Wanna see some hot girls DJ?

Wanna see some hot girls DJ?

Of course you do! GalPal and our friend Lisa are DJing at Beauty Bar tonight from 7 p.m. until 10 p.m. for the monthly Gapers Block get together. Stop on by!

Catching up with Tankboy around the Interwebs.

Catching up with Tankboy around the Interwebs.

Sorry for the lame title; who even says "interwebs" anymore? Is that even remotely funny? I'm pretty sure it's far past it's expiration date. Oh well. Here's a quick collection of links if you're interested in seeing what I've been up to elsewhere online!

• SPIN released it's list of the top 125 albums in the last 25 years and it inspired quite a debate.
• I hear that a group sing-along to Extreme's "More Than Words" erupted at a reading in town last night, but Kid Sister beat them to it.
• American Idol Live! is coming to town, allowing me to write the kind of piece I haven't written in a while. Now I'm crossing my fingers Kill Hannah has a new album coming out so I can keep up the momentum.
• I reviewed new albums from Peter Wolf (!) and Trans Am.
• LCD Soundsystem and Ellen Allien are coming to town next month. Whoo!
  

Don't forget you can also keep up with me on:

• Twitter
• tumblr
• RSS
• Google Reader Shared Items

Today...

Today...

...was one of those days. Whew!

What else did we forget?

What else did we forget?

H.E.B. Then Giant. Then Dominick's and Jewel. If my lineage was traced through the regional grocery stores in my life this would be it. At least this would be what I remember, since I can't recall whether Giant was both in New Jersey and Maryland or just one or the other. And in each of these I would hunt out the one vice that connected me through every single place I lived as a child. Each had Little Debbie Snack Cakes.

Do you remember these? They looked like Little Debbie Zebra Cakes but they had chocolate frosting inside and out. The boxes of these delicious little buggers disappeared a long time ago, made a brief resurgence about three or four years ago, and then disappeared again. The Little Debbie website has no record of them. No pictures, no listing, no history ... it's almost as if the Snack Cake is their own version of Conan O'Brien on The Tonight Show; it never happened.

Which makes me wonder what else is missing in my life? What things did I intensely desire, what gave me comfort, what just made me stupidly happy that no longer exists? And worse yet, I don't remember that it existed? To be honest, had Little Debbie Snack Cakes not suddenly reappeared on shelves just a few years ago they'd probably be relegated to that portion of my memory that provides a stabbing, momentary reflex of nostalgia usually triggered by a sensory marker; a smell or a snippet of something just outside my field of vision. I think you know those moments. It's when you intensely feel deep nostalgia and longing for something very specific, but you can't quite remember exactly what it is you're pining for.

And I wonder, how many things are there out there that I no longer even realize I miss?

I am mortal!

I am mortal!

I've mentioned it here in the past, but in case you've forgotten, I don't really get hungover. I don't know why, and I don't really consider it to be a mark in the plus column since I don't really pay the price for drinking too much and maybe it'd be better if I did!

Anyhoo, I spent Saturday out drinking finer beers with my brothers who were in town for the weekend. Then Saturday night I was reunited with Rudy, after too many months apart, in the DJ booth at The Continental. We had a blast, and I actually slowed down my drinking but the damage must've already been done because I felt like death all day Sunday. Not even a deliciously greasy breakfast at Golden Nugget could save me! GalPal was a peach about the whole thing. I would have totally forgiven her had she made fun of me or told me to suck it up but she was understanding and sweet about the whole thing.

Anyway, there you have it ... proof I'm not a robot!

(Um, robots don't get hangovers, do they?)

Oh yeah, forgot to plug myself!

Oh yeah, forgot to plug myself!

Tomorrow is the last Saturday of the month which mean two things:

• It is the 4th anniversary party for the Panic! britpop night at Darkroom.
• Rudy and I are DJing at The Continental from 11pm until 5am.

You have plenty of time to attend both!

Gorillaz couldn't make it, so they sent Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett instead.

Gorillaz couldn't make it, so they sent Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett instead.

Please note Mr. Colbert's interview attire.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Gorillaz
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Fox News

And then they played a song with some famous people.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Gorillaz - Stylo
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Fox News

Tankcurious?

Tankcurious?

I finally had time to answer a few more questions people have been asking me.

How about you. What have you always wanted to know about Tankboy? Ask me, I'll answer anything!

Conundrum

Conundrum.

If you have the time to tell everyone around, through various channels, multiple times a day, every day, that you are just busy beyond belief and terribly overworked, can you really be that busy?

Wanna lose weight? There’s an app for that!

Wanna lose weight? There’s an app for that!

