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Since I have lost most of my material, time, and purpose to blog, here's another beautiful music video.

Another Other

I need to give a shout-out to Other Lives. Their performance from a week ago is still resonating with me on a pretty deep level. Here is a live performance of my favorite OL song, Paper Cities. Listen. Emote. Ponder. Love. Forgive. Promise. I dunno. Just give it a try! It's good!

Two for Two

Last week I was able to spend two days doing what I do best, go to concerts.

Thursday was the opening night for the 2011 Twilight Concert Series. I must say, it started off with a thud. The opening band, No Age, was so horrendous they will forever be enshrined in my Hall of Fame of Crappy Live Bands. (Hello, A Place to Bury Strangers) Luckily, the headliner Explosions in the Sky saved the day. Their music was perfectly fitting for dusk on a summer evening. After all my friends bailed, I remained at the show alone until they played Your Hand In Mine. Totally worth it. Not the best TwiCon overall, but it certainly had its moment.

The next day I was lucky to attend The Rosebuds and Other Lives at The Urban Lounge. I have been a big fan of Other Lives ever since I saw them at Lollapalooza two years ago. Their self-titled album is one of my go-to albums whenever I need to chill. Seriously, give it a try. Much to my surprise, they didn't play a single song from that album. Every song they played came from the new one, Tamer Animals. Despite my disappointment, the show was great. Their folksy sound filled the venue and reminded me of my experience listening to them for the first time. The Rosebuds (listen to this) were also a delight despite playing to a crowd well below 100. (Other Lives has some family connections that attended the first act and then left) The band highlights a couple who married and wrote their most recent album as they went through a divorce. The best moment of the night came when the band all gathered near the front of the stage to perform an acoustic version of "Nice Fox" (see below) They had what was left of the crowd huddle around the band and lead us in a sing-along. It was perfect. I wish you could have been there.

A Little Something...

...while you (meaning Ben, my last remaining reader) wait for the top 5.

This is my favorite song of the day. And probably tomorrow. It's that good.

Guns n' Roses n' Cellos

What the 80s???

The song Take Me Home Tonight by Eddie Money does not appear in the movie Take Me Home Tonight. Yeah, I know. I figured I would just cut right to the chase on this one. When Take Me Home Tonight, the movie, came out a few months ago I was curious. A movie starring Topher Grace and Dan Fogler did little to excite me. But the title of the movie got the gears in my mind turning. The Eddie Money song is one of my favorite 80s songs and I quickly imagined an inspiring montage set to the song at the climax of the movie. Or maybe the song would back the opening credits. Or possibly it would pop up three of four times. No matter what that song could sell even the worst of movies. That song is clutch.

Fast forward to this afternoon. After missed attempts to catch the movie in the theaters, I finally got around to seeing it. The song didn't start the movie. The song never played from the car during a driving scene. The song didn't accompany a romantic kiss. No song during a montage. It didn't even pop up during the closing credits. IT WASN'T IN THE MOVIE AT ALL!!!! Are you kidding me???? That is like E.T. without E.T. Muppets Christmas Carol without the Muppets. To be completely honest, the movie sucked. (Not a surprise) Not funny. Not clever. Not cool. If anyone knows of a movie with that song in it, let me know. Until then I will fill that void with this YouTube clip.

A Pleasant Surprise

Do not adjust your computer screen, these are real words appearing on my blog. You won't believe this but I'm actually going to write more than one sentence too. So it is no secret that my move to Salt Lake has been somewhat of an inconvenient disaster. I've been through two jobs and am moving on to a third shortly. My car has been through one minor accident and a smashed sunroof. The weather has been awful. I'm not trying to complain just to illustrate that greener pastures sometimes take a while to grow. I still have high hopes that I will be able to find my niche in this city and make this move worth the struggle. Luckily, one of my Salt Lake goals (being closer to sweet concerts) has not disappointed one bit. The Lady Gaga show was completely worth the ten month wait. Pinback was a lot fun despite the dumb, dumb, dumb crowd of idiots. Menomena was fab and Arcade Fire blew the roof off of my mind-house. But, I have rarely been so impressed with a band as I was last night with The Head and the Heart. I had listened to a few songs from their self-titled debut album and figured they would be a good excuse to get myself out of the house. So I grabbed my friend Chris and away we went. Kilby Court was packed with several devotees and curious onlookers like myself. The band played with a contagious energy that lasted throughout the show. Since band is still somewhat new, you could see their love for their music and performing it had not dimmed in the least. I've got to give them credit. Best $12 I've spent in a while.

Hello John Stamos

This video is kinda odd and has quite the sad ending, but this song has me in a trance.

Sorry for the creepy pic but this song is amazing

So Glad You're Back

Honest Mistake

I've always thought OK Go was just another dumb gimmick band who puts more thought into their music videos than their music. And, I'm probably right. I heard the following song on the radio a few nights ago and I honestly thought it was a Prince song I had never heard of. Once I realized my mistake, my first thought was "Whoops." My second thought was "if i can mistake and OK Go song for a Prince song and Prince is a music god, then OK Go must me capable of making a good song." So, that is that. I haven't even watched the video since it has dogs in it, but the song is a toe-tapper indeed.

Weekend

It's the weekend. So here's a song called "Weekend."

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!)

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. :)

The Day Has Finally Arrived

The New Pornographers have been one of my favorite bands for years and it has long been my dream to see them perform live. Tonight that dream becomes a reality

TwiCon Preview Pt.2

Another great band playing in Utah for free...

TwiCon Preview Pt.1

Summer in the great state of Utah can only mean one thing: the Twilight Concert Series will soon be upon us. The bands are announced, the venue is set, and the countdown has begun. (27 days) I've been checking out a few of the opening bands that I was not familiar with and there are definitely some gems in store. Chief among them is Chromeo, appearing Aug. 19 with Big Boi.

Trying to Make Up For Being a Crappy Blogger....

During my leave of absence, the music world has not exactly been humming with great new songs. One high point was the release of Go, the solo album from Jonsi, best known for being the lead singer of the world's greatest band, Sigur Ros. The album diverts from the Sigur Ros mold with it's fair share of fast, peppy music but also contains the expansive, thought-provoking, meditative music that SR is known for. Here is one of those songs. Let it take you away. :)

Double Delight

A favorite pastime of my roommates and I is staying up late to watch a buzz-worthy band perform on one of the late night shows. Last night, our aim was to see the performance of Broken Bells, the collaboration of ex-Shins frontman James Mercer and mega-producer Danger Mouse. While flipping through channels, we stumbled upon Ryan Bingham performing "The Weary Kind", the theme song from the movie "Crazy Heart". Needless to say, both performances impressed me enough to post them here.

This Song Has Been Stuck In My Head All Day...

...and I like it.