dustinedge.com

We redid a bunch of stuff on dustinedge.com... And shows are coming... Check It Out

Jew(s) and Catholic(s), The Airborne Toxic Event, Dustin Edge, Toadies...

You know that song, "Time in a Bottle?" Well I want to smash that girl in the face every time that commercial comes on when she says that. Other than that, I would totally buy some time. Couldn't care less if it comes in a bottle. So, anyway, here's a bunch of music crap mashed all into one post b/c I'm too lazy to actually keep up with anything anymore.

First, I suppose, is this album. It's been a long long time since I've actually purchased a new CD from a store. I went to Best Buy the other day for some blanks to burn off the zillions of (mostly Radiohead) bootlegs I've been getting lately and decided I'd take the long shot and see if they had TATE's new (and only) record. Much much to my surprise, nestled b/t Air Supply and Akon was a lone copy of "The Airborne Toxic Event." There was no price on it, and I was fully prepared to pay $15+ for it. $11.99? Yes, please. Despite paying less than I would have, it was actually still a pretty annoying purchase given that I'd been purchasing their singles off of iTunes as they came out. And since the first 3 came out as an "EP," you'd think that they'd not include those songs on the "album." But they did and so I had 40% of the record already. Sadly, those songs are the best songs, but the rest of the record is still pretty damn good to me. There's some Franz Ferdinand sound in there every now and then, ("This Is Nowhere") and there was one song I just didn't really care for at all. ("Something New") The lyrics throughout are, however, fantastic. It's strange to open the booklet and see just how much ink is spilled across the page. And it's not wasted words. Words that make me happy and words that make me sad. But very few words that make me feel nothing. And I guess it turns out I actually have very little to say about this. But I like it. Not like I liked them when it was just the four songs out, but I like it. And I'm afraid I'm going to regret this later with all of the MTV talk for Sometime Around Midnight. But for now, I'm happy with this record, and I think it's worth a listen. Or at least worth watching the videos for free on youtube...

When it rains it pours, I guess. After staying out of music stores for a long time, I ended up with 2 new records in a week. Which may or may not have anything to do with having a new job that pays much better than the old one. Regardless, the Toadies actually finally released a new album after... what, like 10 years? I followed Vaden over to the Burden Brothers, but wasn't overly impressed. But No Deliverance (Click to listen for free) is classic Toadies. Even with the lineup change. It's under 40 minutes long, so I was a bit miffed at paying as much as I did, (pre-order from Newbury Comics) but I did get it on the release date... and I did get an extra CD booklet thing signed by the band. Which is kind of neat since I geek out about crap like that. There's nothing really groundbreaking here that I can tell. And if you didn't like Toadies before, I can't imagine you'll like this. But I did and I do. And it's cool that they're touring again. Maybe they'll even come to Charlotte! (that was a joke)

