Places

Places where my dog has thrown up in the past two days:

1. Dining Room
2. Kitchen
3. Back Steps
4. Living Room
5. Kitchen

Things #2

Things that I say I could do without (but secretly, either because of obligation or the fact that I secretly like this thing or that I secretly enjoy hating this thing, I really could not do without).

1. The New York Yankees
2. My Job
3. McDonalds
4. ABBA
5. Washing Dishes

Things

Things I could do without

1. Ann Coulter
2. Rush Hour Traffic
3. The new Rilo Kiley album
4. Tim McCarver and Joe Buck talking about baseball
5. The real estate market that, thus far, has not allowed me to sell my house

Salvation Blues

It's Mark Olson weekend pretty much...
Unfortunately, for me, I have to go to Portage, WI for a wedding tomorrow, so I will miss his show at the 400 Bar. His new album is incredibly good. I talked about it in the HWTS podcast that came out last week, which you can listen to here.

Tony Thomas has an interview today with Mark Olson, which you can listen to here.

Olson is also playing at the fetus tomorrow at noon or at 2:00, depending on who you listen to.

I guessed and started the rumor that Olson would have some "special" guests with him and Olson himself, in his interview with Tony Thomas, intimated the same. Should be a brilliant show.

Happy Birthday

My friend, Jen is having a birthday bash with some great bands. You should really go...

My bridge story is like most people’s: not really about the bridge, but more about me. My sister-in-law called my wife to tell her to turn on the television. I was in the other room leaving a message for a friend whose dog had just died (a sad country song of a story in itself). “A bridge on 35W collapsed,” my wife said.

I thought first of the Diamond Lake Road overpass that they tore down a few months ago. I thought it must be an overpass somewhere that fell down—tragic, but relatively minor. I was wrong.

As I watched the news and listened to MPR constantly for the next few days, I couldn’t shake that helpless feeling. Like someone punched you in the stomach. I kept watching and listening, never really hearing anything new, but unable to turn away. I kept seeing this tangles mass of steel and concrete, splintered up towards the sky and swimming in the brown muck of the Mississippi. I couldn’t turn away. It looked to me like a movie, something not real, something that couldn’t happen a few miles from my house, something that doesn’t happen in Minnesota.

As I watched, my mind began to work in the exhaustive way it works—creating dark fantasies of myself driving over that bridge. What would I do?

Each day after work, I pick up my daughter from day care and drive her across town to our house in North Minneapolis. Each day I drive over bridges, past lakes and alongside that mighty river. I kept imagining myself with my daughter strapped into her Graco in the backseat, trying to get to her, underwater or teetering on the edge of a concrete cliff. These dark fantasies haunted me constantly. What would I do? How can I stand it? How can I protect this little, beautiful person? I didn’t want to tell my wife about these haunting thoughts, but I had to eventually, I couldn’t keep it to myself. I said plainly, “I keep thinking about being on the bridge with her. What if I had to save her, or worse yet, what if I couldn’t?”

“I know,” is all she said.

I think she knew, but I couldn’t really tell her what I meant. I couldn’t verbalize the twisted thoughts that were in my head. I couldn’t say them out loud.

Again, I kept looking at those images of the bridge. I couldn’t believe it was real.

I went out the Friday after the collapse to the 331 Club to see JG and Mary Everest. I was there by myself and I was enjoying the music, for the first part of the night, it was therapy to unnerve myself from the bridge and my nightmares. About 12:30 though, I found myself staring at the floor, daydreaming about that bridge. It was consuming me again, I knew it was right down the street and I knew that I had to go see it.

I drive down University to where the avenue intersects the interstate and I slowed and looked to my right. Powerful lights lighted the whole span and I could see a section of bridge tilted up towards downtown like a giant concrete launch ramp. I could see nothing beyond that, the road just dropped out of sight.

I drove home not feeling better, I sat on my couch and listened, through my headphones, to Cloud Cult’s The Meaning of 8. There are so many songs on that album about a parent and child separated by tragedy. It was just the kind of wallowing torture I needed. I stared blankly at the wall as I sat on my couch listening.

