Music and Me

Music rules. I’ve always liked the band The Killers. Sometimes I feel like its bordering guilty pleasure music, but the drummer is astounding and that’s what got me into that band back when Hot Fuss was released. I remember hearing Jenny Was a Friend of Mine and thinking wow, these drums are energizing. Hearing more of the album I realize the drummer can really play behind the beat, in front of it, and right on top of the beat and he has some really cool fills. Nothing complicated, but the kind that make you play air drums during the song for emphasis. What’s more is I’m even hearing the bass in these songs. Maybe it’s being a guitarist, but I rarely find bass that interesting, see Schism by Tool for one of the best bass leads I’ve ever heard. (photo: Ronnie Vanucci of The Killers putting an emphasis to a few simple notes)

So besides how cool it is that all this is already flowing through my head in just a few seconds of hearing music - two days ago I realized The Killers had a b-sides album I had never heard about. That this is pretty bold to release a b-sides album when you only have something like 3 full length albums. Regardless, I picked it up and they have a cover of a Joy Division song called Shadowplay. I know nothing about Joy Division other than who they were, but this song basically has the drums as the lead (main) instrument which sounds so awesome. Not many songs like that; Everlong I’d argue the drums are the lead instrument in that song. Anyway, the beat of this song is amazing. There is an electronic drum beat, but a real kit in there too and the way Vanucci makes use of an open and closed high-hat in between verses really hooks you in. Soon enough I’m on YouTube comparing The Killers version to the original by Joy Division and there is a live video of them from 1978 – cool! This tune is VERY catchy and the sound of an electronic beat getting interupted by a real drum kit sounds amazing. Listen to this Killers version solely for the amazing drum beat by Vanucci.

But the whole point of what I’m getting at here is that an often overlooked band like The Killers just introduced me to Joy Division. How cool is that? Music does this to me all the time. It’s rarely with cover songs though. Usually I’ll hear a phrase of a song that sounds like another song and it’ll remind me to listen to that song/band and it’s just a domino effect from that point on. Pretty soon I’m holding my guitar and trying to play different things or just improvise over them. We rip off music from each other every day, but it’s ok. That’s music. You take snippets here and there and make it your own. Anyone who plays rock n’ roll I would argue is ripping off Chuck Berry and maybe Berry ripped off Robert Johnson, etc. Plenty of professional musicians will tell you they made a living on ripping of other licks and beats and phrases they have heard. Although that is exaggerating things, there is truth to it as well. Yesterday I had never heard the music of Joy Division, now I have a new respect for them and have an interest in acquiring some of their tunes to see if I’d like more of them.

I’ll end this with going back to The Killers. I really like the album Hot Fuss, but every day their album Day & Age grows on me. Not so much because the whole album is good – it’s not. But the first half of the album has an amazing tribute to 80’s music. There are so many traces of licks and beats and just little things from the 80’s that I can’t begin to start naming the bands they borrowed these ideas from (The Cure, Depeche Mode, lots of one hit wonders that I couldn't place, and even a reminiscence of Cindy Lauper). I'm not saying I like any of that 80's music - it's not the point. To me this is pretty amazing how we take music and re-arrange the puzzle to make something completely new, yet we never lose sight of those before us regardless of our like or dislike for a band.

Sometimes something so abstract and new sounding isn't so abstract afterall and can be traced back to other musicians. Even a band like The Killers who are to most I’d argue a take it or leave it band can still get your brain moving with ideas and thoughts and remembrances about music. And we all understand how music triggers other memories. And someday someone might even hear The Killers sound in another song and maybe they won't be able to place it as The Killers. There really are no limitations to music if you let it be your own interpretation; and I mean that as in playing music AND listening to music. One of the multitude of reasons of why music means so much to me. On a side note, if you’re interested in any of these 80’s style songs off Day & Age: Losing Touch, Human, Spaceman, Joyride, Neon Tiger, This Is Your Life are the main ones I’d recommend.

Weird Dreams Are Made of These

Sometimes people don’t understand my humor and/or people just chalk it up to me being the weirdest dude they know. Well, sometimes I weird myself out too. I don’t understand dreams at all. This morning I woke up with the window open and my dog laying on the edge of the bed licking his paws and occasionally barking at anything walking. I should have figured that was just enough to wake me up and put me back to sleep for a few lucid dreams this morning. It’s always interesting when you can think in your dreams and do what you want. Ok, so not lucid in that I knew I was dreaming, but I was making decisions, albeit weird ones.

