Weezer: The Red Album

Weezer
(The Red Album)

That Rivers Cuomo does to me every time. I get all excited about a new Weezer release, just to be disappointed when I finally hear it. The Red Album seemed so promising, especially with the classic-Weezer first single “Pork and Beans.” But Cuomo is being literal when he sings “I'm a do the things that I wanna do/I ain't got a thing to prove to you.”

The Red Album does whatever it wants. The first quarter of the record is quite good, if not a bit odd. After kicking off with the straightforward clap-along “Troublemaker,” the band manages to shove hip-hop beats, hardcore riffage, spoken word, and a soaring finale into the six-minute “The Greatest Man that Ever Lived.” Cuomo even succeeds in name checking both Pat Benatar and the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air—certainly no easy task—in the pretty “Heart Songs.”

But that’s when things go amiss. Cuomo relinquishes the microphone to his mates, resulting in the countrified “Thought I Knew,” sung by Brian Bell, the ‘90s rock “Automatic” sung by Pat Wilson, and “Cold Dark World” belted by bass man Scott Shriner. It’s nice when you let your friends have the spotlight for a second, but this is b-side material at best. And on an album with just 10 tracks, it’s a shame to throw away three of them. Sadly, this may be Weezer’s worst release.

Dunzo

I'm done with work. All I want to do is sit on the floor at home and watch reruns of CSI:Miami and The OC.

Don't tell my job. Or Traci.

That Spells...

Paige loves to spell. We spend a bunch of every car ride spelling whale, and fish, and octapus, and every other animal she can think up. Traci bought Paige a personalized sippy cup and said to her, "What are those letters? P-A-I-G-E. What does that spell?" Paige looked at her and replied, "It spells juice."

Six Weeks of Curtis

So, little Curtis has been with us for almost six weeks now. We like him pretty good and intend to keep him. (I have a friend who adopted a kid a few months ago. I was a little surprised to hear that you basically have a one year guarantee when you adopt. If it doesn't work, you can just give 'em back.)

In some ways, newborn #2 seems easier than the first one. But it's likely just a change in perspective. We had a tough go with Paige from the beginning. She had acid reflux and would cry and cry. We spent many hours bouncing her and trying to hold her just right so she'd be happy. Curtis is pretty good for the most part, though he still isn't a very good night sleeper. And he barfs a lot.

Curtis probably seems a lot easier to deal with because we are so busy trying to handle Paige. It's nice to have a kid who just lies there and never cries, "No! Bye, bye change diaper" or "Bye, bye, wear Paigey's shoes."

But adding a second kid makes everything harder. Traci and I are back in the stage where going to the grocery store, getting in the shower, or cleaning the house seems like an insurmountable task. Much planning is required for anything.

Paige is doing pretty good with Curtis, or Cur-TIS, as she calls him. She has to climb all the way over him in order to regularly "kiss his head, kiss his head." She likes to hold him. But when she's done, she just pushes him over.

Traci is getting very little sleep. But she likes the kid, too.

Death Cab for Cutie @ Thanksgiving Point

Death Cab for Cutie
w/ Tegan and Sara
May 26, 2008
Thanksgiving Point

Worst. Venue. Ever. It was bad enough that Memorial Day was a rainy mess. But it was made infinitely worse when the Death Cab for Cutie show was supposed to start at 5:00 p.m. and the Thanksgiving Point crew kept the crowd standing in line outside until 7:30 p.m. (Then, as the doors finally opened, they announced that all cars parked on the frontage road—about 200 or so—would be towed if they weren’t moved.)

Starting two-and-a-half hours late and facing a 10:00 p.m. music curfew made the event feel incredibly disjointed. Identical twin duo Tegan and Sara seemed out of sync as they tried to rush through an abbreviated opening set and Rogue Wave was dropped from the bill entirely. Death Cab didn’t fare much better, though their troubles were of their own making.

Just kicking off the promotion of their newest album “Narrow Stairs,” Ben Gibbard and the boys are understandably excited about playing the material. The problem is that the new material just isn’t that good. I was hoping that the new songs, which are much less produced than their immediate predecessors, would sound better live. No such luck. Though current single “I Will Possess Your Heart” was passionate, the rest of the “Narrow Stairs” material fell flat.

The band continued through the set, alternating between not-yet-familiar new material and obscure older songs. Occassionally, they’d throw the crowd a bone with a song or two from their best albums, “Transatlanticism” and “Plans.”

Accompanied only by his acoustic guitar, Gibbard sounded amazing on “I Will Follow You Into the Dark.” On “Soul Meets Body,” however, his thin tenor didn’t have enough power to do the song justice. It may have been the 40 degree air, but both he and guitarist Chris Walla struggled with the high notes all night long.

For all of the disappointments of the evening, Death Cab was not about to let the crowd go home unhappy. The encore featured “Title and Registration” and a shout out to the band’s early days of playing at Kilby Court. They closed the night with the phenomenal “Transatlanticism,” climaxing with Gibbard’s plea to “Come on, come on” reverberating through the Utah County night sky. All ill feelings were immediately washed away.

word association

Though she never wants to listen to us, it's obvious Paige at least hears the things we say. Now when we change her diaper she immediately says, "Whoa, big poops!" regardless of the contents.

Diapers have become very intriguing to her and she's very interested in what's going on with Curtis' diaper. Yesterday I was just about done changing him when he squirted all over me. Paige watched the whole thing in quiet amazement. After I had gotten him all cleaned up and in a new diaper, Paige declared, "All gone, water poops!" Apparently, we have never taught about urine. But she knows about water and she knows about poops. Water poops. Makes sense to me.

On a linguistic note, I also like that Paige calls motorcycles "motor bicycles" and refers to her belly button as her "tummy button." I loved when I said goodbye to her this morning she replied, "Fax me."

Reviews: Local H, Say Hi, Ting Tings

Local H
12 Angry Months

Local H’s seventh studio release is supposed to document the myriad of emotions experienced after the bitter end of a long relationship. But it turns out frontman Scott Lucas really only feels one thing--anger. “So, baby could you do me a favor?” he rants on the opening track, “Fall off the earth and I'll see you later.”

The lyrical vitriol of “12 Angry Months” is matched throughout by Brian St. Clairs’ abusive drumming and Lucas’ heavy, 70s rock guitar riffing. The duo’s approach has always been heavy-handed, but on previous records they have managed to avoid metal monotony by delivering plenty of hooks. Other than the soft strumming of “The Summer of Boats,” where Lucas admits “Life was perfectly sad, it’s perfectly sadder now,” there is not much worth remembering about his angry year. A disappointing release by our last living link to the grunge area.

Rating: 2 of 4
For fans of: Nirvana, Soundgarden

Say Hi
The Wishes and the Glitch

The band’s name has gotten shorter—cut down from Say Hi to Your Mom—but the sound has remained pretty much the same. Minimalist guitar, buzzing synth and electronic drums mixed with Eric Elbogen’s wobbly tenor and plenty of melancholy.

The tracks are beautiful in their simplicity. Channeling the The Cure’s poppy years, “The Wishes and the Glitch” allows you to dance without actually feeling happy. Elbogen’s faux-British vocals are not always in tune, but you can’t question the sincerity in his delivery.

Rating: 3.5 of 4
For fans of: Headphones, Bishop Allen

The Ting Tings
We Started Nothing

Teenager girls rejoice! The Ting Tings’ debut album has arrived just in time to be the soundtrack of your summer. When they’re not being featuring on the latest iPod commercial (with their bass-heavy disco romp “Shut Up and Let Me Go”) the British boy-girl duo are writing infectious, dance party anthems filled with cheerleader-shout vocals.

Though “We Started Nothing” has plenty of great material for a mixtape, it is so sugary sweet that it is difficult to take in one sitting. But if you can make past the half-way point, you’ll be rewarded with Cynder Lauper-esque “Keep Your Head” and the record’s best moment, the bouncy-but-restrained “Be the One.” This album isn’t rocket science, it’s summer school. Sit back and enjoy it.

Rating: 2.5 of 4
For fans of: CSS, The Raveonettes

Curtis at Three Weeks

Curtis seems slightly less amused.

Stuck in the Tree

Paige refuses to speak in sentences. But why would she, when she can express everything she wants/needs with two word phrases?

