Friday, February 26, 2010

Ahem, please clear your schedule tomorrow evening...

Ahem, please clear your schedule tomorrow evening...

You now have plans.


Keep and I are DJing at The Continental. We shall be there for the regular "We DJ at 11:00, Not 10:56!" residency from 11 p.m. until 5 a.m., but STOP, wait, there's more! We will be starting early to spin some pop nuggets for my friend Rita's birthday starting, oh, around ten-ish.

We shall see you then!

I knew it!

I knew it!

The judges on American Idol DO hear a different mix than we do at home, which explains why they'll sometimes praise people that just put out a really awful performance.*

In other news, Ellen DeGeneres is kind of awesome.



*Also, can I please interject here and pointout that there is NO SUCH MUSICAL TERM as "pitchy." You can be sharp, you can be flat, but you CAN NOT be PITCHY. Goddamn you Randy!

Thursday, February 25, 2010

More Qs, and a Que for The Choir.

More Qs, and a Que for The Choir.

Had some fun answering those questions yesterday and judging from the feedback a bunch of you had fun reading those responses so I'll tackle another batch in a few minutes.

First, though, I have some important news to share with you. A few months ago The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir got into a horrific van crash just as they were about to start touring behind their latest album. Some members were seriously injured and all of their ear was totaled, resulting in monster medical bills and mounting debt for the members. There have been a number of benefits for the band since then, and they all have shown a lovely amount of support from local artists and fans.

Tonight there's a benefit for them at Darkroom, and it's probably one of the more unique benefits thrown for the band yet since it includes free BBQ, chili and veggie food options for all who attend. Yum! Oh yeah, and there's a bunch of great music too. They're calling it the Que For The Choir: A BBQ benefit for The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir and in addition to the free food you get live performances by The Whiskey Drifters, Mikey Peterson and The Trust, Patsy Cline cover project Weepin’ Willows and DJ sets from Bald E, DJ MR and Scotland Yard Gospel Choir main-man Elia. Get there at 8 p.m. with $15 in your hand and you will both have a blast and help out some really great people caught in a really tragic situation.

See you there?

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

So when you tell people they can ask you anything...

So when you tell people they can ask you anything...

...they will! Most of the questions I've received have been entertaining, but a few are from the haters. Luckily after years of writing and getting hate mail and having people tell you what an idiot you are these questions do little more than amuse me.

Anyway, I've started answering them, and while I will probably end up summarizing the whole thing here once it's all over, you can keep up with my answers either through my Tumblr or at my formspring site.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Actual convo conveyed to me at a later time.

Actual convo about me conveyed to me at a later time.

SCENE: A party with a bunch of musicians.

Friend 1: Why is everyone asking him what he thinks of their music?

Friend2: Because while he won't always tell you what you want to hear, he will always tell you what you need to hear.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Peep this new Skybox video...

Peep this new Skybox video...

A month or so ago GalPal was invited to dance in a video Skybox was putting together for the lead single off their new album, and they just posted the result of that day of filming.

BONUS: If you look really close you can even catch a glimpse of me!

Friday, February 19, 2010

A very special message from a very special friend.

A very special message from a very special friend.

We saw Shutter Island last night* and my friend Leonardo DiCaprio wanted me to tell you that I'm filling in for my ailing friend Pogo and taking tonight DJ slot at The Continental from 11 p.m. until 4 a.m. Leonardo also wanted me to tell you he strongly suggests you attend. He apologized he could not make because, well, he's kind of busy on Shutter Island right now.

*Wholly enjoyable. Definitely a change of pace for Martin Scorsese but a fun one. GalPal wasn't totally sold on it but i thought it was a successful semi-spooky / noirish / Hitchcockian thriller. Good fun.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Spend a few minutes with Sarah.

Spend a few minutes with Sarah.

I don't care what you say, I love this lady.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Dudes!

Dudes!


Scott's solo album is finally out and is really worth a listen. He let us post one of the tracks along with my review over at Chicagoist so go read my words, listen to his song, and then track down the album!

P.S. The photo above was taken upstairs at Liar's Club. And yes, that is a Fez hat bench.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Lolla rumors?

Lolla rumors?

Thanks to V for sending me a late-night link to a story announcing rumored headliners for Lollapalooza 2010 so I could work up a piece for Chicagoist right upon waking up!

Is it summer YET?

Monday, February 15, 2010

Some context please?

Some context please?

