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I spent this past Saturday night back in Shippensburg, PA at my 10th high school reunion. About 35 of the about 200 people in our class showed up. There weren't many of my good friends (yeah, the nerds) from the Class of '97 there, but there were plenty of people who I was happy to see. Out of everyone who was there, other than my friend who I dragged along, I can only think of one of them who I've even talked to since we graduated. So, there was plenty to catch up on.
For the first hour or so, most people just stuck to their tables and didn't do too much mingling beyond a "Hey there," on their way to the cooler to get more drinks. After a not-too-bad buffet dinner things started to loosen up a bit and I ended up talking to most everyone I was interested in seeing again. For those keeping track, that didn't include my still-a-bitch yearbook co-editor. I found out that my track & baseball bench friend is an architect in Philly, the girl voted "Best Hair" is now a hairdresser, our soccer goalie is with a geographical survey company in Maryland, and is also one of two guys who married a girl from our class (at least from those who showed up). Many of us haven't changed much - I was able to recognize everyone except one, even without nametags. I doubt that will be the case at the 20.
Since the reunion I've looked through all of my junior high and high school yearbooks. While there's certainly things I still think were great about that time, I don't want to go back. For one, even though I had a good range of extra-curricular activities, I really was a nerd. You probably aren't as closely tied to such a large group of peers any time other than in high school and that of course has unique advantages and disadvantages. I liked that I was always around all of my good friends, but it really sucks to be dumped at lunch time and then having to make sandwiches for a band fund raiser right after school with her.
I was listening to my music library on shuffle the week before the reunion, and a song by Bush came on. Immediately, I thought that, "Damn, this is a high school song." Since I remember having similar feelings about quite a few other songs, I attempted to put together a playlist that would represent my time in high school. It ended up being two CDs long and I made copies for a couple of my friends who I saw over the Thanksgiving break. Most of these songs were released between 1994-1997, although some just have a great story behind them. I could probably write a full post about each song on this list, but instead I'll just paste the playlist here and let you comment or question any of it.
Disc 1
The Dam At Otter Creek- Live
Good - Better Than Ezra
Hold Me Now - Elastica
Numb - U2
Ready To Go - Republica
Da Da Da - Trio
Lovefool - The Cardigans
Comedown - Bush
Unbelievable - EMF
Zero - Smashing Pumpkins
Zombie - Cranberries
Liar - Rollins Band
Asshole - Dennis Leary
Gel - Collective Soul
Novocaine For The Soul - Eels
Dock Of The Bay - Pearl Jam
Mighty K.C. - For Squirrels
Peaches - Presidents of the United States of America
Queer - Garbage
Disc 2
Discotheque - U2
Bulls On Parade - Rage Against The Machine
Just (Live) - Radiohead
Naked Eye - Luscious Jackson
The Freshmen - The Verve Pipe
Say It Ain't So - Weezer
Mother - Danzig
Vasoline - Stone Temple Pilots
Sweet Dreams - Marilyn Manson
Popular - Nada Surf
Superman's Dead - Our Lady Peace
If I Only Knew - Tom Jones
Epic - Faith No More
This Is a Call - Foo Fighters
Hey Man Nice Shot - Filter
Talk Tonight - Oasis
Let Me In - R.E.M.
All Apologies - Nirvana
Jerad posted this in Music | Comments (6)
Spiritualized are one of the few, if not the only, bands who can play a 16-minute song and keep me interested the whole way through. They opened with "Cop Shoot Cop" when I saw them for the first time in 1998 opening for Radiohead. I still love listening to it, especially the version on the Royal Albert Hall live album. Now I'm onto the 10-minute "I Think I'm In Love." How appropriate.
Jerad posted this in Music | Comments (0)
Here I am at 3:00 a.m. waiting for Apple's online store to re-open. They are down now while they're putting up their Black Friday deals. Both my sister and my wife are hoping to maybe score a new Mac at an insanely great price, so I said I'd check this out for them. I know the chances aren't that great, but it's worth checking it out. They'd better let me sleep in after this.
Jerad posted this in Mac | Comments (0)
Seeing Spiritualized play is always a near-mind-blowing experience, but I wasn't really sure what to expect from last night's show at the Boston MFA. It wasn't the traditional band lineup who I'd seen a few times before; rather, it was J Spaceman on acoustic guitar, another guy playing a Rhodes piano, a string quartet, and a gospel choir quartet. I knew that many of Spiritualized's songs would likely work very well with this band, but I'd never seen Spaceman playing anything but an electric guitar. It was the Acoustic Mainlines tour, so that's the idea, but I'd just have to see.
Well, I left with my jaw dragging along the floor. The new and old songs mixed perfectly and the quartets brought a new dimension to many songs I've heard before. The crowd was into it from the very beginning, even though we were all comfortably sitting in our auditorium chairs. Before the show, someone had passed out little fliers asking us to sing "happy birthday" to J Spaceman before the first song. It didn't end up happening, although a few people did shout "Happy birthday!" to the keyboardist before J came on stage. Oops. They did have similar haircuts...
