OFFTOP: the Weekend (1/17 & 1/18)

I would love to hear Our Lady Peace cover Love Song by the Cure.
I think Rumors by Fleetwood Mac is timeless.
Best Show: Better Than Ezra at Tipitina’s Mardi Gras 2004 in New Orleans
Worst: Blues Traveler at the Egan Center 1995 in Anchorage
Mezzanine by Massive Attack
Just Like Heaven by the Cure or Bizarre Love Triangle by New Order

For some reason iTunes doesn’t play through the headphone jack on my laptop. All the windows sounds do, but not iTunes. Help! The party starts in 55 minutes and the laptop is the music source.

The only logical explanation is that Rigor mortis is setting in.

James Brown at the Paramount, Halloween 2003. Hardest working man my ass. Slepwalked his way through 7-8 of his worst songs (I Feel Good, yay!) and finished with Living in America (!). No encore, they just turned on the lights, show over.

Kind of Blue.

I’d love to see the Melvins cover Smells Like Teen Spirit with Lief Garrett on vocals. OH WAIT THAT TOTALLY HAPPENED.

Willie Nelson’s “Redheaded Stranger” is probably the best concept album ever and I can’t envision an album that’s more timeless in every way.

Best concert I ever saw (if we’re talking an entire show) would probably be night two of Yoyo A Go Go 1997. This was years ago and several of the bands that played that night existed for about a year, so I don’t remember everyone that played. I do remember it being about six hours of amazing. The bands I do recall were Behead the Prophet: No Lord Shall Live, KARP, the Need, Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her (crazy Japanese noise band, kind of like Blonde Redhead with more distortion) Copass Grinders and KARP. I saw a guy get his nose ring ripped out. It was great.

Best live band I’ve ever seen is (surpiseface.jpg) Dead Moon.

Worst live show was Beck at Bumbershoot in (I think) 1998. Saw Sonic Youth the same day and they were also horrid. (I’ve actually seen worse bands, of course, but I wasn’t expecting anything from them.)

My favorite album to listen to in the dark is this random compilation of really excellent 60s surf bands.It’s got the big ones (Ventures, Sentinels, the Centurions) and a bunch of other bands I’ve never heard of. Great relaxing music. “Redheaded Stranger” is also a great album to listen to in the dark.

When I’m in a bad mood I don’t generally listen to music that’s likely to make me smile.

1. I don’t know about a specific band covering a song, but I’d like to hear Radiohead’s “Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box” played on pots and pans and other kitchen utensils.

2. Classic rock isn’t my specialty. I find “Blonde on Blonde” and “Highway 61 Revisited” to hold up pretty well, but I don’t know how the average listener approaches some of the nonsensical lyrics, Dylan’s singing style, and the excessive rhyme. I think “Trout Mask Replica” by Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band is probably still as popular as it ever was and will be, which is saying very little, but that it was released in 1969 and to this day is still only possibly listenable (I can do it, most can’t seem to) says something.

3. I have to admit, I haven’t been to nearly as many concerts as I’d like. Best concert? I saw The Pixies when they came through Bumbershoot. It wasn’t an incredible set or anything, mostly Death to the Pixies plus a few other “hits”, but to see the songs live and the band seeming to enjoy themselves somehow made it worth it, even if I was fending off thrashing drunks at various points. Worst might be when I saw Interpol at the Paramount a few years ago. Blonde Redhead opened and they were a hell of a lot better. Interpol just sort of slogged their way through most of the songs and didn’t seem to care but for a few tracks from Turn on the Bright Lights (and I don’t think they’ve really done anything worthwhile since).

4. Lately, it’s been Gavin Bryars’ “The Sinking of the Titanic”, the ‘95 version, when I’m studying late at night. It’s this slow moving orchestral thing that incorporates a lot of static and slowly developing motifs. With about twenty-five minutes left the orchestra burst out from the background and really goes to town. Otherwise, I still can’t help but listening to Charles Mingus’ “The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady” and I get into kicks where it’s all I listen to for about two weeks. Frank Sinatra’s “In The Wee Small Hours” is also a great nocturnal album, but the songwriting is pretty horrible at times. Not his fault.

5. Usually anything by The Lounge Lizards or Soul Coughing.

Those ignorant prick commenters on the PI wave it off as a redneck sport, but I’ll be damned if my educated ass didn’t take Silas to a monster truck rally down in South Carolina recently. Accidents happen at sporting events all the time, and unfortunately this one was absolutely heartbreaking.

It was 58 degrees and sunny in western Nebraska today

WE JUST LOST TO TH FUCKIGN BOBCATS ASKFHADKJFBKDKFBLKDBFJKDBFLKDJBF>DN
FSDFDHF
ADF
WHAT THE HELL> GODDAMNIT

1. I’d like to see Radiohead cover Bowie’s “Space Oddity”

2.I dunno, I get the feeling Boston’s first album “Boston” might be pretty popular if released today. Some of those songs are so damn catchy.

