Song of Whenever #2

Cursive just put out a new album. It's called Mama, I'm Swollen. I like it. It has three or four songs I really like and two I often find myself looking forward to hearing—From the Hip and Mama, I'm Satan. However, neither are the song of whenever. The song of whenever is the song that originally turned me onto Cursive. The Recluse. All of which can be found here on their myspace page. (At least as of April 25, 2009)

I wake alone in a woman's room I hardly know.
I wake alone and pretend that I am finally home.

The room is littered with her books and notebooks
I imagine what they say, like, "Shoo fly don't bother me."

I can hardly get myself out of the bed for fear of never lying in this bed again.
Oh Christ, I'm not that desperate. Oh no, oh God. I am.

Oh, that's him.

Just found out M.Ward is the him in She and Him. That explains why both bands have a similar 50's sound. Is it 50's? I don't know. It's throw back and it's cool.

Ballperks

Why do we always tear down our perfectly good stadiums to build even better stadiums? Sure it's nice to have a nice new clean venue and fill it with expensive high-tech tech. And I know attracting talented players is an issue, but what about the most important factor in the game—heart?

Big screen TVs and coffee tables at a stadium are nice but that's not the "Lounge that Ruth built." The memories of a roaring crowd and come-from-behind wins and no-hitters and perfect summer days are torn down and replaced with more expensive tickets. My buddy is at a Met's game right now. The 2 seats he has cost him $140. Seats that last year probably went for $45 each. If I am going to spend $140 on tickets, I'd prefer to see a tragedy on Broadway. At least there I am expecting to cry—not from a miserably disappointing game.

I've heard people say when you are there, Citi field could be any teams stadium. There is nothing about the place that says Mets, including an actual logo. I've heard the crowd is quiter. People are spending more time watching the 120" HD TVs than they are sitting in their seats. The same fans that were excited to be getting a new house are finding themselves missing the spirit their home once had.

When I think of a stadium like Fenway, I think there is no way the fans would let them tear down that stadium. It would have to be collapsing in on itself from old age before that would be considered. But that's also how I felt about Yankees Stadium. I personally didn't like the place—felt like a converted prison—but the fans did, and they just let them knock it down for promises of luxury perks. I think there are a lot of people who are soon going to realize what a tragedy this is.

Why is church always closed?

Other than the specific hours of mass, it seems the doors of Long Island churches are always locked. If ever you want to stop in for a one-on-one session without the chanting crowd, you can't. That's not how I remember it. I feel like I was raised to think church doors were always ope. Anytime you needed the services of faith, stop on in. In Home Alone, doesn't Macaulay stop by during his off-peak hour of need?

In Newport, RI. there's an Episcopal church Chris has nicknamed heaven. Heaven is a small, quiet peaceful little building in the middle of nowhere country fields. Outside the building it has large trees, short stone walls and a couple random tombstones. Wind blows and leaves rustle. The sun speckles the ground between tree limbs and foliage. Outside it is perfect. Inside... it's locked.

The first time Chris brought me there we ran into this very old and very warm priest as he was leaving. He let us in so we could look around. While inside we made typical priest-young adult conversation. Like if and when we were going to get married. He also told us a story about a local marine who had died in battle and in homage the family had put up a beautiful shrine in the church that held 2 crossed marine swords. A couple days later some shithead went in the church and stole the swords. Since then, other than during mass, the doors have remained locked.

There's the difference—people can't be trusted anymore, even in a church. Happy Easter!

The Real Song of Whenever #1

I've been having doubts about my last entry. Song of whenever, if it actually turns into something I maintain, should really be music I love and endorse. Crawl is not one of those songs. It might be good but I wouldn't know—it's not one of my songs. I think I was just excited to learn Max had a new project so I picked the first track I found by them. To be honest I haven't even listened to it since that night and I feel bad. Why would I encourage people to check out music I don't even listen to?

So I'm gonna make it up to you. From this point forward I promise to do my due diligence on song of whenever. And I am pretty sure I have picked you a winner. Here it is:

"Link Removed"

About 2 summers ago I learned about this very unique and excellent band Silversun Pickups with their sophomore album Carnavas. They are actually one of the highlights I mentioned in my ACL wrap-up. 2 years later I am ready for someting more from them. Not that the album I have has gotten old. I'd just love another honeymoon phase. I could pickup their debut album but I don't want to be disappointed. From what I've previewed on iTunes it's not bad, just not magical like Carnavas.

