Worth A 1,000 Words

So I wasn’t up front, but I also got there 5 hours later than the first people in line. There was a barricade between us and them once we got inside. But hey, I’ll take 20ish rows back in exchange for getting there at 6. And yes, it was, as one guy standing next to me said before it started - “The concert you compare all other concerts to for the rest of your life.”  22 songs and 2 and half hours later, I fully agreed.

Head ‘Em Up, Move ‘Em Out

the birds are chirping, the flowers are blooming - its that time of year again - moving time.  Myself, and my roommate of the past 7 years, Josh, do this every year or so, so its beginning to be a fairly natural occurrence (this will be our 6th move… bunch of vagrants…)  We’re moving out of our super-sweet lake cabana, for the more reasonably-priced and geographically-convenient little yellow number you see below.

not too much to look at, but she’s got a lot of moxie.  she’ll do just fine.

And every time I move I realize how much crap I really do have and how much of it I really don’t need.  I keep telling myself that this year will be different, and I’ll throw out a bunch of stuff, and get rid of a bunch of clothes and simply my living - but I’m too friggin sentimental.  So I keep all of it.  And I’m sure I’ll add more to it.  It’s a vicious, unending cycle I hear - at least until you get married.  I also would drive the organized and OCD crowd crazy with my gypsy-like moving techniques - I packed our whole kitchen up into Wal Mart bags, and I ran out of luggage to back my clothes in so I threw a bunch on the bed, grabbed the sheet corners - and ta da, insta-luggage.

So we’re most of the way out, minus a few pieces of furniture and some straggling leftovers.  Tonight’s the first night in the new house - and tomorrow is another day.

BRMC, Bluegrass & The Boss

Last night began what has all the makings of being one of the best musical weeks of my life. Going to even just one of these shows would be awesome in itself - but to have them all fall on the same calendar week? Lets just say my ears have done nothing to deserve this kind of treatment. They owe me big time.

Last night I went and saw the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club at the Visulite in Charlotte. If you’ve never heard of them, just imagine what a band called the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club would sound like and you’re probably right. A dirty, swaggering mix of loud guitars and rock riffs sprinkled with some country, gospel and blues for good effect. They brought the heat for almost two hours and afterwards I had the blissful ring of rock n roll still in my ears.

And then on Thursday and Friday, Josh and I are headed up to Merlefest in Wilkesboro, NC, for some sweet Americana and Bluegrass action featuring a few my favorite bands - Old Crow Medicine Show and the Avett Brothers - and a few that I’m really looking forward to seeing - Ralph Stanley, Marty Stuart, Doc Watson and the Carolina Chocolate Drops, among many others. Plus there is a banjo competition. And I think some clogging. Dibs.

And if we were going to use a horse racing analogy, Sunday would be the Triple Crown or the Kentucky Derby (actually, I think the Kentucky Derby is the first leg of the Triple Crown. Hmm. I should never begin analogies I know nothing about… noted.) At any rate, rock n roll royalty is headed to the Queen City - Sunday the Boss comes to town. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say it will probably be one of those musical events I tell my grandchildren about. And I have a general admission ticket, which translates into me probably elbowing some guy in the head in order to get as close to the stage as possible. Because who doesn’t want to be up front when the whole place starts singing “Tramps like us, baby we were born to run.” Holy crap its gonna be sweet.

The Day The Music Died

So if you weren’t already aware, a month or two back my MacBook hard drive kicked the bucket. I lost everything - about 2 weeks of work, which I was able to tap dance around, a bunch of photos and what not. But the biggest heart loss had to my music library. See, music ranks right up there with food on the level-of-importance-in-my-life scale. And even though I had it all backed up on my iPod, I didn’t have an iPod cable handy for a few days following Black Friday. Say hello to the information superhighway - you’re friendly neighborhood jukebox that will never let you down. Here are a few of my favorite places to get that sweet, hot, quick music fix - because I know you need it. And if you don’t, fake it for a few seconds and humor me.

Project Playlist - The Myspace of free music. A little too ad-flashy and a little too spotty on it’s reliability, but probably the best place to hunt down that new Lil’ Wayne jam (by the way, go listen to ‘Shooter’ - its legit). An easy, quick fix for hearing that song thats been stuck in your head all day.

Rhapsody* - This one sort of has an asterisk because it’s not free. But it’s pretty brilliant - its the radio version of Netflix - music on demand for a flat rate. And they have a lot of music. A lot. You can’t download it, but you can access your account from any computer and you can build enough playlists to shake a stick at. It used to be a secret until they starting rolling some Sara Bareilles-fueled ads and now they’re blowing up. It’s easily the best place to hear The Boss’s entire catalog or see if you really like all of that new Gnarls Barkley record.

