Bands. Aids.

I need to stop listening to sad music. If there's one thing that makes me feel terrible, it's a song that makes me feel too much. The Weepies are that band for me as of late. Sometimes it's Wilco. Other times it's anything instrumental. Most of the time I feel a little bit like I'm not myself. Like there's a show or front I put up, and I'm sure it's strikingly obvious at times. And I don't know if it will ever go away. Is it weird to ask, will all of life be like this? There's one thing I do love, and it's when I can just exist, not think, and just be. Yet even that can be an act, because I'm forcing myself to just quit thinking. Most of the time I'd like to take a deep breath and start over.



Antarctica, The Weepies

Left behind everything I knew
All the colors but bone-white and sky-blue
Hit the continent running
Engines were humming just to break through

Antarctica, my only living relative
Antarctica, I can't wait anymore

Under ice there's a world moving slow
Carnelian stars and the bars down below
Serve only vodka and gin
I try to stay drunk so nobody knows

Antarctica, my only living relative
Antarctica, I can't wait anymore
I can't wait anymore

And then there's morning
Each one feels like the first one
Ah, morning, so clean, so pure
Nothing so clear, now that I'm here

When I get back to the city
Everything's cluttered and pretty
I won't regret my return
I'll just remember the wind and the snow
And the howling so loud
That it alone drowns out the inside of me

Antarctica, my only living relative
Antarctica, I can't wait anymore
I can't wait anymore
I can't wait anymore

Three Days of Concerts: In-A-Row

* Saturday Night: Headlights at Empty Bottle
* Sunday Night: Wilco at Chicago Theater
* Monday Night: The Dodos at Bottom Lounge

Yes, Yes, & Yes. Sign me up. I'm going.

New Music List

1. "You and I," Wilco with Feist, off of Wilco (The Album)

"You and I will not be strangers/ However we get sometimes it's like we never met/ But you and I, I think we can take it/ All the good with the bad, make something that no one else has/ You and I, You and I, Me and You/ What can we do? Well the words we use sometimes are misconstrued/ Well I wont guess, what's coming next"

2. "People Got a Lot of Nerve," Neko Case, off of Middle Cyclone

"You know they call them killer whales/ But you seem surprised/ When it pinned you down to the bottom of the tank/ Where you can't turn around/ It took half your leg and both your lungs/ And I craved I ate hearts of sharks, I know you know it/ I'm a man man man man, man man man eater/ But still you're surprised prised prised when I eat ya"

3. "Gone Are All the Days," Mirah, off of (a)spera

"And we were just a child with a myst that children make/ And we were running wild, no thoughts for what we'd break/ But gone are all the days, gone are all the days/ And once we learn to hide, our size did keep us safe/ The sidewalk cracks were wide, but to jump 'em made us brave/ But then the darkness came-a creepin' over every place/ Over time we took to sleeping, and let the weeds take over this place"

4. "Eet," Regina Spektor, off of Far

"It’s like forgetting the words to your favorite song/ You can’t believe it/ You were always singing along/ It was so easy and the words so sweet/ You can’t remember/ You try to move your feet/ It was so easy and the words so sweet/ You can’t remember, you try to feel the beat"

5. "Everblue," Mandy Moore, off of Amanda Leigh

"So you made yourself a new world/ Where even strangers make more sense/ I pay the pain up right straight ahead/ And with the beat/ You can ease yourself into the light/ Or keep that record on repeat"

dash 7 quality.

the new wilco album has me. i love it. i've been listening to it on cd in my car for the last two weeks. i haven't downloaded it onto my computer yet. i plan to. but i'm waiting. i'm waiting because i'm getting back into some old songs and albums. dash 7. so beautiful. i just like the way tweedy's voice works as another instrument along with the guitar, bass, drum, etc. mantra. quality. a.m. was one of those records that really just worked. blue eyed soul. it's all around just solid. too far apart. i thought i held you. love it.