"Watch Bunny." (I want to watch the stupid Baby Einsteins movie for the 1,000th time.)
"Some fishycrackers." (I refuse to eat anything but cottage cheese, pizza, tamales or goldfish crackers. So give me some fishycrackers.)
"Bubbye church." (I've had enough religion for the day.)

Tonight we were playing with her ball in the backyard. She's getting to be quite the little soccer player and we spent a long time dribbling the ball from one side of the yard to the other before kicking it into the fence and yelling, "Gooooooooooooooooooooalllll!"

After she tired of that, she wanted me to throw the ball into the tree so it would get stuck. She would then yell excitedly, "Stuck in tree!" After I'd get it out, she would immediately yell for me to do it again, "You stuck in tree!" Which was then shortened to "You stuck! You stuck!" When she got really excited, the pronunciation lagged and it sounded like she was yelling repeatedly, "You suck! You suck!" She's so loud that I'm sure all of my neighbors could hear her taunting her poor father. Now I'll never get any respect in this town.

Go Jazz Go

I love how Larry H. Miller skips Sunday Jazz games for religious reasons, but then spends his evening being interviewed on the set of SportsBeat Sunday.

Sunday Jazz games are a funny thing for all us Mormons. If you are a ticket holder, do you go to the game? That's usually an easy decision. But what do you do with your ticket?

"Hey, not-LDS friend, I value the Sabbath day, but you don't so much. Do you want my ticket?"

Values are funny things. If you believe something is bad, but you know others like it, what do you do? Do you sell alcohol at your grocery store? Do you show Brokeback Mountain at your movie theater? Do you play rock and roll shows at Burt's Tiki Lounge?

Whatever the answer, I am happy that the Jazz were able to defend their home court.

Text Me

Now when I leave for work in the morning Paige says the following to me:

"Bye Dad."
"See ya, dad."
"Doei, dad." (Dutch for see ya)
"Call us."
And now the latest addition,
"Text me."

Curtis in Real Life

So this is pretty much what Curtis is like.

Tub-tastic

Two-and-a-half years into parenting and the gross stuff keeps coming. This morning I got Paige undressed and put her in the tub. I set her pajamas and wet diaper off to the side as we had tubby time.

By the time Paige is done, it is not uncommon for me to be pretty wet, what with all of toys be hurled out of the tub and all. Today I was sitting by the tub when I could feel something wet on the back of my pants. I looked down and I sitting on Paige's very full diaper. All of the contents had seeped out, through my two layers of clothes and to my skin. It's time for this kid to get potty trained.

Paigey vs. Curtis

My week of being home/at the hospital with my family is quickly coming to a close. The hospital stay went well enough (despite the generally poor service at Intermountain Medical Center) and we were happy that it was much shorter than our first go round. When the time came to leave, though, we were just as nervous as first-time parents. We worked to get Curtis into Paige's old car seat. We had to keep tightening and tightening those straps until it was small enough to fit the little guy. When we got him in the car we both immediately had the feeling of 'what are we going to do with this kid now?'

The first big challenge was facilitating his permanent introduction to his big sister. We took Curtis over to Traci's mom's to pick up Paige. We sat Curtis' car seat down in the living room and didn't say much about it to Paige. She saw him and kind of half-acknowledged him. We were okay with that. When we put them both in the car to go back home, we took away all books/toys that could have possibly been used as a projectile weapon.

Once at home, things went okay. Paige's only real reaction came when Curtis began to cry a bit. "Waaa!" Paige exclaimed. "Paigey's sad."

"Sure you are, sweetheart."

The next morning came the real breakthrough. Paige got out of bed and headed into our room to start her morning routine of watching The Wiggles with Traci. Traci was on the bed, with Curtis lying next to her. Paige walked up to the side of the bed and happily exclaimed, "Baby Brother!" She got up on the bed and had to hug and kiss him. "Oh, it's Curtis!" She then had to hold him, which she affectionately did with her arms wrapped tightly under his chin, not unlike a sleeper hold.

Since then, she's been pretty good about having him around. She only gets upset when I'm holding him instead of playing with her. We'll see how she does tomorrow when Traci's on her own and Paige can't have someone's full attention.

Welcome to the Club

I guess I am now officially part of the raising-a-boy crew. Curtis gave me an initiatory squirt this afternoon when I attempted to change his diaper. His distance was matched only by his aim.

Little Baby: Day 2

When I got back to the hospital this morning, little Curtis had already had a visit from the snip-snip doctor. I almost fainted when I saw it, but he seemed to be taking it like a champ.

Welcome to the Family

Just 8 1/2 short hours ago, we welcomed little Curtis into our family. He was 7 lbs, 4 oz and 19 inches long with a ton of brown hair.

At about 8:30 this morning Traci said that she didn't think we should go to church because she was having contractions; by 9:30 we had all of our stuff together. We dropped Paige off at my sisters and were on our way to the hospital. By 10:00 Traci was dilated to a 7 and by noon she was ready to start pushing. At 1:24, the little boy formerly known as Max Power made his appearance.

We are very happy that everything went so smoothly (and were incredibly surprised by how quickly) and that Traci didn't have to have another C-Section. Traci is feeling much better than she did after having Paige and Curtis is doing just fine.

This afternoon, Jenny brought Paige to meet her little brother. When she walked in the door, she saw me lift Curtis out of his crib and sit down on the chair. She immediately came over to me and said, "Put him back in the bed, put him back in the bed." It's going to be a rough transition.

Waiting for Max Power

I am constantly on cell phone watch these days, expecting to get the "I'm having a baby" call at any minute. However, I feel 100 percent unprepared for the arrival of this little guy.

I can't speak for Traci, but looking back at this pregnancy from my perspective, I'd say it's been kind of a rough go. Traci got pregnant right after we moved into our new house and felt lousy immediately. She was very sick, which was made more difficult by trying to chase Paige around and by having to try to unpack and organize a house at the same time.

Right after she started feeling better, she slipped and fell down the stairs. We were lucky that she didn't get hurt, other than the pain of landing right on her tail bone, which lasted a couple of long weeks.

After the stairs incident, Traci felt better for about a second before she started having the early contractions at five months. The doctor told her she needed to be on bedrest for a month (which she did half-heartedly at best). Now she's all healed up, just in time to fill lousy because she can't find a way to sleep comfortably at night. Through all of this, she's kept working (except for the bedrest era) and has taken care of our cute little monster.

I asked her a couple of months ago how many kids she wants to have, thinking that she would surely say that we'd be done after this one. She said at least three. I guess that if she said it while miserable, she must really mean it.

After this cute little boy greets us, I'm sure that we'll forget a lot of this, hence the blog to, you know, remember the misery.

Kindergarten Cop: The Finale

Today was my last session at Monroe Elementary School. Each week I read the kids a story and then we do an activity. As a going away gift, I handed out a mini version of the story book to each of the kids today. I said, "This book is just like the one I've been reading to you guys, but it doesn't have any words. Why do you think it doesn't have words?"

One of the girls raised her hand and said, "Because we don't know how to read."

"Well, that's a good point, but it's also so you can take the books home and make up any words you want to go along with the pictures."

And with that, I bid Monroe Elementary adieu.

no play for mr. gray

Spencer: What color's Mommy's hair?
Paige: It's brown.
Spencer: It's red.
Paige: It's brown.
Spencer: What color's Paigey's hair?
Paige: [looks up] It's brown.
Spencer: What color's Daddy's hair?
Paige: It's gray.

I'm going bald, but my hair's not gray.

Friday Afternoon in the Boneyard

I had big plans to make my first-ever trip to the East Coast this Spring. My friend Wix has been in Rhode Island building toys for Milton Bradley or something and he invited me to come out to visit. Traci’s stint on bedrest, combined with the gov’t extorting a huge amount of taxes from us, however, voided the plans. In consolation, friend Tyler offered to let me use some of his frequent flyer miles to visit him in sunny Las Vegas and enjoy a rock ‘n roll weekend.

We were able to see Strung Out, Bad Religion and Streetlight Manifesto during my 48 hour trip.

Highlights

Things spilled on me
At the House of Blues, I was standing on the floor, right against the wall that separates the floor from the bar above. Everyone put their half-empty beer cups against the wall (you know, so they could grab 'em later). Any time the crowded pushed back, I stepped on another drink. My shoes were soaked by the end of the show.

