As a general rule, I'm not that into bands that are critics' darlings. It's not that I want to be a hipster who likes all the stuff that the critics don't like. It's that most of the time, I don't think the critics are right.
As I get older, though, I'm starting to learn that being opposed to critics' darlings means eating my words when I realize that they're actually pretty good.
I'm looking at you Against Me!, Radiohead, Arctic Monkeys, and more that I'm forgetting.
But don't worry, I'm sure The Dude will chime in with more that I've forgotten when he reads this.
Anyway, with our trip to Bonaroo fast approaching, I decided to start listening to the stuff we own by bands who are playing. My approach has been to take artists day-by-day as they'll appear on the lineup. Thurday has MGMT and Vampire Weekend appearing in the evening, so I pulled out the Vampire Weekend disc.
It's fun and quirky. I like it a lot.
No doubt you've heard their single "A-Punk" in heavy rotation on MTV, unless you don't watch MTV. But let's face it, you're as addicted to their America's Next Top Model reruns as I am so you do. Or what about The Paper? Or A Shot at Love 2: Electric Boogaloo?
No? Okay then...never mind.
Ahem.
Anyway, Vampire Weekend's major label debut is fun and channels both Graceland-era Paul Simon and Phantom Planet, you know...that band the kid from Rushmore is in?
Lyrically, it's pretty nimble, though I was glad that there were only 11 songs because it started to sound precious by the end. They don't move much past the experiences that twenty-somethings have, and their songs certainly aren't political. But, they also don't fall into the Maroon5 trap of being sugary sweet love ballads, either. It's just typical, normal, everyday stuff--like a song about a guy who's tasked with killing some vampires.
And sonically, the album shows that Vampire Weekend has a range beyond just a guitar, a bass, and a drum kit. I liked the range they showed.
The album is certainly worth a listen. It's fun, it's quirky, and it's short. So even if you hate it, you're not stuck listening to it for long!
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Saturday, May 24, 2008
WOXY's Modern Rock 500
I am kind of in love with WOXY. The few times that The Dude and I made our way into Ohio, we longed to get into range of WOXY because it reminded us (well, him really....) of the days when college rock radio stations ruled the world.
WOXY used to be a radio station in Cincinnati. Well, it still is if you have HD Radio.
Mostly, though, it has reinvented itself as a web-based radio station that plays modern rock with the kind of panache and flair you don't see these days in most terrestrial-based radio stations. Music like the kind that WOXY plays is usually reserved for satellite radio.
You can get WOXY in the "radio" portion of iTunes. It's listed under the "alternative" stations, I think.
Anyway, WOXY is having a Modern Rock 500 this weekend to coincide with the running of the Indy 500.
As an aside...I'm from Indianapolis and I've never been to the Indy 500. We used to kind of hide out until it was over since the town is kind of over-run with over-zealous racing fans.
If you consider yourself a fan of modern rock, you should try to catch some of WOXY's Modern Rock 500. It's awesome to hear a song and go 'oh! yeah! I remember that!'
So far I've done that with Big Country, Tom's Diner, and a ton more. Right now? Portishead.
So yeah, check it out.
WOXY used to be a radio station in Cincinnati. Well, it still is if you have HD Radio.
Mostly, though, it has reinvented itself as a web-based radio station that plays modern rock with the kind of panache and flair you don't see these days in most terrestrial-based radio stations. Music like the kind that WOXY plays is usually reserved for satellite radio.
You can get WOXY in the "radio" portion of iTunes. It's listed under the "alternative" stations, I think.
Anyway, WOXY is having a Modern Rock 500 this weekend to coincide with the running of the Indy 500.
As an aside...I'm from Indianapolis and I've never been to the Indy 500. We used to kind of hide out until it was over since the town is kind of over-run with over-zealous racing fans.
If you consider yourself a fan of modern rock, you should try to catch some of WOXY's Modern Rock 500. It's awesome to hear a song and go 'oh! yeah! I remember that!'
So far I've done that with Big Country, Tom's Diner, and a ton more. Right now? Portishead.
