Buy Yogi albums!
half-pint demigod (2005)
at CDBaby.com
Salve EP (2003)
at Amazon.com
at CDBaby.com
Any Raw Flesh? (2001)
at Amazon.com
at CDBaby.com
Sister Sites:
HalfZaftig.com
Wonky-Records.com
MySpace
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| 4/30/2003 |
| Goodbye, Sweet April |
There's a bug somewhere in the code I wrote to update this blog thingy. That's a bummer. Yet ANOTHER thing I gotta do on this website, not to mention the other two sites I need to get up and running. One of those, the Wonky Records one, is the more pressing issue right now - in the liner notes of the new CD, Salve, it asks readers of the notes to please go and check out the new Wonky Records site. I need to get it up there pretty soon, huh? Or else I'll look pretty dumb.
I approved the art proofs for Salve today. So, that means that the album can start production. Looking like a release in June to me, you can take THAT one to the bank.
I haven't actually listened to my new album since I finished it last October - except brief clips here and there. I hope it came out OK. That'll be one ritual I'll continue when I go to the Discmakers office and pick up my many boxes of new discs, the "first listen" in the car to the official product. I hope I still think it's an OK album. I think it is.
My wonderful soon-to-be-brother-in-law (and you know, I'm going to drop that whole "in law" thing as soon as it's official - he's my soon-to-be BROTHER, thank you, and I'm awfully glad to have him) has found that no matter what he does, he cannot post replies to this blog. Which tells me that I need to reconsider the means of replying to the posts here - I guess tying it into the Message Board hasn't been the best idea. Ah well. Another attempt on my part at synergy amongst the varied pieces of the site.
Chris G is really leaving for Los Angeles very, very soon. The 1.0 edition of Yogi & Half Zaftig is getting together tomorrow night for our "last hurrah" before he's outta here. Because I know I'm going to see him in just a couple of weeks when I hit LA, it hasn't really hit me yet that he's going. It's been ten years since we came here to Seattle together. One seventh of my entire likely life expectancy.
Good luck down there, Mr. G. Be safe. |
| 11:10:19 PM |
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| 4/29/2003 |
| Eating Peppermint Crow |
Right now, "So Real" by Jeff Buckley is playing on the Winamp.
A couple of tidbits:
In the last rehearsal space that Yogi & Half Zaftig used, we shared the room with another band that put up this image on a poster:
We all loved that poster very much! Because it's great, isn't it? I found the guy who came up with it today, turns out that his name is Jim Benton, and the rabbit is called Happy Bunny! And you can get him on T-shirts and such! There's a great one with the smiling bunny and the caption: "I think I gave you crabs." It might be the most perfect T-shirt ever created.
The Winamp is set on "shuffle" and pointed at a folder with almost 4,000 songs in it. It is now playing "L'hai Sal" by Mike Keneally & Beer For Dolphins. Now it's on that weird and lovely piano/vibes duet thing in the middle of it.
Oh, the other thing: I have to admit, I'm enjoying the new album by The White Stripes, Elephant.
While this shocking fact sinks in, I'll tell you that the Winamp is now playing "Temptation" by Tom Waits. Whose Web site I'll now describe as: brief.
Oh, man did I want to despise and dismiss out of hand this White Stripes album. The moment I first heard of this band, I decided on a kneejerk reaction that I would hate them unreservedly (Winamp update: "Shotgun Blues" by Guns N' Roses). They were making a big 'ol thing about being a TWO-PIECE band. A drummer, and guitar guy who sings. No bass player! No bass player! The NERVE. Oh, I hadn't heard a note they'd ever played and they had offended my sensibilities a thousand-fold (Axl just said, "You can suck my ass."). I mean, what crap! And THEN I heard all the stories about what a bad drummer this "band" (FAH!) had - that she could barely keep a beat on one drum at a time. Oh, I knew they had to be the worst band in the world.