At the Extreme Thing festival, the teens were getting restless waiting for Streetlight to come on. Empty water bottles started sailing through the air--no biggie. But water bottles led to empty cans of Red Bull which led to not empty cups of Slushies, which led to flying CDs and shoes. I left feeling very sticky.

Getting kicked out of junior high school
Ty asked me to bring my tennis racquet on the trip. I play tennis once a year with Traci's dad, so I'm really good. Ty didn't know where the closest tennis courts were, so he looked some up on the internet. Our first try yielded a park, but no tennis court. The next spot on the list had a tennis court, but seemed to be a junior high school. The sign said Public Park, so we went on in. A few minutes later, the bell rang and out came all the kids for gym class. We kept playing tennis, but then the coach came over and told us to move on. Yes, we were the two creepy guys hanging out at the junior high in the middle of a school day.

Trip to the boneyard
Las Vegas recently decided that instead of just blowing up all of its old landmarks, it should try to hang on to at least a little bit of history. They are building a Neon Lights museum with old signs from old casinos. In the meantime, they host tours of the "boneyard," a dirt lot full of huge, beat up neon signs. It also has the charm of millions of broken bottles and broken light bulbs everywhere. It was awesome.

The boneyard also had the 30-foot tall leprechaun from the O'Shea's casino. Unlike many of the signs, it was in great shape when it showed up. However, now it was all charred up. Apparently, a bum had been living inside of it and it had caught on fire when he started a fire inside of it.

The best Thai restaurant in North America
When a restaurant boasts something like that, it must be true. The Lotus of Siam is strip mall full of Asian restaurants and billiards halls and may or may not have actually been the best Thai restaurant in North America, but there was a picture of Pat Sajack on the wall, so it probably was.

Bad Religion acoustic
For their encore, BR came out with three acoustic guitars and a stare drum. "I bet you didn't know that we influenced bands like The Eagles and Crosby Stills and Nash," Greg Graffin quipped. They played "Dearly Beloved" from their new record. It was really very good, but it was cool to see, nevertheless. Though I don't like their new album, BR always puts on a good live show.

Strung Out did not flip me off
When I saw Strung Out in Vegas six years ago, lead singer Jason Cruz flipped me off. Me personally. Why? I'm still not sure. I haven't been flipped off many times in my life and up until that point I had never been flipped off by a rock star. There's a first time for everything, I guess.

Great trip. Thanks, Ty.

Kindergarten Cop Pt. Deux

Day two at Kindergarten: Taught kids about cash money. I held up big pictures of a penny, nickel, dime and quarter. Loved by all.

However, the biggest highlight came before I started the lesson. Today was the first day back from spring break, so I asked the kids if they had a fun week. One kid raised his hand and said excitedly, “My dad hit a pigeon with an Easter egg!” Sweet.

songs for chubbs

Some lousy primary remixes:

I Hope They Call Me on a Mission - Ryan Shupe
Popcorn Popping

Atherton vs. The Flying Dutchman

I took Paige to her first concert tonight. (My parents wouldn't let me go to concerts until I was 14.) We went to Kilby Court to see my friend Brian's band Atherton play. She absolutely loved it. She sat on my shoulders the whole show, just bobbing up and down and tapping the rhythm on my head.

When we got back in the car she immediately said, "Andre?" Though Paige likes the rock and roll, her heart really belongs to Andre Rieu.


Paige can't not dance to this song. Last night she was dancing to it and ran right into the wall.


Atherton at the City Weekly Slammy's

It's Not a Tumor: I'm the real Kindergarten Cop

I taught kindergarten yesterday. My work sponsors a Title I (low income) elementary school in West Valley. Last year, my buddy Tim would go over there once a week and help tutor kids in reading and stuff. That seemed like a good enough thing to do. So when the volunteer sign up sheet came around this year, I figured I’d help out. It wasn’t until after I had already enrolled that I found out that I wasn’t going to be a tutor, but I was to actually teach kindergarten for a half hour each week for five weeks.

I am teaching Junior Achievement lessons. The older grades learn about grown-up jobs and how that makes the economy work, etc. Because I don’t know how any of that stuff works, I am teaching the kindergartners. I read them a story about Robbie and Martin working on their uncle’s farm. They went into town to trade their eggs for some bread. Wow.

The 30 minutes went just fine. I went in and introduced myself, “Hi. My name is Spencer and I’m going to teach you about work.” I had written each of the kid’s names on a table tent. I took them out of the bag and said, “When I say your name, raise your hand and I’ll give you your nametag.” I pulled out my own nametag and said, “Spencer?” The teacher responded quickly, “You must have the wrong class.” “Uh, no,” I said. “I’m Spencer.” And from there, things went swimmingly.

another test

is this working yet?

New Millencolin

Millencolin's new record is coming out in May. Judging from this video and the other new track on their Myspace page, the Swedes are putting out their poppiest material to date. Though it's a bit different, I feel better about this direction shift than I did when they tried to be a hard rock band circa Home From Home.

lousy blog/neither exploded ear nor tennis ball throat

About every 6 months my blog stops working, which is incredibly bothersome. I just have so many wonderful things to say and technology keeps trying to hold me down. So I am recovering from yet another sore throat. This time I wasn't worried about throat cancer, but strep throat. I watched a very helpful video on the internet, narrated by Lance Armstrong, about how to do a self strep test. After the results were inconclusive, I headed off to see my good friend Dr. Lee who said I had no strep. (He's nice but not as believable as Lance Armstrong.)

The point of all of this is that the last time I saw Dr. Lee was when my ear almost blew up. When I thought I was going to be deaf I was pretty bummed out. And when I was driving home from the doctor I was wishing I could just cut out my throat all together. Comparing the two maladies, I would prefer to be mute rather than deaf. I could learn sign language and so could Traci. I could type emails and maybe have one of those Shephen Hawking voice robot computers. No sweat. But no hearing, that's a drag. How would I hear when Paige finds something she's lost and exclaims, "There it are!" Yep, I'd definitely rather lose a throat and keep my ears.

Who do voodoo we do...

So we had our show with the Voodoo Glow Skulls and it went pretty good. When we arrived, I saw that VGS was already sitting on the couches in the back of the bar. I went over and introduced myself to Frank and thanked him for letting me do the interview. Thought it was a bit lame, I handed him a copy of the magazine and said, "In case you wanted to know what you said to me." I was happy to see that after I walked away he was reading the article and I saw it get passed around amongst the band.

My band played decent. It's amazing how many hundreds of times you can play a song great in your basement and screw it up the second you play in front of a live audience. But that's to be expected and not really that big of a deal. There were probably 40 people in the room while we played, most of whom were attentive. So we can't complain about that at all. The other local band, The Willkills was both really nice and quite cool. And the other touring group, Knockout, did the best cover of a Bad Religion song I've ever heard--a reggae-to-punk version of "Generator."

After 20 years, Voodoo Glow Skulls has still got it. The performance was just as intense as when I saw them nine years ago. When 6'2" 220 lbs. Frank came on stage wearing a Mexican wrestling mask and started shouting their first song, I knew they were going to bring it. And bring it they did. It got both brung and broughten. To the max.

Weekend of Mini Me's

I don't spend a whole lot of time blogging about my tender little feelings. However, over the weekend I did wax emotional a bit.

Traci and I spent Friday and Saturday with our friends Bert and Karin and their two daughters at Bert's family cabin. Bert has been my friend since we were two years old, thus occupying the role of my oldest still-friend by about 15 years.

Every six months or so my mom makes a random comment like "Do you and Bert feel old enough to be having kids?" Or "Now, when you were 10 did you picture this would be how you and Bert's life would be?" I think that's just her way of dealing with the idea that her baby is old enough to have his own baby.

But as I was outside playing with Bert and our two, two-year-old girls I thought about how this was the same age when Bert and I would have first started playing together. It was also interesting to look at our little girls, both of whom look just like us.


Bert's Mini Me, Mackenzie

I tried to get a picture of the two of them together but Paige, who was being a little monster all weekend long kept crying and saying "See ya later, picture" (translation: no pictures). They did manage to have some fun together, though. They both loved getting licked by Bert's new dog and getting pulled around in the sleds.


