Skip to main content

Life on Mars?

Songs in my head:
"Mystery Hours" by the New Pornographers
"Life On Mars?" by David Bowie

First post of 2005. I will turn 26 this year and I plan to have my book finished. At this time, I have no resolutions for the new year. A few years ago I tried to do what Bob Nanna did and see 365 movies in one year. No such luck: I think the most I've seen in one year is around 80.

New Year's Eve was interesting: I had the Dismemberment Plan's "The Ice of Boston" in my head off and on through the night. We saw the Deathray Davies play at this rather large pub-style place across the street from the Hard Rock Cafe. They played two sets and a lot of songs sounded familiar even though I had not seen them play in about a year. Before they played, I heard a rumor that may be very true about one of my favorite local bands breaking up. I don't know if I'm in denial, but I don't believe it just yet. Anyway, we then went to a place in the Fair Park area for nonstop upbeat 1960s R&B music and lots of dancing on the dance floor. The music was incredible even though I was unfamiliar with a lot of the songs. It was one of those, the first time you hear it, it's great. I even heard the original version of "Tainted Love." Then came the John Sparrow from Houston. They were a very cool old school Mod garage rock band. Their drummer was all over his kit, throwing himself into every beat. Very cool.

Happy 2005

Comments

Kev said…
Another near-miss last night--I heard you on the Marty Griffin show, but it was the end of your shift and I was just about where I was going. One of these days I'll actually hear you when I'm able to call in and say hi.
9:28 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Catherine Wheel

Originally posted: Tuesday, August 29th, 2006 Despite managing to release five proper albums, Catherine Wheel was one of those bands that always seemed to slip past the mainstream rock crowd. Yes, they got some nice airplay in their day, but people seem to have forgotten about them. You may hear “Black Metallic” or “Waydown” on a “classic alternative” show on Sirius or XM or maybe even on terrestrial radio, but that’s about it. For me, they were one of most consistent rock bands of the ’90s, meandering through shoegazer, hard rock, space rock and pop rock, all while eluding mainstream pigeonholing. Led by the smooth, warm pipes of vocalist/guitarist Rob Dickinson (cousin of Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson), Catherine Wheel featured Brian Futter on lead guitar, Dave Hawes on bass and Neil Sims on drums. They weren’t a pretty-boy guitar band, but they weren’t a scuzzy bunch of ragamuffins either. Though the band hailed from England, Catherine Wheel found itself more welcome on American air...
4 comments
Read more

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Ben Folds and Ben Folds Five

Originally posted on Tuesday, April 11th, 2006 : For some, Ben Folds Five was merely a one hit wonder. For others, the trio was a life-changer. Myself, I’m one of the latter. Being formally introduced with the “Battle of Who Could Care Less” video on 120 Minutes , I was very intrigued to know more about this piano-bass-drums combo. Once I heard Whatever and Ever Amen , I was hooked. As a matter of fact, out of all of my favorite bands, Ben Folds Five is one of the few that I liked right away and I have held the same kind of admiration ever since. Their three proper albums (and one b-sides collection) are staples in my record collection and they may very well be (or soon be) staples in your collection too. For a band that was once described as “punk rock for sissies,” you may realize how effortlessly these guys walked between fun, semi-goofy pop songs and some really deep and powerful stuff too. It helps that they had it right from the beginning and kept maturing. Ben Folds Five (1995) ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Politics Shmolitics

Yesterday, the more pleas I saw for people to go out and vote, the more uncomfortable I felt. Plenty of the blogs I hit up everyday said something along the lines of "Vote and if you don't, don't complain." Folks, this is why I find discussing politics so alienating. There are plenty of reasons why I don't discuss politics on here or in my everyday conversations. The biggest reason is because I don't have a lot of interest in politics in the first place. By what I've seen, heard and read for the last eight years, political debates are usually pissing contests. Judging by the views I've processed, it would be easy to think that we're all slowly going downhill either on the left, right or down the middle. Yet I don't think we're going totally downhill or totally uphill. Debating the direction we're going seems futile, especially when adults start screaming at each other like they're in grade school. To my ears, political debates are s...
11 comments
Read more