Now on Yogi's Winamp: "Pictures Of You" by The Cure.
So you can imagine my horror over the last few months as these horrible, obviously Satanic, garage rockers became "The Annointed Ones" in the entertainment press. I gasped and snarled derisively as I read post after post at the industry message board The Velvet Rope proclaiming these pretenders as the latest and greatest "Saviors of Rock". And then I was nearly undone when my bro-in-law-to-soon-be announced how much he adored this new album, Elephant. Oh, how the knees were jerking when he told me that - and this is a lovely fellow, someone About Whom I Very Much Give A Shit, someone I Would Take A Bullet For, saying the unthinkable.
So dammit, I bought the goddamn album. On SALE, I should hasten to add.
Here's what I think - singer/songwriter Jack White is the real deal. Fantastic voice, really clever and funny lyrics. Decent enough guitarist, what he does works for me, and for what they do. The songs are populated with lots of great lines like "It's very possible I might be your third man, girl/But it's a FACT that I am the SEVENTH SON!!" You have to hear it in context, but I assure you, it's great.
What I just don't understand is why, oh WHY, doesn't Jack White want his songs to sound better? Groove better? Sound full? You know, why doesn't he just get a real band? I admit I don't get that part. But the album is a keeper, nonetheless. So yeah, I'm eating peppermint crow about it right this minute.
HA! What an appropriate final Winamp update for this entry: "Little Acorns" by The White Stripes. |
| 6:30:19 PM |
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| Bitchslapped, I |
I've been publicly reprimanded on my own message board for not updating the blog enough lately. I am hereby chastened, and resolve forthwith to do better. Hey, I said I was gonna update this thing, so I guess I'd better!
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| 5:59:55 PM |
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| Learn To Swim |
Working like a damn fool lately. Put in full days the last two Sundays, working extra hours just about every night during the regular week. It's OK, except for the extra sleepiness, and I'm learning a ton about programming .NET in C#. I can't say as I really prefer C# to VB, but it's interesting to see the differences between the two.
But enough geek speak for now.
All this extra time is to make up time I'll be taking off starting next week, when I head down to Los Angeles to make a cameo appearance on Bryan Beller's new solo album, View. I'm super-thrilled that he asked me to be involved, and it gives me an excuse for an adventure. Since I'm going to take a variety of gear with me to the session (most of which I probably won't even use), I'm going to drive down there rather than fly. I've never driven down the west coast before, though I've motored up and down the east coast a bazillion times growing up. Road trips are fun, and this seems to be my year for them, as I'm already planning another one for just about the entire month of October.
I haven't really been able to spend much "quality time" in LA the few times I've managed to visit, usually there and out within a day or two - and even this one is essentially a "working visit", but I will have a couple of days to hang about. My little sister is determined to take me to Disneyland, or somewhere where they have really fast roller coasters. I'd welcome that - there are NO real amusement parks to speak of in the Seattle area (and no, the Enchanted Forest doesn't count, though I think they built a big wooden coaster this year). Why is that, I wonder? Reputation aside, the weather in Seattle really isn't THAT bad, so I can't imagine weather could really be the issue. King's Dominion back in Virgina was open from late-March/early-April until early October if I recall - and that's decent weather time in this area. I dunno. I do love the coasters, though, and miss them.
I hope to be able to post LA pictures and such here on the blog as they happen. I shall do my best. |
| 11:17:50 AM |
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| 4/25/2003 |
| They Ain't Just Whistlin' Dixie |
I just want to say that I think that the below is absolutely spectacular:
I would like to actively encourage the practice of attractive female pop stars confronting their critics by getting as naked as possible in a public forum. Hear, hear! |
| 12:13:18 AM |
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| 4/24/2003 |
| It Was Worth It |
Oh, was I going to be angry if I stayed up for Game 3 of the Lakers/Timberwolves series and the Lakers had managed to win the game. But they DIDN'T! YES! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha HAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Ahem.
