others in the same category, as it has a very indie/DIY feel to it, and features an appearance by his (seven-year-old?) daughter, Violet. Also, all of the artwork was done by his daughter. And, the album was released over the course of the year…one song per month, culminating in the twelfth and final song (I Always Knew This Was Going To End Badly) being released in early December.

14. Legion of Doom vs. Triune. From my prior blog review: To quote Legion of Doom's own website, "strange, dark and densely layered, this is not a typical hip-hop record." That couldn't be more accurate. There is a lot going on musically (it ain't a Lil Wayne album, let's put it that way). Triune (who I was only partially aware of) hits a lyrical home run (more Common/NOE than Weezy or Jeezy). Sadly, it is only available via digital download (I'm still an old school, "like to open the album and flip through the liner notes and absorb the artwork" kinda guy and I hope that never changes).

15. Brian Eno – Small Craft on a Milk Sea. Complex, beautiful, at times haunting instrumental album from the master. Classic ambient Eno for the new crowd. Love this album.

16. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Beat The Devil’s Tattoo. I want this album to be much higher, I really do. I’m a big fan of the Been/Hayes duo, and I like the depth that new drummer Leah Shapiro brings to the mix. This album is dynamite at the start; the title track which serves as the album opener is hands-down the hookiest song of the year. The first four songs are all solid and find BRMC at their classic gritty-garage blues best. But then the album seems to stall for a long time. An early review that I recall reading (perhaps from the WFNX site) commented that it “plods along without really going anywhere,” and that is entirely accurate. There area about 8 or 10 songs in a row (aside from the stellar “Aya”) that fit virtually the same formula, and the over-fuzzed guitars (and especially vocals) tend to become a little grating after a while.

17. Pete Yorn – Pete Yorn. Solid release from Pete Yorn. If you like slightly-above-mid-tempo alternative-inspired rock, Pete Yorn is for you. He’s a great songwriter, and his voice has progressed over the years, but aside from that, this is a basic Pete Yorn album. I guess if it ain’t broke…

Honorable Mention:
Flogging Molly – Live. I don’t include live albums in my top albums lists, but this one was almost an exception. Such a great band, and this album really captures the passion and the urgency of their live shows.
Jamie Cullum – The Pursuit
Murder By Death – Good Morning, Magpie
Blitzen Trapper – Destroyer of the Void
Ben Harper and the Relentless 7 – Live at the Montreal Jazz Festival
Eels – End Times
Eels – Tomorrow Morning

Random Musings on 2010

2011-01-01T13:41:00.002-05:00

2010 was a year that, on paper at least, could very easily have sucked, at least on a personal level. It certainly started out okay...accomplished a few little things, like finally paying off our car. Just when it seemed like we were going to start getting ahead a little bit, the wheels started coming off a tad. Literally. Had to have some work done to the Chevy, as the bearings and tie rods that help hold the front wheels on were beyond repair. Then the timing belt blew on the Chrysler...while heading down the highway on a trip back from Connecticut, with the wife and the wee one in the car. On a Sunday. Fun times (thanks for coming to rescue us, Dad). Thankfully the engine didn't need to be rebuilt, but damn near everything around it did. Cha-ching.

After getting that fixed, I continued to not have warm fuzzies about the Chevy, so it was time to trade it in. Liberty Mazda in Wakefield would give us over a grand sight unseen, so we jumped at the chance and bought a Mazda. Granted it was a 2003 with few bells and whistles, but it had low miles and was fairly cheap. And it meant another car payment (yuck), but not a bad one.

Late summer brought with it news that tuition at the wee one's daycare was going to increase. We'd been through this before and were about to leave at one point, but the old Center Director worked hard to keep us there, so we had stayed. New Center Director, while personable enough, was less receptive, so when we told her we were probably leaving, she asked only "when is your last day?". Needless to say, we left for a new place.

Fast forward to late fall, and more car trouble. Chrysler again, but this time it was the transmission. Never, ever good. It should be pointed out that the wife and the wee one were in the car, and that we were on our way back from Connecticut on a Sunday...again. Sound familiar? This time, the car wasn't worth fixing...any amount spent to repair the transmission would be more than we'd get for it if we traded it. So, it was determined that we'd sell the car to our mechanic and buy a new one. This time? A Toyota. Yes it is another new car payment (that makes two this year), but the car should last a while, as it A)has low miles and B) wasn't involved in any of the recall shenanigans.

Bring on New Year's Eve...and some idiot drilling the front driver's side of the new car while backing out of a driveway across the street, and then taking off from the scene without leaving a note or anything. Thankfully, the mailman saw the whole thing happen and got the idiot's plate number. More on that later, I'm sure...

In spite of those issues (especially the car troubles), I'd have to say that 2010 was really a pretty good year, all things considered. The decision to move the wee one from KinderCare to The Goddard School has been a great one; she is really thriving in the new environment, and the entire center seems to be a more nurturing environment. We've also (very luckily) been able to keep in touch with some of the families that we got to know quite well from our time at KinderCare, and they've been great us and to Morgan.

Some other pretty cool things that happened:
-I decided to get in shape. No New Year's resolution required, just sort of a few 'enough is enough' moments. As of this writing, I'm down somewhere in the neighborhood of 52 pounds since June 1st through diet and exercise only. The diet stuff came first: exercise started a month-or-so later. According to the program that I use to map my rides/runs, I've logged 524 miles either cycling or running since July 9th. Not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things compared to some people out there, but it is 524 miles more than I've done in the last several years combined. Goal this year is to hit 1,000 miles total, which shouldn't be too much of a stretch, given that I have six extra months to play with, and I'm starting from a point where I'm in better shape.

-Saw Pearl Jam again. That's always a highlight of any year!
-Saw a reunited Face to Face again, and got to hang with Scott more than ever (between the Warped Tour and a Gimme's show). He's a great dude that I am lucky to consider a friend. Also, got to share the experience with Morgan...first punk rock show! And she was definitely a highlight of the show (or so the band said).
-This brings to a close the 13th year that I've been with the love of my life. Pretty remarkable in this day and age, I think. Still feels like we are 18 sometimes...don't let the gray hair (on me, not her) fool you! Though actually, I feel younger than 18 sometimes...and I'm certainly in better shape now than I was at 18!

Again, there were more than a few reasons that 2010 could have sucked (I didn't even include the whole fiscal crisis in Massachusetts and the goings-on in the Trial Court/Probation system that have cast an uneasy pall over everything at work), but those things really seem trivial in hindsight. I've grown a lot personally, and those areas where I feel I've improved myself had led to a more positive way of looking at the world around me and allowed me to gain inspiration from the people around me. All of that has made me a better husband, a better father, a better person...and you can't ask for much more than that.

Bring on 2011.

I'm still here

2010-12-15T20:36:00.002-05:00

I haven't gone away, just focusing on other things for a while. But the gears in my brain are still turning. Working on a few year-end type posts...compiling and ranking my favorite albums of 2010...working on a number of ideas to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Pearl Jam's debut album next year...

Oh, and I'm down to 180 pounds. 53 pounds and counting. More on that too...

Folks on Spokes 40 miler... and more...

2010-09-15T20:36:00.000-04:00

Part II in an ongoing series of increasingly long-winded posts.

Sunday, September 12, marked the day of my first organized cycling tour: the Folks on Spokes 40 mile ride through Milford, West Haven and Orange, Connecticut, to benefit a community mental health and substance abuse counseling agency. In some ways, it was sort of a big deal, as it was my first real athletic event since my basketball playing days ended in high school (slow-pitch softball in more recent years doesn't count). Also because I've been going to 5K, 10K, 13-mile, 20-mile and 26.2-mile races for years to cheer on my father, my brother, my sister-in-law, my mother, my grandmother (yes...really!). As I said, running seems to run in the family. But this was my first thing; the first time people were coming to watch me do something like this. I found this to be a particularly bizarre experience in some ways: I truly wasn't making as big a "deal" of it as most people; I was just going out for a bike ride. Don't interpret that as me being ungrateful in any way; I have more gratitude toward the people that support me than I have ways to express that gratitude. It is just very humbling, that's all.

Anyway, the FOS ride was a target on my calendar particularly because it A)goes right through my in-laws neighborhood and B)benefits a cause that is obviously pretty important to me. It also served as a fun way to get my side of the family together with my wife's side of the family, something that doesn't happen often enough.

The morning of the ride itself was threatening rain...serious rain. Temperatures were probably in the low 60s when I arrived at the park to check-in, and there was nary a blue spot in the sky. The (rough guess) 40 of us that were riding the 40-mile tour gathered in the Start corral for last-minute instructions (which included: "Try to ride in pairs or small packs; it makes the ride more fun and more safe") and for our send-off. This was a cool experience, because it would offer my first chance to actually ride with somebody else and should prove to be a different type of barometer as to the progress I'm making. I like to think that I ride pretty well and can keep up a good pace, but have absolutely nothing to compare to, so I was excited about the idea of keeping pace with "real cyclists" on their $1000 (or $2000...or $3000...) machines.

8:30 finally rolled around and it was time to head out. I was stationed probably 3/4 of the way behind the pack as we left the corral, but was feeling pretty good. Turned the first corner through a side street and toward the main street (and just out of sight of my family who had come down to the start) when things came grinding to a halt, both literally and figuratively. Yes, at about the .06 mile mark, I downshifted and slipped my chain off the smallest gear. Aforementioned chain proceeded to wedge itself nice and tight between the smallest gear and the actual frame of the bike. Awesome. Within seconds, the rest of the crew doing the 40-mile ride was around the corner and out of sight, and I was alone in the woods. I had to get off the bike, take out my tools, loosen the rear wheel, dislodge the chain, re-engage the chain, relube part of it, re-pack my tools, gather myself and get back on the bike. Thankfully, this had happened once before, so I knew what I was doing. But it still took me a good 5-6 minutes from start to finish. So much for riding with a group. Now I was completely on my own (which at least is what I was used to). Off to a terrible, near-soul-crushing start.

I finally made my way onto the main drag and, just as I suspected, I was the only cyclist in site. Not a huge deal, I was just going to have to keep my eyes peeled for signs to keep from getting lost. The beginning of the ride was essentially through some ocean-front neighborhoods. Not all that scenic, but a nice tour of all of the plentiful, available real estate in the area. Around 1/2 mile in, I caught up with a small group of riders; not a difficult task given that they were pulled over attending to someone's flat tire. Bummer. My spirit started to improve at about the 2 mile mark, as I saw a decent sized pack of riders coming out of a neighborhood that I knew was sort of a giant loop. I was still obviously 5/6 minutes behind them, but at least they were in the same neighborhood. Around mile 3.5, I came up behind two guys that I figured I could ride with for a while, but a look down at my computer revealed that they were only keeping a pace of about 11mph. Respectable, but if I had any hope of making my goal of averaging 15mph for the 40 mile ride, I couldn't hang with them for long. So I didn't. Back to riding by myself again.

Miles five through twelve felt incredibly long. Very beautiful, as it was seven miles of nothing but beach and waves on the right as we headed east. Sadly, it was not very enjoyable, as there was a rather gnarly headwind coming from due East, which made it difficult to maintain a cruising speed of anything over 13.5 mph. It felt like a seven-mile long hill. Not as fun as it sounds. Spirits were lifted again around 7.5 miles, as my wife, daughter, father, mother and sister-in-law were at the side of the road to cheer me on. Such a surreal feeling...it really does energize you for a little while.

Mile twelve saw my spirits improving greatly, as miles 12 through 16.5 were headed back West along the route we had just taken, meaning the gnarly headwind was now a gnarly tailwind. Where it had been tough to keep up 13mph, now it was very little work to keep up 18-19mph. I was also starting to see other real cyclists again, and due to the out-and-back nature of certain parts of the ride, I saw that my pace was not unlike theirs. The family was still waiting for me, as what had been the 7.5 mile mark on the way out was now the 16.5 mile mark on the way back. I think they could tell I was in better spirits at this part of the ride. While there were points early on that I briefly contemplated throwing in the proverbial towel (especially after the chain and wind issues), those thoughts were long gone.

Just after leaving passing the family at the 16.5 mile mark, our course took a 90-degree right hand turn off the coast and headed inland toward the hilly part of the ride. There are three main hills: a long climb from mile 18 to mile 20, a shorter yet steeper climb from mile 21 to mile 22.5 and the steepest climb from mile 25 to mile 26.5 (the latter marker was also a very well-positioned water stop). The first hill is where I really started to encounter other riders, much as I expected. Climbing can be tough when you are on your own, but I was able to catch up to a few other "lone wolf" style riders on each hill and we could thus use each other as motivation to keep climbing. I actually felt great on the first two hills...they were good, solid climbs, but nothing that I wasn't used to from riding in Wakefield, so they were certainly manageable...and in fact they were not as bad as I was gearing myself mentally for.

The third hill proved the best test, not necessarily because of its incline (though it was certainly steep), but mainly because it was a narrow, windy, not incredibly well-paved old farm road, meaning it contained a lot of pot holes and oncoming traffic. The fam was waiting for me at the 26.5 mile water stop, the only one that I actually stopped at, albeit only for about 2 minutes and just to say "hi." I started feeling guilty that they were traveling all that distance just to see me pedal by for a few seconds. Plus, a hug from Morgan is always good for refilling the tank!

Just after leaving this rest area was , I caught up with a guy that I would spend the next 12 or so miles riding with. He was embarking on his first ride since completing a Century ride on Long Island a few weeks prior, and was contemplating training for his first Double Century ride next spring. For those non-cyclists out there, a Century is a 100-mile ride; a Double Century is, of course, a 200-mile ride. Gulp. Something to shoot for, I guess. Anyway, nice enough guy, and it was cool to actually have company on a ride for a change. Around mile 37, my butt started to get sore. Not intolerable, but definitely bordering on uncomfortable. I stood up for a minute coming down the last hill (mile 38) which provided a much-needed break, but also allowed my riding partner to get so far ahead of me that he was out of site after about a half-mile. So much for a riding partner.

The remainder of the ride was rather uneventful. It should be pointed out that the Folks on Spokes 40 mile ride is actually closer to 41.75 miles, according to both the MapMyRide program that I use and to my Cat Eye bike computer. Not entirely sure who made that decision and why they made it, exactly. Also, the end of the ride was very unceremonious. It loops you back through the parking lot that we started in, but there is no formal "end;" merely just a bunch of people on bicycles milling about. Rather odd. All told, it took me somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 hours and 42 minutes to complete the 41.75 miles (I had a stopwatch and my bike computer running, but they stayed running while I was fixing my chain at the beginning, so I don't count that). And I felt great. I probably had another 10 miles left in me anyway, which is a very cool feeling. My brother and sister-in-law were gathered with the rest of my traveling cheering section at the end...a welcome surprise!

As for what comes next...well, I'm not really sure. Since I had multiple goals (being under 200 and completing the 40 mile ride) that I reached in the same week, I have to find some new way to keep pushing myself. Obviously it is still a goal to maintain a more healthy weight (and I've still got some to lose), and I'd like to keep riding regularly, but I'm getting concerned that I'll find it too easy to fall into old patterns again, especially with the winter coming, which brings with it the colder weather that renders outdoor grilling and outdoor cycling next to impossible. Maybe yoga. Maybe I'll try running again, now that I've built up decent leg strength. I've started doing some exercises to work on my core muscles again. But I'm still not really sure what is next.

Oh, I also thought it would be interesting to post some of the comments I've been hearing about the fact that I have dropped weight. It has only been noticeable to me in the way that my clothes fit (dropping from a 38" waist to a 34" waist is pretty noticeable), but otherwise I feel that I'm the same shape. But other people have certainly noticed: I've heard comments that range from "you look great" to "it's really working" to "keep up the good work" to "are you healthy?" to "seriously, do you have something terminal?" to "losing weight and cutting your hair short gives the distinct impression to those that don't know you that you have either cancer or AIDS." I'm not exaggerating any one of those.

Get Off Your Butt!! ...or How I Decided To Leave The Couch And Learn to Love Exercise

2010-09-11T10:33:00.012-04:00

This post could also be titled "How I Spent My Summer Vacation," although I didn't actually take a formal 'vacation' this summer. But I digress...

I suppose I should start by rewinding the clock a few months to April of this year. Around that time, it was starting to dawn on me that I was really out of shape. The results of what should have been an otherwise gorgeous photo-op with the family around Easter time were almost all of the proof I needed. My cheeks and neck were doing battle for custody of my jawline...and my jaw was losing!

But I wasn't, in hindsight, really ready to do anything about it; just basically an overall sense of unhappiness with what I was becoming (or had become). Toward the end of May, I stepped on a scale at my in-laws house and was mortified by what I saw... "234.1" was staring back at me. Yuck. Something had to change, but I wasn't sure what. The Memorial Day long weekend came and brought with it some beautiful weather. The warmth and sunshine brought more opportunities to play outside with the little one, and I found myself getting abnormally out-of-breath when playing games like "Ring Around the Rosie" ... with a two-year-old. Not a good situation, and I certainly did not feel good about myself. Had the folks and my brother and his wife over for typical Memorial Day cookout food (meat and beer, essentially), and an end-of-day look at pictures solidified my decision... it's time to get off the couch.

As fate would have it, the next day (June 1st) brought with it a text message from old friend Brad Golub. Brad and I have been friends since the first week of freshman year at Northeastern, and were roommates during the 2000-2001 school year. Brad and I were also, well, not all that healthy. Beer? Check. Pizza? Check. Mexican food and KFC (at the same time)? Check. Typical "single-guy" college stuff. I had spent the summer of 2000 working as a trash man and picking orders in a warehouse, so I was in decent shape. I weighed about 186 when I moved in to that apartment in Dorchester. When we moved out a calendar year later, I was up to somewhere in the neighborhood of 220. Not Brad's fault, it was my own...but we were certainly two peas in a pod.

Anyway, so the text message from Brad revealed that he had taken up running, and was doing his first 5k race. I was floored. Brad was quite a decent baseball player (or so he says) in his younger years, but if there is one thing that Brad was not, it was a runner. An ongoing text conversation throughout the day that Brad had decided, too, that enough was enough. He had been running and changing his eating habits, and was down somewhere around 50 pounds since the start of the calendar year. His secret? Burning more calories than he consumed. You'd think he cracked the Da Vinci code. But he said it really was that simple. He'd taken up jogging and was "eating like an organic farmer...lots of protein and vegetables, cutting way back on the carbs." I had been on a specialty beer kick at the time, and asked him about his current drinking habits. He said that he really hadn't been drinking, because "If I'm going to take in 150 to 250 calories at a time, I'd rather not be drinking it."

For some reason, it all made perfect sense. I decided that day that it was my turn, too. I set a completely unrealistic goal of getting to under 200 pounds by my birthday/Labor Day. In essence, three full months to drop somewhere around 34 pounds. Doable? Who knew...never really tried before. The completely unscientific plan that I came up with was simple...consume less calories than you expend. I decided that the diet was the first thing to change, mostly because it was going to be the toughest part. You see...I like to eat. I like food. I like food that tastes good. I also like food that is pretty easy to cook on a weeknight after work. That generally entails a lot of simple carbohydrates; pasta, mashed potatoes, breads, any combination thereof (there is nothing like good garlic bread with pasta...except maybe good garlic bread with Pierogi, which are essentially potato-filled pasta). Those days were going to have to stop, and fast. It was time to start limiting calories.

The good news is that the weather was getting warmer, which meant that I could do a lot of cooking on the grill. I haven't yet bothered trying to make pasta, potatoes or bread on the grill, so this may work. Also, summer brings a lot of fresh vegetables and the second annual Wakefield Farmer's Market. The new diet, almost overnight, started to consist of some very easy things to cook on the grill. Lots of lean protein (chicken, pork loin, etc), lots and lots of vegetables (peppers of all colors, onions, summer squash, zucchini, asparagus, eggplant all cook up nicely on the grill). No more sandwiches (at least not with bulkie rolls). No more bagels or toast for breakfast...unsalted rice cakes and natural peanut butter are a suitable alternative. No more junk snacks (Cheez-Its, Combos, Wheat Thins and Triscuits have all been popular in my belly). More fruit. More organic. More quinoa, more hummus. More Israeli couscous with broccoli and zucchini (amazingly good). No more junk cereal. It helps that I like Fiber One and Special K with Strawberries.

I didn't make any real behavioral changes surrounding exercise for the first month..."baby steps," I thought. The diet was going to have to be the real lasting change to get used to. The real exercise part was going to happen in July. I did go for long walks a couple of times during June, but walking doesn't really do anything for me. After about 7-7.5 miles, I sorta get bored. Finally July 1st rolled around, and I was feeling pretty confident. People started to notice that I had been making changes. I seemed to be eating better. No beer, no pasta, no bread to speak of for a month. I seemed to be a little smaller (I don't have a scale at home, so I'm not sure how much). But the real work was about to begin. I hemmed and hawed for a while around how to actually begin the exercise portion of my "master plan." Again, walking was boring. Running, while it seems to run in the family, apparently skipped my part of the generation. The exercise-induced asthma certainly doesn't help. I don't know enough people locally to get into a softball league or a pickup basketball league. I didn't want to join a gym, because I didn't really want to add a lot of muscle. I tossed around the idea of riding a bike, but I didn't actually own one. Nevertheless, it seemed like biking might be the way to go. I certainly wasn't going to spend a lot of money though, because I have a history of getting sick of things quickly. After much perusing of Craigslist, Amazon, eBay, bike shops, WalMart and Target, I had found what I thought would be the winner. The embarrassingly named GMC Denali, as made by ultra-low-end manufacturer Kent. It rated decently enough that I didn't think it would fall apart (always good). And it certainly was cheap ($168 at WalMart, including shipping).

The Friday after July 4th came and my package had arrived. An hour or so worth of work and a little help from my wife and my chariot was assembled. Took it out for a mile spin around the block in the dark just to see if I still had legs. Turns out...I didn't! This was going to be work... But I knew I had to do it. The first week brought rides of 5.5, 7 and 10 miles. Not a bad start. Very, very warm out, for those that might recall. Also, it was mid-Tour de France. In hindsight, this is a bad time to start cycling...every time I rode, the only thing I could compare myself to was Andy Schleck or Mark Cavendish. Anyway, second week brought rides of 13, 7 and 11. I was starting to get the hang of this cycling thing, though by all means an amateur. Finished the month with rides of 8 and 19, the latter a new high. All in all, about 87 miles the first month...not a lot, but not a bad way to get my feet wet.

Around this time, it started to dawn on me that there was an annual charity ride in the part of CT that my in-laws live in...called the Folks on Spokes ride. It takes place the second weekend of September, and riders can sign up for rides of 5, 10, 20, 40, 50 and 66 (metric century). I had already proven to myself that I can do rides of up to 19, so 20 should be doable. Maybe even 40. So I now had two goals: get under 200 pounds by my 31st birthday, and do the F.O.S. ride.

First week of August brought rides of 19.3, 7.3 and 19.3 again. The 19-miler in July and the first 19.3 in August contained parts of the F.O.S. ride. Pretty rides along the coast, followed by some decent hill climbs. Maybe the 40 is doable after all. Time to up the ante a little. I took a day off in August and rode the bike into Boston to visit Natalia for lunch. 15 miles each way. Very doable, though city riding is not, how shall I put this, conducive to staying alive...so it's probably the last time I'll do that. Great hill climbs coming out of the city though. The ride back was the first time that I really felt like I was becoming more than a pure novice. Finished that week with rides of 14 and 10, but then took two full weeks off (it finally rained for the first time in months, then we went out of town for a weekend). By the time I was back on the bike, it was August 27th (a Friday), which gave me suddenly only two weeks to get ready for the 40-mile F.O.S. ride that I had now committed myself to doing. Time to get back out there! That last weekend of August saw rides of 21, 18 and 24 miles on consecutive days. New routes, not just stretching out the same neighborhoods in Wakefield and circling the Lake endlessly. These were rides that "cyclists" do...and they were tough. But I was feeling better after doing 24 miles now than when I would do just 5 or 7 miles the previous month.

Logged 162 miles for the month...almost twice what I did the previous month. And I was definitely losing weight...down to 204 pounds by the w/e of August 20-22. That's right...30 pounds in about 2.5 months. My pants started not fitting so well. My belts started not fitting so well. People started commenting on how much weight I had lost (more on that later). Maybe my plan was working?!?

