Alice Peacock

Some friends of mine and I have been following Alice Peacock for years. I’m not quite sure anymore how we got started listening to her, but she’s great. You may have heard her songs on the radio, or on a Hershey’s chocolate commercial. I saw her in Madison, WI last Friday. I didn’t have her newest CD so I bought one. Being me, I decided I didn’t want her to sign it in the same way every artist signs a CD, and so: Nice! It’s cool what happens when you ask people to do something a little bit differently.

Rodrigo Y Gabriela

Me: a sucker for acoustic guitar, a sucker for good rhythm. Them: Awesome. They were a freebie download on the iTunes Store a few weeks ago, and I finally listened to them, accidentally. By now I bet last.fm thinks I’m insane, looping them for hours. Here’s them on Letterman: Their web site is www.rodgab.com. I’m hoping they tour to the Midwest sometime.

Basted in Blood

My brain is fried from all the flying I’ve done in the last 24 hours, so I will stall by sharing with you this old SNL clip a friend sent me. I hadn’t seen it before.

Lesson From The Fountain

The takeaway lesson in the movie The Fountain is that you should not drink wholesale from the Tree of Life, or you will become a flowerbed. I wonder if the sap of the Tree of Life could be made into syrup, though. Good movie. Xibalba, the Mayan underworld, is a fairly interesting topic.

Tool is a Bunch of Scurvy Dogs

The Tool concert scheduled for tonight at the Kohl Center has been canceled due to an illness in the band. There will be no make-up date scheduled for this show. Fans who purchased tickets through the University of Wisconsin Athletic Ticket Office will receive a full refund for the concert. Fans who purchased tickets through uwbadgers.com or over the phone through the Athletic Ticket Office will receive refunds directly on their credit cards within the next ten business days. Crap! I was looking forward to this concert. I saw them out at Coachella in April and they were great.

Awesome Names

I’ve been trying to find some new music lately. I’ve managed to find a few things, and I’ve also been exploring the use of last.fm to discover new music. For some reason it insists that I like the Backstreet Boys. No, really, I don’t. Some of the song names I ran into are awesome: “I’ve Got A Dark Alley And A Bad Idea That Says You Should Shut Your Mouth” by Fall Out Boy. It’s off their “From Under the Cork Tree” album, and upon investigation they apparently like “Shawshank Redemption,” too. The other name I found was the band “…And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead.” OMFG, that’s totally the name I wanted.

Toad the Wet Sprocket

40 hours until Toad the Wet Sprocket. It’s been eight years. I’m nervous. Toad is wrapped around some of my fondest, and some of my most bittersweet, memories. Of her. I hope it’s as good as the last time. I hope.

Over and Over and Over and Over

What is it when you listen to Jimmy Eat World‘s “Kill” on repeat for two hours? Well, you’re just across the street. Looks a mile to my feet. I want to go to you. Funny how I’m nervous still I’ve always been the easy kill. I guess I always will. Could it be that everything goes round by chance? Or only one way that it was always meant to be? You kill me, you always know the perfect thing to say. I know what I should do, but I just can’t walk away. I can picture your face well from the bar in my hotel. I wish I’d go to you. I pick up put down the phone. Like your …

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Brandi Carlile

Country and folk music is something I’ve developed an increasing taste for over the past few years. There’s just something about acoustic guitars that I fall for, that I can sit and listen to them forever. It’s really not a surprise, then, that I like Brandi Carlile’s music. What was a surprise was the range of people that showed up to see her and the twins play last night in Madison. Older folks, lots of younger people. It was encouraging. She played a bunch of stuff from her album, but also a number of songs that weren’t on the album. Excellent stuff. I always sit as close as I can to the sound board, as the sound will be good …

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