Seriously, rooting for the Lakers is akin to rooting for the Yankees. I mean, really. What are you Lakers fans thinking, anyhow?
And I see that the Mariners won again tonight, riding Super Slo-Mo pitcher Jamie Moyer's back, as has been their wont. Moyer is a true marvel, somewhere around 40 years old, and playing in a league where the "star" pitchers do all they can to blow the ball past you as fast as they can - yet he wins consistently by throwing slow balls. He has been phenominal since coming to Seattle.
Sorry, didn't mean to let my inner sports fan out of the toolshed. Let me chase him right back in there. Something about NBA playoffs and a good Mariners team has pushed me a little over the edge. That and long hours at work lately. Ah, well, we do what must, do we not? |
| 11:57:52 PM |
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| 4/21/2003 |
| 190 minutes, 45 seconds |
That's how much material me and my band recorded in the studio two weeks ago. Playing live, all at once. Now I'm in the throes of digging through all of it, looking for the "good takes". It's amazing how we played some songs only once, and nailed 'em, and others we recorded three and four versions of, and couldn't quite get there.
If nothing else, it was a great learning experience. It definately gives me some needed perspective. There's a lot to be proud of in all that music, and there's a lot of room for improvement. One carries on. |
| 10:02:38 PM |
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| 4/18/2003 |
| A Frightful Development |
Oh YES, I almost forgot about the new thing they had at the movie last night. I saw A Mighty Wind at Bella Bottega, a theater I like because they turn the sound up really LOUD. As I walked into the theater, it sounded like the trailers were already running, but no, it was just commercials.
Now, I hear that people who own movie theaters aren't doing well. How they can't be doing well when they're charging $59.95 for a small bag of popcorn is beyond me. But one thing they're doing now to increase revenues is show commercials. Like the ones on TV, except you can't mute them with the remote. I have been pretty annoyed at this development, but what, am I not going to go to the movies? So I deal. At least when they start running the commercials, you know the trailers are starting up soon, and I love the trailers.
The things that I had really grown to hate were 1) the stupid slide-shows before the movie, and 2) the moronic "Movie-tunes" they play during the slide show. It's not even so much the really bad music that gets to me as much as it's the back-spasm-inducing stupidity of the "DJ" people they have introducing the songs. Although I've been absolutely astonished at how bad some of the top 40 music I never hear in any other way actually is.
Well, last night, instead of the slide show, they had a digital projector showing actual commercials. Like for cars and TV network shows and things. They included a horribly unfunny promo for the funny TV show Scrubs. If I hadn't seen the show previously, I would have avoided it at all costs based on this clip they showed. Later we were treated to a car commercial featuring Celine Dion with some adorable little moppet, I suppose it might be her kid. The cute-kid factor did not outweigh the nails-on-the-chalkboard-Great-Satan Celine Dion factor.
At first, I was thinking that these new digitally-projected commercials were better at least than the slide shows where you try to guess how many Coke bottles are in the picture. But I realize the potential for intellectual insult might be far higher in the long run with this new system. Are they trying to make people stay home? |
| 8:30:26 AM |
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| Alfonso's Breakin' Board |
Man, does anybody remember Alfonso's Breakin' Board besides me? I tried to Google it, I tried to eBay it, NO DICE. It's like they never even existed. But I remember! Somebody tell me they do, too.