So yeah, check it out.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
The Spares in concert
If you're near any of the places that The Spares are playing this summer, I urge you to check them out.
You simply will not be disappointed.
I'd give you a money-back guarantee, but you wouldn't need it, so it would certainly be a waste of my time and yours.
Just go.
You know you want to.
You simply will not be disappointed.
I'd give you a money-back guarantee, but you wouldn't need it, so it would certainly be a waste of my time and yours.
Just go.
You know you want to.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
From The Shamless Plug Department
Did you know that The Dude wrote a book?
He did.
It's finally seeing the light of day and I couldn't be prouder.
I watched him through the entire process. I saw him struggle and grow until he produced this amazing labor of love.
He always seemed excited to interview the players, no matter how overwhelmed he felt on any given day.
He was persistent, even when he was tired of writing.
He and Beatrice, our 15-pound calico cat who is madly in love with him, burned many a midnight oil as he crafted chapter after chapter and story after story.
And, at the end of it, he seemed pleased with his work and as in love with the stories as he was the day he started it.
This isn't so much a shameless plug to buy the book (though, you should do that if you want to) as it is a shameless plug for The Dude.
He is certainly one of Mrs. Dude's favoritest things...
He did.
It's finally seeing the light of day and I couldn't be prouder.
I watched him through the entire process. I saw him struggle and grow until he produced this amazing labor of love.
He always seemed excited to interview the players, no matter how overwhelmed he felt on any given day.
He was persistent, even when he was tired of writing.
He and Beatrice, our 15-pound calico cat who is madly in love with him, burned many a midnight oil as he crafted chapter after chapter and story after story.
And, at the end of it, he seemed pleased with his work and as in love with the stories as he was the day he started it.
This isn't so much a shameless plug to buy the book (though, you should do that if you want to) as it is a shameless plug for The Dude.
He is certainly one of Mrs. Dude's favoritest things...
Monday, May 12, 2008
Watermelon by Marian Keyes
I am a confessed "chick lit" addict.
I love reading stories about women who start out whiny women who are sad about being single or being dumped and end up living happily ever after, usually with a handsome fellow by their sides.
I know what you're probably going to say--it's unrealistic, it's not very feminist, it's boring, it's not quality writing--and I could care less.
It's fluff and I love it.
When I read Marian Keyes' book Watermelon, I was expecting more of the same. I've read Keyes' writing before, and while I often find her kind of long-winded, I always find her to be an engaging storyteller.
What I got, though, was a lovely story about a woman who ended up being more than she ever thought possible.
Claire, a 29-year-old Dubliner living in London, finds herself a single woman on the day she gives birth to her first child. James, her estranged husband, tells her he's been having an affair with another woman and that he'll "be in touch."
Claire doesn't know what to do or where to go, so she does the only think she can think of. She goes home to Dublin. She lives with her parents and her two sisters, wallowing in the sorrow of being a single woman and a woman dumped for someone else. Slowly, but surely, Claire surrenders to the calm that comes from realizing that life after great tragedy does go on.
I thought, per usual, that Keyes did a great job of assembling an interesting cast of characters. Each of the sisters is different from the others, but Keyes draws them as "real" people instead of just caricatures. Her writing breathes life into what could be a set of stereotypes--the recently dumped woman, the flighty narcissist, the hippie.
The plot doesn't seem to drag in this story as it sometimes does in Keyes' work. The book didn't feel too long, and the action didn't seem contrived or rushed in any way.
Overall, it was a good read that I enjoyed and would heartily recommend.
I love reading stories about women who start out whiny women who are sad about being single or being dumped and end up living happily ever after, usually with a handsome fellow by their sides.
I know what you're probably going to say--it's unrealistic, it's not very feminist, it's boring, it's not quality writing--and I could care less.
It's fluff and I love it.
When I read Marian Keyes' book Watermelon, I was expecting more of the same. I've read Keyes' writing before, and while I often find her kind of long-winded, I always find her to be an engaging storyteller.
What I got, though, was a lovely story about a woman who ended up being more than she ever thought possible.
