i am SO over (itunes exclusive)s

i get that record labels (hint hint...ATO) want to gain new fans for their bands (well, i guess they do. they don't seem too into promoting gomez but whatever) but releasing itunes exclusives is bullshit. the apparent purpose of these exclusive songs is to entice people to buy the whole album on itunes rather than just a few songs. meanwhile, the dedicated fans who pre-order the album and pay for shipping are screwed. 

with ben kweller's latest release, i probably paid around $15 when it was all said and done and that album was released on itunes for $7.99 with an exclusive song AND video. now the new gomez album is out and there's an exclusive song on it too. apparently in the uk you can buy just that one song but not here. A LOT of people that pre-ordered the new album are left wanting to buy the whole thing on itunes again just for that ONE song. one song. 

to me, it just feels like a big fuck you to the people who buy every album, the t-shirts, the onesies, and spend their tax returns to travel across the country to see the band live. 

and i don't really want to get started on what best buy is selling that the music today shop wasn't. it's the new gomez album with a live dvd from the vic in chicago back in 2007. once again, anyone who pre-ordered the album does not get this dvd. lame. the management and label will try to argue that by pre-ordering you get a signed booklet but, really, who gives a shit? i have signed booklets and posters and they're in boxes in my closet. but a live dvd? i would like to have that. 

upcoming shows

if you have the exact same taste in music as i do, you should be interested in all these great shows coming up in the next few months!

april 7-blind pilot@mohawk

april 20-david sedaris@riverbend centre

april 21-sold out! spoon@scoot inn

april 22-guster@stubb's

april 28-mates of state@la zona rosa

may 11-elvis perkins in dearland@the parish

june 3-passion pit@emo's

june 5-sold out! animal collective@stubb's

june 16-grizzly bear@the parish

june 22-jenny lewis@stubb's

june 27-ben kweller@emo's

yeah, i think april 20-28 might kill me. haha! i'm also considering peaches on june 11 but i don't know yet. i think i'm already over-committing. 

top five 3/22-28

this is something new i'm going to try to post every sunday. it's the top 5 artists and songs i've listened to this week, thanks to last.fm. 

artists:

buddy (66)

blind pilot (43)

gomez (41)

holly conlan (39)

the cure  (12)

songs:

gomez-win park slope (7)

gomez-bone tired (6)

holly conlan-you are goodbye (5)

holly conlan-happy song (5)

gomez-lost track (5)

sxsw polaroids

here are a few pictures that i ran through poladroid today: 

sxswoo?

so after weeks of planning and organzing and rsvping, my sxsw was a little lackluster. i don't know if i mentioned this but my parasite isn't dead. it was only sleeping. this became apparent to me a few days before sxsw started. i tried to persevere but ultimately i knew that i really needed to take it easy most of the time so i could make it to the things that were really important to me (buddy and gomez). this is long but, trust me, you want to read it :) and i'm including one picture from each day. pictures are fun, right? 

monday

i woke up around 4:00am and could NOT go back to sleep. finally, around 5:00 i got out of bed and got dressed. i think we arrived at waterloo around 6:40 to get in line for the ifc crossroads ticket drop. yes, we waited in line for 3.5 hours for free tickets to see gomez and the decemberists. and i would do it again. i got to spend the morning with my friends, drinking mimosas on the sidewalk outside of waterloo. it was actually rather pleasant. 

that was also my birthday. i had dinner at vivo with 20 or so friends and it was great! i felt very special that so many people came out to celebrate my birthday. and i scored some fabulous gifts as well!

tuesday

i had to work until 6:30 and, let me tell you, it was the longest day of my life! right after work i showered and headed to dana's. i think we got to pangea around 8:30 but i can't be certain. doors were supposed to open at 10:00 but i don't think they opened until closer to 10:30. you see, the tickets we waited in line forever for said, "first come, first served" so we wanted to make sure we would get in. while waiting in line i got to see meghan!! she had flown in earlier that afternoon but we hadn't seen each other yet. reunited and it felt so good!

anyway, we finally got inside and headed straight for the open bar. btw, "open bar" to ifc means wells and domestic bottled beer. whatevs, it was free. we squeezed up front on the "tom side" and i was finally reminded why i love gomez so much. i guess after you don't see a band live for almost 2 years, it's hard to remember what it is that you see in them. but now i remember. they played a nice mix of old and new stuff and i really enjoyed myself! 

to be honest, the decemberists set is a little hazy for me. oh well, you can't win them all. and i don't really have a good picture from this day. they're all scary. 

wednesday

we headed out to pick up our wristbands in the early afternoon. we stopped by rusty's spur and the radio room before deciding that we needed heavy metal pizza. after that it seemed like a good time to try to pick up our wristbands to the fader fort. we got sidetracked by "free margaritas" at a hair salon on 6th. fyi, they weren't margaritas but margarita flavored wine coolers. but they were still free. while i was "enjoying" my "margarita" my wristband snapped! i decided to deal with it later. once we got to the fort and saw the 45 minute line, i decided to skip it and go see blind pilot at the emo's annex. yay yay yay! i had hoped to see them a couple more times during the week but that didn't work out. but i still have april 7 to look forward to!

after blind pilot i made jason go with me to get my wristband replaced. then we met megz, bombus and lisa at guero's. and when asked what she would like to drink meghan exclaimed, "queso! oh but not to drink!" when we dropped meghan back off at her hotel i realized that my second wristband was starting to crack. ughhh. 

