So I have a friend who is over in Iraq and I told him that I would send him a couple of mix CDs. He said he likes beat poetry and music like Willie Nelson, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, etc. He likes unplugged instruments and songs that tell good stories as apposed to long instrumentals. So, I didn't really know much about all that, so I just made him a couple of mixes I would like. He said that I could put sad bastard stuff on there and he wouldn't kill himself, so I included the most depressing song ever (Priests and Paramedics). He also said he is the black sheep of his unit, so thus the first CD title.

Black Sheep
1. Martin Sexton - Black Sheep
2. Eels - Railroad Man
3. M. Ward - Here Comes the Sun Again
4. Bright Eyes - First Day of My Life
5. Cameron McGill - Tell Me On The Way Back Home
6. Andrew Bird - A Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left
7. Charlie Mars - Gather the Horses
8. Bob Schneider - I'm Good Now
9. Mic Christopher - Heyday
10. The Frames - Fitzcarraldo
11. Josh Ritter - Chelsea Hotel #2
12. Damien Rice - Amie
13. Ray LaMontagne - Jolene
14. Kashmir - The Aftermath
15. Calexico/Iron & Wine - Hey Lays In The Reins
16. Kings of Convenience - Winning A Battle, Losing The War
17. Will Hoge - King of Grey
18. Joe Purdy - Far Away Blues
19. Cake - End of the Movie

Patriot's Heart
1. Bell X1 - Reacharound
2. The Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
3. Spoon - The Way We Get By
4. Simple Kid - Staring at the Sun
5. Josh Rouse - 1972
6. Athlete - El Slavador
7. The Thrills - Santa Cruz (You're Not That Far)
8. The Guillemots - Trains to Brazil
9. Ed Harcourt - This One's For You
10. Elliott Smith - Memory Lane
11. Nada Surf - Killian's Red
12. Pedro the Lion - Priests and Paramedics
13. American Music Club - Patriot's Heart
14. The Arctic Monkeys - Riot Van
15. The Format - On Your Porch
16. Joseph Arthur - Speed of Light
17. Jump, Little Children - Cathedrals
18. Ron Sexsmith - Gold In Them Hills

Let the whoring of my blog begin.

So a couple of weeks ago roomie was invited to see a concert at Uncommon Ground and asked if I'd like to go along. Uncommon Ground is my favorite restaraunt in Chicago, so it didn't take much convincing.

Upon getting to the restaraunt we were quickly approached by one of the artists who introduced himself as Keith. Keith was adorable, kind of with an American Idol Elliott vibe, but way better looking. Not only did he tell us our meal was covered, but he also let me touch his shirt. Twice.

Keith played a great acoustic set, which was not the norm for him... apparently he puts on more of a rockin' show, but I thought he pulled off the mellow acoustic thing really well. Roomie says he reminds her a bit of having a Ryan Cabrera vibe, which I can absolutely see, although I like Keith more. And while Keith hasn't had as much exposure on MTV as Cabrera has, he did have a song on Laguna Beach, which is really impressive. I think my favorite song from his as yet unreleased CD (which he was kind enough to give us copies of) is "In My Head."

The next act was Ryan Auffenberg (also adorable). Ryan's music is usually mellow acoustic stuff, so Uncommon Ground was the perfect setting for him.

My favorite song was the first track on his (as of yet unreleased) CD which he also was nice enough to give us copies of. The song, "Under All The Bright Lights" reminds me a bit of Irish singer/songwriter David Hopkins, but maybe the connection is just because Hopkins album is titled "Here Comes the Bright Light." Or maybe Ryan is a fan...he does have the BEST MUSIC TASTE EVER (Loves the Frames AND Nada Surf.) Check out his myspace site.

So, seriously though, their music was very good, and that's not just the Mac and Cheese talking. And they are the nicest, coolest, funniest guys ever. Roomie and I loved them so much we went home and stayed up half of the night making them mix CDs for their journey back to California, posted below.

And just so everyone knows, I didn't sell myself and my opinion for a bowl of mac and cheese and some CDs...even though it was 8 year aged Irish Cheddar with tomato chutney. I really do like these guys. The next day we took Keith and Ryan, as well as their friend and bandmate Dave to Orange, on us (see, would a whore do that?) Keith had what he called salisbury french toast (ie. Chai Tea Latte French Toast) which he said was the best thing he had ever eaten (it is my favorite dish too.) I, instead, had the cereal themed pancake flight:

Dave said it was the Fab Four of pancakes. He was right... they tasted half dead (but looked great).

Anyway, you all must check out their music and see them. I can't wait for them to swing back through Chicago and do a couple more shows ;-)

Maybe it is the fact that I am burnt out about writing about new CDs, but there wasn't too much this week that really struck me as noteworthy. So I'm going to limit most things to just a single line.

