Ratatat - LP3 , Pixies - Bossanova

These both came on Monday, I don't really know why I got the Ratatat record (Above). It was an impulse buy and, as I heard someone on CNN say about Barack, I think most of the pixie dust has worn off. This album is pretty different though, I feel that the bass and drums play a much larger role, or at least the rhythm section seems a lot more prominent than in their other albums. Dura I think is a really good song, but is much better when Andy raps over it, which makes me feel like it's missing something. You know what I mean? It sounds like an instrumental track, but there are some good songs, and album is alright altogether.



Bossanova has one of me favorite pixies songs on it, Dig for Fire, among other classics. Also, I just wanted to further complete my pixies collection. Two to go. Anyways, a lot has happened since I last posted, new post coming in a second.

Strokin'

Heyo! There's like a million things going on for Oktoberfest around the area. Tons of specials, happy hours, and oktoberfest beer being brewed. I'm not sure how many of these i'll make it out to, but the DCist lists a bunch to check out.

Anyways, I heard Clarence Carter's Strokin' on the way home from work today. Shit is amazing. CLARENCE CARTER!CLARENCE CARTER!CLARENCE CARTER! God, Hater Players makes so much more sense now.




Mike O, John O, and Will are all coming to visit me this weekend! It's a regular Field Club Drive reunion (That's where we lived). My hopes are that Brian will also be able to make it out and things will just be wild. Hahaha if I ever need a laugh, I can always go back to Brian's picture from highschool graduation, gets me every time.

Overheard at Cube 849-H

Yeah yeah, copying Tommy.

Middle aged white woman reading aloud: "...could result in paralysis or death."

"what is this? I thought it was just a treasure hunt..."

David Shredder

I was listening to XM radio comedy on my way home from Fairfax today, and this fool came on who was just making jokes about how he was high all the time and one time was double fisting Klondike bars and watching basketball or something, not really, but it was pretty stupid. But then, he started telling a joke about playing baseball high, how he hit the ball, and then was like "Oh damn! Now I have to run!" Good one David, but then I swear on my life, he starts ripping off George Costanza's answering machine song.



The words are different he says, "Believe it or not, I'm running for home,..." I forget what he said but it honestly started out "Believe it or not" and the melody and rhythm were exactly the same. I've been searching for an MP3 of this, but all I could find was David Byron - Shred Master and Guitar Instructor. So that was pretty rad I guess, but here is some so-so evidence to prove I didn't completely fabricate this story. I wrote down his name and the name of the track, and looked it up when I got home, and it existed. Maybe this David Shredder came first, and Seinfeld ripped him off. I doubt that. At least George came out on top.

I got my "Inside the Dust Sleeve" and it's everything I've ever wished for. Some of the other vinyl I ordered better come soon, I'm starting to get worried.

I'm Dead

Dudes, I think Joe Sanderson is going to kill me, I might have to just avoid him for the rest of my life. I put this picture up on MySpace, and I think Joe's pretty angry, he has a reputation to uphold I guess. It's Joe's My Aphrodite, but I'm quite proud of it.

I really kind of wish I was in Pittsburgh so I could play music with John, I'm just so jealous when I watch these videos cause I want to be doing that. He posted videos from the show with Farewell Flight at Garfield Artworks on Wednesday of Make up Your Mind and On The Holidays and also If I Had A Nickel from his show at Your Inner Vagabond which looks like it was so much fun. Anyways, watch that, I'm so jealous.

Vinyl Collective

I just wanted to post about Vinyl Collective, which is a blog / shop which posts very regularly about new releases and restocks and they carry a lot of good stuff, like older and also new punk/rock records. They are very active, good dudes, and have great service if you're ever interested in just browsing some of the vinyl they sell. I find something I want to buy almost every time they post restocks, and every time I browse through their selection. Check it out.

Furniture is coming tomorrow morning, whoopie dooo!

This is my Shelter Cove couch:


Check out those giant pillows that come with it. Yeah man. And here's my Lattice Cocktail Table, a handsome table with clean lines and a comforting chestnut wood construction:



and here's a diagram of what my living room might look like after I get my furniture:



This post is dumb, you say? I'm just filling up space with pictures made in paint you say? What about that first paragraph? Dude, suck that shit.

Coalesce - Salt and Passage

Heyo! I got my Salt and Passage 7" today! Shit is so cool, it's clear with red and silver splatter, the vinyl and the music are both baller. Brian bought a copy of this when he saw Coalesce on tour that was white/black. It has two songs on it Son of Son of Man, and I Am This. I Am This is good stuff, but Son of Son of Man is off the hinges. It has a killer guitar riff, and Coalesce does a great job of being Coalesce, bizarre song structure and rhythm and Sean Ingram blowing my mind as usual. There's a really hard breakdown in Son of Son of Man as well which I missed in I Am This.