The first time I saw Jew(s) and Catholic(s) was at Snug Harbor as they opened for Silent Weapons. I thought they were freaking amazing. The next time I saw them was right after the Inside EP was released at SKNet again with Silent Weapons. They were great, but it's really too bad that it was at SKNet. b/c that place sucks for shows. This time was at The Milestone, and The Milestone kicks much ass.
So. When I'm left to my own devices I'm rather punctual. Doors at 8:00, show at 9:30-ish. I'm there at 7:45. The bands aren't even there yet. LOSER. But I wanted to film it, and I knew where I wanted to stand. So... whatever. I was definitely the only person there when I went in. Sat at the bar for a minute where Neil (the soundguy) said he'd get me a drink. Double tall Captain and Sprite, please. He pulls out these enormous "shot" glasses. Fills one up and into my cup... fills it up again and there's maybe an inch left for some Sprite. (turns out that the shot glasses were 3 ounces each) So I get my spray of Sprite, hand over SEVEN DOLLARS, (wow! :)) and go sit around and wait. Eventually people started coming in and I saw Eddie and Alanna and caught Eddie long enough to make sure it was cool if I recorded. So for everything that happened from this point on, I blame myself. He was cool about it, so I got my stuff setup and then saw him frantically running around with the drum machine... the AC adapter was fucked. I guess he had a spare, which was good, but that was a rather foreboding sign. The first band that played (The Have and Have Nots) were... fine. Energetic and pretty interesting. But I was tired of it after 2 songs. So, you know, I was pretty happy when Jew(s) and Catholic(s) were second. Everything started off well enough but quickly went downhill as my evil camera eye cursed every guitar that Eddie picked up. Alanna sounded great, and she was right there on time the whole time. But those damn guitars... I guess you can just watch and see if you want to. It was frustrating (and I'm sure FAR more frustrating to them), but I still liked what I heard and it was a fun and entertaining show for certain. Obviously "New Song" is not the name of #5... Hopefully they'll myspace me back with the proper title, and I can fix that. And I need a new camera. I don't know why mine makes movies that are so grainy. I'm pretty sure it used to not do that. I played with the settings a LOT before the show, but I couldn't figure it out. I almost bought a new camera, but Allison needed a camera too, and her birthday was on Tuesday, so I got her one instead. Pretty sure I'm still happier about that. But it doesn't make me less annoyed with the shitty quality of my videos. And I don't feel bad about the quality of the snapshots... I was, after all, videotaping at the same time..............
Jew(s) and Catholic(s) - 16 August 2008 The Milestone Club - Charlotte, NC CD Cover 01 Mirrors 02 Bandits 03 *Shit Goes South* 04 Casino Lights 05 *New Song* 06 Make yr' Mark
The band to play after Jew(s) and Catholic(s) was Red Collar out of Durham. Never heard of them before, and I was a little worried when I saw one of the guys with cowboy boots and spurs. But they were actually a lot of fun. Having a girl bass player also never hurts anything. They reminded me of a slightly softer version of Throw Rag. I bought their EP, which is good... but, as with most bands, nowhere near the live show. I wouldn't necessarily make a special trip out to see them again, but I'd be happy to hear if they were going to be playing with some other band that I already knew I liked. They might be able to win me over just due to the awesome energy on stage. They are going to be at Snug Harbor on Oct. 3, sooo... We shall see, perhaps. The song I recorded is called "Fade Into the Night" (thank you, Jonathan!) It was totally random that I ended up getting this particular song on film, but I was listening to the EP on the way home, and this is definitely better than a lot of the record. Except for, of course, the shitty sound quality...
I also got to see The Lights, Fluorescent for the 2nd time. I'd heard their name around town, but I only ended up seeing them because they played the "Celebrate Women in Music Awards" or something like that. Very poorly run award show that happened at The Milestone a few months ago. I was only there, again, b/c of Silent Weapons. And there were some crappy bands there, for sure. But I really liked this one. So when I saw that they were playing with Jew(s) and Catholic(s), I was pretty damn happy. I'm not plugged in enough to get to go to too many local shows where I actually am familiar with more than one band. So that was nice. They played last and played well. I'm assuming that most people were there for this band as opposed to the others... or everyone was drunk. But definitely everyone was bouncier when they started. And the band absolutely fed off of it too. They played for about an hour, which was nice. But after the set, I got in a "Two More Songs!" scream, and then everyone said it, and the band happily obliged. I reckon I'll be heading out to The Milestone to see them again in a few weeks. Good times. Oh yeah... I bought their CD the last time I saw them... shortly thereafter I got a new CD player for my car, but I left my copy of their disc in the old CD player. So it's still in there. Which sucks. But thank goodness for iTunes. The first song below is, *I think*, called "Cubicle" The second one is "So Sweet (Without a Care)"

