Wielding the Axe

Played the first show last night on guitar in years. Did not suck nearly as much as I thought it might. Anthony, the new drummer, was really on. We've only played with him about three time before the show, and it wasn't until Friday night's practice that I was sure we could pull it off.

Met an absolutely great band called The Honored Guests, who played right after us. They had traveled from Chapel Hill and had never played in Philly before. I seriously hope they got paid more than we did (which was not much), as they were travelling home that night back to North Carolina. But they were a freakin' awesome band, and really nice guys who we hung out with and drank a lot with after the show. Looking forward to possibly doing a piece on them for the magazine (which I am long overdue for actually contributing to).

Got a lot of wedding related things doen this weekend so far, and am going to go out and get some more done today. It seems like it was just November and I was telling people how much time we had to figure things out. Now we've got like three weeks. I totally understand why rich people pay someone else to take care of all this stuff, as it can get extremely overhwelming. And we're not even doing anything really elaborate or expansive. Imagine if we were.

Well, Lisa and I have a bunch of crap to get done. And it's James' birthday on Tuesday so we're having some sort of get together at his house tonight (which I found out about like yesterday). So I have to figure out what I'm going to bring. yeah. Off to random tasks.

Kiss Tha Ice, Dogg...

Lisa and I spent most of the day in jewelry stores today looking for wedding bands. It can get quite exhausting, what with looking at these very tiny things and seeing how much they cost and all that. we were succesful and did find two great rings, and at a price that did not break either of our repsective banks. It was weird, though. the second store we went to told us to try this other place on South Street, owned by the salesgirl's husband. On the way there, we stopped in a wholesale jewelry place (it's one store front but holds about ten vendors, all seperate of each other). After spending about a half hour looking at stuff with this one guy, who also told us to try the same place on South because he used to work there. We went, found two great rings, meandered on the stoop of James' wine store for about n hour and went right back in to buy them. And to think everyone was telling us how crazy we were waiting til now to get them.

That was actually not as interesting a story as imagined.

My brother Andrew turned me onto this site called Pandora that essentially creates a radio station for you based on either artists or songs that you input. I've been listening to a station I created most of the evening compiled of the Angry Young Men (Costello, Graham Parker and Joe Jackson) and Robyn Hitchcock. It keeps playing this band called Dept of Energy who I dig a lot.

It kind of says something about the state of radio today where most major market stations and their programmers and invested interests have absolutely no fucking clue what people actually want to listen to. There is no rise to challenge the listener, no attempt to turn anyone onto anything new unless it's the latest flavor being pushed by one of the Big Five. This is mostly just bellyaching that has been said and heard a million times already, but it's something that has really gotten to me over the last several years. Even the one station in Philly (WXPN) that i can actually stand has its own agenda based on playlists and such. Fortunately, it coincides with my own taste enough of the time (I do, however, have little patience for the soft-as-fluff for the latest bastion of male singer-songwriters and faux-r & b that seems to permeate it a lot fo the time).

I feel like we need a revival of the 45rpm single or its equivelant. Bands used to release them every month or so instead of an album (at least the smaller ones did). In the way that Dickens published novels and the Saturday evening Post would publish novellas and serials, it would do two things. It would force bands to put out their best work, as it would be the only thing associated with them for a time. It would also keep that sense of anticipation that comes with getting new music.

I can remember with clarity picking up Kid A or When I Was Cruel knowing very little about them, but still anticipating the tracks nonetheless. It does set up for dissapoinment (The Fragile, REM's Around the Sun, etc), but that's part of the journey of being an avid listener and appreciator. There's going to be crap, but at least you weren't duped into buying it by some faceless ClearChannel station force feeding it down your throat. Dissapointment that arises out of searching something out is still damn dissapointing, but at least you learned something from it and it's far better than just being suckered. I didn't feel like I was suckered into buying Sparta's first album, I purchased it because fo band members' ties to At the Drive-In, a band I loved. As it turned out, it didn't hit me at home like their previous project. Live and learn, chalk it up to experience and move on. Yes, I spent money on an album I don't listen to anymore (I probably gave it to a friend who did like it, so something good did come out of it), but if that's what you're primarily concerned about, then you're not much of a collector.

Anyway, all ranting aside, wedding plans are coming together. June 10th for all those who forgot. For all those who did not get an invite, I apologize sincerely and can only offer the excuse that we only have so much of our parents money to throw on this shindig. We are having a severly less formal blowout in the sancturary of Lisa's work in Philly when we get back from our honeymoon and have time to settle back in a bit. More on that as events warrant.

And here is a picture of an adorable puppy to make this not feel like a total waste of time.