UPDATE

Pete Yorn

Hey, I went and saw Pete Yorn's instore performance at Lou's Records last night. It was cool. He played 5 acoustic songs on the future guitar of moi - a Gibson Hummingbird. Anyway, I stuck around after the gig and he signed my Westerns EP for me. He was very friendly which was nice :)

KILLING TIME

In my giddy anticipation for the Upstart Crow show this Saturday night, here's a new song called Killing Time. Click HERE to listen to it. Hope to see you at the show!

LIVE AT UPSTART CROW!

A Long Time

Hi All,
I put a new Daysleeper song up on myspace. It's called "A Long Time"....go check it out if you get a chance. Thanks!
Click HERE to listen!

Yay!

Why Can't I Let You Go?

I've uploaded a new Daysleeper song called "Why Can't I Let You Go?" on my myspace page.

Go HERE to download it. Cool beans!

In other news, I've been rehearsing a ton for my show at Upstart Crow in May. My time slot is for about two hours, but since I don't have pyrotechnics and a troupe of dancers, I'll probably play for about 40-50 minutes. LOL. The setlist will probably look something like this:

Valentine
Such a Shame
Owls
New York
Why Can't I Let You Go?
A Long Time
Lover, Lay Me Down
Harder Now That It's Over (Ryan Adams cover)
Poet
To Fall
The Driving Rain

I might throw another cover in there, to end it. But, for now, that looks like the setlist. I know nobody's even heard at least two thirds of the songs on there, but that's more incentive to go out and hear 'em at the show! :-)

Fox Confessor Brings The Flood

Neko Case's new album, Fox Confessor Brings The Flood, is a certain masterpiece. I don't know why, but in the last two weeks, I've come across 4 or 5 excellent records, but this one might actually be the best of them all. "Star Witness" is so fantastically gorgeous that I can't put it into words. Neko's voice has always been amazing, but she seems to have gotten even better on this record. The key tracks, in my opinion, are the aforementioned track, "John Saw That Number" and "A Widow's Toast"...although nearly every track is awesome. The record is very melancholy and also very morbid - as a number of tracks deal with the death of one or more people. Fortunately, there are uplifting tracks as well to "lighten" the mood a little bit (as if that's even important anyway) but they're also kind of subdued in that dark, moody Neko way. Check it out, for sure. Below, is a link to a download of "Star Witness" if you want to download it.

Neko Case - Star Witness





In other news, I've got my own show scheduled at Upstart Crow in Seaport Village on May 13th. It's a Saturday night, and free if you want to come out and say hi!

"Eat my dust, Coach!!"

Here is an mp3 from The Twilight Singers' last album She Loves You, a collection of covers recorded by the one and only Greg Dulli. Oh, and the pic below is not from my personal collection of erotic photographs - it happens to be the cover artwork for the record. Gees people!

The Twilight Singers - Hyperballad (Bjork Cover)

Happy Birthday!

Well, it's about 12:43 on Sunday morning and I've got to go to bed. I didn't do a whole lot today but I am happy with what I did do. I drove up to Lou's Records in Encinitas and purchased Rogue Wave's Descended Like Vultures, Hem's Rabbit Songs and No Word From Tom and The Concretes' Layyourbattleaxedown (which is for Elenna since it's her birthday tomorrow - HAPPY BIRTHDAY!). Needless to say, the records I bought for me, are really good.

Hem's albums are really melodic and orchestral in a folk/alt-country way. And they sound phenomenal. Rabbit Songs was recorded on all-analog gear which, to a guy like me, is like saying you scaled Mt. Everest with a butterknife. I get impressed by that stuff since I'm such a gear-head and I'd like to think I'm able to hear the difference between digital and analog recordings. Kind of like how people say that vinyl LP's sound "warmer" than cold, hard, digital CD's. Anyway - it's such a warm record. It makes me think of sitting out on a porch swing while the sun is setting in some midwestern town. Call me sentimental and straight-up goofy, but it's very soothing. Like I said, they got a country kind of feel to them, but they're very similar to a Neko Case record or something Whiskeytown might've done. Not exactly "country" albums but they've got that back-home feel to them. Oh, and Sally Ellyson, who sings lead vocals, is completely outstanding. One of the best voices in music, period. Here's a download of "Half Acre" which is just beautiful, off of Rabbit Songs and "Jackson" which is a cover of the famous Johnny Cash song, off of No Word From Tom(click the links to go to a yousendit site where I've uploaded them):