I’m going to keep this somewhat short and sweet, but if you’re one of the folks out there looking to shed a few pounds without buying into some program or spending all of your dough on special meals or pre-planned menus, I may have a solution for you. But first, a preface.

A few years ago I realized I had slowly put on quite a bit of weight. I’ve always been a bigger guy, more solidly built, but through college and most of my twenties that was muscle, and while I wasn’t lean like Brad Pitt I certainly wasn’t out of shape. Then, time, and bad eating, and lack of physical activity took its toll and I got soft. It happened so slowly I barely even noticed it. Until I did. And once I did I resolved to get fit again. So I joined Weight Watchers, lost almost 50 pounds and everything went swimmingly. I learned how to keep track of what I ate and I started to exercise regularly.

And then I met GalPal, and started eating out more, and going out more, and basically just started enjoying life more, and while the physical activity kept pace, te healthy eating did not, and I again started to get soft … but this time I noticed it was happening!

I didn’t want to spend money on Weight Watchers again, and realized the one thing I had taken away from that program was quite simply that you need to keep track of what you eat. Not so you can deny yourself anything, or torture yourself for consuming this or that calorie. No. You just need to be aware of what’s going inside of you. Once you are – well at least once I am – it’s far easier to not overdo things. You can eat whatever the hell you want and still stay in shape as long as you keep everything in moderation.

So having said all that, if you are the kind of person the above profile fits, then I have a recommendation for you. I downloaded a handy little app called Lose It! It keeps track of what you eat and allows you to log in exercise and calories burned and it’s just been all around great for me. I’ve lost all that winter weight (decadent weight) I’d been accumulating and am in pretty great shape again.

(And GalPal seem pretty happy with the results, so there’s that too.)

LATFHLC!

LATFHLC!

These two kids got on at two different stops, but I like to think he finally asked her where she got her goggles and a make-out session ensued.

Also, are googles like the new big thing?

"Drunk Girls" gets a real video.

This new LCD Soundsystem is already vying for the top spot as my album of the year (at least right this second) and I can't wait to see them this summer!

Blur and other Record Store Day goodies!

Blur and other Record Store Day goodies!

I was excited to learn that Blur's first single in many years would be a Record Store Day exclusive, but I was sad to hear it was limited to 1000 copies and would only be distributed in the U.K. The band realizes that fans all over the world are rabid for new material so they have posted the new single on their site as a free download. Get it!

My only actual purchase this year was the vinyl version of The Flaming Lips' Dark Side of the Moon, which sounds fantastic on a record player.* I still have mixed feelings about Record Store Day as an actual event -- it still feels like bands / label profiting off nostalgia for an institution that no longer really exists -- but hey, anything that can get Blur to put out a new song can't be all bad.

*A huge thanks to Eric Ander$in for helping me track down that particular slab of vinyl. I got a late start and most places were completely out, but he called around for me and finally tracked down a copy for me at the downtown Reckless Records location, which oddly still had two dozen copies, leading me to believe they were more or less off the beaten path for most music entusiasts shopping for exclusives.

Let's put on a show!

Let's put on a show!

Hey, remember back in the day when I used to promote all sorts of live musical events a.k.a concerts? I rarely ever do that anymore, so you know when I do put something together it's gonna be good ... so I'm happy to invite you to a concert I helped assemble at Beat Kitchen tomorrow night! Mr. Russia headlines in celebration of their free 7' release of David Bowie's "Boys Keep Swinging" for Records Store Day, and they're supported by Metropolly (including my old friend Holly) and one of my favorite new local finds, Sam Vicari.

Things kick off at 9 p.m., though I may be a little late myself since I'll be running back from shooting OK Go at Metro. See you there!

No commute = an early start!

No commute = an early start!


I'm working a half day from home this morning. Why, you ask? Because I won tickets at work to see the Cubs play at Wrigley Field this afternoon! How did I win them? By being so old I remember when the internet was first getting traction publicly, so I answered a series of trivia questions correctly.

So soon I'll be heading to Wrigley Field pondering the irony that though I am not a sports lover and I hate the Wrigleyville neighborhood I absolutely love sitting in Wrigley Field with a hot dog, maybe some nachos, and a cold beer.

Wheeee!

Tweet of the week, you'll laugh so hard you'll cry.

Tweet of the week, you'll laugh so hard you'll cry.

So back in the dark ages of the internet (read: mid-'90s) I was part of a rather vocal Pavement discussion group. It ended up spawning quite a few of the more prominent voices you see critiquing music today, and while the threads of that group unraveled after the band broke up, many of them were woven back together through P2P file sharing. I'd say Soulseek is arguably the hinge upon which most of the changes in the music industry turned -- Napster wasn't as popular as you've been led to believe -- and it was also where most music writers found their exposure to music both new and archival change from a manageable trickle into a deluge.

