So currently I’ve been full of suck at blogging. My life has been attempting to twirl into insanity, and I’ve been desperately grabbing at it like the mother of a two-year-old. I am WAY behind in all the album reviews I have been intending to do (I keep saying that, and I apologize), but as I’m waiting on my laundry, I can spare a few minutes and give you something of an update.
Record Store Day is on Saturday! Treat yourself to some new vinyl at your local independent record store and breathe in the smell of people loving music.
I saw Andrew Bird this past Friday at the Civic Opera House here in Chicago. It was the second of two nights there, and the night before he had dropped and broken his violin! Luckily it was a clean break, and was repairable. We found out he’d bought it when he was 16 from an old Polish immigrant who required an audition from you before he would make you an instrument. LOADS of sentimental value, so I’m glad it wasn’t lost. Seeing Bird in an opera house was astounding, but I still prefer him in a smaller venue where you can really *feel* the music. But sitting behind a girl who was reading Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen before the show says a lot.
Apparently he was playing “Dr. Stringz” when he dropped his violin. He got very enthusiastic with it and it slipped. When he played it for our audience he kept two hands on that fiddle the whole time. Then he launched into “Monstres?” and a girl in the aisle started thrash-dancing like Animal from the Muppets. I recall a friend saying that when you see a good band perform, you leave thinking, “WOW! That was great! I think I can do this, too!” But when you leave an Andrew Bird show you think, “Wow. Why should I even try making music? Nothing can top what I just witnessed!”
My current band do to promo work for, The Old Ceremony, is featured in the premier issue of BLURT magazine. I was perusing it at work, having no clue, when I literally let out a SQUEAK! when I saw their write-up. I’ve known people to be featured in magazines before, but it has yet to get old.
Be advised I am in the process of writing reviews for The Decemberists, Mindy Gledhill, Sophie Madeleine, and hopefully a few others. Stay tuned.
Taylor alerted me to the fact that my favorite wizard rock band, The Remus Lupins, have a new music video out! Their cinematographer is, I think, still in high school, and he did a remarkable job. Anything involving Harry Potter 7 makes me all weepy, and this video for “Seven Potters” was no different. And isn’t Alex Carpenter (wizard rock’s noted heartthrob) a cutie?
I have a few more shows on the horizon, and a trip back to Georgia looming in the future. Bug me about those reviews, will you? They deserve to get posted.
