Category: music

Sunday nights at 8pm Central we almost always stream Subculture_Postpunk on Twitch. The guy plays records. You just see his two turntables and maybe an album cover and the growing playlist, and it is just so good. Like tonight, listening to this music, here in our little house, with my wife who loves it all as much as I do, with our little sheltie sitting with her and on the other side our cat, I just want to weep with happiness. The music makes me feel so good. It helps drive away the impending sense of doom that the approach of another work week always brings (I’m exaggerating, but really, I hate when my weekend is over).

Well, we saw Rush. Twice.

When I found out that Geddy Lee had laryngitis and bronchitis on the date of our original show I was not optimistic that we’d be seeing them play on the rescheduled date of July 11. Ten days didn’t seem like enough time to heal. When asked, I told people “I’m cautiously unoptimistic.”

Well, I was wrong.

Due to the cancellations there were seats available, so we got seats for July 13 as well.

Both shows were great. Apparently being a millionaire rock star has advantages, among which is access to great doctors who will “use the nuclear option” on laryngitis and bronchitis. Geddy sounded great. The whole band was incredible.

The first night we were pretty far back in seats from which we could see the whole production. Fantastic! The next night we were about 4 rows up, stage right, about 50 feet from Alex Lifeson, with a great view of Anika on drums and we could really see the band interacting with each other.

A week later we are still talking about it. We are still in such a great mood.

We’re going to see Rush tomorrow night in Fort Worth.

Then we’re going back to see them again on Thursday night.

Yesterday we began a deep drive into the Rush catalog. Listened, in order, to all the albums up to and including Moving Pictures.

The Big Stereo is active.

Last Friday we went down to the Sons of Hermann Hall in Deep Ellum to see this band, Horsegirl.

The venue is cool. Read about it with the link. It’s on the very outskirts of Deep Ellum, so you can get in and out without having to deal with too many of the idiots, scumbags, or idiot-scumbags down there. I like that. I love going to see music, but honestly when you go to “entertainment districts” you always see, and sadly sometimes encounter, some fucking dirtbags. I’m just way too old and grumpy to deal with what bullshit very well.

So before I rain praise down upon the main act, I have to say that the Unnamed Opening Act was, in short, dreadful. I mean, really really really really really really bad. I lay most of the blame on the singer. Generally when young people are out doing their thing, performing on stage, chasing their dream, or whatever, I usually support that. I think it’s good. Go for it, I say. Fuck the Man. Fuck your parents who told you not to do it — to go look at a computer screen all day while you contemplate suicide. But occasionally you encounter a young person whose parents told him he was a super special do-no-wrong angel one too many times, and that may have been the case here. My wife said she didn’t like his sorta “menacing” stage persona. As usual, she got it right.

And now to the praise…

Horsegirl was awesome. They were recommended to us by a friend in Virgina who saw them a while back. Three young woman playing some really good stuff – guitar/bass/drums, with a little keyboard here and there. A bit of Sonic Youth, a bit Silversun Pickups, and maybe some others we haven’t quite figured out yet. Really great. It was super good, and very much the sonic antidote to the ear-poisoning we’d gotten from the openers. We went from a 100% bullshit act to a 100% ZERO BULLSHIT BAND.

My wife (you can say that like Borat if you want to, and if you are too young — or old — to know who Borat is then probably stop reading my blog) picked up one of their LPs. We listened to it the next morning. Excellent. Sounded great on the Big Stereo, and she ordered another from them.

It’s Monday night. No TV. Just me, the dog, the cat, chilling, listening to the Wedding Present’s Bizarro. A good way to bring Monday to a close.

A few weeks ago we went to Dead Wax, a record store in downtown Garland. Great store. Very crafted to appeal to people JUST LIKE ME, which is why it is great. We bought a few albums. While we were there they were playing Celebrate Yourself! The Sonic Cathedral Story 2004–2024 (a boxed CD set) in the store. It was really good, but they didn’t have it for sale, so like the good American (consumer) that I am, I ordered it from Amazon.

Been listening to it one disc at a time for a couple of weeks now. It is quite to my liking.

Well, Ozzy is dead.

