Hotlanta Hot Traffic Jam Hot Mix
So, Eric, you might ask...how did ya'll survive driving through the hell that is Atlanta traffic? Well, I made this mix cd of some hits that let us blend in like a US Marine in the Bay of Pigs. I give you, the Hotlanta Hot Traffic Jam Hot Mix:

1. "The Way You Move" - Oukast
2. "Party All The Time" - Eddie Murphey (yes, that Eddie Murphey)
3. "Rosa Parks" - Outkast
4. "Seed 2.0" - The Roots (w/ Cody Chesnutt)
5. "Change Clothes" - Jay-Z and DJ Danger Mouse
6. "Whoomp There It Is!" - Tag Team
7. "P.I.M.P." - 50 Cent
8. "Stand Up" - Ludacris
9. "California Love" - 2Pac
10. "Hell Yea" - Ginuwine
11. "Yeah" - Usher (ft. Little John and Ludacris)
12. "So Fresh, So Clean" - Outkast
13. "Just A Friend" - Biz Markie
14. "Wanksta" - 50 Cent
15. "Church" - Outkast
16. "Tennessee Boys" - Grits
17. "Wanna Get To Know Ya'" - G Unit (ft. Joe)
18. "Giggolo" - Nick Cannon (ft. R Kelly)

Lest you doubt the effectivness of the mix, ask me how many akward stares we recieved while going through downtown Atlanta. How many? Zero. And Jo Haag...you're going down old man, you're going down hard.

Peace.

It's Valentine's Day!
Or as my buddy Ryan says, S.A.D: Single Awareness Day. But that pimp has a date so I don't know what he's complaining about. So what are some good V-Day songs? Let's think....first off, "Love Song" by the Cure. I don't think the average public knows just how great a, yes, love song this is. 2nd..."Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye. I don't need to explain that one. 3rd...I dunno I ran out of ideas, it seemed like a good one at the beginning. Anyways, I'm listening to Logh's Everytime A Bell Rings An Angel Gets It's Wings...best band to come out of Norway, in my opinon, that isn't Death Metal.

New Shizzle From Sigur Rosizzle!
Yes, they released the Ba Ba Ti Ki Di Do EP on iTunes. What the title means, I have no freaking clue. It's the music from the dance thing they did in conjunction with Radiohead. They are keeping with what a like to call the "twinkle bell" sound of their Hellemur (sp?) soundtrack they did this summer, so it's quite a departure even from ( ). It takes a few listens to get used to, and overall is not their best work, but it is worth the $3 to download from iTunes if you're a serious fan (like me).

New Shizzle From Modest Mouseizzle!
I saw this thing where some black guy was saying the -izzle thing wasn't cool anymore cause the nanny said in on an old navy commercial. So that means I can say it now
Modest Mouse just released their new single "Float On" on iTunes as well. Even with the departure of Jerrimiah Green on drums, the band has never sounded better. It's got this crazy major key thing going, quite unlike anything they've ever done...it's almost happy. In fact, it is happy. Is this the same band that gave us "3rd Planet?" Anyways, it rocks.

Damn, The Moon and Antarctica by Modest Mouse is a good record...still.

You know what song is awesome? " Your Woman" by White Town.

Oh, you know it, sing it..."I will never be your woman..."

But was the singer a man or a woman? So hard to tell.

Bad Omission! I totally forgot to consider Broken Social Scene's You Forgot It In People for the top 10 records, and it's easily in the top 5. My fault...go buy it.

Been back in Nashville for a week or so now. It snowed today, very cool. Oh yes, here is my list of the top 10 records of 2003.

10. The Polyphonic Spree - The Beginning Stages Of...
9. Hot Hot Heat - Make Up The Breakdown
8. The Strokes - Room On Fire
7. The Mercury Program and Maserati - The Confines of Heat
6. Robert Randolph and The Family Band - Unclassified
5. Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlanticism
4. The Rapture - Echoes
3. The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Commatorium
2. Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts of the Great Highway
1. The Postal Service - Give Up

And My List of The Best MP3's I came across in 2003. (In no real order)

1. Wheat - "I Met A Girl"
2. Debussy - "Arabesque #1"
3. Imaginary Baseball League - "From Arkansas, With Love"
4. Anathallo - "A Song For Christine"
5. Arab Strap - "Girls of Summer"
6. The National - "Murder Me Rachel"
7. The Russian Futurists - "Crumble"
8. Coldplay - "Clocks (Royksopp Trembling Heart Remix)"
9. mewithoutyou - "bullet to binary"
10. Death Cab For Cutie - "Photobooth"
11. The Album Leaf - "The MP"
12. Bexar Bexar - "winter99"
13. Ladytron - "Seventeen"
14. Outkast - "Hey Ya!"
15. Godspeed You Black Emperor - "Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antnnaes To The Sky"
16. Sufjan Stevens - "Say Yes! to M!ch!gan!"

