tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86902372024-03-07T14:09:56.055-06:00Theme Park ExperienceEric Grubbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08237140729566147948noreply@blogger.comBlogger1943125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690237.post-27704345380726002572023-09-18T17:03:00.004-05:002023-09-18T17:03:57.321-05:00Socials<p> Hey, everyone!</p><p>You can find me on several other platforms:</p><p><a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-901oao css-16my406 r-1cvl2hr r-1loqt21 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" dir="ltr" href="https://t.co/406HibU4eT" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" role="link" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1d9bf0; cursor: pointer; display: inline; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; white-space-collapse: preserve;" target="_blank"><span aria-hidden="true" class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-hiw28u r-qvk6io r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 0px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: inherit;">http:/</span></a><span class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #0f1419; display: inline; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">
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</span><a class="css-4rbku5 css-18t94o4 css-901oao css-16my406 r-1cvl2hr r-1loqt21 r-poiln3 r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" dir="ltr" href="https://t.co/XYSJeNUYbq" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" role="link" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1d9bf0; cursor: pointer; display: inline; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; line-height: inherit; list-style: none; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; white-space-collapse: preserve;" target="_blank"><span aria-hidden="true" class="css-901oao css-16my406 r-poiln3 r-hiw28u r-qvk6io r-bcqeeo r-qvutc0" style="border: 0px solid black; box-sizing: border-box; color: inherit; display: inline; font-family: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-size: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: 0px; margin: 0px; min-width: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; white-space: inherit;">http://</span>ericjgrubbs.bsky.social</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Thanks! </p>Eric Grubbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05832984660995503631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690237.post-59334407347893991772023-05-31T12:15:00.001-05:002023-05-31T12:15:32.059-05:002023 UpdateCheck out my newsletter. If you like what you see, hit Subscribe: <a href="https://themeparkexperience.substack.com/">https://themeparkexperience.substack.com/</a>Eric Grubbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05832984660995503631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690237.post-1302163493163090222021-12-22T12:40:00.008-06:002021-12-22T12:53:37.129-06:00Best of 2021<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN6yT7i_5GEUhRCQku1rNUKie08fLawP8WZN6LaOQ5BS-v-peRYZghq7L3jl3SKiqncPsumvUgRQYKNfF1I03Whdc4zZXk8Cu1xNiKWiQZ5wkNtXL4xGQnl8Q0E0lQc_J-WS3w/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img data-original-height="937" data-original-width="896" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN6yT7i_5GEUhRCQku1rNUKie08fLawP8WZN6LaOQ5BS-v-peRYZghq7L3jl3SKiqncPsumvUgRQYKNfF1I03Whdc4zZXk8Cu1xNiKWiQZ5wkNtXL4xGQnl8Q0E0lQc_J-WS3w/w381-h400/infinitegranite.jpg" width="381" /></a></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Last year, my attention span was not wide enough to listen to a lot of LPs from start to finish. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Too much went on in 2020 to focus on 10-15 albums, so I went with only a couple to spotlight. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">Well, 2021 was a little better, as I have a list of top four records, and </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">a lot</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;"> of individual tracks. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap; white-space: pre;">(I made a <a href="https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2D9jR1RvBexHvptxC3pncz?si=d2d4efafc19f42dd" target="_blank">lengthy Spotify playlist</a>)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">So, without further ado, here’s my list of favorites of the year: </span></p><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Albums</span></div><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Deafheaven, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Infinite Granite </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://ffm.to/dfhvn-ig" target="_blank">(listen)</a></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Hands down, my favorite album of the year. I was not sure where Deafheaven would go </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">after another record that brought My Bloody Valentine and death metal fans together, but </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">they beautifully rebooted their sound on </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Infinite Granite. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The divisive goblin vocals are vastly </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">pared-down here, as are the blast beats. Sounding more inspired by Slowdive, the band has </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">discovered a new sonic palette that I hope they explore more of in the future. It’s a welcome revelation. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I still love their older material, but this has renewed my love of what these guys do. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Japanese Breakfast, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jubilee </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">(<a href="http://japanesebreakfast.rocks/music" target="_blank">listen</a>)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All credit goes to Hope for introducing me to Michelle Zauner’s Japanese Breakfast project. She has been a big fan for years, so when </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jubilee</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> was released this year, it was greatly anticipated in our household. This is a fantastic blend of 80s pop and shoegaze with a modern take. “Paprika,” “Be Sweet,” and “Posing for Cars” are my favorites. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Fiddlehead, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Between the Richness</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i> </i>(<a href="https://lnk.to/BetweenTheRichness" target="_blank">listen</a>) </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I’ve been aware of Fiddlehead’s stuff for a few years, but they released a great and dense LP in 2021. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">I recommend it to fans of Title Fight, Seaweed, and the Get Up Kids. I love it when modern bands recall </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the joy I felt when I heard those aforementioned bands for the first time. Fiddlehead is a young quintet </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">that I hope continues to make quality albums for years to come.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I Feel Fine, </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Cold in Every Shelter </span><a href="https://linktr.ee/Ifeelfineband" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">(listen)</a></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I cannot hide my bias here, as the band reached out to me in hopes of writing a bio to land them a record deal. (They thankfully did land deals with labels around the world, and I was happy to see that come to fruition, as this record is well worth my time and yours if you dig this style of modern emo.) I was familiar with their previous work, but </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Cold in Every Shelter</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is a wonderful step forward. This Brighton-based four-piece (where all of them sing together) made a complex album that recalls Crash of Rhinos, the Hotelier, and the Appleseed Cast for me. </span></p><p><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="-webkit-text-decoration-skip: none; background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Tracks</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;">MOTORCADE – “Slip” </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXKw6nnpsHg" target="_blank">(listen) </a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve heard the name Motorcade for a few years now, but this was the year I really paid close attention to their work. Namely, this incredible Echo and the Bunnymen-inspired single. I </span><a href="https://www.centraltrack.com/song-of-the-day-motorcade-slip/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">praised the hell out of it when it was released</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and I still sing its merits. The songwriter said it was inspired by “Never Stop,” but I’d add elements from </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ocean Rain</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> to this tune. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Volleyball – “Slide” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuEP3IHObSM" target="_blank">(listen)</a></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">We listened to a lot of dream pop this year in the car and in the house, and this was one I discovered via hopping around Recommended Artists in Spotify. I don’t know much about who makes up Volleyball, but this is some elegant joy. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;">Bouquet – “Glisten” (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8oToCCBlBw" target="_blank">watch/listen</a>)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">The secret to making a memorable song is having a gripping chorus with a strong verse. Adding to it would be an even stronger bridge. That’s what “Glisten” has. Mellow verses, loud choruses, and a louder bridge. Comparisons have been made to Turnover, and I’d agree with them. But this has gloomy pop hooks galore. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kings of Convenience – “Rocky Trail” (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdv5n_Qgiw4" target="_blank">watch/listen</a>)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">This was a random, but welcome return from this acoustic-centric duo. They’ve made tunes that recall Belle & Sebastian and Simon & Garfunkel, and this violin-tinged pop tune is fabulous. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: 700; white-space: pre-wrap;">Anxious – “Growing Up Song” (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UE0aluwQAI" target="_blank">watch/listen</a>)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; white-space: pre-wrap;">Run For Cover Records continues to put out really quality stuff, and this, like Bouquet, Fiddlehead, I Feel Fine, and Palette Knife shows the emo revival is still in effect. The video is hilarious, and its bridge is the best part of an engaging tune. </span></p>Eric Grubbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05832984660995503631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690237.post-12085279649598716952020-12-07T17:16:00.001-06:002020-12-07T17:17:12.371-06:00A year in music*<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVSk6Kk2ILzwbGwyqY1cwMQUVXRZ15f5qYwRobgp1Ru4dsLPqJOTMumUOPLFtjDldlynu4EjC44MAYVFe6fAR0-mCtAoMEYnjaLsI_-aKoooTYvSBqR1paZ7CPFgY85nUyy-4c/" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="937" data-original-width="1249" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVSk6Kk2ILzwbGwyqY1cwMQUVXRZ15f5qYwRobgp1Ru4dsLPqJOTMumUOPLFtjDldlynu4EjC44MAYVFe6fAR0-mCtAoMEYnjaLsI_-aKoooTYvSBqR1paZ7CPFgY85nUyy-4c/" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>"<i>We’re not repeating history/Just the parts that sucked</i>”<p></p><p>-Ben Folds, “2020”</p><p>For every year since 2001, I cobbled together a list of my favorite albums of the year. I’d share it with friends via e-mail. Then those lists morphed into extensive posts on this blog. </p><p>This year, I do not have an extensive list of albums, but I do have a <a href="https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2ZCmRp4tpzm59Sr8soMgmz?si=kz6lTjhNQHmlfJQf4krxMA"><b>near-three-hour Spotify playlist of tunes that caught my ear</b></a>. </p><p>I really loved Hum’s surprise album <i>Inlet</i>, as it sounds like the natural progression from <i>Downward is Heavenward</i>. Dogleg’s <i>Melee</i> shows a young post-hardcore/emo band that has a lot of promise. And an EP from a bus driver in Denton recording under the name It Me shows he should make this one-man project into a fully-formed band. </p><p>Why did I opt out of exploring entire albums en masse in 2020? Well, my mind was on other, much more important, matters. Having the focus to devote 30-55 minutes to a new album while working or driving was difficult. I don’t think I’m alone here. </p><p>This was not the year we expected when we were in January. As winter gave way to spring, the effects of the pandemic and highly-divisive politics were too powerful to ignore. I opted to not shift my attention onto a lot of albums when daily life got really ugly and scary. Furthermore, I did not think too much about what I wanted to say in December. (Writing this in early December, March feels like it was only a couple of months ago.) </p><p>I lived too long being way more invested in music, books, and movies than thinking and caring about the needs of other people. It took a long time, but it came to a heavy understanding this year. As in, why should I think so much about an album when former co-workers of mine struggled to breathe in a hospital room or quarantined in their own home? </p><p>I decided to shift my priorities for the betterment of myself this year, especially after finding out through a professional psychological diagnosis on how my brain works. Having a seemingly definitive opinion about this album or that album was low on the priority list. Caring and thinking about those affected by the virus or systemic racism was way more important than debating Bryan St. Pere’s drum sound. </p><p>I’ll always love music and discussing it, but I don’t need to have my tastes validated. I don’t need to shove music down anyone’s throat. And I should not feel attacked if people don’t like what I champion. </p><p>When my freelance music journalism was put on hold in the spring (for extremely understandable reasons), I focused on researching my third book and <a href="https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Black-Sky-Audiobook/B08L8G7TT3"><b>narrating an audiobook</b></a> for my friend Tim. My band Caved Mountains finished recording <a href="https://cavedmountains.bandcamp.com/album/caved-mountains"><b>our self-titled debut album</b></a> and released it in the fall. Music was still a big factor in my life, along with reading a few books, as well as watching a lot of TV and movies with Hope. I was not afraid to confront the reality of a touring and promotion industry having to make a full stop. </p><p>For the past 11 years, much of what I wrote for alt-weeklies stemmed from promoting albums through the touring industry. With no touring and barely any local shows to write about, I withdrew from actively pursuing new music -- relying more on Spotify suggestions and recommendations from my wife and friends. I had no mass audience to answer to, which was a relief. I felt zero pressure to have an opinion on artists I don’t care about. </p><p>I saw the great Canadian power pop band Sloan play in March, not thinking there would come a day when I didn’t know what the next show I would see, or if my band would play a show at all in 2020. I look forward to seeing shows and playing shows someday, but not while a pandemic is still raging. When I don’t have to worry about catching a life-threatening virus from a visit to our local grocery store or touching a cardboard box, I will start to feel comfortable in a crowded venue with loud music again. </p><p>This year has opened me up to understanding more about the human condition. Music, sports, books, and movies are great, but they aren’t everything. Especially in a year like this. </p><div><br /></div></div>Eric Grubbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05832984660995503631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690237.post-17762625610285187202019-12-23T18:02:00.000-06:002019-12-23T18:02:52.501-06:00One With the Force<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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For as long as I have been alive, <i>Star Wars</i> has been in my life. I was only a year old when <i>The Empire Strikes Back</i> came out, a time when apparently a lot of people were angry about the twist that revealed Luke Skywalker’s parentage. I was not aware of this until I was in college, and frankly, does it really matter about the twist or the context of the day for fans?<br />
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I think it does, as history has a way of repeating itself. These eleven films (along with a couple of animated shows, a holiday special, and a couple of live action shows) continue to mean something, even when they come out to mixed reviews. The <i>Star Wars</i> saga itself is bigger than those reactions, and I’m happy to see the saga transcend generations.<br />
