Impossible Germany, Unlikely Blog Entry

*Ed. note - Here's a guest post from my good friend Alex. He's a professional writer, so he's going to make my writing sound like horrible pointless drivel... But, I digress. Enjoy! - Halfcourt*



I’m sitting on my porch overlooking the courtyard in the apartment building on Emery. There’s a tree that is ready to topple over, and it’s hot as hell. I’m braving another Kansas summer night, the kind that produces a heavy sweat that engulfs your body and mind.

It’s another night of reflection, wondering how I could ever leave the hulking buildings, rusty bridges and swarm of humanity of Chicago for the plains of Kansas.

It’s another night of sighs, of questioning myself and pondering what I’ve gotten into.

In the background, there are dueling guitars.

“Impossible Germany/Unlikely Japan/Wherever you go, wherever you land”

As Wilco’s “Impossible Germany” leaks from my apartment, everything stops. For five minutes and 58 seconds, my worries subside.

It’s not because it’s a happy song. I really don’t think it is. It’s a song that just touches on moving from being single and scared to having someone to share your life and troubles with. It’s not a sappy ode to love. It’s two verses of pretty straightforward sentiment.

Of course, the song ends the same way it starts. Whether that’s musical metaphor or convenience, I’ll never know.

But that’s not why this song is brilliant.

It’s the precise guitarwork that follows. The dueling couplets and background riffs that make me close my eyes, tap my foot, shake my head and smile every time I hear the song. There’s passion in every note. Each note brings you through a relationship, starting slow and eventually ending in the up and down riff that ends on a high note (see what I did there?).

When Tweedy, Nels and Sansone play, you imagine them back to back, shaking their guitars like an 80s heavy metal band. Up and down the fretboard they go, deftly flicking off note after note. They capture a sense of freedom that embodies rock and roll, something I never felt in my self-imposed exile.

But for a few short minutes, everything that bothered me would disappear.

In May 2008, Wilco played in downtown Lawrence, Kan., the first outdoor show to take place in that area of town. I was so excited to go.

When they played “Impossible Germany,” again, it was like a heavy weight was lifted and I moved like a hippie at Woodstock.

The cheap Miller Lites probably helped.

They also played “Via Chicago,” which became a favorite of mine in the months leading up to my departure. Near the end of the song – which uses Chicago not as a final destination as it was for me, but as a point in a journey – Tweedy sings some nonsense:

“And crawling is screw faster lash
I blow it with kisses
I rest my head on a pillowy star
And a cracked-door moon
That says I haven't gone too far”

But when they play it live, he says “gone to faaaaaaaaaar,” his voice trailing off into another solo.

It’s just one of many Wilco songs that bring me back to a time and a place. “Via Chicago” takes me to Chicago – but also reminds of what I went through to get back here (mainly a tortuous graduate school program that taught me little except that academia is full of shit).

“Say You Miss Me” reminds me of winter commutes on the ‘L’, pining over a girl.

When I hear “Pieholden Suite,” I’m taken back to first kisses and the possibility of new love.

“Red-eyed and Blue” has whistling in it, and that’s just awesome. You’ve got to appreciate a song with whistling.

Somehow, somewhere along the line Wilco decided to play an important and defining role in my life. It’s more mature than the songs of my youth (the Offspring really were never good, and Travis has never evolved). But Wilco did evolve. And I guess, now that I’m 30, I have too.

While that’s still a bit of a scary thought, at least I know there’s always going to be a song that makes me forget my troubles.

Have a look at Wilco in Lawrence:


And two awesome covers:

This is a Runner's Appetite

I posted this about a year ago when I was training for the Rock 'n' Roll half marathon. Sorry it's not the most original post, but it illustrates how to take something awful (running) with make it suck a little bit less with music. I will have you know that I signed up for the half again this year but was unable to motivate myself to run more than 4 miles and ended up selling my bib on craigslist.

.......................................................................................