When I woke up the next morning, I felt better. The fantasies stopped. I still felt heartbroken and helpless, but I felt better. I think maybe my bridge story is still happening…

New Spins for the Old Drunk

I may have embarrassed myself at the Spins last night.

Me: I don't know if this means I have a drinking problem, but if I have one beer then I just want like twelve more.
Alexa: That sounds like a drinking problem to me.
Me: Oh.

Anyway, here is what I spun at the Spins:

1. Gray - Heartless Bastards
2. New Drink for the Old Drunk - Crooked Fingers
3. Across The Line - Scott Miller and the Commonwealth
4. Trouble Doll - Matthew Ryan
5. Charango (Isla Negra) - The Dad in Common
6. Sangre de Stephanie - Lifter Puller
7. Sound System - Operation Ivy
8. Quarter-Life Crisis - The Cardinal Sin

Last Week and Next Week

My Dinosaur Jr review is up over at HWTS.

What I didn't mention is that the friend who went with me to this show was the same sidekick for the last Dinosaur Jr show I saw ten years ago. The Boathouse, where we saw that show, has shut down now. Norfolk has a new venue called the Norva. I've never been there, but I can tell you the boathouse was kind of a weird place. It was actually on stilts on the water--an actual boathouse. During shows that were not 21plus they would put up a rail running perpendicular to the stage and they called one half the beer garden. When shows would get crazy the bouncers would be stationed along this rail and as kids tried to crowd surf or jump over the rail, the bouncers would pummel them.

Next Saturday come celebrate five years of internet goodness. The HowWasTheShow.com five-year anniversary party.

Saturday June 9 at the Turf Club. 9pm

First Communion Afterparty
The Slats
Jeremy Messersmith
Mouthful of Bees
Estate

Lullabye

If you want your heart to break because of a beautiful lonesome song, then go here and listen to lullabye.

Alison played this song at the hoot this past Friday and it absolutely floored me.

Take a Look at my Girlfriend

I stopped at garage sale in Northeast Mpls this past weekend and found this little nugget of vinyl goodness. Supertramp's Breakfast in America. I remember listening to this album a lot when I was a kid. I had it on a cassette tape and I just loved staring at the album cover with the city made out of breakfast cereal boxes and dished and cutlery. And "Libby" posing as a service industry statue of liberty. The music is good too. Released in 1979, this album is full of straightforward seventies rock. I've listened to the record about five times since Saturday afternoon.

The Spins Have Hit Glass

I want to have some more to say from now on, but at this moment I wanted to post my setlist from the Spins this past Saturday. The Spins is an event hosted by HowWasTheShow.com where the writers and editors basically make mix CDs to play while they drink $3.00 mystery beers with whomever shows up. It happens every other Tuesday at the Nomad World Pub. The next version happens May 22.

1. Hayden - "The Hazards of Sitting Beneath Palm Trees"
2. Cloud Cult - "Chemicals Collide"
3. Brian Just - "Duluth"
4. Guided by Voices - "The Bride Have Hit Glass"
5. Story of the Sea - "Bubble Gum"
6. Matthew Ryan - "BabyBird"
7. Archers of Loaf - "South Carolina"
8. Lifter Puller - "Secret Santa Cruz"
9. P.O.S. - "De La Souls"
10. Lucero - "Bikeriders"
11. The Rockford Mules - "Crooked Tooth"
12. Self-Evident - "Automatic Lewis"
13. Dinosaur Jr. - "Sludgefeast"
14. Best Friends Forever - "The Loneliness Song"
15. Faces - "Ooh La La"
16. Alpha Consumer - "The Son of the C.E.O. of Rubbersuit Co."
17. Brother Ali - "Forest Whitiker"

Whew!

It's been awhile. A lot has happened in the weeks since I last spilled my guts all over the internet.

