On WIsconsin

I brought Wisconsin cheddar and Leinenkugel's home with me from the grocery store last night. I only buy Wisconsin cheese when I have a selection of origin-labeled cheeses. It has to do with me being a policy analyst and hating the way that dairy subsidies are abused by California. I never tried the Leinenkugel's Original while in Madison, so I thought I'd buy it.

Colt McCoy TD pass vs. Texas Tech

The Spring Game is this Saturday. College Football is better than damn near everything.

My favorite part of spring

Central Market has pixie tangerines. Pixies are perfectly sweet tangerines. There is no fruit that I like more. If you live someplace with a Central Market, then you have until the end of May to get some.

More music is coming soon

Even if Erin is upset by the volume of music recommendations coming from this site, you should be expecting more in the near future. I'm going to go through the album collection and note the albums that I consider to be must-haves for any music fan. I'll go through the alphabet.

Reunionization

My high school class is having it's ten year reunion in August. I have a hard time imagining something that would be less pleasant than going to my high school reunion. I'm more likely to go to the Clements ten year reunion. I don't keep up with people from high school. My high school girlfriend lives across town and I basically haven't talked to her since she introduced me to Mrs. LaBlog just over five years ago. It's just not my nature to keep in touch. It's a fault. There are certain people with whom I try to stay in contact, but I don't think any of them are in my graduating class. I haven't spoken with anybody in my graduating class in seven or eight years. One girl went to UT and I saw her one time on campus my junior year.

The albums on my counter

This is a list is some recommended listening. I'll also be supporting local merchants by providing a link to purchase each album from Waterloo. Just buy it. Fair warning, there are at least twenty albums sitting out by the stereo right now, so this will be a long post. I also want to say that these aren't my favorite albums, just the albums that Mrs. LaBlog and I have been listening to at home lately.

All Girl Summer Fun Band - s/t. AGSFB is a quartet from Portland which makes great catchy twee pop. Mrs. LaBlog loves twee.

Ash - Free All Angels. Ash is somewhere between between power pop and britpop. It's probably safe to refer to them as the UK's answer to Weezer. I've liked this guys since I heard them on the Angus soundtrack.

Aerospace - In a Place of Silver Eaves. It may be safe to call them twee simply because they're Swedish. Aerospace is melodic pop that belongs in the same family as Belle and Sebastian. This is another of Mrs. LaBlog's selections.

Chin Up Chin Up - This Harness Can't Ride Anything. Chin Up Chin Up surround you with sound and melody on this album. I think that it is safe to call them indie pop. This Harness Can't Ride Anything is one of the most enjoyable albums that I have listened to in a long time. I am listening to it right now, actually.

Camera Obscura - Underachievers Please Try Harder. If you aren't familiar with Camera Obscura, then that is a personal failing on your part. This Scottish group makes very pretty pop music. The songs are well crafted and the primarily female vocals are great. They can be a little boring live, but they always seem to sound good.

The M's - Future Women. The M's reminded me of the Beach Boys the first time that I saw them live. I credit their white pants for that. Future Women is a very layered album that relies heavily on timing. They pull it off wonderfully. It is a good driving album, very nice rock music.

Maximo Park - A Certain Trigger. I've already briefly mentioned them and Underground discussed this album as well. His description is spot on, so I'll just stand on his work.

Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity. I really love Deerhoof, so it shouldn't be surprising that I like this album. Deerhoof makes very noisy, layered, rock songs. They aren't a single band, they are an album band. Randomly pick any of their albums and you should be satisfied, assuming you like the noise. Apple O is a great place to start.

Various Artists - The Hot Generation. This is a collection of Australian rock from the 1960's. It is billed as punk rock, but punk didn't really exist until 1977, so take it for what it's worth. It is reasonable to call this a precursor to punk rock. The songs are raw and the guitars are jangly. You, dear readers, definitely need to own this album.

the Strokes - Is This It (import). You need the import. Otherwise you don't get "New York City Cops," aka the best song on the album. You know the Strokes, right? Everybody knows them. They were super cool and then they got popular and instantly became super lame and then they released two more fairly well received albums. I don't know if they are cool or lame now, but I do know that Is This It is a catchy album that borrows liberally from old punk rock bands. They put it together pretty well.

the Headlights - Kill Them With Kindness. There is a lot to like about the Headlights. They have male-female harmonies. They use keyboards well. They combine elements of pop with shoegaze really well. The shoegaze is very subtle on the album and serves more to add depth than anything. The album is just really enjoyable to listen to. The live show is even better.

Spoon - Girls Can Tell. This is the redemption album following the embarrassment of being dropped by Elektra shortly following the release of A Series of Sneaks, aka my favorite album. If you haven't caught on that I really like Spoon, then you haven't been paying attention. Do you like the Kinks? Do you like the Clash and the Jam? You should, and you should love Spoon.

Spank Rock - YOYOYOYO. Critics love this album. I like it too. Spank Rock is rap with some electronic thrown in as a bonus. It's not the rap that I'm particularly fond of, it's the way that the noises in the background and the vocals blend to provide a really nice listening experience. Also, it is very raunchy.

