Month In Music

I got an shitload of music this month. Between buying classic rock songs for my KSHE playlist, the deal of the day at Amazon, itunes purchases and labels sending me stuff I ended up with 327 songs this month.

Sunday Skating

Not bad for an old man.

Keywords For May

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An Horse

Why do I drink too much when I go out? Too many beers doesn't make the night anymore fun. I always think that I'll pace myself but I never do. So now this morning I haven't been doing much. Sitting calmly seems to be best. So I decided I could at least be productive and let you know about a band called An Horse that will be playing at Off Broadway on June 21st.

It's a two piece male female band from Brisbane, Australia. And I like them.

For some reason they remind me of the Editors if they had a female singer and were completely stripped down to just guitar and drums, If that makes any sense.

An Horse has a big echoy guitar sound that gives it that modern indie feel with a nod to past new wave bands like The Plimsouls.

I'm gonna try to make it out to the show and you should to. So until then watch their video, download a song, enjoy.



[Download Cam Out]

[video link]
[MySpace]

So Sad. This Is How Clients Are.

Bike Race

Come out Saturday June 6.
Ride bikes and have fun.

Old and new

I Want These Labels

The designer that got this by everyone and actually got it on a printed piece is completely kick ass.

One Last Bit

Ok so obviously I am still on my classic rock kick.
And I know many who contributed also got into the idea of many of these songs.

So check out this site I found. It lists all the KSHE classics and has a link to a sample of the song.

Yeah, it's awesome.

This is Very Very Cool

Thanks

Thanks to those who sent song suggestions for my KSHE playlist. It is a work in progress and currently at 68 songs.

The Felice Brothers

I'm at the office and I'm bored. So I decided why not get around to reviewing a band that is going to be playing here at The Firebird on June 18?

The Felice Brothers are from the catskill mountains but you can go to their website and read all about them yourself. Unless of course you can't read. But then I guess you would have no idea what this says either.

You can also head over to their myspace page and listen to a few tracks. It's very old sounding folk music with traces of Bob Dylan and Springsteen's Nebraska album. While I really dug the first song on their page, The Big Surprise, I did think to myself that I don't think I could see a live show this gloomy. Luckily the next song still has that raw feel, but picks up the pace.

So check the stuff out. If you like what you hear go to the show.

Classic Rock

Well this request goes far deeper than just classic rock. If you're from St. Louis then you know what KSHE 95 is. It's the classic rock radio station here and has been since 1967. They have those songs that you will always associate with them. They are that station that would never play Journey Feeling That Way, without following it with Anytime.

So here is where I want your help.

I have started to put together a KSHE playlist in my itunes. So what are those songs that are must haves for this playlist?

House For Sale

Cameron's house in Ferris Bueller's Day Off is for sale.

It could be yours for only 2.3 million dollars.

[Check It]

Shoot Paul

What's Paul ever done to you?

Maybe nothing. But shoot him anyway.

A guy I know is living in a 20' X 20' apartment. And you can shoot him live with a robotic paintball gun you can control. For a nominal fee of course.

[Check It Out]

Paul and The Patients

I had emails waiting for me this morning. Nothing too fun. Estimates that needed to be done for a project. Sure it would be money coming in, but even with the end result of getting paid, estimates are never fun to do. So I wrapped them up and then started to catch up on other emails. I remebered I had the EP To The Lions by Paul and The Patients to review.

I was barely into the start of the interesting slightly off key guitars of the first song Complaint 15, when I was now feeling myself more relieved than I was just minutes before. By the time I hit the third song Blogspot I was feeling like this was a band I have been listening to for years. Maybe it was the contrast against my previous computer based task. Maybe it was the perfect soundtrack for a cloudy overcast day at 7AM. But whatever it was the music worked for me.

It's jangly slightly off guitar based music with a hint of melancholy pop to it. So give them a listen and maybe it will have the same effect on you as it had on me.

[Myspace Page]

Linfinity

This is a band I recently got a chance to listen to. The songs I've heard pull influences from all over the place. From big sounding almost ballads, to dirty garage rock with an Eastern European folk music flair and just a hint of an 80's John Hughes movie thrown in. But hey don't just trust my lame comparisons check them out for yourself. I personally like the song Choo Choo Train to Venice best. It has a chaotic urgency to it. The singers voice sounds so familiar in this one to me but I can't place it as one sound, it''s like 3 or 4 singers I've heard rolled into one spinning energy mass.

