Step Into the Breeze

... or lack of one. It is hot out there today. I took my band's demo downtown to hand to the guy who books the premier local venue, and I thought I was gonna have a heat stroke (not literally). Several pieces of good news, though. First, Tony (who books for The State) remembered me and my name even before I gave the demo to him, so that was slightly encouraging. Second of all, it looks like it's gonna rain, which is good because apparently last night a bird had 75 random attacks of diarrhea on my driver's side door and window.

I've been listening to Creeper Lagoon's "Remember the Future" EP a lot recently. It's good. The title of the EP is both ironic and a little sad, which isn't really surprising considering the crushing series of blows dealt to bandleader Sharky Laguana. After releasing one of the best albums of 2001, the band was dropped from Dreamworks. Their lead singer slid into drug addiction and quit, and then the rest of the band members walked away, leaving Laguana with the bill. Being a rock musician, there were little to no jobs Laguana could find, although he eventually landed one in a hot warehouse, taking CD's out of jewel cases. It's amazing to me, then, that Sharky carried on, releasing a new EP on Arena Rock and touring behind it. For more of a detailed take on the whole story, go here.

I think the song that sticks out the most to me is the second track, titled "The Way It Goes." Built on a beautiful piano line, a drum machine beat, echo-y vocals and soft electronic whirrings in the background, the song carries a simple wistfulness that is striking and at times profoundly moving. When Laguana sings lines like "Living where the angels cry/Trying to keep my dreams alive" you can feel a sense of desperation and an underlying sadness that colors the entire song. It's a supremely emotional moment, and it's brilliant in both it's delivery and candidness. When you have eveything stripped from you, you've got nothing left but to be honest. And this, to me, is what makes this EP both a tremendous success and a triumph of the human spirit.

Dreams are a delicate thing. I might've mentioned this before, but dreams are essentially the only thing that gets us up in the morning. No matter how much life sucks, I know there's gotta be something better out there, and so I get up each morning in the hopes that today it will be a little closer. I can't imagine not having that hope. It's what keeps me going.

Keep chasing that breeze.

Just-Plain-Old-Playlist:
Creeper Lagoon- Remember the Future EP
Retriever- Greatest Moments Of Doubt
The Amps- Pacer
Spiritualized- Lazer-Guided Melodies

Faith and Devotions Of A Satellite Heart

Today I thought about worship. I don't normally discuss the details of my spiritual life or beliefs or practices because they are just that: mine. As an individual and in my faith, I am highly idiosyncratic: I have my own beliefs and my own ways and they work for me. Other people might view them as wrong, but that's them.

In my own faith, I find that I am almost mystical in my beliefs. I believe that God is all around us, everywhere, in everything, and is pleased with us enjoying His creation. I've had people call me a pantheist before when I've mentioned this, but I don't believe that's the case. To me, enjoying the sunlight hitting my face or the wind blowing in my hair is as much an act of worship as sitting in a church and singing hymns or praise choruses.

As a result, I tend to find God in the strangest of places: the sound a of a drumkit, the wailing of feedback, or buzz of distortion, the hum of guitar pickups, the sweat pouring off the bodies of musicians who are throwing everything they have into it. As odd as this sounds, these things please God more than any rote praise chorus or tired hymn, and God revels in it.

This is where some people will split off from what I'm saying and say, "Oh, but these things only count if they're done strictly for God's glory." This is a tough call, but I have to disagree with that. In my own life, my playing and my music are not always used for the glory of God, but God still takes this broken and messed-up human and uses him anyway. Nothing will stop Him from using me, even if I don't intend for Him to. There are plenty of people who don't give a crap about anything spiritual and are still used by God. Music is a gift from God, to use as He pleases. That's why I can find God in anything: from the majestic swell of Mogwai's "2 Rights Make 1 Wrong" to the carefully placed instrumental ambience of The Six Parts Seven, from the dreamy sway of The Lassie Foundation's "El Rey" to the pastoral IDM of Mum, from the hazy wall of sound that is My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless" to the punky thrash of ... And You Will Know Us By the Trail Of Dead, from the electrifying swirl and drone of Spiritualized's "Lazer-Guided Melodies" to the gentle autumnal folk of Nick Drake; it's there. All we have to do is find it.

Follow Christ the best you can.

Peace.

Night of the Living Resident Evil Dead 28

I went and saw 28 Days Later tonight. Man, I love a good zombie flick. Even if it's not a good one, which this one was actually better than average. Read some reviews here and here, although I have to warn you: THESE CONTAIN SPOILERS. Overall, though, a pretty good flick that managed to be kind of thought-provoking (see especially the Popmatters review) and relentlessly creepy.