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - Shake the Sheets. Ted Leo writes very political punk rock music, and he does it better than anyone else. Shake the Sheets is immensely enjoyable. His live shows can be somewhat terrifying because the crowds resemble a cult rally more than a rock show audience.


Quasi - When the Going Gets Dark. I don't actually like this album. Neither does Mrs. LaBlog. Oh well. It's just out because we haven't bothered to find a place for it on the shelf.

Peter Bjorn and John - Falling Out. How can one not like Peter Bjorn and John? If nothing else, they should be loved for their association with the Shout Out Louds. Fortunately, there is more to Peter Bjorn and John than that connection, as nice as it may be. As Underground and I have mentioned, Peter Bjorn and John write beautiful melodies over catchy pop tunes and the production value is top notch. They also put on a great live show, but don't just take my word for it,
the Austinist liked them too.

Peter Bjorn and John - Writer's Block. This has some better songs than Falling Out, but the album isn't quite as good on the whole. It's still better than most albums out there. Peter Bjorn and John may be familiar to those who watch that stupid show, Grey's Anatomy. I'm told that their music is regularly featured on that show.

Yo La Tengo - Ride teh Tiger. Yo La Tengo is the most consistently good and creative band on the planet. There is no active band that come close to the consistent quality that they put out. If you are thinking about U2 or some similar band, I will beat your ass. I own seventeen Yo La Tengo albums and I like all but the reggae ep. If you only have the greatest hits album, then you are doing yourself a disservice. Go to the record store with great haste.

Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass. This is their newest album. Go get it, it is really good. Maybe you don't like good music? If that's the case, go buy some Creed.

Silver Scooter - The Blue Law. Silver Scooter made melodic indie pop songs. Whenever I hear Death Cab for Cutie, I get angry because they got huge writing songs that are essentially Silver Scooter songs that don't go anywhere. Maybe Ben Gibbard is a big Super XX Man fan.

That's all. Feel free to comment. I'll probably find more albums around my apartment, but I'm not going to write about them. I'm tired of writing.

I can, in fact, read it

That email forward in which the letters in words are randomly displayed is on display at MaxSpeak. I found it via Matthew Yglesias. I'm sure my mom has forwarded that email to me before. I don't know if the research actually exists because I don't think I've ever met anyone who couldn't read it. Then again, only my parents have ever commented on it with me.

A hazard of the job

Jeff Corwin seems to have had his arm broken by an elephant while talking to Anderson Cooper. There's a video of it on YouTube, but I refuse to post it because it's a video of an elephant tossing a guy around by his arm. Jeff Corwin is the only animal show person whom I can watch and enjoy. It sucks when people get hurt like that.

Stone cold killer

Last night I killed one of God's creatures. I was running through my home, with Mrs. LaBlog giving chase, and stepped on something that felt like a rubber band. I picked it up as if it were a rubber band and threw it down in horror upon realizing that it was, in fact, a gecko. An innocent albino gecko. Sometimes it's hard to live with myself.

Happy Birthday Mom

Today my mother turns [redacted]. I hope that the next year is just as good as the past [redacted] years.

Also, congratulations to Luis, the maintenance man at my apartment complex, on the birth of his daughter today. She'll share a birthday with a great lady.

A piece of advice

If you're ever bored and think it might be interesting to see if you can find any high school classmates on MySpace, don't do it. It's a traumatic experience. In my case, every guy I went to high school with is either gay or a preacher. Again, resist any temptation that you may have.

Camera Obscura - Lloyd I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken

Quoi?

I'm not sure how it happened, but I was just paying bills and I had a $650 credit with a credit card company. I guess I paid twice, but that's just strange.

Lame

First I break the power adaptor for my powerbook, so that I have to use the ultra-sleek iMac, then my two remaining teams get beat in the same day. It's a damn shame. I now have no team for which to cheer in this tournament.

I have to go to Ikea today to get a new couch cover. We managed to spill tea on the green cover and we have no space in which we could allow it to dry following a wash cycle. That will either have to be professionally done or wait until we have a house. It's a shame.

It's not all bad. We had really good cantaloupe with breakfast and after couch cover shopping, we're going to Progress for either coffee or tea.

More About Music

I have seen a mere nine bands in the past week. I think I already posted about the Deerhoof and Macromantic show, so I will precede to ignore that show.

It's South-by-Southwest time, which means lots of free day shows all over town. Mrs. LaBlog got two afternoons off so that we could go see bands. On Thursday, we tried to catch the M's at Emo's, but we failed by about an hour. That failure led us to Lovejoys, where the beer was free. They also had free fried chicken, but neither the lady nor myself had any. We caught the end of the Manhattan Love Suicides, which was exciting, and the we saw Boat, a band from Seattle and Chicago. Boat was really good. Live, they sound like nine parts Pavement and one part the Unicorns. The album, which we purchased, sounds more like the Unicorns. I would recommend them to anyone who likes lo-fi jangly indie rock. We followed that up by heading back to Emo's for Clem Snide. Clem Snide as a three-piece rock outfit is really confusing. They played new songs, but if you saw the solo tour, then you've heard everything that they played. It was still good, just confusing. There were no suits or ties and only a guitar, bass, and drumset. It's hard to wrap my head around. That was all we saw on Thursday.