Claire, a 29-year-old Dubliner living in London, finds herself a single woman on the day she gives birth to her first child. James, her estranged husband, tells her he's been having an affair with another woman and that he'll "be in touch."
Claire doesn't know what to do or where to go, so she does the only think she can think of. She goes home to Dublin. She lives with her parents and her two sisters, wallowing in the sorrow of being a single woman and a woman dumped for someone else. Slowly, but surely, Claire surrenders to the calm that comes from realizing that life after great tragedy does go on.
I thought, per usual, that Keyes did a great job of assembling an interesting cast of characters. Each of the sisters is different from the others, but Keyes draws them as "real" people instead of just caricatures. Her writing breathes life into what could be a set of stereotypes--the recently dumped woman, the flighty narcissist, the hippie.
The plot doesn't seem to drag in this story as it sometimes does in Keyes' work. The book didn't feel too long, and the action didn't seem contrived or rushed in any way.
Overall, it was a good read that I enjoyed and would heartily recommend.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
I wrote you a concert review in my head...
...but then I forgot to type it.
The Dude moved Heaven and Earth to get tickets to the sold-out Tegan and Sara show that was Sunday night.
It was fantastic.
Australian band An Horse was good. We saw two songs, so I didn't get that much of an impression of their music. They could rock and Kate, the lead vocalist, had a nice voice. I get the impression that they're a nice up-and-coming band with a bright future on the Indie scene, such as it is.
Tegan and Sara put on a fabulous show. I'd searched online for set lists to get an idea of what they'd been playing recently, but darn if they didn't decided that Sunday was the day to start tweaking their setlist. The new setlist didn't deviate much from what they'd been playing, but they did present it in a slightly different order.
They played mostly music from their last two albums, The Con and So Jealous. I wish they'd played more tracks from the album before So Jealous, If it was you, but they didn't. And that was okay.
The set list seemed thoughtfully re-arranged and both Tegan and Sara got a decent amount of face time. I was shocked at how much better their voices seemed live than on their albums. It was amazing! Songs that I thought fell flat on the albums soared in real life.
The between-song banter, which Tegan and Sara pride themselves on, was the only part that I struggled with. It didn't seem scripted, which was nice, but there were times that the unscripted real-ness left me feeling...something. It seemed awkward at times, I think.
So, yeah...good times. :)
The Dude moved Heaven and Earth to get tickets to the sold-out Tegan and Sara show that was Sunday night.
It was fantastic.
Australian band An Horse was good. We saw two songs, so I didn't get that much of an impression of their music. They could rock and Kate, the lead vocalist, had a nice voice. I get the impression that they're a nice up-and-coming band with a bright future on the Indie scene, such as it is.
Tegan and Sara put on a fabulous show. I'd searched online for set lists to get an idea of what they'd been playing recently, but darn if they didn't decided that Sunday was the day to start tweaking their setlist. The new setlist didn't deviate much from what they'd been playing, but they did present it in a slightly different order.
They played mostly music from their last two albums, The Con and So Jealous. I wish they'd played more tracks from the album before So Jealous, If it was you, but they didn't. And that was okay.
The set list seemed thoughtfully re-arranged and both Tegan and Sara got a decent amount of face time. I was shocked at how much better their voices seemed live than on their albums. It was amazing! Songs that I thought fell flat on the albums soared in real life.
The between-song banter, which Tegan and Sara pride themselves on, was the only part that I struggled with. It didn't seem scripted, which was nice, but there were times that the unscripted real-ness left me feeling...something. It seemed awkward at times, I think.
So, yeah...good times. :)
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Angels all over town by Luanne Rice
I read a lot of books by Maeve Binchy when I was younger. I was always transfixed on the way that she made everyday things seem charmed.
Wikipedia says that she is a "modern women's writer in the Jane Austen sense."
Nice one, Wikipedia.
I might not have understood what that meant is it weren't for LibriVox. But I already discussed LibriVox, and I feel like I'm already off-track.