And There you Have It. Love,
Me

It's been a while, huh? I went to SA and came back, surviving the plane ride, amazingly. I had breakfast tacos, and that was pretty much my main goal of the trip. And now I'm going back this comming Monday for x-mas break. Anyways, as far as music goes, the new cd from Sun Kil Moon is excellent, I recomend buying it to anyone, providing you can find it...I was amazed I found it at Tower Records, maybe they have it at Borders as well. Very Neil Young influenced, which is odd that i like it because I don't stomach Young very well. Also, I stumbled upon Emergency &! by the Dismemberment Plan...freaking amazing. Go buy it. It's a couple of years old but that doesn't diminish it's greatness. Ok, that's it, probably no more writing in here until after the break...I know you'll be waiting for more.

Wow, I'm going home in less than a week. It will be the first time I've been back this entire time so it will no doubt be weird. I still consider Texas my home even though I swore to myself it wasn't.
Things I'm looking fowards to: Breakfast tacos, my dog, Fanta Apple, Mexicans, my room not smelling like beef jerkey or something else unexplainable, a real bathroom, Montanio Drive, my friends, driving a car that's not a Mercedes...ok, I'm not looking fowards to that, crappy TV channels, REAL FOOD, the heat, cigars, inside jokes that I haven't used in 3 months, speeches on why I'm so irresponsible with money, my mom doing everything I say,

Things I'll Miss: fast porn downloads...no, j/k. The comraderie of the third floor, Miss Tonya, the back shower, ESPN, Comedy Central, Family Guy DVD's, obscure music references.

Is it ok to be deathly afraid of flying? Because I am. And I can just see them going "I'm sorry sir, you don't have the right stuff, you can't board." and I'll be stuck her for thanksgiving, eating at a chinese restaurant with "It's A Wonderful Life" on a low rumble behind my head. I swear, I almost pee myself whenever the plane hits turbulence. Too bad I'm not old enough to drink or I would be downing whiskey like crazy in a feeble effort to calm my nerves. Maybe I'll sit next to a fat person and they can cushion me when the planes finally crashes in a field south of Little Rock. Ok, I'll stop.

I want to go see Hey Mercedes this Sunday, I got to find people to go with me...go vangrant cheapo emo! Any takers?

Hey, everyone who gets to go home before Tuesday...I hope it's so boring until I get there.

Wow, it's been a long time since I've written anything significant. First off...The Death Cab For Cutie Show. As one of the bands that has shaped my musical outlook these past years, it was an experience of great importance to me. They are my favorite band, bar none, and it was almost a surreal experience to see them on stage. I dunno if this is how cult worship starts, but I think it's along the same vein. They touched on just about every stage of their career, from We Have the Facts....To Transatlanticism. They played "Photobooth" which I had entirely forgotten about and launched me into an obsession with The Forbidden Love EP. Their set was 2 hours long, quite taxing on the legs. Madeleine had to sit down for a bit, her legs being tired from meetings all day. All in all, it was an amazing show. Was it the best I've ever been to? No, that's still reserved for Los Lobos, but it was up there.

Along the Ben Gibbard line...There are some songs that stripped of their gloss, are beautiful. I found this cover of "girls just want to have fun" by Gibbard that was just him and his guitar. Now it might be ironic that he's singing this, but the simplicity makes the song become something more than a Cindi Lauper vehicle. If anyone wants to have this song let me know, I'll be happy to send it to you.

Wheat was pretty good last night. Reminded me a lot of Guster for some reason. Imaginary Baseball League rocked, as always.

Mercury Program, Maserati, Appleseed Cast...awesome. You can knock post-rock instrumental all you want, I still love it. God, to be in a band like that.

Anyways, peace.