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I’m only a few days removed from seeing <i>The Rise of Skywalker</i> for the first time. I thought it was a fantastic film in the Skywalker saga. And since I’m not a filmmaker or a producer, I’m not one to make a bold claim about how I would have done it better. Because <i>Star Wars</i> doesn’t belong to one person. It belongs to many people, of all sorts of walks of life. It has not been just for white males grappling with the pressures and responsibilities of adulthood (and wishing to recapture the innocence of childhood) for quite some time.<br />
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I can safely and confidently say at age 40 that <i>Star Wars</i> means even more to me now because I can share it with more people at any age, race, economic background, and/or sexual identity. And sharing is way more of a better way than the opposite.<br />
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In the house I grew up in, I was the only <i>Star Wars</i> fan. I watched it alone on the sole TV we owned at the time, playing on a Betamax dub a family friend made us. There was something about this film (along with the aforementioned films) that warranted multiple viewings. I had no reason to doubt this compulsive behavior. I got something new out of it with every viewing.<br />
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When <i>Return of the Jedi</i> was released in theaters in 1983, I had to see it then. (Strangely, I did not see <i>The Empire Strikes Back </i>until 1987, but I heard about the basic plot points through various people well before then.) I have faint recollections of seeing it in Birmingham with my parents while we stayed with my grandfather, but I somehow I remember vividly the feeling I had watching it, especially during the Vader/Skywalker duel in the third act.<br />
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The years would pass and I eventually stopped playing with my <i>Star Wars</i> action figures, gravitating more towards sports (like soccer, karate, baseball, and football) along with a budding interest in playing music (and listening to it on the radio and watching it on MTV). I never outgrew the trilogy, but when I reached the end of my high school years, I started to see differences of opinions about the three films.<br />
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By way of Kevin Smith’s films, I realized more people my age preferred the grimness of <i>Empire</i> more than the other two. From Dante Hicks’ thoughts on which sequel he preferred to criticizing the tinker George Lucas made with Greedo shooting first (something I didn’t realize until I saw <i>Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back</i>) in the special edition of <i>A New Hope</i>, I came to know about the angsty take on the films that defined our youth.<br />
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“<i>Empire</i> had the better ending,” Dante says in <i>Clerks</i>. “I mean, Luke gets his hand cut off, finds out Vader's his father, Han gets frozen and taken away by Boba Fett. It ends on such a down note. I mean, that's what life is, a series of down endings. All <i>Jedi</i> had was a bunch of Muppets.”<br />
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Life is a series of down endings? That was not encouraging to hear at 17. But there are people who see life that way, but I can’t in my heart fully agree with that sentiment. My life will end one day, but that doesn’t mean I should live life in the dumps until it happens.<br />
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As the prequels ramped up and I went into Film School Snob mode, I found myself at odds with my classmates, teachers, and friends when it came to what they thought of <i>The Phantom Menace</i>, <i>Attack of the Clones</i>, and <i>Revenge of the Sith</i>. I didn’t think they were great ones that outdid the original trilogy, but they weren't as awful as people made them out to be. (Biggest observation I had was, if the prequels were to present a view of a future before a dictatorship, things should be stilted and restrained, right? It was like making a <i>Buck Rogers</i> movie in the age of <i>The Matrix</i>.)<br />
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As I waited for each prequel to arrive, I looked into the method behind what George Lucas wanted to make in the first place. He wanted to make a space adventure based on the sci-fi serials he saw as a kid, mixed with the influence of Akira Kurosawa’s films and Joseph Campbell’s take on mythology. It bridged a youthful interest in adventure mixed with tropes and patterns from centuries of myths from all over the world.<br />
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But as a four-year-old who saw <i>Star Wars, </i>if you had tried to overload me with reading <i>The Hero With A Thousand Faces</i> or forced me to watch <i>The Hidden Fortress</i> at the same time, I would have declined. Only until I was an adult that I looked into the hows and wheres this <i>Star Wars</i> thing came from.<br />
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Fast forward to seeing <i>The Force Awakens</i> with my then-girlfriend (and now wife) and I realized what was missing from the prequels. In only one film, I care much more about these new characters than I did with any of the three prequels.<br />
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It was in that screening of <i>The Force Awakens</i> that I noticed how important this continuation of the saga was for old and new fans. A family seated next to us was made up of two white parents with two white children and a black son. The boy, dressed in a Darth Vader outfit, watched in amazement at the film, and was especially scared when Finn was gravely injured. I came out of that film feeling a new sense of joy with this new series of films, and thought that kid in the Darth Vader outfit will be a <i>Star Wars</i> fan for life.<br />
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Only a short time after that screening, I heard my nieces saw <i>The Force Awakens</i> for the first time. Previously, they showed no interest in anything <i>Star Wars</i>, but now, they were fans. Since then, they have seen every new film in the Disney-owned version of Lucasfilm. Talking about the films with them is something I enjoy, and it's a great connection between us.<br />
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And I'm happy to say this connection includes my sister. She texted me after she saw <i>The Rise of Skywalker</i> for the first time. She loved it and looked forward to seeing it the following day. Now with the holidays in front of us, I look forward to talking about it with all the spoilers.<br />
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I never would have thought I would have this kind of belonging to the saga. It feels right. And that's the power of the Force, 40 years on. Eric Grubbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05832984660995503631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690237.post-20158018862382787542019-12-11T16:30:00.000-06:002019-12-12T08:40:07.893-06:00A Year in Music (2019 Edition)Another great year of music came through my eardrums. Some were from new acts, others came from acts I’ve loved for many years. This is a collection of albums that brought me the most joy in the year.<br />
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I also compiled a lengthy list of my favorite songs of the year <a href="https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3JV54ImBRL7p3IPflHQ40r?si=cF44ViqrTnykSICHy3npew"><b>here</b></a>.<br />
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<b>Holding Patterns, <i>Endless</i></b><br />
Three former members of Crash of Rhinos made an album that is on the level of their former band. Dare I say <i>Endless</i> is better -- in some aspects -- than that incredible five-piece’s second album, <i>Knots</i>. Imagine the shouting of Hot Water Music with the dynamics ala . . . And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead and Sonic Youth, along with drumming that is not afraid to run over the beat. Just fantastic from start to finish.<br />
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<b>American Football, <i>LP3</i></b><br />
American Football’s third self-titled album is another stellar addition to the band’s discography. For a band that was originally a one-off while the members were in college (and their first LP was done mainly as a posthumous document), the band’s story continues to evolve. This time out, they are joined by female vocalists on various tunes. The stand-out being “Uncomfortably Numb,” with Hayley Williams from Paramore. This is grown-up emo for those in their 30s and 40s still trying to figure out life.<br />
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<b>Tiny Moving Parts, <i>breathe</i></b><br />
I’m not going to pretend to be unbiased here. I have been following Tiny Moving Parts since they came through Denton at a house show when <i>The Couch Is Long and Full of Friendship</i> was newly out. I’ve seen them as much as I can whenever they come through, and their material continues to be great. Never thought I would hear a banjo on one of their records, but it fits so well with “Vertebrae.” And while I think they have many great songs, I think “Polar Bear” has rocketed up the list of my favorite songs they have ever done.<br />
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<b>The Get Up Kids, <i>Problems</i></b><br />
The Get Up Kids’ best record since <i>On a Wire</i>. These guys have always had hooks in their songs, and <i>Problems</i> continues to show that crucial asset. I consider “Waking Up Alone” one of the best tunes Jim has sung, and I hope it’s a concert staple for years to come.<br />
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<b>Giants Chair, <i>Prefabylon</i></b><br />
Back when I did research for <i>Post</i>, I heard about Giants Chair from the Get Up Kids, citing them (and Boys Life) as a major influence on them. I never got around to hear any Giants Chair material until this year, when the first single from <i>Prefabylon</i> came online. This reminds me of early Jawbox, ala <i>Grippe</i>. This band has not put out a new record in many years, and I hope this was not a one-off.<br />
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<b>Overo, self-titled</b><br />
Earlier in the year, I interviewed Brendan from Perfect Future for my next book, <i>Forever Got Shorter</i>. We briefly talked about how he moved to Houston, a town I spent 12 years of my life in, and formed a new band with Lindsay and Mercy from football, etc. along with John from Deep End Records. That band was Overo, a great mix of caustic, early 90s post-hardcore and hardcore punk. These songs burst from the speakers.<br />
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<b>Richard Hawley, <i>Further</i></b><br />
This might be one of Richard Hawley’s shortest albums. I thought his previous full-length, <i>Hollow Meadows</i>, was one of his greatest releases to date. I can’t say the same about <i>Further</i>, but I admit to my tremendous bias. The songs zip by, but retain the glorious textures Hawley his with his music. From strings to pianos to raunchy lead guitars, <i>Further</i> is quite good.<br />
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<b>Spielbergs, <i>This is Not the End</i></b><br />
A Norweigan trio that reminds me that bass players really matter, even when your songs are all about angst. (Looking at you, Japandroids.) This band makes similar carnage, but has a lot more oomph to what they do. Probably because they have a bass player.<br />
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<b>Bob Mould, <i>Sunshine Rock</i></b><br />
An unapologetic candy-coated romp done in the vein of Bob Mould’s prior bands. Listening to stacks of 60s pop singles as a child gave Mould a penchant for melody. Now he made something that is one of his finest solo albums.<br />
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<b>Dream Theater, <i>Distance Over Time</i></b><br />
I did not hide my frustrations with Dream Theater’s previous album, <i>The Astonishing</i>. That double LP concept album was like trying to eat Thanksgiving lunch, Christmas dinner, and a New Year’s Day brunch all at once. This time out, the band made something that can be easily enjoyed in one sitting. It’s prog-metal that avoids spontaneous jams and welcomes pop sensibilities.Eric Grubbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05832984660995503631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690237.post-74531505510255607332019-11-08T11:17:00.001-06:002019-11-08T11:17:10.028-06:00Why Not?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqR3vDOqcnlW9GUAKaQ12ME6IeJ6cpyUDTp8xk08YYOOefbaa30Nm4au4ER3UVCOnBXEdycflXyeiCfyLzTtrkh3gWhWj7VeAC8ROvQzpLGSmT0V9UVfCfLFdNz4jddNd3X-XM/s1600/1102191842_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqR3vDOqcnlW9GUAKaQ12ME6IeJ6cpyUDTp8xk08YYOOefbaa30Nm4au4ER3UVCOnBXEdycflXyeiCfyLzTtrkh3gWhWj7VeAC8ROvQzpLGSmT0V9UVfCfLFdNz4jddNd3X-XM/s320/1102191842_HDR.jpg" width="240" /></a>It’s been four years since Hope and I have officially been together. (And a week shy of two years married.) It’s hard to think of a better way of commemorating the occasion than sharing the experience of meeting the guy who — in some ways — helped bring her and I together: Kevin Smith.<br />
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To recap: Hope and I met through Twitter only a short time after Kevin’s 2015 appearance at the Texas Theatre. She related to the thoughts I blogged about after hearing Kevin’s two-hour epic response on how to stay positive in spite of people constantly saying you suck. Even though it was a Twitter interaction, I had never felt a pull that strong to someone before.<br />
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I sensed something was way more to this woman than I could put into words. It was more than her finding inspiration in Kevin’s response when many of the people in my earshot who complained how only one question was answered over a two-hour period. There was depth I wanted to know more about — and I wanted to know soon.<br />
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After she put out the first episode of her horror-themed podcast, I gave her some unsolicited feedback, stating she was a great host who needed to boost the audio level some more. That led to her being a guest on my podcast a few weeks later. Over the course of our conversation that evening, we realized we were sitting in the same row for that Q&A. This realization came from when I described a moronically drunk dude in front of me waving around a <i>Tusk</i> DVD slip cover with a major case of plumber butt. She was seated only a few spots away from me and saw the guy as well. Given how my anxiety-laced blinders were on full blast and focusing on the stage, I didn’t see her that night.<br />
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Thanks to Twitter, it brought us together. As awful as Twitter can be, our story is proof that good things do happen because of it.<br />
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Skipping ahead to stay on topic (the value of growing, learning, and loving each other more and more everyday should not be made light of, but I have to follow through on the tease in the first paragraph), we were fortunate to share our story to Kevin in person last weekend.<br />
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Thanks to the generosity of a friend Hope met through Tumblr years ago, he introduced us to Kevin at the end of a long night of two screenings and Q&As for <i>Jay and Silent Bob Reboot</i> at the Texas Theatre. Even though it was late in the evening and everything needed to be wrapped up, Kevin took the time to hear the story of how we met and we thanked him for bringing two Why Not? people together. He said it warmed his heart to hear this, and not in a stock answer kind of way. He was moved, even though he’s heard about many couples before us that bonded over his work. After a brief talk about filming in New Orleans (a number of iconic places from my place of birth are in <i>Jay and Silent Bob Reboot</i>), we snapped a couple of pictures with him and Jason Mewes.<br />
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I have longed championed the idea you should meet your heroes if you have the opportunity to. Sure, you always run the risk of ruining your appreciation of someone if the encounter sucks, but what if it doesn’t suck? Most of the people I have admired and have been fortunate to meet have been wonderful. It would have been sad if I avoided them for fear the experiences would be unpleasant.<br />
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Coming away from the experience with Kevin, I’m reminded once again about the importance of having a Why Not? person in your life. I’m not talking about someone who says “You can do anything!” superficially knowing full well you have your limits. I’m talking about someone who believes in you and your potential and wants you to challenge yourself and succeed. It doesn’t have to be a spouse — it can be a friend, a boss, a bandmate, a family member, and so on. Kevin spoke of the people in his life that were that way in 2015 (namely, his wife and Johnny Depp), and I’m thankful to have one in mine.<br />
