Coachella 2006 Pt. 2

Sunday, April 30th
(still no real order)
The Octopus Project - I have no idea what they'd sound like on CD, but they were interesting and different live. Really should remember to look them up.
Giant Drag - Still not in love with the band, well written songs, hilarious titles, just don't grab me. Do recommend them live, besides being solid live the vocalist is hilariously off-color.
Infadels - Fun stuff, but having heard some album tracks I'm done with them.
Mates of State - Great catchy pop music. Simple but good.
Murs - Awesome hip-hop, there was an interesting blend of hip-hop style lyrics and the generally more aggressive straight ahead rapping.
The Magic Numbers - I felt like I was watching something like the Mamas and the Papas. Not a bad thing, they do it well and it was differet.
Jamie Lidell - Fucking awesome live. I was wondering how he'd translate, a lone white British dude singing soul and overacting like a James Brown impersonator, but he amazed. I was meaning to go check out another set towards the end of his, but I couldn't force myself to leave before he ended.
Dungen - We walked to the tent with the intention of stopping...couldn't do it.
Metric - Awesome, didn't know much of them but I'm beginning to dig their album, damn good live for a band I basically didn't know.
Ted Leo & the Phamacists - Awesome shit, I've been hearing about them forever and have always been too lazy to check them out past a song or two, but I was really impressed live. Just straight, loud (at times) rock'n'roll. Picked up an outstanding CD of theirs aftwerwards. Also awesome because the Ted covered the beginning of Daft Punk's 'One More Time.'
Seu Jorge - One of the most stand-out performances of the fest because I didn't know what to expect. I have his album Cru and I know the Bowie covers, but didn't know how well it was going to work for me live. I loved it, the music had a very deffinite vibe to it that just screamed that this was something personal and authentic.
Digable Planets - Classic hip-hop, these guys were great live, totally fun and on the spot. I would've liked to check all their set, but I don't know if I missed much, I got exactly what I wanted from them.
Gnarls Barkley - Hype can be a dangerous thing, sometimes it backfires and you end up disappointed even though an act is good, it's not good enough to live up to the hype. Sometimes. Othertimes you get to watch something like Gnarls Barkley. With a 12 piece backing band (including a string quartet and Chris Vrenna of Tweaker/NIN on drums) full costumes, great music and just an overall positive vibe it was one of the most fun sets, probably second to Daft Punk. CD is outstanding, and has a very different feel from the live show (this was their first ever concert).
Wolf Parade - Heard plenty about these guys, liked what I saw live but I honestly can't tell you anything else. Means I probably won't pick up their album.
Mogwai - Coachella is damn near the perfect setting for this band in my opinion. Their sound fits great in the outdoors in the middle of nowhere when you can grab a spot of grass, stand, sit, whatever, and just drop into the sound. Only negative about them; conflicting with Massive Attack, if it was any other band I would've stayed all the way.
Massive Attack - But I wouldn't have missed Massive Attack for anything, even Tool. They performed to perfection. They are the sort of band that gets the crowd going, because it doesn't fit the music, but musically they were on so incredibly. They had five vocalists for this show, which isn't even a part of a tour, plus the full band. Of course, now after not playing the US for about 9 years, they're coming back to LA AGAIN. Not complaining, I'll go again.
Tool - This was a very different Tool than I had seen live in the past. Performance-wise they were very on and the song selection was great, heard three of the new tracks (The Pot, Jambi, Vicarious) and a great selection from the back catalog, minus anything from Opiate (unless I'm mistaken). What makes this set different from the other Tool shows I've seen was Maynard, talking and even moving a bit. To those who haven't seen them that sounds like an odd sticking point, but the whole last tour Maynard stood in one spot and probably never once spoke to the crowd. The music and visuals were good enough that no one seemed to care so it was great. The Maynard who showed up to Coachella was more like the Maynard I've read interviews with, he was teasing the crowd, making sardonic remarks and rambling at points about ridiculous things (such as buying a gold ring shaped like popcorn so when he punches people in the head it looks like they were fucked up by popcorn). It was really entertaining, and made for a very 'different' Tool show, but was also confusing as hell.

Overall: all kinds of awesome, as is every year.