[Official site]

[Myspace]

Volcano Tacos Are Awesome

Because Ad Agencies Are Full Of Fools

This article talks about how client behavior has gotten worse in the bad economy. The comments section shows how this issue is rampant all over. But could it be that agencies brought part of this on themselves? Agencies always seem to want to think of themselves as their clients partner.

You are a vendor who provides a service. It really is that simple. It would seem that since the beginning ad agencies thought they were providing some super special service and would put up with more crap than other businesses because of many possible reasons:

They thought of themselves as a vital partner.
They thought what they were doing was true art so business and money came second.
They view their opinion as far too valuable.

Agencies always complain when their clients don't do exactly as they say, that they are the experts. Yet when agencies hire outside vendors they want to rule over them as well. ISn't a printer more of an expert in printing than some art director? Isn't an editor more of an expert as well? A photographer? The list goes on and on.

The entire industry is an opinion based service industry. So an agency must listen to their clients opinions, as should an agency listen to their own outside vendors opinions.

We are in the service industry. And we provide a service that has no guarantee of results, that is also expensive for the client to do. It's a fun job, but the problem is too many people who do it see it as far too important. You make shit to sell people shit. End of story.

So enjoy that you get to sit and think up stuff all day.

Don't like the asshole clients? Ditch them. The client won't care because a dozen other agencies will jump at the chance to work for them. And that's why clients know they can act like assholes, because the agency will most likely put up with it. Since an agency isn't bright enough to charge rush fees or anything of the sort.

Good, Cheap, Fast. You can pick any two. Now if people just had the guts to tell their clients that.

Colin

So this is the trailer for a zombie movie that was made for $70.
All the zombies were gotten via social network sites. And brought their own things.

It's gotten quite a bit of buzz at Cannes.

I wonder if the film maker will pay everyone if he sells the movie to a distributor?

Bored

The weather sucks. There's nothing to do.

Spam reinterpreted

Illustrations that show you spam email in a whole new light.

Tired

This morning I went to the skatepark with a friend of mine. I got enough runs in, but spent way more time sitting and chatting.

Then this afternoon I went downtown and played wiffle ball with some friends. Elias and Jett both came with me. Elias played on the other team and Jett spent most of his time digging through coolers and feeding ice to dogs. As well as handing out beers to people.

Next up, grill some filet mignon.

An Evening, A purchase or two.

Last night was a fun time.
Started out at Tin Can downtown where 5 friends and I met up, had many beers and some food.

We then headed to the loop for another friends birthday party. We hung out had some more beers chatted with people for awhile, then we decided to head back downtown.

We went to some new bar that opened next door to Tin Can. It's an ok place. We did have an amusing waitress that took a lot of shit from all of us in good stride. The highlight was when our conversation was all about Volcano Tacos from Taco Bell. You had to be there.

I then took off, stopped at Taco Bell, and went home.

Today my refurbished iPod classic I ordered came in. It's 120GB! I put a ton of music on it already. I have over 17,000 songs on it and it's not even half full.

We also went to Lowes to look into a big wooden jungle gym play-set for Jett. We found a really cool one. The process of getting it in the backyard will begin early next week.


Nancy will be heading out with some friends tonight. So it will just be Jett and I hanging out. So once he goes to bed I'll most likely just watch movies.

Hughes, Ngage call off merger

I hear the deal was called off because of Eammon's excessive gas.

[Or You Can Read About It Here]

SURROGATES Trailer

SURROGATES trailer in HD

Our soon to be counter tops

Download Music

I read a good article that talks about how the internet has changed the music industry.

It is pretty much on target with how I have always thought. That if the record industry spent half as much time, money and energy trying to figure out how to adjust to the changing technology rather than trying to fight it and sue people, they would be far better off.

{Read for yourself]

Our Government Sucks

This excerpt from this article sums up the stupidity:
"Democrats on the committee have hired a speed reader to read the more than 900-page climate change bill if necessary."