Saw A Mighty Wind last night, and it ruled. Don't listen to Ebert and his 2.5 star review. He makes it seem like the movie is no good, and it's very good. Some people who have seen trailers and are thinking of it as something of a Spinal Tap reunion might be a little let down, in that the Folksmen, the band played by Tap vets Harry Shearer, Michael McKean, and Christopher Guest, aren't the focus of the film. This is much more of an ensemble drama. Yes, it's often hilarious in that Spinal Tap way (archival photos and footage, the album titles, etc.), but whereas Spinal Tap was more of a wicked satire, AMW features people that seem more down-to-Earth, more human. There are some real dramatic and even poignant moments in this flick - and the songs are once again dead on and great. Eugene Levy gets my special mention for his portrayal of burned-out folkie Mitch. Of Christopher Guest's three films in this style, I liked A Mighty Wind the best (Spinal Tap was directed by Rob Reiner, if you'll recall, and I can't imagine a film that could ever touch its genius). A Mighty Wind is still making me smile just thinking about it - I think I'll have to go catch it again. What, I should watch A Man Apart? I don't THINK so! |
| 8:09:52 AM |
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| 4/17/2003 |
| Thanks, Scott |
Scott Lurowist provided me with a full-color image of the poster I originally posted back on April 1 here on the blog. It can be seen below. Thanks for the link, Scott!
I made my little color version from a very LARGE version of this poster that's over here, for those who have wished that there was a big version for desktop use. The big one is kinda pixely though. |
| 7:49:26 PM |
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| 4/15/2003 |
| Run, Meet Screaming |
"The government is ordained by God with the right to promote good and restrain evil," Stanley said in his sermon. "This includes wickedness that exists within the nation, as well as any wicked persons or countries that threaten foreign nations ... Therefore, a government has biblical grounds to go to war in the nation's defense or to liberate others in the world who are enslaved."
Where do these crazies come from, exactly? |
| 10:29:33 AM |
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| 4/14/2003 |
| Sebum-Lebum And Other Stories |
I was sick from work today, since I felt like crap all weekend, and felt like crap when I woke up today, so yeah, I was sick from work today. I can't quite kick this creeping crud that I've had for at least three, maybe it's even four weeks now. No SARS jokes, please - that shit ain't funny. Anyway, by the afternoon I was feeling OK-ish, and I really had to get out of the house, so I went in to work to get some things done; I have a lot of work to try to get in this week there, and I felt bad about missing a day. On the way home (after putting in four hours) I went into a local Sebum-Lebum to get a Diet Dr. Pepper for the drive home. You know how they have these little tiny "billboards" now at Sebum-Lebum's, they sort of look like flat screen monitors by the register? In between Marlboro ads, they have little "factoid" screens (like that stupid stuff they show on the slide projector before movies). I guess I would have less problems with the factoids (especially when trapped behind five people who happened to be at the Sebum-Lebum before me who decided that THIS was their moment to buy 20 lottery tickets each) if they would ONLY CHANGE THEM now and again. They've had the same ones (at multiple Sebum-Lebum locations locally) for months. Interestingly, one of the factoids that I've been seeing lo these many weeks is the definition of the word "Omphaloskepsis." Which of course reminds me of the Funhouse record I was involved with of the same name, only purposely misspelled. Thinking about that album reminds me of how I really need to get the master tapes for that record imported into Pro Tools, before the tapes degrade much more. It would be nice to try and get some real mixes out of those tapes.
I'm glad I felt like crap all weekend too, because it kept me from going out and looking for a new car. I need a new car, but I'm allergic to spending that kind of money right now, since I'm so desperate to get the albums I haven't put out yet put out. On the other hand, if the old Honda up and dies on me, I'm crippled completely living way out in the boonies as I do. I'm trying to find the perfect moment for this - I want the car to make it without breaking down to the dealership, so I have something to trade, but I'm also putting off actually going to the dealer as long as the car keeps running. And I keep pouring more oil into the Honda, as it keeps disappearing somewhere. It's not on the garage floor, that much I know.
