Leaving on a jet plane?

No. Definitely not. I AM on vacation next week though, so that means fewer if any posts next week. I'm not going anywhere special, but do have a lot of work planned. Continue to bust up and remove the concrete that once was half of our backyard, bring in some dirt, spread it out, sod it and hope for the best.
I have two posters and a set of wedding invitations to print next week too, so Monday and Wednesday I'll be downtown in the creepiest/coolest basement I could ever imagine.
Talk about yin and yang though. Yesterday I learned that my best friend Chris and his wife Anita are expecting their first child. Then hours later, I learned my aunt has breast cancer. Conflicting world, but such is life. Gotta love the people while you can.

Anyway, here's the tunes that ticked my brain through the workday:
Tom Waits "Nighthawks at the Diner"
The Walkmen "Bows+Arrows"
Blue October "Foiled"
Bob Mould "Workbook"
Built to Spill "You in Reverse"

Wow, what a waste of time Blue October was. I'm just glad I didn't pay for it. A girl I frequently swap albums with in my office thought I'd like it. Boy, was she wrong. A touch of hiphop, touch of indie rock, a touch of pop. Where's the album going? the lyrics are amateurish, I couldn't get hooked on anything ... ick. Hopefuly this band won't return, and if it does, I hope it gets a lot better.

-DJr-

Bang bang rock n' roll

What at one time was a favorite of mine, The Fourth of July, has now only become a nuisance. Kids lighting firecrackers in a Gary neighborhood can be a creepy thing to hear at 1 a.m. Is our neighborhood turning back to bad? Or are those bastards down the street playing with firecrackers again? I used to love to spend my paper route money on firecrackers and bottle rockets just to see what would happen to them when my G.I. Joes such as Snake Eyes or Flint faced a real enemy - gun powder and a 13-year-old boy. Now, it's just a bother. A reason to stay home and keep comfort to the dogs. It is nice to walk the neighborhood when people begin to launch the shells. Take a walk to the lake to watch the Chicago fireworks, or the Navy Pier fireworks - never do I look forward to fireworks coming from the 'Cell' on the southside. This means the White Sox have scored a home run.
Anyway ....

Yo La Tengo "SummerSun"
The American Analog Set "Know By Heart"
Bloc Party "Silent Alarm"
Chin up, Chin up "We Never Should have lived like we were Skyscrapers"
The Flaming Lips "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots"
The Replacements "Pleased to Meet Me"

I was dissapointed by Bloc Party's studio performance on "Silent Alarm." Their set at last weekend's Intonation Festival in Chicago was rather intersting dancy-indie-pop. This album just didn't hold it up for me. I'd rather listen to the Killers for that style of music.

Day two of Intonation

So, day two arrives. I wake up on Chad and Tammy's floor, eat somy yummy biscuits and gravy, curse at the rain and drive south a few miles to Union Park.
I arrived at the park to see that no rain had ruined our stuff, nor few if any other posters by the other artists. Awesome.
Set up went quickly, Stacy showed up just as I finished and the gates opened. We wait for our first sale of the day. hm... still waiting I went to check out the Constantines who were fabulous. They reminded me of early Wilco (think 'a.m.,' or 'Being There.")
Walk back to the booth. Nothing is selling ..crap. OK, everything is on sale. All posters $10 regardless of what it is. That'll bring 'em in. Nope? hmm ... I'll leave and check out The Sword. They rocked. Metal songs about barbarians and sword weilding dwarves riding mastadons. These guys played a LOT of Dungeons and Dragons for sure.
Back to the booth, where we make our first sale of the day around 4p.m. WooHoo. Making fun of political figures turns us a profit. Nice.
Another sale comes quickly ... this is how it's supposed to go! Until we wait another three hours without selling anything. I check out Blue Cheer in the meantime. They were allright. Their lead singer must have lived on a diet of whiskey and 'shrooms cuz he was messed up and all scraggly. Back to the booth.
Robert Pollard comes on stage - I was really looking forward to seeing the Guided by Voices singer, and with pure stupidity I stood right in front of a 12 foot speaker stack when they bust into the power rock they are famous for. Crap, I can't hear a thing! His set did kick ass, a lot of GBV stuff, a lot of solo stuff. Plus, the man drank nearly a fifth of tequilla on stage (45 minutes for those keeping track).
Back to the booth .... still slow? crap. Time to set up some trades with other artists. Which was great because I got a few posters I'd wanted out of it.
Then, the sales started. Three posters to one guy, two to another, one to someone else. People who had stolen our posters from clubs, or phone poles, or windows. It was great. THIS is what we came for. The last two hours of selling our work, getting good feedback, talking to other collectors, other artists. The last two hours of the whole weekend made it all worthwhile. We made our table fee back, made some good contacts, met some great people, did some great trades, heard some cool music, and got ready for Flatstock. Holy cow, Flatstock's only four weeks away? We've gotta get to work!

