Mad Men Theme
Mad Men is easily in my top 5 of television shows currently in production. It’s no Lost, and I’m not sure where it stack up against Big Bang Theory or How I Met Your Mother. Definitely top five for me though…
Something has bugged the he’ll outta me since I first saw the show… I recognized the drum loop used in the theme song, and I couldn’t identify where. It bugged the hell outta me every time we saw the intro… Until a few days ago when my iTunes on shuffle hit something…
The drum loop that had been in the back of my head was right there… It’s the same as part of the song Poison from The Prodigy.
Hell, I’ve only found one minor reference to it with a very specific search. Muteboy72 on tumblr posted about it a few weeks ago (here and here).
It had really been gnawing at me for awhile, and now I’m glad I’ve got it figured out.
Since that’s now solved, I guess I can tackle that room-temperature super conductor problem. It’s that or perpetual motion.
All thumbs for my ears
I’m going to try something. It’s not mind blowing in the least. But, I’m gonna try writing a blog post on my iPhone just to see how easy or hard it is. This is a test of both the wordpress app and if it’s something I’ll even consider doing from time to time.
What shall I blog about you ask? I’m frankly not sure. Lately I’ve been doing a lot of work to rearrange our office at home. While that in itself isn’t exciting, it has given me time to catch up on a bunch of podcasts.
What’s come from these podcasts? Not much. I know Ford is throwing a bunch of money to advertise the Sync system. Got to listen to a UK podcast talk about the virtues of using css sprites to supply an entire page of seemingly unique images from a singular image.
The best things have come from some random searchings that have led to one music purchase last week, and a likely one tomorrow. Last week was the new Cinematics album that I’ve been pining for. I’m still digesting it. As their last album is probably in my top five, it’s got a lot to live up to for me. The new one I may pick up is an album by The XX. I gave it a listen a few times recently, and I’d have probably have got it tonight if I were sitting at the MacPro and not typing with my thumbs on the iPhone.
I also need to look into the new Porcupine Tree.
But I have been wondering recently as to why I’ve gotten so picky about my music and books. I used to just take in everything I could, but now I feel like I put so much thought into it.
But, I’m gonna end the post here as my hand is getting tired. Here’s to the prospect of some new music.
Top Five Complete Albums
Music has played an important role in my life. Not only does it serve to accompany my prevailing mood, but it also inspires the creative side of me. I played many instruments at different times in my life so far, but I’ve taken a step back recently to just appreciate music and let it be my ongoing soundtrack. An important distinction to realize here is that this list is very subject to change.
To make this list, I have to like as much of the album as possible over time.
1. Tool – Aenema.
2. The Police – Synchronicity.
3. Nine Inch Nails – Pretty Hate Machine.
4. Helmet – Meantime.
5. The Cinematics – A Strange Education.
Honerable Mentions: Living Colour – Time’s Up, Massive Attack – Mezzanine, Primus – Sailing the Seas of Cheese, Quicksand – Slip, Radiohead – Kid A, .
a great saturday
So last saturday was a big day. We got up and motored up to West Lafayette for a Mid-Century Home Tour before heading back to hit the NIN/JA concert back here in Indy.
But first, there’s the first image. Don’t mean to rub it into one of my more loyal readers, but it was good. It’s only something that happens every few years, but a drive-up root beer stand is such a nice piece of Americana… This is a newer one that has popped up since my time in West Lafayette at Purdue. And this would have been pretty close to where I lived. Too bad…
The Mid-Century Architecture tour was put on by two Indiana organizations centering around Historic Preservation – an issue near and dear to our hearts. That and we’ve been fostering a love for Mid-Century Modern for the past many years. It was a pretty good tour, but it’s transportation system was not well done, and photography policy should have been part of the literature leading up to it. I may or may not blog about this specific tour. I’m leaning towards not because none of the photos really came out as I hoped.
We made a few stops on the way back to Indy, and the NIN/JA show was very great that I’ll dedicate a full blog to soon. A few quick things:
- Trent is even more awesome than usual for allowing cameras
- Street Sweeper Social Club is really, really good live (the recordings I’ve heard don’t really do them justice)
- The NIN set was great, but I’m increasingly sad that he’s claiming it’s going to be the last tour
- Jane’s Addiction was a little disappointing… But not completely…
I do have a set of photos on Flickr for the images I took just that day (here’s a link to the set)… I have something like 7-8 gb of images from that day… Mostly in RAW format, so it’s not like I have thousands of images… just hundreds. At first pass, I think I have at least 20 images I’ll post over time.
Lots of Rush (the good Rush)
So The Spirit of Radio just came up on random, and it reminded me of a thought yesterday about wanting to blog about Rush – the band, not the pundit.