One of the greatest things ever written about the decline of pop music, and another person who hates Madonna as much as me. It's from pitchforkmedia.com

Britney Spears [ft. Madonna]: "Me Against the Music"
Oops! Looks like it's all over for your girlfriend, and it's not just 'cause her fanbase has grown up-- Britney's been accosting all of us too fucking long with her Disney-fried, sub-Abba teen-pop, and now, like the awesomely savage barbarians we are, we want blood. Even her record label seems to want to end it here: they've tossed her "Me Against the Music", one of the greatest disasters in pop music history, as a surefire ship-sinker.
An abomination even by Spears' standards, "Me Against the Music" is rank enough that last weekend's SNL audience was as reluctant to applaud for it as they were to acknowledge Jimmy Fallon's mock-Asian accent. The ridiculously defiant title ambitiously pits her-- not a typo-- against the music, suggesting a final showdown in which Britney suits up to, once and for all, eliminate that colossal aural evil by turning it on itself. It almost works: I think I felt a ripple in the fabric of sound around the 3:30 mark. There are so many subtle intricacies here conspiring to form the ultimate musical horror: the frogthroat effect buried at the bottom of the a capella intro, the blink-and-miss-it prechorus lyric "chic-a-tah" (seriously! like four times!), the orchestra hits slamming like a Fox news update, and-- okay, this one isn't so subtle-- Madonna.

The Material Mom-- desperately paddling to float her own tanking career after bombing with American Life and her recent "Into the Groove" rehash-- follows a dialogue with Britney that actually tops Wendy & Lisa's intro to Prince's "Computer Blue" for most heated inane Lesbian-themed discourse in a song ever. The breakdown is shameless, and not just from the obvious sex-sells angle, as a sultry (did I mention 40-year-old?) Madonna pants, "Hey Britney, you say you wanna lose control/ Come over here, I got somethin' to show ya/ Sexy lady, I'd rather see you bare your soul."

"Me Against the Music" is a true feat: it not only hideously topples "Lucky" in terms of sheer patience-testing, but actually ranks, with ease, among the all-time most devastating pop chart embarrassments: Bobby Brown's "On Our Own" from Ghostbusters II; C + C Music Factory's "Things That Make You Go Hmm" and Twisted Sister's cover of "Leader of the Pack". If there's ever a hall of fame for American culture's laughable nadirs, this one'll have its own room. --Ryan Schreiber

Back from KY...pretty fun, had some good memories. It inspired me to grow a crazy redneck moustache. It's beautiful, and I'm the first at Belmont to have one. Anyways, to keep with the music theme, the new Death Cab for Cutie is amazing. It didn't get that good of a review on pitchforkmedia.com but I'll get mine up soon, a much better review. The contrasts between Transatlanticism and We Have the Facts are readily aparant, but still great music. Also, my faith in a revival of new wave has an embodiment: Interpol. Their cd came out a while back, but seriously, it's brilliant. It's the next logical step for what Mitch and I entitled "Nuwav:o" The second comming of new wave. Hot Hot Heat is part of that, they're like the Cars, Interpol is more like the cure or Depeche Mode. Awesome. Anyways, gotta go watch the series!
Peace!

Correction! It's not the tight end, it's the wide reciever. My mistake.

Comming up...BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE REVIEW!! Amazing!!

MY FAITH IN THE ALL MIGHTY DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE HAS BEEN RESTORED!

Don't you just love how all my headlines are in all caps today?

I'll admit it. After I heard "The New Year" off of DCFC's new album, Transatlanticism, I was worried. Very Worried. It was too loud, too...too mainstream. I was dreading that this would be their sell-out album and they'd get snatched up by a major label and turn into the next Train. But no fear! The Barsuk website posted "Title And Registration" on their site, and I just downloaded it. Beautiful. This is classic DCFC. It sounds a lot like "405" which was a stunning song, and with Chris Walla's improved production skills this song is amazing. A harken back to We Have The Facts and We're Voting Yes. Wow. And Ben Gibbard isn't resorting to the inane lyrics! Thank God! Something to make me think! Anyways, yes this is a biased review since they are my favorite band, but screw you, this is an amazing song. Let's hope that the rest of the record is like this.

I think this a record for the most posts in a day.