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So whenever I hear people deride Kevin’s work (I’ve heard complaints firsthand since <i>Dogma</i> was released in theaters), I unashamedly say I have a different sort of bond with what he’s done. I might not like everything he’s done with film, TV, comic books, and live appearances, but if it weren’t for what he had to say on one hot August night a few years ago, I’m not sure I would be in the better place I am now.Eric Grubbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05832984660995503631noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690237.post-39412997326778733912019-08-23T07:27:00.000-05:002019-08-23T08:44:22.210-05:00Sound Salvation <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgziKS0E8rb-aSASUIlQKZkvpLdfXJTK1JKHecE8e7r0cDDcPNPBW9T1dZ_bPDf-MpmDgd_26v4RyrNqI9tCVW1M2XZhAczzCzUncyMEuhyBTPlTwbK4-pjus8Ly4M62fiomLEc/s1600/radio.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1060" data-original-width="1600" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgziKS0E8rb-aSASUIlQKZkvpLdfXJTK1JKHecE8e7r0cDDcPNPBW9T1dZ_bPDf-MpmDgd_26v4RyrNqI9tCVW1M2XZhAczzCzUncyMEuhyBTPlTwbK4-pjus8Ly4M62fiomLEc/s320/radio.jpeg" width="320" /></a>Earlier this week, a number of people I used to work with in broadcasting shared pictures, lists, and stories on social media for National Radio Day. Rather than write out a list of stations I worked for -- either as an intern, promotions assistant, producer, or traffic reporter -- I thought about advice I would give about the broadcasting world, along with reflection.<br />
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No matter the field, I hate the advice of “Don’t” when people consider working in a field. Also, I hate the line of, “You’ll never make any money in it,” assuming people only want to get rich going into any field. I still remember what it was like to be eager to learn about a world I felt drawn towards, whether it was broadcasting or journalism. And I remember how the bitter folks made for a lot of excess noise and were in the way of finding things out for myself.<br />
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I was in broadcasting for almost 20 years, until last year. And I have zero regrets being in it.<br />
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I now work full-time for an auction house, where the majority of my time is spent describing rare merchandise from the music, TV, and film world. I also help out with some marketing for an upcoming auction, whether it’s doing a Facebook Live session or making an appearance on a radio station. So much of what I learned in broadcasting and journalism makes this the best-fitting job for me. I’m grateful to do what I do everyday. Instead of trashing the field I learned a lot of marketable skills in, I stress the value of making the most of any job you take.<br />
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A big part in describing the items I write about is getting to the point. With all the years I spent reading 15-30 second traffic reports on the air, getting to the point was vital. Addressing a lot of pressing matters in a short timeframe was also crucial. Those are things I have to do everyday, describing the uniqueness of an item and why it should be taken into consideration.<br />
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If all I thought about was the amount of money on my paycheck, I could think broadcasting was a waste of time. The industry does have high-paying jobs, but a lot of other jobs pay far less. But I wanted the experience most importantly, along with a liveable wage (which I always had). I’ve found that’s what a lot of people want. Why should I discourage people from an experience they can learn a lot from?<br />
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Ultimately, I decided to exit the business after my company shut down last fall, leaving the only main option to go to a company that bought the previous company I worked for (and was laid off after they bought it). Rather than be a Bitter Former Broadcaster on Facebook who loves to talk about how things used to be (and insist on how things should be now), I chose to move forward with my career, wherever it was. Hope helped massively with making this transition, believing in me more than I believed in myself at times, frankly.<br />
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I still think about broadcasting a lot, from the terrible bosses to the best bosses, the odd hours, the characters I met, the egos at play, the paranoid few, the random divas, and other experiences. Nothing went to waste.<br />
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I accept that I will probably hear the observation of, “You’ve got a radio voice!” for the rest of my life. I counter that I wanted other things in life, where my personality and wants ran counter to the field. I wanted a full night’s rest on a regular basis, and have the availability to spend time with family and friends on holidays and weekends. Plus, I use the example of how my father, whom I sound exactly like, worked as a chemical engineer for almost 40 years. He’s used his pipes to introduce the hometown marching band at football games for 20-plus years.<br />
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A happy life involves exploring and opening yourself up to new experiences. If all you do is listen to bitter people who have at least 20 more years of life than you, you can rob yourself of having such experiences.Eric Grubbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05832984660995503631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690237.post-71906029746992155382019-07-01T18:56:00.001-05:002019-07-01T18:56:31.379-05:00Every Wave to Ever Rise<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">For almost two years, I have worked on a sequel to my first book, <i>Post</i>. Titled <i>Forever Got Shorter: Reunions, Revivals, and Another Look at the Influence of Post-Hardcore 2009-2019</i> unless I come up with a better title, this book continues to be a DIY, labor of love project. And I’m happy to say I’ve reached a breakthrough in the research process.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Something I must address in this new book (that I was able to sidestep in <i>Post</i>) was how far the reach of mainstream emo was from 2001 until 2011. From Fall Out Boy to My Chemical Romance to Taking Back Sunday, it would be unfair to avoid the cultural significance of these acts, no matter how I felt about their music at the time I wrote <i>Post</i>. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’ve come to accept that a lot of people think emo/post-hardcore is only reflected in the stereotypes that came from fans of the mainstream version of emo. Eyeliner, flat-ironed hair, black nail polish, black clothes, and lots of yelping/screaming in a very calculated sort of way. But I still want to offer another view that has nothing to do with what was on sale at Hot Topic. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">For months, I did research on emo DJ nights. There’s the DIY, independent version and then there are touring editions that don’t often play emo (and are more of a 2000s nostalgia night). Seeing a certain touring version come back to Dallas quite often (and when the local promoter decided to mock me on Twitter when I called them out about it), I started to wonder if I was stuck in a swamp trying to make sense of this offshoot of emo’s popularity. I never considered giving up on the project, but I did wonder where the hell I was going. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Alas, I had a breakthrough when I recently interviewed Keith Latinen from the Count Your Lucky Stars label and the band Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate). Though I’ve interviewed him before and we’ve known each other since the MySpace days, we had a really good talk this time about the emo revival. We got to talking about how important a small amount of people in 2007-2014 (something like 100-150 people) played music that wasn’t in line with the mainstream defined as emo. Instead of booking agents and bars, these bands played houses. Bandcamp was how you found out about these bands, because their ambitions were not of the grand level. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">That’s when I realized: If the focus of my first book was about DIY artists, shouldn’t the sequel be as well?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whether it’s American Football or the Get Up Kids or Holding Patterns or Dowsing or Overo, there are a lot of bands to write about and profile. Couple that with the handful of important record labels. Something that will be much different (in terms of format) is that I do not plan to devote individual chapters to bands like how I did in <i>Post</i>. There is too much to go into and doing individual chapters to bands doesn’t quite fit. Then again, I might say something different when it comes down to editing this stuff down to a readable book.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">This project really started out as an idea I originally had for a new, 10-year anniversary edition of <i>Post</i> (which itself was from an idea Hope suggested with making a documentary on this side of the genre). Since all of the bands I wrote about in <i>Post</i> have reunited (Fugazi has reunited, but behind closed doors), it makes sense to write about the hows and whys these bands came back together. What I first thought would make for a good afterword became a whole new book when I pitched an anniversary edition and no name publisher wanted it. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rather than be dismayed (not the first time, remembering the time an editor at a name publisher thought the Braid chapter in <i>Post</i> was boring), I decided to use “no” as a gift. Instead of sitting around and complaining about things online, I choose to do something about it. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I wrote a few years ago that I hoped my third book would not take years to write, but here I am. I don’t have a deadline, as I plan to use the same print-on-demand service I used for <i>Post</i>. But whenever this comes out, I promise it will be worth the while of the reader to buy a sequel. People are still discovering that first book, so I know there is an audience out there. It’s not in the millions, but this is for the people who want to have some documentation of the emo revival. This is for them. </span></span></div>
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Eric Grubbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05832984660995503631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690237.post-31347807488752141232019-02-21T08:10:00.000-06:002019-02-21T09:01:09.296-06:00It's a Long Way Down<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There was a time when I listened to Ryan Adams' music practically all the time. Back in 2001, as I finished college and tried to navigate post-college life, the double dose of Whiskeytown’s <i>Pneumonia</i> and Adams’ <i>Gold</i> led me to everything else he had made before. It was countrified rock music that spoke to me in a deep way, mainly on the musical front.<br />
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I don’t tend to really pay attention to lyrics, but I connected with Adams’ lyrics about being young and perpetually heartbroken. I thought some self-inflicted mental pain about awkward and failed attempts at relationships put me in the headspace to relate to songs by Adams, as well as Bright Eyes. There was so much time and energy spent on anger and sadness directed at myself for things not working out, so I found solace in songs like “Harder Now That It’s Over” and “The Rescue Blues.”<br />
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As it turned out, there was a pattern in my life: if I had a little taste of a feeling of sadness or anger, I could relate to those who had it much worse than me. I thought of it as coping, “You’re not alone in feeling this way” sort of thing.<br />
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Almost every release Adams put out between 2001 and 2005 -- mainly <i>Demolition</i>, <i>Love Is Hell</i> parts 1 and 2, and <i>Rock N Roll</i> -- were in regular rotation in my car. Driving around during seven-day work weeks, shows, and band practices, practically anything Adams did was a major fixture, along with everything else I listened to, from Chicago to Ben Folds to face to face.<br />
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Yet after I listened to <i>Cold Roses</i> a number of times, my desire to hear more of his new music suddenly came to a halt. I knew there would be two more albums released in 2005, but something changed in me where I didn’t want to hear everything he released. I didn’t hate <i>Cold Roses</i>, but I wasn’t really onboard with what I thought was more of the same with <i>Jacksonville City Nights</i> and <i>29</i>.<br />
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From then on, I would occasionally hear a post-2005 tune or two that I really liked, but for the most part, Adams didn’t make music that connected with me anymore. Aside from his cover version of Taylor Swift’s <i>1989</i>, nothing really made me want to spend a lot of time with the plethora of material he had put out since <i>Cold Roses</i>. I knew plenty of people who praised albums like <i>Prisoner</i>, <i>Ashes & Fire</i>, and <i>Easy Tiger</i>, but I could not find the same joy they had.<br />
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Seemingly out of nowhere last week, Adams was the subject of a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/arts/music/ryan-adams-women-sex.html"><b>damning portrait in the <i>NY Times</i></b></a>. Heavily-researched and backed up -- mixed with various denials by Adams through his lawyer -- there were many allegations from multiple women about his treatment of them. Like a lot of articles written about people who have repeatedly misused power with inappropriate behavior, I lean towards believing accusers who have nothing to gain by coming forward.<br />
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Once the allegations were made public, it was understandable to declare that Adams hid in plain sight, as an <a href="https://themuse.jezebel.com/ryan-adams-was-hiding-in-plain-sight-1832635047"><b>article in Jezebel laid out</b></a>. In my eyes, as someone that heard more about his erratic, oftentimes childish, behavior than his new records, I never thought he was that toxic. Yes, I believed that knowing about that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoTUXBbaFjE"><b>angry voicemail he left for Jim DeRogatis</b></a>,<b> <a href="https://justifiedarrogance.blogspot.com/2015/11/interview-riley-gale-power-trip.html">his rather short-lived feud with Power Trip</a></b>,<b> <a href="https://petapixel.com/2017/03/14/photographer-flips-off-musician-called-using-flash/">how he treated people who used flash photography during his live shows</a></b>, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/feb/10/ryan-adams-summer-of-69-humiliation-angry-bryan-heckler"><b>throwing out a fan who requested a Bryan Adams song at a show</b></a>. I knew he had a reputation, but not one that made the lines between his music and personality make me feel uncomfortable about liking what he produced.<br />
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Therein lies the way things tend to go with not believing what you hear. You hear bad things about somebody for years, but they tend to be passed off, based on debatable severity. The really damaging -- potentially libelous and/or criminal -- tends to be very hard to prove without concrete evidence. Famous people can get away with it for years.<br />
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While Adams apologized and addressed the <i>NY Times</i> article in a <a href="https://twitter.com/TheRyanAdams/status/1095820787074850816"><b>small series of tweets</b></a> last Wednesday, he did not help his damage control by blocking people -- from <a href="https://twitter.com/zlind76/status/1096690774702346240"><b>Zach Lind of Jimmy Eat World</b></a> to <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt37HB2H13R/?utm_source=ig_twitter_share&igshid=11xoelqq6u9gz"><b>Jasun Lee of the <i>FW Weekly</i></b></a> -- for tweeting out scrutiny of him.<br />
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Locally, I’ve seen the backlash quickly escalate. Respected musicians like Nicholas Altobelli and Vanessa Peters <a href="https://twitter.com/naltobelli/status/1095849371122438145"><b>tweeted about their feelings</b></a> about Adams not long after the article went live. Altobelli, in particular, is someone I remembered talking about how much he loved Adams’ output. As in, would drop serious cash own certain rare recordings. I don’t think getting to the point of saying “I’m done” was easy for any superfan, but it makes sense when there are allegations to the degree Adams has been accused of.<br />
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Many rock stars have had stories of inappropriate behavior follow them around for years. From Chuck Berry to Led Zeppelin, take your pick. Though it’s common, it doesn’t mean that kind of stuff is permissible. I’m not one to burn up or throw away records by artists who have been accused of unethical or unspeakably horrible acts. But listening to them can be tainted to the point where I feel bad about or weary of something as small as streaming a song they get $.0346 cents for. There’s a break that forms between the listener and the artist. A tainting of an experience.<br />
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When I look back at the person I was who listened to a lot of Ryan Adams albums, I think about how I had little or almost no social awareness about how I acted. Who would want to date someone who connected with a song like “Anybody Wanna Take Me Home”? Moreover, someone who was still bitter about things that happened years before and no lesson was learned? The hindsight makes things really clear now, but when you’re so full of yourself with your thoughts and feelings -- and not much time thinking about other people’s thoughts and feelings -- it’s easy to stay stuck under dark clouds.<br />
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Who knows what will happen to Adams’ career, if there is a way it can recover for the immediate future. A planned new trilogy of albums has been put on hold, amongst the beginning stages of a serious legal inquiry. It’s bad buzz for him, and it seems like years of damage -- intentional or not -- have come back to haunt him.<br />
