What I'm Listening To...

Ra Ra Riot's new album The Orchard came out this past Tuesday. Aside from employing my #1 musician crush, they put on some really fun music. This is "Boy" the first single from the album (featuring cats!)

St. George

Last weekend, Shalane and I took a roadtrip down to St. George. We spent most of our time at Nika's volleyball tournament (they went 0-8 but stayed optimistic until the bitter end) but also took our first trip to Zion National Park and watch Tarzan performed @ Tuacahn. Here are a few pics from our trip!

Me in front of the Checkerboard Mesa.

I've eaten at Jimmy John's a time or two, but I think they really deserve a Paper Badge shout out. Fastest sandwich (and maybe food) ever. Delicious bread. Jimmy John's, you got it going on!

Even though the team lost a lot, my sister played great. Sadly, during the one game they almost (and should have) won, she was sent to the JV game to work the line. Bleh.

We met up with my friend Kelsha, who is preparing to leave on her mission in a few weeks.

Shalane was happy with her seating arrangement.

We Titmusses are great at taking pictures.

Trapped

So last week I was perusing the blog of my favorite Salt Lake-based music writer, Mr. David Burger, when I came across a contest. The contest was for two free tickets to The Temper Trap concert going on tonight. To enter, you needed to write in five words or less why you wanted the tickets. I wrote, "Amazing band. I am poor." And wouldn't you know it, I won the tickets. (In possibly related news, I may have been the only person to enter.) So tonight I'll be rocking out to the Trap. Since you won't be there, enjoy one of their songs on me:

Current Song Stuck in My Head

Life Changing New Porn.

...ographers. Haha. Sorry I had to go there. Just for the record, this post is in no way about about porn. It's all about these guys:

The New Pornographers (there name is a reference to when rock and roll music was dubbed "the new pornography" by some crusty square) I was just trying to be funny and use whatever means I could think of to get someone to actually read this. Anyway, moving on...

My friends and I made the trek back to Salt Lake for week 4 of the Twilight Concert Series. We've made it somewhat of a tradition to stop at Wendy's before the show. Emily and Kasie were super excited about their kid's meal toys.

We had a few minutes to kill, so I gave Spencer his own personal concert of our favorite Chuck Berry song.

Here is a pic of the stage at Pioneer Park.

The opening band, The Dodos. They were quite impressive.

My sister Shalane and my cousin Cristy joined us at the show this week. Yay! (You can tell who got the attractive genes in our family. Not me.) They elected to stay in their blanket spot while me and my friends went up closer for the main event. They thought it would give them a better chance of getting hit on.

The girls and I pose in our sweet spot. Spencer was supposed to be in this picture...

...and he was a little sad about not making it in the shot.

More gratuitous shots of ourselves...

I'm trying to show off my New Pornographers shirt here but didn't get the right angle going. Spencer is obviously the more accomplished shirt model.

And here is the band we have all been waiting for...

Notice the guy with the dark, bushy hair with his back facing the audience? That's Dan Bejar, one of the (four) lead singers in New Pornographers. He finally came on stage during the band's second song and went back stage during half the songs only to return with a full cup of beer. If he was onstage and not singing, he spent the entire time doing exactly what he is above, not looking at us.

Neko Case and Carl Newman, two more of the band's singers.

I'm pretty much in love with Neko Case. (mostly for her voice) I told her I loved her about a million times during the show. (Mostly in my head)

I had to take a picture of the guy playing the cello in background because he made a lot of weird faces while he was playing. Unfortunately, I took a picture of him during the one moment he wasn't making a weird face.

Here is Kathyrn Calder, the fourth singer in the band. What a revelation she was.

She even played the accordion!

Now that you've made it to the end of the post, you are probably wondering, was it any good. I say unto you, YES! I've been waiting to see these guys live for years and they lived up to the hype, surpassed the hype, and ran back to the hype and punched it in the face like Ronnie did in season one of Jersey Shore. They played 24 songs, each one full of energy. The talents of each member of this super-group gelled together perfectly giving the audience a euphoric trip into musical ecstasy. This will easily rank among the top 10 concerts I have ever attended. Good porn indeed. :)