3. Best concert I’ve ever been to was Radiohead at the Gorge in 2001. The Beta Band opened for them. I had my doubts on how the material from Kid A and Amnesiac would hold up live. Lesson to me: Never doubt Radiohead. A close second was Mastodon at El Corazon. For the encore the covered The Melvins “Hooch”, I loved that becuase often when people come to Seattle they throw out some obligatory Nirvana cover. Playing “Hooch” gave their NW cred a major boost.

4. Worst concert I’ve ever been to, this has two answers. The worst one I’ve ever been at was the Hannah Montana and Jonas Brother at the Key Arena. My ears were bleeding due to the glass shattering falsetto of thousands of screaming girls. I was working there that night so I think that kinda doesn’t count. Maybe, the Sonic Youth show at Bumbershoot I mentioned earlier.

5. I like the answer of “Dark Side of the Moon”. In a semi-similar vein I’d say “Kid A” is a fantastic album to listen to with the lights out.

Melt Banana at Neumo’s 2007.

This could be a great offseason for my teams … KAKA AND, um, Shelton-Unit!

I no longer have the internet [apart from when I am at my mum’s house visiting – like I am now] but I thankfully can read LL + USSM on my blackberry. However, the prospect of not being able to engage in the GT’s come April is very worrying. Will we get mobile posting before then, oh SBN God’s?

I could grow use to this…

…I can’t believe they’re looking like a Superbowl team. THE ARIZONA CARDINALS??

Cover:
I wanna see SK play Long Live Rock in the arrangement the Who were playing it in on the 1979 tour. It’d be perfect for them.

Album:
AC/DC Back in Black. I’m not that big of a fan and I’m sick of this record, but I think I’m the only one.

Best shows I’ve seen:
The Who at the Gorge in 2002 (transcendent), PJ @ the Gorge in 2005, and night 1 in 2006, Bruce Springsteen in Portland last March. Worst show? I dunno if I’ve even seen a bad headliner, but I know I’ve seen the Counting Crows open for someone at the Gorge and the Crows sucked shit; they seemed very sad and lethargic.

In the Dark:
Audioslave’s first record.

One song:
Don’t Look Back

Bonus:
Best Side A of any record: Badmotorofinger
Best side B … Abbey Road

What song would you like to see covered by a particular band and why?
I have a love/hate relationship with covers. I hate the theory of them, and 75% of the time I hate their execution, but there are some that are so good that I go “man, why didn’t I think of that?”. I can’t sit here and say “I’d love Song X to be covered by Band Y”, though, because most of the songs I love, I love because of the artist performing them. So I’ll take the 5th on this question.

What classic album, if released today, would still be just as popular now as it was then?
The Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers.

Best and Worst live concert you have attended.
There are waaaaaaaaay too many answers to this question. So:

Best Arena-size show: Bruce Springsteen, Oakland Coliseum, 1987. Nearly five hours of non-stop end-to-end rock solid music. I was in awe at what a top-tier performer can do.

Best Mid-Size type show: Sleater-Kinney, The Orpheum, Boston 2002. I was left a quivering wreck at the end of this show. S-K at the peak of their powers.

Best Club Show: Oh dear lord this is tough. If I had to name one, it’d probably be…man, I can’t do it. There are several Fastbacks shows I’d put on this list, a couple Dead Moon shows, at least one YFF show (McCaughey’s 40th b-d show), and the three nights I saw Cheap Trick at the Crocodile are right up there too. I can’t name just one.

Favorite album to pop in and listen to in the dark.
Billy Bragg, William Bloke. Or Radiohead’s The Bends.

That one song that no matter how bad a mood you are, will always make you smile?
“In The Summer”, Fastbacks. No question.

Really?

- Accurate pitch tracker al la pitch f/x that can be accessed on demand. I want to see exactly where my pitch went and how much break/speed it had.

- Pitch speeds to the nearest tenth of a mph e.g. 93.9 instead of 94 [better to track RTTS speed progress and pitcher fatigue].

- More stats: WPA/LI couldn’t be too hard to impliment, and my understanding is that some broadcasters in USA already use a similar system on air.

- If the above used: LI influencing achievment bonuses in RTTS.

- wOBA!

- More accurate fielding from the AI with better animations.

Some of my other wishes, e.g. waivers, salary arb. and 40 man rosters have already been confirmed!

I’ve always wanted to see Tears For Fears try U2’s “Angels of Harlem”, though given they’re well past their prime, it may not be a good idea now.

It’s tough to say what albums of years past would be hits now given the impact of their albums is largely contextual. I’d have to say Michael Jackson’s Thriller would be a hit today if released cold turkey in 2009.

Bright Eyes did a show at the old Cafe Espresso Roma in Las Vegas that was particularly impressive.

Speaking of Roma, I saw a LOT of $5 shows and free shows there, and I can’t really hone on one particularly bad one out of the bunch, because lord knows there were a LOT of them.

Best In the Dark album has to be Mezzanine by Massive Attack.

Best pick me up song has to be anything by Lil John & the Eastside Boyz, obviously :P