It's been nearly a week since I last posted. It's not like I have nothing to say, because I do. It's just that work, school, and family have a way of pushing the blogging aside.
Apart from the blogs I mentioned two weeks ago, another Bathysphere alum has entered my Google Reader radar. Kiernan Maletsky gives a full rundown of his daily listening habits along with some insight as to what may have led him to such choices. Read All Day Long.
Speaking of my shout-outs to the local blogosphere, Pete Bland returned the favor via Twitter and Facebook.
I listened to Wilco (The Album) this week and think they are returning to my good graces; Modest Mouse's new EP made me revisit This Is a Long Drive...; the selection of the opening track for the Monsters of Folk debut is confusing to me; and I got a lot of responses to a Tweet/Facebook status update concerning Nebraska.
I don't really know what all the hub-bub is over the new Facebook interface. Just jump around between the news feed and the status updates. It's not that hard.
Although I don't really report on the beering at this particular blog anymore, I did brew my third batch this past weekend (yet another reason I'm not blogging). It's a barley wine with bourbon-soaked wood chips for a little oak and vanilla flavoring. It should be good and potent.
I spent my first two nights alone with Lucia. We both survived.
Not only am I not blogging, but I have not been able to attend many happy hours at the 'Tag in recent weeks (and won't make this week's either). Still, you should go and have a Lion Stout for me.
There was other stuff, but I've already forgotten. I promise to do better.
Lucia and her friends were locked in the nanny's car while at the park. The nanny freaked and was nearly ready to break a window, but was talked out of it by one of the kid's grandmother who was along for the ride. It took COMO's finest TWENTY EFFING MINUTES to arrive on the scene. Come on. This was an emergency. What's going on in this town that kept the police from getting to the nanny's car? I guess if it doesn't involve a taser it isn't worth the cops' time.
Happy Hour at the 'Tag happened. Funny thing: I haven't seen you there in a while. What's up with that? I'm beginning to think you don't like me. Don't sweat it. Plenty of regulars did show.
Saturday was primarily spent bottling. JM came over to continue in his role as homebrew guru. In all, we bottled 48 beers. Now, I wait five days, try one to see if it's drinkable, and repeat every two days until the batch is ready.
Just before bottling, the hose to the faucet (it's one of those pull-out spray doo-hickies) busted. Lowe's didn't have replacement parts without ordering, so we opted to buy another faucet. I don't know that I've ever cursed anything as much as I did the old faucet for refusing to come out of the sink. Luckily, friends brought over some dinner and relatives. Our friends' brother-in-law had just fixed three of sinks in the past couple of years and had an inkling of what to do. He tore it apart and we now have a new facet.
I took R and Lu to Bleu (pronpounced "bleh", I believe) for Mother's Day brunch. Bleu is a rather swanky place and featured an interesting menu. Then the food came. R's smoked lox and eggs Benedict was cold and the eggs were overcooked. My French toast made with Brioche was also cold. This place has been really hyped over the past several months, but it really disappointed this morning. We'll give it a try for dinner some night, but I'm not hopeful.
Our garden received some new additions. In addition to the mixed greens, red lettuce, herbs, and strawberries we already planted, R added some tomato, pepper, and eggplant...er...plants.
I tried out my newly purchased, Craigslisted running stroller today in my ongoing effort to split the difference between my high school weight and my current girth. (Is it really possible to gain forty pounds after high school?) We thought maybe Lu would sleep for the entire ride. However, she squealed and babbled for the entire 35-minute run.
The faucet leaked tonight.
We ate fillet wrapped in bacon for dinner. Happy Mother's Day to me.
Shows I will probably miss because of a baby: The Dears (5/14 @ Mojo's - They're Canadian.), Malone w/ Ptarmigan (5/15 @ Mojo's - EP release night), Willie Nelson (5/20 @ 9th Street), White Rabbits (6/9 @ Mojo's - Kewl.), Conor Oberst (6/29 @ Blue Note - Actually, I'm going to this one. Tickets arrived this week.), and a bunch of stuff in STL.
Oops. I forgot to mention this is going to happen. You crazy kids.
