speed of dark

My husband and I went to our first concert together, EVER, to see Joe Cocker on a double bill with The Steve Miller Band. I've been to a lot of concerts, mostly with Alt-gramma, but with friends and even by myself, but strangely enough, not with my husband (hereafter to be referred to as Spouse). While our music tastes overlap somewhat, Spouse doesn't see the need to see someone perform their music live when he can easily whip out their CD and listen to it. The last concert he went to was to see the Eagles, back before we met, which is good because I wouldn't have been interested in seeing them.

The Nokia Theatre was full of people of all ages, but mostly people 20 years or more our senior, which is unlike most of the concerts I normally attend. I'm a middling fan of Joe Cocker, mostly anticipating one song, "The Letter", and he didn't disappoint, singing his heart out on my favorite. His distinctive raspy voice has diminished in quality over the years, but he gave this show his all, and his backup band was very good. I didn't write down the setlist, but some of the songs he performed were "Love Lift Us Up Where We Belong", "With A Little Help From My Friends", and "Cry Me A River", plus this one, which brought tears to the eyes of my normally stoic Spouse:



COPYRIGHTED CONTENT HAS BEEN REMOVED
joe cocker: you are so beautiful [buy]
joe cocker: the letter [buy]

official site | buy his new album

map from the Library of Congress
Yesterday, we experienced an earthquake registered at 5.4 (or 5.6, or 5.8, depending on who you believe), the most jarring and longest that I've felt in a long time. Everyone I know is fine, and I don't think there were any injuries directly related to the earthquake at all. But it got me thinking about two things; first, a 5.4 earthquake in some places on the planet would equal devastation, and second...when is the fabled "Big One" going to hit?

When the first big jolt hit, I was at my desk at work and I placed my palms directly on top of my desk and glanced underneath it. There is so much crap under my desk that there is no way I could possibly dive under it for safety. In that instant, I wondered if this would be the big one. Then the second, hard shake moved through the building, sending things tumbling off of shelves and employees sprinting out of their offices to the so-called safest place, the doorway. The quake continued to roll like the ripples continue after someone jumps on a waterbed for maybe 30 to 40 seconds, which doesn't sound like much, but when the ground is moving, it's an eternity.

All people did all day was talk about the earthquake, compare stories, and worry about aftershocks (there were a few) and what the next one will be like, myself included. Read FEMA's rules on what to do before, during and after an earthquake.

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she wants revenge: she will always be a broken girl [buy]
black rebel motorcycle club: fault line [buy]
thrice: the earth will shake [buy]
faith no more: falling to pieces [buy]

And finally...my personal life has allowed me to return to this blog to bring Alt-gramma a well-deserved break and bring you this week's Finally Friday, which has been on hiatus with me. I'm glad to be back to co-writing this blog, but I'm waaaay out of the loop, since I haven't been listening to much music lately nor attending any shows. I'll count on my fellow bloggers to fill me in on what I've missed, and I'm sure I'll be back up to speed with their help.

B(oot)log has some live Iron & Wine from 2007 (which is about where I feel I am right now, in a time warp).

Check out the video for Beck's latest single, "Gamma Ray" at Count Me Out. The little that I have heard of his new album, Modern Guilt sounds amazing.

Visit the two newest additions to our blogroll, Culture Spill and mp3hugger.

Muzzle of Bees revisits Cracker, posts some AMAZING shots of Haley Bonar, and reviews Wolf Parade's show at the House of Blues, widely known as the worst venue for music bloggers the world over.

Quarterlife Party has the link to NPR's stream of Fleet Foxes live and an interview with the band.

Fellow L.A. blogger Rawkblog reviews the Constantine's show at the Troubadour, my favorite venue that we haven't actually been to at all this year. We'll cross paths later this month at the Wolf Parade show at the Henry Fonda.

On my time off of the blog, I listened most often to my husband's music selections, since we went on a couple of long car rides where my iPod is banished and I have no say over what music we listen to in the car unless I am driving. His music tastes range from classic rock to rap to classical music to college fight songs and to rock, rarely reaching into the usual music that we cover on this blog, with the exception of the Time Travel Tuesdays, for the most part.