This is probably the coolest record I now own, bar maybe Coalesce's Give Them Rope 2.0 record I have which is gray and white marbled, and inscribed in between the last groove and the label it says "I don't believe you don't believe that we can believe". Don't know what that comes from but I think it's really cool that someone took the time and did that by hand.

My asshole car wouldn't start again this morning , I don't know if this is related to the first time I left a dome light on for a few days and the battery died, but I'm 99.9% sure I did not leave a light on this time, and ass if I'm paying 50 dollars to get it jumped again. Nicole gave me a ride to work this morning so that was OK, but we went to go jump it after work today and neither of us have jumper cables so we had to go to like 5 places to find that crap. I'm parked in a diagonal spot like this, / / /, headfirst and the parking spots on both sides of my car were occupied. So I figured we'd just push it out and pull her car up, but I got in and I couldn't shift into Neutral for some reason. I thought maybe the keys had to be in or the car had to be on, but for my life I couldn't shift the shit into neutral. I didn't know about the shift lock release, which is that little hole which is usually right next to the gear shift which is for occasions such as this. I always wondered what that thing was.... at least I'm learning. So, tomorrow morning is the one, going to get my car started and my life back on track after derailing on Wednesday. Goodnight.

Diana's Cookies

I wrote Diana (Diana Schmailscookiesried) a letter a few weeks ago, upon request, and she sent back cookies....dude! I didn't know how much better cookies can be when receiving them from a friend via the United States Postal Service...shit is wild. It's like the aforementioned mountain dew wrapper principle in reverse. Cookies from friends via the USPS are amazing, whereas they may just be OK when coming from a mere acquaintance served, say, by a regular hand or hand holding a plate. Thanks Diana.

I saw Mr. Jake the Snake last night as well, he moved to DC recently to work as Boooooz Allen Hamilton and it was good to see a familiar face. I also saw other familiar CMU faces unexpectedly at the bar. Carlene?! Do you remember that crap?! I thought Melissa and Gorana were going to walk through the door and Solesides Greatest Bumps was going to start playing. Also some chick who knew who I was, named Liz (Not Alspector), who said I was the nicest guy anyone would ever meet, which is...not true but was nice. Anyways me and Jakie met up with Patrick, Nicole, Blair, and some other people in Ballston and had a wonderful night. This morning however. I feel so irresponsible, but I'm just tired. Everything's going to be alright.

I also think I might get my Salt and Passage 7" today, excellent. This picture is just for fun.

Dudes

Dudes. I guess this dudes/duders thing is kind of getting old.

I keep posting right when I order something, and I realized I'm just posting about buying stuff. I'll write more on music, that might happen.

I just got Cease to Begin on Monday, which is most excellent. The artwork is beautiful, and one of my favorite albums for a while. For some reason I've been liking the more country-ish songs like "Marry Song", that's my favorite, maybe next to general specific. I just now went to their myspace and learned Cease to Begin is now available at target stores, for a limited time only ... hello good buy. I also found out that both albums were produced by Phil Ek, the duder who produced uh, all of the Built to Spill albums as far as I know. You know this was a really good idea starting this because by buying records I post more, and I buy more records so I can post. It's a wonderful cycle.

Man, I just got up to go to the bathroom to fart and pee, and our bathroom has 2 urinals, one tall one and one short one. But I walked in and there was ONE dude in there, and HE WAS USING THE LITTLE URINAL. Of all the options! Just blew my mind, I avoid the small urinal at most costs, the splash back dude, the pee hits the back of the urinal and gets all over your pants, and at work!? I guess it's possible that someone was using the big urinal when he started peeing, and then he continued to pee while the other guy washed his hands and walked out without me seeing him. I don't know, he was still peeing for a little while after I started. I think he just chose that shit, what a weirdo.

Chalk Dinosaur is playing a show tonight at the Garfield Artworks with Farewell Flight, I really wish I could have played or at least been there. I've been officially been moved from the "Members" section of the myspace page to the "Guest Appearances" list, but at least I still have a nickname. Anyways, if you're in Pittsburgh and reading this (Which might be an impossible combination since Tommy is the only person who reads this, and he lives in California, and he also probably might not make it down this far in this stupid post) you should go to the show because even if you don't love John, Farewell Flight is good stuff. Listen to "On Standby".

