Madison's Month of Music

Aliteration is fun, but live shows are even better. And April in Madison is ranging to be up there with one of the best months a city besides Chicago, New York, or LA has seen for music in a long time (this is of course based on personal taste which is either equal to or much better than yours *said with a smirk*).

Starting with back to back nights barely into the month, 4/3 is Cursive at Club 770 in the UW Union South, followed on 4/4 by Vampire Weekend at the High Noon. Regretably, I forgot about the second show until it was already sold out, but I believe Jess and I should be making the Cursive outing (Capgun Coup opens).

After that we go "the right way for a smacked bottom", to quote one Austin Powers. 4/8 sees Rogue Wave and Blitzen Trapper descend upon the High noon, and then just when you don't think that venue could take any more, Cloud Cult pops in for an epehereal night on 4/11. If I get my way, I'll be at both of those shows.

I'm taking a long weeknd to DeKalb the 12th to 15th, but don't let that stop anyone from checking out Clutch at the Majestic on 4/14. I almost want to drive back up from DeKalb for this one and then go back again, but gas is just too damn much right now.

4/17 pulls two ways, with Minus the Bear at Club 770, Man Man and Yeasayer at The Annex. And MxPx is at The Loft. While I'm not much for punk, MxPx is a fairly big name and should draw a crowd.

Alas, the Broken Social Scene show on the 19th at the Memorial Terrace has been canceled. If not, I'd be there like a new nose on Michael Jackson. But fear not, one need only wait until the 21st for another double threat: Reverend Horton Heat w/ Nashville Pussy at the Majestic, and The New Pornographers w/ Okkervil River at the Orpheum, which I will be attending.

4/23 the Blue Man Group Megastar tour passes through town again, and the Chicago Afrobeat Project slides into the High Noon on the 24th. And then the 25th The Kids In The Hall reunite at the Barrymore for wonderful, offbeat sketch comedy.

Things slow down a bit after that, with a few shows I might check out, but nothing I feel the need to mention. But I'll be starting May off right too: 5/3...High Noon...Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. If Madison could get rocked any harder, it would be from a nuclear blast.

Just an update

Lots of exciting things for me in this post, not so much anything profound though.

Jess and I found an apartment downtown together, and will be moving in at the end of August. Now I just need to pack some things and get rid of some others.

My passport came. HOORAY!!! I was hoping I wouldn't have to be freaking out with the trip to Greece coming up in about 7 weeks. It's here, and I did a little dance to celebrate its arrival.

This weekend might bring about two great parts of summer: small town festivals, and movies. Possible happenings for Friday are going to Riverfest in Watertown to see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, which would be quite a bit of fun/nostalgia. Saturday could include going to the drive in theatre in Jefferson to see the double feature of The Simpsons Movie and the new Die Hard flick.

I'll also probably do some packing and disc golfing while I'm at it. In the meantime, I'm just waiting for laundry to get done while watching some baseball.

music music omg music

So I finally remembered to get on to emusic before my month ran out this time.
New music =
camper van beethoven, (self titled)
the twilight singers, "blackberry belle"
radio 4, "gotham!"
my robot friend, "dial 0"
someone still loves you boris yeltzin. "broom"

In addition to that, I got on isohunt and picked up battles "mirrored", and black rebel motorcycle club "baby 81". So I'll be busy listening to new things for a while. And it might take a long while, because I can't stop listening to the Battles album. They're amazing. And I know I picked up this record after it's been out a while, I've just been lazy about grabbing music the last few months.

In other news - seeing as it's been a while since my last pst - jess and I are looking for apartments together. Pretty sure we'll head in the downtown region, but there are a few other possibilities. While I'm slightly irked being as far away from work as we might be, I'd much rather be able to do things downtown without always looking for parking. And I think it'll get me on the bike a lot more. I ride it a fair amount now, but all the trails meet downtown, which is a huge spur to get out and go.

Work has been going well, and soon I'll no longer be the new kid on the block in project management. One of the other guys is moving over to marketing, so we're pulling in someone to replace him, plus another PM position was approved, so there'll be two new people coming in the next month or so. We're also going to be regionalizing. Actual regionalization, unlike the pseudo-regionalization we have right now for some of the PM's who've been there a while. Last I heard I'll probably be one of two in the northeast. things should be more set in stone tomorrow after our meeting.

A slight delay...

I just realized that I haven't posted to this in a while, and that I had news worth posting a while ago, so I better get to it. To anyone who reads this that I don't regularly talk to, I had applied within ETC for an opening at project manager back in late January. After a few weeks and two interviews, they offered me the position, which I'll begin my training for next Monday. I'm quite happy about it, as what I was doing before wasn't all that mentally stimulating. With the amount of time I had during the automated part of the test sequence, it was easy to find me doing puzzles from the morning paper while still maintaining the same output as if I weren't. So yay for more challenging ventures!

On another note, I've decided my car is committing suicide. With all the things that keep falling apart/breaking, and people trying to hit me on the road, I believe there is a universal calling for my car to come home to pasture. So I'm hoping to have some new wheels by fall, once I get some cash stashed away.

Also, for anyone in the Madison area - or those that would like to come to the madison area - J Davis Trio is playing here Friday night (the 16th of March) at the Union. They're amazing, and I'll be there, which should be the only reasons anyone needs to come out.

new nin

Just checked up on the progress for the new nin record: should be out in april. ROCK. with teeth played out quickly for me, but the new singles from year zero, "my violent heart" and "survivalism" kick my ass. They're both here.

damn the sound man!

So I went to see The J Davis Trio down in DeKalb last night, since they're awesome and I love them. Unfortunately, the fates conspired against me. Picked up Tori from the dorms and had Portillo's for dinner - eat your heart out Jake ;) - and hung out with some of the old Upstaging crew, which was all good, but then things took a turn.

We got to The House, and the show started 30 minutes late, which really isn't all that bad. The first band had a good keyboard player, and that's really all I can say there. The second band could at least play their instruments (same keys player in both bands...), but made a travesty of a mix of reggae and rap, the extremely white singer with complete fake carribean accent. All summed up in a pop culture statement, the two opening bands were like Dyson's, they never lost suc(k)tion.

So then JDT has everyting set up at a quarter after midnight, which was good since I was still driving back to Madison once the show was done. Unfortunately, the sound guy took another 35 minutes to set up mic's, putting their start time around 12:50. I only stayed for three songs, since it had been snowing and I didn't know what condition the roads would be in, not to mention it was pretty late with a two hour drive ahead.

So I was pretty pissed that I went down there to only see three songs from the band I wanted to see, but checking the band's website this afternoon found that they're playing here in a month at the Memorial Union, and I'll stay as late as I need to this time.

One more good thing, my Airport Express station showed up today! iTunes playing over the stereo wirelessly. Yes.