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I Was Thinking / Over Thinking
Where have I been? Well, that will probably be the discussion of the next couple blog posts. But first, where have I been in music?
Well, the last three days or so I've spend lots of music listening to my Paste Magazine samplers. I've got the entire collection, and it's not easy to randomly go through some 400 songs. But it's an eclectic ride, to be sure. I've definitely been listening to more country and classic music than in a long time. And it's pretty darn fun.
Unfortunately, it makes me want to take advantages of sales at PasteStore.com. Darn it.
Who Put Rock 'n' Roll In Your Blood?
Speaking of rock 'n' roll, just a side note that May 2nd is going to be a great day. Not only do we get the long-overdue rock 'n' roll release from The Elms (I mean, who wouldn't want a rock album called The Chess Hotel?), but I just noticed that the album a year and a half in the waiting, mars ILL's Pro*Pain is finally gonna be released. That is, unless the EMI good music Nazis have their way....
It's not exactly The Elms-style, but tonight I witnessed the tour de force that is Mute Math. Not only did they play almost every song from their EP and most of their new album, but there was tons of impromptu instrumentals, great crowd interaction, and non-stop intensity. By the time they left the stage, we were all clamoring for everybody's favorite track, "Reset". It was a non-stop amazing show, and I got a T-shirt and their new album. Maybe I'll give more thoughts on the new album later.
The opening band, Vedera, was pretty good. Lead singer Kristen May was very captivating and had easily the best female voice I've ever heard in a rock group. Let's hope the rock 'n' roll machine doesn't chew her up and spit her out like they did wiith Amy Lee of Evanescence.
On the more personal side, it was great to go to the concert with a couple friends from my house. None of them were Mute Math fans, but they enjoyed it nonetheless and made it fun by giving me the oppertunity to share one of my favorite new bands.
Now, if The Elms would just abnounce their album release club tour already, then we could schedule an awesome show!
Take Control of the Atmosphere
Interesting. According to an article republished on Mute Math's MySpace Blog, Mute Math is no longer on Warner Bros., and that's why they can distribute the record at the show if they want. The show mentions their Teleprompt label as still being theirs, but they didn't like the "Christian band" status that Warner was giving them, so they dropped the label.
Good for them. With the huge media attention (like being on Late Late Show tonight and a tour de force at MySpace) that they are getting, they'll have a label begging to sell the album in no time, if they want. At least, from everything I can tell, they are going to make it big.
After watching their performance on the Late Late Show, I figured out why they're doing so well without the help of a major label. It seems their publicity company has worked with a lot of big names in independent music, including The Decemberists as well as lots of other bands I've started hearing more and more about. Now it's starting to make more sense.
I'll see for myself next weekend, though. A week from tonight I'll see their live show. And you'll get a full report here.
People Talkin' Like It's The End of Time
Here I am with three signs the world is coming to an end:
- The Krispy Kreme store at the Mall of America has closed its doors.
- My favorite studio, Pixar, has been bought by Disney.
- Kanye West poses for the cover of Rolling Stone as Jesus.
It's a crazy world.
Drivin' Along In My Automobile
Check out this Honda Civic ad. It's amazing.
Stop The Music
A small tragedy almost happened yesterday. I left my earbuds in the car that I rode to work in, and if you ride the bus, you know that riding home on the bus without music or something to read can be really dull.
Thankfully, my good friend Mike took the time out of his afternoon to bring my earbuds by. It was great to have stuff to listen to, and it was a great but small way to show his friendship.
Speaking of frienship, a friend recently noted to me that I've been a bit too whiney recently. If I have offended anyone, I apologize for it. It's important to remember that anyone can read whatever you put on your blog, no matter how unlikely you think it is that they will read it. ;-)
Culture: A Fabulous Fabric Blend
Their last issue mentioned it, but now it's here. The folks at Paste Magazine are now producing a weekly podcast called Paste Culture Club. What is it? Well, it's an extension of the magazine's content and samplers. They've got more music, some interviews, discussions about movies and other things, and this week's podcast even included a sketch disguised as an "Interview with Beethoven". That was hilarious.
If you've heard me talking about Paste and am not sure if you're interested, check out the culture club. If you like it, then check out my favorite magazine which not only comes with lots of reading but a CD full of new music and a DVD full of movie previews, short films, and more. It's just plan awesome.
Revenge of the Nerds
In the spirit of Tuesday's rather boring keynote speech, I rented a movie. It's a rather small movie made by some computer geeks called Pirates of Silicon Valley. It's a fun and interesting dramatization of the early days of Apple and Microsoft. It's also very interesting to see a time when Apple was bigger than Microsoft. Plus, all the characters are well-fleshed out and very historically accurate from what I know. If you're a geek, get some history and a bit of fun with this engaging movie. It may be a bit too focused on the big personality of Steve Jobs, but that's not the movie creator's problem because Steve is a hippie, very demanding, and not easy to work with.
Word(Press) 2 The Man
Well, for a week now I've been using the brand new WordPress 2.0 to power my blog. It only officially released yesterday, so I guess I'm a bit ahead of some people.
What are my thoughts? Well, the rich text editor was pissing me off, but I might turn it back on, I dunno. Maybe not, though, because I'm fine with coding HTML. There's a couple other things I need to get used to, and they're coming along a bit.
This weekend I wanted to stretch my coding muscle and decided to try to write a plug-in for WordPress to support my spiffy update blog design. In case you didn't notice, the top of the page does a random image and associated text at the top. It's pretty slick, but it wasn't the easiest thing to get working.
I used the add_action('wp_head', 'rand_head_css'); hook to add the image into the style via CSS, and it looks beautiful. But getting the text was a bit harder. I wanted to use an add_filter() hook to change the description, but as far as I can tell, that's not doable. So I just hard-coded the random text function into my template. Not as cool, but I guess it works.
I guess I'll have to code a backend for this soon because I don't like SSH terminals enough to want to insert the text into the database each time I make a new one. But don't worry, more will be coming.
If you're in IE, the top might look a bit horrendous. I might get around to fixing it, but just get FireFox already.
Complication's My Claim To Fame
Well, it looks like the industry machine is starting to ramp up for the spring. Right now, the industry is moving to the sounds of Mute Math, a great new band from New Orleans. Their debut EP has been out for over a year, but this spring is finally going to bring them into the full spotlight with the release of their full-length album.
Although the exact release date for their disc has not been declared, the tour posters for this spring's rigorous tour schedule mentions that the band will have the disc available at shows. Between that and the fact that the local show only costs $8, I'm totally there.
Alright, I gotta go. I have to start posting the Most Spun 2005 feature.