On to September. The problem with September is that the days get shorter. Not a whole lot of time to ride after work, as it was dark by the time dinner was over and Morgan was bathed and in bed. I was also coming to the realization that I'm really not good at hill-climbing on the bike, and that I could get away with taking a few shorter rides as long as they contained some serious climbs. Mapped out a couple pretty good routes where I could achieve maximum climbing in minimum distance. One of the endless good parts about living in New England is that there is certainly no shortage of hills! Especially in our neighborhood. I followed a short 6-mile uphill ride on 9/3 with a longer, hillier 25 mile ride on 9/4. Pretty good weekend, and left me marginally confident about doing 40 the next weekend. Took Sunday off to do an early family birthday celebration. Wasn't sure how much I weighed, but the picture below is proof that I was starting to shed some noticeable weight.

Got in a hilly 9 miles on Monday 9/6 before attacking 35 miles before work on Thursday the 9th. I had mapped out my 35 mile course to be similar in climb to the FOS ride and by about 8 miles, I wanted to stop. This has become a recurring theme for me. I find that it takes me 8 to 10 miles of moderate riding to get into a groove. Prior to that, I kinda get bored, especially riding by myself. But I kept at it and, honestly, had a lot left in the tank when I made it back home. I had enough left in the tank that I had thoughts of changing to the 50-mile FOS ride, but I had already registered for the 40.

Anyway, that brings us to the Folks on Spokes ride itself, which I will cover in my next post. But it should be pointed out that when I stepped on the scale the day before the FOS ride, I was down to 198 pounds. I had accomplished my first goal...under 200 pounds by (roughly) my birthday. Honestly, I had sorta set the bar high for myself because I assumed I'd give up when I realized it would be unreasonable. But it became evident to me pretty quickly that my plan was actually working. Eating less, and eating better, felt natural. Getting on the bike and pedaling around the main streets and back roads of our area felt natural. I mean this to come across more as inspirational than as braggadocios, but it really hasn't been that hard. With all sincerity, if I can do this, anybody can do this. It does take a certain level of commitment, but really, it isn't that difficult if you keep it simple. Burn more calories than you consume and you'll lose weight. Magic, I know. Find something that you like and do it! If you don't like running, walk. If you don't like walking, swim. Or play tennis. Or basketball. Or start by just parking at the far end of the lot at work or at the grocery store. Or do what I did and buy a $159 bike at Wal-Mart and get out there and just pedal around the neighborhood. It will work...trust me!

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

2010-08-23T16:45:00.005-04:00

Last Saturday night was Date Night for the Mrs. and I. We rarely see movies at the theater (last one, I think, was probably Where The Wild Things Are), so we jumped at the chance. A brief scan of the listings: The Expendables (can't take whatever that thing on Stallone's face is seriously), Eat Pray Love (yeah...right up my alley), Lottery Ticket (I find these movies incredibly racist, but that's for another time), Inception (can't watch DiCaprio), Vampires Suck (more on that later), Pirhana 3-D (seriously...they made this a movie and it wasn't just on SciFi), and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (wow...Michael Cera plays "that kid" again?!?!?). Seemed like slim pickens, but desparate times call for desperate measures, and Pilgrim seemed like the most palatable of the lot (by a long shot), plus it's an Edgar Wright movie, so it can't be THAT bad. So Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World it was. Best decision we've made in quite some time!

In the interest of full disclosure, I was (and still am) a mumbly, shoe-gazing, bass-playing, comic book reading, overly self-aware hipster dork through high school and beyond. If ever there were a movie that was right in my wheelhouse, this might be the one.

For those that aren't familiar with the story, here's a brief summary: Scott Pilgrim is your average early-twenty-something jobless slacker who does little more in life than wear hipster T-shirts and play bass in garage/post-punk band Sex Bob-omb with fellow slackers Kim Pine (drummer, also Scott's ex-girlfriend, portrayed by Alison Pill [Milk, In Treatment]) and Stephen Stills (aka "The Talent," singer/guitarist, played by Mark Webber whom I've not seen in anything since 2000's under-rated Ben Affleck vehicle Boiler Room). Pilgrim is perfectly happy being the quintessential slacker (without the pot smoking...it is, of course, a PG-13 movie) until he meets Ramona Flowers, aka the girl of his dreams (literally) who is new to Toronto; she's from New York, ergo she must be A)uber-cool and B)uber-dangerous; she totally Rollerblades in the snow...badass! Anywho, the budding relationship goes as you might expect until it is revealed that Ramona (absolutely nailed by Mary Elizabeth Winstead [Live Free or Die Hard, Grindhouse/Death Proof] has a history...that Scott must deal with; seven evil exes that he must defeat (think Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat - the video games, not the movies) if he is to continue dating Ramona. All the usual boy-meets-girl stuff ensues (awkwardness, "the chase," growing apart, etc), only unlike your typical Hugh Grant/Renee Zellweger boring suckfest, it is interspersed with total video-game-meets-superhero movie, over-the-top ass-kicking. We're talking tear-the-roof-off-this-mother donnybrooks, Vader/Skywalker-ish light-saber battles and a bass guitar-off. Yeah, that's right...a bass guitar-off. Not exactly Jaco Pastorius versus Victor Wooten, but it was still an effing bass guitar duel. Clearly, this is not for the meek and meager.

Michael Cera (Arrested Development, Superbad, Juno) was brilliantly cast as the title character. I was originally skeptical, assuming that Cera was playing his usual mumbley shoe-gazer role (seriously...has any non-action hero ever been this typecast...aside from maybe Jennifer Aniston [yeah we get it...you're the pretty-but-not-hot girl-next-door who just wants to be loved but can't find the right guy]???). In retrospect, that was incredibly short-sighted of me; Cera was the perfect choice, because Scott Pilgrim is supposed to be a mumbly shoe-gazer. Cera nailed that part (natch) but he also nailed the role of butt-kicker, a move I didn't see coming. Kieran Culkin (Igby Goes Down) was also dynamite as Pilgrim's gay roommate/bedmate. Perhaps the best most underrated performance, though went to Knives Chau (played by relative newcomer Ellen Wong), Pilgrim's 17-year-old wannabe hipster, seemingly innocent and yet totally badass high school student girlfriend at the beginning of the movie. Pilgrim is her first true love...she's 17...her name is "Knives,"...you do the math!

Given that Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz - both personal favorites of mine) was at the helm, Scott Pilgrim is obviously smartly funny and funnily smart. Not your typical big-budget action comedy, Pilgrim spends a good deal of its time taking the piss out of the shrugging meh-fests that most hipster movies (read: most Cera movies) are, but not in that obnoxious, in-your-face, Aaron Seltzer "Vampires Suck"/"Disaster Movie"/"Meet the Spartans" schlocky, lowest-common-denominator way. It is an incredibly self-aware, tongue-in-cheek look at it's own genre that it may in turn be the ultimate hipster movie. The dialogue is witty and razor sharp, and the fight scenes and video game references were so well done that you forgot you weren't watching the newest installment in the X-Men franchise. With a budget rumored at between $85-90 million in spite of having no real A-list talent indicates just how much they spent on making it look awesome. Absolute home run in that (and every other) department. Well worth the $11 ticket price (seriously though, can we talk for a minute about the fact that it now costs $11 to go see a friggin' movie....).

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
4.5/5 stars

Face to Face - A Fan's Perspective

2010-07-17T22:21:00.005-04:00

Hitting up the Warped Tour (yuck) last week brought the total number of Face to Face performances that I've witnessed in person to eleven. As eleven seems like a perfect rock-and-roll number (see: This Is Spinal Tap), I thought it a perfect time to reflect on the changes I've seen. This comes strictly from memory...I've taken no notes over the years.

#1.
When: 26 June 1997
Where: Great Woods (later Tweeter Center, now Comcast Center), Mansfield, MA
Opening for No Doubt and Weezer
Lineup: Trever Keith (vocals, guitar), Scott Shiflett (bass), Chad Yaro (guitar), Rob Kurth (drums)
The show that started it all. Face to Face was the solitary reason that I attended this show. We had lawn (general admission) seats, and I knew I was going to have to endure a few painful hours of teeny-bopper schlock, so I made sure that my party and I got to Mansfield early so that we could see Face to Face. The memory is a little fuzzy on this show (not because of mind-altering chemicals...solely because it was thirteen years ago)...I remember it being sunny out, and there (obviously) weren't a hell of a lot of people there. "Disconnected" got a fair amount of love, though. Short and sweet. I also seem to remember Chad and/or Scott coming out on stage during the No Doubt set, but I could be remembering that wrong.

#2
When: Sometime in 1998
Where: Roxy, Boston, MA
Opening for the Reverend Horton Heat
Lineup: Trever Keith (vocals, guitar), Scott Shiflett (bass), Chad Yaro (guitar), Jose Medeles (drums)
First f2f show in a club setting. Fast-paced. Went waaaay early (hit up Dunkin' Donuts ahead of time, where my f2f partner-in-crime, Brad Golub, ordered a single Munchkin). Briefly met up with Scott outside the back of the venue before the show, and again after the band played. I remember him saying that they were going to get tattoos with Dicky from the Bosstones afterwards...this was sort of a big deal because tattooing was illegal in Massachusetts at the time. Also...I miss the Roxy. That was a great venue.

#3
When: 02 July 1999
Where: Middle East - Upstairs, Cambridge, MA
With: Drexel, No Motiv
Lineup: Trever Keith (vocals, guitar), Scott Shiflett (bass), Chad Yaro (guitar), Pete Parada (drums)
On the short list of best shows I've ever been to. Upstairs at the Middle East is small (capacity is +/- 200), and it was jammed on this hot, sweaty night. The crowd was dynamite during songs from the first few albums, though they got a little "still" during the Ignorance Is Bliss stuff - which is bizarre because it is all dynamite and translates brilliantly live. I remember this show being so hot that I had to A)sit on the stage to push crowd surfers off the band and B)head into the hallway for a minute to catch my breath and grab water. Also, discovered the now-defunct No Motiv for the first time. They were great. Too bad they were so short-lived as a band.
Also on this night, hung out with the fellas outside and, in the process, stumbled into a copy of "Standards & Practices," a cover album the band put out on Lady Luck/Vagrant in 1999. As we were hanging, there were a few *ahem* interesting characters leaving Goth/BDSM night at the now-shuttered Manray club across the street...leading a certain member of the band to inquire if Manray was the best place in town to get whipped with a cat-o'-nine-tails. In jest, I think??

#4
When: Late fall 2000
Where: Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel, Providence, RI
With: Saves the Day, Gob, Chronic Future
Lineup: Trever Keith (guitar, vocals), Scott Shiflett (bass), Pete Parada (drums)
First time I saw the band as a three-piece (Yaro left after the recording of 2000's Reactionary), and it was like they never missed a beat. I really liked this lineup. Very no-frills, very stripped down, and very "punk," for lack of a better word. I think Trever, Scott and Pete really jelled, and this show was certainly no exception. Reactionary was a return to their pre-Ignorance "punk" sound, with nary an IIB song in sight. While I dislike that they stopped playing IIB material, I certainly get it...especially then. Too soon. Tight, tight show though. I believe they played "1000x" and "Bikeage," both requested by my buddy, Brad, and rarely played for quite a while unless he was there.

#5
When: Late fall 2000 (2/3 days after aforementioned Providence show)
Where: Student Union Ballroom, UMass - Amherst
With: Gob, The Amazing Crowns.
Lineup: Trever Keith (guitar, vocals), Scott Shiflett (bass), Pete Parada (drums)
The last day of the fall 2000 tour was memorable for a few reasons. First off, it should be pointed out that Pearl Jam played this same venue in both 1991 and 1992, both times supported by indie-rock super group Eleven. That was all I knew about the Student Union Ballroom going in...all I can say in hindsight is that those shows must have been epic.
On to f2f. I can recall the crowd being good, but not great. I suppose it is worth noting that Rusted Root was playing a different venue at UMass that night...I'm guessing that was more of a "ZooMass" crowd. Brad and I each carried a guitar case into the venue...we walked in with the fellas. Show was uneventful (unlike a previous Amazing Crowns show I saw in which the lead singer kicked a hole in the wall and got in a fight with the head bouncer). After the show was a little different. Due to the fact that it was probably Brad's 17th Face to Face show (many of those were crammed into 1999 and 2000), Scott gave him his belt and Converse All-Stars (the latter autographed, of course). Arguably one of the coolest things ever. Also, I got a f2f pick. Not quite the same, but then I was trailing Brad by a dozen shows, so it makes sense. The stories made the ride back to Dorchester fly by (well...that and Brad's driving!!).