While I would call Alt-gramma the queen of the mixtape, since she painstakingly crafts them so that each song leads almost seamlessly into the next, my husband's mixtapes are a mishmash of whatever he feels like putting on them, which means you can have Mozart next to Ludacris, followed by the Ballad of the Green Berets. He also names his mixtapes (and by mixtape, I mean CD) extremely descriptive names like "X" or "C". Helpful when I am trying to find something good to listen to.

Here are a few that we could agree on:

COPYRIGHTED CONTENT HAS BEEN REMOVED

matthew sweet: girlfriend [buy]
al green: love and happiness [buy]
bob marley and the wailers: no woman no cry [buy]
jay-z: i just wanna love you [buy]

In 1987 or thereabouts, my sister and I were mezmerized by a black and white video on MTV that showed two spastic guys careening around, sometimes with huge pillars on their heads, not to mention the dancing heads of some old guy surrounding them. The guitar player looked like Buddy Holly, the other looked like that sad and tragic guy in black who sat in the back of your English class, except this guy was singing "dippity dog dog a ding dang dippity dippity dippity dog dog a ding dang dippity dippity dip." (Watch that video here.) This was our first introduction to "Don't Let's Start" and the wonder of They Might Be Giants, a love that I have since passed on to my son, whom we affectionately refer to on this blog as "He Might Be Giant".

John Flansburgh and John Linnell have been writing and playing music together since 1982 and show no signs of stopping. They have recorded approximately eight billion songs (a slight exaggeration) and have released many albums, most of which either I or alt-gramma own. We also used to call the Dial-a-Song and listen to the tunes found there - in the olden days, it was rarely busy (although I remember alt-gramma not being happy with the phone bill when we called it several times one summer) but it is apparently now difficult to get through.

When TMBG's latest album The Else was released on May 15, I bought it without even hearing a single track - with TMBG, you know it's going to be good. And I wasn't disappointed. I remarked to alt-gramma when I played it for her in the car that TMBG makes a good rock album - if you leave out the hilariously quirky lyrics and Linnell's kind of nasally voice. But I love TMBG, and if you've never given them a chance, The Else might be a good place to start. Some of the songs are silly (i.e., "The Cap'm", which makes me think of a scruffy Jimmy Buffett parrothead kind of guy), others are simply great rock songs (i.e., "I'm Impressed", "Take Out the Trash"). Others are history lessons, sort of...(i.e., "The Mesopotamians"). Together they are an excellent mix of what TMBG brings to the table.

For a limited time, I'll share a couple of tracks from The Else so you can hear the genius of TMBG. If you don't like them at first, listen to them a few more times - they'll grow on you. You should also visit their "artist-owned and operated" website, which is chock-full of goodies and offers a gazillion of their live shows for sale in either mp3 or FLAC. Their semi-official site offers up a free song every week for their mailing list members.

from 2007's The Else:
they might be giants: the cap'm (makes me laugh every time) [buy]
they might be giants: i'm impressed [buy]

from 2004's Indestructible Object:
they might be giants: am i awake? [buy]

from 2002's NO!:
they might be giants: no! [buy]

actual official website | semi-official website | buy all their albums

You haven't seen much of me here in the last couple of weeks or so. That's because I've been studying frantically for a midterm that I took today, so now I can relax for a little while before the final. I think I might make the "finally friday" a semi-regular post, where I peruse some of our favorite music blogs and provide some covers and live tracks for your enjoyment. Last time, I screwed up on the covers, so this time I pledge to do better.

death cab for cutie: here comes the rain again [live Eurythmics cover]
death cab for cutie: timeless melody [live The La's cover featuring Eddie Vedder]
mogwai: glasgow mega-snake [live]
mogwai: cody [live]
my morning jacket: never tear us apart [live INXS cover]

• indiechristoph has the lowdown on the new Arctic Monkeys and some White Stripes rarities, as well as some music by The Books, a band whose one song that I own has been haunting me. And a whole bunch of other good stuff. Thanks guys.


• Aquarium Drunkard has Derek and the Dominos and a Lucinda Williams cover. Strangely, I don't care for Lucinda Williams, but her songs are great and I love them by other people. Go figure.


• Audio Deficit Disorder has info on the new Bjork album and their top 25 indie albums of all time. I'm proud to say I own seven of the twenty-five, and bits and pieces of many of the rest. Nice list.


• Berkeley Place, who started the whole top 25 indie albums of all time thing, has Colin Meloy singing Morrissey and some Sea Wolf tracks. He needs more suggestions for the top 25, so head on over and give him your two pennies.


