ye ol' year end music list

My Favorite Records of 2008
(In no particular order)


The Hold Steady – Stay Positive
Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
Beck – Modern Guilt
B.B. King – One Kind Favor
Sigur Rós - Meo suo Ì eyrum vio spilum endalaust
Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
Ra Ra Riot – The Rhumb Line
The Punch Brothers – Punch
Frightened Rabbit – The Midnight Organ Fight
Derek Webb & Sandra McCracken – Ampersand EP
Damien Jurado – Caught In the Tree
Radiohead - In Rainbows

When i compiled this list, i had to cut out a few that apparently we're from 2007 or earlier and I had just gotten hip to, so let me know what i missed!

escalators

so you know the little strips of soft bristles that line edge of escalators? i'm never sure weather to be thrilled or completely disgusted when my flip flop clad feet brush up against them coming out of the subway. part of me wants to be tickled all the way up. the other parts wants to jerk my foot away and dry heave. but then, our subway system is remarkably clean...

more like Hollyweird (3)

This dude clearly speaks for himself, or rather, his jacket does. He's the doll house dude. He rides a scooter around wearing a helmet with a doll house attached to it with all kinds of crap spilling out the windows. You can see the doll house more clearly from the front, which i hope i can capture some day. But he just came out of nowhere and rolled right up to me and asked, "Does God ever go to the bathroom." I was stunned, kind of like my fellow student there with the red lanyard around his neck. The first time i saw doll house dude he was wearing all kinds of bright colors and some tights i think. I was still new to Hollyweird at that point and in my shock couldn't pull out my phone quickly enough. baby steps. maybe next time i'll get the whole get-up. I would also like to note that he wears that jacket around when he doesn't have the doll house on too. I just put all that together.

Sometimes heartbreak is fun

Thursday evening i went to the Watkin's Family Hour in the little room at Largo, with the company of long time friend Melissa Schenk. The show involves Sean and Sara Watkins from Nickle Creek and various guests. The heartbreak came when i discovered that Sara Wakins is now married. sigh...Still, it was the most fun i've had in a long time. You get the idea that if they weren't playing out that they'd be doing this in their living room. There's no set list, they take all sorts of requests, and in the middle of one song, two dudes with guitars (who i think were Dave Rawlings and Jon Brion) bum rushed the stage and joined right in. Between songs the tuning and discussion about what to play next would go on a little too long, but when the music started the musicianship was superb, whether or not the rest of the band even knew the song they were starting. the highlight of the evening was a duet between Sara and Benmont Tench, Tom Petty's keyboardist. It was Benmont's tune, and i couldn't find a copy of it or lyrics anywhere, but the piano and vocal parts were delivered with such a delicate longing of love gone wrong, i think everyone in the room was choked up. as soon as i get a job and have some cash flow again, i'm making the Watkin's Family Hour a regular stop.

humming

does anyone else catch yourself humming along to whatever your listening to at the coffee shop and wonder how loud you were actually humming (without headphones on) and if everyone else around you is pissed? wooops.

Ode to Schrode

I have a music theory professor named Carl Schroder. he's a crazy genius, and i've been thinking for weeks that i need to share some of his brilliance with you. He's an entertainer and usually slips into some rather crude analogies and such, but today was a rather mild day so I figured I'd put up a few quotes. think a Brooklyn accent.

"Well, strap me to a hog and slather me with bear grease! It's a passing diminished chord!"

Student: Hey Schroder, you there's supposed to be a major third on that one.
Schroder: "What?! What else did i miss? You guys gotta help me out here. I mean, I wake up in the morning and read the obituaries, and If i'm not in there I get up and have a cup of coffee, ya know? Never thought i'd have so much fun goin' down."

"Stackin up the 3rds like bails of marijuana!...medical marijuana of course."

"I think ear training is the most important thing we do here. Cuz if you can hear it, you can use it, just like a big-ass word."

Other times Schroder drops in these great philosophical quotes like

"Freedom is the acceptance of contraint." or "One man's music is another man's chaos."

You really never know what you're gonna get. I wish I video. It's impossible to get the full effect without seeing him bouncing around the class, dancing, mumbling to himself, talking in the third person, ripping on students, etc. I don't think there's been a class session yet, where he hasn't had us all rolling.

Bus rides are fun! mostly...