Welcome to B & Bs!

Remember B&Bs? I do, and it was one of my very favorite stores while I was growing up. I bought a majority of my CDs there before I thought to go to an independent record store. In retrospect I would recommended an independent music store, as they would have most likely steered me away from the first Hootie and the Blowfish album and the No Doubt "I'm Just a Girl" Single. And yes, I'm a guy and bought the "I'm Just a Girl" single. Lay into me if you want to, but I was young and thought Gwen Steffani was a little bit cute. Now, however, I wouldn't really even consider touching her with a ten foot pool. Either way, support your local record shop. I assume most of you are Missoula folk, so check out Ear Candy, my favorite and unbiased best place to buy music in town. If anyone reads this and buys music anywhere else, you're off base, make some changes. Seriously.

Listening to the Bs started with the B-52s, but ended up with a few favorite albums. First up Babyshambles. Say what you want about Pete Doherty, I know I have, but he comes up with some pretty solid tracks. I only have "Down in Albion" but it still rocks. When the Libertines first came out I was one of the first to naysay, but the Babyshamble project gives me hope. I'm a real sucker for drug-addicted, so-called geniuses. Even if they aren't geniuses, and I would never, ever, call Pete Doherty a genius, I'm always captivated by the press and story that follows them, Brittney Spears, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Tupac, Notorious B.I.G. (to be fair), and all others. There may be a few others, but I couldn't list everyone for obvious reasons.

Next was the Bad Livers. I love Bad Livers. They have a great name, and they also love a great pun. I've always heard that the band started out as a punk band and then turned to bluegrass so they could play faster. Bad Livers rule. I recommend the album "Industry and Thrift."

Up next was a personal favorite Bad Neighbors (link is a joke, have a sense of humor). Bad Neighbors are possibly my very favorite hip hop group. Don't make me choose. If you really want to experience real hip hop, Buy their album here. Like Hip-hop? You don't if you haven't heard Bad Neighbors. Bad Neighbors are part of the Sandpeople. Sleep at your own risk. Seriously, they are so much better than any other hip hop group that exists. Check the bottom of the post for a track they posted on their myspace page. BUY THEIR ALBUM. I won't say more.

Check the link down below, and also check it for a Bad Livers track.

http://drop.io/hollac2

Bad Neighbors - The Trimvirus

Bad Livers - Lumpy, Beanpole and Dirt

Milestone

I've finally made it to the Bs in my iTunes collection. Only three months after starting.

The As were survived by Avril Lavinge, who I have to say is somewhat of a guilty pleasure of mine. Each album (I have all three) has one or two good songs. But listening to them straight was a bit of a challenge, which is why it took so long to finish.

The Bs started off with a couple of B-52s tracks from their new album, which sound just like the old B-52 albums. I'm glad, because I'm not sure if I could take them coming out with some new concept album that critics adored. Some people need to stick to catchy pop songs.

Now I'm off to celebrate at Brooks and Brown, the Holiday Inn bar, right next to my house. It may be my newest favorite happy hour in town. 4-6. $4 domestic pitchers, $6 microbrew pitchers, $4 Martinis and $3 Wells.

Hi Mom, So Far I'm Getting All A's

I still haven't gotten out of the A's. Anyone with me till the end? It'll be a long haul. But fun.

So this picture is me playing music at one of my good friend's weddings. All you need to know about that is that I was coerced into playing "The Chicken Dance," "Greased Lightning," and countless other songs that made me want to die. Plus, I spent the last hour just getting onto the Children Theater's WiFi and playing the audio from YouTube. But, I did have a lot of fun. People danced more than they ever did at the Palace, so I should feel like a real DJ.

I've been slacking on my music listening, I blame politics. I spent the last two weeks watching the Republican and Democratic conventions. Some of you may know that I'm an election judge; others may not. So I feel like I should pretend that I'm politically unbiased. That wouldn't be true though, so if you want to know what I think about this election so far take a look at this...




That said, I would rather vote for any third party. Since Montana has little to no sway in the electoral college, I would rather vote for a viable 3rd party to get them equal federal campaign funding. Obviously a two party system doesn't work, so let's make a real change. No offense to Obama, but he doesn't represent the change I'm gunning for. Whoops! Let's not talk politics on this blog. Anymore.

...you know I'll be talking politics sooner than later. The book that got me into politics, read it.

In music news, I'm just starting Atmosphere's "Strictly Leakage" (download here, scroll down a bit and download from one of their two options) after listening to a lot of their old stuff. Strictly Leakage is hella dope. Yes, I said hella. The new album ("When Life Gives You Lemons, Paint That Shit Gold") doesn't compare to this fun, funky, old-schoolish, party album. Cop it for free and see why Slug is one of the dopest rhymers in the game today, not to mention Ant's banging beats.