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For me, the songs I used to listen to over and over serve now as reminders of how not to be. As in, you can’t pretend to be a victim when you’re the problem. If you want to keep blaming others and not own up to what you’ve done, well, you deserve to be alone.Eric Grubbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05832984660995503631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690237.post-41030635458428077942019-01-13T13:29:00.000-06:002019-01-13T13:42:16.023-06:00Participation Trophies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The topic of participation trophies seems to come up more and more when describing why people aged 25 and younger seem to settle for mediocrity. It's an easy, straight line to make, especially in the sports world, as a women's basketball coach <b><a href="http://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=18191955">proclaimed in a press conference</a> </b>in 2016. As in, a child is raised to believe any kind of effort deserves to be rewarded -- no matter the win-or-lose outcome -- and he or she can't tell the difference later in life.<br />
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As someone who's about to turn 40, this apparently modern idea is not one to me.<br />
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I played in an outdoor soccer league for a few years in the mid-1980s. At the end of each season, the coaches threw the team a party and gave each player a small trophy and ribbon. Neither the trophy nor ribbon said something like "Best Striker" or "Best Keeper." They were generic. Even then, as an elementary school student, I didn't think these trophies meant something grand. It was simply proof that I played on a team.<br />
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Was I rewarded for scoring two own goals in a season? No. Was our keeper rewarded for having a meltdown one day at practice where he decided to sit and pout inside the penalty area? No. The trophies were mementos of hours spent after school and Saturday mornings on a soccer field in suburban New Orleans.<br />
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If memory serves me right, there were tournaments that our team competed in. If you won them, you received really big trophies you could hoist at the end of the final match. Those were the accolades that meant something. But we never got close to such heights. I never felt left out. We were not a great team, pure and simple.<br />
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I switched from sports to band a few years later. There were no participation trophies in band, and I didn't hear of any from people I knew who played sports in school or recreational. Trophies that had value and meaning were given to those who earned them, just like those soccer tournament trophies.<br />
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I don't really know if something momentous happened in the past 20 years, aside from Columbine and 9/11, but the embrace of children's deep thoughts and feelings became very common in society. Not just what the parents, coaches, and teachers saw -- it was also what the therapists saw. Maybe it was evaluating what truly hurts or hinders children's growth, or something related. For adults who want to make the youth of today happy, the amount of praise for any effort was raised. This was not new to me, as that kind of stuff was addressed when I was young. I saw it in myself as well as other students.<br />
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Towards the end of Fred Rogers' life, a certain cable channel designed to counter-program and play devil's advocate singled out a frequent message by Rogers on his show, <i>Mister Roger's Neighborhood</i>: you are special. This channel thought the message gave kids an idea that any effort is good enough, and those kids expect everything handed to them as adults.<br />
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As a regular viewer of the show as a child, I never, for one second, thought Mr. Rogers said you're entitled to receive praise for everything you do. It was, you bring value to the world. Not grand or small. You have meaning to society as a whole. Also, it's OK to feel down as not everything you try leads to success at first (or at all). He told generations of kids that it is totally acceptable to own your feelings. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that idea.<br />
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No matter the generation, the basic concept of hard work -- along with the rewards of doing hard work -- is still pretty well defined. You want to get further in life? You can't half-ass it. I half-assed a lot of things in my 20s and 30s, thus explaining why a few things worked out well, surrounded by a mountain of frustration and lingering desires.<br />
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I freely admit I have struggled with how hard I should put into hard work as an adult. As in, should I be recognized or rewarded for all the things I do? Do I have a right to get defensive about what I've done and shown in a tangible way (versus how much mental energy I spent)? None of these difficulties came from ideas that Mr. Rogers or soccer trophies taught me. They came from my attempts to understand how life really is. I'm someone who didn't know the extent I -- not others -- had to put in to find success.<br />
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If you want to pinpoint a problem in modern society of something a lot of kids don't truly value, that's an easy take. If you want to take a deeper look at why young people aren't apparently as motivated as previous generations, a silly little trophy is not the endgame.Eric Grubbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05832984660995503631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690237.post-58122976173492312642018-12-14T15:33:00.001-06:002018-12-14T15:44:17.187-06:00A Year in Music, 2018This year, I made an effort to be more open about listening to a bigger variety of music. I’m always up for listening to new music, but for quite a while, it was more passive than active. As in, I would listen to what friends would recommend more than actively tracking down stuff on my own.<br />
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In 2018, I listened to a lot more modern music on the radio than I have in many years, as well as frequently checking Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlist. So, I believe this list is a bit more diverse than previous years.<br />
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But before I get to that, I have something special to share. In hopes this doesn’t sound like a lame piece of self-promotion, my band Caved Mountains released our debut collection of songs, <i>A Slow Decline</i>, in January. I’ve played in bands since 1996, but it was not until this year that something I played on was released worldwide.<br />
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I’m immensely proud of the work we put into this, and it was nice to have local bloggers write about us and have radio stations like KXT and KTCU play our music. We spent all year working on new material and hope to record the best of the bunch in 2019.<br />
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You can hear <i>A Slow Decline</i> on <a href="https://cavedmountains.bandcamp.com/releases"><b>Bandcamp</b></a>, <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/caved-mountains/1328881673"><b>Apple Music</b></a>, and <a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/0p2pLxl9z1Vh0GwcaZVDvl?si=45uDhwTISXi_Dm-xB-mDiA"><b>Spotify</b></a>.<br />
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Now, for my list of albums I enjoyed the most this year, with direct Spotify links. You can also enjoy a <a href="https://open.spotify.com/user/ericgrubbs/playlist/08kkO0rvtOAfDTyGzucDmC?si=yXIDuZ_7TJiYR9ym-CADew">mix of my favorite songs</a> from this year, too.<br />
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<b><u>Favorite Albums</u></b><br />
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<b>Vacationer, <i>Mindset</i> (<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/3uZNo4sodT5TzfIaPkF3Iu?si=bS-BITAJSQ258SIT3tfTuA">Spotify</a>)</b><br />
For some reason, I listened to this album for the first time at a really early hour of the morning. Normally I do not try to dig into new music at 5 am, but something compelled me to check out an advance copy of Vacationer’s third album a few months before its release. It came from a trusted publicist I have worked with over the years, so I was not so afraid to dig in. What I heard was something from another planet, where sounds reminiscent of Tame Impala’s recent work and listenable Flaming Lips songs made me feel warm and fuzzy. And to boot, it’s from the guy who fronted the emo-punk band, the Starting Line.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqRk6vJdCY3sTPajmKRwdEISzkkmbI82Cpb1py9ErML2Zbv9IbY1oq-YBI9cXWm8v8zs4sH-dNDFI4jFh-2hZ_5BpCQiC_l1w0_Op1Jd-1UN8YUuiIfzzc-8gGJIVbObN1crGK/s1600/LeonBridgesGoodThing.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="220" data-original-width="220" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqRk6vJdCY3sTPajmKRwdEISzkkmbI82Cpb1py9ErML2Zbv9IbY1oq-YBI9cXWm8v8zs4sH-dNDFI4jFh-2hZ_5BpCQiC_l1w0_Op1Jd-1UN8YUuiIfzzc-8gGJIVbObN1crGK/s200/LeonBridgesGoodThing.png" width="200" /></a></div>
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<b>Leon Bridges, <i>Good Thing </i>(<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/7J9fifadXb0PPSBWXctbi8?si=7WC8d4-rQACgcvjOIxP4Tw">Spotify</a>)</b><br />
Leon Bridges took a lot of sonic risks here, but when the songs are great, I am not one to cast stones. Rather than sounding like a throwback akin to his first album, this is more about the modern day, but not trying to sound like modern day pop or R&B. The opening track, “Bet It Ain’t Worth the Hand,” sounds like something out of a musical that I would love to see. Leon has a special kind of voice, and I hope he has a long and illustrious career.<br />
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<b>awakebutstillinbed, <i>what people call low self-esteem is really just seeing yourself the way that other people see you</i> (<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/5CjorGKkpS33vDrV1jm3dP?si=MX_yuyMfRgWpA0xRm8ZA9g">Spotify</a>)</b><br />
I have an emo/hardcore/punk-tinged blog Sophie’s Floorboard to thank for introducing me to this record. Just when it seemed like the emo revival was withering away into indie rock territory, this comes out. It’s emo that is not afraid to be raw and ugly, but also cathartic and catchy.<br />
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<b>Frank Turner, <i>Be More Kind</i> (<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/3xkl1atAT58rICs9BJ3YS2?si=nRJ-UNnRSEqmwZzx984zZQ">Spotify</a>)</b><br />
Normally I would not recommend a record with a big dud or two, but I make an exception for Frank Turner’s closest attempt at a pop record. Feel free and skip “Make America Great Again,” but enjoy the rest, which is a collection of bouncy songs that are meant to make you feel good and be rest assured that are better days ahead.<br />
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<b>Tiny Moving Parts, <i>Swell</i> (<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/25mFiSG2fnKDliGDtyYNpa?si=x5nQPVsPRrCDv3MWAVaEFQ">Spotify</a>)</b><br />
Tiny Moving Parts’ third proper album, <i>Celebrate</i>, remains my favorite of theirs, but this year’s <i>Swell</i> should not be missed, either. One of their finest songs yet, “Caution,” is on here. They’re one of the few emo revival bands that haven’t broken up, and I hope they don’t for a long time.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDfUfte58JY9YCpMl1jMjWNY1oRFbPHMFxczXupfqElzyXnMSg9o83WCFlsP-Q3kDt7D_Zs6CmnCe1mvo_cepdbzFc_KIsYixZUC55XE2oBBeMNL4DnIgHc3iX6AciJLqg5aVh/s1600/nothingdanceontheblacktop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="320" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDfUfte58JY9YCpMl1jMjWNY1oRFbPHMFxczXupfqElzyXnMSg9o83WCFlsP-Q3kDt7D_Zs6CmnCe1mvo_cepdbzFc_KIsYixZUC55XE2oBBeMNL4DnIgHc3iX6AciJLqg5aVh/s200/nothingdanceontheblacktop.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<b>Nothing, <i>Dance on the Blacktop</i> (<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/4LSHNiX2fM8eKv4TyosARZ?si=xJbBTBlXQO6O7vC5c2DZcw">Spotify</a>)</b><br />
I had begun to lose interest in this shoegaze revival band with their previous effort, <i>Tired of Tomorrow</i>. But <i>Dance on the Blacktop</i> brought me back to them. It’s like a lost Slowdive/Teenage Fanclub side project I didn’t know I wanted, but glad I found.<br />
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<b>Deafheaven, <i>Ordinary Corrupt Human Love</i> (<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/2iA7rzpQsOfAPkfH4Ekp7f?si=8UVUV8j0RC-7r8TF2qzX2Q">Spotify</a>)</b><br />
By now, I should have given up on Deafheaven. A black metal-tinged band that likes to show their love of Slowdive, Godspeed You Black Emperor, and Oasis had to have run out of ideas by now, right? Wrong. This is a really strong effort, one that features ballads as well as sonic fireballs.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqJNuHaXhTVvxVbdRJNxZ5m6SRYcEcFr82vaXSj_sDm3xfRtiu955WQ4HuM1eFBDryG35c2QwdEtxMEST7x2q1p_Tctj00-tVyfcbWz3RfZ8JJXJUtEfA1zn7Lg_SSxd_K3YGk/s1600/GhostPrequelle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="224" data-original-width="220" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqJNuHaXhTVvxVbdRJNxZ5m6SRYcEcFr82vaXSj_sDm3xfRtiu955WQ4HuM1eFBDryG35c2QwdEtxMEST7x2q1p_Tctj00-tVyfcbWz3RfZ8JJXJUtEfA1zn7Lg_SSxd_K3YGk/s200/GhostPrequelle.jpg" width="196" /></a></div>
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<b>Ghost, <i>Prequelle </i>(<a href="https://open.spotify.com/album/1KMfjy6MmPorahRjxhTnxm?si=RS4r9JZFTGy3bjv81EaDIQ">Spotify</a>)</b><br />
While I don’t think Ghost’s latest is their best work per se, but this ode to ’80s Top 40 rock is quite good. People can wonder why in the hell they thought a saxophone solo was a good idea, as well as a song that sounds like Loverboy, but I dig it. The outro to “Rats” is one of the best riffs I’ve heard this year.Eric Grubbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05832984660995503631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690237.post-66178676234426845492018-11-12T07:49:00.000-06:002018-11-12T07:49:42.861-06:00Unknown Road<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Over the final weeks of summer, I found myself watching a lot of episodes of <i>Bar Rescue</i>. As in, as many as I could watch on TV and online for days. I had been aware of the show for years, but I never realized how host Jon Taffer is more of a life coach than a consultant until he was a guest on a friend’s podcast.<br />
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Though I don’t have any aspirations of owning a bar someday, I struggle with anxiety and pride issues. That’s why I found Taffer’s tough love really engaging to hear. What he had to say to delusional owners rang true. It was easier to understand my hang-ups reflected in people that had even worse ones. I even bought his book, <i>Don’t Bullshit Yourself! Crush the Excuses That Are Holding You Back</i>, and read it in record time for my usually slow reading rate.<br />
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One episode that really stuck with me involved a California bar owner who insisted his dive bar only needed upgrades to its interior, but not any improvements that could very likely bring in more paying customers. He wanted a kitchen, but not better acoustics or a diverse drink menu. The employees knew the owner was stubborn and there was no point in challenging him.<br />
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The guy’s excuse for how he was? Punk rock pride. Not the loose idea of punk rock where you follow your own path in life. Rather, the kind where a limited view of life is because of the fear of selling out. Punk rock pride sometimes leads to punk rock guilt, leading you to wonder why you were afraid of change in the first place. But not with this guy. Apparently, through the magic of editing, he is someone who could not fathom non-punk rock fans coming into his bar. Any major changes would lead to massive failure, even though his business was already failing.<br />
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Taffer is not a stranger to punk rock. He managed the legendary bar the Troubadour in the late ’70s and dealt with bands like the Dead Kennedys and Fear. Rather than seeing punk rock through the eyes of the scriptwriters on <i>CHiPs</i> and <i>Quincy, ME</i>, Taffer saw things firsthand.<br />
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So it made sense in this episode that he brought in his friend Joe Escalante from the Vandals to give some feedback. While the bar owner recognized the band’s name, he dismissed Escalante’s criticisms because of the cardigan Escalante wore.<br />
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After trying to talk some sense into the owner, Taffer decided to not rescue the bar, which has only happened a couple of times in the show’s history. Despite it losing money each month, it’s still in business as of this writing. Certain people online say it’s because the guy came from money. If that is true, his hardline stance of keeping it strictly a money-losing punk rock dive bar is easy to have when he has a steady foundation of cash to walk on.<br />