I've been very, very busy this week. I apologize to all my regular readers who have been starving for a little Misery. This is what has happened...
My mom was in town to help us watch the little one, who now looks like this...
Murry's continues to be a COMO staple. Despite it's crummy location, the restaurant who birthed all other COMO restaurants is as solid as ever. Sure, there are better places to eat, but none are as consistently good as Murry's. My mom, R, and I all ordered the steak "sandwich", maybe the best deal in town. I washed it down with a Rogue Dead Guy and was fully satisfied.
After a long two days of conference presenting, I started my Friday off right with one of my remaining New Glarus selections: Alt. This might be the best of the New Glarus bunch. Thick foam and lacing reveal a pungently fruity aroma. The flavor doesn't disappoint with caramel, more fruit, and oak with a lingering alcoholic effect. Great beer.
The fourth in a series of happy hours went down at the 'Tag. The turnout is waning, but we'll keep at it. There are a few regulars, so it's becoming a "thing" people do. I sipped on two Coney Island Human Blockheads. It's a solid bock, but at 8.8% ABV, it may be too powerful to be a session beer. Word on the street is that session beers are in, but I don't know whether I believe that or not.
I actually worked on Saturday, but the day was topped off with a chocolate and wine tasting at one of our favorite restaurants, Wine Cellar and Bistro. The local slow foods cub put on this little shindig which featured Patric Chocolate. I believe I've mentioned Alan and his chocolate before but it's certainly worth noting again.
Alan is one of 25 or so craft chocolate makers in the US, one of two in Misery. He takes the chocolate from bean to bar, traveling to Madagascar to befriend cocoa farmers before the beans arrive here in COMO for processing. The chocolate is absolutely amazing. I'd put it up against any chocolate anywhere. In fact, you should try it out and back me up on this. Valentine's Day is coming up.
Anyway, the tasting was extremely informational as Alan likes to talk about chocolate. For the first time, I really savored each piece, picking up on the subtle differences. Unfortunately, the wine pairings were not impressive, but I won't hold that against the bistro since Chef Craig Cyr made this absolutely incredible dessert with the chocolate.
R's hosted yet another baby shower. It seems that the only thing people do around here is get knocked up.
Afterward, I sneaked out to Flat Branch for a tour of the facilities and some tasting. I'm still not a brewer (yet), but I appreciated getting the dish on how Flat Branch conducts its brewing business. The best part was when Jarrett let us sample some barley wine from '03, '04, and '06. Each had rather distinct qualities. The '03 had the best aroma by far, but the '04 had some great alcoholic levels. I'm not really sure what I thought of the '06 by the time I got there.
Currently, I'm listening to The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. The vinyl sounds good as this band reminds me of the Smiths, Cure, and early Belle and Sebastian. This album would have been huge in 1980's England. I'm liking it a lot and expect it to be on heavy rotation in the weeks to come.
Ooh, and I almost forgot to mention that Merryweather Post Pavilion finally arrived. I actually have yet to listen to the vinyl, but the digital version has been on repeat in my car. Animal Collective now joins Radiohead, Wilco, and TV on the Radio as bands who only release critical acclaim-inducing records. Besides the fact that it reminds me of a complicated Vampire weekend record, Merryweather is really quite brilliant. I don't know that it will be the best record of the year, but it's already a strong contender, living up to the hype ten fold.
The True/False schedule is finally up. We have some decisions to make as Yes Men and Waltz with Bashirtop our early list. There will be much debate in our household until then. I will post our schedule as soon as it is clear.
Hopefully, I can get back to some regular posts in the coming weeks instead of these summary posts I've been doing as of late.
At times, it did seem that way in the nineties. Nirvana-mania had every major label signing every band in flannel and feedback. A new indie label popped up every other week. There were more bands than I had time for.
Of course, the overcrowded music scene of the nineties is nothing compared to the current scene of GarageBand and MySpace users, but it still had more than its share of bands.