How about this? Put the people and the country first. work together to solve some fucking problems and stop playing your idiotic games. Our system is a shambles and our politicians suck.

Grilled Cheesecake Sandwich

Hell yes I am making this.

[Go Here Learn How]

Why I Hate This Ad

I like gross out comedies. I like gross horror movies. I like funny odd ads. But I don't like this ad.

And it's pretty simple as to why. Don't ever associate a food or beverage brand with an extremely unappetizing image.

Seeing some intestine looking umbilical cord that has been cut in half and is now hanging off of a persons body does not make me ever want to drink your product. And when your product is already close to the color of blood it's an even worse idea.

Here's the info on who is responsible for this travesty:
Advertising Agency: Taxi/Maclaren McCann, Vancouver, Canada
Art Director: Dan Bache
Copywriter: Brian Quittenton
Photographer: Tony Hurley

Love Like Fire

Opinions are like assholes. And since I'm an asshole I seem to love to give my opinion. It's what I do for a living boils down to and it's a lot of what I do here on the blog. So I will spout my opinion about the above mentioned band.

Love Like Fire is a four-piece from San Francisco.

Their sound makes me think of bands on the label 4AD from long ago. And that's not a bad thing.
They have a tinge of new wave with upfront strong female vocals, with big echoey guitars.

I've been meaning to get around to reviewing this for awhile. Part of my delay was I was just busy and when I wasn't I was a slacker. But the other part was my first sampling through this was done at a time I was in the complete wrong mindset for this type of music. I had been in a mood for 70's arena rock, so this just didn't hit the spot.

But now that I've gotten into a better frame of being open minded, I dig this band. And the video was very cool and made the song stick with me even more.

So go to the bands myspace page and give them a listen yourself.

Not Your Normal Day

So I didn't go to my typical freelance gig today, because I had Robot Monkey Project things I had to do. I got it to a good point so we could send it off to the client, then we had a lot of paperwork to do as well.

Then I headed down to get my picture taken hanging upside down. It's a series a photographer I know is doing. He is taking portraits of people upside down then he will show them right side up. They look very off and slightly disturbing. While being shot was no big deal, now my head still feels slightly off. Like that been at an amusement park and been on too many rides all day sort of feeling.

Then I met a friend for lunch. Had a very tasty scallop and spinach salad at The Dubliner.

Then is was back in front of the computer to do a little more work.

Custom Bobble Head

I want one.

[Site]

Movie Review

Curious Case of Benjamin Button-

In two words... Fucking Great.

I hadn't seen it when it was out. I'm not sure why. I love David Fincher films. But the negative things I had heard about this scared me away.

How long it was.

How it was a remake of Forest Gump.

Well other than following an interesting person through their life, the comparison to Forest Gump ends there. And the length flew by. The story was epic, the scenes looked amazing, and the acting was also amazing.

I had bought the Criterion dvd today. I was intrigued that on it's first release that Criterion put their own edition of it out. It told me that there truly must be something amazing about this film.

And there was.

If you haven't seen this, do so soon.

This should have won best picture. It is a true achievement on every level of film making.

Makes me hate Slumdog Millionaire even more now.

Fact

Fat people like the zoo.

Movie Review

Over The Edge-

Until recently I had never heard of this movie. It was Matt Dilions first movie.

It's about a planned community of condos and townhouses. But there was no account taken for the kids who would be living in there. So there was no entertainment for them. So things go from bad to worse.

The movie felt real, aside from some cars that blow up a little to easily. And other than the odd score they would use in some scenes it had great music.

[Roger Ebert Review]

TIred And Sore

It was a busy day.

Had to take Jett to Chuck E Cheese as we had promised him since he was good all week.
It wasn't too bad. Not that crowded.

Then it was yard work and some more yard work.

Guess where I am

Green Day

So their new album is available today.

If you like them you could get it on itunes for $7.99 as shown in the email I received from apple.

Or you could head over to Amazon and get the MP3 album for $4.99


Hmmmm.

I love donuts

St. Louis Agency News

Hughes and Ngage merged into a single agency.