Coachella 2006 pt. 1

Thursday:
Jim and Pat land around 10pm. We booze and bable until about 1am. Awesome.

Friday:
We rule, less than three hours to get to Coachella as opposed to the previous 5-6 hours trips. Set up our tent, set up some girl's tent, play cards, have a beer, eat diiner, go to pre-party with loads of free booze and a cool t-shirt (see us having fun below). Awesome people-watching. Say hey to J. Devil Hughes.


Saturday:
(not in real order)
Head Automatica - Sounded interesting at first until the suck settled in.
The Section Quartet - They cover alternative songs as a string quartet, it sounds exactly like it reads, awesome.
Nine Black Alps - Was really looking forward to these guys and arrived at the perfect time. Lots of fun, nothing groundbreaking, but entertaining.
Wolfmother - Holy mother of awesome. Can't wait to hear these guys in another album or two.
New Amsterdams - Not bad, not my thing.
Matt Costa - I think I saw him, I think I was entertained.
Eagles of Death Metal - It's J.Devil, what more do you need?
Walkmen - Sounded good, but really didn't grab me. I wan't inspired by the one album I knew, and I wasn't inspired by their performance.
Devendra Banhart - Interesting enough, possibly better on CD.
Animal Collective - A truly bizarre performance, different from the album, in a good interesting way.
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - I don't get the hype either on CD or in person.
Ladytron - Sounds like the album, very cold live.
TV on the Radio - I don't know if it was just what I caught, but this seemed very much like a 'fuck around and do different shit' sort of set, I'm sure a number of the tunes are also new which helped the confusion, but I enjoyed it anyway because.
My Morning Jacket - Pretty fun, not mind blowing, but could check them out at some point.
Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley - Only listened from a distance, but I was pretty impressed, not huge into reggae, but it was good.
Siqur Ros - Wish I caught more of this set, but it was really impressive and convinced me that I need to see them again.
Franz Ferdinand - Watched a bit, and listened to a bit more as I wandered away. They sound exactly like you expect them to live; I'm not huge on them but I get why people are.
Depeche Mode - After seeing the Cure two years ago (and them sucking horribly) I'm never sure what to expect out of 80's groups that are still around. These guys were awesome, I caught just over and hour of their set, and if it was anyone but Daft Punk I would've stayed the whole time.
Daft Punk - This is the second year in a row that Coachella has had an electronic artist that I figured would be 'pretty damn fun' blow me the fuck away (last year was Prodigy). The fact that Daft Punk did this with two robots hanging out in a pyramid, and no one else on stage speaks volumes about their sound. Truly holy-fuck worthy.

Sunday comes eventually

Whee!!

So things here have settled a bit, I know that makes no sense as I haven't rambled about things being unsettled, but tough.

Free concert tonight, pre-Coachella thingy on Friday, Coachella Saturday and Sunday, two eagerly anticipated CDs arriving soon (that I barely paid anything for), two friends flying in for the show...this is what qualifies for a good week.

Easter was non-existent for me, no big surprise there, but who cares at this point. It's hard to get hung up on these things because I distance myself from them by necessity.

Blanking on everything else. Huge posts next week per the normal post-Coachella wrap-up.

To get you in the spirit...

Irony at it's worst.

So today I finally started therapy for my knees, something I have been trying to do for awhile. Not long after I moved to CA the pain got worse and worse, before I would get a twitch here and there but nothing serious. Since I moved there have been nights where I didn't sleep at all because of the pain. Due to no insurance, changing insurance and millions of other things it has taken awhile for me to get to this point. I've held off rejoining a soccer team because I felt I should make sure my knees get better before I make them worse. So I start therapy and I finally find out why my knees have gotten so much worse.

It's because I stopped playing soccer.

Yes, I stopped playing soccer because I wanted to get my knees taken care of and because it took so long they got worse, because I wanted them to get better.

I'm not going get into technical descriptions, but yes, that is it.

End of an Era

The Mo' Better Meaty Meat Burgers building demolition began today.

A moment of silence, please.







Thank you.

DC

Short version:
DC is awesome.