I was watching Reality Bites last night -- which other than seeing most of the cast of The Ben Stiller show on the big screen wasn't that good back then and is still not that good now -- and must admit cringing at Ethan Hawke's character. If you were to revisit the characters now I bet Winona Ryder's character would have eventually married someone like Ben Stiller's character unless, of course, Hawke's philosophical angry slacker never actually grew up and out of his self-centered blindness.* See, I can say this with some conviction since, at that time, I was pretty similar to the Hawke's character, right down to tossing off "important quotes" and lording my intelligence over all within earshot.

This got me to thinking about Tumblr and just what works on it and what doesn't. It's primary use is as a platform for curation, where you dig around stuff and share what you hope is of interest with everyone else. It's most successful when sharing images or a story you want to comment on, but I've also noticed a large number of people who use it to collect quotes they find interesting. However they usually pick a few lines of a quote out of context and then don't supply any commentary so often you haven't a clue why the quote is / should be notable. This isn't a huge problem, but it is one that sort of stops the dialogue cold, which seems counter-intuitive on a platform built on propagation and piquing readers' interests to keep the flow going.

I'm interested n what you have to say and what you find moving, but you're going to have to tell me why you find it interesting / inspirational / moving if you expect me to care.

*Don't even start with the Hawke / Ryder OTP thing.

Friday, February 12, 2010

This week has been snow fun.

This week has been snow fun.

Is it just me, or has this been the longest week ever? Which means this upcoming 3-day weekend is arriving at the perfect time...

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Focusing a raging river into a joyous stream.

Focusing a raging river into a joyous stream.

I have too much music. So much it's actually become somewhat difficult to DJ. I have tons of awesome songs, but now when the hour arrives I often find I'm paralyzed by indecision. What to play first? Will I forget something? Didn't I just play that song last time I spun? How can I justify playing the same music twice when I have SO MUCH other stuff that deserves insertion in to the rotation.

I think this started to happen when I switched from CDs to iPods. With CDs you had a finite number of tunes to choose from, and you had to physically flip through sleeve after sleeve of aluminum, often reading your own itty-bitty Sharpie printing song titles on homemade mixes of the current faves to cut down on the sheer number of discs to tote around, and this created a sort of clarity that can a=only be achieved through pre-editing your number of selections. Now I have songs that I have never played in a set, buried under 75GB of other songs I have never played, and I only have band names or then song titles and nothing else to help me navigate the sheer influx of options. It gets dizzying. I actually find myself growing jealous of the copmuter DJs, envious of their ability to browse their libraries with some sort of context, context and iPod just does not allow.

I've suspected this for a while, but it wasn't until I recently stumbled across a couple DJ sets from 2006, which would have been right around when I switched from CDs to iPods, and realized they had a vitality that I don't notice in my current sets.To be fair, I probably thought theyr were tired back then, but i do think there's more of a playful breadth to the rediscovered set-lists.

Part of it can't be blamed on the iPods. Part of it is due to the fact that I probably sift through so much more music than I did back then -- which in itself is kind of mind-boggling because back then (a whopping 4 years ago) I was already beginning to reel from the volumes of music I was sucking down-- and this in itself causes a sort of paralysis. But even this could be alleviated by either allowing for more visual context or pre-editing related to DJ sets.

So is there a solution? Is admitting you have a problem the first step? I assume that the next logical step will be DJing from a computer, should the day ever come where I have enough disposable income to afford a computer I can dedicate solely to DJ gigs. Until then? I'm just going to have to work that much harder to manage the mammoth river of music at my disposal and focus it into a single rushing stream to baptize anyone within earshot with something honest and joyous.

Top image: Aaron Landry

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

I am almost tempted to donate money to the GOP.

I am almost tempted to donate money to the GOP.

To show you just how clueless Republicans are, they think the below is actually an insult to Rahm. I'll take three dozen.

Further hilarity here. Maybe they are geniuses collecting the email addresses of Dems sending these around because they ARE hilarious?

insert "fabulous" photo here.

insert "fabulous" photo here.

i have to admit that there is a certain kind of blog that tends to annoy me.
they write them likethis.
and are usually filled with photos
of people having a "fabulous time."
or of people being "artsy."
when done right, it can be really direct and good.
and they tend to be written by folks who did it first.
most others are just overly rubbed carbon paper.
look, if you want to write, write.
do it in any way that works for you.
i'm cool with that.

but i reserve the right to be annoyed by it.
in fact if it weren't for bloggers sharing your posts via RSS i would never see these posts.

but the bloggers that share them tend to be male, and they like to share posts of girls in their underwear.

boring.

i have nothing against girls in their underwear.
i've spent a good portion of my adult life trying to see girls in underwear!
but jeez, if you're gonna call yourself a writer, WRITE.

am i just being a crank?
or do i have a point?