Paige and Izzy

Paige couldn't quite pronounce Mackenzie, or even Kenzie, so she called her "Candies." I thought that was quite a compliment, as "candy" is by far Paige's favorite thing in the world.

Baille De Los Locos

In 1996, Ty and I chose to pass up an Attaboy Skip show to see the Voodoo Glow Skulls play at Bricks. We'd never heard VGS before, but the artwork on their album Firme was so awesome that we knew that we'd love them.

Goldfinger was the touring support, so it surprised us when VGS came on second. They played four songs, which took about 10 minutes and then walked off the stage. We vowed to never support them again. But the draw to Firme was just too strong. We bought a copy at Media Play and we've been fans ever since.

Since the inception of Johnny Tightlips, I think I have tried to get the band on as the opening act for Voodoo Glow Skulls at least five times. Each time the promoter strings us along and then doesn't tell us that we're not playing the show. This time it's finally going to happen (fingers crossed).

So in just a few days the band is going to have our biggest show to date. Not big in terms of number of people--I'm sure there will be very few people in the crowd when we start playing-- but big in that we're going to be on the same stage as one of my favorite bands.

I am completely nervous, and like every show, I'm totally wishing that we never would have sought it out. That anxiety will intensify until we go on stage. I'll be nervous while we play and then immediately after, I will be so excited/relieved that the only thing I'll be able to think about is playing another show.

---

For the past few months I've been writing album reviews for In Utah This Week. I figured it afforded me an opportunity that I never would have had otherwise. With being assigned, or even clearing it with my editor, I sent an email to VGS, requesting an interview for the magazine.

I was excited when I heard back from lead singer Frank Casillas. We set up a time and I gave him a call a few days later. I was nervous to talk to him--especially two minutes into the interview when my digital recorded started beeping because it was out of memory--but he was incredibly cool and very easy to talk to. At the show on Thursday I plan to meet him in person, which I'm really looking forward to.

Here's the interview:

Black Magic

Fifteen years of genre-bending have the Voodoo Glow Skulls radiating worldwide.

Mixing ska, metal and Latin, the genre-defying Voodoo Glow Skulls have sold more than 1 million records since their debut 15 years ago. With their seventh album, “California Street Music,” the band shows no signs of slowing down. In Utah This Week caught up with frontman Frank Casillas before the band headed out its current West Coast tour.

IN: Over your career, you’ve outlasted almost all of your peers. What’s been the key to the success and longevity of your band?
Frank Casillas: We decided a long time ago that we were going to be a punk rock band. There’s a lot of work ethic and DIY values that we started out with back in the day that got us where we’re at now. We’ve always tried to maintain that type of integrity.

There was a point in time where we were persuaded to have corporate and business management, but at the end of the day all they were doing was sucking money out of the band. We eliminated all of that from the business part of the band and took it upon ourselves to do everything on our own.

[Fortunately], we weren’t thrown through the system. That seems to be a common thing with commercial labels — they get a band sopping wet and they throw them against the wall to see if they’ll stick. Nine times out of 10 they don’t. That’s why you don’t hear about [a lot of bands] again after their debut. We’ve always been aware of that. We’ve always called our own shots and done what we thought was best. We’re still doing it. The phone’s still ringing and we’re still here.

IN: You took a longer time to put out “California Street Music” than usual. How do you think that affected the process and the final product?
FC: Throughout the years, we’ve been developing our own recording studio. We’ve done the last couple of records on our own. This time we just decided to wait until it felt right. Nobody was really saying ‘Man, you’ve got to put this record out right now.’ There were really no deadlines. We wanted to take our time with it.

We wanted to reinvent what we had done on the first couple of albums. We tried to re-create what the Voodoo Glow Skulls are known for — the manic sound. A mixture of punk, metal, ska and Latin, and little bit of hip-hop. We tried to re-create what we’re known for and come out with a young-sounding album again.

We didn’t really try to go for any goals or anything; we just put ourselves in the studio. It took us a couple of years because we were on tour while we were trying to write the album. A lot of it was writing songs, putting them on hold for a couple months, coming back and giving them another listen, reevaluating what we did a couple months before, and fixing it — basically just taking our time. We came out with a good record. It’s not the best we can do, by all means, but it was a good transition and probably what people were expecting from us at this time.

IN: If someone were checking out Voodoo Glow Skulls for the first time, what record would you recommend?
FC: The record that got us the most notoriety was “Firme.” That record catapulted the band to the next level. I think it’s the record a lot of people identify the band with. “Band Geek Mafia” is also a fan favorite. Those two are the ones that made the biggest impact on our fans.

IN: Voodoo Glow Skulls have played everywhere. Where are your best international fans?
FC: Mexico is always great for us. My parents are from Mexico and we’ve got family there. Plus we did the “Firme” record all in Spanish, which got us a lot of attention there. That’s where we have the most rabid fans, where fans really go nuts over the band.

On our last tour, we made it to some Eastern European countries [including Croatia and Slovenia] for the first time. The crowds were so happy just to have an American band in their presence. It could have been anybody probably [laughs], but for Voodoo Glow Skulls to go somewhere where many American bands never get to go ... it was a great feeling. It’s a sense of accomplishment when you can say, ‘Our music is the reason why we’re here. And our music got us here.’ There are a lot of places abroad where they take in the band, and where we’re well respected. Japan has some of the best audiences. The UK is also a great for this type of music.

We don’t break attendance records everywhere we go. We play small, comfortable clubs — places where fans can see the band and experience the band the way they want to. We do play big festivals as well. Every gig is different. For us, it’s great just to be able to maintain and do what we do — play small punk rock shows for the most part. And sometimes you’ll travel across the globe and play a small, 200- person venue. And some of those are the best shows.

Big Girl Bed

We're now on day two of Paige's transition from the crib to the big girl bed. Traci and I were both pleasantly surprised when, on the first night, she went down and woke back up just fine. It was a good thing that we had put up the bed railing. In the morning, she was firmly pressed against the railing, actually leaning over the side of the bed.

Night two went off without a hitch. However, when we went into her room this morning she was nowhere to be found--not on the bed, not on the floor beside it. Upon further inspection, she was on the floor at the head of the bed, fast asleep.

So we're not sure if she got off the bed or fell off the bed; either way she seemed content enough on the floor.

"Paige," I said, "Did you sleep on the big girl bed?"

"Big girl bed," she replied.

I figured she didn't know she was on the floor, so I just congratulated her on sleeping on the bed and she got up and watched The Wiggles.

You Know You're Right

I saw the video for Nirvana's only posthumously released new track "You Know You're Right" the other day. I hadn't seen it in what, five years I'd guess. It still managed to give me chills. What an awesome song. Great video as well.

Ronnie Reagan vs. Saul "Slash" Hudson

I just finished reading a graphic novel biography of Ronald Reagan. I enjoyed it so much that I have decided that I am now only getting my information in comic book form. Well, maybe not. After the biography of the Gipper, I moved on to Slash's autobiography. I don't know if I want to read the comic book version of Slash, er, becoming a man at age 12 and concurrently smoking pot and doing drugs with his girlfriend and her mom. Ronald Reagan would not have approved.

DDR & Labor Pains

I had a great plan to dance, dance revolute myself into shape this new year. For a few weeks it went really well. Traci even danced right along with me until she started having early contractions and had to be on bed rest for a month. Whoops.

Now my new dancing partner is Paige. When she's not pushing me off of my dance pad (she needs to dance on both pads), she's getting her boogie on. The other day she added cartwheels and spins to her repertoire. Her favorite part is when the dance is over and I get my letter score. She waits and waits for the score to appear and then "Yay!!! The letter E!!!!" No matter what letter it is, she couldn't be more excited. She loves letters.

Here's Jenny and Paige fighting for DDR supremacy:

Cap'n Crazy Hair

What do you do when this is your kid's hair?

Increase My Killing Power, eh?

Doctor: We can preform the operation for you. It greatly increase your brain power. Or it may kill you.
Homer: Hmm, increase my killing power, eh? I'll do it!

You know what I hate? Everything. No, but I do hate gimmicky self-assessment color tests, self-help books and the like. But due to the fact that I lose my car keys at least three times a week, and my wallet the other two days, I figured I needed some help. So I called up friend, drummer and librarian Danny Hansen, and asked him to bring me some books on how to increase my killing, er, memory power.