 Lastly today, I found myself listening to Primus' Frizzle Fry for the first time ever. To most Primus admirers I know, FF was always known as the "best" Primus album, and it's one I had never got 'round to listening to, though I saw the "John The Fisherman" video years ago on HeadBanger's Ball. So, yeah I've been listening to this album. I guess it's the bitchen re-mastered version, maybe it sounds way better. It's definately louder than my Sailing The Seas Of Cheese disc. I have to say that so far I still prefer STSOC overall. One weird thing about FF is that the guitar player is playing much more like a "regular guitar player" on the record, I had to check the liner notes to see if it's the same guy on guitar as the later albums, and it is. There's even like, solos, and whammy bar stuff on there. I guess there was another guitarist in Olden Tymes named Todd Huth who wrote some of these guitar parts before bailing, maybe that accounts for the difference in guitar approach. Anyway, I like this album, and you might, too - it's pretty weird and great. And it has a really cool song on it called "Too Many Puppies." I mean, I almost bought five copies when I saw that listed on the back.
Not that I think there's a such thing as too many puppies (there can never be too many), I just love that there's a song with that name in the world. |
| 11:39:30 PM |
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| 4/12/2003 |
| Excavatin' |
It's time to start writing again.
I've got a new band in the birthing stages, and I want to start recording a new full-length album by the end of the summer, so I sat down today to start sifting through the giant stack of idears I've collected these last few years. I have many things to listen and look through: old four-and eight-track cassettes, MIDI sequences, Finale files. Songs very rarely arrive fully formed. Usually they are pieced together from little bits that arrive at the strangest times. If I'm by a recorder or the computer, I do whatever must be done to get the little bits of inspiration recorded so I won't forget them. Lately, I've been firing up the Roland workstation, grabbing a guitar and going for it. But sometimes, I'll just be noodling and a riff will pop out, and I'll open up Finale, transcribe what I'm doing and save it for later.
I have a very big stack of this stuff now.
It's one of those tasks that you know you need to do, but you talk yourself out of doing. Well, today I got down to it. I barely made a dent, but I had a great time. I decided to go through and start cataloging the MIDI sequences I have. These usually consist of a drum beat, with maybe some keys stuff on top. Some of them drone on and on for 80 bars, some of them are 2 bars long.
The fun part is, trying to remember what I was thinking when I laid these ideas down. Some of these MIDI sequences date all the way back to March of 1995, when I first bought the sequencer.
It's been like Christmas. All these little ideas, quickly popping in, and then seemingly lost, all are coming back to me with the flick of the switch. Weird little file titles like "Quince", "Wisenheimer", "Melted Cheese", and "Frameless." I've barely made it through listening to a quarter of them. I'm cataloging data about them as I go, jotting down tempos, time signatures. What a blast I'm having. It's like rummaging around in the attic of my own mind. I shoulda done this ages ago. |
| 5:40:20 PM |
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| 4/11/2003 |
| What He Said |
| "Those who opposed this war in part because they feared what it would do to the Iraqi people must now make every effort to protect and raise up those people. And to do that, they must pay attention to what is happening to them -- the good, the bad and the in-between."
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| 8:25:47 AM |
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| 4/10/2003 |
| A Force For Good |
| I have a lot of ambivalence about the policies that drove our nation into the war in Iraq. But it's pretty hard to be ambivalent about stories like this one. I'm just gonna cross my fingers and hope against hope that we do this one the right way. |
| 12:04:34 AM |
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| 4/8/2003 |
| He Was A MERCENARY! |
| This is a no-brainer. Please do your part to help this cause, you'll sleep better tonight, I promise. |
| 3:43:45 PM |
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| The Beatles Were Like, Good, And Stuff |
Nightmare night (for me) in the studio last evening. I managed to corral everybody at the last minute to try and get some more takes for the project we're doing, making them drive through a rainy and thus turgid Seattle rush-hour to get to the studio on time.
From the first downbeat, I wasn't feeling it, and I knew that it was going to be a rough time. My current philosophy when confronted with great difficulty is to try to battle through it anyway, and we managed to lay down several songs. I'll have to listen back later to see if there were any keepers. I think you'd have to call what I did to poor "Throw Me A Bone" ritualized murder or something, we never even made it all the way through the song. Ah, well. One more crack at the stuff tomorrow night, then it's time to listen to the four days of material to see what's good and what ain't.