Little known fact: Arcade Fire was the last band to launch actual palpable real-life excitement coming out of the unknown, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah was the first band to set the template for the Animal Collectives of the world to follow. Which is why this tweet from my friend Paul is both terribly funny and awfully goddamn sad.

Don't misread that as an indictment of Pitchfork, or Stereogum, or even the "I can't figure out how someone that got a start cut-n-pasting press releases ever got so popular" Brooklyn Vegan. It's not. The music sites that adapted to follow the new model of both music consumption and criticism thrived. The others didn't. And still other still burble in the underground writing 5,000 screeds read only by the most dedicated.

Me? I miss the old days, but I don't expect anyone else to, and even I am of a split opinion on how things are today. Was the old guard really any better than the new guard? Flip through an issue of Rolling Stone circa 1991 and I think you'll see that crap writing has always inhabited the critical sphere, and one-hit wonders will always exist. Even in the indie underground. (For proof of that thumb through ANY issue of NME.)

So at first I started writing this because I wanted to showcase Paul's tweet as my tweet of the week, but now I understand the reason I laughed so hard when I first read it is because I'm actually really sad about what we've probably permanently lost.

TankBird night is here again! Rejoice!

TankBird night is here again! Rejoice!

It's the best Tuesday of the month. It's TankBird night! Come see me and Lizz DJ at The Burlington all night long! Delicious beers. Sexy company. Sultry looks. Oh, and me. Look, Marcus even made us a super fancy flyer!

Be there!

Spring! Rebirth! Girls!

Spring! Rebirth! Girls!

The Chicagoist crew listed out the things they love about spring. It was fairly predictable. Here is a surprise, Marcus and I both like girls' shrinking wardrobes and the girls on staff like guys' shrinking wardrobes!

Um, well, uh.

Um, well, uh.

I just got this in an email:

dress sexxxy (boys, there will be tons of girls here, so step up yr game :)

Are you telling me my usual uniform of t-shirt, jeans and (weather permitting) leather jacket isn't sexxxy? Well then, fuck you.

Sometimes the days, they go speeding by.

Sometimes the days, they go speeding by.

This week has been a blur. Usually if I end up going out on an off night (Sunday / Monday) like I did for Monday's Rehab / Lollaplaooza party it throws everything off, and by Wednesday my mind is wired to perceive Friday as just around the corner, making Thursday that much more frustrating. Not the case this time around. At the 9-to-5 I've been really busy juggling a bunch of small projects so I'm sure that's kept my mind so occupied I barely notice the passing of time. I've been working later than usual but getting to bed earlier than usual and I actually think that's slightly confused my internal rhythms, setting them off-kilter in a positive way. Maybe it's like how when you're at the gym they tell you to shake up your routine every once in a while to keep your system off balance a bit and keep your muscles from getting bored and complacent? Something like that.

Of course I don't miss the humor in being a person who, due to covering shows and going to parties and DJing, doesn't really have what one would call a predictable schedule to begin with, but I'm feeling rather rejuvenated so I'll take whatever works whenever it works!

This post was composed to the soundtrack of a beagle snoring in the background.

Clean the stream.

Clean the stream.

Remember the days of MySpace when folks promoting an event would send out bulletins every 15 minutes or so in hopes every one of their followers would see it? I'm sure there are some on Facebook that do something similar, say send out email reminders a but too frequently, but if they start abusing it you can just unfollow them.

I was thinking about this because it seems the nature of online event promotion has shifted slightly. A few years ago you would spray reminders everywhere and anywhere you could, and everyone did. So much so that people just stopped paying attention to their social network's information streams.

Now it seems that while the general populace has broadened the number of online channels they communicate through they've simultaneously narrowed the focus of the their conversation through the selection of who they choose to include on those channels. In my case if someone is spamming Twitter outside a handful of reminders or flooding my Facebook in-box you can be sure I'll stop following them and mute their din. But you know what? That rarely happens, because these days I'm more careful about who I allow into my information stream and I assume you are too. Together we're cleaning up the net and streamlining conversations one "add" at a time.

Or am I crazy / overly-optimistic on this? Have you noticed a difference in event promotion amongst your social circle over the last couple of years?

Random thoughts from last night at Debonair.

Random thoughts from last night at Debonair.

I went out for a rare Monday visit to Rehab since it was serving as the official Lollapalooza line-up announcement party, and I'd gotten word that Perry Farrell himself would be the MC.