I've only read the first chapter of BrainFit, but I have a feeling 27-year-olds aren't the target audience. (Sample question: How often do you forget to take your pills.) Nevertheless, I carry on.

One of the first recommendations was to change up the way you do things that you don't normally have to think about. So this morning I brushed my teeth with my non-dominant hand. I wasn't as good with my left hand as I thought I'd be, but brushing your teeth doesn't require a lot of precision. When I got done I was impressed by my new and improved brain power. Unitl I stepped into the shower and realized I had a giant chunk of toothpaste in the back of my hair. I guess I need to keep practicing.

UPDATE: Tonight I took the book's first quiz to gauge my memory. I am pleased to report that score is that of an average 70-year-old. I'm the target audience after all.

Superbowl

My prediction for the game was New England 42, Giants 17. One minute 'til halftime and it doesn't look like it's going to be a high scoring affair. I'm still rooting for the underdog.

Boredom-Inspired Lists

Top Names for Our Forthcoming Son

1. Max Power
2. Lance Uppercut
3. Rock Strongo
4. Dr. Death
5. Horatio Caine

Bands I Would Like to Play In

1. The Travoltas
2. Alkaline Trio
3. Millencolin
4. Streetlight Manifesto
5. Nada Surf
6. Bouncing Souls

Reasons Why the TV Writers' Strike Has Got to End

1. Traci is now watching those shows on TLC about families with 16 kids
2. Snoop Dogg's "Fatherhood" is the best thing on our DVR (There were obviously no writers for the show - if there were, they should never work again)
3. I've already watched every re-run of 30 Rock at least twice
4. Without new episodes of The Office, my coworkers and I have nothing to talk about on Friday mornings. Silence. Eerie silence.

President Hinckley

Our beloved prophet passed away on Sunday.

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695247765,00.html

Romantic Vacation Getaway: SLC in January

Our friend Rhett and his girlfriend Liz spent the weekend at our house. When we heard the doorbell I said, "Paige, let's open the door."
"Open door!" she parroted. But then the second she saw them, her eyes teared up.

Over the next three days, every time she made eye contact with Rhett, she'd either say "bub-bye friends" or "open door?" She finally decided to warm up them about 30 minutes before they went back home. When they really left, the sad "bub-bye friends" were replaced by happy "see ya's," kisses and hugs. She then napped peacefully for the next two hours.

I don't know how much fun Rhett and Liz had, but I had a great vacation. In just one day I ate at both the Chuck O' Rama and made my first trip to Benihana. I kept thinking of that episode of The Office when they go to Benihana and Dwight can't hear anything anyone is saying. And Michael brings the Asian waitresses back to the office, but has to mark one of their hands with a Sharpie because he can't remember which is which.

There was one really sad part of the weekend. Liz shattered my entire world view when she told me CSI:Miami, with all of its white, linen suits and aviator sunglasses, is not really filmed in Miami. It's actually filmed in Long Beach, California, right around the corner from Liz's college. I wonder if Snoop Dogg knows what kind of shenanigans are being pulled, right in his hometown.

Thug Life/Ghetto Consequence

Recent Pics can be found here.

Join Me or Die. Can You Do Any Less?

Traci and I watched the snooze fest that is the Simpsons Movie over the weekend. Rather than get myself worked up over what I didn't like about it, I'll focus on better times. Mr. Sparkle. What a brave corporate logo. Awesome power indeed.

i wondered how fast is lightspeed

Modern communication goes thusly:

--Spencer writes post about high school dance with Katie.
--Katie lives in Wisconsin. Her blog links to mine.
--Katie's dad is a mission president in Argentina. He used to be Traci's bishop.
--Katie's dad reads Katie's blog and clicks on the link to my blog.
--Katie's dad was shocked that Spencer and Traci were "making out" in his kitchen.
--Katie's dad wants to leave a comment, but is scared that doing so will "put a virus on his computer."
--Traci reminds me that "we weren't making out all, we just kissed a couple of times."

Recent Paige-isms

Paige is learning new words and phrases all the time. Here's a few things she's cracked me up with lately.

The Birthday Party

Paige turned two a couple of months ago. All of my family came over to our house to celebrate. Paige generally gets upset when everyone's around, as she doesn't like losing out on any attention. She'd been practicing the happy birthday song for months (always singing "Happy Birthday, Dear Ryan (her cousin)" for some reason), but when everyone started singing to her, she went into hysterical crying. She had finally mellowed about right about the time everyone was ready to leave. As all of the cousins were getting into the car she stood on the porch and waved to everyone. "Bub-bye, party! Bub-bye party!"

Amen, Brother

Church isn't really Paige's thing. She throws toys at kids at nursery and sneaks out of the chapel during sacrament meeting. She does, however, love saying "amen." One amen never really suffices, though. At the end of each sacrament prayer, the whole congregation hears one little voice saying, "amen, Amen, AMEN!!!" You can only imagine what testimony meeting is like.

Last week we went to Traci's parents' ward for baby Maika's blessing. Paige was actually pretty good during the whole meeting. During the closing prayer, she broke rather significant wind and proclaimed "Toot!" While we were a bit embarrassed, we were more impressed that she got the word right, as she's been referring to that sound as "burp" lately.

Uh, Number 4

Traci bought Paige one of those Christmas calendars that is filled with a chocolate for each day. Paige loved it. The problem, of course, was that she never wanted to settle for just one chocolate. We kept the calendar on top of the fridge (theoretically out of reach). At random times throughout the day Paige would stand in front of the fridge and say, "number seven?" Meaning, "can I have the candy in door number seven." When I'd tell her no, she'd say, "uh, number three?" I never fell for it. Well, sometimes it was too cute so I had to fall for it.

We have also noticed that Paige is already trying to play us. Whenever she falls down, gets hurt, or is crying for any reason, through her tears she'll always manage to propose "uh, can-dy?" If that doesn't work, she'll just wait a little bit and then present the request as a brand new, great idea. "Can-dy?" If we say no, she usually rattles off all of the other acceptable options, one after another. "Snacks? (fruit snacks)" "Elmo? (brushing her teeth with her Elmo toothbrush)" "Toot Toot Chugga" (a Wiggles movie.) She's nothing if not persistent.

A Miracle?!

After at least a year of begging, In Utah This Week magazine finally published some of my work. Read some record reviews here that you already read on the Manifesto.

thnks fr th mmrs

I started dating Traci when I was a senior in high school. At Murray High School, you generally take your girlfriend to the big dances (proms, etc.), but ask other girls to the lesser dances. Toward the end of the year, Traci's best friend Katie (pictured above) asked me to a girl's choice dance. I can't remember who Traci asked, but we were all in the same group. After the dance everyone went to Katie's house to watch a movie. While everyone was in the basement Traci and I snuck upstairs and made out in the kitchen.

December Consumption

It's been a while since I've tracked what I've been listening to...

Music

The Killers - Sawdust
Cake - B-Sides and Rarities
Jimmy Eat World - Chase this Light
Voodoo Glow Skulls - California Street Music
Streetlight Manifesto - Somewhere in the Between
I'm From Barcelona - Let Me Introduce My Friends
Cobra Starship - Viva La Cobra
Aesop Rock - Labor Days
Kylie Minogue - X

Mo' Best and Worst of 07

Because I was frantically trying to create that other best of '07 so I could give an unsolicited copy to In Utah This Week, I forgot some stuff.

Mo' good albums:

Alkaline Trio - Remains
Brand New - The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me
The Kooks - Inside In/Inside Out (released in '06)
Silversun Pickups - Carnavas (if it wasn't released in '06 it would have been my best of '07)
Matt & Kim - S/T (Another '06 that I listened to every day of '07)
Mark Ronson - Version
Up Up Down Down Left Right BA - Worst Band Name Ever
The National - Boxer
Tiger Army - Music from the Regions Beyond
Rivers Cuomo - Alone: The Home Recordings of

Crappy Albums

Here are some of the albums I was really looking forward to in '07 that ended up letting me down:

Bad Religion - New Maps of Hell
Bloc Party - Weekend in the City
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Kanye West - Graduation
50 Cent - Curtis (I wasn't looking forward to this album, but it sucked nevertheless)
Jay-Z - American Gangster
Aly & AJ- Insomniac (Yes, I was looking forward to this. You got a problem with that?)
Beastie Boys - The Mix Up
Dashboard Confessional - The Shade of Poison Trees
Jimmy Eat World - Chase This Light (good but not good enough, this goes in the "okay" pile at best)
Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist (worst album of the year)

Best Music of 2007

This may or may not be my complete list for best of '07. It's 11:59 p.m. and I'm very tired. I didn't realize it was going to take me this long to put this together. I've been working on it for like three days. Maybe I don't really want to write about music for a living.