I get home, and I am not going to lie to you after about 30 seconds I am pouring myself a glass of wine, and then my thoughts immediately turn to what I can eat. I know nothing of portion control. It's not a half a cup of this or 10 morsels of that. I want to eat things by the box, bag, or pot full. Strap on the feedbag, let's get this shit done.

I bet the mere 30 minutes of lumbering around the park did little to whittle away at the overzealous use of sugar in my coffee, the jumbo nerds consumed at regular intervals, or the foraging around people's desks for unwanted snacks throughout the day. But at least I got out there and did it which is a vast improvement over last week when training just dropped out of my vocabulary altogether. After a wake up call in the form of a 5.7 mile run up the lake Saturday, I realized I need to take this shit seriously or I am going to end up trampled at the mile 4 marker on August 2nd.

Then came the motivation...now, realize I am motivated by few things in life. If it doesn't have to do with food, beer, sports or shoes, I am probably not very interested in it - nor am I willing to break into any sort of sweat for it, but give me some good music and it can have a truly amazing effect on me.

Today was different than most days. Usually I have an idea of what I want to hear, but I have been a little bored lately with my tunes and due to having a new computer, I don't have some of my key albums that get my ass in gear. So I placed my faith in the genius command on my iPod. I started with Josh Rouse 'Directions' from The Smooth Sounds of Josh Rouse and hit the symbol thingy that says 'pick some good shit that goes with this' and what I got was just too good to be true.

And not that any of you really care, but this is what came up. I mean, I spend a good amount of time channeling my inner Rob Gordon and compiling lists of music I think certain lucky people may enjoy and I think I could just burn this playlist and give it to almost anyone I know without having to change a song.....

Directions - Josh Rouse
Come and Find Me - Josh Ritter
Cruel - Calexico
Everything in its Right Place - Radiohead
Closer to Mercury - Wheat
First Night - The Hold Steady
Golden Days - The Damnwells
Late Night Conversation - Josh Rouse
Soldier's Grin - Wolf Parade
Monster Ballads - Josh Ritter
Ten Dead Dogs - Wild Sweet Orange
A History of Lovers - Iron and Wine
Blonde on Blonde - Nada Surf
Lord, I'm Discouragesd - The Hold Steady
The Comeback - The Shout Out Louds
Apartment Story - The National
To Go Home - M. Ward
Golden Age of Radio - Josh Ritter
Chicago x 12 - Rogue Wave
You Can Make Him Like You - The Hold Steady
I Never Want to go Home - The Whigs

All right, I am going to go eat an entire side of beef now....

Cee-Lo Green, The Lady Killer, says "F**k You"

There's something special about Cee-Lo Green. His unique brew of so many genres of music is something that is a welcome change in popular music whenever he decides to put out a new project. Brandon and I tried to put a label on Cee-Lo's style, but that isn't an easy task to accomplish. There are elements of hip-hop, soul, rock, doo-wop, trip, psychedelic... There's a little go-go influence in there as well, and as Brandon so eloquently put it, "A sprankle of pop." Every project he has done has been critically acclaimed, from Cee-Lo Green and the Perfect Imperfections, to Gnarls Barkley, to the new album he is prepping for release "The Lady Killer," due out in October. This is a single from the album that doesn't really need too much of an introduction because it speaks for itself. All words and music. Fuck you. And fuck her too. Gotta love this dude.



There might be another version of this video coming out before the album drops. I'll keep you posted.

Putting On The Ritz

Okay, this is not exactly the same kind of post that I usually put up, but damn it, this is one of the funniest song and dance numbers EVER! Gene Wilder's "Young Frankenstien" is old as shit, but this scene always cracks me the hell up. It's been a long day. Enjoy!

Bat For Lashes & Beck - Let's Get Lost

Twilight.
I hate it. I hate the phenomenon. I hate the emo fucking kids that go ape shit whenever a new installment comes out.



I hate the commercials. I hate everything about it, except for one thing... The soundtrack. Why the hell would you put such awesome tunes with movies that are decidedly un-awesome? And it's not just for one of them, they come with the straight dope for every single movie that drops out of that series. Who does that? I despise looking at the cover art in my ipod, but I love the music on it. They get AMAZING artists such as Thom Yorke, Grizzly Bear, Metric, The Black Keys and Dead Weather to drop new songs for it. Just look at this lineup for the Eclipse movie.

