muckin things up real good

So on Friday a group of friends and I were planning to take a little road trip over to Omaha for a free Built to Spill concert. My friend opted to take his car because he was that guy who had an awesome car. He is the kind of person who won't let anyone eat or drink anything in it because someone might spill a little bit and ruin the good leather. Anyway, we are passing through Des Moines when he says that he needs to stop for gas. But not just any normal gas that you and me would buy, no he installed a special chip into his car that only allowed it to run on 93 octane gas. What a great fuckin idea that was considering there is nowhere in Iowa that even sells 93 octane gas. So we ended up mungin around Des Moines looking for gas stations for an hour, all of which sold 91 octane gas, but hey he needed those 2 more octane. All-in-all, the day was ruined and we headed on back to campus in bitter solitude.

Death List 10

Band of Horses, 10/1, Des Moines
Built to Spill, 8/27, Omaha
STS9, 9/4, Omaha
Titus Andronicus 9/16, Omaha
of Montreal 10/22 Omaha
Yonder Mountain String Band 11/11
Sea Wolf 9/28 Omaha
(Phish, Colorado)

rate YOUR music

I feel like a Jehovah's witness about to preach some thing onto you, but alas rateyourmusic.com IS the best thing that has ever happened to me since my wallet got mailed to me from Forest Park with all $4 still in it. I have spent so many hours pouring through every esoteric album compilation in some obscure genre searching for awesome new bands. The website utilizes user reviews to rank probably every album you can think of that isn't by your high school's ska band. You just can't get bored here. If you ever thing that you have exhausted the charts just make a quick search and start pouring through the endless number of user lists. I think that every album that I have bought in the last year I have at least looked up on RYM to see what other people think about it or whenever I want to get a taste of some new artist, I check out one of the higher rated albums and grooveshark it. It is just one of my music systems along with blogs and KDHX archives that opens so many windows. I can honestly say that the utilization of this website has increased my musical knowledge in unbelievable proportions to before I used it. Go check it out!

http://rateyourmusic.com/

Close to "The Edge"

There is a reason Yes were down by the river while they were close to "The Edge." They were ready to jump in and drown before having to hear any more of that bunk he plays. What is up with all this hype about "The Edge". If you don't know who that is, it is probably for good reason. He is that guitarist from U2 who is for some reason getting much more recognition than he should. I mean come on, what the hell kind of a name is "The Edge"; it should be reserved for a husky guy who free-solos mountains and can't help but talk in the third person. In the recent past he was featured in the rockumentary "It Might Get Loud" with Jimmy Page. What! How does an average guitar player get to bask in the glorious aura of Jimmy Page. I saw a clip where he was saying some shit about how he was the forefather of the Deluxe Memory Man. WHAT? I also digged up the 2008 Rolling Stone's greatest guitarist of All-time. #24. WAAAHHH!? Above the likes of Robert Fripp, Trey Anastasio, Pete Townshend, Neil Young, and it just goes on from there. J Mascis is not even mentioned. These guys are all legends who have inspired so many people to do great things. Someone needs to Punch him in the spleen!!

I was going to put up a video of his work here. I think that may have been for the worse.

Ma Music Scene?

I knew that one thing would truly suffer when I decided to go to school in the middle of Iowa, that being the music scene. As you may have guessed, not many big acts are dying to throw down here in Ames but luckily I think I have found a pretty manageable music scene. I've discovered that the only bands that really want to play in the area are the ones who just truly enjoy playing and having a good time without having to worry about sellout crowds. Within a 2 hour driving radius I can hit up Omaha, which will be hosting, actually as I look, some amazing bands such as of Montreal, STS9, Built to Spill, and Titus Andronicus. Des Moines which is only 30 or so minutes away also managed to snag Passion Pit so I guess there is some potential there too for some great tunes. All-in-all, I guess that I lucked out and things are looking pretty solid. I'm really looking forward to kickin out the jams this fall!

Phuck

So taday I got up and did the morning routine of sleeping in way later than I should and deciding that the benefits of checking my email are greater than those of breakfast.  While in this state of mind I stumbled across the official Phish fall tour announcement.  As any Phan would know, seeing Phish live is the best thing in this world next to Oxygen.  I can't explain the euphoria exerted at my first pair of shows this summer at Deer Creek. That's right, I was exerting euphoria.  I went there in a full car with four other people and we camped onsite with some other friends. The whole experience was just unbelievable.  Mike was tearing it up on bass. The jams and rarities were flowing. Kuroda nailed the lights. Shakedown street was happening. Everything went perfectly. The experience is such that once you go to one show, you want to go to every show.  It is not something that can really be explained. It just happens. Well, on second thought it is because they are damn good at what they do, but regardless, Phish is something I never want to miss.  So I find the tour schedule and find out that all shows are in the northeast, including the Halloween show which for those of you who don't know is the Gran' Daddy Purp' of all that is Phish.  Well actually the tour opener 3 night stand in Colorado is giving a glimmer of hope and I'm currently going to try to the best of my abilities to get there, but chances are slim in the lottery with only 6000 or so seats. So all in all, considering I don't even have a car to get there, I'm pretty Phucked this Phall.

Show I was at, how I'm feeling, all in one!

A Blog?

Ahh the first post into my first blog.  A tender moment only shared by the few, daring men that came before me and inspired me to do the same.  "But why," you ask "why spend hours a day typing random thoughts into boxes on the internet" Is it for Fame? For popularity? Why no, I say to the inexperienced shrew, it is for the hope that somewhere off in some Russian mining town, someone might read it.  And so it has begun.  I went for a run the other night and as I was running through a wide open field on campus next to an old and menacing clock tower as a few stray clouds gathered around what appeared to be an almost-full-moon.  I thought of what an awesome summer this year has been.  Then, from the deep recesses of my mind, the thought came at me with the force of a hundred Donettes. "BLOG," it said and I smiled, for I knew that right at that moment a new relationship was about to blossom.  The first few posts may be recollections of the recent past as I catch you up on to what is really going on. Catch some more spleen tomorrow!
Bill