I finally graduated from college. What does that mean for my future, I don't know. One of the outlets I had for writing has collapsed. It's not like I was making any money so maybe this will force me to get out there and sell myself to publications that pay their writers.

We had someone that really liked our house, but then decided not to buy it, but then thought maybe, but then decided to wait, but then put an offer on a different house.

But really what has happened since I last spilled my guts all over the internet is that a beautiful brown-haired little girl has entered my life and my heart and she just makes me go all soft inside. My little daughter, Penelope just totally rocks. That is why I have been away. The thing is that I really do miss going out to shows, hanging out with friends and drinking beer into the small hours of the morning. I do miss that. But when I am at home with P, I realize that is where I really want to be. When I am with her, I don't want to be anywhere else.

There, take that internet, my guts are running through your spidery little veins now!

Baby, Baby, Baby, Oh Baby (No Baby Yet)

I am a worrier.

I get worked up; nervous and anxious about things. I burst at the seams when faced with simple things like: going to interview somebody, calling somebody on the phone, meeting people, going someplace new.

My palms get sweaty. My heart goes flutter-flutter. I can't sit still. My thoughts get all scattered and I just think and think about whatever kind of fantasies I can come up with about the way things are going to go wrong.

So if I get all goofy about calling my bank, imagine just how insane-out-of-my-head I am waiting for my baby to arrive. I can't focus on anything; work, school or writing. My wife is due in five days and has been having sporadic contractions for about a week now. Everyday I wake up and say, "Is this the day?" Don't get me wrong though, I am super excited about this. I just am not good at waiting.

I was going to do a Top5 in honor of my impending fatherhood, but all the songs I could think of or find that had something to do with "baby" were about the kind of "baby" that left you alone, or hit the bottle, or hit the needle, or died in a horrible car wreck. I don't really want to associate those things with my baby.

So I give you these things:
Some of the How Was The Show staff did a podcast for the excellent MinneapolisCast run by Tony Thomas. Andrea Myers, David de Young, Jennifer Paulson, Pat O'Brien and myself contributed and you can listen to it here. (I just realized that the song I reviewed. "Don't Take My Baby To War" has the word baby in it. Coincidence?)

Also, Chris at Culture Bully did an interview with Andrea and me about the local music scene and you can find that here.

They're Still Racing Out at The Trestles

(Update: Jinx! Andrea totally blogged about The Cates today also. This will give people more reason to believe in the HWTS mafia. I swear it was innocent and we were not commiserating about our intentions. Her post is better than mine so go read it.)

I’ve been thinking about cover songs lately. Normally, if a band plays a cover I don’t get all that excited about it. That is unless they are able to do something special with it. I am not talking about Hairball or Boogie Wonderland type bands here. I mean bands that have a little shame about their covers. These thoughts have been buzzing around the back of my brain for a few weeks now, but last weekend something happened that made the buzzing consume my brain. I’ll get to that in a second though. The Cates - photo by David de Young

My house is on the market and I packed up most of my CDs and put them in storage. So most of my music (except for about 30 CDs that I just couldn’t stand to put away) are in boxes in the dark corner of a storage unit in North Minneapolis. My main repository for music is now my little green iPod.

Last weekend I found The Cates for the first time. Brilliant, aching vocals by these two women whose melancholy songs are tinged with just enough optimism beneath the surface to not feel suffocating, but are still sad enough to go perfect with a dim room and a bottle of wine. They played an amazing version of Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.”

When the song started I thought, “Oh. This is a funny little song, this might be good.” But they weren’t going for a funny little song vibe, they sang that ‘80s pop song with as much soul as I think Lauper could ever imagine. It was then that it hit me what makes a great cover song. The lack of irony.

I’m sure lots of bands have covered “Girls…” or “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” or something along those lines with a tongue-in-cheek kind of hubris. A cue to the audience not to take this too seriously. But the best cover songs are the ones that say, “Listen fucker. I didn’t write this song, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t come from my gut. I am dead serious about this and you are going to feel it!”

I was looking through my iPod to find some kick ass cover songs, but I couldn’t find that many that had the qualities that made me love The Cates so much.