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I’ve been in venues that pride themselves in being a dive, but also understand how to run a successful business. Whether it’s welcoming regulars as well as newbies, booking non-punk bands as well as punk bands, or selling creative mixed drinks in addition to cheap beer, the owners understand how to run a business rather than spout punk rock views they heard at a Pennywise show.<br />
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Why I related so strongly to this episode came from realizing having a purist attitude usually boxes you in throughout your life. Rather than trying something new on a relatively regular basis, you routinely fall back on what you already know. Any sort of change for the betterment of your life is treasonous.<br />
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And thus, I understood something deeper about what has held me back for many years: fearing change and admitting to making mistakes. I thought perfection could be obtained. I could be free of mistakes, full of wisdom, and be an expert on practically anything. And I didn’t have to listen to what anyone has to say because I’m smarter than everyone else.<br />
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It’s really easy to boast about your righteousness and not listen to what people have to say, especially those closest to you. But it can be hard to fathom why you have fallouts with friends, loved ones, and significant others throughout your life. You’re just being yourself. It’s always their problems and faults that drive them away from you, not the other way around.<br />
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Therein lies the nonsense you can believe for years. Even the entire rest of your life. Punk rock says to fight authority, be yourself, and not be a poseur. Well, you don’t have to agree with everything your boss or politicians say, and you don’t have to listen to trendy music, but you can’t win in the fight for its extinction. Just because you disagree with others doesn’t make you some superior being. And if you don’t want to listen to what others have to say, why should they listen to you?<br />
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If life is like living in a big house, you can either live where you’re free to walk around it or you relegate yourself to sitting in a small corner. After living in a corner for so many years, life is way more hopeful and exciting living in the whole house.Eric Grubbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05832984660995503631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690237.post-21655906974737905382018-08-28T09:59:00.000-05:002018-08-28T09:59:03.307-05:00Yesterday Once More<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If it weren't for Chuck Brinkman, I highly doubt I would have ended up in the traffic reporting business.<br />
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Not long after I graduated college and had worked in radio promotions for a few Infinity Radio stations, I was offered the chance to produce the afternoon show on KLUV, then an oldies station. I had known the previous producer and she did not like the job whatsoever. Eager to see what the job was really like, I took it on. </div>
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Though I made mistakes on my first day, Chuck gave me another chance and let me come back the following day. As tough as this job was, I ended up working for Chuck for two years. </div>
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During that time, which seems like a very short period in retrospect, I remember laughing quite often. There were things to do at all times, from answering the listener line to relaying messages to account executives. Yet there was time to hear stories about introducing and interviewing the Beatles, being around the Carpenters, and random trivia about 7-inch singles. </div>
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Roughly a year into my time with Chuck, I asked him if there was a way my position could be full-time. For whatever reason that doesn't matter now, my position was seen by the higher-ups as what interns and part-timers did, not a full-timer. Chuck suggested I call the director of operations at the traffic reporting service we used. </div>
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Even though my only experience with traffic reporting was watching our airborne reporter, Ben Laurie, compile his report, along with driving around the metroplex for promotional appearances, I seemed to be qualified for a weekend reporter position. So, to make ends meet, I worked at KLUV during the week and on the weekends as a traffic reporter. Months passed without a day off, but I was happy to be on my own. </div>
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But things got to a point where I needed a full-time job. And that meant I had to leave KLUV to work full-time in the traffic reporting world. Chuck wasn't happy about me leaving, but he understood why I had to do what I needed to do. </div>
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I continued down the road of traffic reporting, even with two layoffs. I heard from Chuck a couple of times, but the last time I saw him was at Ben Laurie's memorial service. I knew KLUV had gone in a slightly different direction, dropping the oldies moniker and going with the classic hits format. Chuck left the station after many years, working at an easy listening station and co-owning a station east of Dallas. </div>
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Last Friday, Parkinson's took Chuck away from the earth. He was 83. Only a few days before, I got word that the traffic reporting company I work for is about close down this fall. A big coincidence, and one that's been on my mind a lot lately. </div>
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I am not exactly sure I know what I will do next professionally, as the options in this industry are less and less. But if there was ever a perfect time to utilize my skills as a verbal communicator and writer in a field outside of broadcasting, now is the time. And I'm totally up for it. </div>
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But if it weren't for Chuck, I'm not really sure I would be doing now. Sometimes we need people to give us a little direction and we eventually find the path we want to be on. </div>
Eric Grubbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05832984660995503631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690237.post-91494082393608151372018-07-24T19:56:00.000-05:002018-07-24T19:56:47.706-05:00Why So Serious?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last week, as I saw numerous think pieces about the impact of Christopher Nolan's <i>The Dark Knight</i> ten years after its original release, I remembered a decision I made prior to seeing it in a theater. I thought the movie was great and all that, but something sticks out to me as I walked with my friends en route on a typically hot day in late July.<br />
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The memory is more about what I didn't do and why I did what I did. It's not a regret. It's simply a reminder of the importance of how we treat people.<br />
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The movie theater is in one of the biggest malls in Dallas. Since it was a Saturday afternoon, it was understandably filled with people shopping, eating, and whatever else they wanted to do.<br />
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In the midst of all these people, I noticed a familiar-looking face. It was a radio talk show host I had reported traffic for only a couple of years prior. Since I reported from a different building, I never met the host. I knew a lot of the news writers and reporters on this station, but not him. And frankly, after having to listen to yell and scream at people who disagreed with him on the air, I thought it was good to not know him.<br />
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However, recently, the host had lost his wife after a lengthy illness. As he walked alone among the shoppers, he looked sullen and a little lost. The compassionate side of me felt drawn to go up to him, introduce myself, and say I was sorry for his loss. Then I thought about all the times he would scream at callers, all the commercials for his show that featured him declaring, "You will not out-shout me!!!" and the times he was in front of a camera ripping apart people who didn't hold his same political views.<br />
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Since me and my friends wanted to get a good seat in the days before reserved seating in a movie theater, I let the moment pass and I kept walking without stopping. I thought I should have said something, but then I thought, If this guy wants to present himself as a polarizing person, then he should be left alone. He deserved to be alone.<br />
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As cruel as that might sound, I don't regret holding back.<br />
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Others might credit karma or revenge, but I stand behind an idea that toxic people deserve all the disappointment in their lives. You might have a lot of money and/or power, but if you routinely treat others like dirt for your feet to walk on, then I don't have much or any sympathy for you when something unfortunate happens in your life. I'm definitely not one to wish ill will on anyone, but I don't want to hear any whines or complaints when life hands you a challenge that you may never get over.<br />
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Yet what's weird about media personalities is distinguishing the difference between who they are with a microphone in front of them and who they are without one. I've worked with some total divas who sounded like warm and funny gentlemen on the air. I've also worked with people who are eager to be liked by everyone at the station, yet get on the air and cast scorn on those who have the opposing stances as them.<br />
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The purpose of this is not about what your political views are. It's how you treat those who see things differently than you. Of course I'm not OK with participating in illegal matters, but I'd prefer to not be a monster towards people who voted for someone I didn't for.Eric Grubbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05832984660995503631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690237.post-32576557975802982322018-05-14T11:53:00.000-05:002018-09-01T10:02:21.530-05:00Real, Real, Real<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSDyO-x0-UswvG_hIr4sM-OoaYSDcL2GUKis0pZWy5aeFJCMuSEIrCHA6YzoqMegB5hCY1GJ-BFqwOu15dWjbHwpAo9xq4Bcl7LKl4hjgKXC7pIHxdwrHo1D3TRdNAPxVSoXI1/s1600/typewriter-wall-glass-50-x-40-cm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSDyO-x0-UswvG_hIr4sM-OoaYSDcL2GUKis0pZWy5aeFJCMuSEIrCHA6YzoqMegB5hCY1GJ-BFqwOu15dWjbHwpAo9xq4Bcl7LKl4hjgKXC7pIHxdwrHo1D3TRdNAPxVSoXI1/s320/typewriter-wall-glass-50-x-40-cm.jpg" width="320" /></a>Last year, I was a part of a speaking panel focused on what it’s like to be a freelance journalist. Hosted by a local college's journalism society, it was fun to talk openly and face to face with undergrads wanting some advice and insight in the field.<br />
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A question was asked that struck me as odd at the time. With her young son in tow, squirming in his seat because he couldn’t sit still for too long, the student asked the panel on how to deal with a criticism of freelancing she had encountered.<br />
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Someone told her she wasn’t a real journalist because she was not on the full-time payroll of the publication she wrote for. Freelancing was the best way for her, between being a full-time student, wife, and mother. I said she should not believe what this person said, as many professional journalists these days are freelancers. Writers make what they want to make out of the profession, whether or not they receive a regular paycheck with a portion taken out for a 401(k) and health insurance.<br />
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I, along with the other panelists, stressed that the professional journalism field does not have a lot of full-time openings, and freelancing is the way most publications handle their content these days. The cost is less for the publication, which helps them stay in business. Freelancing gives the writer way more options and control over what he or she wants to put out there. It’s actually a great time these days, but if your idea of success is having a 401(k) and health insurance, you need to see a bigger picture.<br />
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Full-time job openings, especially writing about music and its culture, are not plentiful and haven’t been for years. Even the ones that exist don’t offer big annual incomes, as the passion for writing about music seems to overshadow the paycheck. <br />
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Would I like to have a retirement plan and health insurance, in addition to a livable wage, from writing about music? Sure, but I have yet to be fortunate to do that in my career. I’m not sitting around waiting for that to happen. I spend 40 hours a week writing copy in the traffic reporting world, but I also spend at least a handful of hours each week devoted to writing articles and working on a book. If I can’t spend 40 hours devoted to writing about music, I sure make the most of the hours I do have. I’m grateful to spend time interviewing people I admire, write about them, and get paid something in return. Freelance checks do come in handy, especially on top of a salary.<br />
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I do what I do, and recently, what I do was called into question. I present the following as a way to show the value of freelancing and how not to sway someone with something you think is newsworthy.<br />
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Last week, I encountered someone criticizing me as a journalist because I don’t do it all the time. Easy to pass off as an anonymous troll looking to get a rise out of me, but in this case, it had been from someone I had worked extensively with on a story that ran last year. We had a friendly relationship, even though working on this story meant regular phone calls and messages from him asking about how the article was going and him telling me some of things I should put in the article. I thought it was a little annoying, but I stayed on course and wrote the article I wanted to write. He really appreciated what ran online, but I found his relentlessness to be rather out of character from the kind of publicists, bands, and promoters I work with (or hear from) on a regular basis.<br />
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After hearing nothing from him for months -- hey, we’re all busy people -- he recently hit me up about a new creative endeavor he has in development. I took what he had into consideration, but I thought there was not a strong pull for me to write about it. I’ve been told it’s obvious when I’m not totally into the person, band, or show that I’m writing about, so I opt to write about the stuff that moves me and that people might enjoy reading.<br />
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He had emailed me, messaged me, and called me multiple times, trying to get a response. When I had the time to give him a clear answer, I told him I was politely passing on writing about his project. He did not take my no -- however polite it was -- as an answer. He wanted to know why, opting to push back with reasons why I should reconsider. I told him to back off and that I do not work well with pushy people. He apologized, but I had enough of his antics. I saw him as a force that wants to use the media to make him look good in the spotlight.<br />
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In hopes he would leave me alone, I blocked him on all of my social media, blocked his email address, and tried to block his number on my phone.<br />
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When he called me a few days later from a different number I did not recognize, I was furious that he went down this route. I had previously given him an answer about why I didn’t want to write this proposed article. I did not accept his apology, as I could not forgive his actions. I was cold and aloof to him. That made him even angrier. Now he wanted an apology from me.<br />
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Since I had a relatively good working relationship with this guy, I thought writing him a lengthy email explaining my stances and views would be helpful to him. I also thought it would help him realize things about himself that people had not told him, or were afraid to tell him. He responded kindly and appreciated my email, but then went back to plugging this project.<br />
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The following day, he thought it was best to text me about the importance of working with him based on something he posted on Facebook. Telling me I “don’t know shit about passion,” I told him to stop texting me, as it had come to a harassment level. Replying “God loves you Eric” and "if you were a real 'journalist,' you would be doing it full time," I told him again to stop harassing me.<br />
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The communication came to an end. Any sort of future professional relationship ended, too.<br />
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In the times we live in, the media is seen as untrustworthy when they report about things that don’t seem right, are extremely unfair, or are outright false. It’s the media’s job to hold accountable people in check. In my case, if I don’t think it’s worth the time to write a story about it, then why should I pretend that readers want to see this online or in print?<br />