And, lastly, Dustin Edge swung back through town a month ago and played a solo acoustic show up at Summit Coffee. I've had these mp3's up for a while, so I imagine that, if you want them, you already got them... but it deserved to be on the front page too. I really had no idea what to expect at all. I knew Cast Iron Filter, and I'd listened to Forest Through the Trees more than most people in the world. But it was beyond me to even hazard a guess as to what this stuff would sound like alone and with nothing but a guitar and a harmonica. Certainly most of the songs bore little resemblance to the multi-layered Forest Through the Trees... at least to an untrained ear such as mine. But it game them all a new life, and it made it doubly fun to hear all the songs stripped back down like that. The handful of CIF songs that were played were definitely recognizable, but definitely also quite different. Harlan County was excellent. oh! And I guess this makes me way out of order, but I can't believe Hot Hot Hot was the opener. One of my favorite Cure songs, and one that I was stoked to get to see at the Cure show a couple of months ago. I guess there were a rather large number of covers, come to think of it. I don't really know anything about "folk" music, so "Long Black Veil" wasn't any sort of touchstone or anything, but it was awesome. "Too Late To Die Young" was not, I believe, in the plan of things to be played... nor was the Untitled song. (Hurray for Encores!) Both of them worked well, and I hope the Untitled one continues to find its life. Bryan took about 9 million pictures... the light is bad out there, so he used the extended shutter thing. Which, I think, made a lot of these come out looking really really cool. Here are a few more... And I'm jealous of all you people in New York. Can't wait to see where all this stuff goes when/if Dustin actually starts getting a band together. I know what I'm gonna do, by God. Oh no, Dustin, don't... I'm callin' 'em up.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!	Loyal fan base...	This is what The Flash would look like if you took a picture of him playing guitar.
Listen as I pontificate as to why this is good...	Even the moon was rocking out...	But, eventually, it's goodnight, Moon.
Dustin Edge - 12 July 2008 Summit Coffee - Davidson, NC CD Cover 01 Hot Hot Hot (the Cure) 02 Yay Rick Spreitzer (talking...) 03 Apartment (tentatively titled...) 04 Mooncursers 05 Hawkeye John 06 The Flat Baritone (The Gourds) 07 Redemption 08 Harlan County, USA 09 Psychoacoustic 10 No One Will 11 Lieutenant Spins 12 Stupid Preoccupations (Vic Chestnut) 13 Buy My Stuff (capitalist propaganda talking) 14 Video Motion 15 Luminosity 16 Intermezzo 17 An Alien Communique 18 The Ideal Citizen 19 Looking for a UFO (Adrian Belew) 20 Men Who Die Young 21 Long Black Veil (traditional) 22 Too Late To Die Young (Dan Bern) 23 Untitled
And lastly lastly, Dustin came back through town again and stooped down to come do open mic night at Jeff's Bucket Shop. I have no photos b/c I just sat my camera over near the stage and let it record the audio. So the sound quality on this is a town worse than the other one, but I actually thought the performance was better. But that may not mean anything other than that I had more to drink. Or maybe that Dustin had more to drink. The phrasing on "Aeroplane Over the Sea..." good lord. Awesome. Except for the bookend covers, these songs were all played at Summit. "No One Will" is a very cool song, I think. Oh. After this was over, I bought a couple of carbombs. Dustin tried to cheat. But he lost anyway. Slut.
Dustin Edge - 05 August 2008 Jeff's Bucket Shop - Charlotte, NC 01 Needle in the Camel's Eye (Brian Eno) 02 Apartment 03 Mooncursers 04 Luminosity 05 Intermezzo 06 An Alien Communique 07 The Ideal Citizen 08 No One Will 09 Men Who Die Young 10 Aeroplane Over the Sea (Neutral Milk Hotel)

something I typed for Crazy Talk:

Although I was too poor to see Spoon, too out-of-time to see SNMNMNM, too I-have-to-teach-Sunday-School-tomorrow to see The Dandy Warhols, and too annoyed to even try to see U2 (is that tonight?  The traffic is going to SUCK on the way home.  Fuck you, Bono.), I did manage to catch the next evolution in the Cast Iron Filter pioneered genre "Irongrass." (What? It was free? shhhhhhhhhhhhh)

The first CIF show I attended was the final show for Mr. Cockrill and the first show for new bassist Mason Bissett.  I had heard some live stuff before but didn't totally dig the albums, but the band live?  I was hooked. Fast forward a few years through a few more lineup changes and the band has decided to part ways for, at least, the time-being. And for a while Michael Orlando focused his mando skills on creating some true bluegrass music with The Carter Brothers. This isn't exactly my scene, so when Mike began talking about getting together with Mason (of all people!) and a drummer(!!) I was, needless to say, stoked. Stoked. There should be a word that means "stoked but apprehensive."

Actually, it's fine that it just means "stoked." Mason and Mike were able to fuse back together brilliantly. It shone especially bright on older CIF tunes with which Mason was already familar - Tamarack being, for me, the prime example. Although the songs weren't perfect and there were flubs, I thought Mason had improved tremendously as a player who is a member of a band. Mason and Mike both always seemed to really like playing a lot of notes. A LOT of notes. But this was subdued - in a really great way. Apparently Frank and Mason had been playing together previously, and it showed. Mason really held back and nailed the song down with the necessary simple walking basslines that many of the songs required. And, when the time came, it was the old Mason again flying all over the fretboard, and I loved it.

