~larcher

This was too freaky not to blog about: the iPod just played the same song twice in a row, by different artists. First it played Led Zeppelin’s original “Trampled Underfoot,” immediately followed by the same as performed by Benevento/Russo Duo, recording available on archive.org. Good stuff.

In other news … work! I am busy and getting busier all the time. I am learning quite a bit though, and not just technical knowledge.

Also, we’ve had some serious weather here this week. In Texas, the slightest bit of ice on the roads will shut everything down. They put sand on the roads (not salt), and since it only happens once a year, no one remembers how to drive in this weather. And this time we got enough ice to shut down Austin for three days. But thanks to marvelous technological advancements such as VPN’s and toll-free conference call lines, I was able to work from home Monday through Wednesday.

Wow, last post was in October .. better give some more updates then: Thanksgiving was good, Christmas was good. For more details, you might check out Natalie’s blog.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled radio silence, already in progress.

This is turning into a very music-oriented blog. We saw The Decemberists last night at Stubb’s … great show! some notes:

• after the opener was done (Lavender Diamond, also good .. and I swear I’ve heard one of their songs (You Broke My Heart) before, but I can’t figure out where, and I don’t really remember their name), they started playing a recording of Peter and the Wolf over the sound system
• When the band was about to come on they had this funny intro (maybe this is standard for their shows, I don’t know): something about “please be courteous to those around you” and ” turn to the person next to you and introduce yourself”
• I’ve only heard songs from Castaways and Cutouts (since that’s the only CD we own by them), and they only played two songs from that one .. but it was still really good

In other news: been busy lately.
Work: changed positions and departments and buildings back in June. Same company though. Liking it so far — learning a lot.
Non-work: seems like we’ve had something to do almost every weekend since summer started. Either out of town or busy with something at home.

That’s it for now, back to work with ye!

Brain not yet operational, please drink more coffee and try again later.

I got worn out the 2nd and 3rd days of ACL Fest, and didn’t get around to blogging it in a timely manner. It was, overall, a good time.

Saturday
* I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness – I think we decided we had to see them based on the name of the band and the 30-second clip on aclfest.com . Turned out to be pretty good
* Ben Kweller – heard him at a previous ACLF, but this time he had to quit early due to an unstoppable nosebleed
* Nada Surf – good stuff, but I only listened for a while before getting light-headed and realizing I should probably eat something.
* The Shins – I was looking forward to these guys .. turned out alright, but nothing special .. I think the heat was keeping me from getting too excited about any of the bands.
* What Made Milwaukee Famous – another local band with a semi-long name, another band I’m glad to have discovered at the festival .
we kinda split up after eating .. I wandered around and caught parts of
* Iron and Wine – didn’t stick around very long, even though I like all of the studio stuff I’ve heard
* Explosions in the Sky – great to finally hear them live .. never realized just how loud their songs are supposed to be seemed like the perfect setting for this band, too: outside at night
* Brazillian Girls – heard while waiting in the port-a-potty line. sounded cool, may have to check out more.
* Willie Nelson – of course. never seen him in concert before, sounded great. I’m not a huge fan, but I did know most of the songs I heard.
* Massive Attack – sounded good, backdrop on the stage looked cool (some kind of enormous spectrum analyzer type thing), but I think I was just to tired by this point to really get into it. Or I didn’t have enough drugs in my system.

Sunday
* Damien “Jr Gong” Marley – caught the tail end as we got to the park, sounded cool
* Jose Gonzalez – very cool, but very quiet and relaxing. guy in front of us left cause he didn’t want to fall asleep. He played that one song (the name of which I still don’t know) they used in the Sony Bravia commercial with all the bouncy balls ..
* Matisyahu – a Hasidic reggae band. good stuff, but we were really there to get a good spot for the Flaming Lips
* Son Volt – as people left when Matisyahu was done, we moved up closer to the AT&T stage (and ran into some more friends) in preparation for lip flamage. Since the Heineken stage was opposite the AT&T, we just turned around and listened from there.
* The Flaming Lips’ lived up to their reputation as one of the best live bands – easily the best of the weekend! Confetti everywhere, giant inflatable puppet things, aliens and santa clauses living together .. Mass hysteria! If you ever have the chance, go see them! I’m sure we will next time they’re in Austin
* G. Love & Special Sauce – again, just turned around to listen. I think I’ve seen them at every ACL Fest I’ve been to
* Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – started off good and strong, but then the Flaming Lips curse took effect and the sky opened up (Wayne Coyne claimed whenever the Flaming Lips played outdoors, the rain would stop just before they played and then continue when they were done). So the band left the stage while the crowd stood around (or went home) in ponchos and umbrellas . They finally came back and played a half-four past the original end-time of 10pm, and then a 3-song encore after that. More good stuff, knew almost all the songs but were tire *and* soaked at this point, so it was hard to get real excited.

I guess I keep mentally comparing this year’s festival to 3 years ago, when REM closed out day 3 with a completely awesome show. Also, 2003 had much better weather – mostly overcast, but not much actual rain. Still, it was mostly a good weekend.

Natalie was at home, sick on Saturday , but felt good enough on Sunday to come back

I took today off work (as planned), but still didn’t post Sunday’s pictures on flickr. Instead, I dug through the Live Music Archive looking for artists whose sets we had to skip. Don’t see any of this weekends’ shows on archive.org, but I did find a taping of Guster’s set on etree