This dream was really weird. Ok, so let’s start with the fat lady who was beating up little girls. Oh yeah, that’s how it started, just jump right in with me. I am walking to my car and the whole atmosphere is dead grass and huge hills. I see this really large woman with coke bottle glasses and black nappy hair wearing a black wife beater shirt, black tight jeans, and a HUGE red thong sticking out of her pants…the classic whale tail. And she’s pretty much chasing these, maybe around 8 years old, girls around the outside of my car and punching them. Only, when she’d punch them they’d disappear, just poof! And it was more like a long arm whack versus a punch. So I’m walking to my car parked on a hill of dry brown tall grass in the middle of nowhere. As I start running to save the girls I can’t get there quick enough. All these girls are getting dusted by the fat lady with coke bottle glasses. She finally bonks the last one on the head and looks bored. Ut-oh she’s bored. I knew exactly what this meant. Yep, she see’s me. Now she starts waddling after me fast. I’m admittedly nervous that the fat lady will kill me and quickly I have to decide my plan of attack. Trip her? No. Fight her? No. Run from her? YES! So, I flank around her to the outside and just start high-kneeing it like a bat out of hell. She’s on my tail and all the sudden I can’t run fast in this tall brown dead grass. No matter how hard I try, it was like I was in a video game and she put in a Game Genie code to make me slow. I’m screwed. Her hands are just getting the back of my shirt. But then I finally gain just enough traction to cut around the back end of my car. Ol fatty doesn’t turn too well and I’ve found her weak spot. She’s got the turning radius of a semi-truck. Then I see now there is another car parked back where I came from off to the right in the distance and some woman is in that car. I’m now running with keys in hand to the other car. I am yelling to the woman to start the car, but when I get there she never heard me and the fat lady is on my tail gaining momentum again.

I know, I know. Where is this nonsensical dream going? I’m beginning to wonder myself. Annnnd we’re back. She has no interest in the woman in this car, just me. So my new plan is this: I’m going to run back to my car. I’ll use the unlock button on the key fob and have the key ready to put in the ignition when I get there. I should have just enough time to beat her back to the car and step on it. I start my trek back to the car and fatty is on my tail, she’s trying to trip me now and she’s all sweaty and dusty, but I have cat like reflexes and am hurdling every time she tries to trip me or grab at me. I Dukes of Hazard it over the hood of the car and get in and lock the doors. Car is started and fatty is pulling on the driver’s handle. I barely got in and I’m panicking. This is my normal Audi with all-wheel drive. But for some reason I can’t gain any traction…again! So, I am slowly chugging along and I can hear fatty trying to get in the car. She’s jogging along punching it and trying to find a way in. Just when I think I’m getting away from this area and from fatty, fatty shoves my car into the other car Godzilla style and the whole side of my car gets scraped up. I’m ticked off. I step on it again swaying all over the place but rocks and dust are now hitting fatty from every angle. I finally lose fatty and get away. I look in the rearview mirror and see dust everywhere filling the air and fatty in the middle of it all holding her fists in the air, back arched, and belting out a scream of frustration. And then Eddie stepped all too close to the twig & berries and I woke up instantly.

So what does all this mean? I don't know. Maybe I'm afraid of fatty 2 by 4's in tight black jeans.

Broder's Pasta Bar - 50th and Penn Ave.

Those of you that know Janet and I know that we love to go out for dinner, but what we love more than going out is supporting independent restaurants. Tonight we made a return to Broder's Pasta Bar. It's small. I mean really small. I can't imagine it holds more than 60 people or so. If you know 50th and Penn you also know it's basically set up around a neighborhood. It is the exact area and type of place Janet and I like to visit.

You walk in and it's dimly lit and I guess contemporary-ish looking, but casual feeling and has that old building feel to it. The four-tops are hard to get since it's a small place. We get seated at the bar. This is kind of a normal bar, but what is cool is that you can watch the chefs cook right in front of you. It's a u-shaped bar and then at the top of the U is the adjoining kitchen, which is open to see them cook and plate the food. It's fun to watch and makes things easy for deciding what to eat!

They make fresh pasta and have maybe 20 or so dinners to choose from on the menu. The prices are pretty standard $10-16 or so. But, like many places it can get expensive if you're drinking. Janet's wine was $8.50 per glass. Yikes. Continuing on with our high-roller ways...(just kidding). I got an ol' reliable (Summit EPA), $5, and the sever took some tongs and dug into a huge bread basket and filled up a little basket for us. Olive oil in front of every two seats at the bar. They actually put an assortment of breads in there - really fresh bread. Good stuff.

