The Title: J and I went up to visit some of her family in northwest Iowa for Easter. On the way there we drove through lots of small Iowa towns. One of these towns was Sac City. Not only did it have an interesting name, it was certainly the most interesting town we went through. There were cool homes with statues in the yard and old banks and government buildings. I’d definitely like to explore.
The Album Art: On that same trip, we had Easter brunch in Okoboji at some hotel. This sign was keeping strict time.
Medicine (Orbit)
This song’s lyrics have always been in my head but if you asked me if I’d heard the song back in the 90s I probably would have told you no. Apparently they have new stuff coming out soon.
Rhinemaidens (The Envy Corps)
These guys are from Ames but don’t really sound like it. Someday I hope to see them when they return to their native soil. They are in the UK for a while now.
Center of the Universe (Built To Spill)
I’m not a guy who likes to hear the same music over and over again but I imagine if you played the Built To Spill catalog on repeat, it would take a long time before I would complain. I guess that’s a long way of saying a Built to Spill album would most likely be on my deserted island list.
Mr. Understanding (Pete and the Pirates)
Uptempo and fun, late in an album is pretty much a guarantee to make me satisfied. The way to my heart is through a good song late in your album, you could say.
Cherry Tulips (Headlights)
My friend Jo and I missed out on seeing these guys from Champana, Illinois this month.
Camaro (Kings of Leon)
This song always makes me think of J. Maybe because she’s one of the few people that I interact with that think a Camaro is a cool car.
I Lust You (feat. Cate LeBon) (Neon Neon)
It’s mindblowing to hear poppy sexy-type songs being created and sung by a guy that you know better for singing wacky shit in a band called Super Furry Animals.
Cassius (Foals)
I guess you would call this dance-rock. I know I’ve developed my own dance to it. I bust it out anytime this song is on. It would best be described as a variation on Jimmy Tango’s “Ride the Snake”.
Stockholm Syndrome (Muse)
I was cleaning up after some friends were over and as I was putting away my Stratocaster (of the Rock Band variety), this song came up. I took the opportunity to rock out with the “guitar” for a few.
Tape Song (The Kills)
This is very Yeah Yeah Yeahs-y and I’ll take anything like that because I’d appreciate if the YYYs released an album every month.
Why Do You Let Me Stay Here? (She & Him)
This is actress Zooey Deschanel working with M. Ward. The album is as expected without anything super interesting but for some reason the twee-ness of this song works for me.
T For Texas (The Felice Brothers)
You’ll like this if you follow my philosophy that people should make something with their voice even if they aren’t Josh Groban. This may be a little Bob Dylan-whiny but I feel it adds to the song in a fun way.
Say It Ain’t So (Weezer)
Kevin was over for some Rock Band and we were determined to pass this one on higher difficulties. We never did and I also learned that Kevin was not that familiar with the Blue Album. I was shocked.
3rd Planet (Modest Mouse)
I love late 90s Modest Mouse and hadn’t listened to it much because it falls under my “albums I’ve owned, ripped and then forgotten about because the original rip quality wasn’t good enough to cross the threshold on to my iPod.” Luckily, a few jukeboxes around town reminded me this month.
Skinny Love (Bon Iver)
Another show in Iowa City that I missed, but I’m not down. I was having fun with my friends. Definitely on the mellow end of my spectrum.
Party (Envelopes)
A rule has been broken. I rail on bands (RHCP) for not knowing how to make a complete song. This song is like 3 musical ideas that barely come together but I guess they come together enough for me to enjoy them.
Magic Spells (Crystal Castles)
Atari/Nintendo-y music that is very ambient. This is like a 6 minute long fade out to an album. The fade out really needs to come back.
Last year, I honestly tried to get back in to baseball. I thought, “I have cable now, I’ll watch me some televised games.” All I could ever find were Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Cardinals and/or Braves games. I thought I would do a fantasy league but those aren’t fun unless friends are involved and you are able to razz them about something. I would have spent all of my auction dollars on Jose Rijo only to find out he injured his elbow 13 years ago! My team, much like my bracket would have spent the season in last place. If I’m going to do it, there needs to be some way for me to get back in to baseball and make it less of a chore. I also need to remind myself that the Brewers are in the National League.
When I was a kid, until the year the Expos almost won the World Series had we had one, I collected baseball cards. I loved baseball cards because you could do so many things with them. In 1988 I left my entire rubberbanded Topps Giants collection out in the sandbox after coaching them through another World Series. Unfortunately, game 8 was rained out but the coach didn’t get the memo and left his team on the field. Candy Maldonado’s play was much worse after that.
My favorite smell in the world is opening up a pack of Topps baseball cards with the gum in it. You would always chew the gum because you were from WV and you took what you could get but the gum was more there to flavorize your cards. I have a box somewhere that still smells like gum almost 20 years later.
When I was 3 and 4, I traded cards with the neighborhood kids. We had a goldmine in the neighborhood named Danny. He was a kid who was much older than us and he was mentally handicapped. He and his mom went for a walk everyday at Mountaineer Mall and he returned with at least one pack of baseball cards. Everyday. Dude had triples of just about everyone. If you had something he didn’t have, he wanted it and he would trade anything of his as long as he had doubles. I’d like to see any other GM get Ken Oberkfell for Andy Van Slyke in an even trade.
I used to make my own pathetic attempt at a personalized baseball card complete with cutout “action” shot and blue college-rule lines with statistics based on my current season of Knothole. The sad thing is now I am capable of making a pretty sleek card that could rival Donruss (certainly Fleer or Score) but I have no real justification in doing so. I guess that would be a reason to have a son. Man, I would be that cool dad on the team who kept score, kept track of statistics and read the names off in a cool fashion. “Sanderson…in.. the…hole!” Of course, I’d have to start drinking at 10 am. “It’s okay I brought my own sno-cone.” Having kids: 1; not having kids: 920.
I think my ticket back in to baseball may actually be the 2007 complete set. Anybody wanna trade for Jose Rijo?
Edit: APRIL FOOLS! Do you really think I believed this was the second coming of Nirvana? I do still recommend watching the video though.
I promise someday I’ll talk about something other than music again, but it’s so hard right now since there is such great stuff out there.
Seether’s album is one I totally missed. I like to pretend I keep my ear pretty close to the ground but in doing so I miss a lot of the good stuff that is played on mainstream radio. I’m glad this album finally found me.
I just barely missed the boat when Nirvana was on the scene. I’ve heard these guys get compared to Nirvana a lot and they deserve every comparison. They are classified as “post grunge” and just like their “post punk” counterparts they have taken a genre and improved on it. Hindrances like organic lyrics and vocals have finally been replaced with the familiar sounds of the mainstream male whisper voice. No longer do I have to decipher Cobain’s deeper moments or sometimes intangible (!) lyrics because Seether doesn’t mess with getting deep or using the voice as some sort of instrument.
They haven’t changed everything though. You can see the lead singer occasionally trot out with a horizontal striped sweater just like everyone’s favorite grunge god.
But don’t take my word for it…
Check out their newest video, “Gasoline”.