Reggie And The Full Effect - Inside The Dust Sleeve

Well RATFE is classic, and this gatefold is classic too, and was released on Vagrant! It's just the Under the Tray LP, but doesn't really work without a cd tray, hence Inside the Dust Sleeve. Same Songs. I saw it and really wanted to get Paco hung up on the wall and listen to RATFE for the first time in a bunch of years. I want to hang it up maybe along with Functioning on Impatience or Show me Your Tears. They are too rad to leave in a crate, also the only things on my walls right now are some crappy photos I took my Sophomore year at CMU and a Get Up Kids poster from highschool. I'm afraid the records might not be nearly as good when they aren't in the covers though. Kind of like how if you take the wrapper off of a Mountain Dew, it doesn't taste as good. I'm worried the Mountain Dew Principle will carry over to these records. I'll let you know.

Listening to these songs is amazing though, I just streamed some from last fm and was right back in highschool.

Work is kind of a bummer right now, getting kind of repetetive and boring, but I get to move somewhere else in the company in a couple of months so I gotta keep on a going and learning stuff until that point comes. In the meantime, I ordered a couch and a table which means I don't have to eat on the floor anymore, and I can sit on something more comfortable than a camping chair. Things are looking up.

Ween - La Cucaracha

I think I probably paid too much for this, but when I saw it in the record store I could not resist. I went to a new place that I hadn't been to yet to check it out called Som Records. It was pretty baller, they are almost purely a record shop, and have a lot of good used stuff and also had a couple crates of new vinyl, where I found this. They had the MGMT LP and I almost got that, with the Black Keys who I haven't heard much of but I've heard things. SOM records probably had the most new records that I actually wanted, and a lot of old rock stuff that I mostly haven't heard of which is usually how it is. But it wasn't a lot of stuff that I normally see in record stores, like old crappy 80's records and stuff, it was a lot of different stuff. So I think this was probably my favorite record store so far, beating out the CD cellar even though they had some good new vinyl as well.

Next stop on the record shop tour is Red Onion Records and Books. They have a mailing list which is nice, and they send out all the new LP's that they picked up every week. It's nice to be able to browse and keep up to date remotely from the convenience of my home. I'm going to stop by at some point this week however and check out the store. Updates to come.

I also ordered like 5000 records online recently because work was a little bit boring this week. So I've got a lot of posting to do in the near future.

On the my life side of things, I think an Asian gay kid has a man crush on me. I went out last night to TWO house warming parties, which were actually a good free time. Anyways we were walking from one house party to a bar or something, and someone spanked my right cheek. I don't know why but I didn't turn around, maybe I didn't want to know who it was, but I'm 90% it was the aforementioned gay Asian dude. Further confirmation of this man crush came upon his asking "So..do you have a girlfriend or what?" I said "Not Anymore", which in hindsight was probably was not the best response. Anyways, he might be moving kind of close to me with these two girls, one of whom I work with, and the other one is a babe who I want inside me. So that could be good or bad. Or both at the same time.

Band of Horses - Cease to Begin

I just ordered this actually, I didn't even get it in the mail yet, but this is one of my favorite records as of late so I anxiously await it's arrival. Will write more about the record when it comes and I can listen to it and write about it.

I actually wanted to write about Labor Day weekend. My Uncle Kevin (My Dad's Brother in Law) called me on Friday afternoon and said he was going to be in Alexandria for the evening and that we should meet up. Kevin's maybe not bro-est of the bros but it's always good to see family. So I drove down to Alexandria at around 5:30pm and we met up, and it turned out to be a big family reunion/birthday party. Needless to say I was out of place. Anyways, I thanked god when we left that house and went up the street to Kevin's brother's house, we'll call him Dale. He was chatting about the limo he had in his driveway, and I thought he was joking, but when we showed up, there it was. I had some serious doubts about where this night was headed, but we had picked up some beers along the way so we headed inside.

I followed Kevin past the limo and through the front door where we were greeted by one of the oldest living men i've laid my eyes on, sunk into a lazyboy, 5 feet in front of a 60 inch projection TV, yelling some nonsense gibberish at his three dogs.Every inch of this house was covered with crap, anything, giant bird cages, they had a suit of armor. Again i'm seriously questioning the direction this night has taken.

He has two sons, Joe and Ed, who are 25 year old twins. One of them works an IT job and the other does landscaping, both live at home as far as I know. It turns out they are total broskis, and we start talking about music becuase they listen to good music and play. Finally, the night has taken a turn for the better. I guess this is where being pack rats is a good thing, they have an absolutely baller band room on the roof with all the goods and then a bar. So we made mudslides on the porch and proceed to jam into the night, exactly what I've wanted to do since I can't play with John anymore. After a most excellent jam session, we moved onto the roof and started drinking the last bits of laphroaig that are out there, talk for a while and then everyone hits the sack of hay.

The rest of the weekend was wonderful after getting over that first hurdle, I went to my uncle's riverhouse and rode boats and jetskis all day and came home Monday night. How Wonderful.