We were checking out quite a few entrees on the menu that looked good. I had my eyes set on one of my Grandpa's favorite dishes that I learned to like due to him introducing it to me. Linguini with clams in a white wine type of sauce. But then I watched some lasagna get plated up and it was all but over. Janet stopped the server and asked what it was - he obviously has had this happen many times from the smiling reaction to her question. This lasagna was the best lasagna I've ever had. It had homemade pasta, thin sliced lamb as the meat, but the best part was this thick tomato cream sauce poured over two thick wedges of lasagna. Man, sooo good. Janet got fettuccine with lobster pieces, herbs, lemon, and a cream sauce. Sounds expensive, right? $14 or something...probably a few bucks more than a chain restaurant and a decent amount of lobster pieces. I will always pay a few bucks more to support an independent joint. Let alone, the extremely fresh ingredients served here. Oh, and I think the lasagna was $13. We both had enough leftovers for another meal. I could hammer the rest of that lasagna right now after talking about it again, but it's 2 am.

We would go back here a 3rd time. By the way, I did get the linguini with clams on a previous visit and it's awesome. Last time we also got the Tirimisu (sp?) which is a mile high and just ridiculously good. All the desserts look awesome.

If you really want a fun night out visit some independent restaurants like Broder's. Not only is the food usually fantastic, but you're contributing to one of the best parts about living in the twin cities. Here are some other awesome restaurants...if you need an address let me know.

Dulano's Pizza - Total hole-in-the-wall, which Janet and I love. Live bluegrass music on the weekends and the best pizza only 2nd to Latuff's. Kick ass garlic cheese bread too. Lyndale to Lake Street and east a few blocks on Lake.

Bulldog N.E. (Hennepin Ave) - easily my favorite restaurant. Don't get me started. If you haven't been there and like burgers then go there and be prepared to kick yourself for not eating these burgers your whole life. I read something about how they cure the beef, then season it and grind it...twice. It's tender and ah man, just go there. Great beer selection too.

Ted Cook's - This bbq joint near Hiawatha golf course (off Cedar I think?) is take out only. But, it's worth the 20 minute drive each way just to get a hold of this gold. This is the real deal for bbq. I haven't had this for a while and need to go back real soon. Rib tips smothered in mild or hot bbq sauce crammed in a chinese take out carton. This is flavor country.

Being that it's close to 2am I can't think anymore. I know I have more to contribute. I'll write a part 2 later.

Oasis @ Target Center 12/10/08

Last night I got home from work around 630pm. After months of not being able to decide what concert to go see (The Black Crowes or Oasis - both 12/10/08) we sat down and said, “ok, we’ll go park in Garage A and take the skyway over to the ticket office at the Target Center. If seats are good, we’ll hit up Oasis. If not, we’ll cross the street to 1st Ave. for the Crowes show".

This was a hard decision. I generally hate stadium shows. I like small venue shows. The smaller the better, but I’ve seen the Crowes a LOT, and never seen Oasis. Stadium acoustics always seems horrid. And I wouldn’t consider myself an audiophile by any means. Well, we ended up getting some great lower level tickets about 3 sections back half way up the section. Great view and I couldn’t pass them up. And the acoustics were really good, considering it’s a stadium show. I will now return to the Target Center for other concerts. My friend mentioned he heard the acoustics have been improved at the Target Center and even from my untrained ear, I’d say it’s true.

The vocals were a little muffled at times, but part of that is Liam smashing his mouth against the mic. I’ve never been able to understand him when he speaks anyway. Noel you could understand, but I’ve never had trouble understanding Noel. Anyway, it’s exactly what I expect for a stadium show. People stood there, bobbed their heads to a few tunes and generally stood around. Even on the main floor there wasn’t a lot of movement. Well, except sporadically in the first few rows. Later, Liam dedicated a song to the “three stooges in front right there”. Not sure what he was referring to other than a couple people who you may have thought had pogo sticks they were jumping so much.

Oasis I have often thought write some of the most melodic songs I’ve ever heard. And a few songs into the show I realized it is pretty amazing how they can hold those melodies together live even when Liam head butts his vocals into the mic and backs away like the mic is kryptonite, basically ruining the vocal melody…Noel as you can tell he’s done many times before compensates for it and everything is fine. Liam’s swagger on stage was full throttle (the cockiest walk and stances you’d ever imagine). Noel played around with the crowd a bit. At one point when Liam was off stage Noel started talking and asking the crowd why we live in MN. He said, “you do realize there is a state in your country called California, right?” The crowd booed in a playful manner. Noel retorts, “yeah, well, over there right now they’re wearing shorts and girls are in bikini’s while you’re over here freezing you’re ass off!” After the final encore (which was 4 songs) Noel said, “see you soon.” Then stepped away, and once more back towards the mic, “in California!” That got a good laugh from the crowd.