They will be keeping the Hughes name. Although it would be funnier if they became:
Huge
or
Nughge
or
gggee

But congratulations on the move to my pal Dan.

Here's An Idea

So you're 16, in high school, wearing a short sun dress and you opt to not wear underwear to school. uh....

Minimum Charge? WTF?

In the past I have worked in food service and retail. I fully understand that the credit card companies charge you to be able to accept credit as payment. But nowadays why the hell would a place put a minimum amount that they will accept before you can use a credit or debit card?

Maybe before the times of check cards I could slightly understand it. But since they have completely flooded the market, how often do most people carry cash?

This morning I went to a coffee shop with a co-worker to grab a drink and talk about some projects. I ordered a coffee and my friend just wanted water. I was told the total and handed the cashier my debit card.

"We only accept charge cards if someone is spending $5 or more."

So I was able to get my friend to order something.

But had I stopped in there on my way to the office by myself, I would have walked out. And now I doubt I will go back there. Sure if I made sure I had cash it would be no problem, but with many many choices of coffee shops around, why bother?

Taxes

Next month I am going to keep track of all the taxes I pay during the course of one month. I am very interested in the total. When you take a look at all the sales tax and taxes on utility bills, phone bills, income tax.

I think it will be very interesting and depressing.

Yeah. This Is Awesome.

A Little Jesse Ventura

Album Cover Redesign

HEre is a cool flickr set that has Album covers redesigned using the look of Pelican book covers.

Movie Review

The Beach-

It wasn't horrible. It was just mostly pointless. Part Apocalypse Now, part Lord of the Flies, part Blue Lagoon.

It was like a collection of ideas and scenes that didn't really go together.

Movie Review

Fanboys-

This was awesome.

Story about 4 friends going across country to break into Skywalker ranch to see Star Wars episode 1 before it is released, before one of them dies from terminal cancer.

Very funny. The cameos are great. The supporting characters are funny. It's sweet and touching.

A Tale of Two Movies

I had tivo'd Forgetting Sarah Marshall a week ago. Nancy and I finally got around to watching last night.

We made it 30 minutes in. Turned it off and deleted off the Tivo forever.

At about 20 minutes in we both asked the other if it was just them that hated it. It was boring, not funny and the acting was piss poor.

Nancy headed off to watch bad TV and do her nails. I flipped around channels and landed on Suicide Kings. I saw the movie in the theater, own it on dvd and have watched it countless times. I love the movie. It helped me quickly forget the rotten movie I had just turned off.

Mother Lovers

FBC Prom

Before the ride took off last night it looked like a good crowd at Turtle Park. But once it started moving it was clear that there were a ton of people there. Over 300 in fact. The ride was simple and slow and took the giant crowd through a couple of main heavily populated roads, then ended a few doors down from Atomic Cowboy on a back patio area.

The weather was perfect, the moon was amazing looking and it was a great fun time.

Thanks to all of those who had a part in making it all happen.

Bendy

Dinosaur

Fun in the park

Un yeah

New Activity On An Old Post

There have been a couple comments left the past two days on this post I did exactly a month ago.

It's been stumbled upon by folks at one design agency in particular. Some interesting comments have been left and I have responded to them. I hope they come back so it can be a conversation.

Meetings Gallore

The day was busy as hell with potential client meetings. Then throw in an unexpected need for me to pick up Jett.

This was just the first of a jam packed 4 days.

Friday is open house at 90DW then off to a wedding reception.

Saturday is the FBC prom ride.

Sunday is jam packed for mothers day.

Summer Coke Cans

These are very cool.

Great Discussion

Today I had a fun discussion with a good friend of mine via IM. While on one hand it made me sad he doesn't live in the same city as me anymore and it wasn't back to a day where we both worked at the same agency and the conversation could have been had on a couch in my office. But I digress.

The conversation was broad. It started about the economic state of the country, government and big business. We then got down to individual workers. A main part hovered around letting failing big businesses fail rather than bailing them out. This lead to a specific conversation about GM. I was saying that it's problem stem from greed at every level and to fix it could actually be a rather simple solution, but it would be a painful one, since there are too many greedy people involved. The executives are greedy and want giant paychecks, the unions are greedy and want their huge cut and the workers are greedy. When it is no longer profitable you can't expect to be so well paid to do a simple manual labor job.