I am sure there are much more out there, but the only one I really found was Bruce Springsteen’s “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” covered by The Winter Blanket.

I am on a mission to find some more. And I will be checking out The Cates again. For sure.

(You can listen to Girls Just Wanna Have Fun on The Cates myspace page.)

I Thought Dinosaurs Were Extinct

If I had to choose one favorite band of all time, that band would be Dinosaur Jr. Pitchfork has a story about how the reunited band is set to release a new album. I feel underwhelmed. I wish I was more excited, but I just feel like this is going to be a J Mascis wankfest - much like Mascis' solo work.

I guess I'll see. I'm sure I'll buy the album when it comes out because I am loyal.

Maybe I'll have to amend my gun-to-the-head admonition. I'll say, Dinosaur Jr. of the twentieth century is my favorite band of all time.

Top5 - HowWasTheShow-versary Edition

I haven’t done one of these Top5s in a while. I used to do one a week, but as it went on the songs were less of what I was really into and more of whatever came up on my iPod when it was on shuffle. I thought of a good reason to write a new Top5 though. I started writing for HowWasTheShow just about a year ago and these are bands that I probably wouldn’t have given much thought to if I hadn’t gone to review them. In working for HWTS I am always looking for new bands that haven’t been covered a million times and that is a really rewarding aspect of music writing.

1. Eyeliner Blues – High on Stress

The first review I wrote for HowWasTheShow was of High on Stress. I really do dig the down to earth style of song writing the guys have. I am looking forward to a new album this year hopefully.

2. Cold Rusty Shiver – The Rockford Mules

These guys totally kicked my ass the first time I saw them. I gushed to the guitar player afterwards that they should be famous.

3. Shall We Laugh – The Dad in Common

The thing I love about covering live music is that on any given night you can be totally blown away by the unexpected. The Dad in Common’s recorded stuff is decent, but the performance at their CD Release show was unbridled craziness. It was a whirlwind of psychedelic gypsy gospel soul.

4. Last Resort – The Winter Blanket

I kind of knew The Winter Blanket before I started writing for HWTS, but covering them a couple times really cemented my love for them. I actually went to review them at the Triple Rock the same night I covered Mi and Lau. There was hardly anybody there and Stephanie Davila and Doug Miller played as a Duo. It was the first time I had seen them and I didn’t really know what to think. Looking back on it now, it was a laid back easy affair. Miller and Davila knew that with the audience barely reaching double-digits, they could be playful, like they were playing in their living room.

5. Bubblegum – Story of the Sea

I probably would have stumbled on to Story of the Sea without HWTS if only because I am constantly amazed at Ian Prince’s drumming. The band has such a rich sound for only a three-piece.

Aviette in the Pulse

My first article for Pulse of the Twin Cities appeared yesterday. I wrote about Aviette.

Check it out.

Album of the Year

I was lucky enough to have my opinions solicited by Chris R. from the Star Tribune for his critic's best-of-list this year. Of course all those opinions are rendered pointless now because between the time I submitted my choices and the end of the year, I purchased the Roma Di Luna album, The Face of My Friends.

If I could change my picks, this would be my album of the year. A folk duo that captures with the perfect blend of haunting vocals, barely-there guitar and occasional fits of fiddle, they capture an ethereal moment in time of a strictly American style of music.

The song "Don't Take My Baby to War" would be my song of the year. The best anti-war song I've heard in a long time.

Don't take my baby
Don't take my love
Don't take my baby

Gather your men around there's a draft coming to town
Leave tonight or else you better bury them underground
Don't take my baby to war

Choke on the oil you need/ to power that engine of sin
If you believe in these battles/ then why aren't you out there with them?

He has kissed me goodbye
He has no fear of giving his life
But I carved my heart in his hand
So when they find him they'll know he's mine
Don't take my baby to war

Don't take my baby
Don't take my love
Don't take my baby to war

Catch Roma Di Luna January 10th at Barbette.