• The ratio of party photographer to party-goer was about 2:1.
• Most of the bartenders at Deb were still unfriendly, even though the place was packed, but the dude tending the bar upstairs facing the main room was a real peach, serving drinks fast and with a smile.
• Perry Farrell still looks amazing. I think he's been sucking David Bowie's blood.
• My friend Kelcy: "Oh my god, Perry Farrell actually talks like that?"
• The line-up will keep me happy for three days, fuck the haters. (Though WTF?! with Blues Traveler and Slightly Stoopid?!)
• Team Bayside High will SLAY at Perry's Stage. They are so much goofy fun you simply can't resist 'em.
• See you in August!
  

Hey Mr. DJ, what was that song you played?

Hey Mr. DJ, what was that song you played?

I had a lot of fun DJing last Friday and compiled quite the setlist. The beautiful weather kept a lot of my own friends away, but the outdoor patio brought in a good crowd anyway. Interested in what I played for four hours?

Check out the setlist from DJ Tankboy at The Old Oak Tap on April 2, 2010!

Spoon needs to downsize.

Spoon needs to downsize.

GalPal and I went to see Spoon last night. Read her review of the show, it's good!

I thought Spoon was kind of meh last night.

They’ve always been a super tight band and in smaller venues it came across as emotional intensity. Schubas, Double Door, Metro? Awesome. In large settings they just appear to be another pack of pros doing their job. They hit all the right notes but it feels empty in any expansive spaces. they should skip festivals and start playing multi-night stands in much smaller rooms.

Plus the crowd was filled with douchebags, but I guess that just means the band’s selling lots of albums, so good for them.

This is what you should do if you want to hear some good music tonight.

This is what you should do if you want to hear some good music tonight.

First, go to Ronnys and see Sam Vicari. He plays super early so get there on time. You will love it. If you like well constructed rock and/or roll that will hit you in your teenage blueballs / boy fumbling at bra-hooks memory-zone you will not want to miss his set.

After that walk, no run, no charter a helicopter to get you to Old Oak Tap as quickly as possible. It may have the least swanky DJ booth in all of Chicago -- I'm folded in there next to a coffee maker and a bag of ketchup as big as my torso -- but it does afford me the chance to play some of my favorite music at any given moment. And you -- you! -- will not be folded into a less than glamorous area. No! You will be comfortably seated on their patio or, at a later hour, inside their super comfy cozy digs sipping one of a jillion fine beers and perhaps noshing on my absolute favorite spicy fries in the city. See you there.

Return to Donewaiting!

Return to Donewaiting!

Donewaiting was the first site to really expose my work on a national level. Rob Duffy let me get all Metzger and Bangs and Burroughs and even though I'd already been writing about music for over a decade at the time it was arguable Donewaiting that helped me find my actual voice. Most of the archives from that time are sitting on a DVD or database somewhere so they're not exactly easily accessible (ahem, Rob, you know when you're done being all busy with life and stuff maybe I could get those from you?) but you can find them if you poke around a bit.

Anyway, I keep meaning to go back and write for Donewaiting, viewing it as the forum where I can stretch out and explore and go off-base and do all the stuff I can't do on Chicagoist. the funny thing is, I CAN do and awful lot on Chicagoist, so I haven't really had the chance to work something up simply for Donewaiting ... until today.*

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm back, so check it out. And to those readers of Donewaiting who have no fricking idea who I am and are probably 110% confused by the content I've inserted into their lives? Sorry I was away for so long.

*What brought this on? I don't know. But I suspect it has to do with the fact I've been grappling with whether or not I even still wanted to write about music since December, and just two days ago the floodgates opened, the words came back to me, and writing about music was no longer just a biological necessity that kept me sane, it was again one of the things I have the best fucking time of my life doing.

Feeling lucky? I am!

Feeling lucky? I am!

The Lucky Number is a joint in Wicker Park that I've long thought held lots of promise. The upstairs room is decently sized, has a good vibe, and it's steps from the Western Blue line and a five-minute walk from 6-corners. Some of my friends started a Thursday night thing there a while ago and the music's always good so I was really happy when DJ Evil Needle asked if I'd be interested jumping into the mix tonight ... and of course I said yes! The feel of the night is reminiscent of Tuesdays at Ten56 or a Thursday at Liar's Club and that is right up my alley.

Music starts at 9 p.m. and we DJ from then until the place closes at 2 a.m. My friend Lauren is bartending and the special of the night is $5 for a PBR and shot of Jameson. We'll be upstairs so make sure you go in the right door or you'll be confused by the karaoke party downstairs. (The karaoke party is fun, but it ain't where we're DJing!) I hope you can stop by for a bit!