Although Mike's gorgeous little electric mandolin didn't make an appearance, we were witness to the nimbleness of Mike's fingers across a range of stringed instruments from the acoustic mandolin to acoustic guitar to banjo to the electric guitar. Ah yes, and he sang. Mike's vocal rendition of Sheila & Jake was becoming a standard at CIF shows throughout the final tour, but I wasn't quite sure what to think of Mike as frontman. He's no Dustin as far as vocal ability goes, but as soon as I started thinking that, I realized that was my problem. This isn't Cast Iron Filter, and Mike isn't trying to be Dustin. He's being Mike. And thank God, b/c that's what he's best at. (whether I - or anyone else - like it *ahem... bluegrass...ahem* or not) There were only 8 unique songs with vocals and Mason (yes, Mason) sang one of those. "My Dear Nashville" was an extremely slow number not to my liking at all, but the other songs shocked me. Most of the subject matter seemed to be somehow involved with love... either you lost it, want it, got it, can't ever have it, or can't wait to get back to it, but even a pretentious ass like myself who prefers to write about why God's a dick found it enjoyable.  Aside from the content, his actual vocal sound was clear and on key, plus I could actually understand most of the words he said.  Which was nice. Mike definitely brought more of his bluegrass taste to these songs than to songs you would expect to hear from CIF, and I think he succeeded in creating a fun and exciting new sound with which he can continue to promote the Irongrass standard.

Oh, and the drummer... the drummer turned out to be Frank Bloom who somehow manages to pull off the duality of being an extremely nice and socialable dude AND a really damned good drummer. Weird. The other guys have their place in Irongrass history... as it were, and Frank's the relative newcomer to the scene. As far as I know. While I can compare Mike and Mason to previous incarnations of themselves, I have no such crutch with Frank. He's the new variable in this equation, and he filled it out very very nicely. The venue itself may have held him back somewhat, but Frank seemed sharp and precise yet very fluid at the same time. Former CIF drummer Brian Burton hit HARD and fast and precise and, for my money, fit the late model CIF very well, but Brian's style would not, however, fit with what Mike is trying to do. Mason and Frank worked well together and there were moments of pure coalescence with the two of them just sitting back and holding the songs together.  It's nice when unknown situations turn out to be much better than I thought they could have been.

Oh.  And the fanboy in me wants to say, "OMG!  And he played with FOUR sticks at once!"
but I'm past that phase of my life and refuse to lower myself to actually finding something someone else is doing interesting and exciting.

I never would have imagined to see Mike and Mason on stage together again, but it was an extremely pleasant surprise. Having Frank Bloom round out the trio was an amazing stroke of luck and probably only the third good thing to have ever come out of Tryon, NC. (including the BBQ) Looking forward to the recording in January and hoping for more shows soon. I will only say one other thing about that. February 2, 2006 - Charlotte, NC. God that would be sweet.

I wouldn't say this is groundbreaking material nor is it REALLY pushing the boundaries of any common sensibilities, but it was good.  And it was fun.  And I enjoyed it for the sake of enjoying it.  And the very last thing?  I should reiterate: this is not Cast Iron Filter.

Now back to my Captain and Sprite.