So if everyone involved took some major pay cuts, and then transfered that savings to the consumer and sell a quality car for the lowest price around, more people would and could buy the car.

While this is over simplifying things, it's not far off from a reality of what could work. But the problem is no one is willing to take the hit for the greater good. They want to go on business as usual and have someone else flip the bill.

It would be the same as if I lost my income and my family and I were only willing to make a very small sacrifice. We just wouldn't be able to make it. You work with what you have.

Hard times suck. But you do what you have to do.

We also talked about personal responsibility and chances people have to make something of themselves, but going into that would make this post far too long. My opinion boiled down to, if you want something bad enough, through sacrifice and hard work you more than likely can achieve that goal.

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - 2.27.2009 at Music Hall of Williamsburg

Watch the full concert at baeblemusic.com

Complete And Total Scumbag

This story proves that the world needs a real life version of Marvel comics The Punisher.

Movie Review

Martyrs-


I had read about this movie on Ain't It Cool News. It was this excerpt from the review that made me think, do I have what it takes to watch this:
"The film is twisted beyond much that I’ve seen. This is easily one of the most disturbing and horrifying films I’ve ever seen. It is more than most can take. Even those that purport to have iron stomachs for cinematic wrongness. Be thankful this isn’t on Blu Ray yet."

I went in to it expecting scenes that I could barely watch. And that was true. But not because they were so out of control violent or gross, but because they were laughable. When the true plot within a plot is revealed you will think to yourself, "really? are they fucking kidding me?"

This movie was a waste of my time. I would suggest you don't waste your time. And if you do, don't say I didn't warn you.

Unions Are Evil

Here is another prime example that unions have become just as evil if not more so than the employers they were supposed to protect the employees from in the first place.

Excerpt:
"It's remarkably difficult to fire a tenured public school teacher in California, a Times investigation has found. The path can be laborious and labyrinthine, in some cases involving years of investigation, union grievances, administrative appeals, court challenges and re-hearings."

HEre is a crazy thought that applies to every job in the world. If you aren't good at your job, you can get fired and replaced by someone who can do it better. Don't want to get fired? Do a good job. It's really pretty simple.

EEEEK!

Another great reason to hate spiders.

Excerpt:
"Like zombies, spiders in a lab twitched back to life hours after "drowning"—and the scientists were as surprised as anyone."

Movie Review

The Plague-


Well it started off really cool. All the worlds children 9 and under go into a coma like state. 10 years later is when the movie picks back up. It was sort of like a twist on the typical zombie movie. except these zombies can think and use weapons. So it made it even crazier for the survivors we follow.

But the end blew it for me.

It's worth checking out. You may not hate the end as much as I did.

Lets Skate

Went skateboarding for the first time in about a year and a half. Had no idea if I would still be able to do it since snapping my achilles in two. We went to the Sylvan Springs SkatePark. We went early to avoid any of the youth crowd. It was a good time. My leg held up just fine. And mentally I have come to terms with my skate repertoire consists of nothing other than carving around and a grind here or there. The few feeble tricks I might be able to do would impress no one and only increase the chance of falling and hurting myself.

And it's just not worth it.

Busy Day

Target for household crap, a toy for Jett (for being good all week at school) and a snow cone machine. Then off to Blue Boat to look at sinks and faucets. Then over to Jakes house. Then lunch at The Tap Room. Then home for some brief yard work. Now I have to take the teenager to a party.

Total Dorks

Rice krispy sushi

This Commercial Is Awesome

I Like Monkeys

I first read this about 10 years ago or so.
It still makes me laugh:

The pet store was selling them for five cents a piece.
I thought this was odd since they were normally a couple thousand. I decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth so I bought 200 of them. I like monkeys.

I took my 200 monkeys home. I have a big car. I let one of them drive. His name was Sigmund. He was retarded. In fact, none of them were really bright. They kept punching themselves in the genitals. I laughed. They punched me in the genitals. I stopped laughing.