What tends to happen in such a musical climate is that either there's a plethora of unsuitable material, some good bands fall through the cracks, or a little of both. I'm concerned with those bands that are forgotten, orphan bands if you will. Bands that because of the congested music landscape are just sort of lost, doomed to bargain bins and a Wikipedia afterthought.
I realize the nature of indie bands is that they are often overlooked because bands with critical acclaim or major label backing get all the attention. Bands like Archers of Loaf, Brainiac, or Superchunk will never receive the accolades or wealth they deserve, but they did receive some attention and still do. This post is about those other bands that undeservedly received less attention than the nineties indie elite.
This is my list of forgotten bands of the Nineties:
Karate This was a slow/hard-core band from Boston. Although they released three albums (one posthumously) in this decade, the meat of their catalog was produced in the nineties. In particular, their debut Karate was amazingly depressing. The album features a slow, start/stop aesthetic that would crush Pixies and make you forget Slint. The band's run ended in 2005 when front man Geoff Farina developed hearing problems.
Th' Faith Healers I saw Th' Faith Healers open for The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and The Breeders in 1994. The band has "Krautrock" written all over them and they have a Can cover somewhere to prove it.
The Geraldine Fibbers This might be arguably the most famous and productive band of the list. Carla Bozulich was the brains behind this San Pedro alt-country outfit. They put the cow in cow-punk. Nels Cline was even part of the line-up at one point.
Bettie Serveert OK, this might be the other band on the list that could be considered the most successful. Bettie Serveert (Dutch for "Bettie serves") received some attention for their 1990 release Palomine. Later releases barely garnered anything past a 'zine mention here and there, but they could have been huge. They finally got a break (that didn't actually break them) when they covered a Bright Eyes song for The OC. I saw them once in Seattle with Teenage Fanclub.
Helium Since I'm writing about Matador bands fronted by women, I should mention Helium. This was the band best known for their video portraying front woman Mary Timony dragging a hoe through a field while Beavis and Butthead giggled. Of course, Helium put together some amazing records. The crazy thing is that the band might be more famous for the people who quit over the years: Mary Lou Lord, Jason Hatfield (Juliana's brother), and Ash Bowie of Polvo.
Run On Matador had a lot of lost nineties acts. I first saw Run On open for Yo La Tengo in 1995 and then for Will Oldham two years later. Run On held their own both nights. They have no Wikipedia entry and barely a mention on their label's site.
Noise Addict Ben Lee fronted this band of adolescent Aussies who were thought to be the next big thing. Never happened. They recorded on Grand Royal and Lee dated Claire Danes, but that's about the extent of their fame. They were doing Weezer before Weezer knew it could be profitable.
What bands would make your list? Tells us about them.
I recently befriended one Billy Schuh of local heroes, Foundry Field Recordings. He invited me out to the vastly under-publicized White Rabbits show at Mojo's last night. I didn't make it on the guest list, but I did make it through the door.
Let me first get the White Rabbits out of the way.This band left COMO for the greener pastures (musically-speaking) of Brooklyn a couple of years ago. Since then, they have turned their sound (that falls somewhere in between Vampire Weekend and The Walkmen) into a recording contract with TBD Records (Radiohead's label). It's the classic story of small-town boys head to the big city to become stars only to succumb to drug-riddled orgies with random sea life and end up on VH1's Behind the Music right before their triumphant reunion tour. (Actually, I made up that last part. They will become big stars shortly.)
I was surprised to see the band so nervous and unsure on stage. I mean, these are their old stomping grounds. Their parents were in the audience. Thanks to what I assume was a sizable advance from their new label, they will never work a day job in their lives again. Playing Mojo's should be old hat. It should be comfortable.
It was tough to watch the band nervously look around and continually ask for monitors to be turned up. It's as if there's all this new pressure on them to succeed. Luckily, it did not affect the music. They played all the "hits" and kept the set short. I like short sets. Short sets leave me wanting more. The Rabbits' performance made me wish I could travel to KC to see them open for two of my favorite bands, Spoon and the Walkmen. Oh well.