Continue reading "New Tuesday (May 30)"

It's been a bad month for robbery.

Kyle Riabko had to cut his tour short when his van and trailer were stolen in Philidelphia (including a 1966 Fender Jaguar, a vintage Ludwig drum set and an Elrick MJS5 bass guitar, as well as much more gear.) I don't even know anything about instruments and it still hurts me to read that. Kyle is about the nicest dude I've had the pleasure of meeting, and he's got a pretty bad ass name if I do say so myself, so I feel particularly bad for him.

Before you Chicagoans start casting stones at Philly, look at the log in your own eye. While playing their gig in Chicago, Elf Power had their van broken into and all of their clothes robbed. Not as bad, but still, I bet they were cool clothes. I bet some even had neat buttons. You heartless animals.

So, if you feel as bad for these guys as I do, you should check out there music, if you like it buy something from them and drop them some words of encouragement, here and here.

And by the way, that WAS two biblical references in one post. I feel like I need to do something dirty now to balance things out.

I'm finally caught up on New Tuesday's. Until tomorrow...

Continue reading "New Tuesday (May 23 Recap)"

Sunday Shuffle is back. I become iTunes Shuffle's bitch for 10 songs. Enjoy and feel free to discuss the cultural ramifcations of this mix amongst yourselves if you feel so inclined.

1. Frou Frou - Maddening Shroud
2. Badly Drawn Boy - Year of the Rat
3. Badly Drawn Boy - A Peak You Reach
4. Alison Krauss & Union Station - Pastures of Plenty
5. The Stills - Still In Love Song
6. My Morning Jacket - Rollin' Back
7. David Mead - Wherever
8. Cabin - In the Wake Of
9. Hem - Pacific Street
10. Jamie Cullum - But For Now

CDs released May 16 :

Continue reading "New Tuesday (May 16 Recap)"

In an attempt to catch up on my posting of "New Tuesday" I am going to try truncating my usual format. This would have been super convenient if I hadn't just typed this whole thing up and then had my computer lock up right as I was going to post it. Damn it. So now you're going to get an even lamer version, because I don't really want to write it all up again.

Continue reading "New Tuesday (May 9 Recap)"

Jump, Little Children released their first live album since 1997's Buzz. It features the best of this years Dock Street, which was also, sadly, their swan song. I am anxious to see how the show translated to CD (I was at their last show...I cried like 8 times.) They of course couldn't fit every song on and some are sorely missed (vertigo, between the dim and the dark, etc. etc. etc), but the 23 songs include some of my favorite album tracks that are live standards (say goodnight, mexico), favorite album tracks that are rarely played live (b-13, requiem) and most importantly, old live standards not available on any official Jump releases until now, including my favorite Jump song (Forget My Loss) and many others that I love possibly more than anything from their studio albums (Sean O'Flaherty's Accordian, Taibreamh, Copper Kettle, Mountains So Grand, Green Fields of Canada)! So, despite being sad at the lack of some of my faves I will instead be very very very happy about all of the rarities that the album contains, since those are my favorite live tracks anyhow.

Continue reading "New Tuesday (May 2 Recap)"

Hi everyone! Shayna and I have moved into our new place and have started to get settled it. That means that I should start churning out a couple of posts now and again in the middle of being crazy busy. I mean if Brit can find time to churn out new spawn in her busy life of what I am guessing currently is 24/7 banquet tv dinner eating, I should be able to get out a couple of posts. So, without further pomp and circumstance, here is a look at some of the new albums that came out in my absence. (I am forgoing linking to amazon since I have so much catching up to do!)

The Rakes are a super catchy indie rock/post-punk east London group and their album Capture/Release rocks. Sure, it sounds like a lot of other British Rock stuff that I am digging on now...but hey the more the merrier.

Continue reading "New Tuesday (April 25 Recap)"

So, back in the day I did a lil somethin somethin. And that somethin somethin was writing a some articles for freshtracksmusic.com. Recently, however, fresh tracks had a major facelift and they had their archives lifted. Oh well, apparently my 2+ year old articles just aren't "fresh" enough for fresh tracks anymore. Luckily for you, I don't mind posting a little bit of stale content. So, click for more to read one of my favorite articles I wrote for Fresh Tracks.

P.S. I did a quick google looking for the article and I found that someone had posted it on his or her (from this point her) livejournal because she liked it! She liked it...she really really liked it. Well, actually, she didn't have either of the reallies in there. Just the one "I liked this." Possibly as much as the Kenney Chesney CD she stole from her dad. My favorite part is her friend's comment down at the bottom: "dies. that was so long." It's official. My longevity killed someone.

Continue reading "Dear Person,"