sonicshoulder

I’m heading to Chicago from NJ. I’m flying solo Friday then meeting up with a buddy Saturday. Any meet up planned? Any restaurant recommendation near the Vic? Any other words of advice about the shows? Is there any openers?

Pequods is the best pizza in Chicago therefore the world. Worth the trip...get an Uber. Be a long walk after a couple slices. 

I finally got around to listening to this. I feel like the arc of all conversations with Jeff go the same way: Belleville, mom, headaches, early musical influence, jay farrar, Yankee, rehab, at peace. Admittedly though I am not a big Maron fan. When he is not interrupting a guest to give his take on the particular topic or reminding us he went to rehab he is agreeing with the guest by saying "yes" and "exactly" loudly over the guests so you can't hear their take and they eventually end their sentence. I think he gets the best guests....by a landslide but I've given up on his podcast because I find it frustrating. 

Regardless of what it yields the Reds have been very active this off season and have added a ton of potential value for what I consider to be a very little bit of money. I am super pumped for this season. Cincinnati is electric when the Reds are in contention  and I think baseball in general is better when the Reds are relevant. We've been stagnant for the last two decades. Don't get me wrong...we are in a brutal division and I am aware the experts still have us finishing last or second to last but the city is optimistic. 

A baseball glove, a rubber ball and a brick wall. I spent entire summers in the alley behind my house. You could throw yourself a grounder, a short hopper, a pop up or line drive. Can't really think of the last time I saw a kid doing that....it my be gone forever. 

There is a version of "Philosophers Stone" on Youtube from the Jools Holland show that might be the coolest music clip on the Interweb. Piano player plays the intro and Van likes it so much he tells him "one more time". He looks like the ultimate maestro. Well worth checking out. A whole bunch of killer musicians on stage.  

I know this is hypothetical but one more season and he is at 3000 hits and 400 homers which is a first ballot lock. It think the problem is he had a somewhat boring career. Alan Trammell is in by the way with 500 less hits, less than half the homers and a lower average. 

He was a season away from 3000 hits and 384 home runs . Those are HOF numbers in my book which is actually the book that means nothing to anyone when it comes to HOF voting. 

Man, people are sure upset about Baines getting into the HOF. I guess I can see their point - but I am happy for him. 

 

I remember in the early 80's trying to hit lefty, so I could hit like him -- never was really successful, but when I would connect it was usually a screaming line drive. 

 

Baines and Ricky Henderson were my favorite players growing up - complete opposite personalities. 

Are you visiting the  "Some Factory" ?

Even though I was warned repeatedly not to go back there, today I'm going back to Rockville (MD) for a meeting. 

Nice work young man!!! So Jeff will make 51....unless your crashing some local dive in Lexington tomorrow night for an 80's cover band just to pad your numbers. 

Aaron Lee Tasjen.   #50... mission accomplished!

When I was 20 I went on a canoeing trip with a buddy my age and  his older brother and cousin who were probably 8 years older than us. In the car on that trip I heard Elliot Smith XO and a song called "Airline to Heaven" by another band. Up to that day I was pretty convinced there hadn't been a good, new album come out since around 1996 as I was a grunge kid and had not been exposed to music like this. Literally a life changing car ride. 

I quit following politics(again) when Trump won. I had quit some time before that and started paying attention again for the last political election. For the record I vote on all levels and am active at the local level. I do my homework before election season but for the most part I skip over almost any politically themed article in the "news" and I don't watch any of the 24 hour networks anymore.

For some reason yesterday on the way home I tuned in via public radio to the hearing. I was quickly reminded why I choose not to invest my time and emotion into this system anymore. The senator from Rhode Island is asking questions about slang words for farting written in someone's high school yearbook, a factor he would dismiss immediately as " irrelevant high school stuff that all boys do" if there was a democrat in the chair. Lindsey Graham, being the institutional puppet that he is, vehemently defends someone for something that he would prosecute to the fullest if this man was Obama's nominee. It has become impossible for any of these people to think independently and not toe the party line. The goal of these two parties has become to get in each others way. It is not to prosecute sexual assault, it is not to keep an eye on govt spending, it is not to give the country the most qualified person for each position all the way up to POTUS. What I listened to yesterday was quite honestly embarrassing. Politics isn't politics anymore and the news isn't the news. 

Lucero

What number you on there Ashtray? 

6>3>5>1>8>7>10>2>4>9

Would not be offended if the next record was called "Golden Loose Fur SmogTeeth"

Ummm.... .....Wouldn't Harvest Moon's lyrics be about Pegi?? 

Lord Huron has been doing a pretty cool version of Harvest Moon lately if you haven't heard that yet.