#6
When: 11 February 2001
Where: Avalon Ballroom, Boston, MA
With: H2O, Snapcase, Dillinger Escape Plan
Lineup: Trever Keith (guitar, vocals), Scott Shiflett (bass), Pete Parada (drums)
The real story with this show actually occurred a few hours before the show. Through an unplanned (I swear) twist of fate, we ended up a few tables away from the fellas in the band at Boston Beer Works prior to the show. Brad and I flagged the waitress down and told her to add the band's appetizers to our order and take it off theirs...as a "thank you" for their years of generosity toward us. Then, we left. Never told them about it, though I think I have mentioned it in passing to Scott once in the years since then.
Also, I may have this wrong, but I believe it was on the street before this gig that Scott mentioned that he, his brother, Chris, and Trever had purchased baritone guitars and were doing a side project with Josh Freese on drums and Chad Blinman "doing what he does" and that Vagrant would probably put it out and that it would be called Viva Death...a dichotomous name in the same ilk as Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin. Now, on to the show...
Admittedly, I'm not a very big fan of hardcore music. As such, I wasn't particularly thrilled with the lineup of openers (though I've developed a little bit of an affinity for DEP in more recent years). That said, this is one of the only times that I actually brought someone to a Face to Face show, and he was a fan of hardcore, so I guess it was fun for him. F2F headlined, and the crowd was certainly jacked up for this one given the openers however, so I remember it as being a very intense show. Seemed like any love that may have been lost from the "old school" fans when thy released IIB was back with a vengeance.

#7
When: 13 April 2002
Where: Virgin Mega Store, Boston, Ma
In-store performance and signing.
Lineup: Trever Keith (vocals/guitar), Scott Shiflett (bass), Pete Parada (drums)
I know, it is a bit of a stretch to include this in my list of shows, but I'm still counting it. To me, it was memorable because it was intimate, and it was my first real "face to face" gig without Brad since 1997. They only played a few songs, many by request (none of which were mine) and then signed posters from the new album. Somehow, I missed Trever and Pete, so only Scott signed mine. In hindsight, despite seeing him in seven show in a three-ish year span, I never said more than "Hey, what's up" to Pete. Always seemed like a cool cat...maybe just a little too "drummery" to be all that chatty with the fans. Although, he actually may have been the one that gave me the copy of Standards & Practices a few years prior.

#8
When: 13 April 2002
Where: Axis Nightclub
With: Midtown, Movielife, Thrice
Lineup: Trever Keith (vocals/guitar), Scott Shiflett (bass), Pete Parada (drums)
Ran into Scott after the Virgin gig, on the way back to Lansdowne Street. I was about to get in line to buy tickets, but he called me over to the bus and gave us (my wife and I) tour passes with the "I'm Cool" box checked off. I always thought that was awesome...still have that hanging with the aforementioned poster. The show itself was about as expected. Didn't care much for the openers...not good or bad, they just existed. I think we may have missed Thrice, actually. The f2f set was standard 75-90 minutes total of straight-forward punk rock. The band sounded tight as ever. Again, this three-piece lineup really jelled nicely (to my untrained ears, anyway). Obviously there was a certain depth in the sound missing without the extra guitar, but the songs came across as more raw this way...sounded like the way they were meant to be played (although this is probably due more to the fact that they weren't being bogged down by Rob on drums anymore, and that Pete was metronome-steady). Bought a Face to Face Dickies jacket at the gig, and the Mrs bought a matching sweatshirt, which prompted Scott (after the show) to say "Nice...you got yourself a hoodie" to her when we caught up on the street. This quote has always stuck with my wife and I separately, for some bizarre reason. I still say it every time she wears it!

#9
When: 27 September 2002
Where: Parking lot, Bayside Expo Center, Boston, MA
With: Unwritten Law (Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Dropkick Murphys played the following day).
Lineup: Trever Keith (vocals/guitar), Scott Shiflett (bass), Pete Parada (drums)
This was part of the Molson Snow Jam tour, and was the most bittersweet of all of the Face to Face shows I've attended. I was probably most looking forward to this gig in order to catch up with Trever and Scott to chat about the aforementioned Viva Death album that had just been put out three days prior. Also, Natalia was living in Dorchester at the time, so this show was quite literally right next to her apartment, and it took place a the site of my graduation from UMass a year prior. It was the first show together for Natalia and I since we got engaged, and it was a year-and-a-day before we were due to get married. Seemed like the stars were aligning for a memorable show.
Turned out it was memorable for the wrong reasons. First off, never got to meet up with the fellas (though Scott gave me his sweaty towel from the stage...thanks???) as they poured into a cab within minutes of leaving the stage. Second...this would be my last Face to Face show for what I thought would be ever. They announced their break-up less than a year later, and played a series of "goodbye" shows that somehow skipped Boston (aside from a stop on the Warped Tour...but that doesn't count). Didn't seem a fitting way to end what had been a truly great ride.

Fast forward a full seven years (though in the interim, I was privileged to see Trever in a solo gig at the Middle East Upstairs, site of the legendary show on the IIB tour, and was privileged to meet Blinman for the first time, though I was admittedly awkward - no sleep due to a three-month-old is what I blame it on!).

#10
When: 18 September 2010
Where: House of Blues, Boston, MA
With: Pegboy, Polar Bear Club
Lineup: Trever Keith (vocals/guitar), Scott Shiflett (bass), Danny Thompson (drums), Chad Yaro (guitar)
Face to Face's triumphant return to Boston, at a new venue on an old site; for those not from around here, House of Blues is located on Lansdowne Street in Boston and occupies the space that used to be both Avalon and Axis. This was a great day from start to finish. Got to Boston early, found $6 parking (in Boston...seriously!), watched sound check from the sidewalk, had dinner at Beer Works, met up with some new/old friends (Lara and Melissa) for the first time over beers at the House of Blues, long chat with Scott before the show (also at HOB).
Though, none of that has to do with the show itself. Missed Polar Bear Club entirely, but Pegboy was rad (especially because Larry is so out of shape). Face to Face was dynamite from soup to nuts. I guess you never know what to expect after such a lengthy hiatus and with a new drummer, but honestly it felt like that time off amounted to about a week. Trever's voice was every bit as strong as it had been a decade ago, and still serves as (to me) the greatest voice in punk rock (at least since Joe Strummer). I really thought I'd miss Pete, but Danny is a home run. He is machine-gun fast, and he and Scott seem to have real great chemistry holding down the rhythm section, with is quintessential to any great band and allowing the guitars and the vocals to take chances.
Unexpected treat was hearing music from IIB. I think enough time has passed to allow some of that stuff to creep back into their sets, especially at headlining gigs such as this one. Crowd seemed real solid from where I stood. Admittedly (I say that a lot...) I was a little unsure of what to expect from the crowd, given A)the length of their hiatus and B)the size of the venue. It may not have been quite sold out, but an uneducated guess says it was at least 85% occupied and the crowd was quite involved in the show, sing-alongs and all. This show left me feeling very, very positive about the future of the band and confirmed that the reunion wasn't just to play a couple of shows for nostalgia's sake...the urgency and the relevancy are still there and should carry the band rather far going forward.

#11
When: 11 July 2010
Where: Comcast Theater, Hartford, CT
With: The Bouncing Souls, Alkaline Trio, and a bunch of fancy 14-year olds (The Warped Tour)
Lineup: Trever Keith (vocals/guitar), Scott Shiflett (bass), Danny Thompson (drums), Dennis Hill (guitar)
By no means was this a typical Face to Face show. Many of those in attendance (and many of the other bands on the bill) would have fit right in at my first f2f show with No Doubt thirteen year prior...except they would have been two years old at the time...and who brings a two-year-old to a rock show??
Oh wait...I do! Yes, this was Morgan's triumphant debut at a punk rock show. Thanks to Scott, we pretty much had VIP access. Morgan was a big hit at an otherwise lackluster show (not due to the band's performance...just due to the setting and the crowd), and people from that band on down could not have been more accommodating. The set itself was short (for Warped Tour purposes) but very sweet, featuring what have become standards at this point ("Disconnected," "Pastel," "Bill of Goods" without the normally requisite singalong), and a new song that is already stuck in my head ("Should Anything Go Wrong") from the recently-announced, forthcoming album "Laugh Now, Laugh Later." While this show will certainly fail to crack the band's internal list of "best shows ever," for a lot of personal reasons this was definitely one of my favorite. Being able to share something that I've been so passionate about for so long with my own kid is a pretty amazing experience...even though she is only 2.5 years old, I think she "gets it." Obviously Scott was a gracious host, but everyone affiliated with the show (Trever, Danny, Dennis, the Australian (?) tour manager whose name I missed) was great. I can imagine it must be weird to have a small family, including a pre-schooler, invade your tour bus on a 'punk rock' tour in a random town, but they really made us feel right at home (Morgan still talks about Dennis showing him pictures of his three-year-old son, and about Danny's tattoos). One of these days Trever will remember who I am without referencing Brad's name...although now it may be because of Morgan!

In summary, it has been a pretty awesome ride with this band for more than a decade. Face to Face's music (and Trever's lyrics specifically) have always resonated with me in a way that no other band (aside from Pearl Jam, natch) has been able to. I am certain that this would still be the case had I never actually met or spent any time with them over the years. There is something about the honesty in Trever's voice and lyrics and the way that the music provides perfect symmetry to convey the message is (to me) unparalleled. I hope that this doesn't come across as an epitaph, because it is certainly not. As I stated in the reviews of the last two shows, the urgency and the purpose that the band seems to be playing with now bode well for the future. Not bad for a band with nearly twenty years under its belt. Thanks, fellas!

Viva Death - Curse the Darkness

2010-07-12T14:15:00.006-04:00

As always, please feel free to comment down below.

June 2010 marked the long-awaited release of Viva Death's Curse the Darkness. In the interest of full-disclosure, I'm a charter member of the Death Squad, so this review is not totally unbiased. That said, I think I can still be fair and objective.

I've got to say that this was probably the album I was anticipating most this year (aside from maybe the new Face to Face album), in part due to the fact that it has existed in raw form for almost two years before it saw the light of day. Recorded in 2008 in California, Curse the Darkness marks a departure from the overlying theme of the first two VD albums, 2002's self-titled release and 2006's One Percent Panic. Gone are Josh Freese's drums, the dueling baritone guitars of Trever Keith (Face to Face) and Chris Shiflett (Foo Fighters, Jackson United, Me First...this is a long list...), and Keith's unmistakable vocal stylings. That sounds on the surface like an awful lot to remove, but Viva Death has always been the brainchild of Scott Shiflett (Face to Face), and Curse the Darkness is the ultimate in one-man musical expression. It finds Shiflett aided only by guitars (the baritone-only rule of the last two VD albums has been cast aside), bass guitars, drums, and his right-hand man, Chad Blinman (he of the incredibly heavy [literally] Eye Socket studio) who continues to pull brilliant "keyboards, samples and other weirdness" out of the stratosphere.

Here's a track-by-track rundown...

1. The Life You Save (May Be Your Own). One of the more "Viva Death-y" songs on the album, TLYS features the trademark baritone sound, which has always reminded me of surf music as played by zombies...or the soundtrack to a movie about surfing zombies...or something like that. Hypnotic, plodding guitar riff. Double time hi-hats. Shiflett kicking the album off very appropriately by asking the listener to "Come away, come away, come with me." This album is certainly a ride, and this is a brilliant way to start that journey. And then, all of a sudden, the 1:41 mark comes up and, what's this, a tasty, metalicious guitar solo, complete with dive bomb sounds that would wake Eddie Van Halen from whatever morphine-induced fog he's been in for the last twenty years?!?!? Yeah, this album is going to be different.

2. Impact. "Now what's wrong with having a little fun?" is the question that is posed to the listener at the :11 mark, just prior to the song taking off. Very straight-forward, aggressive track through the verses. Pre-chorus sounds almost like a car crash (that's a good thing), then the chorus gets angular and echoy and trippy..."I can't see anything at all/I can't hear anything at all/I can't feel anything at all" is the line from the album that I find getting stuck in my head most.

3. Bullets Under Mind Control. More zombie-surfer guitar with very echoy vocals layered over double-time, marchy drums. I eat this stuff up. Another trademark song (not unlike White Car or Desire Us A Flood in that sense). "Don't say something that you might regret/Keep bullets under mind control" is advice we could all probably heed a little more than we do now. That one sticks in the head too.

4. Love Lust Trust. The album's first real left turn. One of the two songs featuring anyone other than Shiflett or Blinman, this one center's on noted tabla player Satnam Singh Ramgotra (Beck, Sting, etc). More echoy vocals, with the occasional weird keyboard fill. "Love, lust, trust" is repeated in purposely monotone, hypnotic style that makes this song come across as very futuristic and tribal at the same time.

