Hooray for Earth!

Sometimes I'm not sure if I like a band live because they're actually great or if it's because the mixture of vodka and soda has clouded my eardrums so much that I have no idea what I am hearing (case in point: my dancing to French Kicks last week when I was only lukewarm to them prior to the show.)

When I was doing my write-ups for Saturday's show, I started getting anxious about Hooray for Earth. Even though they're from Boston, I'd never seen them live before and their songs online sounded excellent. I'm always hoping to find my New Favorite Band at The Plan, but I've been let down in similar circumstances, so I tried not to get my hopes up too much.

Come Saturday and their songs are LIVE IN MY EAR and I'm loving it. Catchy poppy rock songs that are just fucked up enough to make them interesting. Oh man! Best band ever!! I left that night excited to add yet another band to my "great band" rolodex. But once again. The vodka sodas. I was unsure.

With that in mind, I am currently double checking my assessment from the other night. Were they really that good? Am I excited over nothing? The answer, my friends, is yes and then no. They are that good and I'm not excited over nothing. This band is fun as heck. So they're in there. They're rolodexed in Bethany's Rolodex of Great Bands. Magic!

Update

Atlantic Rhythm and Blues: 1947-1974= perfection.

Freaky Friday

I'm choosing to spend my Friday evening listening to Little Radio.. Well at least for the next half-hour. My dear friend Greg (aka DJ Never Forget) is hosting his first show this evening from 7-9pm EST. I used to listen to Greg's show back when he was on KWVA, so this is almost the same, except I'm not hoping he'll play records I'm working. Anyway, hopefully when I go to New York in a couple weeks I'll be "stopping in" (hanging out at his apartment) and "guest DJing" (making him play songs I like.)

I stopped by Cheapo Records after work today. I've had my record player for a few months now but haven't gotten much use out of it... so i decided it was high time I pick up some new old stuff to listen to. I have no idea what I bought for the most part, but I'm gonna spend the rest of my evening finding out what was a mistake and what wasn't. Adventure!

American Graffiti: Oldies But Goodies, 41 Original Hits
Mitch Ryder and the Detriot Wheels: Greatest Hits
Atlantic Rhythm and Blues: 1947-1974
Quebec Rock: Vol 2

You Speak To Me

Happiness Writes White

It's been a self-imposed Week of Nothing this week. Which pretty much means I stay home from shows/bars/stores/the general public and get myself together after a couple weeks of more-than-usual socializing.

The Weeks of Fun were exceptionally great. Lots of staying out late and dragging myself to work in the morning, lots of good meals and good friends and feeling a little mushy about things sorta coming together. There's been three birthdays in the past 2 1/2 weeks. Actually four, if you count The Plan's third anniversary.

After this week, things will be in full swing again. Carl's birthday BBQ is Sunday, followed by the Page France/Canada show at GS. Lights-of-my-life Justin Spindler and Brooke Black will be in town for the night and the next day there's plans for a group trip to the beach. Mason Proper will (finally!) be in town the next weekend with Faces on Film and The Sharking, and then there's shows from Figurines, Tapes N Tapes, Cold War Kids, Smoosh, MY SHOW WITH BIRDMONSTER, THE TALK AND AGE RINGS, The Lashes and many more for the rest of June and then I get on a plane back to Seattle for a week.

As it turns out, I'll be in town for Suicide Squeeze's 10th Anniversary Celebration.. which means there'll be some extra special people in town... Namely Lindsey from Merge, Luke from CITR, Derek from CJSW, Justin from CFUV and possibly Eric from KCRW. I have a feeling my mom is going to be upset with me for having way too many things to distract me from family time.

Heard some great news recently from two of my most loved bands..

First, Jay of Light Footwork said he's working on some remixes of songs from their album Red State, Blue State... which I am dyyyyyying to hear. Not only that, but they're planning on hitting the east coast in the fall if all goes as planned. We've already been brainstorming ways to throw a great "CMJ warm-up" show in Boston. I'm sure they'll be more details soon.