There is nothing more enjoyable than agonizing over what stereo equipment to buy. I am currently in my Sonos stage right now but before that I had a hearty  bookshelf system with 6" Bowers and Wilkins, center channel and a sub.  I miss that set up but definitely prefer my current. Regardless, the thrill of the hunt is almost as fun as plugging in whatever you go for. It would be hard at this point for me to go back to a non-wifi set up. 

Sonos Play-5 with (2) Play-1's in stereo. I'm probably about 5 years into Sonos. Started with the set up mentioned and they had babies...I now have 8 speakers total littered throughout the house. Your phone is your remote or you can pull from a laptop or desktop so I have all my music and anything I want to stream at my access. Sonos claims its audiophile quality, I don't think it is quite that good but it is very good and extremely convenient and "clean". I have a 1982 Technics direct drive plugged into the aux port. Its a nearly perfect set up in my opinion. 

Interesting discussion. Mainly depends on the artist. I'm ok with McCartney playing the same setlist each tour with such a choreographed show. Wish he'd mix up the stories/jokes a bit. The Stones mix up their setlist a bit, but can't imagine seeing them more than once a tour, or once in the past 20 years for that matter. 

 

Other bands that market themselves as live bands should mix it up some.

 

As for Malkamus, the guy just doesn't give a shit. If he doesn't care, why should I. Haven't seen him in 20 years either. Wasted talent.

I'm biased because I am a huge fan but I don't know if "wasted talent" would correctly define his career. Since the beginning he has done what he wants and been as successful as he wanted to be at it. I don't think his plan was ever to play arenas for 3 hours without an opener.  I would say Layne Staley was wasted talent. Malkmus is completely independent and uses that freedom to play what he wants when he wants. He's always dodged conformity but he has been churning out art for 30 years on his terms. I saw him this tour and it was great and while it was a shorter set in comparison to most I left feeling far from cheated. I think his physical demeanor makes people think he doesn't give a shit but he wouldn't have the catalog he has if that was the case.  

Dylan at a large outdoor venue. We wanted to leave so bad but my guilt kept us there. It was terrible. Garbled Yiddish 

Thought I'd see Sonny Feeling more than I have. 

I got into Wilco via Mermaid Avenue. I was bought a copy of Being There but couldn’t get into it. A while later I got Summerteeth and was obsessed with it for a while. Then saw the IITTBYH film and something about JTs character and humour struck a chord. His gift for melody is the key for me, plus the variety of styles, similar to my first love the Beatles (who I am also picky with some tracks). So there’s always enough on every album that I love, but always something that does not work for me. I don’t analyse my likes and dislikes, I just let them be instinctive. I don’t feel the need to be a sycophantic fan to still be a fan and no one can tell me what to like. Conversely I see no mileage in criticising what others like or dislike either. The artist can’t tell me how my brain works or expect me to like everything, and I can still respect them for their integrity and majority of their catalogue, and not feel the need to criticise the things that don’t click with me.

I don’t have a decent audio setup and rarely have time to sit down and listen to music per se, so hardly ever hear an album by anyone through beginning to end. Of the Wilco albums, that would happen most often for The Whole Love I think.If YHF had a couple of the Engineers Demos songs included it would be that one.

I respect the hell out of this statement, but what I relate to most with is about the Beatles. They not only wrote some really, really bad songs but they put them on studio albums. I consider the Beatles to be the “best” band ever imo, I also think they are simultaneously the most popular band ever and the most underrated. They changed it all, we’re probably not talking Wilco on Via Chicago without them. That being said they stuck some real garbage in between sequences of unprecedented genius.

Interesting dynamic of "At Least That's What You Said" is while that it is one of my favorite songs by the band I've maybe listened to it in its entirety twice, once out of curiosity and probably the other time due to laziness of not hitting skip. I personally love "Leave Me Like You Found Me". Jesus Etc has always been my pee break song at shows, I don't hate it  but its not required listening/viewing. I would say mine is "Shrug and Destroy" or "Kicking Television". 

Doesn't mean you hate it....just least favorite. 

Poor Places(Kicking TV version)

Mountain Bed

One by One

Future Age

Radio Cure

....ask me again next week. 

tomorrow...Lord Huron, the Breeders,  Father John Misty, Feist and the National. Big weekend for the National playing two night in their hometown on the river front. Playing Boxer straight through Sunday evening. Big night for Cincy music as well. Our outdoor venues of any substantial size are not great. This is the first show at the newly revitalized riverfront park. Oh, and I'm 6 minutes by Uber so that doesn't hurt.

We let our 5 year old, who is in month 3 of an Indiana Jones obsession wear his Indiana Jones outfit for school pictures. A couple things learned by kid number three: let kids be kids and pick your battles. He's 5 years younger than his next closest sibling...he gets away with a lot. Also, prefers Mary to Willie as far as Indiana Jones women go...huge upset in my opinion.