I herded them into my room. They didn't adapt very well to their new environment. They would screech and hurl themselves off the couch at high speeds and slam into the wall. Although humorous at first, the spectacle lost its novelty halfway into it's third hour. Two hours later I found out why all the monkeys were so inexpensive; they all died. No apparent reason. They all just sort of dropped dead. Kinda like when you buy a goldfish and it dies five hours later. God damn cheap monkeys.

I didn't know what to do. There were 200 dead monkeys lying all over my room; on the bed, in the dresser, hanging from my bookcase. It looked like I had 200 throw rugs. I tried to flush one down the toilet. It didn't work. It got stuck. Then I had one dead, wet monkey and one hundred ninety-nine dead, dry monkeys.

I tried to pretend that they were just stuffed animals. That worked for a while, that is until they began to decompose. It started to smell real bad. I had to pee but there was a dead monkey in my toilet and I didn't want to call a plumber. I was embarrassed. I tried to slow down the decomposition by freezing them. Unfortuantely there was only enough room for two at a time, so I had to change them every 30 seconds. I also had to eat all the food in the freezer so it didn't go bad.

I tried to burn them, but little did I know that my bed was flammable. I had to extinguish the fire. Then I had one dead, wet monkey in my toilet, two dead, frozen monkeys in my freezer, and one hundred ninety-seven dead, charred monkeys in a pile on my bed.

The odor wasn't improving. I became agitated at my inability to dispose of the dead monkeys and I really had to use the bathroom. So I went and severely beat one of the monkeys. I felt better.

I tried throwing them away but the garbage man said the city was not allowed to dispose of charred primates. I told him I had a wet one. He couldn't take it either. I didn't bother asking about the frozen ones.

I finally arrived at a solution. I gave them out as Christmas gifts. My friends didn't quite know what to say. They pretended to like them, but I could tell they were lying. Ingrates. So I punched them in the genitals.

I like monkeys.

Wrestling At The Chase

Wrestling At The Chase is 50 years old. I remember many many Sunday mornings watching it on channel 11. I also remember my dad taking me to some of the bigger live events.

[See Pictures Here]

Bands With Distinctive Sounds

In no way is this list complete. But these are what I feel are the top 11 bands whose sound is so distinct that a few seconds into a song you know who it is. And this list is based on more criteria than a band with a distinctive singers voice. It has to have a guitar sound or drums or bass that you know who it is on the first chord. The bands also obviously need to have more than 1 album.

AC/DC-
No matter if it's Bon Scott or Brian Johnson singing you will recognize their sound right off the bat. I list them first because while I stopped buying their albums at "For Those About To Rock" I can still quickly know it is them from even one of their brand new songs.

Rush-
That voice, the bass, the drums and the guitar. Ever little thing about them is all them and sounds like no one else.

Led Zeppelin-
WHile they had songs that branched out a bit from each other once again you have 4 guys who sang and played their instruments so distinct that you know it's them no matter what.

Tool-
I'm not really a fan of this band. I don't dislike them but never listened to much of it, but when I would hear any song I knew who it was.

Rage Against the Machine-
Nobody plays a guitar that has that sound and the voice is like no other.

The Cars-
Even with having two singers, and the new wave keyboards, they still manage to stand out immediately.

The Grateful Dead-
Love them or hate them, you know when you hear them.

Helmet-
They created a style of rock that stood out. The guitar crunch, the screaming yet still melodic vocals and the choppy perfectly timed rhythm section.

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion-
More than just his howl. It has a guitar sound that you can place right away.

The Police-
So much more than just stings voice. HEaring him play a police song without stewart copeland and andy summers just doesn't sound like the police. That easily puts them on this list.

Van Halen-
They have a rock sound like no other.


And then there were some bands that I was on the fence about as some friends and I were discussing this topic. Some might be too much just the voice or I might be too familiar to be objective:
The Doors
Beastie Boys
The Flaming Lips
Green Day
Husker Du
Janes Addiction
Jesus Lizard
Jimi Hendrix
The Misfits
Minus The Bear
Mission of Burma
The Replacements
Rocket From The Crypt
Thin Lizzy
The Who

So I know this is not a complete list. So who would you add to the list and why? And are there any of these bands on the Fence list that should be moved up? And are there any bands on the list that you completely disagree with?