In celebration, I've decided to post a list of my own favorite creepy movies, and links to their reviews at the all-encompassing and wholly wonderful Allmovie.com. Try to remember that some of these aren't necessarily "good" films, so don't bother writing me an email telling me how much these films sucked or I'll have to laugh condescendingly and give you a noogie. Enjoy.

Creepy Movie Playlist:
The Ring
Session 9
The Devil's Backbone
Stir Of Echoes
Donnie Darko
Event Horizon
Resident Evil
Open Your Eyes (later crappily remade as Vanilla Sky)
The Others
Lost Highway
Mulholland Drive
The Sixth Sense
Signs

There's probably a zillion I'm forgetting, but these should be enough to tide you over for now.

Now I have to go figure out how I'm gonna sleep without being afraid of being eaten by a zombie.

If I Don't Die Or Worse, I'm Gonna Need A Nap

I had a pretty crappy day yesterday, so I was actually glad to go to work. You know it's bad when the highlight of your day is doing a humongous pile of dishes in a hot little hallway surrounded by loud noises and the smell of frying (and sometimes burning) chicken. Sounds exciting, huh? A real kick in the nuts, let me tell ya. Thank God for my co-workers, every weird and dysnfunctional last one of 'em (you know who you are.) Without them, I might not have made it through.

It all ended up pretty good, though. My friend Ashley (also a co-worker) invited me to a movie: Charlie's Angels- Full Throttle. Terrible movie. I think the only good part was sitting next to Ashley, who's really cool and has a great sense of humor and didn't mind if I made fun of the movie. That and Demi Moore and Lucy Lui. I don't care if Demi Moore is 50 or so (probably an exaggeration, I don't know how old she is), she looked hot in this movie. And so did Lucy Liu. To me, she's the only one who looks like she could actually be a Charlie's Angel. Watching her in the fight scenes is pure gold, because she just looks like she wants to rip someone's face off. Seriously, she looked mentally unbalanced. So cool.

After the movie, I went to a Halo party. I would say that Halo has to be one of the greatest multiplayer games ever, maybe second only to Nintendo 64's Goldeneye. It's a pity that Halo's only on Xbox, because it's almost worth buying an Xbox for. I'm just scared that if I do, Bill Gates will use the little green bubble logo on top of the box to suck out my soul (thanks, Richard). We played 8 players against 8, which meant two TV's and four Xboxes. Most of the game consisted of my friends laughing while I screamed inarticulately every time I encountered an enemy ("Get ready for the pain! Pain Train's coming, baby! Woo woo!"). Needless to say, my voice is shredded today.

To make a long story short (too late), I need a nap. I got in from the club on Thursday night at 4 AM or so (and got up at 2 PM the next day,which was cool), and I got in last night at 4:45 AM before I had to be at work at 10 AM (which was not so cool). Ah well. To quote Gale from one of the greatest movies of all time: "So many social engagements, so little time."

Not-Gonna-Hear-It-Anyway-Because-I'm-Gonna-Be-Asleep-Playlist:
The Violet Burning- This Is the Moment
The Violet Burning- Demonstrates Plastic and Elastic
Honey- Three
Honey- Lost On You

Slum Creeper

Went to a show last night Ybor at the Orpheum: Calla, Gregor Samsa, Textual, and the Dumbwaiters. They were all pretty good (I'm assuming, we missed the Dumbwaiters and skipped out on almost all of Calla's set), but I was especially impressed by Textual. That's the first time I'd seen a show with a group that played IDM, so I didn't really know what to expect. Would they flesh out the sound with live band, or would it be just a guy with his laptop? It was just the guy with his laptop, but they had kinda of a cool concept for it, though. Instead of just having him sit on a stage and fiddle with his computer, they put a video screen in front of the stage (so you couldn't see him) and played a movie. The movie didn't really fit the music, which was lovely low-key melodic IDM, but it was good nonetheless. I don't understand why Tigerstyle would have passed on releasing the Textual album. Gregor Samsa was okay, kind of shoegaze-y and mostly unimpressive. They only played four songs, one of which was this looooong dirge, 2 of which had some Slowdive-y moments (not a bad thing), and one that started out as Slowdive but turned into a bad Sigur Ros cover (not really, but it sounded so much like Sigur Ros that they were virtually indistinguishable).

We also went to the Castle last night, which is this goth-y dance club in Ybor. We used to go on Monday nights becaus they used to play good 80's music (Echo and the Bunnymen, The Smiths, The Cure, etc), but Monday nights started sucking recently, and we'd had heard that Thursday was the new Monday (figuratively speaking, of course). So we checked it out. It wasn't bad. They played some good stuff (the White Stripes, a-Ha, Interpol), but overall I was pretty underwhelmed. Man, I love that Interpol CD, though.

Anyways, after a night at the club, I usually need some quiet music to recover.

Trying-To-Get-Some-Rest-Don't-Want-To-Bring-Back-the-Headache Playlist:
The Six Parts Seven -Things Shaped In Passing
Tarentel- Ephemera (Singles 99-2000)
Calla- Calla
The Violet Burning- This Is the Moment

Post-Punk X-Man

I love Guided By Voices; their lyrics and song titles make for some excellent topics.

So listening to that Longwave album kind of put me in a nostalgic mood for some 80's music, or at least music influenced by the 80's. Here it is, boys and girls, my

Post Punk Playlist:
Joy Division- Substance
Echo and the Bunnymen- Ocean Rain
The Jesus and Mary Chain- Psychocandy
The Smiths- The Queen Is Dead
New Order- Substance
The Stone Roses- The Stone Roses
Antarctica- 81:03
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club- B.R.M.C.
Interpol- Turn On the Bright Lights
Longwave- The Strangest Things

Her Mixtape's A Masterpiece

This is a mixtape I made for my brother awhile back. Yes, an actual mix tape.

Side 1:
The Pony Express- Debbie's Operating System
Summer Hymns- Fuzzy Side Of Life, After Hours
Pep Squad- Jamie's Kisses
Sunday's Best- The Californian
Kyle Fischer- Headphones
Damien Jurado- Matinee
Delta Haymax- Louise
Seldom- Can't/Must
Owen- I'm Not Going Anywhere Tonight
LN- Softly and Tenderly

Side 2:
Circle of Birds- Old Ironsides
Midsummer- Ghost
The Mercury Program- Fragile Or Possibly Extinct
Aarktica- Ocean
The Six Parts Seven- Where Are the Timpani Heartbeats?
Coastal- Paris Radio
Unwed Sailor- The Magic Hedge
Au Revoir Borealis- Walforf Theft Song

Of course, he complained about it being "too sad." It's hard to make mix tapes for my brother. I love him, but dang, he's heard too much music, and it's just too hard to impress him.

The Strangest Things

I picked up the new Longwave album today, "The Strangest Things." I hadn't really intended to, but the price was right, and I was curious. The verdict is in: it's not bad. Certainly not the greatest thing I've ever heard. Kind of shoegaze-lite, or 80's post-punk for the modern set. As usual, Pitchfork posted a fairly well-written but completely unfair review. It certainly won't make me trade in my Slowdive or My Bloody Valentine records any time soon. After all, why have a hamburger when you can have ribs or even filet mignon?

I also picked up Yo La Tengo's "Fakebook" today, which is a very good album. It's mostly covers and such, but excellently chosen covers. I normally don't like covers albums, but this is one is nice because it kinda of gives props to all the bands that influenced one of the greatest bands of our day. Plus it gives me new music to look for, and since I am a music geek, this is a definite bonus.

Wow, kinda went a little link-happy on that one, didn't I?

More changes to come to the site soon, just as soon as I learn more about HTML.

Peace.

Today's Playlist:
Longwave- The Strangest Things (duh)
Yo La Tengo- Fakebook (duh)
The Flaming Lips- Transmissions From the Satellite Heart
Argentina- Diving Board
Broken Social Scene- Your Forgot It In People
Broken Social Scene- Feel Good Lost

Hardcore UFO's

A little Guided By Voices reference there.

So they're doing this special on UFO's on the SciFi channel right now. You gotta admit, they do bring up some good points regarding Roswell cover ups and such, and we do live in an age when our basic civil liberties and freedoms are being violated in order to save them. It's all too easy imaginging the government judiciously manipulating facts so their citizens don't know the truth. Especially, if it would somehow "help" us, in their mind. Some things to think about.

Do I believe?

The truth is out there, man...

Fun and Sun. Car Cleaning. Dreams.

God, I love summer. I think I appreciate the beautiful day outside a little more (at least now) because it's been raining hard for the past week. I love rain, don't get me wrong, but a week of that, combined with being sick and stuck inside the house made me nuts. Today was especially nice because I think I'm mostly over my cold now, so I feel great. Add to that a beautiful day and nothing to do... perfect.

As the title mentions, I'm cleaning my car today. This is long overdue. I don't think I've cleaned at all since the first semester of school, which was last August. Yeah, that's gross. Since then, I have accumulated an extensive collection of sand, pine needles, loose change, water bottles, random papers, fast-food bags (some of them probably still with mostly eaten sandwiches in them), CD shrink wrap, and the occasional wandering lost french fry. Add to that some milk I spilled (didn't cry over it, though) last month while grocery shopping (which promptly soaked into the carpet and fermented) and some hot dogs that John left in my car after a picnic last week (thanks, bro) and my car is starting to smell like a monkey cage. In any case, WAY overdue for cleaning. I imagine I'll even be pretty grossed out by what I find.

I'm not normally this messy, but I kind of let it go as I got real busy during the year, both with band stuff and with school stuff. Then I got lazy for summer, so no cleaning. Then it rained for a week, so no cleaning then, either. I say all that to say this: today I WILL finally clean it up. Maybe.

Today I also rode around for a bit with my best bud, John. He's a cool guy with a great sense of humor and an awesome way of really putting things in perspective. In many ways, he's kind of the person I wish I would become someday. Anyway, I was joking around about one of my dreams, which is to open an independent record store. It got me thinking: a year ago, I never would have even considered that opening a record store would even be a possibility for me. But in this last year, I have seen so many dreams that I deemed unattainable happen. I always wanted to play in a band and play shows and record a CD; that happened, and is still happening. I always wanted to write for an indie rock magazine and get free CD's and writing experience; that also happened and is still happening. Turns out I have a lot to be thankful for. Some people never have the chance to see their dreams realized. I am humbled by the amount of blessings I have recieved in my life. So I would say this: to those who dream; keep dreaming. You just never know.

Anyway, I guess it's time to get on with my cleaning (or maybe sitting around, or maybe going swimming), so I leave you with this, my (drum roll, please)

Fun and Sun Playlist:
The Lassie Foundation- Pacifico (my favorite summer album)
Moonbabies- June and Novas
Monster Movie- Monster Movie EP
Argentina- Diving Board
Creeper Lagoon- Remember the Future EP
Broken Social Scene- You Forgot It In People
Future Bible Heroes- Memories of Love
The Aislers Set- How I Learned To Write Backwards

Alright, then. This is my first post on my new blog. I was pretty dissatisfied with the other ones, because I was too stupid to figure out how to properly work it. Hopefully, this one will stick. Basically, this is to get my thoughts down. It may not be an every day thing, but we'll see.

Anyways, the title of this blog comes from one of my favorite songs by Moonbabies, a pop group from Sweden. They play this awesome type of expiremental pop that has traces of shoegaze and ambient throughout with some crazy beats thrown in for good measure. Amazing stuff. Here is a link to their site.

Went and saw Hulk tonight. Longer than I expected; but then, with Ang Lee directing, I should have expected it to be that long. An immensely talented director, but the man takes 10 minutes just to take a breath! I was pretty surprised with what I got, though; I actually got both more and less of what I expected. A popcorn movie that's also a serious meditation on the nature of parent/child relationships. Weird combo, but kinda nice. The movie was was silly at some parts (and by silly I mean unbelievable), but on the whole took itself a little more seriously than I would have liked.

It got me thinking, though, which is a nice change. I wonder how much of our parents are passed on to us. I look at my mother sometimes and wonder if I'm gonna end up like her. Don't get me wrong; I love my mom a lot, but I wouldn't like to turn out like her. Sometimes I see in myself character traits that are so much like her that I'm both glad and a little saddened at the same time.

For example, I'd like to think that I've inherited some of my Dad's nearly unblinking calmness (or what my Mom might call his boring-ness), but I see in myself much of the same hot-headed spazziness that my Mom has. Sometime that's a good thing. It tranlates sometimes into passion for a subject (mainly music), or an unbending conviction in my belief in some things (also known as stubbornness).

I'm also reading Dean Koontz's "Fear Nothing." Pretty good book. I read it before, but I finally found the box with all my books in it (lost it at my parent's house), and wanted to read it again. In the book, one of the characters is speaking about others wanting to create a mark in the world. In this view, the world is perfect as it is, and when we try to leave a mark, that's when we get in trouble. To an extent, I see this point of view, but to me, creating something is what matters. That's why I'm a musician: to create is to touch something that God left in us, also touching God. That's why teaching is an even greater thrill to me: instead of making things, I'm making people. Awesome thought. But what if I'm just passing down the insecurities passed down to me? Scary thought.

Alright, enough melodrama. Can't promise all my posts will be this "deep."

Today's Playlist:
Moonbabies- June and Novas
Creeper Lagoon- Remember the Future EP
Built to Spill- There's Nothing Wrong With Love
American Analog Set- Promise of Love