Pandora - This is radio made just for you. Really. I’m talking some smart MIT brain trust sort of stuff - I mean, this thing even claims to be part of the Music Genome Project - that just sounds smart. Type in an artist. Or even a song. And Pandora will make a seemingly endless playlist of songs by that artist and related artists they think you’d like. Ta-da. Your radio just got a brain. And some good taste if you play your cards right.

Muxtape - If Project Playlist is the Myspace of free music, then Muxtape is that cool friend of yours who tells you about wicked bands you won’t hear in the mainstream for years - or ever. And not in the overbearing, “you should love this or you’re retarded” kind of way. It’s stupid easy to use (both in listening and mixtape-making). Plus, with nothing more than a username and colored bar to guide you, you’re almost always guaranteed to find something you haven’t heard before. So find something you like and talk about it all hifalutin-like with your buddies like you’ve known about The Apples in Stereo for years. Muxtape is apparently also super illegal, so hit this up before its too late.

There’s probably more sites out there I don’t know about, so let me know if I’m missing something vital. But in the event that you find yourself on a musical island all alone, hopefully this can a be a rescue flare. Or maybe its a message in a bottle - I’m not sure how the metaphor works.

Get Your Starbore On

That boyishly good looking Chris Brown, contrary to popular belief of teen girls every where, is more than just a pretty face. He just released a self-titled album from his side project Starbore and man, its freakin good. And no I’m not just saying that because I designed the album art. This is power-pop goodness that is handmade for open-window morning drives to work. In the vein of Snow Patrol, Needtobreathe, Mae and Sleeping At Last, this EP is full of ambitious stadium-sized choruses, soaring vocals and hooks galore. And the more chill tracks like “Orchestration” and “Forget the Past” aren’t a letdown, but more like a breather before the next big crescendo around the corner.

So if you like your ears and want to keep them happy, go buy this album. There are all sorts of place to get your hands on it: listen to it here or here or even here, or buy it digitally here or here, or if you need to feel the music on your fingertips, buy a hard copy here. You can also get it Sunday mornings at Elevation’s resource table (which just happens to be run by my hot lady and one half of my favorite husband-wife volunteer superpower).

‘The Office’ Comes Home

The strike-laden 4th season of ‘The Office’ resumes tonight - after 5 long months of dead air. It’s about freakin time. So be there. Or at least make sure your DVR is there, so you can be there later at a time of your choice. Here’s a little appetizer slash a public service announcement from Dwight. Enjoy.

Cha Cha Real Smooth

Who doesn’t love useful slash useless trivia? me too. I even have a non-secret semi-love affair with Wikipedia and its boundless knowledge. But yesterday I found out (via this guy) about the new sliced bread. Say hello to Cha Cha. Computer technology meeting human intelligence. How does it work, you ask? Just text any question you want to 242-242 and within roughly 2 minutes you’ll get a text back with the answer. Any question. Any time. No seriously. Once you ask your question, Cha Cha technology will route your question to the most knowledgeable person in their guide community and they’ll text you an answer. Simple. Easy. Brilliant. Oh and its free. Here’s just a few of the questions the coworkers and I asked Cha Cha yesterday…

- What is the capital of Honduras?
- Where does ‘Rock Chalk Jayhawk’ come from?
- Why is the ‘C’ gold in the UCLA jerseys this year?
- Where is the best pizza in Rock Hill?
- Sometimes my coworker Meredith is grouchy in the mornings. How can I help her? (we were all thinking it, Larry just had the ca hones to ask it…)
- Why do wet farts stink more? (thanks to Jeremy for this one…)

And without fail, Cha Cha came through. But sometimes this human subjectivity has a downside. I asked Cha Cha what the best love song was - and it told me “Places I’ve Been” by Taylor Hicks. Not that I wasn’t a member of the soul patrol back in the day, but come on - the best? Not even sniffing the top 100. Give me Righteous Brothers any and every time over that silver haired crooner. Good try though, Cha Cha.

Now everybody clap your hands.

Don’t Rock The Jukebox

Maybe its because Spring is almost in the air (she’s trying hard but Winter doesn’t seem to want to let go…). Maybe its because I got my Bruce Springsteen ticket in the mail this week. Whatever it is, I’ve been be-bopping to some sweet Boss-style alt-country americana stuff this week. Here’s some of the recent heavy rotation. You should listen in:

Kevin Drew - “Lucky Ones”
Whiskeytown - “Jacksonville Skyline”
Jesse Malin - “NY Nights”
Emily Haines - “Telethon”
Neil Finn - “She Will Have Her Way”
Counting Crows - “You Can’t Count On Me”
Damien Jurado - “Matinee”

And let me know if I’m missing out on anything…