Folk



Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog

Iron & Wine, aka Sam Beam, became a folk cult hero after just one album, The Creek Drank the Cradle. But anyone can grow a beard, play an acoustic guitar and sing pretty. It was The Woman King EP that really set Iron & Wine apart. The record felt like the soundtrack to oldie-timey saloon brawl, all brown teeth and chairs breaking over dudes' backs.

The Shepherd's Dog feels like a mixtape of all of the styles Beam has experimented with over the past few years. It's quiet acoustic one minute, and distortion-drenched vocals the next.Though the album can feel a bit uneven at times, the style hopping makes for a great ride.

Standout Tracks: White Tooth Man, House by the Sea

Indie



Bishop Allen - The Broken String

Bishop Allen became blogger darlings when they accomplished their goal of releasing an EP of new music each month in 2006. The band chose to rework and rerecord 10 of those songs for 2007's The Broken String. Though the result is not what you would consider tight, the looseness of the sound is endearing. "Click, Click, Click" is hands-down the catchiest song of the year.

Standout Tracks: Click, Click, Click, The Chinatown Bus

Ska



Streetlight Manifesto - Somewhere in the Between

Ska, and all of its related subgenres, had a great run in the mid-to late '90s. But just as quickly as it skanked into our hearts, it skanked back out of style. Fortunately, either no one told Streetlight Manifesto or they just don't care. Somewhere in the Between is better than anything released in the '90's, with the exception of Catch 22's Keasbey Nights - an album that SM frontman Thomas Kalnoky also authored. Kalnoky is again on a lyrical rampage, but after touring endlessly with Reel Big Fish, the tunes are a bit peppier. The album doesn't pack the same bunch as the band's 2002 debut, but certainly won't disappoint fans of the band or the genre.

Standout Tracks: We Will Fall Together, The Receiving End of It All

Hip Hop



Aesop Rock - None Shall Pass

With commercial hip hop being weighed down by the bloated corpses of predictable/crappy albums (think 50 Cent and Kanye West), it's refreshing to hear someone take the genre in a different direction - or to another world. Though Aesop Rock's lyrics rarely touch down on planet earth, he certainly knows how to spit 'em. Here's a typical stanza, "If you never had a day a snow cone couldn't fix/You wouldn't relate to the rogue vocoder blitz/How he spoke through a no-doz motor on the fritz/Cause he wouldn't play roll over fetch like a #$@#$." If the lyrics are a bit too out-there, the production and delivery should bring you right back in. None Shall Pass is definitely a bright spot in this year's dirge of rap music.

Standout Tracks: Keep off the Lawn, None Shall Pass

Christian Rock



The Almost - Southern Weather

Chug-a-chug, chug-a-chug, chug-a-chug, chug-a-chug, BOOM! Southern Weather's opening track and first single "Say This Sooner" gets me every time. I start tapping my finger on the steering wheel, then my foot starts going and by the chorus I'm singing loud enough to be embarrassed when I notice the folks in the car next to me giving me an uncomfortable look.

Underoath drummer Aaron Gillespie took a break from Christian metaling to a do a bit of Christian emo-ing with his side project The Almost. Writing all the songs and playing all of the instruments on the record, Gillespie shows that he can do more than just keep the beat. He's got a knack for a melody, a solid voice and an ear for radio friendly pop structures. Mixing a little rock, a little country, and a lot of lovin' the Lord makes Southern Weather a surprisingly good record.

Standout Tracks: Say This Sooner, Dirty and Left Out

Pop Punk




Motion City Soundtrack - Even if it Kills Me

Motion City has always had the right elements - dancy punk singalongs, plenty of Moog keyboards, a singer with hair as big and out of control as his heart - but has had trouble bringing them all together. On Even if it Kills Me they finally succeeded. The album manages to be fun without being annoying, and touching without feeling contrived. And "Last Night" may be my favorite song of the entire year.

Standout Tracks: Calling all Cops, Last Night


2006 HoldOvers

For me, the best two albums of 2007 came out in 2006.



Silversun Pickups - Carnavas

How Silversun Pickups managed to make the best album of both 2007 (I know it technically came out in 2006) and 1991 at the same time is a mystery to me. With all of its big guitar riffs and spacey keyboard layering, Carnavas sounds like it should be follow-up album to Smashing Pumpkins Gish. Outstanding from start to finish, its hard to even pick the album's best track - and it gets better with each listen.

Standout Tracks: Well Thought Out Twinkles, Three Seed

Matt & Kim - S/T

[coming soon]

Standout Tracks: It's a Fact, Light Speed

christmas yights

Paige has been loving the Christmas season. She's learned all sorts of words - Santa, reindeer, tree, snow, and snowman - and says them incessantly. She loves yights (er, lights) the best so we were excited to take her to Temple Square - even though we knew it would be a huge battle to get her to wear her warm weather gear. She prefers to wear no clothes at all.

We were given a little Christmas miracle when she didn't put up any fight about the clothes. She even wore her mittens. Though the mittens only inhibit the use of her fingers, she thought both of her arms were also immobilized. She spent the whole night moving her arms in robot motion, without bending her elbows.

Despite the millions of lights at Temple Square, she was most intrigued by the one light we could have seen from our house - the moon. "Paige, look at those pretty pink lights." Nope. She was too busy looking into the sky and saying "Moon! Moon!" I tried to get some good pictures of her in front of the lights, but almost all of them turned into neck shots as should couldn't stop staring into the heavens.

Currently Listening To...

Here's a random sampling of what I've been listening to lately.

Voodoo Glow Skulls - California Street Music
I really wanted this album to be good. VGS hasn't put out an interesting record since 1998, but I was hoping this would be their triumphant return. Instead, the result was firmly mediocre. Perfectly listenable (for those who can stand to listen to the Voodoo Glow Skulls), but far from inspiring. Though the songs are tight (and they should be - they've written the same song for the eight records), they don't quite manage to bring the passion.

Voodoo Glow Skulls - Fire in the Dance Hall [MP3]

The Hives - The Black and White Album
Though it's hard to take them 100% seriously, The Hives know how craft a catchy garage punk tune - consistently and thoroughly. On their new album they try to expand their palette a bit, adding a few quirky, synthy, haunted housey songs ("Puppet on a String," "T.H.E.H.I.V.ES.," "Giddy Up") to the tracklist - all of which basically suck. Drop those songs from your iPod and you've got yourself a half hour of good times.

The Hives - Tick Tick Boom [MP3]

It's also impossible not to love a band with a band that both a charismatic frontman and two guys who look like they should be selling used cars. Check out the video for Tick Tick Boom here.

David Bazan - Live at the Grey Eagle
I saw the artist formerly known as Pedro the Lion play at Club Sound last week. I enjoyed the ambiance of watching bums and Greyhound buses pass by the club window as David Bazan serenaded the 50 or so attendees with just his voice and an electric guitar.

To get the gist, visit at HardtoFindaFriend to download a complete live show. The Salt Lake City show was even better. There's nothing like watching a man losing his faith right in front of your eyes. I haven't been able to stop thinking about "Please Baby Please" or "Harmless Sparks."

David Bazan - Please Baby Please [MP3]

The Walmart-ization of My Heart

I am the reason why local companies don't survive. The other night I went to buy a Christmas tree. I was on borrowed time, in a borrowed truck. I normally get the tree at Smith's Marketplace, but to save time I went to the little tree lot around the corner from my house.

It was 7:30 p.m. and when I pulled in I didn't know if the place was still open. After walking around the empty lot for a few seconds, a guy came out of the house next door and greeted me. I asked him how much he was charging. $30-$50. I could tell immediately that it was going to be a little uncomfortable.