I've done a LOT of work on the bootleg section here for all of you who care. Finally finished adding all the 2003 PJ shows and am in the process of now adding some from '92 - '94. And by "work", I just mean entering the shows in the database - functionality hasn't really changed. Hm. 02 March 1992 Show Track 8 (Saying No - formerly called Suggestion) is a great great song. Funky, groovy... and it means something... cool. Enough of that tho. Pearl Jam is already famously kick-ass. Cast Iron Filter... made it to the Raleigh and Flat Rock shows this weekend. Met Paco, Nick, Karen, and Chris. Which was good. Nick should have the Raleigh show posted on his site shortly. When he does, I'll definitely post a link here. It was an amazing set including Model-T, Morgantown, Wiregrass, and Murder, but also some 100% NEW songs - Men Who Die Young, Redemption, and Falls of Rough. I'd never heard Redemption before (apparently built off of one of Brian's drumbeats), but it's amazing. From what I could decipher, the lyrics are just as good as the music too. We might have a new forerunner for the album's single. Oh, and I got to run lights in Raleigh... had no clue what I was doing, but it was fun. Probably moved them too much and not enough at the same time, but I was sort of getting the hang of it towards the end. There were definitely a couple of places where I timed it just right, and that was pretty awesome. And, naturally, afterwards, I thought of a zillion things that I would have liked to have done better/differently. Maybe some other time. And maybe I'll get a light that'll just shine on Phil some other time too. We'll see... Got to Hickory at about 7am on Saturday morning, slept 'til noon, then drove to Flat Rock. On the way to Raleigh, David Bowie kept me company with the Remastered Ziggy Stardust soundtrack, and on the way to Flat Rock, Yield cemented itself as one of my top-five favorite albums ever. EVER. I do this thing where I turn the radio up whenever a good song comes on, then I'll turn it back down a little when a not-as-good song comes on. Problem was that I NEVER got to a point where I would want to turn Yield down. Listened to it at least four times in a row b/t Friday night and Saturday. If you don't have this album, I'm BEGGING you to go get it. But I'm off topic again... (Go get Yield) Flat Rock was a shorter set, but still sweet. No Redemption, but Men Who Die Young blazed by with Dustin having a great scream at the end. I really desperately hope they get a good producer on this album. The songs have so much potential... I don't want another Ugly Town... But yes, Flat Rock was good. Sold a lot of stuff, and everyone was very complimentary of the band. It's odd when people tell me "I love you guys so much" or some variation thereof. I mean, come on, all I do is stand around and try to make you buy CD's b/c I think you'll like them. You don't love me, you love THEM. Or, rather, their music. Nevertheless, I say "thank you" and continue to hock my wares... "No, no... you don't want that one... well, actually none of those songs are any of these albums yet... no, the bassist and drummer aren't on any of these albums either... uhm... this is the only one that is similiar to what you're hearing tonight... but it IS 2 for $20, so why not get their first album as well?" You get the idea... The crowd was older... kind of Neighborhood Theater-ish from a couple of weekends ago... but the response was entirely different. While some (SOME) of the N. Theater crowd found CIF somewhat grating, it seemed like everyone at Flat Rock loved them. Sometimes it's nice to have conversations with older people who like the same thing as you as opposed to super super drunk dudes who just want to hear "Like a Prayer." Anyway... good times all around. Both nights. Super tired by the time I got back, but it was worth it. (And if I didn't have to work next weekend, I'd do it again - but I'll still be at Zigggy's on Friday, so come there and say hi, but come early, cuz CIF opens.)