Why would I want to do such a thing? Is it because I used to have a co-worker with Tom Sawyer as one of his rings? No. Is it because my mom hated Rush when I was a kid? No. It’s Because they seem to be coming up a lot lately. It was brought up more than a few times in our watching of the Freaks and Geeks series… It was a major part of the move I Love You, Man… And it also came up more than a few times in the movie Fanboys.
Now I realize Freaks and Geeks was produced a long time ago, but it may happen to be the lynchpin between the other two. Freaks and Geeks starred Jason Segel and Seth Rogen, who each played large parts in the other two movies. Maybe a coincidence, maybe not.
Do I really care? No. I’m a Rush fan, but not an obsessed Rush fan. It just seems odd, bordering on annoying because I know they’re not as popular outside a few population segments.
happy to see an FU
Just glad Epic Fu is back releasing podcasts… Or else I may not have seen this awesomely produced video with questionable music…
Happy Up Here from Röyksopp on Vimeo.
The Ting Tings – 3 April, 2009
We’ve all heard the iTunes commercial [link] with The Ting Tings. I remember checking the song out then, and not being compelled to purchase anything or check further into the group. But once there was an NPR story about them, my wife started getting more into them, and then their music got into my head… In a good way.
So she checked into whether they were touring, and sure enough they had some US dates coming up. Not Indy, because we don’t get much in the way of concerts compared to many other municipalities. The Chicago show sold out quickly, but there was a show in St. Louis that was pretty affordable for a concert. So we decided to try and catch the show. Things fell in line, and we were able to go.
The venue was The Pageant, which is a very cool venue that seems somewhere in-between the sizes of The Riveria (Chicago) and Newport (Columbus, OH). The sound quality seemed to be very good…
The opening act was HotTub, which pretty much was not my favorite thing. Some good beats and use of rhythm, but it was a wannabe MIA rap act that’s more annoying then they are talented. But they have a MySpace page with 4800 friends…
The Ting Tings came on, and delivered. They only have the one album with 10 songs, and I think they played all their songs – so everyone was pretty happy to get their favorites played. There were little changes to the songs that the crowd loved that also played to the musical ability of the group. I was particularly impressed by the talent of Jules De Martino.
The disapointing part of the show was that there was either a backstage musician, or a sequencer working overtime during most of the show. I think the addition of a single, multi-talented, stage musician would have added a better sound quality. Don’t get me wrong, the performance quality was great, but it could have been a little better.
The Ting Tings are a young act, so we’ll see what they can follow this up with. If their next album is good, then I’d expect their live show to continue to be a good time.
Jane’s Addiction 1991
In honor of the upcoming NIN / Jane’s Addiction show here this summer, I decided to recall my first outdoor concert experience.
So let me set the stage… I began to veer towards alternative / rock music when I was about 14ish. It was about the time I put down the violin and picked up the electric bass. Music became one of the more important things in my life…
When I found out Jane’s Addiction was coming to town, I was dying to go as I couldn’t stop listening to Ritual De Lo Habitual. I also collected anything about the bands I loved from many guitar rags as well as the typical Rolling Stone… But no one else in my friends or family was really into them, so I resigned myself to letting it slip away.
Then I got a surprise. My brother’s wife’s company had a season pass at Deer Creek, and no one from the company wanted to go see Jane’s Addiction. So he offered to take me. As an FYI, he’s the more “hip” brother who taught me how to play bass.
Bonus, the tix were in the VIP box seats. Quite a way to have your first concert experience at the local outdoor venue…
We got there, and it’s a good size outdoor arena with a large lawn section that was closed for this concert (I’ve seen or heard of another concert with the lawn closed since). We took the seats and unenthusiastically watched the opening act, The Rollins Band. I was completely unmoved. by their performance which seemed like more noise than music.
Jane’s Addiction came on to a very enthusiastic crowd that rushed the stage very shortly into the opening song to pack the pit area up against the stage more than I’ve ever seen since. It was quite a surreal experience for me at that age. My concert experience up to then had been quite limited, and this was completely different than I imagined.
But I took it all in and relished in seeing all the songs I’d built up to epic status in my head. Three Days… Mountain Song… Stop… Been Caught Stealing… Pigs in Zen… It was an awesome show that showcased the musical talent at work with Perkins and Navarro standing out the most.
I’d end up going back to Deer Creek (which is now Verizon Wireless Music Center) later the next summer for Van Halen / Alice in Chains… Quite a different show, and not as good… But that’s for another time.
NIN tweet made me laugh
I just started following Trent Reznor on Twitter, or at least someone claiming to be Trent Reznor… But the most recent tweet made me say “oh snap”…
You know that feeling you get when somebody embarrasses themselves so badly YOU feel uncomfortable? Heard Chris Cornell’s record? Jesus.
The Feed is here [link]
A Week of Concerts in 1994
If someone were to ask me what my favorite concert experience was, I’d not hesitate to answer a week in 1994. It’s all about semantics when asking questions. I was amidst my big explosion of my musical appreciation from a musician standpoint, and this week had me going to 3 concerts that I anticipated each and every one for different reasons.