The show was definitely what others have mentioned of the ’08 tour so far; it’s more of a shoegazer performance. For those unfamiliar with shoegazing and for me not wanting to explain much, it is basically standing in the lime light playing your songs without much physical movement…gazing into the crowd. Sounds boring, right? Oasis has the ability to mix that gazing-stand-still with such great melody and raw british guitar rock n’ roll that it doesn’t matter. You’re still excited to hear it. And besides, there is always Liam to watch who for whatever reason never gets boring. I found myself smiling at the cockiness of Liam strutting around on stage, holding a tambourine in his mouth and standing still facing the crowd for the first minute he got on stage. He flicked off people a few times in the front rows in good fun, made yelling hand gestures to his sound man once (that even the sound man couldn’t have understood), but overall Liam was extremely nice to the crowd. Lots of thank yous and even some banter which I didn’t expect from Liam. The basic lead-singer banter, but honestly I only expected the banter from Noel. Noel got creative on a few guitar solo’s and the best description is effortless. It shows he not only can compose an amazing song, but he can improvise great as well. I don’t know the other guitar player, but he was fantastic. He is a very technique-strong guitar player. I was impressed.

Without a doubt the Dig Out Your Soul songs were the best of the night. Other things worth noting, Don’t Look Back In Anger was Noel on acoustic guitar, the drummer with a tambourine only, and the other guitarist on electric. It was a pretty cool version of the song. The crowd was belting the lyrics the whole time (to that and the other populars). Falling Down encore was awesome and I now have a new fondness for that song. Waiting for the Rapture is amazing. The way Noel sings that song is so cool. His voice was much better than Liam’s last night…but not really a surprise. Rock n’ Roll Star was a great opening song. Hearing Cigarettes & Alcohol 4 songs in was a nice surprise. On Morning Glory, Noel’s guitar sounded awesome – lots of energy there. Supersonic could have been the final song…and was until they came back for the 4 song encore. I will say that I think the Minnesota fans were a little ticked when they said Supersonic was the final song…that was at an hour and 10 minutes. I even turned to Janet and said “this is the quietest encore cheer I’ve ever heard.” They still came back and played another half hour. Total time was around 100 minutes. My Stadium show qualms aside, this was a 5/5 show.

Rock 'n Roll Star
Lyla
The Shock Of The Lightning
Cigarettes & Alcohol
The Meaning Of Soul
To Be Where There's Life
Waiting for the Rapture
The Masterplan
Songbird
Slide Away
Morning Glory
Ain't Got Nothin'
The Importance Of Being Idle
I'm Outta Time
Wonderwall
Supersonic

Encore:
Don't Look Back In Anger
Falling Down
Champagne Supernova
I Am the Walrus

Fantastic idea but poor execution

I love the idea of writing, but usually don’t have time because of school and work. And then you have times where you eat lunch and read the paper and find an article like this and my weird brain just starts running and I can’t resist to write. So, after a long time of debate I have finally decided to start a blog.
I plan to write about what I enjoy most; humor, music, and food. It probably won't be the most active blog due to my time restraints, but I hope to keep it going with at least a few entries a month.

Here we go!

The picture is apparently a town home in Woodbury. What happened? This link will explain or if you're just lazy, then here is a clip from the article.

"According to police, the driver was headed east on Tamarack Drive at a high rate of speed and hit a utility box and light pole where the road curves north and becomes Markgrafs Lake Drive. The driver then plowed through the garage door of one of the units, clipped a car that was in the garage and continued through a wall and came to rest in the kitchen of an adjoining unit."

http://www.startribune.com/local/34867994.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUT

Now, let’s examine this:
1) He plowed right through the garage into the house. Had to be going fast. I’ll tell you that speed later. Simple math.
2) He ran over a utility box before hitting the garage. Of course he did. This was obviously intentional.
3) The man was not from Woodbury, yet he was in Woodbury. Why? It all adds up to 1.21. Read on, friends.

It’s all obvious, don’t you see? They don’t know who the guy is because he’s not from here! And by ‘here’ I mean 2008! He was obviously trying to get back to the future. He needed to run over the utility box because he needed something that could generate the 1.21 gigawatts of electricity needed by the flux capacitor to send him back to the future. I’ve never seen a convenient clock tower in Woodbury, have you? Well, OK then. Let’s move on.

So, he drove the car over the utility box and the 1.21 gigawatts shot him straight thru the garage and into old man Peabody’s kitchen. Now, I am sure you realized he didn’t reach 88mph. It was 87mph at most because he’s still here in the present time and probably in jail.

Was alcohol involved? Pssshhh. Don’t be silly. This man had a mission and a time machine. He obviously didn’t have Dr. Emmitt Brown plan out the route he took. If he did consult with Doc Brown he’d be back to the future right now and not crashed inside some town home in Woodbury. What an idiot.

A wise person would loot the flux capacitor in that time machine. That would be mantle-worthy.