I love how quaint and cozy Binchy's work always seemed, even when it was portraying the ugliness of modern life.
Reading Angels all over town was kind of like that. This novel was Rice's first, and I liked it better than the other one I read by her. After reading the reviews on Amazon, though, I realize that there are many who disagree with me.
In Angels all over town, we meet Una Cavan and her sisters. The Sisters Cavan have a close bond, though there relationship begins to change when Una's sister, Lily, marries a man who doesn't care much about the bond between sisters. Lily's husband thinks that the bond between husband and wife should trump the bond between family relations. And, since Lily is enamored with her husband's wealth and social status, she agrees.
Una, an actress, has struggles of her own that are unrelated to her relationship with her sisters. She has an inferiority complex about the fact that she's a soap opera actress. Throw in her insecurities about love and her propensity for seeing the undead and you've got more than Rice seems to be able to resolve in the 352 pages she has.
I liked this novel and was able to forgive the way in which everything seems to happen in a filmy mist. It's as if Una, our narrator, is standing outside of her life doing play-by-play. The characters end up feeling pretty flat, and the novel relies as much on ambiance as it does on content.
I think that if you're a fan of Rice's work that you might want to skip this one. It falls short of what you might be expecting. She's greener here than in later works (or at least I assume she is since I've only read one other book by her). She's heavy on atmosphere and theme and light on description. You know how writing teachers tell you to 'show, not tell'? Rice seems to break that Golden Rule, so it ends up feeling less like you're a part of the story and more like you're watching the story from the sidelines. Given Una's feelings, though, it works as a plot device.
I would heartily recommend this title to anyone looking to read a "women's fiction" story that isn't a full-blown Romance novel. There are certainly romantic elements, but romance isn't on Rice's plate just yet.
Wikipedia says that she is a "modern women's writer in the Jane Austen sense."
Nice one, Wikipedia.
I might not have understood what that meant is it weren't for LibriVox. But I already discussed LibriVox, and I feel like I'm already off-track.
I love how quaint and cozy Binchy's work always seemed, even when it was portraying the ugliness of modern life.
Reading Angels all over town was kind of like that. This novel was Rice's first, and I liked it better than the other one I read by her. After reading the reviews on Amazon, though, I realize that there are many who disagree with me.
In Angels all over town, we meet Una Cavan and her sisters. The Sisters Cavan have a close bond, though there relationship begins to change when Una's sister, Lily, marries a man who doesn't care much about the bond between sisters. Lily's husband thinks that the bond between husband and wife should trump the bond between family relations. And, since Lily is enamored with her husband's wealth and social status, she agrees.
Una, an actress, has struggles of her own that are unrelated to her relationship with her sisters. She has an inferiority complex about the fact that she's a soap opera actress. Throw in her insecurities about love and her propensity for seeing the undead and you've got more than Rice seems to be able to resolve in the 352 pages she has.
I liked this novel and was able to forgive the way in which everything seems to happen in a filmy mist. It's as if Una, our narrator, is standing outside of her life doing play-by-play. The characters end up feeling pretty flat, and the novel relies as much on ambiance as it does on content.
I think that if you're a fan of Rice's work that you might want to skip this one. It falls short of what you might be expecting. She's greener here than in later works (or at least I assume she is since I've only read one other book by her). She's heavy on atmosphere and theme and light on description. You know how writing teachers tell you to 'show, not tell'? Rice seems to break that Golden Rule, so it ends up feeling less like you're a part of the story and more like you're watching the story from the sidelines. Given Una's feelings, though, it works as a plot device.
I would heartily recommend this title to anyone looking to read a "women's fiction" story that isn't a full-blown Romance novel. There are certainly romantic elements, but romance isn't on Rice's plate just yet.
Monday, May 5, 2008
Librivox: How Mrs. Dude plans to read the classics
I wish I had the patience to read books that would make me a better, more culturally aware person.
I don't.
I read one or two pages and get bored.
Librivox has solved all of my problems, and they did it for free.
I could jump for joy.
Librivox is an initiative that has volunteers reading works of fiction and non-fiction that are currently in the public domain.