Dash 7 in the air,
Dropped to the sun alone,
Jets hum

I wish that I was still there,
Props not a jet, alone,
Where the sun doesn't come down

Because I've found the way those engines sound,
Will make it kiss the ground,
When you touch down

Dash 7 pointed down
The captain's announcement,
Doesn't make a sound

Because I've found the way those engines sound,
Will make it kiss the ground
I found the way those engines sound,
Will make it kiss the ground,
When you touch down

Favorite Tunes as of Late

1. "Use Somebody," on Only by the Night, by Kings of Leon

2. "Save it for a Rainy Day," on Rainy Day Music, by The Jayhawks

3. "You Don't Know Me," unreleased, by Ben Folds featuring Regina Spektor

4. "At Least That's What You Said," on Kicking Television, by Wilco

5. "Tell You Something (Nana's Reprise)," on As I am, by Alicia Keys

6. "Hard Rain," on Our Ill Wills, by Shout Out Louds

Obviously, a little more Wilco: What you once were isnt what you want to be any more

Last night my roommate and I headed to West Des Moines, IA after spending the weekend with her parents in Adel, IA. We were going to the last night of the 2008 Wilco "Sky Blue Sky" concert. This song has been performed at all four of the Wilco concerts I've attended and definitely is in my top 3, if not my favorite song they play. It's on the 1999 album "Summerteeth." I was 11 years old when this album popped on to the scene. Love it.

Wilco - A Shot In The Arm Lyrics

The ashtray says
You were up all night
When you went to bed
With your darkest mind
Your pillow wept
And covered your eyes
And you finally slept
While the sun caught fire

You've changed

We fell in love
In the key of C
We walked along
Down by the sea
You followed me down
The neck to D
And fell again
Into the sea

You changed
Oh, you've changed

Maybe all I need is a shot in the arm (x 7)
Something in my veins bloodier than blood (x 4)

The ashtray says
You were up all night
When you went to bed
With your darkest mind

You changed
Oh, you've changed

What you once were isnt what you want to be any more (x 5)

Party People!

I'm in Lake Forest chillin' like ice cream fillin'.

Yesterday I bused it from Iowa City to Chicago. Greyhound, not my friend. You win some you lose some. I went to the last night of the 5-day Chicago Wilco concert. It was amazing! AMAZING!

Andrew Bird came for a little cameo. The band opened up for themselves, then played another set, then returned to the stage for an encore ending with Dreamer in My Dreams.

Seriously amazing stuff. Love it.

Wilco, Wilco, Wilco

Over the past four or so years I've become a pretty big fan of Chicago's greatest in alternative rock/country, Wilco. The four-piece band began over a decade ago in 1994, but they're still cranking out quality tunes. I find it interesting in today's fastpaced scene of band today, gone tomorrow, that certain group's were essentially made to stick around. While Wilco rose up from the proverbial ashes of distinctly alternative country, Uncle Tupelo, the new formation stuck, save the hi and goodbye of Jay Bennett in 2001.

The group's set to play a sold out 5-day show in Chicago Feb. 15-20 at The Riviera. Boy, am I bummed that I can't go to that. At the same time, though, I know they'll be around for quite some time, and I'll be seeing the March 9 in Des Moines, IA. What's perfectly amazing about Wilco though is the mere fact that their 5-day is sold out, the tickets went for $35, and are now selling on eBay for more than 5 times that price.

The show in Des Moines should be an experience.

I'm jazzed.

[This blog post appears on www.dailyiowanart.blogspot.com]




Top Five Favorite Wilco songs:

1.) Reservations, "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot"
2.) I am Trying to Break Your Heart, "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot"
3.) Someone Else's Song, "Being There"
4.) A Shot in the Arm, "Summer Teeth"
5.) One True Vine, "Blue Sky Blue" "Bonus CD)



Reservations, "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot"

How can I convince you it's me I don't like
And not be so indifferent to the look in your eyes
When I've always been distant
And I've always told lies for love

I'm bound by these choices so hard to make
I'm bound by the feeling so easy to fake
None of this is real enough to take me from you

Oh I've got reservations
About so many things
But not about you

I know this isn't what you were wanting me to say
How can I get closer and be further away
From the truth that proves it's beautiful to lie

I've got reservations
About so many things
But not about you
I've reservations
About so many things
But not about you
Not about you
Not about you
Not about you
It's not about you

done

I'm done. Finito. No more work, no more school. None.

Here's that Wilco article and radio review I promised.

Done. Yes.

Tunes and Fiction

I just finished revising my fiction piece, "Open Your Eyes." I actually like it quite a bit and will probably put the 21-page story up on this blog later.

It'll probably have to go up in short excerpts.

When I was finishing up some grammar, syntax, plot line problems, one of my roommates, Elizabeth Erwin, put on Derrick Webb's "She Must and Shall Go Free." I have some songs from the album, but not all of them. Man, it is beautiful. I really enjoyed listening to "Saint and Sinner."

Oh, and if you haven't already gotten Wilco's newest album, "Sky Blue Sky," get it. Probably one of the best album's ever and definitely tied with "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot."

I'll put up my radio story review and print piece tomorrow evening should you find yourself intrigued.