The Beatles did their first few albums the way we're doing these recordings. They all played together in a room, and sang their songs. Sure, they'd do a few takes to get a good one, but they always managed to do it.
SIGH. |
| 9:36:20 AM |
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| 4/7/2003 |
| Beware The Horizontal |
| Roger Ebert is a really good writer. And he sometimes writes about things other than movies, and he sometimes writes a column that isn't about movies that might even be construed as being important. I think this is one of those. |
| 3:27:21 PM |
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| 4/6/2003 |
| Plug Tunin' |
Recording is hard.
That's part of the fun of it, of course. Going into the studio, for want of a better metaphor, is like climbing up a particularly steep and treacherous mountain (mao-den). The hazards to watch out for are your own preconceptions, the fantasy idea that you expect the experience to be. What I'm finding is, once I walk into the studio door, I gotta be ready for everything to be different than I expected, and to be prepared to roll with the changes.
What we've been up to the last couple of days I've very, very rarely done (I was thinking I'd never done it, but I forgot about the demo I did with the band I was in called Skeptics in 1990). In any event, I've almost never set up with a full band in the studio, and attempted to capture live performances. We're making a "live in the studio" album, since the logistics of doing a professional recording in some of the Seattle clubs we've been playing in are too ridiculous to imagine. Plus, this way we stand a good chance of getting a really good sounding recording, working as we are once again with Darin DiPietro. What we have to hope we can do is come out the door with some performances that are worth revisiting.
Well, scratch that, we DO have some of those already, after two days down in the studio. We're going to try to get in a couple of nights this week to get some decent takes of some songs we know that we haven't really done all that well yet. The rule that has sort of emerged for the recordings is that the live stuff will remain live - we won't be fixing any errant wrong notes. If you want to hear note-perfect versions of the tunes, you can buy the studio albums. We've got some cool stuff on tape, though - I'm proud of Chris G and Brian Timpe thus far. They're really going for it on some of these tunes, and it's inspiring. There's quite a lot of improv going on, and some of the song versions are long; we did a nine-minute version of "Truth" the other night. But, that's what this edition of Yogi & Half Zaftig has done - we've exploited the freedom of a trio to it's fullest extent, and we allow ourselves to go off into the stratosphere if we want to. That's part of why I wanted to get a good recording of this band. I've been taking lots of pictures, and I've got some MPEG video of a couple of little bits. Soon you all shall be able to see them.
Plug one, plug two. |
| 11:14:49 PM |
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| 4/3/2003 |
| Guitarsenal |
We're going into the studio tomorrow night to get set up to do some recording this weekend - the last project I'll be doing with Chris G for the time being. I have to take all of these guitboxes with me. Which means I have to change the strings on all of them. Changing strings is probably the biggest, and most horribly tedious downside to being a guitarist. Aren't we supposed to have found me a roadie/tech for this kinda stuff? Does that come with the mansion and the Mercedes? I'm ready for all of these things right now, thanks.
I guess by documenting this exercise in boredom on the blog, I'm hoping to give a "backstage view" at the real life of an indie guitar guy. Phewwwww. I spend a lot of time turning the crank, as shown below.
Once the strings are off, it's a good time to wipe down the whole instrument. Then it's time to put on the new strings, one by one. I try not to go absolutely insane as I sit with the chromatic tuner on my knee, and gradually stretch the new strings out. Yes, violent thoughts occur during this process. Lookie, a C#!
Changing the strings on and tuning up four guitars took me about three hours. The result: hateful detritus. Hateful Detritus is a great name for a metal band. If you have a metal band in need of a name, I'm your guy.
Aren't you glad I shared this with you? Yes, you are. |
| 11:35:01 PM |
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| 4/2/2003 |
| There IS Good Music Out There |
I've been absorbed in the tunes lately - I want to know what other people are doing out there in music-land, and though I'm not as adventurous as I'd sometimes like to be regarding what I'm giving a listen to, I've been impressed with a lot of what I'm hearing. You'd like these records, I think.