Festival one done and gone ...

This weekend was the second 'annual' Intonation festival in Chicago. Lots of bands, venders, poster artists too.
We rented a booth, tried to sell some posters, met a lot of great people, met a lot of idiots and assholes too.
Most importantly, we had fun and got to see a lot of great music. I didn't see everyone, but I did get to check out a few bands each day.

Saturday: I skipped most early bands to man the booth and see what was happening. Since we hadn't sold anything all day, I left the booth (six hours in - no sales yet) to catch High on Fire. Holy heavy metal Batman. This music made me want to punch someone in the face, then pick them up and give them a hug because it was so darn good and loud. I think I'll buy one of their CDs for my drive home.
Skipped The Stills, walked back to the booth and ran into our friends Chad and Tammy who bought beers for Stacy and I.
I came back out for Roky Erickson. Not too familiar with his work, but he did play the one 13th Floor Elevtors song I do know. It was on the "High Fidelity' Soundtrack. Interesting sound and he hadn't played in Chicago for 25 years. Chad bought me more beer (see a pattern).
Next was the Boredoms. Art rock at its finest. Three drummers on standard kits with a guy manning/conducting the three of them while playing a little noise like theramin/keyboard thingie. Now, on CD, this music is GodAwful, yet I had to see it to believe how powerful a live performance can be. It was as if I was watching art unfold for the first time, and I was the only one who got to see it, then, it was over. Wow...had to head back to the booth to keep not selling anything. Chad bought more beer.
We finally had a sale. Awesome - $10 in our pockets. Enough for dinner ... and another beer courtesy of Chad. Stop boozin' up now, gotta drive to Chad's to sleep for the night.
Waited out Ghostface and Lady Sovereign (and had to eat to soak up the beers Chad had been feeding me) for The Streets (Mike Skinner). The British rapper was who I was excited to see, and he put on a great show. Surprising me most was that he had a full band to accompany him. They were pretty tight for a rap band I suppose. Skinner jumped around on stage like a bunny on methamphetamine, working the crowd mingling his songs with top 40 pop then back into his own stuff. "Famous Boy" and "Dry Your Eyes" were my favorites of the night. Tear down the booth, drive 10 minutes to Chad and Tammy's place where I was hoping to just sleep on the couch. Of course, Chad had beer at his place. I didn't sleep very much Saturday night.
Sunday musings coming tommorow.

So many shows, so little time ...

Got word today that Frank Black has a solo show in Indy at Birdy's. Damn, I'd love to see that but I already have plans. Flaming Lips at Lollapalooza I can't go to, nor the Detroit show. They Might Be Giants at the Lincoln Park zoo? Probably not going to that one either. The Bellrays at the Double Door? I wish, Thursdays are hell at work for me. The Handsome Family at the Abbey Pub (one of my favorite bars btw) again, a Thursday show that will mean me at work until 10 or so.
I do have my Widespread Panic ticket for one night of their three night Chicago run. Why not the other two nights like I would normally do? Of course, other plans.
I will be at the Intonation Festival in Chicago this weekend bobbin' to The Streets, Roky Erickson and Bloc Party. If you're going please stop by, bring cash so you can buy posters from us! We need the money to pay for the production of our Flatstock 9 poster, buy booze and buy nice things for our wives since we'll be gone so dang much over the next few weeks.

Anyway, lots of music, with a bunch of new albums from my friend Robert ..

The Replacements "Let it Be"
Built to Spill "Keep it Like a Secret"
Braid "The Age of Octeen"
Wilco "Summerteeth"
Tom Waits "Small Change"
The Streets "The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living"
The Pogues "Rum, Sodomy and the Lash"
The Black Keys "Chulohoma"
Pretty Girls Make Graves "Elan Vital"
Bob Mould "Workbook"
Husker Du "Zen Arcade"
Neil Young "Everybody knows this is No Where"
Rachel Ries "For You Only"
Sufjan Stevens "Come on Feel the Illinoise"

Ok, so, I didn't listen to all of this in a day, but over the last few days this is what I had on the iTunes. Pretty Girls Make Graves is a super fun album. I've only listened to it the one time, so that's all I can say about it for now.
More on them later. For now, I gotta get back to work!

-DJr-

Bob Dylan's beard?

Maybe not his beard, but another album is coming.
Bob Dylan's 44th album comes out in August. It's only taken 5 years since "Love and Theft," was released on Sept. 11, 2001.
For some reason I don't imagine this album sticking out as much as "Love and Theft" did. At least in my opinion. I left the news coverage of the day around noon just to go pick it up, and escape for a bit too. I was the only one in the store shopping. I bought the disc, and Ben Folds "Rockin' the Suburbs." Got back in my car and went home to watch more news. I don't think I opened the discs for a few days to get my first listen, but I liked what I heard.

