SAM GUNDERSON @ LAKESIDE!!!

The above video is of the man we've just booked to play 4 of the 5 Thursday nights (the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th) in October at Lakeside Inn...sort of a special, one-time, artist-in-residency thing, you could say. The guy used to be the guitarist for Taylor Hicks'--the silver-haired American Idol dude--band and can totally bring it every time. I am super excited to get to see Sam so many times, and you should be too. Come on out, have some dranks, and watch a truly great musician do his thing. Without a cover charge, as always.

My Brother, the Hero

I've just arrived home from a day at work and am currently bathrobed and about to take a nap. My little brother Al, however, has been up to matters more consequential... just the usual, you know, like RESCUING FUCKING KITTENS IN IRAQ.




My brother rules.

Paul Shirley is an Idiot.

I may have missed the memo on this one, but since when are career journeyman pro basketball players--who have played for thirteen different teams, mind you--entitled to share their dubious opinions about music with millions of impressionable sports fans?!

Get a load of the crap that Paul Shirley just passed off as journalism in a guest piece he just wrote for ESPN.com. In it, the venerable Mr. Shirley makes his case that--drumroll, please...The Beatles are over-rated. A few of his talking points:

1. The Beatles are not better, by any measure, than The Guess Who, Fleetwood Mac, The Rolling Stones, or Creedence Clearwater Revival.
   
   
2. U2's album, "Achtung Baby" is superior to The Beatles' "Abbey Road". Which, by not too strechy an extension on my part, would seem to mean, to me at least, that "The Joshua Tree" ranks, somehow, somewhere below "Achtung Baby" as well.
   
   
3. Dean Koontz is a better writer than Bram Stoker because he's less boring.
   
   
4. The song "Eleanor Rigby", which Shirley labels as--and I quote--'primitive hackings,' is an inferior piece of music to Guns N' Roses' "November Rain" because the latter was released during the writer's lifetime and the former was not.
   
   
5. All Beatles fans born after the band's breakup are simply poseurs using the band's music (and mystique) as social currency to seem cool. [Ed. note: this is Shirley's least retarded point and I would only disagree with the "all" part.]
   
   
6. Oasis is better than the Beatles.

I mean, really...this asshole GOT PAID to write that shit. Just click the link and read the story...Shirley's retardation is on full display, courtesy of ESPN.com.

As for me, I'm off to find Ike Austin to see what he thinks about Radiohead's oeuvre. I'm sure you're all dying to know.

The Top 13 Albums Project

Any regular reader of my blog, if there is one, would know how much I like making best-of lists about the music I'm listening to. Well, dear regular reader, I just came across a website called The Top 13 Albums Project, where user-submitted lists of the top-13 albums of the 2000's will be compiled into an over-arching, democratically selected master list of the past decade of great music. There is a deadline of October 2nd, so get yours in as soon as you can. Here's what I just submitted as mine:

1. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot




2. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois




3. Calexico - Feast of Wire




4. British Sea Power - The Decline of British Sea Power




5. Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary




6. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago




7. Arcade Fire - Funeral




8. Bright Eyes - Digital Ash in a Digital Urn




9. M. Ward - Post-War




10. Radiohead - Amnesiac




11. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell




12. Girl Talk - Night Ripper




13. The Decemberists - Picaresque

The NYC PS22 Chorus - Don't Stop Believin'

I just saw a video of this amazing elementary school chorus from New York City. Their teacher...does God's work. Nothing to add; just beautiful.

New playlist...

Thanks to twitter, Greg Gillis'/Girl Talk's "Feed the Animals", and--most importantly--Evan Williams bourbon in a plastic handle, I have 14 new songs to learn...

1. Roy Orbison - You Got It
2. Temple Of The Dog - Hunger Strike
3. Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U
4. Blackstreet & Dr. Dre - No Diggity
5. Outkast - Ms. Jackson
6. Fine Young Cannibals - She Drives Me Crazy
7. Dexy's Midnight Runners - Come On, Eileen
8. Yael Naïm - New Soul
9. Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton - Islands In The Stream
10. Carpenters - Superstar
11. Big Country - In a Big Country
12. Rick Ross - Hustlin' (Remix) (Feat. Jay-Z & Young Jeezy)
13. Usher - Love In This Club
14. George Harrison - What is Life

I'd better get crackin'...

RT @myself

I'm mildly drunk, having just worked a Sunday double, and I'm tweeting the hell out of my twitter account in search of musical gold to re-invigorate my live shows and open mics. I'm growing tired of playing the same shit every week/end, and using Girl Talk to remember pop-culturally deep cuts that everyone needs to be reminded they love.

I'm just nerding out to music--one of my favorite activities. Just like sex; better with friends, but without them...it'll still do.

http://twitter.com/awwpeaches

The Rural Alberta Advantage :: Hometowns

They're Canadian, they're on Saddle Creek, and they're really good.

This album's definitely on my personal best of '09 shortlist. You can download "Don't Haunt this Place" and "Frank, AB" as free MP3s from their website. But do get the full album, it's great. They're playing the Rock & Roll Hotel on October 4th...anybody else wanna go?