Hem - Half Acre
Hem - Jackson (Johnny Cash Cover)








Rogue Wave's record is really cool too. From what I've read, it's basically some guy named Rogue who has a couple musicians sit in with him while he records his albums. But his newest album is really rich and hooky. His music is some kind of Beatles/Pinkerton-era Weezer/Shins/Modest Mouse mishmash. Really layered and poppy. But he doesn't get too indulgent - all the songs are just that - songs. Just a lot of quality songwriting on his LP. Here's my favorite track so far from it:

Rogue Wave - Publish My Love





Also, here are my favorite tracks from Elbow's Leaders of the Free World and The Magic Numbers' album:

Elbow - Great Expectations
The Magic Numbers - Don't Give Up The Fight

Anyway, so I bought a couple CD's today. That was fun. Then I came home and watched Capote and was thoroughly impressed. I was enveloped in it! So well done, and the acting from Philip Seymour Hoffman was completely outstanding....I hope he wins the Best Actor oscar. Go Philip! And now I want to read "In Cold Blood"....if only I knew how to read!!!! Doh!

Leaders of the Free World

Hmm....well, nothing too much goin on with me right now. I just finished some homework on slavery in the 1700's. That was fun stuff. I should probably devote a little more time to homework since the last quiz I took in History was a 7 out of 10. Not exactly awesome. The other two were A's but this last one killed for some reason.

On a different note, I've got waaaay too many movies to watch at home right now. In my hands are: Capote, Crash, Cinderella Man, 2 Seinfeld disc of Season 4, King Kong and Saw II. The first two are ones that my boss got from her mom, who is in the the Academy of Motion Pictures, so she gets all the movies that want to be nominated for oscars, before they come out. Awesome, huh? So, I'm itchin to watch Capote but I'd really like to know a little more about the actual man before I watch it so I'm not a complete idiot. I wanted to actually read his book "In Cold Blood" before I saw it, but that was before I got my hands on an advanced release DVD. So now, all that reading is gonna have to wait cuz everyone knows that reading is for pansies. LOL.





I watched Wayne's World over the weekend and it had been such a long time since I'd seen it that I thought it was really funny. Don't you like it when you don't watch one of your favorite movies for a really long time and so the next time you see it - it seems unexplicably fresh and new?





I've gotten my grubby fat hands on some awesome new music recently. The first is The Magic Numbers, many overwhelming thanks to Elenna. They kick ass - very poppy like in the vein of Mamas & The Papas and maybe even The Association or something, but with some newer sounding indie pop thrown in and a pinch of old school MOTOWN baby! Definitely check them out.





And the other CD I have been listening to a lot since yesterday is Leaders of the Free World by Elbow. It's such a beautiful album....very morose and kind of melancholy but I love it (well, I love most sad bastard music anyway, haha). Guy Garvey's voice is so soothing and warm and strangely similar to Peter Gabriel's (in a good way, haha). He writes the most devastating lyrics ever, check some out from "An Imagined Affair":

"So lost in the sound of her voice
I don't even hear the words
When she says, 'Come on, get out...
The past will find us out -
Come on, get out...please -
And don’t breathe a word.' "





Anyway...I am listening to The Magic Numbers when I am feeling upbeat and kinda happy mood and I put in Elbow's album when I feel reflective or somber. I go back and forth quite a bit. Life is rather shaky. Alas, I got invited to a party this Saturday night....but I don't think I can go even though I really want to. Damn you, prior commitments!! *makes angry face*