No one will ask “Which Ozzy?” There’s only one Ozzy that matters, and we all know who he was.

I’ll say right off the bat — I don’t own any of his music at this exact point in time as I write this. There’s a good chance that by tomorrow I will own everything, as my wife may very well rectify the situation. She is a music listener and buyer, so this possible course of events would not surprise me.

I’m pretty sure my intro to Ozzy, via Black Sabbath,  was on KZEW or Q102, local album rock stations here in Dallas during my teen years. I’d guess I probably heard Paranoid or Iron Man first. Can’t imagine it being otherwise.

I think, upon reflecting on it right now this very instant, that Paranoid is one of the best rock songs ever written. Just so good.

That is all.

Rock on.

I can imaging myself going down the audiophile rabbit hole very easily. I have thus far refrained, but a few weeks ago I ordered a new Ortofon 2M Red cartridge for our turntable. To simply installation I got the one that is pre-mounted.

Installation re-balancing the tone arm were both easy.

Sitting here right now listening to XTC’s Skylarking. Honestly, this album sounds amazing anyway. It is one of the best produced albums we have, but the new cartridge really does it justice. It sounds fantastic.

I’m really glad I made this purchase. Records, CDs, and this stereo are my only real indulgence besides coffee.

This album came out in 1982, early in my senior year of high school.

It will always sound like the future to me. I listen to it at least once a month after rediscovering how much I love it a couple of years.

We found out about this great new record store in downtown Garland, Dead Wax.

Fantastic selection of LPs and CDs if you like punk, post punk, rock, new wave, etc. I picked up two XTC albums and this killer BBC sessions  The Jam record.

Friday night. We’re spending it listening to music.

A lot of good bands come through Dallas. That is one of the things I love about living here.

Last night one of our favorite bands, The Wedding Present, played the small Deep Ellum Arts Co. with opening band the Tubs.

I’ll be honest. I had a long day before the show. I’d gotten up early and we took the dog for a long walk in the humid and sweltering nature preserve, then I was outside in that same miserably humid and hot weather (luckily it was at least cloudy) for a 5-hour library outreach event at a neighborhood block party. In short, I was depleted and tired.

I give this background because I didn’t really want there to be an opening band. I wanted to just go enjoy the Wedding Present starting at 8pm and be at home in bed and asleep at 10:30. I was…tired as shit.

Turns out the opening band, the Tubs, was great! Loved ’em! Gonna order their music!

Here they are…

OK, on to the Wedding Present.

We saw them here in Dallas back in 2018, so it has been a while. They are absolutely one of our top 10 bands, and probably top 5.

Nothing makes me happier than going to see great bands with my wife, especially if the band is one of her favorites. I love sharing that with her. I absolutely can’t imagine spending my life with someone I don’t share that with. So there we were with all the other old post-punk/indie-rock gray heads to see this incredible band that so few people know about. This morning at breakfast we were wondering why the Wedding Present never really “broke” in the U.S. when so many shitty bands did. Even in circles that really know indie rock music a lot of people are clueless. It’s – just – fucking – weird. Did they just not make good business decisions? Are Americans just THAT stupid? (there is strong evidence to support this).

At any rate, the ignorance of the masses was the gain of the enlightened few last night, when The Wedding Present played at the Deep Ellum Art Co, a small venue set off from the main douchebag wankery of the majority of Deep Ellum by a couple of blocks. I suppose it might hold 200 people max, and it was not maxed out last night. This is simultaneously a shame because the band deserves more turnout whilst being a boon to us, as we were able to stand about 6 feet for the stage as if we were seeing the band at a small club in Leeds when the band formed, the way the Gods of Rock intended.

The band launched into their show, in which they played their entire Bizarro album and delivered a tight and blistering show. Other than the singer and songwriter David Gedge the lineup of the band has changed a lot over the years. The current lineup is impressive. At 65 years of age, Gedge shows no signs of slowing down. It really says something about a musician and a band to be touring in place where perhaps only their devoted fans will show up, not making a lot of money, and still absolutely killing it. When we walked in, Gedge himself was staffing the merch table. We spent a lot of money and got some really good stuff.

I’ll close with this. Go see your favorite bands live.