Because we love you:
Trip to Omaha
Haven’t posted in a while but that’s because we’ve been busy finishing up our second EP, which is done! We’ve also been trying to make sure we have no free time throughout September by playing shows out of town practically every weekend. First up was Omaha NE last friday.
Got on the road around 9:30am everyone looking bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, except Hans, who had stayed up all night trying to fix my internets and failing. He looked like he was in a coma for most of the morning, which is common for Hans, and will repeat itself later. Here’s the best photo I could manage while driving and not killing anyone.
Not pictured Hans half conscious. Check out how close we have to sit next one another. We have so much stuff that Dan’s bass cab has to go in the back seat while he squeezes into the middle. We had a rotation going, of course. I think all of us spent at least four hours between someone else and the big black box. Wasn’t too bad though, Jay and I discovered you could put your feet up on the center console. I also realized, upon first sitting there, that if I didn’t put on the very uncomfortable seatbelt, I would fly right through the windshield in an accident. So I dealt.
Not much to tell about this part of the trip. We did pass Ronald Reagan’s birthplace the first of quite the Republican trifecta, all of which I failed to get pictures of. Other than that Illinois is a flat, flat boring-looking state, and then you get to the Mississippi river. We mostly passed the time by talking about poop.
Iowa was a bit more exciting if only because they have a lot more windmills. Like this picture poorly taken, through the tinted class of our tour bus (my dad’s suburban).
Riding through Iowa and seeing a multitude of these things made wonder what Illinois was waiting for. If anything Illinois is flatter than Iowa so it has less out there to stop the wind. I saw a ton of these in Iowa spinning at a moderate pace, while the one I saw in Illinois was working overtime. When your band has enough electronics to drain a Chevy Volt battery you need to be concerned where the juice is going to come from.
Hans perked up around time for lunch. Just in time to second my suggestion that we stop at Hardee’s for lunch.
Poor Jay, unaware of what he was getting himself into, went along with and was summarily appalled to find this advertised on the front windows.
“Where have you taken me?” was his response I believe. Fortunately there are actually regular burgers there. That is if you can see past the French Dip Burger (that’s roast beef w/aus jus on top of a burger!), and bacon ranch fries (exactly what they sound like). Hans did avoid the temptation to order the latter item, but still managed to get his second serving of bacon for the day (bacon is a main source of nutrition for Hans and I). Being the only one smart enough not to poison himself and pack some granola bars for the road, Dan settled for a drink. Other ridiculous menu items and their unconscienable caloric content can be found here.
We left still conscious and it was Jay’s turn to take over the driving.
And Hans’ turn to have the middle seat.
The drive through the wide state that is Iowa commenced. Along the way we passed the other two famous Republican birthplaces: Herbert Hoover’s and John Wayne’s. Two Presidents, Two Presidents of the Screen and Actors Guild, and one oscar winner clearly riding on a mechanical horse. We also passed the biggest truck stop in the world along the way, of which I also failed to take a picture.
The drive was so grueling Jay actually finished his entire bottle of soda, a first for him.
From there the drive dragged on, until, hours later, we found ourselves approcaching Omaha. Check out the bug massacre on my windshield. Take that PETA.
Here are some other photos of downtown Omaha, minus the dead bugs.
Once we got off the highway we immediately showed that we were not ‘around here’ by driving the wrong way down this street briefly, thankfully we survived.
Once we calmed ourselves down, we started down Cuming Ave. Remember how that’s spelled because it will be important later in our story. A quick pass of Creighton University and we found ourselves in Benson, where the Sydney is located. Apparently it used to be its own community but it, like many other areas in Omaha, was absorbed by the city. I know how much you guys wanted to know about how greater Omaha came to have it’s current shape. Anyways, here’s where we played.
Pretty cool place. They gave us free Pabst all night, which is unheard of in Chicago, one of many reasons I’m determined to make it back here in the near future. What you can’t see in this picture is that a few other cool venues are just down the street from this one. It’s like the sunset strip except instead of finding a bunch hair metal bands inside you’ll find a thriving indie music scene. We got there early, which was miraculous considering the drive was eight hours. We were just in time for free food during the bar’s happy hour, which made our day after said eight hour drive. We later met the cook, Ryan, and his buddy, Joe, both of whom proceeded to tell us about their own interesting exploits in music. Many stories were already better than I have but all I’ll retell is that at one point Ryan was in a band whose merchandise consisted of soap and shampoo with their name on it. Fucking GENIUS!
A little bit later we met the guys from Talking Mountain, who after a few brief comments went about setting up stage equipment that would rival Great White’s, without the risk of fire. Here’s what it like when they were done. 
I wasn’t sure what to expect but I was pretty excited. This is what it looked like when they got going.