Back to Mr. Schuh.I have to admit that I haven't always cared for Foundry Field Recordings. I had only seen them once in their previous incarnation, opening for Spoon at the Blue Note. Let's just say that I didn't find it inspiring. In retrospect, I had expected other openers and was mainly interested in seeing whether Spoon could play a good show for once.
Then, somewhere along the line, Billy contacted me on MySpace. We talked. We met up at the Eastside Tavern. He turned out to be a nice guy with similar interests in music and education (and a few friends-in-common as well). So, I decided to give Foundry a second chance.
I gave his record, Prompts/Miscues, a good listen. Earlier exposure to the record gave the sense of another shoe-gaze band with too many layers to determine whether the songs were any good or not. However, since Billy's such a nice guy, I listened again. Upon further examination, I found a pop sensibility that I had missed before. The songs tended to lean closer to poppier fair like Rilo Kiley or The Shins rather than be My Bloody Valentine or Ride rip-offs.
This is why iTunes (and its ilk) is bad for music. No longer do people take the time to listen to whole albums. 30 second samples make or break bands. We don't look for hidden gems anymore or listen to albums in their intended sequences. I forget to do this from time to time, but I think I found the Foundry Field Recordings with a little of that old-time effort.
Anyway, last night was another new TFFR discovery. Billy debuted a new version of his band, complete with cello and half of a drum kit. Acoustic guitar and singing duties were handled by Schuh, of course. What was revealed was that pop sensibility I had to search for in the recorded work. This time, the pop sheen was out in front. I heard pieces of the Shins and the Cure with some start-stop action and nontraditional song structures.
I gained a better appreciation for TFFR's older material, but the new songs have me really excited for future releases. I'm hoping Billy will share this material with me as it was the highlight of the evening.
It all goes to show you that sometimes you have to look a little deeper for the good in your situation...even if it is in Misery.
One day of documentary overload was nearly over and another lay ahead. Saturday night of True/False ended with Owen Lowry's An Alternative to Slitting Your Wrists which, surprisingly, was as uplifting a film as I have ever seen at the festival. After a mental breakdown, Lowry spends a year checking off a list of 52 alternatives to slitting his wrists. The items vary from hang-gliding to squirrel fishing to picking a fight with his childhood abuser. I felt I had a connection with the director thanks to our ties to the buckeye state. He liked my tattoo anyway.
Actually, the most disturbing part of the screening happened after the film was over. Lowry, a young, charismatic, good-looking guy was surrounded by a hoard of young women. There was a definite groupie feel in the room. Of course, I was no better in trying to impress him with my tattoo...
We awoke the next morning to join our house guests, T and M, for breakfast at the new Uprise Bakery within the equally new Ragtag. Thank god this change happened. The new space for both operations (soon to be joined by 9th Street Video) is aesthetically pleasing, modern, and practical. A place like this makes living in COMO worth it...well, almost. The first film was Lucio, shown at the Tiger Hotel's Forest Theater. This film followed the life of an anarchist, counterfeiting brick layer and his efforts to bring down governments and world financial institutions all by his lonesome. The opening credits were maybe the slickest I've ever seen. The rest of the film moved along and was vastly interesting. The trouble was when, for whatever reason, the filmmaker abandoned the story's chronological trajectory in order to piece together the narrative. This only confused an already dense topic. Despite this little snafu, the film was a highlight. (You have to love films about anarchist leaders, an oxymoron if I've ever heard one.) Afterwards, we ventured over to The Den for Paradise 3: Journeys in this World. The film attempted to give a 21st century take on the African Diaspora, sometimes inadvertently drawing close comparisons to the US/Mexico immigration issue. The premise was sound, but the execution was disjointed and cluttered. The filmmakers presented one primary story but muddled it with supplementary tales of other African men trying to succeed in the new European economy. In the same cinema, we hung around to watchThe Mother, a film we originally wanted to see on Friday. Festival co-founder Paul Sturtz was right to point out the fine cinematography of the film as one of this year's best. The great camera work was used to tell the story of...you guessed it...a mother. The woman is a single Russian mother of nine who struggles to make ends meet as she does her best to raise her children. It's very European in narrative style, but memorable to say the least. One of the funniest films of the festival had to be Please Vote for Me, the story of an experiment in democracy that takes place in a Chinese elementary school. Besides the comedy of third graders campaigning for class monitor, the film provides an interesting look at the dirty underbelly of republican politics (as in the "republic" not the party...although...). Bribes are made, faults are pointed out, and tears are shed as both the students and the audience learn a lot about democracy.