Silversun Pickups first mainstream single, Lazy Eye, you probably know. It really showcases the easier to digest sounds of the band and doesn't hit you over the head with the lead singers legitimately beautiful screams that are often dismissed at first glance as loud crap. It also has a very clean arrangement with an excellent and rather simple base line and drum beat. It is an exceptional pop song on an equally well written album. I like this album so much that I fear the next project won't be able to hold a candle to it.

Well, we're about to find out. A week from Tuesday, Silversun Pickups puts out their new album, Swoon. And the new single is showing amazing potential. It's called Panic Switch and it demonstrates a lot of the same qualities as Lazy Eye. I actually find myself turning it up a little more every 30 seconds. This song is full of great energy and it really gets me going. Panic Switch is the mechanical rabbit at the dog track and I am the excited greyhound.

Apparently I'm not the only one either. If at anytime you want to hear this track, turn on Alt Nation on satellite radio. They have it playing every third song. It's actually on right now. If you don't have paid radio you can find it here on their myspace. I hope you like it.

Song of the When I Get To It #1

My great buddy Justin started doing this thing song of the day. He posts one song that he feels is appropriate for the day and a link to somewhere online like songza.com that followers can listen. I love it.

From what he's told me it sounds insightful and witty and something I'd like to be a part of. But I can't. It's a facebook group. I'm not a facebooker. I like to think I'm not because I'm above it. I grew out of MySpace before Facebook caught steam and now I don't have the extra time to waste thinking about myself. But let's be honest - maintaining a blog is just about as self-aggrandizing. So I guess I haven't joined in because I value my relationship too much. What's that you say? My girlfriend has a secret facebook life? Well look at that. Excuse me a sec while I set up my profile....

Ok. I'm not concerned. But I am inspired to start a song of the day subsidiary. It will be more of a "song of the when I get to it." But open to the public.

Today is March 17: St. Patrick's day.
Though a bar enthusiast, I am home right now (9:16PM) and pretty sober. I am wearing emerald green Mardi Gras beads but other than that, there's not much Paddy's day spirit around here. For Lent I gave up bars and it has been two things. Difficult and profitable. I have saved about $3,000 over the last 3 weeks just by coming straight home after work. Tonight I left the office with my friend and fellow bar dweller Ryan, both heading home in separate directions on what should be our most romantic night together; St. Patrick's Day. I'm sure he's somewhere feeling just as unIrish as I so today's song has nothing to do with the holiday. I am picking Crawl by Two Tongues.

Check out crawl on the right of this link

The lead singers of two very successful but, in my opinion, conflicting bands, have collaborated on a side project called Two Tongues; Max Bemis (along with Coby Linder) of Say Anything, and Chris Conley (along with Dave Soloway) of Saves the Day. Both great bands with their own separate sounds collaborate making this new venture. The name two tongues I believe comes from the way they both sing often with tongues fully extended. If you ever see them live you will know what I mean.

enjoy.

A Crash Course in Defensive Driving

Recently I took a defensive driving class to knock a couple points off my license. There were only 3 of us in the class so our instructor condensed the 6 hours down to about 16 minutes. Among the mountains and mountains of new information i obtained was a ditto roughly describing how to properly adjust your mirrors. Apparently what we were taught back in drivers ed is now wrong. (It's one of those things that got changed but there was no press release. Also on that list are brushing up and down instead of back and forth and it is now safe to look into a microwave while it is running.)

This new method sets it so your side-view mirrors are almost completely straight out. With your rear-view you can see all cars behind and next to you. As a car leaves your rear-view you just begin picking it up in your side-view. As it leaves your side-view you can see the car next to you. You have eliminated the blind spot.

I love it. It's like a game. I watch cars as they approach from behind enter my rear-view, leave my rear-view, enter my side-view, leave my side-view and enter my peripheral vision. I am so distracted by this new game, I am surely now a worse driver. Fortunately, I now have room for a couple points on my license.