I wouldn't be opposed to paying $30 or even $50 for the best tree ever. But all of the trees looked like the Charlie Brown trees that we used to cut down at my grandpa's ranch...for free. They were all crooked, barren little things. I wanted to support this unknown gentleman and his locally owned and operated tree farm, but I just couldn't find anything at all. "Uh, I don't think you've got what I'm looking for." I sheepishly got back in the truck.

I drove to the other side of town to the Smith's Marketplace. I went straight to the $20 bin and found just what I was looking for. And I felt completely horrible about it. Sorry, local merchant. You just can't compete with the selection and discounts of a regional chain.

On a happier note, Paige just recently discovered trees, thanks to the Christmas lights attached to them in the neighborhood. She went nuts when she saw a tree come in through the front door of her house. "Dad! What's that? Tree! Dad! What's that? Tree! Tree! TREE!! What's that? TREEEEE!!!!"

Somewhere in the Between

Best. Artwork. Ever.

The three best ska albums of the past 10 years have all been written by the same man. Thomas Kalnoky has completed the trilogy with the recent release of Streetlight Manifesto's Somewhere in the Between. I could spend forever analyzing how this record fits into the Catch 22/Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution/Streetlight drama, but I'll stick to the music itself.

The album rocks. Standouts include "We Will Fall Together," "One Foot on the Grave," and "The Receiving End of It All." It has all of the crucial Streetlight elements: great horn lines, huge singalong hooks (some songs have multiple hooks, it's like an advertising campaign gone crazy) and lots of big, dramatic decrescendos. "One Foot on the Gas, One Foot in the Grave" also contains the best intro of any Streetlight song.

The record differs from previous works because of a greater percentage of upbeat tunes, even if they are about going to hell or watching life pass you by. ("Down, Down, Down to Mephisto's Cafe," "Somewhere in the Between.")

With all of that said, this record is probably my least favorite of any of Kalnoky's work. I love it. It's solid. It's awesome. (It's got a few too many happy tracks for me, but I can deal with that.) Keasbey has set the bar so high. It would be next to impossible to beat Keasbey Nights. (Even Kalnoky couldn't beat it when he recorded it again.)

Somewhere in the Between is a must-have for anyone who loves punk or ska or any of its combinations. And the band is coming to the SLC in January. I'll see you there.

We Will Fall Together [MP3]

Daddy Daughter Time

Now that Paige is a nonstop chatterbox (she's always been a talker, now she just inserts actual words) here's an average chain of events and conversation when I'm babysitting.

Paige and I, sitting in the family room when she says, "Dah-rums?" She takes my hand and leads me to the door of the basement. We go downstairs.

Paige sits at the drumset and pounds away. She starts out with the drumsticks and I use the brushes. Every few seconds she says "trade" and we switch. When she hits the cymbals especially hard she looks at me and says "Good dah-rums?" I nod in approval. She gets bored after a few minutes and says, "Nino?"

Nino is her word for Play-Doh. We walk back upstairs and sit at the kitchen table to play nino. She sees the purple container and says "par-ple, par-ple, PARPLE!!!" I mold the play-doh into various shapes and she tells me all the names - circle, square, heart, diamond, etc. She can nino for quite a while, but she will invariably catch a glimpse of her halloween bucket on top of the fridge. At which point she says, "Can-dy?" I say no. "Can-dy?" No. "'Nacks?" (fruit snacks) No. "Shapes?" (her Baby Einstein Movie about shapes) No. "Yion?" (lion, a reference to the lion in the same movie) No. "Buh-bles?" I concede.

We go upstairs and I put her in the empty bathtub and blow bubbles at her. When she's had enough she says "Count?" which means she wants to count all of the assorted shampoos and soaps in the bathroom. I put them on the side of the tub and quiz her on the colors. She then counts each of them and tips them back over at me. She will play this game forever. The only way to make it end is for me to say to her "brush teeth?"

We stand and brush our teeth together - she will not brush hers until she sees that I brush mine. Her brushing consists of chewing on the bristles or eating the toothpaste off the brush. When we're finished, I rinse her mouth out three times (she sticks her tongue out and I put water on it), and then I pat her mouth dry. "Brush teeth" is officially done by Paige exclaiming "All clean!" At this point she looks at me and says "Nino?" And we start all over again.

Something for Those Quiet Moments: Ruminations on Missionary Music

After the Utes gave up a 40 yard pass on 4th and 18 I needed some cheering up. I found some solace in downloading some new music - The Hippos' self-titled, The Rentals EP and two Get Up Kids albums. The irony being that I don't think there is any group that makes me feel more sad than the Get Up Kids.

As the stream of consciousness continues, I am thinking about the contraband music I listened to on my mission. There was a Virgin Records by our apartment in The Hague (I'd never seen a Virgin Records before) that had a big going out of business sale. Even though we weren't allowed to listen to music, I thought it a shame to pass up such great blowout prices. I picked up a copy of "Something to Write Home About" by the Get Up Kids, even though I'd never heard the band. The artwork, the name of the band, and the name of the album were so awesome that I couldn't pass it by. Like a good boy, I refrained from listening to it until I got back to America.

I would say, all things considered, I was pretty good at abiding by the no music rule. However, here were a few that slipped by the goalie:

Something for those Quiet Moments Mixtape

What a funny mission memory. I was at a zone conference in my first area. I'd only been in Holland a few weeks. I was happy to learn their was a fellow punk rocker in my zone, Elder Josh Ligairi. (Ligairi somehow managed to keep his tongue ring a secret his entire mission. He even created a new way of laughing that kept his tongue hidden. Huh, huh, huh, huh.)

I was in the church bathroom when Ligairi approached me. He slipped me a cassette tape and then disappeared. I shut the stall door and inspected the booty. It was a mixtape titled Something for Those Quiet Moments. Ligairi had included hits by all of the punk rock legends - NOFX, Bad Religion, Millencolin, MXPX. I put the tape into the pocket of my suit and went back to the conference. I felt like I was walking around with a dimebag of marijuana.

Many months later I finally listened to the tape. I think I only listened to it once or twice, but the memory of Ligairi sneaking it to me was priceless.

Ace of Base and the 5BX

Even though he's not a Mormon, my friend Rhett was super supportive of my mission. One day, a couple of months into my mission, I got a package from him. It was an Ace of Base cd. Because my friends always teased me about liking the Swedish dance quartet, I was always too embarassed to buy any of their music. Rhett included a note with the CD: "I saw this in the $1 bin and thought of you."

The CD made its appearance 18 months later when I was introduced to the 5BX workout program. My friend Jonny Wix discovered a photocopied workout program in his missionary apartment called the 5BX (a cool, hip way of saying 5 Basic Exercises). Since we had all grown fat from eating french fries with mayonnaise for every meal, I asked him to send a copy to me and my housemates down in Antwerp, Belgium. Every night we'd do our exercise routine, which included some move where you lay on the floor and pretend to be a fish or something. The best part was that we all agreed we could only work out properly if we had some great work out tunes. Enter Ace of Base. Beautiful Life, Lucky Love, Never Gonna Say I'm Sorry, man, those are awesome songs. The rest of the album sucks, but those tracks were perfect for the 5BX.
....
The list goes on, but time runs short. Many great songs trapped in the time warp of '99-'01, but I guess it I'll have to save that for the next time I'm depressed about sports. There's a story about Enya and other New Age hits, a bad run in with Tom Jones' "Sex Bomb" and many, many more. I'd really like to write a book about my mission, but Traci ensures me no one would want to read it.

The Kooks - All That She Wants [MP3]
Ace of Base - The Sign [MP3]

Two Years of This Kid

Today our little monkey turns two. Here's Paige through the ages:



Fresh out of the womb [Post 1 | Post 2 |



One year birthday party [Post 1 | Post 2 |



Halloween 2007



November 2007

Even after two years, we still like her.

New Streetlight

Streetlight Manifesto just released their first-ever video - "We Will Fall Together" from their forthcoming album. I pre-ordered it and if all goes well it will be in my mailbox when I get home from work today. I've basically been waiting four years for this record to come out. Can't wait.

Sunday Afternoon

Paige is looking happy in her church dress, but that's only because we're home from church.

iFly?!