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I found it funny this guy was all about talking favorably to me on a story I wanted to write, but turned heel when I didn’t want to write about something else he was involved with. I was fooled once by him, but not again.<br />
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Being a freelancer gave me the chance to say no. I’m fortunate to be in a position where I can say what I want to write about, even if it might mean less money in my bank account for a week. People who want to doubt a freelancer’s legitimacy can do that all they want, but I think the quality of the actual writing and reporting means everything.Eric Grubbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05832984660995503631noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690237.post-58513983540967468212018-04-24T19:25:00.000-05:002018-04-24T19:25:08.075-05:00Forever Got Shorter<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg8KSYGSagiydAN0xHuSinwU737PX8XAl16UwqxIg5FjUahL9k6v379DeFdPIc4fy8nxTrxB_oZBWl_KArYb45-36T-5rOYXv5Yv0DPLuD49yPZAfhl_p4hQSKo_XXG-5jLa9g/s1600/Braidmerch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjg8KSYGSagiydAN0xHuSinwU737PX8XAl16UwqxIg5FjUahL9k6v379DeFdPIc4fy8nxTrxB_oZBWl_KArYb45-36T-5rOYXv5Yv0DPLuD49yPZAfhl_p4hQSKo_XXG-5jLa9g/s320/Braidmerch.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This year marks ten years since my first book, </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Post</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, came out. It was a self-released affair put out by a print-on-demand publisher. It’s never sold many copies, but according to quarterly royalty statements, several copies are sold every year in various parts of the world. </span><br />
<span id="docs-internal-guid-941be4a7-f99e-dc0d-29b2-b01155fd1203"><br /></span>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span id="docs-internal-guid-941be4a7-f99e-dc0d-29b2-b01155fd1203"><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I never put the book out to make money. I wanted people outside of my inner circle to read it and find something of worth in it. If emo was a joke to many, then I wanted to show how it wasn’t. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Last year, I had an idea to release a ten-year anniversary edition of the book. I’d update all the chapters, write a new afterword, and see if a publisher wanted to put it out. After rejection letters from publishers arrived in my inbox, I set the idea aside. Seemed like the gatekeepers thought Andy Greenwald’s superficial and error-filled look at emo was enough. But that was not a reason to quit pursuing something I wanted out there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Only a few days after our wedding, Hope asked me if was interested in doing a new long-term creative project. She suggested a documentary based on </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Post</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. While I’m interested in doing something like that someday, I thought a book sequel to </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Post </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">should happen before that. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Over the years, I had been asked about doing a sequel from a couple of people, including my friend and fellow podcaster, Jim Hanke, on his excellent </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Vinyl Emergency</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> podcast. My original response was no, as someone else should write a sequel. I had kind of checked out from modern emo when Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance were considered equals to Braid, Sunny Day Real Estate, and Rites of Spring. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But after being told no to a new edition of </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Post</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, I realized I had a lot more to say and research to do, all in what has happened since 2008. There is too much to put into a new edition of a previously-released book. It’s asking a lot of people to read a 500-page tome, so why not try to put out a new book? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I made my plans for a new book known on my social media back in the middle of January this year. I’ve spent every week since interviewing people, doing research, and jotting ideas down. At the very least, I give myself the goal to interview someone every week, even if it’s interviewing the same person multiple times. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">So far, it’s been wonderful to touch base with people I originally interviewed, along with people I’ve met since the first book’s release. There are many people to talk to, so I’m giving myself at least until the end of this year to interview people. No deadline is set at the moment. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Structurally, this new book -- which I plan on putting out myself and calling it </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Forever Got Shorter </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-- will be more about the people affected by emo/post-hardcore rather doing lengthy profiles of a dozen bands. Whether these are people who play in bands, put out records, or write about bands that put out records, I am aiming to answer a few questions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Questions like, Why would you fly across the country to see a band like Jawbreaker play a reunion show or two? Why do you still like emo music when you’re in a much better place in your life? Why is emo still relevant? And, what kind of future do you see with it?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I freely admit that it can be complicated to spend all this time on a passion project that may or may not go over. Being newly married, working a full-time job, freelancing, and playing in two bands, my life is busy, but I try to balance everything properly. My life is much, much more fulfilling now -- especially because of Hope -- and I remember what life was like before. And I don’t ever want to go back to that look at life. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Along those lines, I strongly discourage any writer who thinks blocking out everything in his or hers life in order to write an Important Book. As Stephen King suggested in his </span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">On Writing</span><span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> memoir, writing is not a support system for life. It’s the other way around. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial"; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Moving forward, I’m very excited about doing this book. There is a lot of work to be done, and paragraphs to write before editing happens. But I’m up for it all. </span></div>
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</span>Eric Grubbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05832984660995503631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690237.post-13292158855659499082017-12-22T15:10:00.000-06:002017-12-22T22:45:44.375-06:00A year in music, 2017There was no shortage of great music released in 2017. I have an extensive<b> <a href="https://open.spotify.com/user/ericgrubbs/playlist/7k7CVjv14oJdwHQrXUZUju">Spotify playlist</a> </b>of songs I enjoyed, but for the sake of brevity, here is my list of my favorite albums and shows this year.<br />
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<b><u>Favorite albums</u></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQJhQBXu-2k8CKWEkN-PKKftiEXxFKOK6XMeSN1sqD9RLMmHJIjDg-GcRTrLGcV7Kq16EGUvNbeDuztoDDRaWq2gMuBVukP6lBukOcJCjMVOzgLyGrHJjGl51KGvnCRwnZE61u/s1600/Emperor_of_sand_cover.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQJhQBXu-2k8CKWEkN-PKKftiEXxFKOK6XMeSN1sqD9RLMmHJIjDg-GcRTrLGcV7Kq16EGUvNbeDuztoDDRaWq2gMuBVukP6lBukOcJCjMVOzgLyGrHJjGl51KGvnCRwnZE61u/s400/Emperor_of_sand_cover.jpg" /></a><br />
<b>Mastodon, <i>Emperor of Sand</i></b><br />
One of the best Mastodon LPs in years, and my favorite since <i>Crack the Skye</i>. Seems like when Mastodon goes for the deepest of deep about life and tragedy, they produce some of their strongest work. This is the record I can listen to over and over and not skip a single tune.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgULleLqjQAvY1HPyy_qvTBRvEVD4tQtWPsR-MJ0sriNwvDVFabxuFNW3LzMIZY78o4yg912QwG7lsmMr_mmz2WAor_7EbSID4nLxsboK34ncyJYF6e7zLotjxOnQ4lr2L3iNMM/s1600/LostBalloonsHeyS.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgULleLqjQAvY1HPyy_qvTBRvEVD4tQtWPsR-MJ0sriNwvDVFabxuFNW3LzMIZY78o4yg912QwG7lsmMr_mmz2WAor_7EbSID4nLxsboK34ncyJYF6e7zLotjxOnQ4lr2L3iNMM/s200/LostBalloonsHeyS.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
<b>Lost Balloons, <i>Hey Summer</i></b><br />
The second album from Jeff Burke's indie pop group shows he really is one of the best songwriters around. Not just in the pop punk/garage world. In general. With shades of country, folk, and the Kinks, I admire everything Burke does even more.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRWp0v8Df6VGck22Kip6B-JUorbM36XDKFihFVgea6_68LSljVNZsyPbwztV7LvZnn661fwqN5ytxQnB9g2YUNDZP3dG1nP3hyFFo1VwJqveM1CLXMruKsKHA-nVBroLXnTqBf/s1600/whitereaper.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRWp0v8Df6VGck22Kip6B-JUorbM36XDKFihFVgea6_68LSljVNZsyPbwztV7LvZnn661fwqN5ytxQnB9g2YUNDZP3dG1nP3hyFFo1VwJqveM1CLXMruKsKHA-nVBroLXnTqBf/s200/whitereaper.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
<b>White Reaper, <i>The World's Greatest American Band</i></b><br />
Yes, this album title is a bit over-confident, but this four-piece makes a mighty fine statement here. What happens when a band plays speedy garage rock and then digs deep into 70s power pop and arena rock? This happens. "Judy French" is one of my favorite songs of the year.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8o51Q65SUM_dlImvTomksE13iU-7UG_PIPB3eU-ncswueDbbX01GaXX8FVzWVa49njQL5QlQoUafQJJLt42Zbmqdre3W1JGjM5b7uyVmZdp9-wPLdTcoFPuXGTqr098DbhdtN/s1600/matt_hammon.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8o51Q65SUM_dlImvTomksE13iU-7UG_PIPB3eU-ncswueDbbX01GaXX8FVzWVa49njQL5QlQoUafQJJLt42Zbmqdre3W1JGjM5b7uyVmZdp9-wPLdTcoFPuXGTqr098DbhdtN/s200/matt_hammon.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
<b>Matt Hammon, <i>Silver Suitcase</i></b><br />
Matt Hammon was the original drummer for Mineral and the Gloria Record. His tenures were short as he desired to play drums full time. He wound up with Bob Mould's backing band and he later produced a number of artists in Nashville. Now after beating cancer and working as a teacher in Houston, Hammon created an album where he sings and plays all the instruments. If you like the bands he's been with, you'll probably dig <i>Silver Suitcase</i>.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-Ts5GK9E8tpa1Jt-PoBGv0xw4-xa58tvRx9Qdj06j-uGXGiXh4CUDjBZJVbmbap73dmkkEmu-5a7Sg9WRf-bAmzvP-kdqF_k78lLbi6MCGhzIXf-EZqRRsdJHUfQA8tofi3wa/s1600/hundredth.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-Ts5GK9E8tpa1Jt-PoBGv0xw4-xa58tvRx9Qdj06j-uGXGiXh4CUDjBZJVbmbap73dmkkEmu-5a7Sg9WRf-bAmzvP-kdqF_k78lLbi6MCGhzIXf-EZqRRsdJHUfQA8tofi3wa/s200/hundredth.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
<b>Hundredth, <i>RARE</i></b><br />
This band used to play fast metal with a hardcore feel. Deciding to ditch the speed and grit and go for something influenced by shoegaze, <i>RARE</i> sounds like what Title Fight could have made after <i>Floral Green</i>. This is much more My Vitriol and Swervedriver than Code Orange.<br />
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<b><u>Favorite shows</u></b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4X-Ho4Yaf1iPip5Eeiy-MO_cRVrgR63oetcTIyp_XT6moygzBr6k169TCQO3Yr51CgXkI1DVHioZe0kl4w-YDKGSb5l8pMGyMRZPHfx19WE_9ZeR6jdGpymS8R1geFoXhgYuT/s1600/0401172212.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4X-Ho4Yaf1iPip5Eeiy-MO_cRVrgR63oetcTIyp_XT6moygzBr6k169TCQO3Yr51CgXkI1DVHioZe0kl4w-YDKGSb5l8pMGyMRZPHfx19WE_9ZeR6jdGpymS8R1geFoXhgYuT/s320/0401172212.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>American Football, Granada Theater, April 1st, 2017</b><br />
I missed my 20-year high school reunion to see American Football play its first Dallas show. Did not disappoint in any way. They played two sets: one was their second LP, the second set was most of their debut LP. Joyous and heavenly.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRXOCZtRT_lFPNyLevXQgoIAsdbQGc-mL3IYNoTHhyo6eAhh1hoYrkHAEBRYh3tCv4fAhb0GHd-2AeuMJzSr3MUnSWOEYoioxH_E1mI_D7uWc_qXYf3awvLBb6dKWkcXBp0oSI/s1600/0919172043a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRXOCZtRT_lFPNyLevXQgoIAsdbQGc-mL3IYNoTHhyo6eAhh1hoYrkHAEBRYh3tCv4fAhb0GHd-2AeuMJzSr3MUnSWOEYoioxH_E1mI_D7uWc_qXYf3awvLBb6dKWkcXBp0oSI/s320/0919172043a.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Tears of Silver, Good Records, Sept. 19th, 2017</b><br />
This is a group made up of Ken Stringfellow from the Posies, Big Star, and R.E.M. with members of Mercury Rev and Midlake. Since I've never seen Mercury Rev before, I was blown away by how tranquil and beautiful this set was. Opening with a soft version of "Grant Hart," this was all kinds of special. Songs from the Rev's catalog, along with Big Star, Flaming Lips, and Posies tunes made for something way better than the average in-store.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlL-biTH9WPyPZglUhq32CcgD08kbJZuwaI0wHGYK-NLQsldRzROh3IV202XDWzsn0jtQPG-0OGAmdTxSjb94wBEVr14YXtywn5aQ0TNNGUSHpqUpcIHhSYc0Vj-0UXpD57qIR/s1600/0819172000a_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlL-biTH9WPyPZglUhq32CcgD08kbJZuwaI0wHGYK-NLQsldRzROh3IV202XDWzsn0jtQPG-0OGAmdTxSjb94wBEVr14YXtywn5aQ0TNNGUSHpqUpcIHhSYc0Vj-0UXpD57qIR/s320/0819172000a_HDR.jpg" width="320" /></a><br />
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<b>Alice Cooper, Starplex, August 19th, 2017</b><br />
My third time seeing Alice Cooper, and the best time yet. He was so good he left Deep Purple to follow that, and they were lackluster in comparison. While he does the same kind of stage set up with pyro, dancers, and a guillotine, this show was a purely entertaining piece of theatrical rock.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9c_FTId-LaEztxRfavHUDMWg9nxnwg0jXu5Y2yDXkW1sjKHNDmLcKTX9ND2g3RnpesfyKVixweBLD7NYXm9Hi05xumrBmb2EEKjmGZfZ1Z7UjsjuXJIB2uMSiAME-YZtyAz4t/s1600/0928172131.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9c_FTId-LaEztxRfavHUDMWg9nxnwg0jXu5Y2yDXkW1sjKHNDmLcKTX9ND2g3RnpesfyKVixweBLD7NYXm9Hi05xumrBmb2EEKjmGZfZ1Z7UjsjuXJIB2uMSiAME-YZtyAz4t/s320/0928172131.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Arcade Fire, American Airlines Center, September 28th, 2017</b><br />
I had lost track of Arcade Fire for a few years. I didn't realize they were big enough to play the same place the Dallas Stars and Mavericks play, but they brought in a lot of people. Wasn't sold out, but it wasn't empty. They played with the concept of an arena act with their video screens and boxing ring stage set up. Great mix of songs from all of their albums with an amazing light show.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidNXwI2DIbYZmNeolTc5iaceXABlv257Dkhjcb0oHw3a2yOsR4KN5GugUf87EJoHAaXoe_nyoAUG71hjgdYxgkaiXtYAHWweOf9aLI5NJZjXGu9yHXqjPumkVtHOdJTPzWPnG_/s1600/1209172256.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidNXwI2DIbYZmNeolTc5iaceXABlv257Dkhjcb0oHw3a2yOsR4KN5GugUf87EJoHAaXoe_nyoAUG71hjgdYxgkaiXtYAHWweOf9aLI5NJZjXGu9yHXqjPumkVtHOdJTPzWPnG_/s320/1209172256.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>Zao, The Dirty 30, December 9th, 2017</b><br />
Zao had not played Dallas in 12 years, and judging by the sold-out response to this show, they will be back soon. The band did a weekend warrior tour of Texas and they were intense as they've ever been. Lots of new material mixed with well-loved older material, the band is still one of the best metal-tinged hardcore bands around.Eric Grubbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05832984660995503631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690237.post-26186737467866205492017-11-26T08:50:00.000-06:002017-11-26T08:50:52.504-06:00Long Time Missing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There's a phrase music critics share when news of a musician's death breaks on a major holiday and the writer has to come up with something right then and there for a quick turnaround: a Dead Beatle.<br />
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Meaning, this is such a serious loss that whatever you're doing with family and/or friends has to wait. Since no publication I write for demanded something about Tommy Keene when news of his unexpected passing broke on Thanksgiving, I held off on saying something beyond Facebook posts and tweets. But I did stop in my tracks after a long and lovely day with Hope as newlyweds and shared my grief and shock about Tommy's death. He was 59.<br />
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Tommy Keene had a long and fruitful career as a solo artist. He came from the Washington D.C. area playing in bands before going solo. His second and third albums, <i>Songs from the Film </i>and <i>Based on Happy Times</i>, were released on Geffen Records in the mid- to late 1980s. At a time when hairsprayed hard rock, teen pop, and the remnants of new wave dominated the mainstream, Keene's music never broke through those barriers. Despite those records sounding more aligned with Bryan Adams' and Cheap Trick's albums at the time, Keene's music had much more depth and immediacy than a lot of other stuff major labels put out.<br />