5. Everything's Tic-Toc. Sort of a punch in the face beginning at the immediate end of Love Lust Trust. Airy harmonic guitar gives way to big arena rock riff for the chorus, and the two battle for supremacy for the rest of the song...until the outro which is very spacey and features a cleaned up, Zeppelin-ish riff over some some of the stranger samples that Blinman has pulled out of his bag of tricks. "You will get a job...you will be working" comes across very hauntingly.

6. Villain. Villain finds Shiflett playing "the role of villain, direct from 1957," prompting legions of Death Squaders to Google "what happened in 1957?". 1957, it seems, did have its share of villains. Cold war escalating? Jerry Lee Lewis marrying his cousin? Little Rock Nine? The Dodgers and Giants leaving New York for greener pastures in California? Probably the most straight-forward rock song of the album.

7. Freeze. Another song that certainly fits the VD mold. Up-tempo, riff heavy verse. I dig the layered acoustic over the chorus, which includes a certain vein of optimism ("If this is the life, I'm dead") that I appreciate =^) Around 2:10 the song changes...starting with another scorching guitar solo, this one longer than on TLYS. Third verse is more uptempo, and the way the vocals are layered lends an almost choral sound. Two minute-or-so outro features a lot of guitar soloing that is sadly disappearing in most rock music, and has been for years. It also gives fans of Shiflett's work in Face To Face a chance to see just how talented and multi-faceted a musician he really is. Gets very trippy and atmospheric again at the end...

8. Talking Backwards. Brilliantly placed "You are now prepared for the next step of your indoctrination...which whill be most difficult" from Blinman's extensive sound clip collection kicks off the album's second real left turn. Very fast, tribal sounding drums serve as the background for a plodding march of a guitar riff and Shiflett's almost whispery baritone vocals for the duration of the song, met during the chorus by the inimitable Monica Richards (Faith and the Muse). The differences in vocal stylings make the song very dynamic, if not for the faint of heart.

9. Out of Reach. This song sounds like it could have been either a Face to Face outtake or drawn from recording sessions for the last Jackson United album. Straight-forward rocker. Layered acoustic over the electric parts. More great, non-baritone guitar work. I quite like this song. Another extended outro that becomes lighter and airier as it progresses.

10. In Search Of Space Boy. Another big sounding song that really epitomizes the Viva Death sound. Layered baritone guitars, layered echoy vocals during the verses, riff heavy chorus. Keeps building and building as it goes. This song would fill up an arena amazingly live...if only...

11. It's Like This. Very trippy. Swirling (backwards??) guitars that at times remind me of Pearl Jam's MFC. Airy layered vocals. I love the line "no one can beat a drum so loud that you can't hear your own heart beat."

12. Wisdom. This may be my favorite song on the album. I love the double-time feel of the main guitar riff as it mirrors the drum track. Lyrics present as very "bad religion," anti-Fundamentalist, anti-establishment (a running theme through much of the VD catalog). Great song.

13. Crutch. Interesting way to end the album. Atmospheric, acoustic ballad, but doesn't come across as sappy or pretentious like a lot of hard rock acts that try to do the acoustic thing. Maybe because the album (and the VD catalog in general) takes enough side roads that it doesn't feel unnatural like this. Interesting final line..."If all I did was lame/ Leaving here, I'll take the blame." Hopefully not Shiflett looking back negatively on the VD project, which has probably now seen its last incarnation.

Many long-awaited albums fail to live up to their expectations. This is not one of those albums. I'm glad Scott forged ahead and actually put the album out, albeit non-traditionally (instructions on where to obtain it are available at www.vivadeath.com - preferred site is Bandcamp). It is also a little bittersweet, knowing that this, in all likelihood, is the last VD album and doubly bittersweet knowing that none of it will ever be played live. A shame really, because this album especially is "big" enough to fill most any venue. At different times post-industrial and post-punk but with a sound that is a logical progression from 1970s hard rock, Curse The Darkness easily found its way onto the short list of my favorite albums of 2010. Stellar jobs, Scott and Chad.

"Brothers"

2010-06-22T22:04:00.004-04:00

So I must admit I was pretty psyched to see Brothers. Released in 2009, Brothers is the story of two, you guessed it, brothers, portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Spiderman McGuire. I generally like both of the leads, and a supporting cast that includes the delightful Natalie Portman, the ever-solid Sam Shephard, Mare Winningham and the underrated Ethan Suplee is pretty stellar on paper. Sadly, none of them are enough to save a bore of a script.

For those that don't know, McGuire plays Cpt. Sam Cahill, the high-school-jock-turned-Marine serving in Afghanistan. Gyllenhaal plays Tommy, the stereotypically underachieving brother, fresh out of jail (*yawn*) and trying to make good. While in Afghanistan, Sam is allegedly killed when his helicopter crashes. Tommy swoops in to play the role of surrogate father to Sam's two kids and man-o'-the-house to Sam's wife, Grace (portrayed in full 'going through the motions' mode by Portman) as a means of trying to display that his life is really getting back on track.

Just in reading those few sentences, you can probably see pretty clearly what is going to happen, no? First, Tommy and Grace grow close and share a smooch. Second, you guessed it....Sam isn't dead!! And even more shocking...he's coming home!! I know what you're thinking..."I bet he comes home a changed man because war is hard." Right? Bingo!! Sam isn't the same as he was when he left...is he still the man Grace loved? Is he still the great daddy he was when he left? Does he think he'll be able to return to "normal" life as a civilian? Isn't he going to want to go back to Afghanistan, because war is all he knows?

Honestly...who cares?? The script, I'm pretty sure, was salvaged from the cutting room floor of a Junior High School drama class...and the acting performances weren't much better. Shephard was fine as the ex-Marine father. Portman was a robot, Maguire was essentially just skinny (see...war is hard!), and Gyllenhaal showed all the emotion of a bag of potatoes. The best performance was probably Bailee Madison (Bridge To Terabithia) as the older daughter...but that was nowhere near enough to save the movie. I found myself actively not caring about any of the characters...not caring who was good or who was bad or who had to make tough decisions or who had changed and who hadn't or who loved whom. Total and complete disappointment. Do yourself a favor...take the hour and forty-one minutes and read a book...or wash the car...or stare at the wall. Any of the above are more compelling.

2/5 stars...barely.

Inglourious Basterds

2010-06-12T20:27:00.003-04:00

I should probably start with a fact that almost embarrasses me to admit. Prior to this week, I had never seen a Quentin Tarantino movie (with the exception of Sin City, which wasn't mostly his). I've owned Reservoir Dogs for years and just never got around to watching it. I dislike Uma Thurman enough that I won't bother watching the "Kill Bill" movies (I'm very closed-minded, I know. I won't watch anything featuring Kevin Costner, John Travolta or Jamie Foxx either. It could be the best movie in the history of film and I still wouldn't...well, no...if it starred any of them, it couldn't be anywhere near the best movie in the history of film -but I digress.), and I haven't had the opportunity to watch Grindhouse yet. I guess that reveals me as "not-a-real-film-guy," and may or may not make my opinion of any movie irrelevant.

That being said, I friggin' loved Inglourious Basterds. I'm not entirely sure where to begin, honestly. A little background for those that are not familiar, I suppose. "IB" is a 153-minute work of historical fiction set primarily in France during World War II that outlines dual plots to assassinate as much of the leadership of the Third Reich (including Hitler and Goebbels) as possible. One plot deals with a small group of Jewish-American commandos nicknamed "The Basterds," headed by Brad Pitt's Aldo Raine. I typically find Pitt hit- (Burn After Reading, Fight Club, Se7en) or-miss (Troy, Joe Black), but he was dynamite in this role, and I think brought out the best in his co-stars (especially The Office's BJ Novak and Eli "The Bear Jew" Roth, who bears more than a passing resemblance to Jason Schwartzman in this role). The other deals with Shoshanna Dreyfus, a theater owner in Paris whose witnessed her entire family getting gunned down by Nazi troopers and their leader, Colonel Hans Landa, portrayed flawlessly by Christoph Waltz.

Enough about the plot, because any more will give the movie away. Bearing in mind that it is historical fiction, Tarantino took immense liberties with the real events of WWII (woulda been nice if the real story went the way Tarantino's brain envisioned it!). There are scores of brilliant performances throughout [Pitt, Melanie Laurent (Dreyfus), Alexander Fehling's 'Master Sgt Wilhelm'], but none is better than Waltz. In all honesty, I can't really think of a better acting performance in any movie that I've seen in a long, long time. The Austrian-born Waltz not only nails the dialogue in English, French, German and Italian, but his portrayal of an SS Standartenfuhrer was incredibly smart and chilling in many different ways. The mark of any good villain portrayal is that you find yourself almost getting lost in the performance and disliking the actor as a person. Waltz's Landa so perfectly relished his "Jew Hunter" title that it may be hard to watch him in any other role. To me, that is high praise.

If I have anything negative to say about the film, I think a little of the violence in the climax may have been overdone, though it is Tarantino so I guess that comes with the territory (or so I hear). Also, add Eli Roth to the list of former Bostonians who so completely butcher the "Boston accent" that he should have his Dunkin Donuts card revoked. I generally liked his "Bear Jew" character, but the accent is inexcuseable. He's up there with Affleck in Good Will Hunting, Damon in The Depahted and the otherwise brilliant Julianne Moore in "30 Rock." Okay, so I know she isn't from Boston, per se, but she graduated from BU - she should know better.

But those negatives hardly detract from the movie in any meaningful way. The movie is beautifully shot, smartly written and the emotionally perfect. 2.5 hours flew by. Can't wait to see it again...but maybe I'll finally unwrap Reservoir Dogs first!

4.5/5 stars

Review: Brief Interviews With Hideous Men

2010-05-31T08:48:00.002-04:00

First, a little back story. As a dedicated fan of the late David Foster Wallace since way before I should have been (bought and tried tackling "Infinite Jest" for the first time at age 16), I've long hoped for the day that someone would be ambitious enough to bring his work to life visually. DFW wrote in a that was very vivid and clear in its imagery that it should easily translate to the big screen, but the dialogue (and specifically the vocabulary) and the thematic elements are so complex that much of his work doesn't seem viable outside the printed word.

So I've gotta say I was a wee bit skeptical when I heard that A)"Brief Interviews with Hideous Men" was going to be the first DFW work to be adapted for film, and B) that it would be done by "Jim from The Office." I certainly have nothing against John Krasinski as an actor (well...more on that later), but making your writer-director-producer debut by being the first to adapt a David Foster Wallace work is like trying to take the LSATs before passing high school English class. "BIHM" as written is essentially 23 short stories composed in part of dialogue and narratives taken from (fictional?) interviews with men in various different settings. There are no characters, per se, aside from the men being interviewed (the identity of the interviewer and the text of the questions is always omitted) and the "victims" detailed in their stories.

The book contains no central plotline or setting or other central non-thematic element binding all of the stories together. Suffice it to say, a rather ambitious project to bring to the big screen. Krasinski's rather astute way of relating all of the "hideous men" to one another is to actually introduce the interviewer...in this case a thirty-ish Ph.D. (or perhaps Psy. D.) student portrayed somewhat underwhelmingly (on purpose) by Julianne Nicholson. Nicholson's cold, clinically-detached Sara serves as a perfect blank screen for her subjects to project upon. Krasinski also introduces a point to all of the interviews: Sara's quest to understand the opposite sex in a way that goes beyond "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus," especially after a sour break-up. Some in DFW fanboy circles find that this cheapens the original story for the sake of making it more accessible to a wide audience. I choose to disagree...and I find that the film version actually makes the book a little more palatable by giving it some context (BIWHM is my least-favorite Wallace work).

Brilliant performances abound, and the film screens like a graduate level class on character-acting. Death Cab For Cutie's Ben Gibbard making his acting debut as a hipster friend/subject of Sara's. Ben Shenkman (Damages, Law & Order) nailing the "Victory for the forces of Democratic Freedom" guy. Will Forte portraying the incredibly creepy Subject #72 in a way that only he could...and in a way that may make me unable to watch him in anything else ever. The underrated Josh Charles (Sports Night). Perhaps the most compelling part of the film is the volley between Subject #42 (Frankie Faison - "The Wire) and his father (Malcolm Goodwin).

The only drawback, really, was Krasinski himself. His monologue at the end (which really explains the whole movie) was a little too Gilmore-Girlsy, meaning that it seemed like he knew the big words and could recite them, but that he at times was doing only that without any real understanding of what he was saying. Sorta like how I passed high school Spanish.