• Blogs are for Dogs has another new indie hotness with "Wolf" in the name: Patrick Wolf, not to mention the Menomena tour schedule and another glowing Rufus Wainwright review.


• Bradley's Almanac has the news about the second posthumous Elliott Smith release and a live set of The Essex Green.


• Can You See the Sunset from the Southside? has "catchy upbest indie pop-rock" from Normandy and songs from the always nice Great Lake Swimmers.


• For the Records has a bunch of Feist and a whole lotta YouTube of Coachella 2007.


• Good Weather for Airstrikes has a radio rip of the new Interpol song (which I heard on the radio today, coincidentally, and it's awesome) and some Beck songs, always appreciated.


• HaHa Music has some Muse songs up in hopes that they play them before My Chemical Romance hits the stage. Muse and MCR?


• I Guess I'm Floating has a picture of a gotdang Blue Book, the very same style of one that I used today on a midterm. All I saw was the blue book, I don't know if there's any songs posted on the site or not.


• Check out Jefitoblog for information about Bloggers for a Cure.


• Lonesome Music has choirs and handclaps from Laura Veirs and some uncharacteristically upbeat music.


• Lost in the 80's has INXS (!!!!!!) and The Alan Parsons Project (.....).


• Mars Needs Guitars has a little tribute to the Sun (which is a mass of incandescent gas) and the tour schedule and a couple of songs from the new Black Rebel Motorcycle Club album.


• Fight! Fight! Music for Kids are pitting Hoobastank and Maroon 5 against each other in the "Who's Worst?" debate. These are two bands you're unlikely to ever see on this blog.


• Music is Art has...Justin Timberlake? Guess what...I like that song, too.


• Muzzle of Bees has Tuesday's new releases and the concert calendar for those of you in Wisconsin.


• MOKB has songs from a band with a great name, Scissors for Lefty, plus information on whatever happened to Lauryn Hill.


• Rewritable Content has a review of Dog Day and the whole Coachella experience.


• Skatterbrain has selections from the 2007 NYC Popfest for your listening pleasure.


• The Late Greats spotlights Do Make Say Think and ponders the art of the storybook CD cover.


• The Yellow Stereo pines for Elliott Smith (don't we all?) and has tracks from the upcoming cinematic masterpiece, Hot Fuzz. If you haven't seen Shaun of the Dead, rent it today and see Hot Fuzz tomorrow.


• Yeti Don't Dance features more by The Books and some mad hate for everyone's darling Avril Lavigne.


• YANP has Beulah covering Talking Heads.

I found this website, things my boyfriend says and laughed my ass off, recognizing some major similarities between this girl's boyfriend and my husband (they could be related). My husband says all kinds of off the wall things and then asks, "are you going to tell your friends I said that?" Usually, the answer is no, due to the graphic nature and/or liberal use of profanity. But sometimes, I do tell people, or they become inside jokes and things that can make me spontaneously laugh out of nowhere when I think of them.

The other night, my husband and I were watching television when a commercial for a Christian music CD appeared. This commercial featured over 30 of the top songs about love for Jesus and some footage of people in various stages of orgasmic rapture, waving their hands around, singing along, with their eyes closed. My husband, who was born and raised Catholic, and I, who was not raised with much religion, watched in silence as these people grooved to terrible, terrible muzak.

At the end, my husband turned to me and said, "You don't rock out with God; you rock out with Satan!"

It made me laugh until my sides hurt, but maybe you had to be there. Anyway...enjoy some devil-related music and find more on hype machine.

the streets: never went to church (guillemots remix)

clap your hands say yeah: satan said dance!

black rebel motorcycle club: devil's waitin'

In between Young Galaxy's and the Dears' set on Saturday at the El Rey, a vaguely familiar song was played over the sound system. Alt-gramma said it was David Bowie, but I couldn't hear it well enough to recognize it. She said she knew it was a Bowie song, but couldn't recall anything except the video: it featured David Bowie in a french clown outfit with a pointy hat and makeup, walking on a beach. This was back in the days when MTV was a music video channel.

I did not recall this video at all.

But thanks to YouTube (and no thanks at all to MTV), I found the video and have the song as well. I don't remember the video even half as well as alt-gramma remembered it, but I do remember the pointy hat.

david bowie: ashes to ashes | video

buy the album | official website | unofficial fan page