Yes their lead singer is wearing a mask. The band proceeded to play songs about important things like wanting to die young and the perils of building a snow man who comes to life (he might just want to work out and not play any winter games with you). Their stage banter was also quite hysterical including such gems as, “The guy who wrote this song isn’t in the band anymore, and he doesn’t know we still play it,” and “hey guys, what we do in life echoes in eternity.” Reminded me a bit of Gil Mantera’s Party Dream, less spandex though. Sufficed to say they were awesome.
It was a hard to act to follow, but we played a pretty tight set. The crowd was very gracious. Especially one particularly drunk dude. But they were great to us.
None more so than the drunk guy. Although I’m biased because he said he wanted a private show from me. Too bad he got kicked out before I could oblige.
After that it was on to drunkenness and Fortnight, who had so many members they couldn’t fit on the stage. It made for an exciting show though. Can you tell I had too much to drink by the time they got set up and started playing?
The best part had to be when they covered “Wake Up” by the Arcade Fire. I screamed along at the top of my lungs, probably ruining everyone’s experience but mine. Leave it to those Omaha kids to be too nice to say anything though.
When the show was finally done. Jenn from Fortnight, whose Dad took the picture of us above, was nice enough to let us crash at her house. We went there and hung out for a while before we all went to bad. They probably own the cutest dog ever, which I did not have the presence of mind to photograph. Hans missed it though since he was nice enough to guard our equipment by sleeping in the van, i.e. he was too trashed to make it up the stairs.
The next morning we grabbed some breakfast and got outta town. We had a pretty uneventful ride home, continuing to tell shit stories too graphic to recount here. This is what the ride looked like for the most part.
Thanks for everything Omaha, can’t wait to come back.
-Joe
Coming soon the Milwaukee trip.
Joe’s Fave Fives
So I’m going for my favorites over the last decade. Over being the key word there. If I did my favorite records at the moment from the last decade I’d have five different ones. I tried to think of records that are not only from the last decade but were important to me in the last decade of my life personally. My tastes have changed over the decade and I probably wouldn’t be as in to these records if I didn’t discover them at a certain time and place. So while I don’t listen to these records as often as I did, they are still in rotation and will probably never leave it.
5. Ted Leo - Shake the Sheets
I discovered this in the drawer full of CDs at my college radio station during my freshman year foray into broadcast. I played the first track and then ripped the entire CD onto my laptop. That was of course the ulterior motive my friend and I had in mind when taking on a two hour radio show. I proceeded to listen to album over and over multiple times a day. I practically killed the thing for myself. I played a song from it on the radio each week (every song on the album is radio worthy) to make up for stealing from poor Ted. I later bought it along with the rest of his records with the pharmacists and have paid to see him three times so I’d say were even. 5 years later I can still listen to the album all the way through in one sitting, but the tracks I most often throw on are “Bleeding Powers” and “Walking to Do.” The latter of which gives you a slight glimmer of hope for our country and humanity in general at the album which is pretty down on both.
4. The Hives – Veni Vidi Vicious
We’ve all heard “Hate to Say I Told You So.” I heard it, oddly enough, on the radio. Yes, I was still young enough when this was released that I listened to the radio to learn about new music. I heard it on Q101 of all places too. For those of you unfamiliar with Q101 it’s Chicago’s “Alternative” station, which means it also introduced me to such winners as Korn, Papa Roach, and LImp Bizkit. Regardless, they still managed to play some good stuff, including the Hives’ aforementioned first single. It took me all of thirty seconds to decide I was buying this record. This was probably my favorite band throughout high school with maybe the exception of another artist yet to come on the list. Seeing them live has also live several times and listening to subsequent releases has convinced me that this band embodies what rock and roll is: loud, fast, and a lot fun. Never was this more true than on Veni ,Vidi, Vicious. Check out “Supply and Demand” and “Die Allright!”
3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever to Tell
So more than half the songs on three albums on this list so far are under three minutes. Brevity, after all, is the soul of wit. So judging by this blog post I am not very clever at all. Fever to Tell has it’s fair share of short, fast, punches in the stomach. Many of which come at the beginning of the album until it slows into everyone’s favorite ballad “Maps.” I heard that song way before the rest of the record (another piece of loot from the radio station’s magic bin) and I was not expecting to sound the way it did. I was a late-comer, but better late proved to be better than never because this is my go to album when I need to get my female vocal rocks off. There’s more about this in my previous post on the YYYs but sufficed to say there is only one Karen O and “Rich” and “Tick” are the proof.
2. Andrew W.K. - I Get Wet
When asked which Andrew W.K. album was my favorite by a friend, (at the time there were only 2) I said I Get Wet without hesitation. Tim replied that while he liked I Get Wet, he only listened to it to get ready to party. He said The Wolf, on the other hand, got him ready to live life. I still contend he missed an important part of I Get Wet. While it is a great record to listen to at or before a party, what Mr. Wilkes-Krier means by partying is simply living life to the fullest whether that involves booze or not. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in “Ready to Die,” which as it turns out is not really about dying at all. This album meant a lot to me in high school, when I usually never did much partying at all. Unless you count going to shows, acting silly, and having as much as fun as a nerdy awkward slacker at a Catholic High School could. Even then I probably didn’t have as much fun as I could or should have (one never can), but this record made me want to. This was my favorite record as an adolescent and one of the few I would still listen to all the way through and love.