Lots and lots of things happening... relatively. But most importantly to most anyone reading this, the new CIF show is posted. The show was at The Handlebar in Greenville, SC on 04 September 2003. Lots of new stuff... the new songs are all great. Check it out. Got to go to the Spread Your Wings Benefit this past weekend. CIF rocked... obviously... the rest of the bands were good for sure, but none of them "rocked". Weird scene but fun. Although I still hate the Neighborhood Theater for seeing bands, and I will stick by that until they take out the first 15 or 20 rows of seats, get a real bar, and allow smoking. Otherwise it's just... well... crap. I have no idea how they were voted best place to see live music in Charlotte. That is WRONG. But whatever. This was also coming off two nights at Tybee Island. Everyone there was EXTREMELY nice to the band and myself... plus it was on the beach. Nice. Other than the 19-year-old girl who paid about as much attention to me as she did to the music (that is to say: not at all), most of the crowd was either way younger or way older than me. Not that that's a bad thing by ANY means - just means that it's a strange crowd from my point-of-view. Very fun nonetheless. Even though I did lose my sweet sunglasses... And I suppose that's all the music news at the moment. I'll be heading to Raleigh and Flat Rock this weekend, then to Ziggy's and possibly Rocky Mount the following weekend. Although I think I have to work, so Rocky Mount might be a casualty in that battle... Been reading a lot lately... comic books. I don't know ANYTHING about anything. I'm reading the recent series 100 Bullets, and it's really blowing my mind how cool it is. Premise is that someone gives you a briefcase with a gun and 100 totally untraceable bullets. Doesn't even matter if someone sees you pull the trigger - they're untraceable. Inside is also irrefutable proof that someone has directly and intentionally screwed you over in the past and caused your life to take a nose dive for some reason. What you do with the gun is up to you... there's a lot more to it, but that's the basic idea. Very very cool. Also been rereading the entire Sandman series. Just finished Brief Lives the other day and the introduction (that actually appears at the end of the hardcover) by Peter Straub is absolutely brilliant. I used to think I understood these books, but I really never had a clue. There's a new Sandman book coming out today... if you get a chance pick it up and read it. Then read it again. Then read it again. I'm sure it will blow you away. Brief Lives was never one of my favorite Sandman arcs, but now that I am a lot closer to understanding what it's actually trying to say, I find it to be absolutely brilliant. Whenever you die, it's your time to die. Everyone gets the same thing - a lifetime. Is there a word for when you realize that you've forgotten the name of a former lover? Is there a word for when you're introducing two people and, all of a sudden, you realize that you don't remember either of their names? And what's it called... the thing that makes you realize that time is passing? Oh yeah, Change. "I was afraid of that." Change. Is it really that scary? I think the book is sort of trying to say that change doesn't have to be scary. It shouldn't be, and it's necessary to move forward. (Obviously) But people are almost always inherently afraid of change. Stick with the Status Quo and what not. If you do that, will you really be happy at the end of your time? (that's equal to everyone else's - a lifetime) "Brief Lives indeed" says Straub. The intro is just a few pages long - if you can locate it, read it. It will make sense even if you haven't read the book itself. It will, in fact, give much of the plot away, but the ideas it approaches are really really fantastic. Maybe more on that later... after I've re-read it again. And Neverwhere finally came out on DVD in the US. Brian Eno does the music... didn't know that before... very neat stuff. There are definitely some problems with the show (as Neil points out in the commentary), but all-in-all, it's been quite enjoyable. I haven't watched Disc 2 yet, and it's been a while since I've read the novel, so I'm definitely looking forward to the end. I think I remember the big plot twist, but not the details. Don't spoil it for me. That's about it for now. Nothing earth-shattering. Find the Sandman. Listen to CIF. Watch Family Guy. Suggestions from your friendly neighborhood blog. Later...

So. I made it to the Pearl Jam shows and back. In one piece. Raleigh was great night with a good setlist. A decent number of new songs (which are what I wanted to hear), and a few nostalgic ones as well. (read: Alive) True to form, Evenflow showed up, and I got a good Corduroy and Given to Fly. Eddie's funny in GtF. Also, he says practically nothing during the whole show... mighty strange. I didn't get to see the opening band, but they came out for Fortunate Son and Rockin' In the Free World for the encore. It was alright. Growing tired of RitFW tho.

Charlotte was a really weird show too... not in that Eddie didn't talk, but that they played pretty much every single off Ten (Black, Jeremy, Evenflow, and Alive) and very few Riot Act tracks (Save You, Green Disease, Love Boat Captain). We did get another Corduroy, so that was cool. Not to mention getting to hear Breath. No State of Love and Trust either night tho... disappointing. I did see Sleater-Kinney this time, however, and I liked them. They played hard and their voices were really interesting. Nice to have fun with the opening band. Oh, and we heard Eddie at the pre-set singing Driftin' by himself. I REALLY like that song and wish we would have seen him, but hearing it was pretty cool too.

Didn't go to Nashville and Atlanta. Should have. They FINALLY played Bush Leaguer in Nashville for the first time since those 24 people walked out in Denver, Know Your Rights made another appearance, and Steve Earle sang Fortunate Son in the encore. Other than that, tho, I don't suppose I was THAT thrilled with Nashville. I really really would have liked to have gone to Atlanta tho. Baba O'Riley AND Yellow Ledbetter in the second encore. Plus Crazy Mary with Boom's amazing keyboard solo. The rare You've Got to Hide Your Love Away, State of Love and Trust, Glorified G, Porch, 5 new songs, AND Crown of freaking Thorns. I can't believe I didn't go to that show... Live and learn... I guess... but I'm not too sure what I was supposed to learn...

