A Cry for Help

One of my standard comedic lines is "Music is the soundtrack to my life". It's meant to be funny, but at this point I have said it so much that it is starting to have real meaning.

Less than Jake, my favorite band in the world, released a handful of songs from their upcoming b-sides album today. I have been pretty forthcoming about my dissapointment with "Anthem", their last album. I'm proud to be able to say that these b-sides smoke almost everything off of "Anthem". It's quite ironic really - "B Is For B-Sides" is 12 songs that were recorded during the "Anthem" sessions and left off the album. The point here? I love music. Hearing these songs at the beginning of my workday completely shaped my mood for the rest of the day. I was giddy like a school boy thinking about the fact that these songs reminded me of "Hello Rockview" era LTJ.

Just like most die hard less than jake fanatics, I also have become a Wilco fan as of late. I really respect that a band that shouldn't be internet savy has been consistantly shaping the face of digital music. After getting dropped by their record label, the put "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" online and the album was a huge commercial success because of it when it was eventually released. Now with "A Ghost Is Born" they streamed the entire CD months before release. This works for them for two reasons. 1.) They have faith in their fans - and trust that they will buy the final copy. 2.) They included an amazing enhancement on the CD so that the hardcopy is a worthy investment. Buy "Ghost" and get a quicktime stream of a full 130 minute live show recorded on June 12th 2004 (how's that for a quick turnaround?). I saw Wilco on this same tour and can tell you that this is the best CD enhancement ever - Wilco is jaw droppingly good live.

Rock and roll happens to real people too. My good friends in local not-ska-anymore band "Monty's Fan Club" head out today on their biggest national tour so far. Tonight they play their first ever gig at CBGBs and then they are off to Cali to play on the remainder of this years Warped Tour. Fucking cool huh? I used to help them load in and then wreck all their shows. They will be keeping a road journal along the way - follow along, won't you?

Picked up a great CD with a great title yesterday. "Fucking A" by The Thermals. Peep it - it rocks.

Anyone looking for something to do in RI this weekend? I will be kicking it live in a special one off Friday night Unexpected Company show at 8:18 at the Warwick Museum of Art. We will be grilling dogs and burgers, making people laugh, and generally starting the holiday weekend off right.

I'm in a fantastic fucking mood.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 1st, 2004 at 5:58 pm and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.