1."Eclipse (All Yours)" by Metric
2."Neutron Star Collision (Love Is Forever)" by Muse
3."Ours" by The Bravery
4."Heavy in Your Arms" by Florence and the Machine
5."My Love" by Sia
6."Atlas" by Fanfarlo
7."Chop and Change" by The Black Keys
8."Rolling in on a Burning Tire" by The Dead Weather
9."Let's Get Lost" by Beck and Bat for Lashes
10."Jonathan Low" by Vampire Weekend
11."With You in My Head" by UNKLE featuring The Black Angels
12."A Million Miles an Hour" by Eastern Conference Champions
13."Life on Earth" by Band of Horses
14."What Part of Forever" by Cee-Lo Green
15."Jacob's Theme" by Howard Shore


Fuck. That's great. They must really shell out the dollars for the appearance fees. I was flipping around the Pitchfork website and found a stream for the Beck and Bat for Lashes song that appears on the soundtrack, and I freaking love this song. The only reasonable thing for me to do is to share it with you guys. Maybe you'll love it as much as I do. Oh, and I hope you hate Twilight as much as I do as well!

Let's Get Lost by Bat for Lashes

Brilliant way to make me give a flying fuck about this franchise. The marketing bastards at Atlantic Records deserve a high five and a kick in the wolverine for this one.
Cheers

Lollapalooza '10 in Review: Lessons in Ingenuity and Tolerance

There isn’t one person who goes to Lollapalooza who hasn't imagined being a rock star. It's just not possible to stand in a sweaty, undulating crowd of thousands and think to yourself "holy shit, I can't imagine how it feels to be the person on that stage with hoards of people who carved out a portion of their day to see me." This having been my 4th stint at the glorious festival, I think I have a pretty good grasp on what it is...and what it decidedly isn't. It's definitely not the kind of event you tell a coworker "you HAVE to go, I guarantee you will love it" because it's ungodly hot, sometimes it rains in buckets, and the entire south side of the festival smells like Bigfoot's dick. What I have learned about myself over the past 4 years of Lollapaloozas and Pitchforks is that I hate people, but I love music....and I love music more than I hate people because holy shit, your patience hasn't been truly tested until you stand in 100 degree heat in full sun smashed amongst various groups of drunk sweaty teenagers screaming the lyrics to songs you hold close to your heart. Lollapalooza offers a constant learning curve - be it that I am getting older, more irritable, or the crowds are changing faster than anticipated - but there is no set formula for enjoyment there. Sometimes you just have to make decisions on the fly to maximize the experience. Back story: Last year a number of us missed a time slot of music to nestle up to the Playstation stage to see Band of Horses. It proved to be one of the best decisions we ever made because a band we all adored did the perfect amount of face melting to overshadow the fact that it was ballz hot (as illustrated in a few choice pictures where we all have a major case of shiny face) and we were in some serious anxiety attack inducing close quarters. THIS year we thought, duh, let's do that again for Mumford & Sons. The stars seemed to have aligned in that they were at the same stage, across the field, Blitzen Trapper was playing and we figured we could still hear them. If not, I was okay with that since I had seen them the year before at Pitchfork. In fact we couldn't hear them because it was so blazing hot that we had to sit down - lest we fall down from heat exhaustion and heavily perspiring people block sound extremely effectively. At last the band walked out and for a few moments the sun graciously ducked behind a portion of the stage. Unfortunately the age of the fans around us hadn't been taken into consideration and we were soon in the midst of a teenage mosh pit, throwing elbows, screaming lyrics, and brandishing cameras and cell phones. I know this makes me sound old, but is it really too much to expect to be able to see a band without having to move out from behind the girl taking 78 photos of one song or hear over the girl who 'knows every word and is going to make sure everyone knows it?" God, they were so good, but the experience was tarnished greatly by heat and assholes.