All in all, I think the film was very solid, albeit a tad short at 80 minutes. Krasinski did an incredibly admirable job pulling off that which I didn't think could be pulled off while being watchable by all but DFW fanboys. Not bad for a first outing. Now let's see him tackle "Infinite Jest." I'm thinking trilogy...

4/5 stars

2010-05-11T20:47:00.002-04:00

Still working on my review of Josh Ritter's "So Runs The World Away," which will probably be the album of the year. Lots of music related things coming up...

5/15 Pearl Jam in Hartford
5/17 Buzzcocks in Boston
5/18 New Black Keys
5/21 Josh Ritter in Boston
6/8 New Blitzen Trapper
6/15 New Gaslight Anthem

It's gonna be a good summer!

Songs I wish I had written - Volume Two

2010-04-13T21:12:00.003-04:00

I haven't been as blown away by an opening act that I had never previously heard as I was when I saw Josh Ritter open for Jamie Cullum at the Orpheum in Boston back in 2006. He's been likened (fairly, I might add) to Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Leonard Cohen, etc. I'm of the opinion that people will be likened to him in the same way in the future. I'm not kidding...he's that good.

2006 marked the release of Josh's "The Animal Years." It marked the beginning of a sonic shift from traditional singer-songwriter, man+acoustic guitar tunes that were the bulk of his first several albums to a more band-oriented sound. This sound was taken to another level completely by 2007's "The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter," which ranks on my very short list of best albums by anyone. That said, buried as the tenth track on "The Animal Years" is (to co-opt the title of an extremely overrated book) a heart-breaking work of staggering genius. It tips the scales at a whopping nine minutes and thirty-eight seconds and is very, very wordy, so buckle up folks...it's a bumpy ride.

http://www.plumtv.com/videos/juans-basement-josh-ritter-thin-blue-flame/
(excellent live version)

Josh Ritter - Thin Blue Flame

I became a thin blue flame
Polished on a mountain range
And over hills and fields I flew
Wrapped up in a royal blue
I flew over Royal City last night
A bullfighter on the horns of a new moons light
Caesar's ghost I saw the war-time tides
The prince of Denmark's father still and quiet
And the whole world was looking to get drowned
Trees were a fist shaking themselves at the clouds
I looked over curtains and it was then that I knew
Only a full house gonna make it through

I became a thin blue wire
That held the world above the fire
And so it was I saw behind
Heaven's just a thin blue line
If God's up there he's in a cold dark room
The heavenly host are just the cold dark moons
He bent down and made the world in seven days
And ever since he's been a-walking away
Mixing with nitrogen in lonely holes
Where neither seraphim or raindrops go
I see an old man wandering the halls alone
Only a full house gonna make a home

I became a thin blue stream
The smoke between asleep and dreams
And in that clear blue undertow
I saw Royal City far below
Borders soft with refugees
Streets a-swimming with amputees
It's a Bible or a bullet they put over your heart
It's getting harder and harder to tell them apart
Days are nights and the nights are long
Beating hearts blossom into walking bombs
And those still looking in the clear blue sky for a sign
Get missiles from so high they might as well be divine
Now the wolves are howling at our door
Singing bout vengeance like it's the joy of the Lord
Bringing justice to the enemies not the other way round
They're guilty when killed and they're killed where they're found
If what's loosed on earth will be loosed up on high
It's a Hell of a Heaven we must go to when we die
Where even Laurel begs Hardy for vengeance please
The fat man is crying on his hands and his knees
Back in the peacetime he caught roses on the stage
Now he twists indecision takes bourbon for rage
Lead pellets peppering aluminum
Halcyon, laudanum and Opium
Sings kiss thee Hardy this poisoned cup
His winding sheet is busy winding up
In darkness he looks for the light that has died
But you need faith for the same reasons that it's so hard to find
And this whole thing is headed for a terrible wreck
And like good tragedy that's what we expect

At night I make plans for a city laid down
Like the hips of a girl on the spring covered ground
Spirals and capitals like the twist of a script
Streets named for heroes that could almost exist
The fruit trees of Eden and the gardens that seem
To float like the smoke from a lithium dream
Cedar trees growing in the cool of the squares
The young women walking in the portals of prayer
And the future glass buildings and the past an address
And the weddings in pollen and the wine bottomless
And all wrongs forgotten and all vengeance made right
The suffering verbs put to sleep in the night
The future descending like a bright chandelier
And the world just beginning and the guests in good cheer
In Royal City I fell into a trance
Oh it's hell to believe there ain't a hell of a chance

I woke beneath a clear blue sky
The sun a shout the breeze a sigh
My old hometown and the streets I knew
Were wrapped up in a royal blue
I heard my friends laughing out across the fields
The girls in the gloaming and the birds on the wheel
The raw smell of horses and the warm smell of hay
Cicadas electric in the heat of the day
A run of Three Sisters and the flush of the land
And the lake was a diamond in the valley's hand
The straight of the highway and the scattered out hearts
They were coming together they pulling apart
And angels everywhere were in my midst
In the ones that I loved in the ones that I kissed
I wondered what it was I'd been looking for up above
Heaven is so big there ain't no need to look up
So I stopped looking for royal cities in the air
Only a full house gonna have a prayer

I'm not going to begin to digest the entire song here for a couple reasons. One is that I have nowhere near the time to spend to do it total justice (I'm thoroughly convinced it could be an honor's level Master's class). The other is that I have nowhere near the actual ability or cognitive capacity to digest it all. Literary and cultural references that I can never dream of approaching abound. That said, here are some of the highlights for me.

First off, the overall sonic experience is a memorable one. Each verse follows a similar pattern of building from a few simply strummed chords on Josh's Telecaster (or acoustic, depending on the version), doubling in time and urgency after the first several lines (sometimes with the full band, sometimes just himself). I think "urgency" is the best word to use when trying to boil down the sound...the song sounds musically as important as it is lyrically.

Speaking of lyrics...as I said before, there is way too much going on to do justice to with my feeble mind. In things I've read from Josh since the album came out four years ago, "Thin Blue Flame" was written over the span of about eighteen months during the peak of frustrations over the inept Bush Administration and the Iraq War (remember that?). The song deals with the thin line that separates heaven from hell, peacetime from war, good from bad, etc. Obvious frustrations with political leadership abound. Obvious questioning of religious dogma, which is common for the skeptics among us during times of trouble. I'll highlight some of the parts that still get me every time.

(God) bent down and made the world in seven days
And ever since he's been a-walking away
-Heavy. I think those of us who trend toward the rational/skeptical/humanistic points of view that were brought up exposed to many religions (especially Catholicism) started down our current paths with thoughts of "If there really is a God, why does He let this shit happen?" in relation to war, death, cancer, divorce, disease, starvation, poverty, The OC, etc. Same theme as another of my favorite songs, "Georgia Lee" by the inimitable Tom Waits.

It's a Bible or a bullet they put over your heart
It's getting harder and harder to tell them apart
-Again...written during the beginnings of the real backlash toward fundamental religious conservatism (on "our" side and on "their" side) and the way that it tends to blur a lot of lines on a lot of issues for a lot of people. And this was well before then-candidate Obama's "cling to guns and religion" comments in Pennsylvania.

And those still looking in the clear blue sky for a sign
Get missiles from so high they might as well be divine
Now the wolves are howling at our door
Singing bout vengeance like it's the joy of the Lord
Bringing justice to the enemies not the other way round
They're guilty when killed and they're killed where they're found
If what's loosed on earth will be loosed up on high
It's a Hell of a Heaven we must go to when we die
-Sorta sums up the whole Bush Doctrine era pretty succinctly, doesn't it?

Oh it's hell to believe there ain't a hell of a chance
-I leave open to interpretation what there ain't a hell of a chance of. I think this line can be applied to a lot of different situations when taken out of the context of this song specifically and it'll be just as poignant. An incredibly deflating feeling, knowing that there is nothing that can be done in certain life situations. Prompts the downfall of many people that I experience daily in my profession...

I wondered what it was I'd been looking for up above
Heaven is so big there ain't no need to look up
So I stopped looking for royal cities in the air
Only a full house gonna have a prayer
-Sums up the song and my own personal thoughts beautifully. I think this points to the idea of trying to enjoy and appreciate the beauty and the intricacy and the wonder of the natural world that is all around us without needing to look to a pie-in-the-sky, Flying Spaghetti Monster for inspiration. All of the inspiration that we need is right around us...and we've only got a prayer (of staying happy...of staying sane...of staying alive) if we recognize and appreciate our own "full houses."

Songs I wish I had written - Volume One

2010-03-27T20:46:00.004-04:00

As my ability to write and play music has progressed over the years, I've found myself listening to music in new and different ways...trying to absorb the various different textures involved, put myself in the songwriter's shoes, wrap my head around the connection and the interplay between the lyrics and the music. They aren't necessarily my favorite songs (though most of them are on the very, very short list), but they are songs that I find incredibly special. Here's the first one...

Face To Face - Burden
(Trever Keith, Scott Shiflett)

You could say
I might find it difficult to show it on the outside
From far away
I should seem as ordinary as would seem the truth
But all we find
Dishonesty and lies
It’s hard to recognize the truth
And why can’t I discover what the reason is that I
Know there’s something left that I should prove

I didn’t mean to burden you
Is there something more to this?
I didn’t mean to burden you
Is there something more to this?
Was it something I’ve already missed?

Peel away
The fear that I’m not good enough
To give back what I’ve taken
It’s hard to say
The disappointment tends to make the optimism fade
I’m still behind and running out of time
It’s nothing but a trite excuse
And why can’t I discover what the reason is
That I know there’s something left that I should prove

I didn't mean to burden you...

It's probably no great secret that I enjoy Face to Face more than most (any?) other bands. Traditionally thought of (correctly) as a SoCal punk rock band, Ignorance Is Bliss marked a departure from that sound that, sadly, prompted a lot of their "fans" to jump ship. It is a vast understatement to point out that they really missed out. A stellar album from start to finish, IIB's sound is at its peak on "Burden."

The song starts out with Trever's not-heavily-distorted Les Paul playing a stripped down run through of the 9 second main chord progression that will be duplicated for the remainder of the song. A quick machine-gun snare fill by Pete Parada cues the rest of the band to join in lockstep. Those first notes still hit me the way that they did when I first heard the song sometime in 1999. The noted addition to the normal sound on this song is strings (strings?!?), expertly arranged by the renowned Steve Croes.

Around the 30 second mark, Trever's vocals kick in. I've long found his to be arguably (or not) the best voice in music over the last several decades. The honesty and sincerity in his voice is never better than on this song. You get the sense that Trever really believes what he sings...no Green Day-esque vapidity on this song (apparently vapidity is an actual word...I was hoping I had just coined it!). The line "I didn't mean to burden you" has always struck me in a couple of ways...one that is straight-forward (genuine concern over having burdened another person), one that is less so (a hint of passive-aggressive sarcasm, perhaps, on Trever's part). More than a decade later, I still oscillate between which opinion is correct.

The beginning of the second verse continues to hit me in the stomach with every listen (which has got to be over the 2,000 mark at this point). "Peel away the fear that I'm not good enough to give back what I've taken... It's hard to say - disappointment tends to make the optimism fade." I really don't think a line in any song has so perfectly painted a verbal picture for the melancholy and self-doubt than can creep into the mind of the middle-class, suburban white male with an unhealthy amount of Catholic guilt (really..that's what I absorbed out of all those years of Sunday school???).

The chord progression, the guitar sound, the air-tight rhythm section of Pete Parada and Scott Shiflett, the string section...all serve as a perfect stage for Trever's vocals in all their contemplation. Tough to categorize the sound...not punk rock, not traditional alternative, not straight-forward rock...maybe "post-punk" is the best title. Maybe it doesn't need a title at all. It is moving, but written in a way that is simplistic enough that you really don't need multiple listens to absorb it all...it just plain smacks you in the face from the first time you press "play." Do yourself a favor and click the link below and press "play" for yourself. Feel free to comment.

http://www.rhapsody.com/face-to-face/ignorance-is-bliss--2006

Best of 2010...Volume Two

2010-03-07T20:10:00.003-05:00

February was mostly a slow month for new music (as usual), but in some ways it was a nice calm before the storm that the next few weeks and months will bring. It allowed me to fill in some back albums in catalogs that I had been missing (Eels, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club most notably).