Enough about Pearl Jam I suppose... CIF played a really good show at the Visulite here in Charlotte the Saturday before. Dustin's voice was back on track, which was GREAT. I know Mike, Mason, and Brian are all really really great musicians, but, really, I have the most fun when Dustin's voice is %100 and he really makes the show his. He can do the rhythmic singing thing very well. But anyway, all-in-all, the band was tight, and I thought the show went really well. A kick-ass Soky was the encore and the energetic crowd got them out for a second encore and a rockin' rendition of Baba O'Riley. (So take THAT, Pearl Jam. Bitches.) I was pretty stoked about this show and was hoping to post a more in depth review thing that really would just make me feel good about writing even if noone ever read it. And I wanted to post it so everyone else could hear it. Unfortunately, the CD was over in the middle of Soky Fair. Sucked, but I figured the Baba encore was a cool thing to have saved just for the crowd. Sucked even more to find out that the recording of the whole show got screwed, so we ended up with nothing. Hope that everyone who went enjoyed it. If you didn't go... Shame on you. It was well worth the ten bucks.

CityFest is this weekend... Live was supposed to play on Saturday. I'm a big Live fan. If you ever looked at my cd database, you know this. I was excitied. Bought my tickets way in advance. Foo Fighters'll be there on Saturday too. Sounds awesome. Then I hear that Collective Soul (?!?!?) is going to show up on Friday. I thought they were heading out due to some lineup changes... guess I was wrong. So, I was super-psyched, cuz I like Collective Soul too. They're a GREAT radio band and I like most of the CD's as well as the singles. But then I found out that Collective Soul was REPLACING Live instead of supporting them. Last time I saw them, I had to sit through Counting Crows as the main act. Then, they skipped this area all together for the V tour, and now they cancel the show?? NOT happy with Ed and the boys right now. I don't think I have anything else to whine about or criticize right now. If something comes to me, it'll probably be here. I'll do my best to get another good CIF show uploaded by the end of next week.

Today was Shakespeare's birthday, btw. RIP
And my dad's birthday too. RIP

life and transience and whatnot...

Primative Radio Gods were an awesome band, btw. Rocket is one of my favorite albums, and White Hot Peach is up there as well. I can only imagine that releasing Standing Beside a Broken... as their first single killed them. That song is WAY "poppier" than anything else. The people that liked the song wouldn't have liked the album, and the people that would have liked the album wouldn't have bought it b/c of the single. If you're wondering why I bought it, I hadn't heard the single... it was just the cheapest CD in the new releases section, and I was almost broke. Very serendipitous. I've still got a lot of catching up to do with the bootleg database. I should have this weekend to myself tho, so hopefully I'll get a chance to get everything updated. Saw the Making the Video for Avril last night. I think I'd like her a lot more if MTV didn't like her so much. She certainly came across as... well... an 18 year-old girl. :-/ (No offense to all the 18 year-old girls, of course.) Finally bought and watched Lawrence of Arabia. Hence the new quote at the top. AMAZING movie, and he was an amazing man. I have a copy of his Seven Pillars of Wisdom on the way. If I'm ever able to actually slog through damn-near 700 pages, it'll be a miracle. But anyway, if you haven't seen the movie, you should. They definitely diefy Lawrence, which seems a little strange, but it really is a great movie, and Peter O'Toole really was amazing. Not to mention Alec Guiness doing a FANTASTIC job as Prince Feisal. All in all, it just pissed me off that the Arabs weren't ever able to unite and that they're still in the same situation today. The Arabs, as a people, really were a great people. It's so sad that the Middle East has become such a political hotbed. Not to say that a lot of it isn't our (Britain, France, US...) fault, but still. Now. CIF. I have a really good show that I'm dying to upload, but it hasn't been a month for the Potbelly's show yet. The number of hits I've been getting lately is declining, so I'm assuming that most everyone who wanted Potbelly's has already gotten it. I'm going to try and get this new show (Charlottesville, VA - March 7th) uploaded sooner rather than later. It's soundboard, and they even got Howie to come down and play a few songs with them. Overall, I think it's one of the better shows I've heard. Except that I really wish they'd quit playing Moonshiner live. It's such a downer...

journals

So I finished reading Kurt's journals. Very disappointing that the suicide note wasn't at the end. Still, there was a lot of really great stuff in there. Also a lot of teenage punk bitch stupid stuff, but that part was cool too. "I no longer need to be inspired, just supported." GREAT line, and I really need to get to that point in my life. Right now, I still need to be inspired.