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Keene kept putting out solo records on smaller labels and played as a sideman with the likes of Paul Westerberg and Bob Pollard, among others. Though the records were consistently good to great, he became someone that was taken for granted. He had his fans, but sadly, it looks like the most press he received was after his passing.<br />
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If you had never heard his material prior to his death, I made a <b><a href="https://open.spotify.com/user/ericgrubbs/playlist/1YCm6Vtv9uMZFvyyxaPV98">Spotify playlist</a> </b>of tunes that might make you want to hear his whole catalog.<br />
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I've enjoyed Tommy's music for 10+ years now. I can't remember if it was "Places That Are Gone" on a Rhino power pop collection or two MP3s from <i>Ten Years After </i>posted on a friend's blog, but by the time a writer friend of mine, Darryl Smyers, gave me a copy of the <i>Hear You Me</i> retrospective, I went all in. This wasn't power pop meant to resuscitate everything the Beatles did. It was more than that, especially in the power department.<br />
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For years, I always hoped to see Tommy play. I heard a Dallas date he played years ago at the Cavern was poorly attended so I didn't think he would come back. When I heard he was coming back through Texas with Matthew Sweet this summer, I decided to go. Sure, it would have been best to see him with a backing band. But if this was all I could possibly get, I decided to go.<br />
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Ahead of the show, I got to interview him for an <a href="http://www.houstonpress.com/music/power-pop-guru-tommy-keene-and-matthew-sweet-play-heights-theater-july-23-9605725"><b>article</b></a> in the <i>Houston Press</i>. It was a brief but enjoyable chat, talking about where he was at in his career and what he hoped to do next. He put me on the guest list for his show in Dallas at the Kessler and I looked forward to it.<br />
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Though the majority of the audience was there for Matthew Sweet, the audience gave Tommy lots of respect and enjoyed his set, which ran all over his catalog. Sweet came on, and as someone who has never really sunk my teeth into his material, I was not motivated to stay until the end. Sweet just stood there and played with his backing band. Not enough excitement for me, so I left.<br />
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As I rounded the corner outside of the venue, there was Tommy sitting outside, smoking a cigarette. I introduced myself and he was friendly and conversational. We essentially shot the shit, talking about the tour, sharing pictures of our dogs, and talking about various points in his career. (He confirmed that yes, it was he who played lead guitar on the Goo Goo Dolls' "Broadway.") Who should walk up but my writer friend Darryl Smyers and a friend of his in tow. We all had a nice chat, but after a while, Tommy had to cut loose and join Matthew Sweet for an encore with the band.<br />
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At no point in talking with Tommy did he seem bitter about his career. He never became a pop star, but I don't think he wanted to be one. He had the songs, and when you have them, you don't need to be anything more to let them live beyond your life. He had a lot to look forward to, with a new album in the works, a DVD of live footage, and more touring. He didn't act entitled or wanting more recognition. He was happy doing what he was doing, playing and writing music he cared about. This certainly served as a reminder to why people do what they do. And that goes beyond what you think is the best Tommy Keene song or album.Eric Grubbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05832984660995503631noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690237.post-39057111318346983372017-11-25T16:02:00.000-06:002017-11-25T16:02:42.834-06:00Married<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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On November 17th, I enjoyed the best day of my life with my soulmate, along with many family and longtime friends surrounding us. Getting married to Hope was the best decision I've ever made, in a life filled with non-decisions and indecisiveness.<br />
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In the year prior to meeting Hope, I wasn't sure I'd ever find somebody to spend the rest of my life with. Coming off a short period of friends dying, a relationship falling apart, and playing musical chairs with jobs, I wanted life to get better, not turn into something I settled on.<br />
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Despite hearing horror stories about how hook-up culture and dating apps were ruining relationships for everyone, I believed there was someone out there who could see me at my best and worst, tell me what the deal is, and who could inspire me, and vice versa to her. I found that in a fellow podcaster I met through Twitter.<br />
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We decided to get married, accepting that neither of us are perfect or without flaws. It took me a long time to understand that I will never be without fault, and no one else is, either. Yes, you can love and be loved even if you make mistakes.<br />
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Hope and I complement each other, but thank high heavens we don't complete each other. As much as the "You complete me" might seem cute in movies like <i>Jerry Maguire</i> and <i>Austin Powers</i>, it's not exactly the best thing to hinge a relationship on. Hope has her life with her interests, as I have mine, but we choose to share a life together, through the thick and thin. Whatever happens -- good or bad -- I'm grateful for every single day I have with her.<br />
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I was asked by a number of people if I was nervous prior to the wedding. As in, you nervous about getting married? I wasn't. I hoped everything went right with the ceremony and reception, as <i>a lot </i>of planning went into them, especially by Hope and her mother.<br />
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Everything did go right, and we had a wonderful time. A sunset wedding, attended by many family and friends. Certain family members I had not seen in a very long time, coupled with friends I have known for almost all of my adult life. The reception was a joyous occasion, set to music that never dragged -- and a first dance done with a new song by singer/songwriter Rahim Quazi that he performed live.<br />
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People danced, hugged us, wished us well, and took many pictures. A collection of pictures is up on the <b><a href="https://www.gsnapstudios.com/single-post/2017/11/21/Eric-Hope-Wedding-at-the-Springs">blog</a> </b>by the photographers that were hired. We had a wonderful time, I think these pics capture the evening.<br />
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Now life is a new journey with Hope. I don't know exactly what tomorrow brings, but I'm incredibly thankful it will be with her. There is a lot of life left to experience. Though relationships are hard and require work to make them last, when you're with the right person, you would not have it any other way.Eric Grubbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05832984660995503631noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690237.post-23872877794976222992017-10-18T10:40:00.000-05:002017-10-18T10:48:34.285-05:00Doing Something Right<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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There's a phrase often said when a writer draws a lot of ire from readers about his or hers work: "Well, I must be doing something right." With a large amount of page views, comments, Facebook shares, and tweets to back this up, a writer can think a purpose has been served, and a message is coming across.<br />
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I don't totally believe that.<br />
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Writers complain (usually on Twitter) when "nobody" cares about an article they wrote when page views are low. Conversely, they'll boast about how many people clicked on a link to justify their take. It's all a measure of how people apparently care in the digital age.<br />
<br />
What I've seen is when someone has a brash take on a topic (a trend in music, a concert review, etc.) and the headline really amplifies the gist of the article. This is written to be "the truth," when ultimately, it's an opinion, and hopefully, a well-informed one that is backed up with facts.<br />
<br />
But facts can be relative when they are overshadowed by how people feel about things.<br />
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I've always tried to write about stuff I care about with as much accuracy as possible. I have never set out to write something with the intent of pissing people off. I do my research and ask questions that research cannot give.<br />
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I'm not a hot take machine, even though I have had strong differences of opinion on things over the years and have vocalized them. I don't think I've done a good job or bad job if I've received a large amount of negative responses. I can wonder if I presented my take to the best of my ability.<br />
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What usually pisses people off is when someone tries to make a strong point, gives false information, and makes empty claims that can't be backed up. What's "right" about that? You can make your opinion known, but if there are massive holes in your argument, you look like a fool. But if you justify your foolishness by the number of clicks, messages, tweets, and Facebook shares you had, you're deluding yourself.<br />
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Most of the time, I receive messages from people when I make an error in my reporting. Whether it's talking about the tenure of a band member or the current job of a man running for a political office, if I'm wrong, I let my editor know to make a change in the article. If I claimed that I don't care, then I'm not doing my job properly.<br />
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Maybe I'm too earnest in my approach, but I've never found fault in writing what's in my heart. I don't believe I'd ever have clicks in my heart more than a story to tell.Eric Grubbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05832984660995503631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690237.post-39506430324202501792017-08-03T14:52:00.000-05:002017-08-03T17:45:44.321-05:00The Best Team in the Land and All the World<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Two years ago, I almost saw Manchester City play in America.<br />
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Rain during a Texas summer is rare, but there was so much of it in Houston in 2015 that the pitch was unplayable for a friendly between City and the Houston Dynamo. Joel and I found out the match had been cancelled right as we walked into the pub where a City meet-up was. Alas, City sent Mike Summerbee and Brian Kidd for a Q&A, gave us free drinks, and free merch.<br />
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Clearly, City cares about its American fans.<br />
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I had debated flying to Manchester to see a match, but funds dictated that I should stay stateside. Plus, I had heard of another City trip to America halfway through the 2016/2017 Premier League season. I chose my summer vacation days accordingly.<br />
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When the club announced a trip to the United States in 2017, I knew I had to see at least one of the matches. I decided to see the Nashville match against Tottenham Hotspur over the LA and Houston matches.<br />
<br />
Though there would be a lot of driving (10 hours to be exact), Hope and I would have more time to do things in town and City-related events. Seeing Nashville again would be very special, as when I went there two years ago to see a show, I drove back hoping I'd find a special someone someday. I'm lucky to say I did, and she's into City. <br />
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But before we left for the country music industry town, our City group Blue Moon Dallas had a special visitor.<br />
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Braydon Bent is an eight-year-old diehard City supporter. After winning a contest -- where he did his impression of Sergio Aguero celebrating the 93:20 goal against Queens Park Rangers -- the kid has become a viral sensation, often appearing in videos for the club. He was on a promotional tour throughout the southern region of the country, stopping at various points along the way. Bringing the captain's armband that Vincent Kompany would wear at the Nashville match, many of us BMD folks got to meet Braydon and pose with the armband.<br />
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Braydon is a non-stop burst of positive energy. He has the kind of non-cynical, undying passion one can have for a professional sports team. He has charisma with people even though he's young. A joy to spend time with, and his father was a total gentleman, too. He mentioned to us that there was a welcoming sort of vibe once he walked into the pub we watch all of the Premier League matches. Further proof that Mark Mulv and his fellow co-founders have made something special.<br />
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Match day was on Saturday, so Hope, Joel, and I got in my car at a very early time on Friday morning and just drove and drove. I briefly thought, Boy it would suck if the match was cancelled as rain was in the forecast for that entire day, but a sunny sky was in the forecast for the match. But I then thought, if the match happened and I missed it because of that doubt, I'd <i>really</i> kick myself.<br />
<br />
After checking into our AirBNB and taking a moment to relax and have some dinner, Hope and I met up at a late-night party where MCFC Nashville meets. As we pulled up, a handful of Spurs supporters caught an Uber in the parking lot, leaving a pub filled with City supporters from around the world, drinking, eating, and singing City songs. I tried to save my voice for Saturday, but I sure had some fun singing chants from City's past.<br />
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Saturday came. The sun was shining, vibes were good. Tottenham and City supporters were all over downtown near Nissan Stadium. Hope and I went to a City-related meet-up at the George Jones Museum, which is more sports bar than museum, and it was filled to the brim with people in sky blue, in addition to the country music tourists. We ran into Braydon and his father and they recognized us right away. Good times were had, but there was a match to see.<br />
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To save some money on parking and keep ourselves sane, we took a Lyft to the match. Our driver was a very enthusiastic man who knew the town extremely well, dropping us off at the stadium without having to sit in a very long line of cars. I had not been to a large American football field since the early 1990s, so to see the monstrosity that most NFL stadiums are these days caused me to step back and take in the awe of it.<br />
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Once we found our seats, I realized we were in for something extraordinary.<br />
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Sitting right behind the goal with many members of Blue Moon Dallas, and right in front of Joey McCune, the man who never runs out of banter or songs to sing, we knew we were going to have a good time, win, lose, or draw.<br />
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This area was designated for City supporters, as this was behind us.<br />
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Yet what was standing right in front of us?<br />
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These guys.<br />
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For some reason, almost every Spurs supporter I have come across is a bro. Meaning, beers in the Yeti cooler, constant high-fives, sports is life, and ALRIGHT, LIFE IS GOOD, BRO! While these guys (three in total) fit that stereotype, they had fun playing along with our banter and were surprised by our self-deprecating songs. Though they booed Kyle Walker (who recently transferred from Tottenham to Manchester City), we repeatedly sang, "He left 'cause you're shit/He left 'cause you're shit/Kyle Walker, he left 'cause you're shit." Seeing Walker lead the defensive attack, which frequently ran over the Spurs' offense, was nice to see.<br />
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A little over nine minutes in, we were about 20 feet away from John Stones knock a header into the Spurs' goal. The place was electric. Seeing players we've only seen on TV up close and personal was delightful. Seeing new keeper Ederson Moraes make some incredible saves, as well as an insane pass to Aguero, were some of the highlights. <br />
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City dominated Spurs, a club that is quite good and should do quite well in the Premier League this season. City seemed to build on the win they had over Real Madrid only a few nights before, making me think City has a really strong squad assembled for this new season. Anything can happen, so I'm not hedging my happiness in life based on rankings, trophies, or table positions. That said, it was nice to see City win in person.<br />