Long version:
Aside from the stupid plane problems on both ends of the trip, DC was great, I should've stayed a few extra days because I think I did half of everything I wanted to do. There are far too many museums, monuments and galleries to check out in the span of three full days. Walking around everywhere is great, but blisters are not. I loved the contrast between some of the monuments, comparing something like the FDR monument to the Jefferson monument shows such a contrast, both in how we have evolved as a society in that we percieve and memorialize people in such contrastly different ways now. Frankly I actually like the FDR memorial more than most. The Holocaust Museum was one of the heaviest things I have ever seen or been too, extremely depressing and humbling to see how negligent our country was during that time.

On a happier note, 'Thank You For Smoking' is awesome, seeing it in DC with a friend who works on the Hill (and I worked with entertainment people) makes it incredibly awesome.

Restraunts that serve S'mores as dessert, and bring a live flame to your table for this, are also awesome. As are bars that have a beer-listing that is longer than some Harvard dissertations.

All in all I could keep rambling, I loved DC and will have to go back there at some point. If I stay in non-profit work, who knows, I could move there...

Bitter tea

One of the biggest insults that I have had levied against me is to always be such a 'great friend;' it's the male counter part to 'always a bridesmaid, never the bride.'

The world wants me to believe that there is nothing wrong with me, that the 'right' person is out there for me, but I'm beginning to know better.

I am not the right person for anyone, I am the sort of person someone 'sett;es for.

No one desires to be with someone like me.

Instead of calling someone 'just a great friend' the next time around. Tell them the truth; ' you might be a decent human being, but there is absolutely nothing in your soul or being that would compell anyone to ever actually love you. Instead I would rather rely and depend on you and call you when someone else shits all over my life; but the parts of life that living is about, the parts that mean something, you're not worth keeping around.'

Don't worry about 'hurting someone's feelings,' just grow a backbone and say what you really mean. I have had more pacificying slaps in the face that you can count, don't worry about my feeling. I have been less offended by an ex threatening to 'rip my head off' that I have been by the countless number of 'freinds' who thought they were saving my feelings.

I lose!

Per the norm....

Silly silly chromosome...

Ok, I've sucked this month admittedly, but oh well. I have spent much of this month racking my brain for the answer to every guy's biggest question, 'what in the hell is that girl thinking?' And I don't mean that in a deragotory, 'She's loco' sorta way, I mean in in the, 'What in the hell is she thinking?' sorta way. It is both entertaining and frustrating. It's been awhile since I've actually given a shit about what those of the female persuasion think that I am quite rusty at this. Mayhaps I will figure this out this week? Time will only tell.

In other news, I'm quitting all sorts of things. No more coffee, pop, junkfood, sweetened tea or being fucking lazy. It's only been three weeks, but I'm doing damn good so far. Minus the fact that I'm tired on the weekends more often I'm actually doing better during the week while getting less sleep.

Anyway, time to go back to work, and if anyone knows and good games (i.e. worth spending money on) for a PSP let me know, I figure I should own a game or two besides hacking it up some.

Mo' Better Meaty Meat Burgers

I drive past a place called "Mo' Better Meaty Meat Burger" on my way to and from work everyday. While I'm sure the burgers are quite meaty, I've generally been frightened at the prospect of what they taste like. I finally noticed today (while stuck behind a bus that decided to stop just to spite me) that this place has gone out of business.

I'm sure the owners are still puzzling over it.

Moving fun!

Yeah, I didn't move, but I still managed to deal with the fun of it this past week or so. I finally got a replacement roommate for Stevo this week, and learned that moving refridgerators is not fun when it's raining. Anyway, I think this will work out better, new guy actually wants to be social and go out, not sit in the apartment being depressed and bored.

Party past Saturday; not the biggest or the best, but they had plenty of Belgium beer which kept me happy. I think I only knew three people there which was amusing as the age difference between the people I knew and the rest of the crowd was a good number of years. Fun times because we just sat around making jokes at people and one of the girls I met asked for my info so she could invite me to their next party. Nothing special, but nice to know that I don't completely offend everyone I meet.