 Jerry Cantrell's got a new version of his new album out, called Degradation Trip Volumes 1 & 2. This is the original version of the album that he recorded and shopped around, after he left Columbia Records, before finally getting Road Runner to pick the thing up and put it out. A double-CD set in it's first incarnation, Road Runner had cold feet about putting it out in that format, and released a one-volume version last summer. At the end of the year, they put out this new "special edition" version, true to Jerry's original vision. This two-disc version is far and away better than the single-disc one - if you haven't bought the album yet, go straight to the new version. But if you're an old Alice fan like me, you probably bought the first one last year anyway - and you still wanna buy the new one. If nothing else, this record proves that had Layne lived, there could have been one hell of another Alice In Chains album. Jerry wrote most of the Alice standards, and in many ways the record sounds no different at all from the classic Alice stuff - with the glaring omission of Layne's vocals. Jerry wrote the best songs, but it was Layne's "special sauce" that made Alice's work special - and it's all I can do while listening to these discs to keep myself from pining for what might have been. Jerry will never be the singer Layne was, and I'm sure he knows it. But Layne's ghost is all over this thing, which is some comfort to those of us who miss him.
  Ani DiFranco remains one of my fave indie heroes. She's also shockingly prolific, releasing a 2-disc live album So Much Shouting, So Much Laughter and a live DVD (with all different songs) last year, followed up by the just-released studio record Evolve. All three of these discs have been spending quality time in the car changer of late. Ani's stuff is allegedly "folk" music, but she's got a sizable band on these records, with a really interesting horn section going on, so the sound of the music doesn't really fit any "folk" archetypes I know of. She's a fantastic guitar player, all spiky, percussive stabs and angular, peculiarly constructed chord-melodies. She alternately spits and croons her confrontational lyrics with real and often intimidating passion; you may not agree with her politics, but you've got to admire her commitment. Of the two albums I find myself favoring the live disc, as it's got some great new reimaginings of some old favorites along with some brand-new tracks, and it also includes the spine-tingling "Self Evident". I only wish I could learn to express myself in such devastatingly beautiful terms.
 And then there's this Zwan album, Mary Star Of The Sea. I tried through the years, with middling success, to turn myself into a Smashing Pumpkins fan. As much as there was to admire in their music, there was always something about it that left me feeling as though I was somehow outside of it, and that I wasn't really allowed to join their little club. I mean, they were hugely successful, but they weren't very... inviting. Now, the Pumpkins are gone, and Billy's back with Zwan, and I can't say as I'm really completely sold on this new music, either - but the album is... friendly in a way that Smashing Pumpkins never was. Maybe this is attributable to Billy's new attitude, expressed in a great quote I read the other day (Rolling Stone?, Yeah I think so): now, when he's writing, he wants to "just let a song be a song, it doesn't have to change the world." That quote resonated with me, and it's why I went out and got the record. And the songs on the album are just songs, and make no apologies. That works, I think, and it definately appeals to my current worldview. |
| 11:08:05 AM |
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| 4/1/2003 |
| ...And There Were None! |
Smooth sailing on April Fool's Day this year! Nobody "got" me! You know? HAW HAW, no knee-slappin' good times had at my expense this year! Huzzah!
OK, so I know I was a grouch earlier this morning. So, in the spirit of being not-so-grouchy, I'll link to this great image that The Stranger published this week. I think it's hysterical, and the accompanying article has an interesting perspective.
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| 10:46:31 PM |
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| No Jokes |
| I don't want any damn April Fool's jokes today. That shit is just stupid. I'm gonna hold my breath all day (figuratively, duh) and hope that no one springs anything on me today. Because if they do, I'm-a have to hurt 'em. |
| 9:01:27 AM |
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