All that being said, my favorite album of the month is probably going to turn out to be in the top three for the year...

Tony Sly - 12 Song Program

http://www.myspace.com/tonyslymusic

There has been a trend in the last couple years for front men of punk bands putting out solo material, often times acoustic. Trever Keith (face to face), Kevin Seconds (7 Seconds, etc.), Joey Cape (Lagwagon, Bad Astonaut), Matt Skiba (Alkaline Trio), Greg Graffin (Bad Religion), and Chuck Ragan (Hot Water Music) are among those that have gone this route. Now "No Use For A Name" leader Tony Sly throws his hat into the ring in a big way. It's probably not groundbreaking at all, but it is easy to listen to, lyrically great, and musically just difficult enough to be better than I could play it. Solid, solid album from start to finish.

Check out: Capo 4th Fret, The Shortest Pier, Toaster in the Bathtub

Best of 2010...Volume One

2010-03-03T21:40:00.004-05:00

As a way to keep the creative-writer part of my brain from complete atrophy, I'm going to do my award-winning "Favorite Albums" thingy a little different this year. Toward the beginning of each month, I'll post my favorite album(s) of the preceding month. Without further adieu...

January 2010
I guess the popular thing is to vote for the Magnetic Fields, but honestly, I haven't heard it yet. Even if I had, I guarantee it wouldn't top "Legion of Doom vs. Triune".

http://www.the-legion-of-doom.com

To quote Legion of Doom's website, "strange, dark and densely layered, this is not a typical hip-hop record." That couldn't be more accurate. There is a lot going on musically (it ain't a Lil Wayne album, let's put it that way). Triune (who I was only partially aware of) hits a lyrical home run (more Common/NOE than Weezy or Jeezy). Sadly, it is only available via digital download (I'm still an old school, "like to open the album and flip through the liner notes and absorb the artwork" kinda guy and I hope that never changes).
Check out: Cipher Sounds, Inner-City Renewal Program, This is Your Police Department.

Favorite Albums of the 2000s (the pre-teens??)

2010-01-21T15:37:00.003-05:00

First off, might I point out how difficult this was. A decade is a long time. Musical tastes change from the beginning to the end. Some albums that I thought were great at the time I haven't listened to in years (Disturbed?? DMX?? Limp *vomits* Bizkit). Anyway, as it stands now, here are my thoughts on the music of the last decade, followed by my favorite albums year-by-year, followed by my ten favorite of the decade.

Here goes...

THOUGHTS ON THE MUSIC OF THE 2000S.
-The "aughts" were an interesting decade for music (not necessarily good or bad, just interesting). Technology transformed the industry faster than any time since the debut of the phonograph. The peak of the MP3, the death of the "album," file-sharing...all within the last ten years. In looking back, there weren't really any trends that lasted the whole decade through. Rap-rock, nu-metal, boy bands, Britney, all fizzled out (thankfully). American Idol was huge, but didn't really do much to the charts after Kelly Clarkson.

Best new artists of the decade: I'd have to vote for Kings of Leon, Lupe Fiasco and Josh Ritter. Kings of Leon (along with a few other bands) helped bring blues-oriented "bar-rock" back to the forefront. Lupe was really the only rapper woth mentioning that broke through this decade. Josh Ritter revealed himself to be a hybrid of this generation's Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. All three of the above have what it takes to stay relevant through the next decade as well.

Best "comeback": Bad Religion. Okay, so BR never really went away. But they released two steaming turds in a row in 1998 and 2000. The Process of Belief in 2002 was a huge step back in the right direction (thanks Mr. Brett). Empire Strikes First kept the ball running, and New Maps of Hell is my favorite album of theirs. Not bad for a band's 14th album. I'm so glad they are "back."

Best "guilty-pleasure": Though I hate to use the term (as you shouldn't feel guilty for liking anything), I think this probably goes to Rihanna (or whoever writes and produces her music). For catchy-as-herpes pop music, she probably takes the crown for the decade, at least to me.

Best thing that I'm glad disappeared: Rap-rock/nu-metal. For some stupid reason, I enjoyed Limp Bizkit, Korn, Disturbed, etc. for a few minutes there. I blame the fact that my brain had not fully developed yet. That music, however, went from bad to worse real fast. In hindsight...terrible, terrible, terrible. I feel guiltier for having purchased "Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water" than I do for enjoying the occasional Rihanna tune, that's for sure.

Biggest debut band that I don't get: Coldplay. They took watered down U2 and watered down Radiohead, watered it down and *poof* - Coldplay. After a decade, I'm still confused by why anyone likes any of their songs.

Okay. Enough rambling. On to the "faves." My 94 favorite albums of the 2000s. Why 94? Because that's what I came up with.

2000 (5) – Pearl Jam – Binaural / Face to Face – Reactionary / Dynamite Hack – Superfast / Radiohead – Kid A / Common – Like Water For Chocolate

2001 (9) – Jay-Z – The Blueprint / The White Stripes – White Blood Cells / Tool – Lateralus / Incubus – Morning View / System Of A Down – Toxicity / Better Than Ezra – Closer / Built to Spill – Ancient Melodies of the Future / Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – B.R.M.C / Stereophonics – Just Enough Education To Perform

2002 (13) – The Roots – Phrenology / Queens of The Stone Age – Songs for the Deaf / Bruce Springsteen – The Rising / Sigur Ros – ( ) / Foo Fighters – One by One / Pearl Jam – Riot Act / Bad Religion – The Process of Belief / Finch – What It Is To Burn / Face to Face – How To Ruin Everything / Chevelle – Wonder What’s Next / Our Lady Peace – Gravity / Tom Waits – Blood Money / Tom Waits - Alice

2003 (11) – Damien Rice – O / White Stripes – Elephant / Jay-Z – The Black Album / A Perfect Circle – Thirteenth Step / Pearl Jam – Lost Dogs / The Black Keys – Thickfreakness / Kings of Leon – Youth and Young Manhood / Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Take Them On, On Your Own / Cave In – Antenna / Jamie Cullum – Twentysomething / Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros – Streetcore

2004 (7) – Tom Waits – Real Gone / Bad Religion – The Empire Strikes First / Elliott Smith – From A Basement On The Hill / The Black Keys – Rubber Factory / Chevelle – This Type Of Thinking (Could Do Us In) / Eagles of Death Metal – Peace, Love, Death Metal / Mission of Burma - ONoffON

2005 (7) – The White Stripes – Get Behind Me Satan / Foo Fighters – In Your Honor / Bruce Springsteen – Devils & Dust / Death Cab For Cutie – Plans / Kings Of Leon – Aha Shake Heartbreak / Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Howl / Jamie Cullum – Catching Tales

2006 (11) – Josh Ritter – The Animal Years / Lupe Fiasco – Food & Liquor / Pearl Jam – Pearl Jam / Neil Young – Living with War / Viva Death – One Percent Panic / Rocco Deluca and the Burden – I Trust You To Kill Me / Real Space Noise – Radio Method / Built to Spill – You In Reverse / Eagles of Death Metal – Death By Sexy / Stereophonics – Language. Sex. Violence. Other? / Silversun Pickups - Carnavas

2007 (10) - Radiohead – In Rainbows / Bad Religion – New Maps of Hell / Josh Ritter – The Historical Conquests Of Josh Ritter / Lupe Fiasco – The Cool / Rush – Snakes & Arrows / Linkin Park – Minutes to Midnight / Kings of Leon – Because of the Times / Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Baby 81 / Eddie Vedder – Into The Wild / Neil Young – Chrome Dreams II

2008 (11) – Blitzen Trapper – Furr / Murder By Death – Red of Tooth And Claw / The Gaslight Anthem – The ’59 Sound / Flogging Molly – Float / Kings of Leon – Only By The Night / Street Dogs – State of Grace / Trever Keith – Melancholics Anonymous / Jackson United – Harmony and Dissidence / Death Cab for Cutie – Narrow Stairs / The Black Keys – Attack & Release / Eagles of Death Metal – Heart On

2009 (10) - Them Crooked Vultures – Them Crooked Vultures / Silversun Pickups – Swoon / Pearl Jam – Backspacer / Built to Spill – There is no Enemy / Neil Young – Fork In The Road / Dan Auerbach – Keep It Hid / Sonic Youth – The Eternal / Dave Matthews Band – Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King / Blakroc – Blakroc / Alice in Chains – Black Gives Way To Blue

Okay...of that 94, here are my ten favorites of the decade. I based this on how often I still listen to the albums, sometimes a decade after their release.

10. Face to Face - Reactionary. This album was a return to "punk rock" for them after 1999s Ignorance Is Bliss (which, by the way, is one of my favorite albums by anyone ever). Great "reaction" to the naysaying fans. Showcases new-ish drummer Pete Parada better than IIB did.

9. Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures. John Paul Jones. Dave Grohl. Josh Homme. 'Nuff said.

8. Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - Streetcore. Too bad Joe didn't live to see this album come out. Deeply personal, almost haunting at times. Probably hindsight talking, but it almost sounded like Joe knew he wasn't long for the world, even though his death was sudden and due to an undiagnosed heart defect.

7. Josh Ritter - The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter. Solidifies Josh's status as the best singer-songwriter of the decade. Very reminiscent of early Springsteen/early Dylan. Songs about love, travel, confrontation, adventure. Brilliant.

6. Silversun Pickups - Swoon. Builds off their debut album, but also blows it's doors off. It's an interesting mix of light (Brian and Nikki's voices) and heavy (especially the guitar and the riffs) at the same time. A compelling album from start to finish.

5. Bad Religion - New Maps Of Hell. Released 27 years into their career, this is their most solid work. The three albums with Brooks as drummer marked a return to kicking ass, and each gets better and better. All the best things about their prior best albums rolled into one.

4. Pearl Jam - Binaural. A lot of people knock this album. They don't know what they are talking about. Seemless blend of some of their rockingest riffs (Breakerfall, Insignificance, Grievance), haunting ballads (Nothing As It Seems, Sleight of Hand), and ukulele (Soon Forget). 2nd most underrated Pearl Jam album.

3. Face to Face - How To Ruin Everything. Boy, they sure did ruin everything. Way to release your best album and then call it a career, fellas! This is the perfect punk rock album. Tight, three piece sound, machine-gun precision drumming, poignant, snarky lyrics, three-part harmony (with only two parts), Scott Shiflett's on bass. Can't tell you how glad I am that they "reunited."

2. Incubus - Morning View. This album came out in October of 2001, and I don't think it left my CD player until Face to Face's album came out in April of the following year. Everything that Incubus did well we at it's pinnacle on this album. They haven't been the same since (which is probably because Dirk left in 2003). I think the most brilliant part of the album is the tracklisting. I think a lot of work went into finding the perfect ebb and flow...expertly woven from hard to delicate to harder to even more delicate to frogs croaking (okay...you have to hear it to understand).

and last but not least...

1. Pearl Jam - Riot Act. I know I am in the overwhelming minority, but I think this is PJs best album (and, as you may have guessed, I've put a loooooot of thought into this issue). Written in the peak of our post-9/11, W.-induced hysteria, the raw energy and passion that the band plays with shows them firing on all cylinders like never before (or since). But it also features "Thumbing My Way," their most personal ballad since "Black." To me, a perfect album. I still listen to it weekly, at least.

There you have it. Time to go listen to some 2010 music. Keep on rockin' in the free world!

Favorite Albums of 2009

2010-01-21T08:19:00.003-05:00

Okay, so 2009 wasn't the best year for new music. For my own personal collection, this was a year of filling in back releases of bands that I was slow to catch on to (Built to Spill, Stereophonics, Mission of Burma, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club) and broadening my horizons (Robert Johnson, Son House, Junior Kimbrough, Leadbelly). Anyway, here are my thoughts...

Biggest disappointment: Rocco DeLuca and the Burden - Mercy.
I'm a huge, huge fan of RDB's first album. He is amazing to watch live. He is an incredible Dobro player and delta-blues-inspired rock song writer. That said, his new album highlights none of his guitar playing ability, and focuses more on his voice (which is certainly unique) and...the glockenspiel. I wish I was kidding about that. Individually, most of the songs aren't bad, but collectively the album has no feeling or heart or energy. I blame Daniel Lanois.

