NaBloPoMo

Had to Hear

Real Estate – Had to Hear

I’m back home after a quick trip down to New York for The Twilight Sad/We Were Promised Jetpacks show. It was not a late night, especially for New York, but I’m still a little tired after going to two shows this week. I am telling myself it’s the driving to these places that’s the culprit rather than the actual going out to see bands. Being at a show is always really rejuvenating for me and the effects can last for days.

I wasn’t joking the other night when I said live music was addictive. If the show was good, it leaves me jonesing for more and I start looking for another show to go to soon. If the show was great, it makes me want to hit the road and go catch that same band the next night in some other city. This is usually pretty easy to accomplish in the northeast, so long as you can swing the time off.

Thanksgiving is in a few days so hopefully I’ll be able to catch up on some sleep then, but I really had to hear some live music this week.

 

Keys

Hooray for Earth – Keys

This posting every day is really challenging. I’m going to have to schedule some posts in advance if I’m going to be able to pull it off during the next week. That would necessitate having a bunch of free time to do multiple posts at once and I have enough trouble just getting one done.

On Thursday mornings, I like to listen to the local college radio station on my way to work for as long as I can keep the signal. College radio isn’t known for its far-reaching broadcasting capabilities and I often will lose it before there’s a break telling me what they’ve just played. The woman who does the early morning slot on Thursdays plays new and recent releases for the most part, so I have the phone in its hands-free dashboard mounted holder and when something comes on that I’m curious about, I Shazam the song so I can look it up later. Often I’ll forget about it until I’m sitting here late at night and then I wind up going down rabbit holes. Next thing I know it’s really late and I haven’t written the post or decided which song I’m using.

This song comes from one of those bands. If you don’t like it, just be grateful that I’m not posting songs from the show that’s on the college station on my drive home. Three hours straight of polka.

 

Picture

This will have to do for my Monday post, even though it’s already Tuesday. I can’t possibly write about it now, it’s too late at night and I’m still too close to it.

image

Getting Away With It

Electronic – Getting Away With It

Strangely, though I feel uncomfortable about Peter Hook playing all those New Order and Joy Division songs, I have no trouble with Johnny Marr playing Smiths songs or ones like this. Perhaps it’s because the Smiths and Electronic really did disband whereas New Order is still around. Plus, with all the credits going to Morrissey and Marr, it always seemed obvious to me that Johnny Marr wrote the music while Morrissey wrote the lyrics and came up with the vocal part. He’s just playing the songs he wrote.

One of the perks of having bands that were big break up is that sometimes the individual band members keep making music, but now they’re playing tiny venues for $20 or less in little out of the way places instead of huge arena shows for big bucks. It’s a little present for those of us who stuck around and waited it out.

I’ve got new tires and windshield wipers, now I just have to hope that my back holds out and decide if I need to have a Johnny Fuckin Marr t-shirt that I’ll never be able to wear.

Riptide

Vance Joy – Riptide

This song is everywhere, all the time. You can’t get away from it. And every time I hear it I’m left wondering just what he means by, “I love you when you’re singing that song and I got a lump in my throat ’cause you’re gonna sing the words wrong.”

Does he have a lump in his throat because he loves her but every time she sings the words wrong it’s like he has to swallow hard to keep from saying, “No! That’s not right!” and it’s actually driving him mad that she sings the words wrong but he loves her so he doesn’t want to tell her to stop or tell her what they are instead?

Or is it that he actually loves that she gets the words wrong but finds it cute or endearing somehow and he gets a lump in his throat because he falls for her a little more each time she sings the wrong words?

Because if it’s the latter, I only find this cute in young children. After you pass the age of, say, six, I’m going to correct you on those wrong lyrics. I might even do it when you’re younger.

If it’s the former, I predict that relationship won’t last.

Messy Enough

The Radio Dept. – Messy Enough

Some people are weekend warriors, getting up and out early on Saturdays, taking the kids to soccer or swim lessons or karate, getting their grocery shopping out of the way, etc. That’s not us. When Saturday rolls around we all like to have slow, leisurely breakfasts at whatever time it is when we come down stairs, catch up on some reading, just take it easy. What’s the rush? To me Saturdays are like summer vacations; you have to appreciate them while you have them because they’re gone before you’re ready. Slow it down. The dishes can wait.

Marching Orders

The New Pornographers – Marching Orders

And here’s a show I’ll miss next week. I don’t know what happened that crammed an entire year’s worth of concert opportunities into a five or six week time frame but that’s what’s going on. It would be a full time job just going to all the shows I’d like to see and even then I’d have to choose between a few options in different cities on some nights.

I have two different apps on my phone for live music and I like elements of both but neither one really does what I want. First of all, I want these apps to track the artists and tell me not just when they’ll be playing in my area but I want them to let me know when tickets go on sale. Anywhere. It’s too late for me to scroll through the list and see that TV on the Radio is playing tonight because I would have needed to know that weeks ago because it’s sold out.

Back in October I went out to Portland, OR, for a conference and I desperately wanted to go see a show while I was there. Of course that was the week when bands I wanted to see were near my home and while Portland had stuff going on, there was nothing I was really excited about. These apps were not much help in my scouting out the options in advance.

I think there’s a market, albeit perhaps a market of one (me), for an app that combines travel and concert options so that when you discover you’re going to be traveling, you can make connecting flights that will route you through a city where scheduling a layover will net you a great concert that you would otherwise miss. Hmm, maybe I need to flesh this idea out some more.