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March 14, 2008

off came those awful toe rings

as a general rule i do everything possible to schedule work in the scenic city on fridays. but sometimes it's unavoidable that i have to fire up the impala and hit the road and this morning was just such an occasion. when the alarm went off this morning i had difficulty summoning the desire to get out of bed. i could hear that it was raining which meant traffic would be an issue plus i had to pull the trash can around the curb and drop some letters off at the post office before i began my journey in earnest. after considering all these things carefully i opted to snooze until 6:51. i somehow managed to shower, shave, dress, complete the aforementioned chore and still managed to settle myself behind the wheel at 7:15. not bad.

usually i'll listen to morning edition on npr during my morning drives until i lose reception or until i can no longer contain my seething rage at steve inskeep and his imdiscriminately smug interviewing style. but this morning i decided that i would break from that routine and give the new i-pod a whirl. and as i skidded and lurched my way toward interstate 24 i couldn't help that said i-pod - the i-pod that i have so aptly named the best of the 70's, 80's, and today was cranking out amazing song after amazing song. and i thought it was remarkable that after barely 48 hours together this little machine knew me so very well. the first five songs right out of the gate were as follows:

1. magazine called sunset ~ wilco
2. september gurls ~ big star
3. your ex-lover is dead ~ stars
4. come pick me up ~ ryan adams
5. cause = time ~ broken social scene....

needless to say my heart was filled with joy at the way these songs seemed so flawlessly sequenced and i sort of wished that i had a pen handy so i could write them down thinking that each of these songs could be part of a fantastic mix. it was around this time that i realized that i was in fact listening to one of my own mixes. brian austin green presents vol. 1 - i made it several months back as a birthday gift of sorts for some random chick and then completely forgotten about it.

which reminds me - i'm still trying to wrap my brain around the concept that i actually broke down and bought an i-pod. like most big events in my life it just sort of happened. there wasn't a whole lot of pre-meditation involved. and i have to spend that bonus somehow don't i? true there are plenty of sweaty projects around the house that could use my attention - but what would i listen to while performing said sweaty projects? i guess a big part of the reason that i boke down is because i have so much music on my computer (all obtained completely legally of course) that i seldom listen to if at all because making a playlist and burning an album or a mix became pretty cumbersome. especially since i have this really bad habit of not labelling things right away and then they suddenly disappear forever.

anyway, because i am a classy guy i went for the i-pod classic. 80gig. black. which has approximately 2.5 times the memory of the hard drive on the dusty old (dude you're getting a) dell. so now i have no excuse not to get back into the gym and trim back down to my 125 lb high school wrestling weight. because i have all those fashionable unitards hanging in the closet and they are completely going to waste. i'd love to re-introduce them to my adoring public during my stay in las vegas next month.

Posted by young_christopher at 6:57 PM | TrackBack

March 3, 2008

in the beginning we closed our eyes

back in the spring of '00 micah seth carver and i were approached to perform at the annual bowery benefit concert in the craig lyons memorial great hall and den. fresh off of our award winning performance at the homecoming festivities that fall we felt like we needed to come up with something pretty fantastic in an effort to solidify our much deserved acclaim. micah's parents had recently purchased a banjo for him and as he was earnestly trying to learn songs other than that creepy deliverance number we decided it might be cool to try to incorporate his new instrument into our act. (we also managed to squeeze a kazoo into heidi's bewigged take on abba's take a chance on me) and so we set about trying to find a song that would sufficiently showcase our prodigious talents.

we tried a few things but the one song we kept coming back to was wilco's what's the world got in store - track 8 on disc one of being there. it took some convincing to sell our backing band on the idea. but i can be decidedly difficult when it comes to music i will and will not perform in public and it wasn't long before everyone was on board. and i must say of all of the musical performances that i participated in during my time at that silly little school that first bowery show was probably my favourite. and not just because we rocked it. even though you know we totally did.


i was thinking about all of this as nels cline strapped on his banjo last nite, 3 songs in to my first ever concert at the ryman auditorium in nashville. and i thought, wow - wouldn't it be cool if they played that song? but as the first notes began to ruminate it became clear that it was not going to be what's the world got in store it was going to be something even more spectacular. i was instantly first date nervous - my knees went a little weak - i spilled a beverage on myself - and suddenly became very handsy. all because i realized what they were playing. judas priest! it was pieholden suite and it was glorious. they even had a little brass section that played the horn parts at the end. i half expected to be raptured at any moment and my heart became filled with mild regret that i had not gotten a seat in the balcony so that i could be among the first enter into the pearly gates. ulitmately there was no rapture. but hearing that song was imminently satisfying. if i were the sort of person to be moved to tears by a piece of music - or by anything really - that would have been a perfect moment for weeping publicly.

last nite was easily the best wilco show i've seen. better than the first one at uptown mix when i shook mr. tweedy's hand. it even topped tweedy's solo tabernacle show i saw with micah last year. speaking of - jeff tweedy was adorned in his gram parsons era nudie suit, and he made the point of saying - on multiple occasions - that the ryman was the greatest place in the world to play. and it would be hard to argue. it's a handsome old building what with all the stained glass windows and the beautiful woodwork - and of course all the years of grand ole opry history - (before they moved the grand ole opry over by the outlet mall). the band have been taking requests via their website for songs that people want to hear on this tour. and apparently nothing was off limits because they played some really old stuff. including the greatest rendition of misunderstood i will probably ever hear in my lifetime. i've included the set list for those that care about that sort of thing. up next the ultimate concert weekend okkervil river/new pornographers/avett brothers. i love music.


Via Chicago
Blood of the Lamb
Pieholden Suite
California Stars
Company in my Back
You Are My Face
Side with the Seeds
Pot Kettle Black
Shot in the Arm
She's a Jar
Handshake Drugs
Impossible Germany
It's Just That Simple (featuring Joh Stirrat)
Pick Up the Change
Too Far Apart
Nothingsevergonnastandinmywayagain
Jesus etc.
Hate It Here
Walken
I'm the Man Who Loves You
--------encore 1--------
Someone Else's Song (Tweedy w/o amplification)
Misunderstood
The Thanks I Get
Red Eyed and Blue -> I Got You
Monday
--------encore 2---------
The Late Greats

Posted by young_christopher at 8:43 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack