Thursday, June 15, 2006
After I made a mix for J.G.'s brother a few months ago, their mom heard it and liked it, "The Ice Of Boston" in particular, and to my surprise, requested that I make a CD for her too. So now pretty much that whole family has mix CDs from me. She's pretty open minded for her age, but then, my taste is pretty classic rock-oriented when it comes to even newer rock music, so it wasn't too hard for me to make it accessible for her, and I included a lot of the same artists from John's mix, although mostly different songs. I think it came out pretty well. The Michael Bublé track was one that J.G. asked me to grab off iTunes and include, but that song is actually kinda growin' on me.

1. Ted Leo/Pharmacists - "Timorous Me"
2. Apollo Sunshine - "Today Is The Day"
3. The B-52's - "Private Idaho"
4. The Dismemberment Plan - "The Ice Of Boston"
5. The Posies - "Conversations"
6. Elliott Smith - "Angeles"
7. The Who - "5'15"
8. Spymob - "Walking Under Green Leaves"
9. John Mellencamp - "Cherry Bomb"
10. Ben Folds Five - "Philosophy
11. Talking Heads - "Thank You For Sending Me An Angel"
12. Elvis Costello & The Attractions - "High Fidelity"
13. They Might Be Giants - "Don't Let's Start"
14. Rufus Wainwright - "April Fools"
15. Brendan Benson - "What I'm Looking For"
16. Chris Lee - "Lonesome Eyes"
17. Private Eleanor - "On Our Side"
18. Randy Newman - "Baltimore"
19. Michael Bublé - "Home"
20. Jeff Buckley - "Satisfied Mind"

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11:48 PM

The Top 20 Best Shows I Saw In 2005

Tuesday, December 13, 2005
With links to things I wrote about them at the time on here or Gov't Names or in the City Paper. For the most part I'm only going to name the band I went to see and enjoyed seeing, and if it's more than one than I'll name them in the rough order of who I enjoyed the most, regardless of who opened or headlined.


1. Apollo Sunshine and Lake Trout @ The Ottobar, Baltimore, September 15th


2. Grand Buffet @ The Ottobar, Baltimore, August 16th


3. Karmella's Game @ the Talking Head, Baltimore, April 28th


4. The Posies @ The Black Cat, Washington, D.C., September 26th


5. System Of A Down @ the 1st Mariner Arena, Baltimore, August 22nd


(photo by Dawn Mercurio)
6. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists @ The Ottobar, November 22nd


7. Bossman, Skarr Akbar, D.O.G., Dirty Hearts and Q @ The Ottobar, Baltimore, October 16th


8. The Travis Morrison Hellfighters @ the Ottobar, Baltimore, February 22nd


9. Dinosaur Jr. @ the 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C., July 11th


10. Noise Against Fascism: To Live And Shave In L.A., Mirror/Dash, Magik Markers, Nautical Almanac @ the Black Cat, Washington, D.C., January 20th


11. Elvis Costello & the Imposters with Emmylou Harris and Larry Campbell @ Wolf Trap, Virginia, July 31st


12. Grand Buffet @ the Ottobar, Baltimore, March 27th


13. Sonic Youth @ The University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, April 15th


14. Apollo Sunshine and Lake Trout @ the Ottobar, Baltimore, April 23rd


15. Ogun, Ammo, Profound, Tyree Colion and Diablo @ Club 429, Baltimore, August 9th


16. Our Lady Peace @ The 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C., September 22nd


17. Private Eleanor @ Current Space, Baltimore, August 27th


18. Ted Leo/Pharmacists @ The 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C., June 23rd


19. Enon @ the Ottobar, Baltimore, March


20. The Evens @ The G-Spot, Baltimore, May 17th

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10:44 AM

Thursday, August 11, 2005
top ten:

1. Ludacris/Rare Essence - "Pimpin' All Over The World" (Go-Go Remix)
2. Fatman Scoop - "Pon De Remix"
3. Ammo - "Gully Musick"
4. The Posies - "Second Time Around"
5. Elton John - "The Bitch Is Back"
6. Rx Bandits - "Decrescendo"
7. Lil Kim - "Lighters Up"
8. 112 f/ Three 6 Mafia - "Closing The Club"
9. Elvis Costello & The Imposters - "Country Darkness"
10. Rolling Stones - "Wild Horses"

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12:06 PM

Friday, August 05, 2005
Elvis Costello & the Imposters with Emmylou Harris and Larry Campbell @ Wolf Trap, 7/31/05
(I'll add the setlist later if it shows up on this site, but it was pretty similiar to this show's setlist, except some of the first few songs were different or in a different order.)

Last week, I got a call from my friend/ex-roommate/ex-bandmate Mike, asking me if I wanted an Elvis Costello ticket. His dad had bought a few, but then the people he was going to take fell through, and since Mike knew I'm a big EC fan, they extended the offer to me, which was pretty nice of them. I wanted to see him when he came to the new Ram's Head in Baltimore a couple months ago, but by the time I decided I could afford a ticket, they were sold out. And the only other time I saw EC before, 3 years ago on the When I Was Cruel tour, was kind of a weird experience. I bought a ticket to see him in Philly, and then had car troubles a couple days before the show, and out of desperation asked for a ride on an EC newsgroup. I ended up hitching a ride with this weird bickering couple who was following Elvis around the country on tour. It was real nice of them but still an odd experience.

So anyway, on Sunday, me and Mike and his girlfriend and his dad went to see EC at the Wolf Trap, which is this gigantic wooden outdoor theater in northern Virginia that I'd never been to before. It's so rare that I see a show at a seated venue, it's an odd experience for me, but nice, and we had a good view. It was the last show of Elvis's summer tour with Emmylou Harris, playing both as part of the same set, singing each other's songs together.

The first 30-40 minutes of the show was just Elvis and the Imposters doing their usual rock show, starting with "Uncomplicated" and "Clown Strike", which was kind of a pleasant surprise since that's one of my favorites off Brutal Youth but not a real obvious one to play. Also good versions of "Chelsea" and "Clubland", which had an extended guitar solo that concluded with Elvis playing the melody of "I Feel Pretty" on guitar. "Country Darkness" might've been my favorite performance of the night, though, really subtle shifts of dynamics from loud to soft in the band. Then Larry Campbell came out and played slide guitar on "Waiting For The End Of The World", and after that Emmylou came out and accompanied the band for about an hour.

The part of the set with Emmylou was nice and laid back, some of her stuff, some covers, and some of Elvis's more countryish stuff from King of America and Almost Blue. Elvis also seemed to talk and tell stories a lot more than I think he usually does, which was nice, some funny anecdotes that I probably shouldn't bother trying to re-tell effectively. Steve Nieve is generally my favorite part of the band to watch, and even on the more subdued material he can be kind of animated, running around switching from one keyboard to another to accordian to melodica. The melodica in particular was a nice touch, especially playing that melody on "American Without Tears".

After an hour or so with Emmylou, she left the stage and Elvis and the Imposters played for a while longer, focusing heavily on The Delivery Man material. That album has kinda grown on me since last year, I didn't listen to it much when it came out, but it's pretty likeable. And those songs came across really well live, even ones I didn't like much on the album, like "Needle Time" and the title track. "Bedlam" is still my favorite off that album, though.

They came back out with Emmylou Harris for the encore, and the best surprise of the night was the cover of "Wild Horses", which was great, I love that song. Elvis laid it on the anti-war sentiment a bit thick, closing with "Peace, Love & Understanding" and "The Scarlet Tide", and got a lot of applause for it. By the end, the show ran at almost exactly 3 hours, with only the breif pause before the encore. Good show, although definitely a bit exhausting. Thanks again to Mike and his dad for inviting me.

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9:03 PM

Sunday, April 17, 2005
in my stereo:

Brooke Valentine - Chain Letter
The Movement volume #3: Bmore Live 2005
Elvis Costello and the Attractions - Trust
Prince and the Revolution - Parade
Lake Trout - Another One Lost
Grand Buffet - Dicer: The Unheard Funk Tracks
Will Smith - Lost & Found
Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape
DJ K-Swift - The Club Queen Jump Off
Steely Dan - Everything Must Go

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9:18 PM

Thursday, March 24, 2005
in my stereo:

DJ K-Swift the Club Queen - Strictly For The Streets Volume 1
Prince - The Hits/The B-Sides
Notorious B.I.G. - Ready To Die
Grand Buffet - Cigarette Beach EP
Pearl Jam - No Code
Tim Trees - Dalton, Vol. 1
Jadakiss- Kiss Of Death
Mons - Stimulus Frequency For The Localization of Sound in Space
The Oranges Band - On TV EP
Elvis Costello & the Imposters - The Delivery Man

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2:05 PM

Mixtape Tuesday

Tuesday, February 01, 2005
This is the first mixtape I ever made for my girlfriend, J.G., when we first started dating in May of 2002:

side 1:
1. La Lengua Asesina - "Hotel Opera"
2. Ben Folds Five - "Philosophy"
3. The Dismemberment Plan - "The Ice Of Boston"
4. Saltine - "Reveal Love"
5. Soul Coughing - "I Miss The Girl"
6. J Mascis & The Fog - "Same Day"
7. They Might Be Giants - "First Kiss" (live)
8. Superchunk - "Hyper Enough"
9. Pavement - "Spit On A Stranger"
10. The Posies - "You're The Beautiful One"
11. The Dismemberment Plan - "Time Bomb"
12. Eels - "Ant Farm"
13. La Lengua Asesina - "Hotel Opera (reprise)"

side 2:
1. The Clash - "Train In Vain"
2. Elvis Costello & the Attractions - "High Fidelity"
3. Al Green - "Tired Of Being Alone"
4. They Might Be Giants - "Why Does The Sun Shine? (The Sun Is A Mass Of Incandescent Gas)"
5. Brendan Benson - "Emma J"
6. Lake Trout - "Sounds From Below"
7. Sonic Youth - "Shadow Of A Doubt"
8. The Dismemberment Plan - "Following Through"
9. Ben Folds Five - "Missing The War"
10. Sparklehorse - "Hundreds Of Sparrows"
11. Elliott Smith - "Say Yes"
12. Ted Leo / Pharmacists - "Biomusicology"
13.Jeff Buckley - "Hallelujah"

I've made her a half dozen other mixtapes since this one, but she says this one is still her favorite, and when she lost it, she requested that I make it for her again, which I did a few months ago. The only difference on the new version was the omission of "Train In Vain", which was due to the fact that I had accidently stepped on and broken the one Clash best-of CD-R I had, but it worked alright because on the original, "Hallelujah" got cut off at the end of the tape, but now there was enough room for all of it. My tastes are considerably broader (and more obscure) than J.G.'s, but I try not too pull the music snob "my girlfriend doesn't understand/needs to be educated about good music" attitude. There is a good amount of crossover between our tastes, though, so I enjoy bringing alt/indie stuff to her attention that she might enjoy. Since I made this for her, she's acquired (either bought or burnt from my copies of) albums by about a half dozen of the artists on this tape, and has accompanied me to many D Plan and Ted Leo shows.

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6:33 PM