What in the hell …

Part of this afternoon really, really sucked and I was in a very bad mood, one of those moments where the poverty of my language and the wealth of my emotion bring endless murky musings, where in the face of some unexpected frustration my undeveloped intellect becomes filled with impotent and static rage. (more…)

This old post over at Jim’s music blog reminded me that I want to write about singing to my daughter. Jim’s post is about the Dismemberment Plan. Despite the fact that I don’t have their first record - actually, I don’t even know how many records they have, I have two of them - I consider them one of my favorite bands. I love how off-kilter the music is, and yet strangely no off-kilter. I love the dissonance, and I love the melodies, and I love how sometimes the dissonance resolves into melodies and sometimes it doesn’t. I also love the singing. I sometimes sing “Life of Possibilities” to my daughter. (more…)

If I made a laundry list of the influences that shaped my gut level impulses about intellectual and cultural stuff, punk rock and marxism would be really close to the top. (more…)

A new one, clearly.

Me and my wife went to see some rock music last night at the Triple Rock. We heard that The Methadones were playing an all ages show at 5:00 and a 21+ show at 9:00. My wife was like “well, we have to go to both.” We got there and the doors weren’t open yet so we went into the bar. She’s not drinking cuz she’s pregnant (really, really pregnant, baby’s due in less than a month), so I’m not drinking either. Instead of booze we had ginger ale with bitters, which is delicious, and we ate vegetarian poutine, which is SUPER delicious. Then we went into the show. The Methadones weren’t on the flyer. They had been listed on some websites and stuff. We got nervous. I asked the door guy after we’d paid and he said they weren’t playing. I was really embarassed but I asked for our money back (the show was ten bucks a piece and twenty bucks is not the kind of money we can feel okay throwing away). He was really cool about it and gave it back. We went home, I took a nap, then we came back for the show. We missed most of the opening band, from what I saw I wasn’t real into it. Had rock and rolly stuff going on, the band it most reminded me of was Rose Tattoo who I quite like but this didn’t work for me.

The next band was Noise By Numbers, who were great. They were melodic and moody sounding, but still punky. Several of their songs struck me as having a cool structure, like a slow build to a finale, or like two distinct halves, or something else, instead of the intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-chorus kind of thing that is common with punk bands (I like that format, actually, but it’s cool to see departures from it as well.) I definitely recommend them and look forward to them putting out something recorded that I can buy soon.

The next band was The Bomb. The Bomb’s singer, Jeff Pezzati, was in Naked Raygun. I like Naked Raygun a whole lot. Pezzati has a really distinctive voice and cool stage presence. I bought all their albums and listened to them today. They’re really good. Their music is really guitar driven and they do this thing, I don’t know how to put it well. They have one guitar player but there’s enough going on (at least for a punk band) that if you weren’t watching the stage you’d think it’s two guitarists, but without overplaying or anything either. Good stuff.

The Methadones headlined and they were great. I’ve seen them many times here and in Chicago. This was definitely their best show of the times I’ve seen them in Minneapolis and among the best shows I’ve seen them play. I really like how they sound rocky and fast and all, but the lyrical content is really sad and introspective. That’s a winning combination in my book.

More to say on all this but I’m tired so it’s off to bed, maybe I’ll add stuff in later.

The public library system in Minneapolis pisses me off. They have a really good collection of music and great books, and a helpful knowledgeable staff. But a lot of branches are only open 40 hours a week and their understaffed. And the fines are really high. My hunch is that the problem is that people are in charge who don’t value or understand public libraries. Jerks.

The librarians and the collection are great though. Case in point: (more…)

Hey don’t get me wrong, I like combining things. Ice cream and coffee. Coffee and whiskey. Whiskey and ice cream. Guiness and ice cream. Guiness and whiskey. Macaroni and cheese. Macaroni and cheese and tobasco sauce. Macaroni and cheese and chili. Peanut butter and jelly, man me and PB and J go way back. Peanut butter and chocolate ice cream is great too. See - me? I like combining things.

But some things should not be combined. Peanut butter and jelly? Great. Ketchup and jelly? Vomitous. Mac and cheese and chocolate ice cream. is also a combination the thought of which makes me want to throw up.

Likewise: what the fuck? Puke, that’s all there is to it. Ketchup and ice cream.

I don’t miss the place the way my partner does. Usually. But I just assembled a playlist on the computer w/ all the chicago punk bands I have. It’s so, so good. Bittersweet. Evokes a genuinely painful homesickness that’s only partially nostalgia. (more…)