what's in store? we don't know just yet

i only really listen to sad bastard music. this is a well-documented fact. that's not to say that i listen to all the same style of music, or that all the music i like makes me sad, but there are very few flat-out joyous songs that i really like.

bands like architecture in helsinki usually irritate the crap out of me. 8 piece? you better be playing post-rock. however, these bands are great for singles. GREAT. because i don't have to listen to the 10 songs on the record i hate, just the one or two that really do it for me.

so, when what's in store just came on at peregrine, i just put a big smile on my big dumb face. so many good things in this song: fake-emo lyrcs ("carve your name into my arm / 'cause i long / to feel your name blood red") sung in the most positive way possible; slow beginning with meandering synth-strings; slow-build; guitar riff doubled by glockenspiel; boy-girl love-barf chorus that gets stuck in your bone marrow for days; and horns, oh the horns. the end of this song sounds like a shenanigans song. like old relationships, that hurt for a while, and now i've just come to embrace it as an awesome part of my life that is over. i swear to god i never want to use horns in anything, but the end of this song makes a pretty strong case.



it's nice to have a few songs filled with unadulterated joy up your sleeve for times when being happy comes around. today, barring yet another catastrophe in the next two hours, is one of those times.

a few others on my personal list:



second-time post! that's how good this is:



and, of course, jessica's ringtone, the happiest song i am aware of:

bored of trade part 3

man, that was fun. notable:

-seeing all my friends, or at least a great many, in one place.
-the awesome way lindsay puts these things on. it's not a coolness contest all the time. just art, some tiny wine solo cups, a new canopy in the back yard, and loud, awesome bands inside.
-speaking of: BLDGS and the laughing man were really, really good. obviously i love them as people, but both bands were so good. and punishingly loud. i had paper-towel-ears the whole night.
-sweating all the time! this was not good; it was notable. everyone was doing it.
-meeting my friends' cool friends. for instance, it turns out that the one and only jason has started playing bass for seas, who i liked anyway and know some folks who like, and i finally made the connection between people-i-kind-of-know and people-who-are-in-that-band. good! always a fun realization.
-more music-related fun realizations: ian svenonius came, and i was standing in the entry walkway, and he greeted me as if i were an old friend before realizing he didn't know me. super nice guy. sixteen-year-old me was freaking out a little. he also knows my friends, so i guess we could hypothetically also be friends. sixteen-year-old me is freaking out a little about that, too.
-jason and i orchestrating song-based fistbump cues: we blow it up, magnet it back (like usual), and hold it until we both get done singing the same part of the same song. we tried it with "bicycle" by queen and "help!" by the beatles. mixed results due to shaky execution; awesome idea.
-spaaten optimator.
-bike riding.
-liz professing equal amounts of incredulity and happiness hearing about my new life stuff.
-receiving a text message this morning from dave that read, simply, "canadian girlfriend."

i think this will do fine in lieu of a post bragging about how lots of good stuff is happening in my life. last night was a small, great slice of happy.

there are other ways, i used to think, to find my way around

just as ian was getting me into a crotchety mood due to fender custom shop guitars and life, i remembered this. please read.

will oldham piece in the new yorker

i hold him in the highest possible regard, especially after reading this, and i have played and recorded plenty of his songs. i was thinking that, as a lark/gift/joke, i would render this in several pages and illuminate the first letters, and make all his text in red. you know, jesus-style. i think it'd be funny and maybe meaningful.

and so! it brings me back to the new year. i hope that it will be good, and i plan to try and make it so; i think that i'm going to set a date-certain before which i will not even consider trying to find employment, so that i can stop stressing out and instead write songs as often as possible. i'm going to try and go on tour, at the very least with steve over spring break, and to play shows around this area more. and make excuses less, for this and everything.

and apply to grad school.

oh, also, i want to continue doing awesome things, like dominating at trivia every week, spending time with my friends, changing my appearance regularly (up to and including growing beards), telling universally funny and well-received jokes, etc.

that should be so easy! piece of cake! great job! great blog!