I think that anyone there would agree that the highlight of the show was the three songs that closed out the main set. From another song (I'm sure which one), the band slid right into "Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space," then did "Broken Heart" and finally "I Think I'm In Love." "Ladies and Gentlemen..." is one of my favorite songs by anyone, ever, and I'd never heard them play it at any of the previous five shows I'd seen, so it was a treat just to hear that played. I wasn't prepared for how the choir would really blast the song off into space. Judging from the crowd's incredible reaction after the song, I certainly wasn't the only one who felt that way.
J has never been one to converse with the crowd, or for that matter, really say anything between songs. At the end of the last show I saw, he said "thank you" after the last song, and I think those were the first non-song words I'd ever heard him utter. Well, last night wasn't much different, but he said "thanks" at least three or four times, and genuinely gave the band a hearty applause after both the main set and the encore. Maybe he was just having a very happy birthday. If it were mine, I couldn't have asked for a better show.
Keep an eye on Bradley's Almanac for MP3s of the whole show. I ran into him as we were leaving, and he might have been even more blown away than I was. This recording will certainly be a real treat.
Finally, a note about the opening act. Simple Kid came over from Ireland to open up for this tour and he did a good set of his hippie tongue-in-cheek songs with videos and flash animations projected on the screen behind him. I saw him open for R.E.M. in Dublin this summer, so I knew what to expect, but it was still an enjoyable half hour of music and showmanship.
Jerad posted this in Live | Comments (8)
Get your earplugs ready, My Bloody Valentine are playing together again next year. They'd better announce some US shows soon before I do something stupid like buy tickets to one of these UK shows.
Jerad posted this in Music | Comments (0)
A little while ago I was in a local department store trying to find a new belt. All that I had been able to decide after five minutes there was that I thought that reversible belts were pretty cool, but there are too many choices. As I was surely looking at the racks very intently, the guy beside me asked me if the Red Sox were at home that day and I replied that, yes, I think they were for a night game. Then he asked if I was a big fan, and if I was from around here. I told him that I am a baseball fan and a fan of the Sox, but that I wasn't originally from the area. As our conversation continued, while I was still lost amid the selection of black and brown leather strips, he found out that I'm originally from Pennsylvania, was surprised to learn that I'm therefore not a Phillies fan, and amazed that Baltimore is actually closer to where I grew up than either Philadelphia or Pittsburgh. I must've uncomfortable turned back towards the racks and when I looked back to my left he was nowhere to be found.
When I told my wife the story of the strange chatty guy in Macys' belt section, she just laughed and told me exactly what had just happened. I was being hit on and I was completely oblivious to it.
Jerad posted this in Nuttin Much | Comments (1)
Yesterday Radiohead did another one of their famous winter webcasts and called it "Thumbs Down." Unfortunately, I wasn't able to watch it live, but of course there are video clips from it popping up all over YouTube. There's also some evidence that the band might post the entire video to their website, so stay tuned for that if you missed it the first time around. Two of the best clips that I've found so far are of their first live performance of the new "Reckoner," and a cover of The Smiths' "The Headmaster Ritual." It's been a very long time since Radiohead have played any covers live (does anyone know when the last one was?) so it was pretty cool to hear their renditions of some songs by The Smiths, Joy Division/New Order (hitting all the big influences), and Bjork, along with all of their original stuff. Overall, this is probably the best webcast they've done in terms of the band playing/DJing ratio.
For you gear-spies out there, I noticed that Jonny is playing a Les Paul gold top for the first time (as far as I know). So, until they get the whole thing posted, here those clips that I mentioned.
Congratulations, Greg. This was a nice engagement celebration for the band to do for you.
Jerad posted this in Music | Comments (3)
I had to use the long form of the title, since the catchy one is already in use. No bother - I'll be staying at her place for a couple of days this week so hopefully I'll get a mention there, as well.
The flight over was quite pleasant in SAS's "Economy Extra" section. It wasn't quite business class, but the larger seats, on-demand entertainment, and big comfy blankets made the trip a bit easier than usual. I also had the privilege of sharing the plane with a bunch of clowns. Not just regular annoying, loud frequent flyers, but real clowns. I wish I would've gotten a picture. There was a cohort of clowns waiting at our gate at Dulles and we weren't sure if they were there for travel or for entertainment. They had the whole thing - bright hair, honking red noses, wide ties, floppy shoes, flamingo hats. Well, they got on the plane with us, honking their noses down the aisle and asking "Is everyone happy?!", "Why is everyone reading and talking on their cell phones?" and "Have they impeached the President yet?" (umm, okay). They ended up in the back of the plane, so I didn't see them after we boarded. I can imagine that they kept the flight attendants entertained (or annoyed).
Jerad posted this in Travel | Comments (0)
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