One of my favorite parts of Lollapalooza is how varied performances are. It's so amazing to see how bands captivate crowds - how they take what you hear on an album which is, in essence faceless, and attach an experience to it when on stage for fans will carry with them from that point on. The fun part is to see what forms that takes - be it the whimsical bouncing antics of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, the heart-on-your-sleeve delivery of The Antlers, the fantastically choreographed experience of Empire of the Sun complete with Broadway-worthy costumes, the performance that is a symbiotic relationship with the crowd - a give and take of energy like Frightened Rabbit, and album seemingly best suited for sexy time transformed into a powerfully seducing rock performance as was The National, a gradual build up of intensity and volume like The Arcade Fire, or just simply spot-on renditions of your favorites as was the case for The Strokes. It's all there, spread over 8 stages and 3 days. Rain or Shine it goes on paying no mind to food poisoning (me, Saturday of Lolla '08), heat stroke, drug overdoses, extreme intoxication, horrific poison ivy (me, again, Lolla '07), or crippling hangovers. You live there...you eat, you sometimes nap, you hold your breath as long as humanly possible to brave the porta johns, you rack up hundreds of text messages attempting to find your friends, you make metal notes of how to make it all easier next year...you even exercise your mind. How does one do this? Well, I am going to tell you. The week leading up to Lollapalooza, Erin and I spend much of our time, actually our employers' time, scheming ways to smuggle booze into the venue. We aren't rolling on dough so $7 beers for two girls who have been known to throw a few back in our day just wasn't in the budget. Dig a hole and bury it out there? Booze in baggies under a sun hat? Then, Erin came up with possibly the best idea in the history of ideas. I will cut and paste the gchat so that you can read it exactly as it was presented to me:

9:47 AM Erin: So I'm thinking: tampon box, emptied of its original contents, filled with airplane sized bottles of booze, and picking a line with a dude searching bags

9:48 AM me: holy genius!!!!

9:51 AM Erin: If I get questioned? My response: I have a heavy flow

Goooo. Move along miss

9:53 AM me: well here is what you do

you put it in a bag from CVS with your water so that it looks like an emergency purchase

Erin: Oooooohh!

me: they have mini bottles at the 7-11 half a block from my place

Erin: Fuck YES

And that is the method we used, without fail, to get our sauce on. It became so popular, in fact, that by the end of the weekend all the females in the group were doing the same.

I am pretty sure Don asked me to write this as a review of bands seen and not so much to hear about tampon boxes and food poisoning. I actually kind of hate it when people ask me what the best show was or who was my favorite. We all like music for so many different reasons so who am I to say what was good and what was bad? I though Mumford and Sons was awesome, but the guy who looked like a fish among other people around us kind of ruined it. I love The Black Keys, but that stage struggled with some sound issues. Empire of the Sun was visually awesome, but it's not the most profound music I've ever heard. Sometimes you are so worn out that you miss a band you really want to see just because you don't feel like putting the effort into getting up and walking over there - SOMETIMES the band you see instead that just happens to be at the stage your lazily camping out at is a highlight of the weekend. I think you have to look at it more as a whole than a sum or parts. Was it fun? That's a resounding hell yes. Did the weather cooperate? For the most part which, was a welcome change from last year. If there was a day 4 could I have made it? Not without a wheelchair and an IV drip. Did I surround myself with the best group of assholes ever assembled? You're goddamn right I did.

New Writer on the Blog!

I just wanted to be the first to welcome our newest contributor, Lisa, to the blog. That's right, bitches, we're growing. We're like BeBe's kids. We don't die, we multiply! But seriously, Lisa is a HUGE music fan, and a talented drinker, so she fits right in with the rest of us degenerates. She will be dropping a new post today, and I couldn't be more excited. If there is anyone who loves music as much as I do (if not more), Lisa would be that person. She will be posting her review of Lollapalooza 2010, and I friggin' loved it.
So, welcome to the blog!
I'm cracking this beer for you... Too bad it's an Old Style!







Cheers