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No, not the Black Sabbath one, the baseball one. I got the great news today of Salem State College's 2007 speaker series. Kicking things off for this year is Cal Ripken on April 4th. Since Maura had a subscription last year, we were able to jump right on the tickets today to ensure that I'd get to see my boyhood idol. It sounds cheesy to say it, but he was. When I was in jr. high, baseball and baseball cards were to me what music and records are now. One of my high school highlights was going to his record-breaking 2131st consecutive game. Even then, I realized that no matter what other sporting events I might go to in my lifetime, this would be the best I'd ever have. I just recently heard that my thoughts aren't too grandiose - that game was voted to be baseball's most memorable moment. Ever. And I was there. Now if it could've just been me catching Cal's home run ball that game and not the guy with the broken arm 10 rows in front of me.
Jerad posted this in Baseball | Comments (0)
I'm finally ready to give ezarchive another try. It look like I'll be able to share full-quality MP3s both for download and to play in an embedded flash player. I'm glad that I gave it another shot today before taking advantage of apple.com's Black Friday sale on .Mac. I had a subscription to that last year but I definitely didn't use it as much as I could've.
So, the songs that I've wanted to share with you come from a radio session at WKPS that I did my sophomore year at Penn State on 11/21/98. Unbelievable Truth were coming through town opening for Tori Amos at the big campus arena. Somehow we got in touch with the band and were able to get them in the studio the afternoon before the show. Another DJ and I spent an hour or so on the air with them while they talked with us and played a few songs. Any recordings of the interview that may have existed are long lost, but for the past 8 years I've carried around a minidisc with the recordings of the 4 songs that they played. I finally got a hold of a new minidisc player that let me easily transfer the songs onto my computer, so here they are.
For those of you who don't know, Unbelievable Truth was made up of three musicians - Andy Yorke, Jason Moulster, and Nigel Powell. Andy's familiar last name brought the band much of their attention, and in the end may have been the cause of much of the pressure that ended Unbelievable Truth. They tried their best to distance themselves from that; before the interview their manager made sure that we understood that the band would walk out if we mentioned the "R" word. No problem, I remember that we had a pretty good conversation even though I was probably one of the more bumbling interviewers they've encountered. We discussed Andy living in Russia, watching U2's Zoo TV video on the bus, crazy guitar lines that only Graham Coxon can play, and touring with Tori. At the end of it, we were given a couple of tickets to that night's show. Of course, the arena show couldn't compete with watching them play in a cramped radio studio just on the other side of the glass from me. So, here's what they played for us. I believe that two of these songs are on their then-current album, Almost Here (buy here), one is a b-side, and the other wouldn't show up on record until their next album.
1. Settle Down
2. Who's To Know
3. Stone
4. Landslide
And if this has piqued your interest in these guys, Andy has started to work on some new recordings and some European gigs. It looks like Jason and Nigel are joining him, at least in the studio, but at this point it hasn't been called a new Unbelievable Truth record.
note: You should be able to listen to these in an embedded flash player when you click on the links, or you can save them to your disk by right-clicking. Enjoy.
Of course, if anyone objects to these songs being made available, just let me know.
Jerad posted this in Live | Comments (6)
Ethan over at blackrimglasses has written up something about his song memories, and has inspired me to do the same. This is something that I've thought of a lot, as I'm sure that many people have. Some songs immediately bring up very specific thoughts of times, places, and people. Here's my list.
R.E.M. - Drive - Listening to this on repeat one night in 1993 and realizing that no other band mattered.
Radiohead - Karma Police - My dorm room freshman year at Penn State.
My Bloody Valentine - Only Shallow - Cleaning out my dorm room at the end of sophomore year and getting ready to move off campus.
Kula Shaker - Tattva - Hearing this for the 2nd time in 3 days on the radio and realizing that my e-mail friend Jess might be onto something with these British bands.
James - Sometimes - Two weeks over the summer in 1996 spent at nerd camp at Penn State, staying up late and making some great friends.
Richard Hawley - Oh My Love - Realizing that she really was the one.
Bon Jovi - Always - Homecoming dance, 1994, when I first danced with a girl.
R.E.M. - What's the Frequency, Kenneth? - Counting down the time until MTV promised they were going to debut the new R.E.M. video (really, they did), and staying up late at night to record it off of the radio.
U2 - Discotheque - Watching MTV as they repeated this new awesome video when we were sent home early because of a blizzard and my best friend was completely ignoring me.
Sigur Ros - Svefn-G-Englar - My five months in Leeds in 2000.
David Bowie - Moonage Daydream - Playing pool and throwing darts in Greg's parents' basement over some Christmas break.
The Clash - London Calling - A lecture hall filled with half-interested students in my History of Popular Music class, when the professor said that this was probably the best single of the past 20 years. I went home, found the song, and realize that this punk stuff might not be so bad.
Otis Redding - Dock of the Bay - Band camp.
Badly Drawn Boy - Once Around the Block - Sitting in the DJ chair at WKPS senior year, 2001.
Pearl Jam/Neil Young - Rockin' in the Free World - My Latin class trip to Italy, 1994.
R.E.M. - I Remember California - Walking through the snow delivering newspapers in my neighborhood.
Lou Bega - Mambo #5 - Our apartment in State College, senior year.
Billy Joel - My Life - Being on the Outer Banks, NC with my family many summers.
Nirvana - About a Girl - Getting my first guitar and learning to play.
The Beatles - Good Morning, Good Morning - Working in Subway in high school.
R.E.M. - How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us - Road games with the Shippensburg high school soccer team in 1996.
In the comments, let me know of any songs you might have on your list.
Jerad posted this in Music | Comments (3)
It's a good day when you look into a vending machine, see a bag of chips just barely stuck under the row above it after the previous customer gave up or ran out of quarters, and end up getting two bags for the price of one. They were just Sun Chips, though, so it's not like a free Doritos kind of day. That would be awesome.
Jerad posted this in Nuttin Much | Comments (0)
Like I said, there's nothing happening here today. Shouldn't you be out voting instead?
Jerad posted this in Nuttin Much | Comments (0)
I've had big plans to post some new never-before-heard recordings by some famous singer's brother's band, but it looks like it might be a little while until they show up. Just a couple of weeks ago I settled on using EZArchive to share my music with you, loyal readers. In the meantime, they've "upgraded" to version 3.0 and now it looks like I can store whatever music I want on their new site, but when I link you to the files you'll only get to hear a 32 kbps MP3. For those of you who don't know, that'll sound like shit. So, I have to find another place to share my music. I'm thinking about signing up for .Mac again, but that's $99/year. If anyone has any other suggestions, leave 'em in the comments.
In the meantime, linesthroughlines and Kwaya Na Kisser have their own EZArchive rants for you to read.
Jerad posted this in Music | Comments (0)
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