BEST UN-SURPRISE OF ESPN'S PLAYMAKERS - The tight end is gay. Good lord, I knew there had to be a gay one in there somewhere, there was obviously too much heterosexuality oozing from the screen. Why does there have to be a gay one in every show? It's not like they're going out of their way to show an asian person, or anything remotely asexual. hmmm.

SHOW REVIEW!!
IBL, Chris Staples, Map, Starflyer 59 - 9/28/03

Ok, first off, IBL is my new favorite band. At least my favorite Nashville band. Second show I've seen them, they freaking rocked. I was disapointed they didn't play "From Arkansas, with Love," by far my favorite song, but still a rockin' show. I particurally liked "Fat Boys are Not Athletes," which Aaron introduced as "This is not an anti-obesity song." I don't think they'll ever be able to hit the harmony on "A Lot to Say" live, but still a great song. Next up was Chris Staples...nothing special, honestly. Map came on next, and despite what everyone else in my group said, I thought they were awesome. So the girl was just for looks. So the guy was a uninteresing frontman. They reminded me a lot of a less-talented Built To Spill...just like Doug Marstch wants to play blues, so did this guy. You could tell he spent hours practicing pentationic scales in his room, worshiping SRV. He was a great guitarist, better than most indie guys. Anyways, the headliner was Starflyer 59, who I'd only heard some about, didn't know what to expect. He came out and played an acoustic set with the guy from Map accompaning him on electric guitar, providing some nice melodic phrases and fills. Nothing stood out at all, unfortunatly, and as my girlfriend Madeleine said, "It all sounds the same." I think that about sums up that set.

Next show - Broken Social Scene, Oct. 3, 12th and Porter. Be there.

You Know what's awesome? When you buy those boxes of Quaker Chewy bars and they tell you that you get 5 bars free! Wait...what's so freaking free here? Am I still paying for the stuff? Uh, yes. Why can't I buy a box without those extra five bars? Everyone knows they are the crappy leftovers anyways. Seriously, if they're giving it away for free it has to be crap. It's scientific knowledge that if you say you get something for free people are gonna go crazy over it, but if I'm still paying for it, is it free? NOOOOO. Screw you and your stupid rice cakes, Quaker.

Ok, this is for you Jessi...I went to some of the 2NMC shows this weekend and I must make a comment about the dancing prowess of Y.O.U. a band out of Atlanta. But I will do that tomorrow.

Addendum: Yeah, Y.O.U had some smooth dance moves. The bassist was like Michael Jackson if Michael was tall white and goofy...well he's already got the white part now. Anyways, they were pretty smooth dressers, nice suits and all. I was impressed. I recomend seeing them if you have the chance. Actually, my favorite band in the 2NMC confrence was Imaginary Baseball League...I did a review of them for the Vision, but who knows if it'll get in there, so I'll post it here:

Imaginary Baseball League - Blue Sky Court 9/13/03
Singer and guitarist Aaron Robinson of Imaginary Baseball League, hailing from Murfreesboro, started off his band's set with a solo cover of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues," holding the audience captive as he sang "But I shot a man in Reno/Just to watch him die" while bathed in red light. Sounding like an "emo" version of the Counting Crows, IBL presents songs characterized by sparse percussion, though possesing by far the most spastic drummer I've seen in a long time, and passionate, intelligent lyrics. Since the show was part of 2NMC, the set was short and left me wanting more, with the line "Watch your mouth/get you in trouble" from "A Lot to Say" haunting my head long after I'd left the club. Other stand out songs included "From Arkansas, with Love" and "My Next Death." IBL is playing in Nashville again on September 28th, opening for Starflyer 59 at The End.

Peace out...next show tomorrow, Kind of Like Spitting!

Yeah, I just about peed my pants when Barsuk Records just posted a song from the new Death Cab for Cutie album Transatlanticism It's called "The New Year" and this isn't your older brothers Death Cab anymore. The song starts out with a subdued synth intro then segues into more distortion in a DCFC song even if you combined them all and ran the signal through a tube screamer. From this song, DCFC is clearly trying to reach a braoder audience, with a singalongable anthem. Of course that isn't a rarity, given Gibbard's penchant for great melodies, but compare this song to "Free, MA" and then the differences will jump out at you. Unfortunatly Gibbard keeps the same lyrical simplicity that seemed to haunt him on The Postal Service side project, hopefully the rest of the album is a return to the thinking man's indie rock that was DCFC.