1. Wilco – Summerteeth
You had to know I would put a Wilco album on here. Why would I pick the one that got them dropped from their label not the one that made them one the most important bands around? Well the simple answer is it’s my favorite. I can’t really tell you what appeals to me a little more than Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, although I love that record too. I like that you can see Wilco on it’s way to YHF on this record. It strikes a perfect balance between Being There and the record sure to be close to the top of all these decade lists. On a sidenote Summerteeth barely qualifies as in this decade ( it was released in March 1999, just over ten years ago if you want to nit-pick. I’m also allowing decade to mean actually ten years and not just from 2000 on, it’s my list and I’ll cry if I want to). If you passed this one up on the way to the big one go back and give it a listen. Once you hear “Shot in the Arm” you’ll never think of the phrase the same way again.
And that’s that. What can I say? I’m long-winded.
P.S. Fuck you for that no runners-up rule, Dan. I had many honorable mentions.
Top of the 2ks
I was asked to throw together at top 5 of the 2000s, and unlike most subjects, I decided to think about it for the last few days. I’m not even sure that this is anywhere close to final, but we all have to make decisions…
So here goes:
1. Radiohead – Kid A
2. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
3. Daft Punk – Discovery
4. Air – 10,000 Hz Legend
5. Radiohead – Hail to the Thief
Well, that looks good enough for me. All of these I either listen to constantly or am still trying to figure out how the hell they were made. Both signs of something worthy for a spot in the top 5.
Love,
Jayson
California Wives’ top 5 albums of this decade
We’re going to be reading a lot of lists on this topic in the next few months, so we thought we’d each give our personal top 5 lists. These may be the ones we listen to most, or the ones that influenced us most, or the ones we think are the most remarkable, we don’t know. But no runners up, because making a hard decision is fun.
Overlap is going to happen, but we agreed that dibs had to be called on #1s, and a certain Radiohead record was quick to be chosen. Enjoy, and share your own lists with us.
Dan:
1. Broken Social Scene- You Forgot It in People
2. Grizzly Bear- Veckatimest
3. Arcade Fire- Funeral
4. The Field- From Here We Go Sublime
5. Cut Copy- In Ghost Colours
I could easily listen to every one of these, front to back, over and over, and never get tired of it. I’ve tried, in fact, and they still surprise me.
The other boys will soon add their lists; Joe has suggested that his will contain Andrew WK, which will be awesome.
And then it makes sense
People -
Was struggling to find inspiration amidst the aural crowding we currently endure daily. And this came through…
http://download.waste.uk.com/Store/did.html
Thank you radiohead.
- Jayson
R.I.P. John Hughes
I’ve probably posted this before but I’m going to again. Now only two of the movies featured in the mashup are actually John Hughes’. They are the most important, however, since they are also the only two featuring Molly Ringwald.
This video tells me a few things:
1. If a band, or anything else for that matter, seems to take any cues from the eighties it’s likely to become associated with other cultural symbols of the eighties. And since the video’s creator put two Hughes’ films in there he or she must have thought they were pretty prominent. The connection is that much easier when it seems like several songs on a band’s album seem like they could be featured on a John Hughes Soundtrack, like Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix for instance. So it was only a matter of time.
2. The fact that this video is the second item that shows up on google when you search for the song tells me that the video is popular enough that there are hundreds of thousands of others who also think that John Hughes and one of the most popular albums of the year fit together nicely.
3. I don’t think this association would have been made if it those movies hadn’t seemed still relevant even 20 years later. The same cannot be said of countless other movies from the ’80’s. For all those eager to point out that plenty of other eighties trends are back in style, remember that even in middle of the nineties in which nothing was more passe than the eighties Ferris Bueller’s Day, Pretty in Pink, Sixteen Candles, and the Breakfast Club were practically required viewing for any adolescent.
4. The fact that the band said they like the amateur video better than their own must mean they’re pretty excited about being associated with these films as well. I know I would be.
All of this is a roundabout way of saying that despite the fact that John Hughes will never be held in as high esteem as Martin Scorcese, or Stanley Kubrick, he may have had just as much to do with shaping popular culture as those two.
Cool as a cucumber
Looks like Bill’s still got his swag on. Happy to see these people come home to their families.
Was messing around with pre-recorded sounds last night. One of them named “no.9.” It sounds exactly like four musicians given access to a grand piano in a concert hall. Editing now and listening to what we have.
- jayson