I skipped the next film in order to feed the animals and allow R to get a much-deserved massage before checking out the last film of the festival.I Think We're Alone Now is the story of two die-hard, almost stalker-y fans of eighties pop sensation Tiffany. Although the premise and story are sometime humorous, a dark yet very human story is revealed. I was beat from the previous three days of funerals, flights, and films, but this film was a pleasant and thought-provoking finale to the weekend.
Despite the funeral and missing the opening of this year's festival, the weekend was not one I'll soon forget. It only makes me hunger for next year's edition.
On Saturday, around 1:00, our plane made its final approach toward St. Louis. The pilot had just informed us that the temperature was in the 60's. This fact only made us more excited to hit the road in hopes of making our first True/False film of the day, or weekend for that matter.
For my work, I drive on I-70 all the time. I know how fast I can drive without getting stopped by the po-po (ghetto term for the police). In other words, I made excellent time. The temperature rose closer and closer to 70 as I stripped my suit from that morning's funeral. It was hard to believe that we were in cold, snowy Detroit, Michigan just a little over an hour before. Now we were fully in T/F mode and ready for the marathon to come.
After frantically changing clothes and picking up our passes, we rushed over to Macklanburg Cinema to see our first film, Very Young Girls. Our friend, E, saved us seats and we quickly settled in for the film. VYG was a well-done, professional doc with plenty of tear-jerking moments, but the audience sort of missed the point. The filmmaker and some of the subjects spoke of the trafficking of (very) young girls in this country, New York specifically. However, New York City is still a world away from Misery. The point is that the trafficking of young women (the average age is 13) is happening in our own backyard. So, that means it's happening here just as it happens in other countries or NYC. The tone of the questions from the audience suggested that this fact was lost on them. Either way, it was a compelling film.
With such a heavy start to our festival, we later returned to the Macklanburg to catch the ironically scheduled American Teen. It's ironic in that the previous film in the same theater was about teenage prostitutes, and this film was about typical high school drama as played out in a mostly white, middle-class community.
The screening had an auspicious beginning when a security official from Paramount Studios warned that if he and his people caught anyone recording any video or audio of the film, such offenders would be promptly arrested. I don't believe this happened. I mean, come on, where is there a market for bootlegs of documentaries? I've never bought a copy of Manufactured Landscapes at the local barber shop. Of course, a doc about teenage angst is not the most artistically sophisticated film subject, but I still don't think it would be a hot commodity on the black market. Next, we headed across the street to the Windsor Cinema to see Forbidden Lies, a story about the woman who conned the publishing industry (and many, many other people) with her fictionalized memoir of honor killings in Jordan. This highly stylized, very slick doc was very intriguing, but like so many films at T/F, it delivered the message and proceeded to beat you with it over and over again. However, the film was one of the few I've seen at T/F that really played on the idea of truth versus fiction, causing the audience to constantly go back and forth on whether they believe the subject or not. As far as it's big film style, it was this year's Manda Balla. By this point, R had had enough (the pregnancy thing seems to suck the life force out of her) and headed home. I, on the other hand, had another film to catch...
In case you hadn't noticed, I took a few days off from the blogging. It became too much of a chore, so I thought a few days away would help re-energize my blogger-self. I think it has.
Genocide Celebration Day went off without a hitch this past Thursday. You can check out some pics at Digital Vittles. While there, be sure to check out the "Gobble Gobble, Y'all" post.
I bought nothing on Buy Nothing Day...wait...we did buy some furniture. Damn! Maybe next year.
We finally have a fully functional basement/family room. Some tables and a chair (Thanks, Mom.) have really made the space livable. Plus, my dad and I put up some closet doors to help cover up that gigantic mirror. (Some of you know what I'm talking about.)