Second biggest disappointment: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - Working on a Dream.
Many people know that I was raised on The Boss' music, and I continually listen to a half-dozen of his albums on a regular basis. I wasn't a huge fan of the last album, "Magic," because I thought it was too mid-tempo rock formulaic. Apparently Bruce and Brendan O'Brien loved the album, because they essentially made it again. No heart, no passion, just mid-tempo adult contemporary schlock. Time to ditch the E-Street band again and make another acoustic solo album about the plight of the working man again.
*Note - my disdain for Brendan O'Brien will appear again soon

On to the countdown. It was a decent year for indie/alternative music I guess:
10) Tie: Alice in Chains - Black Gives Way To Blue
BlakRoc - BlakRoc
I really didn't want to like the idea of a Layne Staley-less AIC, but this album is really pretty good, especially since Layne was too jammed up to really do anything productive on the last couple AIC albums anyway. And, anything by the Black Keys will always be on a year-end list. Add Ludacris, ODB, Mos Def, NOE, Raekwon and RZA to the project, and you get a fine, raw, rap-blues album.

9) Sonic Youth - The Eternal
For whatever reason, I always liked Sonic Youth but only had one album prior to this year. The Eternal isn't their greatest, but it is a solid indie rock album from the pioneers of the genre.

8) Mission of Burma - The Sound The Speed The Light
There really is no valid excuse for me being so slow on the uptake when it came to listening to Mission of Burma (aside, maybe, from the fact that they broke up when I was 4 initially). Do yourself a favor and "discover" them like I did this year.

7) Dan Auerbach - Keep It Hid
Solo album from one-half of The Black Keys. It's not quite as good as a Black Keys album, but it is still damn good. "I Want Some More" is one of my favorite songs of the year.

6) Built To Spill - There Is No Enemy
Seriously, how did I not know about Built To Spill earlier?!? I mean, I had always seen their name in the gig guide of the Phoenix now and then, but never bothered finding out what they were all about. I deserve to be scolded for that. Shame on me. Anyway, this is my favorite of their albums so far (though admittedly I've been listening to them for two weeks).

5) Blitzen Trapper - The Black River Killer EP
Usually an EP won't make my list, but "The Black River Killer" is such a damn good song that this one does. Blitzen Trapper are a really, really underrated band.

4) Pearl Jam - Backspacer
Well, Pearl Jam finally did it. They released an album that didn't make #1 on my year-end list. Only time this has ever happen. This album has good bones and some good individual songs, but Brendan O'Brien watered it waaaay done, the way he has with the last few Springsteen albums. For someone who was so vital to the sound of a lot of the music that I still love from the 1990s...what the hell happened? Still, "Gonna See My Friend," "Just Breath," "The End" "Got Some" and "The Fixer" are as good as anything they have ever put out.

3) Dave Matthews Band - Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King
This album caught me off guard, because I despise anything that Dave Matthews put out since "Before These Crowded Streets." That changed when I head "Funny The Way It Is" while sitting in a booth at Smokey Bones in Nashua. The passion and the emotion and the craftsmanship that MADE the Dave Matthews Band is back with a vengeance on this album.

2) Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures
So Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, some other band in the 90s), Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal) and John Paul Freakin' Jones (some band called Led Zeppelin) decided to form a group, eh. Of course it is one of the groove-heaviest (and heavy groove-est) albums of the year. This could very easily be ranked #1A. Why it doesn't get played on rock radio stations more...well...sorta explains why rock radio stations have been in continuous decline for a decade. Pick this one up (legally). It'll rock your face off.

1) Silversun Pickups - Swoon
SSPUs are probably my favorite band to debut in the '00s, as you'll find when I ever get around to putting together the "Favorites of the '00s" list. I could listen to this album every day (and sometimes I do). Very melodic (though heavier than you'd expect at times), very beautiful for a rock album. Obvious comparisons to early Smashing Pumpkins are warranted, but I think it is more sincere and skillfully crafted than anything Billy Corgan ever did. You deserve to own this album. Reward your ears. It'll make up for all the Lady Gaga and Black Eyed Peas you've had to endure.

Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Duit

2009-03-17T21:00:00.004-04:00

For those of you that don't speak Gaelic (which I'm assuming is everyone), the title of this means "Happy St. Patrick's Day." Hope everyone had a good one. I know I did - mostly because I didn't hear anybody say "Everyone's Irish on St. Patty's Day." That saying has always bothered me. Not everyone is Italian/Portuguese on Columbus Day. Not everyone is Black on Martin Luther King Day. So why is "everyone Irish on St. Patty's Day"???

Anywho, off my soapbox. For a blast from the past, here's a picture from last St. Patrick's Day, which was Morgan's first. She was 2.5 months old at the time.

Fast forward to Morgan's second St. Patrick's Day - i.e. today. She's now 14.5 months (see how I did the math there?!?!?).

They just grow up so fast, don't they? You can't tell here, but we were mostly wearing matching pants as well as green polo shirts. Only, one of our pants didn't have pink embroidered flowers on them. Guess whose??

Happy St. Patrick's Day again.

Best of 2008

2009-02-19T20:27:00.002-05:00

At long last, and because I know you cared, here are my picks for the best albums of 2008. That doesn't, of course mean that they ARE the best albums of 2008, as we all know how subjective people's music tastes are. Just that they are my favorite. Anyway, here goes...

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
- Body of War: Soundtrack (some filler, mostly good, partly great)
- Liam Finn: I'll Be Lightning (would be ranked higher if the sound of the album captured the energy and intensity of his live show)
-Foo Fighters: Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace (sounds, well, like the Foo Fighters. not exactly blazing any sonic trails here)
- Jeff Ament: Tone (would be much higher if not for Doug Pinnick - he kills the album)
-Steven Malkmus: Real Emotional Trash (maybe higher someday - I haven't listened to it enough)

#10 - The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound. I really like their sound. They definitely have a throwback sound for a modern, post-punk band. I just wish the sound was a little meatier, but I think that's a production thing. I expected more from Ted Hutt (see later).

#9 - Pennywise - Reason To Believe. For an album released in a gimmicky style (free download through MySpace), this is a damn solid album. Return to their early-90s sound, and sorta reminds me of Unwritten Law (before they really started sucking). Solid punk rock album.

#8 - Flogging Molly - Float. Dynamite album. Definitely their best. More "punky," more political, a little darker. None of the sea shanties. Awesome from start to finish.

#7 - Josh Ritter - Live at the 9:30 Club. At this point, Josh Ritter could probably record himself slaughtering puppies and it would make my top ten list. Great live EP - I just wish it was longer. Captures his live sound very accurately, and it's the only live thing he's put out to date that captures music from his best, and most recent, studio album.

#6 - Lupe Fiasco - Lupe Fiasco's The Cool. Okay, technically it came out in December 2007, but it's close enough. I've gotten away from a lot of hip-hop in recent years, but Lupe is the real deal. I like his flow, I like what he is rhyming about, and I like the beats, especially those by Soundtrakk. Look it up.

#5 - Kings of Leon - Only By the Night. I only caught on to these guys late in the year, so otherwise it may be higher, but this is a great album.

#4 - Street Dogs - State of Grace. This album is a home run. Mike McColgan was the best thing to ever happen to the Dropkick Murphy's, and this album proves why. Better than anything that DKM have done in a decade. There isn't a weak song on this album. If you think you like DKM, listen to this album. Lyrically, it's probably the best album of the year.

#3 - Trever Keith - Melancholics Anonymous. Maybe I'm biased because I'm of anything Trever (and Chad) do, but I really think this is a great album. First album I've really heard in what I'd call the post-emo genre. Really shows Trever's influences (heavy on The Cure). Too bad this one hasn't been widely released (though it is available for download at treverkeith.com).

#2 - Jackson United - Harmony and Dissidence. I really can't understand why JU hasn't blown up. This is a hell of an album, with a great sound and great songs. Better than the other major album Chris Shiflett was featured on this year, that's for sure.

....DRUM ROLL PLEASE...

#1 - Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs. I listened to this album once when it first, and then I didn't listen to it again for a few months because I wasn't thrilled the first time through. I'm not sure what I was thinking, because once I dusted it off, it's been hard to put down. It is louder than older stuff, and there are some really great bass grooves on this album (and you know my affinity for really great bass grooves). It's not their best-selling album, but it's certainly their best album.

There you have it, kids. Now gotta clear some space for 2009. I hear there is new Pearl Jam coming out this year, so guess what #1 will be.....

Cheers.

Hey, It's Me Again!

2009-01-16T10:06:00.004-05:00

What has changed since we last spoke? Well, for starters, Morgan turned one. I still can't believe she is a year old. Truth be told, I still can't believe she's MINE!! (That's not an implication of infidelity on Natalia's part...just me not coming to grips with the fact that I actually have a kid).

Here are some pictures...This is one of the first pictures taken of Morgan on the day she was born. For those who weren't in the loop at the time, she was born at Winchester Hospital, but was sent quickly to Children's Hospital in Boston because she was born A)anemic and B)suffering from a severe case of meconium aspiration. It's still tough for me to look at pictures from those first days.

Anyways, fast-forward one year:
...and here we have Morgan just before her first birthday, wearing Daddy's Stanley Morgan throwback jersey. It's amazing how many guys I know don't make the connection between the name on the back of the jersey and my daughter's name...and how many women I know that don't realize that there was actually a guy with the last name Morgan that played for the Patriots. Anyway...

We don't have many pictures of Morgan's actual birthday celebrations on this computer, so I'll upload more later. Also, I'm pretty close to finalizing my list of my favorite albums of 2008, because I just know you're dying to find out...

Back in a while...

Well, I HAD good intentions...

2008-10-20T20:06:00.006-04:00

I have this habit of getting an idea in my head and taking to it like a fish to water at first (emailing people, MySpace, books, etc), and then it quickly fades out and I'm on to the next thing. Really, I was going to use this space a lot more than I have. Who knows...maybe I still will. Anyway, thought I'd post some recent pictures of some goings-on in Wakefield.

Here's one of the obligatory "baby in the pumpkin patch" pictures. We went out to Connor's Farm in Danvers a couple weeks ago. Beautiful weather, though incredibly windy. Morgan had a great time playing with the pumpkins (as she has a great time playing with most things).

Aerial shot of Morgan and her pumpkiny friends. Sort of looks like an aerial shot of Neil Peart mid-solo (kudos if you have any idea what that reference means).

Morgan and daddy. In case you couldn't tell, she liked this one. Of course, there were a couple other ones she liked better later on, but this one made for the best picture.

One of surprisingly very few family pictures that we have of the three of us. Morgan has gotta be the most photographed baby in the history of babies, but we probably only have 4/5 pictures of the three of us together over the last nine months. We should work on that.

I'll post more pictures later, I just don't happen to have any on this computer. Really...I will!

Mmmm...Crab Mating Habits

2008-09-10T20:05:00.002-04:00

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13353.html - Now THAT is an earmark. Good thing Ms. Palin is anti-government spending and anti-pork barrel project....

Pit Bull in Lipstick

2008-09-09T21:21:00.002-04:00

So maybe you can explain this to me... How in the world did Sarah Palin become bulletproof. I certainly realize that it is still (though not THAT early), but this election cycle has really got me befuddled. I know Karl Rove is a political genius and all, but I didn't quite realize that he was a magician! It has about five days since John McCain's boooooooooooooring, substance-free acceptance speech, and six days since the "Pit Bull in Lipstick" burst onto the scene, and they are still getting a free pass from the "liberal elite media." I really thought Americans were tired enough of what has been going on in Washington that they would actually pay attention to this election. Apparently I was wrong....

Anyway, I'll use this spot to post articles and blogs that are for the cause - spread the word, people...McCain/Palin needs to be stopped!!!

http://gawker.com/5045353/seriously - Good article called "Sarah Palin: Seriously?"

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_stump/archive/2008/09/01/sarah-palin-s-lamest-line.aspx - Blog from "The New Republic" about Palin's co-opting Hillary's "glass ceiling" comments and making them her own.

Pictures To Follow...

2008-09-06T09:02:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Katrina, I've now figured out how to add pictures to the site. Unfortunately, I'm using the laptop now, and as it is Natalia's work computer, it doesn't have much in the way of pictures on it. So one of these hours I'll get up off my ass, start up the desktop, fire up Picasa, and add some photos to jazz this place up a little bit.

Oh...found that little picture on someone's Myspace page. I'll post more of them as I find them.

Still figuring this out...

2008-09-02T21:07:00.000-04:00

I figure that since there are actually more blogs on the planet than there are people, I should join the fray. "Why?" you ask? I'm not sure. We'll see if I stick with it. Guess you'll just have to wait and see. Also, if you are reading this and you know how to upload pictures to the background of these pages, please let me know.

Cheers