When it's over

Some good news and some bad news:

So let’s get the tough stuff out of the way first. Here goes.

I have a confession. I don’t hate Sugar Ray. In fact, I happen to think they’ve been responsible for some damn catchy tunes (one of which I heard yesterday at Qdoba, prompting me to come to this revelation and make this confession), and they give me a warm and fuzzy feeling about my 90s past.

I don’t hate—nay, like—them so much that I went in search of a greatest hits album this morning. WHICH THEY HAVE. Admittedly, I thought it would only have three songs, but 15 tracks, whatever. I’m buying it! Deal with it.

Ok, on to better and brighter things.

1.WHAT?!? Arrested Development is really going to be a movie? Really? It would be cruel to jerk me around. Straight from Jason Bateman’s adorable mouth:

“A big-screen version of Arrested Development is planned for next year. ‘When it was on TV, if you missed one word the whole third act could be blown for you. And TV is a different experience. You come home and you've got to finish a call so you miss the first ten minutes or you get snacky and you go to the fridge and you miss another two minutes, so it's a different experience to film.’

2. There’s a garage sale at the Empty Bottle this weekend, combining my two great loves of drinking and buying junky crap. Really, though, I went to the Schuba’s one last winter and came away with some really cool, super cheap (and free!) posters.

Also of note, lots of cute, friendly boys were milling about the last one. if you're in the market, this might your chance to pick up a not-yet-drunk, music-loving, living and breathing souvenir along with old pool table lights and half-burned-out beer signs.

Get this!

Since Sunday, I've been picking through the music I ripped from my dad, which means I can now listen to "Rosalinda's Eyes" while getting nostalgic for Bill Haverchuck and rocket launches without having to be near a DVD player to watch Freaks and Geeks.

(Looks like I'm not the only one with a special soft spot for "Carded and Discarded." Fun fact: Did you know that all of the Geeks' scenes with the lovely Maureen are set to Billy Joel songs? Fun fact 2: Did you know my favorite Billy Joel song is "Only the Good Die Young?" I love to go to Barleycorn with my friends and get wasted and sing along to it...just kidding. It's "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant." And, in the spirit of full disclosure, I've never been to Barleycorn, so I don't even know if they do that there.)

ANYWAY, another great album I got was "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" by Jimmy Smith.


Recorded in 1964, my Dad told me he had the LP at one point and loved it so much he had to go out and find the CD. It's good. Like jazzy big band. CD is hard to find, but it's available on iTunes.

Here, this site says it better:
"This is one of the best lps Jimmy Smith ever made and features-of course-the dance floor wipe out of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf ".Championed by DJs far and wide for more than two decades if this doesn't get you moving you must be dead (or more likely a watcher of the X Factor!!)
The rest of the lp is excellent with a great version of "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue"and the modal waltz of "Wives and Lovers" along with "Bluesette" and "Women of the World".Barnstorming stuff-get some Jimmy Smith into your life!"

Go on'n get it. Take it from me--and not the Tucker Max-reading frat boy on the Megabus who tried to convince me seeing "Dave" 40 times was a worthwhile pursuit.

The Booking Bands project

Last night I was sitting around with some friends, trying to come up with band name/book title mashups. It's SUPER addictive. Eventually, we moved on to other subjects but it was evident everyone was sneaking peeks at the bookshelf and not paying attention to the conversation, only to burst out with "I GOT ONE! LOVE AND ROCKETS IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA!!!"

Because I'm dorkier than most, I went to bed with a pad of paper on my nightstand and shot up several times while falling asleep to write a new one down.

Here's my list:
The Old Man and the Sea and Cake
The Soundgarden and the Fury
The Sun Volt also Rises
The Glassjaw Menagerie
Ladytron Chatterley’s Lover
The Lovely Bone Thugs N’ Harmony
Are you there, Godsmack? It’s Me, Margaret.
The Vanilla Ice Storm
Oliver Twista
My Friend Lynrd Skynrd
Murder by Death of a Salesman
The Joy Division of Sex/Cooking
The Quiet Riot American
Pedro the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
Jimmy Eat a Brave New World

I was pretty jazzed about my list, but then I found this, which is surely the origin of the game. Most of mine are already on there. It kills me that I'm not the first one to think of "Are you there Godsmack? It's me, Margaret," but at least no one has laid claim to a few of them. And really, are there any original ideas?

Got any new ones?

Recording bloopers

I have always loved the Morning News sidebar with their often off-the-beaten-path news links. This one is great: 10 Reocording Bloopers that Made the Album.

One I noticed a few years ago: On "Steven's Last Night in Town" from the Ben Folds Five album Whatever & Ever Amen, you can hear a cordless phone ring in the background at 2:55.

Whoa. I just did a quick Googole search, and it's mentioned in the album's Wikipedia entry:

The album, recorded in Folds' rented house in Chapel Hill, has several lo-fi occurrences. A phone ring can be heard at approximately 2:54 in "Steven's Last Night in Town"; Ben Folds has said the ring was a friend calling from Minnesota, but it came at such a perfect timing, the band decided to leave it in the song. Robert can be heard laughing slightly after it rings as well. Crickets can also be heard in the background of "Cigarette".

Interesting. Guess I'm late to the party on this one.

I feel like there's some other song by another band that catches a dog barking in the background, but I can't remember what it is. It's going to drive me nuts...Any ideas?

Who has a prettier voice?

Or sharper cheekbones than Feist? Seriously, I think if someone tried to slap her (which, I guess, why would someone?), they'd slice their hand right open (don't even get me started on the grammar problems with that sentence...it's Friday).

This was my first trip to the Vic, and I had a great time! Thanks, Feist and Dave.

Immediate Sound

I was at the Hideout last night for People Under the Stares, and while I was waiting around for the show to start, I was looking at the posters. There were tons of really striking ones for Ken Vandermark's Immediate Sound jazz series. The one pictured is from Cricket Press (flickr set here).

And, via the Hideout's website, you can order Hideout posters. Yay Chicago!