Today is April's birthday, yesterday was our anniversary. Tuesday was mom and dad's 36th year together, and my sister gets remarried Saturday. Whew! That's a lot going on, with Father's Day to boot, I just might make it through the weekend.

With some good tunes, I will for sure...
Jawbreaker "24 Hour Revenge Therapy"
John Lennon "Working Class Hero"
Phish - April 5, 1998
The Rolling Stones "Exile on Main Street"

The 1998 'Island Run' was one of if not the pinacle of Phish performance. Two nights on Long Island, two nights in Rhode Island. That was the whole tour, and they tore it up every single night. Not a single minute of these shows are wasted to noodling dawdling onstage or flubbed lyrics. The 26 minute version of "You Enjoy Myself," consisting of the four lyrics 'boy, man, God, shit' early in the song, starts in one planet and heads to another with a few stops in between. Dang ... I may have to give it another listen on my way home tonight.

-DJr.-

Slowly slammin' the sledgehammer

For the first time in a long time, April and I had no plans for a Friday/Saturday/Sunday stint of ... yardwork. Blech!
On the plus side, I did get to swing the 10lb sledgehammer for a few hours breaking concrete, moving concrete, breaking concrete, moving concrete. It needs to get done and I don't mind doing it.
Music has been typical as of late, not much new stuff coming across my desk, but I am looking forward to the new Neil Young docu/concert flick "Heart of Gold." It will be neat to compare his '77 shows from "Rust Never Sleeps" with this which was filmed at Nashville's Rhyman Auditorium last year.

The list:
Low "Things we Lost in the Fire"
Johnny Cash "Unchained"
Iron & Wine "The Creek Drank the Candle"
Wolfmother "Wolfmother"
Neil Young "Comes a Time"

Wolfmother is getting a lot of hype on message boards and music sites. I borrowed the disc from a friend at work and I give it a solid 7 out of ten on first listen. More serious about their metal than The Darkness. Almost as stylized and poppy as Local H or the White Stripes. Worth a sale bin purchase for sure, but no recently released CD is worth full price.

-DJr.-

So this is our newest family member - Princess Leia Belle.
Leah was her name before we picked her up. Naturally I kept it, and, being the dork I am, added the Princess tag to have my very own leader of the greyhound rebellion.
We are now up to three retired greys - and I assure you, no more will be added for a few years.
Music was minimum today since it was quiet at the office.
I did listen to ..
The Flaming Lips: "The Soft Bulletin"

We sat through 'Wicked' this weekend though. I thought it was subpar, April enjoyed it quite a bit. We went with friends - including one of our faves - Anita. This little sweetheart just had another 21st birthday. Plus, we went to dinner at Klay Oven. Yummy, tasty Indian food that had Fat Tire beer! Bonus all around!!

Mike Ness a sellout?

I'm not sure, but when I heard the radio advertisement for new megasuperstar blockbuster wannabe movie "The Break-Up" with Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn, was using Social Distortion's "Ball and Chain" as an advertising song, it made me wanna vomit. Not an earned vomit like the kind you get after a night of Jameson shots and cheap draft beer, but the kind where you're so upset that you just need to hurl.
It may not be Ness' fault, maybe he has a new publicist, maybe it's the way things are done nowadays. I'm not sure.
It could be a good thing. The first time I heard the Ramones was in 'Vacation' where the family crosses the Mississippi River and the Griswald kids put there headphones on to listen to "Blitzkrieg Bop." Maybe some poor soul who's dragged to this movie will hear Social D and think, man, what a great tune! They'll go out buy the self titled album and be exposed to 'Sick Boy,' 'Story of my Life' and an amazing cover of 'Ring of Fire.'
So what's my point? I don't know, maybe using songs like this is a good thing, maybe it's not. Some movie soundtracks are far superior to the actual film itself. Mainly "Singles." Mother Love Bone, Pearl Jam (pre-'Ten' songs) Alice in Chains, Paul Westerberg, Mudhoney, Soundgarden, Screaming Trees and Smashing Pumpkins. All (except Westerberg) on a soundtrack together just as they're all about to blow up. The best Pumpkins tune 'Drown,' an amazing Pearl Jam (State of Love and Trust), Alice in Chains in between mediocrity and mainstream. I guess my point is, if you don't have this soundtrack, consider it next time you're at the record store.

Listening pleasure's from Thursday:
My Bloody Valentine "Loveless"
BB King: "Why I Sing the Blues"
Back off The Hammer: "S/T"
Ben Folds Five: "Whatever and Ever Amen"
Belle & Sebastian: "Storytelling"
The Minutemen: "Double Nickels on the Dime"

-DJr-