I was *conned* (/coerced?) by my boss into rounding up a group of backup singers for the Nortel Networks “Mystery Band” (in which my boss, David, and his boss, Steve were both playing). (Steve’s on drums, so you can’t see him in this photo, but that’s my buddy Brian Hill singing lead vocals.)
I think we handled our parts (which were comprised of “Jumping Jack Flash, it’s a gas” and some random “woo woo”s very well.
This is the whole band:
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Elliot Smith, who I was lucky enough to see live a few years ago has died. This makes me very very sad, as I love his music.
Friday night Meghan and I went to see R.E.M. with front row center seats, courtesy of the R.E.M. fanclub (yah fanclub!). It was a stunning show — lots of old stuff that I really wanted to hear (Nightswimming, Radio Free Europe, So Central Rain), all the new things I love (most notably Bad Day, which is off the In Time album that comes out 10/28), and
*wait for it*
Bill Berry!!!
Background for those of you who don’t like R.E.M. like I do: Bill Berry was (for 17 years or so) the band’s drummer. When he left the band (amicably) he said he was done for good and that he wanted to go be on his farm. He has not played with the rest of the band (Buck, Mills & Stipe) since he retired in 1997, so this was a Great Big Fuzzy.
Furthermore, the nice security guy let me go back to my car for my camera (which was allowed at this show!!!), so I have some great pics of the whole thing:
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(via upsoclose)
Meme from smurf chick
Your meme, should you choose to accept it, is to rank the following bands in order, from couldn’t live without to couldn’t care less. To add value to this process,
you must also add one band to the list, and remove one band from the list, before passing the meme on (including these instructions).
The Beatles
R.E.M.
adding: Barenaked Ladies
U2
Queen
Paul Simon
The Who
Tori Amos
The Psychedelic Furs
The Kinks
Devo
removing: Aerosmith
So I listen to it all the time… I suppose I should say something about it, eh? Radio Paradise is a listener-supported online radio station that, IMHO, rocks most mightily. Their music selection is amazingly diverse: I’ve heard Louis Armstrong to Pink Floyd to Red Hot Chili Peppers to Patty Griffin to They Might Be Giants to Blue Man Group to Elvis Costello to Johnny Cash. (To get a sense of what I mean check out their playlist.
Furthermore, they accept user uploads for review, have a nice comments board and pay attention to segues, which are terribly important to me for some reason.
RP has completely changed my musicsphere. There are two of my buddies, Meghan & David, who I can always count on for new music infusions; however, last I checked, they both had lives of their own and, sadly, could not devote their entire existence to the pursuit of my musical diversity. In comes Radio Paradise and within the next month I buy six new CDs (Porcupine Tree, Patty Griffin, Neil Finn, Jefferson Airplane, Alone in IZ World, The Jayhawks) — wowsers!
The best thing for me is that at home I have a Audiotron … a clever little gadget that knows how to talk to a stereo system and how to read music files from a computer. (I know, that’s the *really technical* version :-) It is exceptionally clever, IMHO. It connects via my little wireless network to my main computer (though it could talk to multiple computers with music on them — even a RAS) and then happily plays things through my stereo. It has a remote control and a front panel interface and everything!
Cleverer still is the fact that even when my computer isn’t on, I can connect to internet radio stations (like, you guessed it, Radio Paradise).
I *heart* technology.
Blister in the Sun is a *really* short song.
Okay, so I’m waiting for a conference call to begin at work and the hold music is — I swear — the same 16 bars of sythisizer with electro-drum beat over and over and over and over and over and …. AAAAAARGH!
Realm of the Lint Queen 