So I went to the iFly Utah center on Friday. I had big plans of posting the video, but it wasn't that great. I wasn't really that great either. (I was certainly nothing like the promo video.)

Here's how it works. After watching a short instructional video, you get two one-minute sessions in the air tube with a flight instructor. The wind blows 160 mph and if you do things right, you'll hover anywhere from four to six feet above the ground. If you don't position your body right (like me), you spend most of the time being repositioned by the instructor and bumping into the walls.

While it was definitely a noteworthy experience to be pummeled by 100 mile winds, it wasn't really what I expected. I thought it would be more like the weightless feeling of riding a rollercoaster or bungee jumping. It just seemed like a lot of hard work.

At least I looked really good in my jumpsuit.

Get Your Wind Tunnel On!

Tomorrow afternoon I will be going to iFly in Ogden. I'm taking my camcorder. Hopefully I don't return with a video of me peeing my pants.

Thanks, Japan!

I was listening to the new Britney Spears CD on my way to work the other day (because that's just how I roll). I browsed through the liner notes and couldn't find one song that she actually wrote or even co-wrote. Though I have no way of knowing this, I would imagine that someone calls her up in the morning and says "Hey Britney, it's time to record an album." She rolls out of bed and drags herself to the studio where someone hands her the lyrics, teaching her the tune, and tells her how to sing it. She lays down the track. They auto-tune it and voila! a new Britney record.

It seems weird for a musician to be so disconnected or uninvolved with her own music. Its one thing to sing someone else's lyrics about universal topics like love or the dance floor, but it seems strange to have someone hand you the words you're supposed to be thinking. (i.e. "I’m Mrs. ‘Most likely to get on the TV for slippin’ on the streets/When getting the groceries, no, for real") Weird. It's also gross when mother of two sings "I just wanna take it off, I just wanna take it off." Leave it on, please!

All of this brings me to my experience with Japan. I ran into the myspace page of a Japanese artist called Alone Together the other day. I was interested in the piano protege vs. spastic japanitechno vibe but much more intrigued by this statement:

My wish is to have many people in the world listen to my music.
If you need my CD, please send an E-mail to myspace email or my hotmail.
I send CD for you.
A money is not necessary.
THIS CD IS FREE .
(If you write your address on an E-mail, I send a CD for you soon.)

So I sent my address. Just a couple of days later I got a package from Japan (the cardboard CD sleeve is shown above) with a personal note from Yuki himself. It's cool to see a guy who's willing to shell out shipping costs to anywhere in the world just so people will check out his tunes.

Yuki is a very talented artist. However, the EP felt the musical equivalent of those Japanese cartoons that give American kids seizures. I'd like to give it a few more spins, but I think I might turn into an epileptic. That said, I can't get enough of the opening track, Human Beings. Very Awesome.

So, Britney Spears, if you don't get your act together and work a little harder, this is going to be the new face of American pop music.



Human Beings [MP3]

Blah, Blah, Blah, and So Forth

The way Paige repeats words back to us makes me really wonder how we must sound to her. Most sentences start with a lot of unintelligible sounds and end with the one word we understand. Example: Garble, garble, noise, sound, "chair." That means either she's now sitting in the chair you just vacated (her favorite game) or she wants you to sit by her on the chair. Maybe that's why this video of this kid saying the blessing on the food is so incredibly funny to me. [Thanks, Brian.]

T-Shirt Hell

Traci and I have been in our new house for 4 months and we've probably only unpacked 3/4ths of our boxes. (Those boxes have just moved from the garage to the basement. We're not what you'd call, uh, "organized.") Realizing that I have more crap that any sane person would need, I'm trying to get rid of unneeded items.

I started going through my clothes last night. I have so many clothes. And it's not like I have good taste or anything, so it's just piles and piles of band t-shirts and ugly Old Navy jeans. (The fact that I refuse to try clothes on also results in a lot of items briefly worn and then shoved in drawers or closets.) I got rid of a few garbages worth of stuff and made another bag of band t-shirts that I don't wear anymore that I can't bear to get rid of.

My mom said that Danny Ulrich's mom is taking all of her kids high school sports t-shirts and sewing them into a quilt. My first response was "time to let go of high school sports." But then I quickly realized that would idea be great for a guy who can't let go of the memories of concerts and bands he liked in high school. So the big bag of t-shirts is going to my mom's where I need to trick her into helping me make a quilt. It will be the coolest rock 'n roll quilt ever.

Don't I Know You From Somewhere?

At the Jamboree Music Festival:

Traci and I were sitting on our blanket watching the boringness when a middle-aged lesbian sitting behind us as gets my attention:

MAL: You look really familiar. Are you on the news?

Me: Um, no. Not that I know of. (I decided not to recount the one time I hung out with Shelly Osterloh. Here and here.)

MAL: Oh, well, where are you from?

Me: [Skipping through all of the 'where could I know you from's] Where do you do your banking?

MAL: Uh, America First.

Me: I worked at Cyprus Credit Union for five years and usually that's where people know me from.

MAL: Oh, I have an account there. That must be it.

Me: Yep, that must be it.

I wonder how often news anchors are approached and asked if they are bank tellers.

---

The day after I got home from my mission I was I was meeting some friends at Temple Square. (Talk about nerdy and predictable for a returned missionary.) I could see two girls looking at each other and giggling.

Were they checking me out? Doubtful, I thought. As if on a bet, one of them approached me.

"Uh, hi, are you, uh, Lance Bass?"

"Sorry to disappoint you ladies, but you've got the wrong guy."

I wonder if people ever ask Lance Bass if he is the purveyor of the Sutherland Manifesto.

TV: Spencer vs. Traci

Shows that Spencer likes that Traci doesn't:

-Prison Break
-Football
-Gossip Girl

Shows Traci likes that Spencer doesn't:

-Scrubs (I even hate the theme song)
-Girls Next Door
-America's Top Model (Urge to kill Tyra Banks. Growing. Growing.)

Lame things currently on our DVR:

Legally Blonde the Musical (Traci)
High School Musical 2 (Traci)
Mad Hot Ballroom (Traci)
Gridiron Gang (Spencer)*
Step Up (Spencer)*

*I haven't watched either of these yet and I know Traci won't watch them with me. If anyone wants to come over, let me know.

New Tracks on the Manifesto Radio

For a music snob such as myself, it was a bit embarrassing standing at the check out stand at the county library holding both a Sum 41 cd and a New Found Glory album. I don't know what inspired me to listen to NFG as I dismissed them immediately after I first heard them back in '01, but I wanted to hear Coming Home. I'm glad I did. I haven't stopped listening to it in a week, despite the worst lyric in the history of time. "You smell how angels oughta smell." Awful.

I've posted some new songs on the Manifesto radio (on the right side of the blog). I also love the new Motion City Soundtrack album, but that could change with more listens. For the time being, I think it's the best of their three releases. The new Iron & Wine will probably end up on my best of 2007 list.

Paigey Monkey

Couldn't have asked for a better Halloween. We were very worried that Paige wasn't going to wear her costume again (last year she was in her lady bug costume for about 2 seconds. To justify the purchase, we had my mother work a lady bug role into her version of the nativity) because she ripped it off the first time I tried to get it on her. But after she saw her best friend/nemesis cousin Ryan in his costume, she decided she could wear hers.

She chased her cousins from door to door during her first trick or treating experience. She would knock on the door (she only knocks once, despite always saying "knock, knock") and then with a bit of prompting say "tricktreat."

She loved carrying around her little pumpkin candy bucket. We eventually had to come back home when the bucket became too heavy for her to carry. She refused to let me hold it, so she switched to holding it with two hands, but then she'd fall over when she started running.

When we got back to my sister's house Paige would help answer the door when trick or treaters came by and greeted each one with "Hi guys."

Best. Halloween. Ever.

Circle, Square, Fruit Salad

In addition to loving animals, Paige also loves shapes. She can identify a circle, square, triangle, diamond, star, rectangle (pronounced 'rectal') and her favorite shape - oval. But for whatever reason, when she sees a crescent she says, "fruit salad!" Every time. And not just with actually toy shapes. She'll see a moon shape on a blanket or something and immediately say "fruit salad." And because she watches so much Wiggles, she'll often follow "fruit salad" up with "yummy! yummy!"