This morning I got a myspace message from Mr. Sean Nelson of Harvey Danger letting me know that with the re-release of Little By Little through Kill Rock Stars, the band would in fact be hitting the road.. Now I've been lucky enough to see them the last two times I've been in Seattle, but anyone who comes to The Plan knows how often I throw on their music (umm sometimes more than one song a night.. umm sometimes multiple songs in a row.. baaaad dj!) and how much i would die if they played on Great Scott's stage. So I'm crossing my fingers. Perhaps you should do the same.

Thank god for Macs and Flickr

cause now i can post pictures of bacon really easily.

When You Wasn't Famous

There's a lively discussion about Scott's run-in with Sufjan happening on Stereogum right now so I thought I would share some of my "famous people" stories that, oddly enough, all have something to do with SISTERS. It's theme week here on my blog.

When I was a kid I was good friends with Caitlin Hererra, which means I spent a lot of afternoons at her house playing Mike Tyson Punch Out and discussing her crush on Macaulay Culkin. Her brother Mike didn't start MxPx until later. I think she hated my guts by then.

In another "I knew their sister" story, in 6th grade I was in the Bremerton Community Theater's production of Inherit the Wind. I shared the part with three other girls, including someone named Megan Gibbard. I didn't figure out until college, when my friend was roommates with her, that Megan Gibbard was Ben Gibbard's sister. Since parents tend to force their kids to support their siblings, I'm guessing that I can say that Ben Gibbard saw Inherit the Wind. That means that he watched ME perform. AHAHHA!!!! Thank god I've resisted the urge to bring this up to him at any point since.

In 11th grade I flew to Hawaii for a couple weeks with my friend's family and spent many days burning my skin on the beach. During one such afternoon, I was scanning the hot dudes (not really) throwing a football around by the water(also not true) when two familiar faces walked by. Thinking that I was staring at them, one of them said a friendly "hello." After they walked by, I realized it was none other than SISTER SISTER. Not sure if it was Tia or Tamera though. Celebrity lives are so glamourous.



I've exhausted myself.

Things I've been doing:
Nearly setting ZuZu on fire with Laura's birthday candles.
Dancing + bowling + DJing + drinking water to compensate for the drinking of booze

Things I've been listening to:
Birdmonster
The Long Winters' new record (which is SO SO SO GOOD)
Sound Team
Gnarls Barkley
Figurines
Dirty Pretty Things

Now 100% More Fun

One of the saddest things about no longer being in school is not being able to celebrate those little milestones like finishing finals by selling back my books and using the money to buy a bottle of champagne and spending the afternoon drinking it on the porch while wearing a cowboy hat (ahh what a great day that was.) Luckily, Laura's around for me to live vicariously through.

Last night I met up with Laura and Eli at Peet's Coffee in Harvard Square, where Heather was finishing up her shift. We headed over to Shay's and settled into a table for next few hours, wine a-flowin' and beer a-goin'. Over the course of the night we managed to rack up $88 dollars in food and drink, analyze Laura and Heather's dating habits, talk about AIDS and bird flu, discuss old friends, cheer Laura's decision to stick with Boston, protein folding and more.

p.s. waitresses don't seem too interested when you get excited about them playing The Weakerthans in the bar and don't really care that they're playing Boston in July. But OH MAN WEAKERTHANS IN JULY!!!!

p.p.s "It's like the Ghostbusters, but with cheese" "It's like the transverse vs. the vertical"

We left Shay's for The Middle East (cause you know, it was still early) and along the way Heather and Laura managed to fall/launch onto the T-stop floor and L-train did a few pull ups in the T. I let the girl sitting next to her that "SHE JUST FINISHED HER FINALS. SHE'S IN GRAD SCHOOL."