Speaking of people hating on Slug...wait, that was mainly me a couple of years ago, and totally out of line. I was convinced that Slug had fallen off in the years right after "Seven's Travels," but still wouldn't miss his show at the Other Side. I showed up after imbibing a few too many and proceeded to drink way too many black russians, especially considering the state I showed up in. To make a long story short, Slug killed it and I ended up finding him at the bar since Missoula is a tiny town with tiny towns that don't have green rooms or backstage areas. I told him that I showed up ready to heckle and that I thought he'd fallen off, but he totally proved me wrong. I'm sure that was slurred and didn't come out eloquent at all, but he looked at me from under his hooded sweatshirt and simply said, "Yeah, whatever." Even then I knew it was a great response. If I was in his place I would have wanted to punch me in the face. Great restraint Slug.

After listening to "Strictly Leakage" while writing this, I would again stress that you should download this album. It's a straight up classic. Plus it's free, so what's your prob, son? Or should I say, "dun?" They'll be at the Wilma on September 16th, so cop a ticket.

B's are coming soon I swear.

[Citation Needed]

Michael Jackson in "Scream"

Why do At the Drive-In scream so much? I think they might be one of my favorite bands if it wasn't for the lead singer's almost emo delivery. The music is great, the lyrics are more than decent, but the delivery...it kills me. I can't knock them though, they put out a lot of great music and spawned a pretty decent group after breaking up (some people have less respect for them than I do).

Before At the Drive-In, I listened to both of Ashlee Simpson's discs. Here producers are amazing, and the albums are poppy. I wouldn't claim they're necessary listening, or even recommended listening, except for the song "L.O.V.E." which can't be missed or forgotten. If you have no way to hear it, let me know and I'll make sure you have an opportunity.

Also from my playlist was Ass-End Offend. Awesome. When BMMS was playing on a regular basis we played with them on a regular basis. I think we might have even played together at Jay's Upstairs once. And at Area 5 more than once. I tried to look up Area 5 on google and came back with nothing...so here's a quick primer:

Area 5 was a venue in Missoula run by a crazy artist named Victor. Basically, it was his apartment/art venue and facilitated shows on an almost daily basis. Each show was BYOB and all-ages. It was virtually a creepier, beta version of the Raven, which I'll talk about later, when the time is right. At Area 5 you had to walk through Victor's living space to reach the only bathroom in the area. The venue itself was very similar to a garage with a few salvaged theatre seats on the walls. Oh, and there was an old barbar chair on one side of the room. Volumen, Oblio Joes, International Playboys, Montana Karl, Racetrack, Visqueen, Sex With Girls, Sasshole, and countless others all played there. We had a sort of residence there, since Victor thought we were "artsy" and edgy (notice the lack of quotes on the second adjective; saying we were edgy is a definate understatement). The fire cheif of Missoula ended up shutting down the venue due to a personal vendetta. There were a couple of reincarations downtown, but they didn't last more than a few months. Victor is said to have moved back to Los Angelos, where he moved to Missoula from.

This is what I'm drinking right now, and it is delicious. Olympia and Rainer are my new Pabst...I'm just saying...

The Cat Days of Summer

It's hot. Just ask my cat. He's almost melting off the table because it temperatures regularly reach 90 - 100 degrees in our apartment when the weather is like this. Plus he's covered in fur.

I listened to the single worst album as of yet in my alphabetical trek through my iTunes catalog. I've always claimed to like him more than his song stealing, egotistical bandmate but never again. I'm talking, of course, about Art Garfunkel. His album "Some Enchanted Evening" isn't even suited to be played as elevator music on a ride down to hell. To say that it was boring would be a compliment. It was offensive to every musical sensibility I have.

Luckily, the next album up was Asahi's "Head Above Water." There's more to like about Asahi than the fact they're named after my favorite Japanese beer. They played Jay's Upstairs in support of "Head Above Water," and my roomates and I were the only people there (aside from the regular Jay's patrons sitting at the bar not paying attention to the music). I'd just come back from Bellingham, WA and had met the guy who put out their album, so we chatted briefly after the show and all of us got free shirts and I picked up a copy of the album, which is great. It was one of my go-to sleep albums for two or three years. If you ever see it, do yourself a favor and pick it up. The lead singer/songwriter, Tomo Nakayama, has now moved on and started a new(ish) project called Grand Hallway, which is equally great.

In other news, Darcy and I have been hooked on a Wii game called Super Swing Golf. It's totally anime and lame, but fun. So that's been consuming a lot of our time. I'm not sure if I mentioned how awesome the Wii is. We've played the Wii at least twice as much in a month as we ever played our X-Box 360 during the 10 months we owned it. So much more fun. I just wish it supported DVD playback out of the box, that's a little frustrating.