Friday was a day spent at Emo's. The Pipettes were the first band of the afternoon. They were very cute and entertaining. To set the stage, there was a backing band of guys wearing matching yellow sweater vests and the three ladies were wearing matching polka-dot dress-type-things. These three cute little English women began singing 60's girl-band inspired pop songs. The music was really good and the girls were entertaining with dances and the like. One of them can even sing well. She's also the cutest of the bunch. A band's sexiness and talent shouldn't be located in the same member. That's just poor planning. Mrs. LaBlog leaned over to me in the middle of their set and pointed out that the could lose the blondes and still be really good. After the Pipettes, we ate fancy grilled cheese at Go Bites. A grilled cheese sandwich with fresh basil and white trouffle oil is pretty exciting. After eating it was back inside where Beach House was playing. They were very nice to listen to. It's very mellow with a nice echo effect on the vocals. They had nice male-female harmonies. After them we listened to Fujijaa and Miyagi. I won't link to them because I really hated their music and don't want to inadvertantly sell a reader on them. We wandered around the club a bit more and decided to listen to Girl Talk. He is a one-man show. It's essentially a dj set with a lot of mixing. His stage presence was intense, but fun. The crowd loved him and for the most part his mixes sounded really good. His last song was a nice segue into the last band of the night by featuring a long clip of a Peter Bjorn and John. Speaking of, Peter Bjorn and John are really good live. The songs sound very similar to the way they do on the album, yet much more raw and energetic. Think of the contrast between Spoon live and Spoon recorded. It's the same but different. Peter Bjorn and John did a nice mix from the first two albums. The bass was a little loud and overpowering, but for the most part it was really good. They might benefit from an extra guitar or keyboard, but that would just muck up the name. Again, they were really good, at a free day show.

And last, the Shout Out Louds have announced a new album. A new song is up on their MySpace page. If you like music, you really should be listening to this band.

UPDATE: For those of you interested, here is a link to pictures of the Emo's day show on Friday.

What the hell

Since when does it rain in Austin in March? I thought we were having a drought. Stupid storms.

Good News for a LaBlog

Mrs. LaBlog has been selected to go to New York at the end of May for bookseller-type convention. This means that I will be lonely for a week, but she will be having a great experience. I'm very happy for her.

chiru

This is kind of awesome.

Strange Day

At about 9.30 in the am yesterday, I got a phone call from Mrs. LaBlog informing me that her youngest sister was in the hospital as a result of bike wreck and that the misses would be coming home from work so that we could pick her sister up. The accident was the result of high speed and leaves on a curve. Her injuries were minor, requiring a few stitches and a sling for a sore shoulder.

Last night we went to see Deerhoof at Emo's. Macromantics, an Australian female rapper, was the first opening act that we saw. She was good, although she seemed to lose a little energy as her set went on. Mrs. LaBlog posited that she wasn't prepared for the Emo's heat. It's possible. We missed most of Experimental Dental School because I was too interested in watching Kevin Durant remember how to play basketball in the second half of the Baylor game.

The Toadies - Tyler (live)

I stupidly forgot to order tickets for the Stubbs' shows next week, so this is as class as I'll get to the Toadies live. It was an awesomely aggressive show when I last saw them, eight years ago.

Yo La Tengo - Tom Courtenay

Spank Rock - Rick Rubin

So Tempting

I got a Mini Cooper credit card offer the other day. This is of course an enticing offer. I do like Mini Coopers. However, my current car obsession is either the Honda Fit Sport or the Civic Coupe. Either of those would make me very happy. The current Civic makes me happy too. Also, if I were to visit someone days after getting a new car, I would sure as hell drive the new car to show it off.

The Lives of Others

There's not much that I can say about this movie that hasn't been said by someone else. It beat out Pan's Labyrinth for the Best Foreign Language Academy Award, and deservedly so. I actually think that it should have been nominated for and won Best Picture. None of the nominated films are even close to the Lives of Others.

As an aside, I'm still shocked that Scorcese won Best Director for the Departed. If anything, he ruined that movie. He uses violent imagery as a crutch, oftentimes to the detriment of story. He never won an Oscar before because he never did the best job in a given year, with the possible exeption being Raging Bull.

Nathan Vasher hurts a Red Raider

For Mr. and Mrs. Underground.

Pavement - Carrot Rope

A Fine Replacement

After much searching, Mrs. LaBlog and I have found a more than adequate replacement for Indie Coffee, the finest coffee shop in Madison. Not to be mistaken for the finest coffee in Madison, which is, of course, Ancora Coffee. I love Ancora Coffee. Our replacement is Progress Coffee, which is located just east of I-35 on San Marcos between 5th and 6th. It is located next door to the Royal Family, which is a fine little boutique. They have some shirts, bags, watches, but mostly they have mopeds. Progress has a nice atmosphere and really nice tea and coffee. I don't drink coffee dessert beverages, so I can't make any judgement about those, only black coffee and black tea, both excellent. They also have waffles on the weekends.