I've been listening to Girl Talk (aka Greg Gillis) a lot lately. I was sent the latest record by noneother than Justin Spindler who promised that I would love it. And I do. Every track is a clusterfuck of short samples layered on top of eachother, so one minute you're listening to "Holla Back Girl" on top of "Friends of P" and then it's "My Humps" over "Heartbeat." Right now it's "Yeah" with "Milkshake" interupted by "Tears of a Clown" and "Pump Up the Volume." I think my brain is melting.

Give Me a Break!

How great is John Stossel? I mean really. When I used to spend most Friday nights huddled in front of the TV watching 20/20 and shoveling popcorn into my mouth, I was always impressed with his gusto. He's the sort of reporter that gets in the VP of Frito Lays face and calls him out on his bullshit. I figured out that ABC has transcribed some of his segments for your reading pleasure on the internet...

"And you know that when it comes to some of these serving sizes, it's time to say, "Give me a break!" "

"But some politicians say we should import the bureaucratic mess Ontario has created?
Give me a break. "

"Fighting for freedom is one thing. But freedom doesn't mean you own your job. Give me a break"

Absolute genius! This man deserves to be put in a golden chair and paraded around like a prized pig. Can someone please buy me his book?

It's Wednesday and it's rainy, therefore I decided it was questionable fashion day. I'm not a big fan of the "boot fad" that's been happening lately.... But I did allow myself to pick up a pair that Aimee had found for me in dollar-a-pound. I'd worn them once until now. They'd been buried in my closet but I dragged them out, figuring that the extra heighth would give me the elevation needed to avoid dipping my whole sock into a puddle. On top of wearing the boots, I decided to try out my flying squirrel shirt as well (another dolalr-a-pound find.) Outside of its awardly winged arms and extra fabric around the waist, the shirt is fantastic with a high collar that buttons up the side. So who knows. Maybe this was just adventurous fashion day. Maybe tomorrow I'll wear leggings and Uggs.

Teaspoon, Teaspoon

Today is brown food day. I realized this as I was deciding what to snack on out of my brown paper bag. Almonds, dry high fiber cereal.. or... I've already eaten brown eggs this morning. The eggs weren't brown but the shells were, so that counts. I'm not sure if cous cous is considered brown, but I have that too. I think it's time to add more colorful fruits and veggies to my diet. I mean, I already dyed my hair brown.. what's next? Perhaps I will wear brown nylons and let them gather at my cankles ankles.

I heard some good news today. It's not that good, because I enjoy making fun of them more than almost any other band, but rumor has it that Elkland is no more. Who else can I mock for wearing gold chains and a Gucci sweatshirt and doing a creepy robot dance when they play? They'll be sorely missed.

I had a chat with my co biggest-flirter Christine about YouLikeIt.com today. It's been sort of out of my mind for a few months now with the crunch of winter/spring but I really need to sit down and figure out how and when I could get the site going.. Everyone I talk to thinks it's a good idea and I think (hope) that it would be an interesting alternative to other sites out there. I'm being cryptic for those who don't know what my idea is, but that's only so some a-hole doesn't come along and STEAL IT. Jerks! Anyway, I've been taking on a lot lately but I feel like this is something that needs to be done, and soon.. so maybe I can find a few more hours during my week. And then maybe I'll be rich in a few years and be able to start my record label and take over the world. Indeed.

JAM

Flies are so ridiculously stupid. Seriously. There's this gigantic one repeatedly trying to escape out of the closed window in front of my desk. Every time he just bounces off.. every time he fails to notice there's an OPEN DOOR like 2 feet away. No wonder they have such short life spans. Idiots.

I went to the dentist for the 2349808 time yesterday and had to lay there with my mouth open for three hours while Edward repaired the lower right side of my mouth. Now my whole bottom row of teeth is cavity free. I just wish he hadn't JAMMED the needle into my jaw cause now I feel like I've been chewing an entire bag of Big Chew for three days or something. Damn you Edward! Also, I think it's very strange that I consistantly fall asleep in the dentist chair. I don't think it's normal. There's something about rock concerts and dentists and television that put me to sleep. Who knew?