Finally, it's starting to cool off a little bit. Time to get back to the fake golfin'.

Fair Weather Friends

Mmmmm. That's me eating a tater pig at this year's fair. The weather was actually perfect, it poured rain while we lost money playing bingo and that cooled everything down enough to enjoy the rest of the day. We had a great time riding the Ferris wheel, checking out all the exhibits (Including my friend Bess' best of show picture of Obama), and watching a hypnotist. Good times.

I've still been listening to my music alphabetically, don't fret. I'm just going slower than before. It's been a British invasion of Arctic Monkeys and Art Brut with some Arrested Development in between.

I remember proclaiming the Arctic Monkeys the next big thing when they released the I Bet You Look Good (On the Dancefloor) single a few years back. I think they've come into their own and now headline festivals all over Europe. I like their sound and the way they sort of rock out more than most.

Speaking of rocking out, Art Brut is a great band in small doses. The talk/singing gets a little annoying, but the band really gets me with their old-style, almost classic rock sound.

And Arrested Development gets all the credit in the world, they put out both "Tennessee" and "Mr. Wendal." Enough said.

Mini-Soda

I was in Minnesota for the past week, hence the lack of posting. Here's proof.



...and now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

The Miracle of America

Darcy and I met up with my parents in Polson to check out the Cherry Festival (which was pretty non-eventful, except that we found a couple of great used books) and tour the Miracle of America museum. Outside was a what appeared to be a tribute to Joey Lawrence.

The main building was a hodgepodge of lots of junk, going in a very loose chronological order starting with the Revolutionary war. After that it sort of broke down to being a WWII museum with little pieces of freak show-like exhibits.

I was glad to see they had a fool-proof security system in place. Although I'm not sure that asking a question about an exhibit is an "integral" part of security. Maybe you use it to alert the old lady at the front who takes your money that the two-headed calf has come to life and is wreaking havoc on tourists.

The overall theme of the tour was patriotism. I don't remember exactly how one sign put it, but it declared that after a war with the United States, those nations that accepted our way of life and followed the principles of democracy "usually prosper." Hmmmm. Maybe...

Outside was hodgepodge of vehicles and buildings that would be an amazing set for a horror movie. Think the creepy town in "The Hills Have Eyes" meets a haunted carnival from Scooby-Doo. They even had old, creepy sounding music blaring and armored personnel transports from the army driving around.

Now I'm back home listening to the last strains of Arcade Fire's "Neon Bible." Which is good, but doesn't compare to "Funeral," which I listened to yesterday. Sandwiched between the two albums were a couple of Arcade Fire covers I'd completely forgotten about - "Naive Melody" by the Talking Heads and "Born on a Train" by the Magnetic Fields. Both great songs, and I think Arcade Fire do them both justice. You can find them both here.

Before that I tackled my Aphex Twin collection and the self-titled Apollo Sunshine disc. Apollo Sunshine are a decent band, but not very noteworthy. Aphex Twin (Richard D. James) however is one of my favorite electronic producers. I won't go too far into what he does, but I've always found him to be cutting edge, original and a little bit creepy. When the "Come to Daddy" video came out, it flat out terrified me.



...and now, on to some Architecture in Helsinki.

Summer Paradise

This pretty much sums up Missoula in the summer.

Even spending what seems like all of my time at work, this summer has been pretty great. It's been hot, but not too hot. Shorts and T-Shirt weather, my favorite.

I spent yesterday afternoon and this morning listening to hours of Animal Collective songs. "Strawberry Jam," "Sung Tongs," and the "Water Curses" EP. They're one of those bands I feel like I have to like, which makes me sort of hate them. So hip and obscure. I feel like they were a bunch of band geeks who discovered drugs at an early age and never had any non-hipster friends to make fun of their pretentious, "atmospheric," warbley voiced music. I do think that Panda Bear (one of the members) is talented and like his solo efforts, maybe because his album Person Pitch sounds like B-sides of Pet Sounds, one of my all time favorite albums.

Luckily, the Animals "A's, B's and EP's" came on just in time to save me from a spiraling descent into hipsterdom. I really dig the Animals, to use the vernacular of the time. The organ lines are so deep and full sounding. I usually hate all the Essential Collections or Best ofs, but this album encompasses all of their great songs, not necessarily just the hits. It really is all the tracks I need from them in digital form.

And before I forget, here's the aftermath of the fire last week. The fire clocked in at over 300 acres, didn't harm any people or structures, and was the best excuse the town had for drinking beer outside on a non-holiday Thursday night. Overall, it was a success.
I'm going back to some reading and eagerly waiting for Darcy to get off work so we can slurp down some oysters at Finn and Porter's happy hour. Maybe now that Arriba's is closed and I'm getting into oysters this will be my new favorite happy hour. There aren't that many other contenders out there, so we'll see.