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Football is my favorite sport to watch and play. There was a long stretch in time where it was not for me, but after finding the right club because of belonging with its supporters, I feel welcome. No, I never saw City play at Maine Road. No, I didn't see City get relegated after winning promotion. But with supporting teams in other sports fields that have had great times and terrible times during my 38 years on this earth, being a City supporter makes sense.<br />
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The end result of the match was a 3-0 victory for City. Even the Spurs fans in front of us shook our hands, thanking us for a good time. We went back to the George Jones for a drink and cooling off period. The weather was wonderful, and there was a breeze.<br />
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Slowly making our way from downtown, we caught a Lyft home and decided to get something to eat. Before we stepped into a Taco Bell for a late-night dinner, I realized Nicoletto's, an Italian food joint co-owned by Braid's Damon Atkinson, was across the street. We ate there instead, briefly talked to some Spurs supporters who were from Texas, and even met up with Damon. It was great to catch up and to introduce Hope to him. A nice post-script to the last time I was in town, to see Braid play at the Exit In.<br />
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We got a lot done in that one day, and it was a day well-lived. We had a long day of driving ahead of us, so we got plenty of rest that night.<br />
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During the long stretch of endless trees, along with stops at gas stations and a Cracker Barrel breakfast, I was happy this all happened. International friendly matches are more advertising for the football clubs than anything else, but as a primer for the new season, it was wonderful.<br />
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Now to start plotting out a trip to Manchester.Eric Grubbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05832984660995503631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690237.post-8625653759964992152017-08-01T19:56:00.000-05:002017-08-01T19:56:40.941-05:00Reach Out and Touch Someone<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Recently I had a long phone conversation with a friend of mine. Though we are not very close (we’ve had four in-person conversations so far), we ended up talking for almost an hour. I had originally contacted him for an article I worked on about his uncle, but then we talked about a variety of things about his band, their new album, and his recent move to California. That portion was not for the article; it was simply catching up on things in our respective lives.<br />
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When I got off the phone, I thought, Wow, it’s great to have an actual phone conversation with someone.<br />
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The following night, I got a call from a friend I helped out with his radio show a couple of years ago. Hadn’t talked to him in months, and it was good to hear from him. He invited Hope and me for a get-together, but we couldn’t come because of work schedules. But we kept talking and chatted about what all we have been up to since late last year.<br />
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Once again, I was reminded of what I can get out of a phone conversation that I can’t through a text or a social media post.<br />
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It’s not like I don’t talk to people on the phone in my everyday life. I talk to Hope on the phone when a private message will not suffice. I talk to my boss when there’s a work matter that needs to be addressed. And I answer an information line in my office as part of my job.<br />
<br />
Yet when it comes to talking to friends and family, social media seems to be the replacement for a phone conversation. Granted, you can tell a lot of people what you’re up through a post on Facebook, a tweet, or an Instagram pic. Still, there’s a lot of stuff that has no business being on social media that is way more fulfilling to talk about on the phone or in person. Hearing a person’s voice goes much further than you might think.<br />
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As much as I’d like to talk to people more, I’m still held back by the concept that everyone is busy and doesn’t have time for chit-chat on the phone. A few pictures of a vacation posted online suffices for how someone is doing, how the trip was, and what else this person has been up to. Talking on the phone about that stuff would be redundant, apparently.<br />
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What’s weird about sharing tidbits of your life, especially on Facebook, is the fear of sharing too much or being too vague. A new parent’s lengthy, daily posts about a baby’s sleeping habits can be a whipping. Someone’s constantly cryptic posts that could be about a work matter, relationship issue, or a family problem: all too vague, seemingly out there for attention.<br />
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The stuff I talked about with these recent phone conversations is not really pertinent for a social media post. Not all of my Facebook friends or Twitter followers need to know what we talked about, as they were not meant to be broadcasted to a large amount of people.<br />
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What’s even more bizarre is that my parents, some of the biggest holdouts on social media, have slowly progressed into seeing what my posts show rather than picking up the phone. When things get misunderstood in the translation, then it’s time I call them.<br />
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I love what social media can do for bringing people together. But it’s no substitute for real friendship or understanding. I like to hear from people, especially if it’s not to plug something they’re promoting or selling. It’s really nice to just hear the words, “Hi! How are you doing?”<br />
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Eric Grubbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05832984660995503631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690237.post-41210071335988655812017-06-07T20:30:00.000-05:002017-06-07T21:51:22.832-05:00Jinx Removing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mere minutes after Jawbreaker announced a reunion show at this fall’s Riot Fest in Chicago, I realized every band I devoted a chapter to in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Post</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> has reunited. Next year will mark ten years since the book came out, back when all of the bands (except for Jimmy Eat World) had broken up for the foreseeable future. Since a lot of people who have read the book have asked me if I would do a sequel or new edition someday, I started to ask if one is truly wanted. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A number of people said they would read it, so I started to look into options. After I received rejection letters from publishers, I thought, This is looking like another DIY affair. My hopes to bring this to a larger audience had another setback. I don’t say this with bitterness in my body. I’ve accepted there is a reality about audience appeal in writing extensively about these bands. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Post</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> originally came out, it was when emo was at the end of its big ride in the mainstream. Now emo is a topic frequently talked about in the nostalgia sense, touching more on bands like My Chemical Romance, Fall Out Boy, and Dashboard Confessional than the bands that influenced them. Which is understandable, as more people have heard of My Chemical Romance than Mineral. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Though there are many excellent emo revival bands around these days, they’re not bound to be mainstream darlings. Tiny Moving Parts, Modern Baseball, and I Love Your Lifestyle have released albums in the past couple of years that I will likely call classics someday, but they’re not on the same level of attention as </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Black Parade</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> or </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">From Under the Cork Tree</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">And then there are the influential bands themselves. Their music still resonates with me, people my age, as well as people younger and older than me. Yet something I’ve learned in the past nine years is how there seems to be a disconnect between people who praise the hell out of a band online and the number of people who actually show up to a reunion show of theirs. While I hear about well-attended (sometimes sold-out) Mineral and American Football shows in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York, the demand is significantly less in a town like Dallas. When I saw Braid play to 30 people in Nashville two years ago, I wondered what the hell was wrong here. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It really comes down to this: No matter how many people profess their love of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Relationship of Command</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Frame & Canvas</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, or </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Nothing Feels Good</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in record reviews or Reddit articles, the numbers are not quite big enough for book publishers to bite on releasing a book about the bands who made them. A new book about the Beatles has more appeal in 2017 because the Beatles are an established topic with generations of readers. What I have is a harder sell, but not </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">that</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> hard. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is not to say no publisher I’ve encountered wants to do a new edition of the book. Actually, not long after the book came out in 2008, I was approached by someone who runs a publishing house and used to write for a publication I wrote for as well. Thing was, after a couple of email exchanges, something felt off and not right. I had never heard of his publishing house and had never read any of their books. The owner seemed pushy and arrogant, which are traits that usually don’t work well with me.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I told him I’d wait to see how things went with the publisher I used and would get back to him. Through no paid publicity and simple word of mouth, my book went on to sell in places all over the world, and the royalty checks always cleared the bank. I was happy, but not totally over the moon about having to self-publish to get the book out there. Seems there’s a stigma with self-publishing books, making it like it’s not worthy of publication in the first place. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Eight years later, the guy emailed me again, asking if I was still interested in republishing with him. After talking to mutual friends -- in addition to reading an extensive blog post by his ex-wife detailing emotional abuse she received from him during their marriage -- I decided to not pursue working with this guy or his publisher. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">As frustrating as the setbacks are, they do not double as reasons not to pursue a new edition in the future. There is more than a short update to add to this book, and I’d be happy to take the time and write bonus content that will make the book worth the reader’s time. </span></div>
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Eric Grubbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05832984660995503631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8690237.post-35153006203548834982017-04-11T11:30:00.001-05:002017-04-11T11:30:24.656-05:00Outdated Physical Media<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJx2-KCfYCS3AG8i9DLgoM_8ZTkrBocqpOqNklJgylsTA08jCvRV-l7_0n1J5FwZOQTPN3HSZH2WNWMMeC929lIAfV6qS8kMUJPuSYQVZyqoLFwse0gpgj4dyUNxn78B5J6YEA/s1600/0411170946a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJx2-KCfYCS3AG8i9DLgoM_8ZTkrBocqpOqNklJgylsTA08jCvRV-l7_0n1J5FwZOQTPN3HSZH2WNWMMeC929lIAfV6qS8kMUJPuSYQVZyqoLFwse0gpgj4dyUNxn78B5J6YEA/s320/0411170946a.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Recently an <b><a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/katienotopoulos/people-in-their-thirties-cant-stop-hoarding-cds?utm_term=.bpzJdL8Mz#.orG41WYXj">article</a> </b>on Buzzfeed touched on a very real experience for me: being in your 30s and holding onto your compact disc collection.<br />
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I will not dispute any of the contents of the article, as I believe it is factual and correct, but I do object to calling CDs "outdated physical media." Maybe it was a way to bait me into reading the article. Well, sometimes, you have to let the internet win and give the article a click.<br />
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When I'm at home, I listen to music either on my turntable, my Spotify account on my phone or desktop, or my iTunes library on my desktop. Near my turntable is a multi-disc CD player that I have never turned on since I've lived in my current residence. The last time I used it was about 10 years ago when I would co-host theme parties and burn mix CD-Rs for them. I'm not even sure the player is set up correctly through the receiver. All it does is collect dust, but I'm not about to get rid of it.<br />
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While they aren't getting a lot of play in my house, I prefer to listen to CDs in my car for many reasons. Apparently after this year, more and more car manufacturers will cease installing CD players in their vehicles. When Hope bought a new Jeep a couple of years ago, she was sad that a player was not included. That served as a heads up that one day, we'll all have either streaming or terrestrial radio to entertain us in a vehicle.<br />
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Instead of fighting this change, I will slowly embrace it. In the meantime, let me explain why I have held onto my CDs. And it's not just for nostalgic reasons. I challenge people to think about what's more "convenient" when it comes to listening to music in a vehicle.<br />
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Here are two options.<br />
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<b>(Option A) </b>Slipping a CD into the player and letting the music play. Since there are only a dozen or so songs on the disc, the limited amount of songs I can hear allows me to not be distracted from wanting to hear dozens more. If I'm in a hurry, the amount of time between getting in my car and hearing the music I want to hear is a matter of seconds.<br />
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<b>(Option B) </b>Making sure my vehicle is stopped, hoping my Bluetooth connection is set to my phone, and hoping my Spotify app will load in a timely manner. Add in the hope the artist or album I want to hear is still available on Spotify. Plus, there is no end of music to listen to. And I have to be mindful of how much data I use on my current plan. If I'm in a hurry and all of these seem like obstacles I don't want to deal with, I will listen to the radio or silence instead.<br />
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If you think Option B is more convenient for modern times, I beg to differ. Just because something is more commonly done in the modern sense doesn't mean it's the best experience.<br />
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There is another thing at play as to why I hold onto my CDs.<br />
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Last year, I finally upgraded my desktop to a newer version of Windows. (You don't need the latest version of Windows to write articles or emails properly.) When I imported my old iTunes library to the current edition, I noticed a lot of songs were missing. As in, 15 gigs worth. Turns out the music I used to listen to the most didn't make the journey to the new hard drive. Slowly, I have gone back to my CDs to rip the songs into my iTunes library again. It reminds me that I'm glad I didn't toss those CDs out with the times.<br />
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Someday, my iTunes library will be back up to date, but the chances of having to upgrade to another version of Windows will be high. Having a physical copy to back up something that really matters to me is vital. Sure would hate to see all those great songs disappear again because of a hard drive flaw.<br />
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As I think about the future of CDs, I think there will be some sort of revival of their importance to a mass audience. Maybe not to the extent of what vinyl has experienced in the past 10 years, but I don't believe CDs will fully disappear. Cassettes seemed to come back into vogue when the chances of finding a cassette player grew small. Now you have a lot of young bands pressing vinyl, CDs, and tapes to get their music to the most amount of people. If CD players continue to grow harder to find, the chances of a revival will grow. It's the way trends often happen.<br />
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While the argument of convenience is a little out of step with the times, I don't believe I should give up on what has brought me much joy for most of my life and continues to this day.Eric Grubbshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05832984660995503631noreply@blogger.com1