Tuesday, February 09, 2010

TankBird rising!

TankBird rising!

Back in the early days of our world, when the young planet was still steaming in it's own volcanic afterbirth, spasming and shuddering as it violently took its shape, there was a single being. This precursor to life as we know it grew proud because it was perfect, so from on high came a lightning bolt to cleave this perfect creature into two complementary halves. These two new beings were ripped from each other's company and thrown to opposite sides of the planet, but destiny promised they would one day reunite.

This day has come.

Tonight, at The Burlington, TankBird will come together in perfect unity to solve all the world's problems, bathe the attended congregation in their demi-god glow, and play a lot of fun music that may just change the course of the world as we know it (or at least the course of the evening as we know it).*

*Shorthand? Lizz and I are DJing tonight. We'll be joined behind the mixer by by our friends Mike and Phil and it should be awesome.

Monday, February 08, 2010

Drained.

Drained.

It was a rough weekend, emotionally. Saturday was lovely until an electrical mishap stripped our entire upper level of power and stressed us out unnecessarily. And then yesterday tensions rose while we waited and waited and waited for a definitive answer on when the power problem would be solved, receiving an answer literally minutes before we had to jet to the 'burbs for a birthday celebration. Fast-forward to this morning and increased crankiness brought on by the uncertainty that the dudes would actually show up to fix the power or if, as has happened in the past, we would get a last minute cancellation and I think it's fair to characterize GalPal and I as just drained drained drained today.

Looking forward to seeing Betty the Beagle romp through (hopefully) massive amounts of snow tonight. That'll solve everything.

Friday, February 05, 2010

DJ Tankboy at Old Oak Tap tonight!

DJ Tankboy at Old Oak Tap tonight!

Friday, Friday, Friday! Me, me, me! At The Old Oak Tap!

Yup.

It should be fun. Three, count 'em, three of my friends are celebrating birthdays there tonight and Keep has asked to play some tunes too so I'm predicting a night of fun of epic proportions. I start at 10 p.m.

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Beating faster than a hummingbird's.

Beating faster than a hummingbird's.

Was just having a dream* I was in the middle of a plane crash, it had just hit the ground and was in the midst of breaking apart as It tore across the ground, when my alarm, clock -- which itself is basically an explosion of static and beeping.

I almost had a real-life heart attack!

*
It should be noted I've had this dream before, and it's more from the vantage point of a Hollywood blockbuster, and while the crash itself catches me by surprise every time I wouldn't classify this as a nightmare because -- as the vehicle is breaking up and tearing along the ground -- I know the very next scene will involve me waking up in a hospital room miraculously unscathed. This is why I suspect the intruding sonic stimulus from the real-life waking world scared the licing fuck out of me.

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Melissa had better watch her back!

Melissa had better watch her back!

While I approve of her sartorial choice in these photos, if she crosses the path of either Keep or 'Balls I think there's a good chance they might try to take her down in order to get their hands on it. Face it, amongst my friends Huey Lewis and his compadres are a hot commodity!

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Yes, I meant what I said about Big Star, and you'd realize it was on point if you had read the whole thing.

Yes, I meant what I said about Big Star, and you'd realize it was on point if you had read the whole thing.

Man, more people than I expected have read my negative reviews of Big Star. Over the last couple months I've had a number of random folks tell me they thought my negative reviews of big Star were kind of mean. A few are personal friends with one or the other of the owners and i think they took my words a tad too personally.* Or, more accurately, didn't really read my exact complaint, they just glazed over in anger that I was taking friends of theirs to task.

Look, we gave the place numerous chances and at every turn the staff fucked up our experience pretty badly. Now I know that the opening few months for any restaurant can be a bit bouncy, so I'm willing to give the place another chance in the summer when I can grab some food at the pick-up window and eat it in the park, but their staff and policy problems are the sort of thing that should have been quickly dealt with after a few weeks.

Of course when I explain this to people they see my point and concede that my negative reviews were probably right. But man, I wish they had just read them in the first place and understood that I wouldn't complain about a restaurant without a pretty solid reason.

*I actually work out at the same time as one of the owners and he's a cool dude and I like him so it's a little weird to think he might be upset with me, though I bet he probably isn't at all, if he's even aware of my criticism in the first place, which he probably isn't.

Photo via Zagat

Monday, February 01, 2010

This is all that needs to be said about last night's Grammys.

This is all that needs to be said about last night's Grammys.



Thanks to Katherine for the GIF!