There are three types of music. Music for the Money, Music for the Music, and Music for the Emotion.

Most of the crap on the radio today falls squarely into the first category. Producers and executives find a band that has some musical talent and maybe some ideas of their own. The band is then pressed into servitude with the allure of money, fame, cars, drugs, girls... whatever. All at the low low price of their integrity. No integrity? No problem. Hell, that's even better, because the labels can then avoid the cost of brainwashing. Backstreet Boys? No integrity. Talent? Sure. I'd love to be able to sing like that. Would I sell out? Probably. There's a market for the music, and someone's going to fill the niche, so it might as well be me. Our Lady Peace. Talent? Sure. Integrity? well, I feel like they used to have it. But this new stuff is just garbage. There's a rock formula out there, and OLP was duped into following it. For the money and the fame. Just ask Nickelback. Or Creed. Or any other number of neuvo-alternative acts running around the country these days. They all know the formula, and they all stick to it. The music doesn't mean anything anymore because, while they may have great ideas and the songs may be bursting with emotion, the emotion is being expressed using someone else's formula. This isn't inherently a bad thing. Not everyone has the talent to express themselves uniquely, and having an outlet pioneered by others is something we should all be thankful for. But I don't think that expressing one's self through that same outlet is worthy of the adoration and wallets of millions of fans. These bands are short-lived. They will always be short-lived because they are contrived to fit a niche in the market. A niche that won't always be the same, and a niche that demands fresh blood with each successive generation. Ride the wave while you can, but expect to crash.

Currently, I feel like Cast Iron Filter fits into the second group. All the guys are very talented musically, and the music is highly original, but sometimes I'm not sure what drives them to play. Stories about made-up truck drivers, fake shoot-outs, and imaginary street races are all very well and good, but I've had a hard time figuring out what drives these kinds of songs. But now I think it's the music. The simple drive to make the best most original music they can. And it's working. I've heard the songs a zillion times, but I can still get fired up for the heartfelt closing verse of Soky Fair (yes, even tho it's a cover), the When You Don't solos are always insane, and Running Free always makes me feel like that's exactly what I should be doing. Overall, however, it seems like Cast Iron Filter is focused on making good music rather than evoking emotion. This shouldn't be taken as a slight by any means. I think it's very admirable, and maybe reaching this conclusion will help me take the next step towards understanding their growth as a band. While this path is certainly one worth taking, I think it's much more difficult to gather fans and supporters. It's sometimes difficult to identify good music. You have to care about it enough to actually LISTEN to what's going on instead of just trying to feel it. Good music should evoke emotion, but music whose primary goal is to be good music requires the listener to put forth some effort before the emotion will come through. Nothing lasts longer than good music. People's emotions fade and immaturity gives way thoughtfulness, but music is mathematical, and solid musical composition can be as everlasting as any theorem or postulate.

Now, Nirvana made music for the sake of emotion. Kurt NEEDED this outlet for his feelings and emotions to slow his downward spiral. Early Nirvana is not necessarily a musically adept band. But they were extremely emotionally charged. Every song meant something. Even if it was just a cheap stab at the recording industry (Radio Friendly Unit Shifter) or attempting to show men the evils of rape (Polly), each and every song had personal meaning and the point of these songs was to get the emotion across to the listener. Everyone knows what unrequieted love feels like, ("Hurts me so much, it makes me sick.") and Aneurysm can make you feel that pain. This stuff is accessible because everyone has emotion, and you're going to like music that you can relate to. The problem with these kinds of bands is that they can lack longevity. Unless they can change and adapt. Eventually your fans will grow tired of feeling those same emotions, and you'll be left behind. For some bands, it's fine to make a mark, then fade away to reunion concerts and benefits in the park. This wasn't what Kurt wanted tho. He wanted to change the system and change the country. Falling into relative obscurity was not an option.

ugh... I've hit a block and don't know what I'm talking about anymore. I'll probably edit this later, cuz I'm sure some of this is just dumb and doesn't make any sense. I need a THESIS STATEMENT. Stupid high school english. Hope I didn't waste too much of anyone's time. La, la. -jim