For a reasonably concise explanation of public domain,go here.
Chapters of works are read by volunteers and uploaded to the interwebs where anyone can download them. Users can search or browse the Librivox catalog and either download the file to their computers or subscribe to a book in iTunes in the form of a podcast.
I chose the "subscribe in iTunes" option and it was quick and painless. Each chapter is a separate podcast.
I am currently listening to Jane Austen's Persuasion.
Because the people reading the books are volunteers, you don't always have professional-sounding people reading to you. Sometimes I don't always like the voice of the person reading a chapter. Conversely, if you do like the voice of someone reading a chapter, there's no guarantee that person will be reading the next chapter. But, it's free, so I'm willing to deal with a bit of amateur-ness from the readers.
I'll start listing the books I read via Librivox, so that the two of you who might be interested can follow along at home.
I heartily recommend checking out Librivox and either listening or volunteering to read. Or, heck, go crazy and do both!
I don't.
I read one or two pages and get bored.
Librivox has solved all of my problems, and they did it for free.
I could jump for joy.
Librivox is an initiative that has volunteers reading works of fiction and non-fiction that are currently in the public domain.
For a reasonably concise explanation of public domain,go here.
Chapters of works are read by volunteers and uploaded to the interwebs where anyone can download them. Users can search or browse the Librivox catalog and either download the file to their computers or subscribe to a book in iTunes in the form of a podcast.
I chose the "subscribe in iTunes" option and it was quick and painless. Each chapter is a separate podcast.
I am currently listening to Jane Austen's Persuasion.
Because the people reading the books are volunteers, you don't always have professional-sounding people reading to you. Sometimes I don't always like the voice of the person reading a chapter. Conversely, if you do like the voice of someone reading a chapter, there's no guarantee that person will be reading the next chapter. But, it's free, so I'm willing to deal with a bit of amateur-ness from the readers.
I'll start listing the books I read via Librivox, so that the two of you who might be interested can follow along at home.
I heartily recommend checking out Librivox and either listening or volunteering to read. Or, heck, go crazy and do both!
Friday, May 2, 2008
In which Mrs. Dude exposes her obsessive nature
When I find a band that I connect with, musically speaking, I get kind of obsessive. Okay...not kind of. Really.
Really obsessive.
It's just that I so rarely find music that I connect with. I like a particular song by this band or that artist, but I rarely find an artist or band whose music, as a whole, speaks to me.
When I find one, I obsess. I listen to the same songs over and over again.
It's like falling in love, I suppose. I want to surround myself with that music. I want to be enchanted, transported, rocked to the very core of my soul.
I want to find music that makes me never feel the same again.
I'm currently obsessing over Mike Doughty's music and also Tegan and Sara's music.
I have listened to Golden Delicious and If it was you so many times it's not even funny.
I am learning every word to every song. Not on purpose, to be one of those people who goes to a concert and sings every word of every song. I'm learning them as a side effect of immersing myself in the songs.
I can't explain why I'm drawn to either of these artists. I think it's their lyrical dexterity and earnestness.
Whatever the reason, I am a sad, lovesick fool.
Musically-speaking, that is.
Really obsessive.
It's just that I so rarely find music that I connect with. I like a particular song by this band or that artist, but I rarely find an artist or band whose music, as a whole, speaks to me.
When I find one, I obsess. I listen to the same songs over and over again.
It's like falling in love, I suppose. I want to surround myself with that music. I want to be enchanted, transported, rocked to the very core of my soul.
I want to find music that makes me never feel the same again.
I'm currently obsessing over Mike Doughty's music and also Tegan and Sara's music.
I have listened to Golden Delicious and If it was you so many times it's not even funny.
I am learning every word to every song. Not on purpose, to be one of those people who goes to a concert and sings every word of every song. I'm learning them as a side effect of immersing myself in the songs.
I can't explain why I'm drawn to either of these artists. I think it's their lyrical dexterity and earnestness.
Whatever the reason, I am a sad, lovesick fool.
Musically-speaking, that is.
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