I haven't showered in two days, but that will change as I have to get back to work. This will probably mean a continued stoppage in the blogging, but I will try to post every other day. Besides, with the end of the year coming, I have to complete all my end-of-the-year lists.
December 9th is coming up and that means I am still selling raffle tickets for Prism, the LGBT youth group for which I volunteer. Thanks to those who have already purchased tickets or made donations. The tickets are $1 for each, $5 for six.
Misery is #1...for now. I'm a big Sooners fan this week. If OU wins, the Buckeyes are in the championship game for the second straight year and third time this decade.
I'm currently listening to Jose Gonzales and am impressed for the most part. His style of folk lies in that place where Elliott Smith and Nick Drake meet. We'll have to see where he lands on the end-of-year list.
That's all for now. I've got some ideas for more focused posts.
With house guests in my...well...house, college football on the telly, and gigantic festivals taking over downtown, I've learned a lot about COMO...and a few other things. Some house guests need closet space and dresser drawers and some just use their suitcases. I think people's preferences in this area is a major divider in the populous, maybe even more so than race or economic class. I am a suitcase/throw my dirties all over the floor kind of house guest, but that isn't good enough for some people. I guess we'll put "bedroom set for the guest bedroom" on the list ahead of our own bedroom set and windows.
Michigan really does suck. They haven't stopped anyone or won since the passing of their late, great coach, Bo Schembechler. I'm not convinced they'll beat an anemic Notre Dame squad. I, like any tOSU fan, enjoy watching Michigan squirm, but I don't wish such struggles on anyone. Oh, and I still think Mark Hart is a punk. In fact, I've changed the "a" in his last name to a "u" to better reflect his playing style.
Apparently, about 2/3 of COMO's population (60,000+) can fit downtown all at once - most of them on eighth between Cherry and Broadway. The Roots 'n Blues 'n BBQ Festival (Why so many 'n's?) took over the entire "District" (yes, the District of Columbia) for two nights this weekend. I was able to score a free pass to some free piss (beer) thanks to K, didn't really see Taj Mahal (although I could sort of hear him), and stood on the corner of Broadway and 8th for about a half-hour trying to pass through to that previously mentioned beer of media types and bad beer. It was a crazy-ass mess of a cluster f---. It was probably a good thing drunks were not allowed to roam the streets freely.I learned that I still don't like the blues. Sure, I got them, but I just don't get the appeal of a dead art form. It's like classical music or Britney Spears: it's a musical genre that has ceased to evolve. What's worse is that it encourages white people to do that hippie, swaying dance style made popular in Woodstock. The blues is maybe the most misappropriated of all African-American art forms...other than Jheri Curls.
Top 10 Wines is going to be the best place to meet and drink in town. We stopped in for a beer since the Blue Fugue had a cover. The owner of Top 10 (I've forgotten his name) is uber-friendly and likes to wax poetically about the red stuff (and white or rose'). He served us a nice Belgian beer and continued his lively conversation with friends. While sitting there, we learned that ABC 17 personality/journalist, Greg Dingrando, goes by the nickname "Dingo" and apparently plays soccer every Sunday. So, ladies and other fans of the "Dingo" should head down to the soccer fields in Jeff City to watch some hot guy-on-guy soccer action.
I learned that maybe I know more about the NFL than I originally thought. I'm tied for first in my NFL Pick'em group and beating my opponent in my fantasy league by 60+ points going into Monday Night Football. Maybe I should quit my day job and gamble for a living.
I probably should have learned something from the Times this weekend (which they haven't delivered in like three weeks despite numerous phone calls), but that's not how things work. I also should mention several other important lessons learned this weekend - I'm not a bad teacher, how to fix the garbage disposal, enough red wine is never enough - but I've written too much on this post as it is. This is what stuck out over the weekend. I'm sure there's more to learn in the coming days.
Stay tuned for my 100th post spectacular where I recap the highlights of the last year+ of blogging.
It's been nearly a week since I last posted. It's not like I have nothing to say, because I do. It's just that work, school, and family have a way of pushing the blogging aside.
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