Hmm...music...too much of it lately....OD'ing....need to stop buying music for about a month. Actually, that may not be a bad idea....rant rant rant

Lord of the Cynics

I was going through some internal dialogue (I do this quite a bit) and realized that I am an incredibly cynical person. I'm actually getting worse with age, which will probably frighten people who have known me for a long time. But apparently it's not as impossible as I had believed. This leads me to believe that I am a veritable wellspring of cynicism. I'm quite happy with that.

I love Minnesota

...not that I want to live there, but they get the best gubernatorial candidates, even beating out some of the crazies from the past CA election.

First they elect Jesse 'The Body' Ventura, paving the way for CA's own Ahnold, now they have this guy in the running.

It's not like I think he has a chance in hell in winning, but christ that page is great!

Good weekend...

Friday was an interesting show at the Knitting Factory: MGR, House of Low Culture, Red Sparrowes, and Jarboe from the Swans. Keep in mind that interesting is not always good, sometimes it's just being polite. Red Sparrowes were fucking great, I'm not sure what the 'official' term is for that type of music but it should be be 'awesome.' It's a side project from a few guys in Isis and Neurosis, with no singer and more upbeat than either of them. Really impressivley put together stuff, amazing live. The rest of the bands deserve a hearty 'meh' except Jarboe who deserved (and recieved) an 'oh shit my ears are bleeding let us run like hell out of here.'

Saturday was fun too, saw Trivium and In Flames. Trivium was ok, good sound and performance, but the guy really should not have talked at all. In Flames were fucking great and the singer was drunk as fucking hell, which did not hamper his performance and it made him hilarious in between songs. My only disappointment was that he dragged someone out of the crowd to sing one of my favorite songs because he was out of whiskey and had to step away for a bit. Seriously.

Sunday saw the US Men's soccer team embarassing Norway. It was fun, I sat right behind the goal. Killer.

Another week of fun is just ahead!

Moving

The key thing to remember when moving is that if something can go wrong it will, and horribly so.

My whole last week was a blur due to my office moving and all the fun shit associated with that. Between the phone company giving us the wrong number, the previous tennants changing their move date a few times, the building not finishing work until the day we were moving, the movers cancelling on us the day of the move and the fact that somewhere in there my wrist got all screwy, moving was a fun time.

But it's over and the new office is much better, still needs some organization but it's definitely way beyond where we were before.

I'm just happy to have a window.

Oooff!

I have tried to update this about three times since I got back into town, but work has just been so crazy, I'm in the middle of launching the second half of our major fundraising campaign and it's just keeping me floored here at work and when I get home the last thing I really want to do is sit in front of the computer.

That said, outside of the craziness (campaign AND moving this coming Monday) work is great. Finally had my review and it went over well, small valid note for improvement, but otherwise very positive. I knew I was doing alright, but still enjoy the feedback (especially since it was good), and I think my boss is overall happier with my performance than I am. I can always find lots of little things that I need to improve, but that's because I'm insane about looking over my own soldier.

Random...listening to lots of new music lately, and here's a list of things that fucking own your soul: LCD Soundsystem (yes the 'single' can be a little old and kitchy but there's some fucking genious on this), Jamie Lidell (new soul from a white European dude, great programming + soul = upbeat awesomeness), Gorillaz (lot better than I was expecting, great driving music), Avalanches (older but good,hard to describe, sort of cut-up style of Prefuse 73 but with more funk and soul as opposed to hip-hop).

Yeah, otherwise same old shit, just hanging out in LA, waiting for something to happen, might be taking a trip to the other coast in March/April, but not 100% on that yet, but it would be nice to go somewhere other than Chicago for once.

Yeah, next entry will try and be more 'interesting' but this was just a 'catch-up' post.

Here in my car...

Since I always post about the damn mythological beast that I liked to pretend my vehicle is, here is a recent pic of the bastid.

(Yes, there is a real reason to click it.)

Just because

Faith

Faith is a funny thing. I'm not talking about the religious 'fall to my knees and ask forgiveness from a statue' sort of faith. I'm referring to the faith and expectations that we hold of our loved ones, family and friends alike. And how truly irreparable it can be. A conversation I had yesterday destroyed what I percieved about two people. One I can't stop feeling for and the other I can't imagine how I will ever fake a smile in their direction again.