No One Said It Would Be Easy

I got to see Cloud Cult put on a beautiful show last night! The movie about them, No One Said It Would Be Easy, is amazing, too.

-Ryan

Enjoy Your Rabbit

photo from yocheckthisjam.com

I am a total sucker for a good lyric. Frightened Rabbit got me today:

"I am armed with a past and a will and a brick...I am armed to the teeth and I'm heavyset."

Of course, you have to hear it.

-Ryan

The Brass Ring

photo by Brooklyn Vegan

photo from WHYY

Holy crap! I heard Screaming Females on NPR. In the nerdiverse I consider myself to inhabit, I'm pretty sure that means they have offically "made it." Congratulations all the way to the Females!

-Ryan

Hunchback And The Ergs Reunite For A Benefit Show

The mighty Hunchback and The Ergs back together at Asbury Lanes for one night only to raise money to help the Nixon family with Jackie Nixon's battle with cancer! Tickets go on sale Monday, 25 Oct; show is Sunday, 5 Dec.

Amost 500 people have already RSVPed on Facebook. I will see you there. (Edit: or maybe not? Tickets sold out before I could get one! Maybe they'll add another show?) (Edit: They did; I went; it rocked!)

-Ryan

This Saw Can Sing

photo by Anthony Battiato

John Valencia, who played in Glad Hearts for a long time, could play a mean singing saw (among a lot of other things). In 2009 he even played in the world's largest singing saw ensemble. Today, I came across a video of it. (John's in green in the back).

Here's John playing the saw on "The Tired Doctor."

-Ryan

A Question:

"Who wouldn't be a wicked clown for $1o million a year?"

Our Band Could Be

Back when I had no bandmates, no idea how to record music on my own, and no idea if I could actually write a song anyone would want to hear, I kept this book next to my bed permanently.

No matter how exhasted I was after coming home to a house with no heat after 10-14 hours of working my day job, I would be sure to practice for at least one song and read at least a few lines from this book every night. Sort of like how I imagine pioneer famlies saying their prayers and reading from the Bible every night before bed.

The first few chapters of Michael Azerrad's biography of Nirvana was one of the first things that made me want to be in a band, and Your Life kept me on the path when things got rough. So: thanks, Michael Azerrad.

Some of what Phil Freeman says about this book may be true, but I still love it. Any criticism of the book is best answered in the introduction when Azerrad says something like, "There are plenty more books to be written about this subject; I invite you to write one of them." I look forward to reading all the books and hearing all the music inspired by this book.

Cheers,
Ryan

Jake Swearingen, You Did It Again

Another hilarious journal. Three-way tie for my favorite line in this, but the contenders are:

"Anything worth stealing has already been stolen by people braver than me."

and

"If you had told me four months ago I'd be overjoyed to be sleeping with a bunch of armed rednecks that I'm like ninety percent sure are soaring on meth, I would have laughed and laughed. Life, it comes at you strange sometimes, you know?"

and

"And here's how everything can change."

-R

Are You There, God?

This is my favorite zombie story since Romero's Dawn of the Dead.

-Ryan

Baby Clothes

Some of my friends are having babies, so Alex and I made some clothes for those babies.

If you are a baby and you would like some clothes like this, send me your size (Watermelon, Breadbox, or Medium-Sized Dog) and the name of your favorite cocktail/late 80s experimental guitar band, and I'll see what I can do.

xoxo,

Ryan