The first Concert: Nine Inch Nails / The Jim Rose Circus / Marilyn Manson
This was my second time seeing them on this tour, but the last show was not all general admission, so I was looking forward to not sitting up high to keep tabs on everyone’s t-shirts. The arena itself was an ok size (a little smaller than the venue we had seen them at before). The acoustics seemed a little harsh – but who really cares when you’re as close to the stage as we were?
Marilyn Manson was the first opening act, and they had begun to take off in-between the last time we saw them and this time. Most of the people on the floor knew many of their songs, so the crowd was definitely much more into it. The pit was pretty rough. There was some weird stuff happening on stage, but we were having fun.
The Jim Rose Circus was as entertaining as always. Pretty much the same show as in Muncie, but much closer this time.
The NIN show was very similar to the last show. But the experience of being up close completely changed it for me. I came and went from the pit depending on the intensity of the song played. It was a surreal experience being in the pit during the movie-screen portion of the set. I had to step out of the pit for a few after I got a minor case of vertigo from looking up at the large screen and moving with the pit.
The show was better than Muncie, and I left quite drained from the pit. I bought two gallons of water at a gas station on the way home that evening – one to dump on me and one to drink. It was a fitting way to end the week.
The second concert: Helmet / Quicksand / Orange 9mm
As soon as I hear that Helmet was on tour, I wanted to go. When I heard Quicksand was with them, I HAD to go. I was (am) a big fan of their (then) current albums. I went to the show with two great friends who were at the NIN concert as well.
None of us were aware of any other attached acts, but we thought there’d be one. None of us had ever heard of Orange 9mm but their tone and ferocity took us, and the crowd by storm. Minor pits started up from time to time, but nothing that didn’t fizzle out due to the crowd not being completely developed. It was still more than good enough for two of us to pick up their CD immediately after their set.
Quicksand came on, and you could tell that there was a decent amount of crowd anticipation. I was so looking forward to seeing them, but their set was only so-so. Partially because they didn’t quite pull off the meticulous nature of their recorded music, and partially because there was a decent portion of the crown not really into them.
By the end of their set, we had worked our way up to about 2-3 people behind the barrier just barely left of center. We set up camp there until Helmet came on.
The crowd was very much anticipating their arrival, and when the first song hit its stride, the crowd up front just exploded. Jumping and moving with their trademark stop-start style that gave a rhythm to the crowd. The pit intensity picked up with the harder, more driven parts of the songs.
It was one of the better performances I’ve been up close at a general admission venue to experience. I would have waited around after the show to try and meet any of the guys, but the next day I had that pesky thing called school and another concert to go to at the very same venue.
The third concert: Fishbone / Weapon of Choice
The previous summer was my first Lollapaloza experience. Right in the midst of the lineup was Fishbone, which I was already a fan of because of the wonderful album The Reality of My Surroundings. It was a great experience, and I jumped at the chance to go see them in a smaller, more intimate venue.
My two friends from the Helmet/Quicksand concert were going as well. What can I say, We had a lot of overlap in our musical preferences. My then girlfriend came along too… She was on the brink of being very ill with the flu, but she really wanted to goregardless. We got there early enough to be up against the stage.
We were all very impressed with the showmanship of the opening act, Weapon of Choice. They were a perfect fit to open for a band like Fishbone, but their studio albums weren’t good enough for me to follow up on it. It still ramped up the audience pretty well. It was getting crowded up front, and my girlfriend was beginning to run a higher fever.
Fishbone coming out was a lot of fun. For those of you who don’t know, it’s a larger band with a horn section and all. They have quite the selection of stage attire, and stage persona that make the concert experience very fun.
I specifically remember hearing many of the more popular songs from The Reality of My Surroundings. Notably “Fight the Youth”, “Everyday Sunshine”, and I think I remember hearing my personal favorite “So Many Millions”.
The concert was going well, but my girlfriend was feeling more and more dazed. Not only was she sick, but she’d never been to a concert with a mosh pit in a small venue. I ended up standing behind her with my arms locked on each side to keep her from getting swept away or pressed against the barrier.
The concert was probably between 1/2 and 2/3 of the way done when everything ground to a halt. The drummer (Philip “Fish” Fisher) stopped and made everyone else on stage stop the song. He began talking into his mike with the intention of getting the crowd riled up. He basically called out my girlfriend (even pointing directly at her with a drumstick) for looking dazed and not as into the concert as he’d like her to be. We were shocked, horrified, and appalled (myself more so because she was a bit out of it from the fever). We immediately extracted ourselves from the crowd and left.
I’ve listened to their music some since, but I’ll never support the band again after such a display of calling out a fan in the middle of a set for the complete wrong reasons.
It was a downer to end the week on, but not enough to diminish was was what I look back on as “the week of concerts”.
