Blog taking a backseat...
12 Questions with Joshua Radin
Click here to read InsideSTL's 12 Questions with Joshua Radin. He's a singer-songwriter originally from Ohio. He went to college with Zach Braff and Cary Brothers. It might the closest I ever get to my celebrity brother.
Stupid blogger...
So, a few people have told me they can't leave comments on my blog anymore. This started when they made me switch over to the new Beta version. Did any other bloggers out there have this problem? Can anything be done? I've looked on blogger.com for years to find a simple e-mail address in hopes of getting a straight answer. But, nothing.
The kids aren't alright...
Last night, Cheers Heavy and I went to The Shins concert in St. Louis. It was shocking at the number of high school aged kids at the concert. What was even more shocking was the number of junior high aged kids at the concert. I went to a lot of concerts back in 6th and 7th grade, but nothing ever as cool as The Shins and certainly not without parental supervision.
Let's look past the fact that these unattended, easily influenced children could have easily scored their first cigarette or cup of beer. That's an obvious consequence of letting your children go unaccompanied to a rock concert.
Let's talk about the behavior of these children. Sure, I guess they are much cooler than I was in 6th grade. I was going to concerts like MC Hammer and Boyz II Men. Never Warrant or EMF. But, I never acted as embarrassingly as they made me feel for them last night.
These kids EMBARRASSED me.
Viva Voce was the opener and they begun with a quite literal song entitled "We Don't Fuck Around." They also reprised their (to me, unnecessary) proclamation of their bad-assity at the end of their set. They sing the word "fuck," like, 53 times throughout this song. Fine, little kids are hearing the F-bomb dropped right and left. I'm sure they've heard - and said - worse.
But, then this little squirt who couldn't have been more than 11 stands up next to me when The Shins come out on stage and screams, "Yeah! We don't fuck around!" Shut up. Just stop it. You are not cool.
And there were three teenage girls performing choreographed routines to "Phantom Ship" and another couple who dove into some fancy footwork. Again, stop it. This isn't the high school prom of your dreams. We don't bust out planned moves at rock concerts. I'm embarrassed for you.
Oh, and there were plenty of twerps wearing their newly purchased concert tees over the clothes they already wore to the concert. Seriously, someone needs to tell them.
I kept telling Cheers Heavy that I did not act like that. I didn't smoke or sip on a Bartles & James either. But, after much contemplation in the last 24 hours, I've determined that I was still cooler than those twerps were back in the day.
I'm pretty sure of it.
12 Questions with Viva Voce
They were scary. Click here.
12 Questions with Steve Ewing (formerly of The Urge)
He was definitely a man of few words. But, click here to read.
Myspace is awesome...
So, the only reason I joined Myspace to begin with was because I wanted to look at pictures of Sound Team, this band I had gone to see at the Hi-Pointe (R.I.P.) with Jables last June. I ended up sending them a message to ask if they would answer the "12 Questions" for InsideSTL, and they said yes. I was psyched. In the past three days, I've taken over some of the editorial duties for InsideSTL's music section. Since last June, I've written an article once a week. Now, I am updating the CD releases, the concert calendar, and the band profiles, along with editing/posting others' articles. It's not that I have the time; but I know somehow I'll make the time. And hopefully turn this section into something much cooler than it currently is. I know that the "12 Questions" feature gets the most hits, which is what we need to sell ads. I decide to blanket the Myspace band circuit with an e-mail request, inquiring if particular bands would be interested in participating. In less than 24 hours, with about thirty e-mails sent, I've gotten four responses. Viva Voce (opening for The Shins in the Lou in a week), Cary Brothers, Joshua Radin, and Eagles of Death Metal. In closing, if you know of anyone in a band or anyone doing anything musical and cool, please send them my way.
Oh, Jude.
I am visiting my folks this weekend to relax and spend some quality time at home. Tonight, I drank wine, graded papers, and hung out with my parents on the couch. For some reason, we started playing this "game," in which we all had to sing a song that started with an A...then a B...then a C...We made an allowance for Q. Once we got to V, we all sat in silence for quite awhile. I busted out the oldies for all the other letters, so my parents could be in the know. But, I blanked on an oldie for V. So, I said, "You guys probably don't know this one, but it's called 'Veronica' and it's by Elvis Costello." And I started singing.After five more minutes, my mom said, "You guys probably don't know this one, but it's called 'Vicious' and it's by Deaf Lepper." And she said "Vicious" with a hissing voice. I think I might have peed my pants.
