Back in Black (Part 1)

Despite what you might have seen on the blog, or not seen, I haven't given up my quest to listen to all the songs in my iTunes library alphabetically. Let's start getting caught up. I have lots of artists whose name starts with Black.

Up first? Black Elk. These guys are way heavier than 90% of the music I listen to. I remember seeing these guys at the 2005 Total Fest. The one that was out on Ronan Street and saw the cops show up multiple times because bands were playing outside. That was also the weekend I discovered Sparks. Ahhhh, memories. For metal, these guys are pretty melodic, so they earn a pass in my book. The only album of theirs I have is "Always a Six, Never a Nine."

Then? Black Francis, who was the frontman for one of my favorite bands of all time, The Pixies. Most of his stuff is released under the name Frank Black, and I only have last year's Svn Fingers mini album from his Black Francis moniker. Most of the album isn't very good. But the track, "When they come to Murder Me," might have been my favorite rock song of 2008, so the album is worth picking up. I'm also a Charles Thompson (his real name) completist. Or more like aspiring completist, so not buying this wasn't an option for me.

Black Kids came next. I really like these guys. They might be my favorite of the pop/disco/punk wave bands that exist everywhere. When they first came out they were hyped by bloggers near and far, then sort of forgotten. I hear their catchy single "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You," everywhere. It was prominent in Nick and Nora's Infinate Playlist and tons of other movies. Their next album will be big for them. Either they'll make it, or fade into attention deficit obscurity, like so many bands that got big becuase of blog hype.

Now I'm going to get down to some serious studying. I'm taking an online class on Public Library Administration. It was hard at first to get back into the swing of doing homework on my days off, but now it seems normal again. Stay tuned for more from the "black hole" of my collection.

They Say It's Your Birthday...

Well, it's not my birthday, or anyone I knows birthday, but I just listened to Nick Cave's early work in the band Birthday Party. They aren't the easiest band to listen to, but they do really rock. It's weird to listen to Nick Cave being so loud, since he really mellowed out quite a bit after moving on to a solo career, but his new project Grinderman, is definitely a direct descendant of the Birthday Party.

Speaking of Birthdays, next up were Birthday Suits, an amazing duo from Minneapolis. I first saw these guys at the Raven, and have since missed them only by mistake or accident. The drummer half (Matthew) might well be the most talented drummer I've ever seen live. He plays these weird poly-rhythms that sound perfectly in time. And he has fun while he does it. The guitar/vocal half (Hideo) can't be contained by any mere stage. From the first note to the very last he jumps, runs, slides, climbs, kicks and crashes all over the place. But not in the hardcore punk way that you worry about him hitting your girlfriend or impaling himself on a mic stand. And also not in the fake scremo way that makes you think he reherses his flailing in time to the songs and has every move choreographed. If you ever get a chance, see Birthday Suits. At the very least, buy any of their cds or records you can find. Here's a picture I took of them at Total Fest a couple years ago.

Did I mention that it snowed a skiff last night? Then it melted. But I can hardly be counted as the first Missoula blogger to notice snow this year. I'm still waiting until I can take my shovel out for a spin.

Gone Batty!

We woke up this morning to a bat hanging on our back window! It was pretty cool, and hung out (literally...haha) for about 10 hours today. All of our neighbors stopped by to take pictures and otherwise ogle the poor beast, but it seemed unaffected. About 45 minutes ago, Darcy and I sat and watched as it slowly woke up, scratched himself, pooped and flew away. I've never been close enough to watch something like that and it felt really cool. I really never knew there were many bats around here, but it makes sense. I hope it eats all the bugs in the backyard, since they've been horrible this year. More pictures here.

This weekend I listened to two Alice In Chains albums, "Dirt" and "Jar of Flies" which were a total blast from the past. Their MTV Unplugged album would be the greatest of the unplugged albums if those pesky Nirvana fellows hadn't gone along and recorded one of their own. Jay-Z's wasn't too bad either. But I digress. Most of their unplugged material was culled from the above two albums and listening to it made me feel like I was in 8th grade again. In a really good way. They actually made beautiful instrumental tracks that were never really appreciated or remembered, at least by me anyway.

After that was the All Girl Summer Fun Band's self-titled album which, for obvious reasons, is best listened to in the summer. It's really fun and reminds me of some of my favorite Missoulian ex-patriots Razz 'm Tazz. I miss being able to see them play, but I think they'll be at this years Total Fest, which I'm totally looking forward to.

In other news, Darcy and I got mimosas and spyed on a particularily creepy wedding at the Holiday Inn near our house this afternoon. The couple seemed to be in for a lot of "enduring" and "leadership," if the words of the preacher were to be believed. I really don't want to end this three-day weekend, but time is running short, so I'll sign off here.

St. Patrick's Day Means BBQ?

The weather has been incredible in Missoula. I'm already leaving the house in a T-shirt. So, what better than a parade and the first BBQ of the season?

First the parade:


And, one picture of a little boy patiently waiting for his candy:


Then it was off to Arriba! for some Nachos and Margaritas. Oh and one Irish Car Bomb...because it was St. Patrick's Day after all. 3/5 of the Victory Smokes managed to make it out, which is pretty damn impressive.

Then, since it was light and we were still hungry, we went to pick up some booze (Sparks Plus, PBR and Wine) and some meat (New York Steak, T-Bone, Chicken, and Boca Burgers) and got busy with a little BBQ action.


Then Mike and I wandered the streets of Missoula to submit a demo CD to get into Totalfest, the big music festival in town. We were late with our submission, so we figured we would go to the listening party and drop our CD off in person. We didn't make it. But, luckily the listening party was today, and we got our CD in. And we got tons of exercise walking around for the better part of 2 hours.

Enough for one day? I think so.