i showered and got all ready to go out that night and then decided that i just couldn't do it. instead, i headed home to pick up posters from ato for gomez. 

thursday

i went to get my third and final wristband. you all know the story about that so...moving on. josh and i hung gomez posters all over downtown. and it was hot hot hot. good lord! i wanted to hit the paste party that day but the line was crazy long and i was already starting to feel pretty icky. i napped/relaxed all afternoon. after i got myself together i headed down to meet meghan, jason, buddy and will for a drink at shakespeare's. after that, some of us went to see holly conlan at the parish. love love loved it! she's a member of the buddy band but she also has some really fantastic solo stuff. you guys should all check her out. i think she's so much more talented than most of the female artists you hear on the radio these days. her songwriting is superb! 

after a quick stop at side bar i headed to stubb's for...gomez! i kept changing my mind about going to that show for a couple of reasons. 1)i thought it would be too crowded to get into because andrew bird and ben harper played after gomez and 2)no one else was going and i wasn't sure i wanted to go alone. but i am really, really glad i went! since i was alone it was pretty easy to squeeze down near the front. although, i guess i picked the wrong spot in the crowd because i was the only person dancing down there. boo! tom made a comment about everyone having gum on the bottoms of their shoes and maybe that's why they weren't dancing. later, i would discover that i actually did have gum on one of my shoes. haha! 

we made a quick stop at the parish and saw meiko and one of greg laswell's songs (the song that i love!). then heavy metal pizza. again. don't judge me. jason and i stopped by the "backstage" area at the emo's annex to bug meghan then went to side bar. it was crowded and i was tired so i decided to call it a night.

friday

woke up and piddled around until it was time to hike to la zona rosa. it took me about 30 minutes to walk there from casey and paul's house. oy. sarah and sarah were in town for the day and we all met up with amber, robin, and greg for the village voice party. vip for that party included "complimentary cocktails" which i figured would either be a couple of drink tickets or wells like the ifc party. i walked up to the vip bar and asked the bartender what the complimentary cocktails included and he said, "if you see it behind me, it's included." yikes. they also had free fajitas, chips and queso, beans, rice...all kinds of stuff! it was fanastic. 

the gomez set was short but i had a great time singing and dancing with meghan. we stayed through m. ward's set but i wasn't really paying much attention to it. sorry! at one point josh decided to leave and jason left me to go look for meghan. so i was left alone sitting on a couch in the back bar of la zona rosa. in retaliation to being left alone, i threw jason's silly putty under a couch. haha like a 3 year old! we finally left la zona rosa and hiked (and i mean HIKED) to east cesar chavez. good lord, that was far. i definitely had blisters on my feet by the time i got back to the house. 

after having such an eventful afternoon, i decided to lay low that night. josh and i went to amber's to hang out with everyone for a couple of hours. we left super early, like, 10:30 though. i was just so worn out! 

saturday

buddy played at some mtvu party at the compound. it was pretty hot in the sun and the sound there was kind of awful. but, of course, i enjoyed myself immensely. a couple of days ago i read on the compound's myspace that they have, "the best stage and sound in town." uhhh, no. just no. that's absolutely 100% incorrect. i would dare to say that they have the worst sound of any venue i've been to in austin. it was terrible. everything was way too loud and there was wayyyy too much bass. i can't possibly imagine why they would think they have good sound. 

i think we all know what happened to me after i left the compound so...

i had been confirmed plus one guest for the perez hilton party. my initial reaction was not to go but then i thought maybe i would go early (it started at 7), score the free shit, then leave. well after the ordeal with my car, it was already 6:45 and i hadn't showered so i knew i wasn't going to make it. it took me an extra long time to get motivated that evening but i finally got ready and went to get some heavy metal pizza. there, that's it. it was my last slice for who knows how long. i went to mohawk for a couple of hours for the mae shi and some other shit, then booked it over to the ale house (aka the shit alley) for buddy. the entrance is in the alley between 6th and 7th and trinity and san jacinto. barfy dumpsters galore! and the doors were open so the inside of the place smelled like shit too. but buddy was fab-fab-fabulous! i still don't understand why more people aren't in love with that band. aside from being tremendously talented, they are some of the kindest, sweetest people ever. what's not to love?? 

i had to work sunday morning so i was trying to make it an early night. i think i finally left the alley around 1:00 after buddy tried to convince me to call in sick the next day. 

so i barely survived another sxsw. i'm not too disappointed that i didn't get to do everything i wanted because i got to see all the stuff that REALLY mattered to me. and i got to spend a lot of time some great friends. but next year, i'm not going to have a parasite! 

nothing like a good ol' hit and run

just like last year, i spent most of the week at paul and casey's house because they pretty much live right in the middle of all the action. last year hobbs got a ticket because her wheels weren't pointed towards the curb. i made extra sure that wouldn't happen to me this year! instead...i got hit.

jason and i had literally just walked out of the compound (where we had been watching buddy) when casey called to say that it looked like someone hit my car. my stomach was flipping and flopping the whole walk back to the house. 

i would have died if jason and casey hadn't been there. they cleaned A LOT of the glass out of the car. they're my heroes! 

my insurance deductible for uninsured motorists is $250. boo. i'm taking it in to get looked at tomorrow. who knows how long before they can actually fix it though. i might need a new door, but probably not. i just can't wait until all the glass is cleaned out of the car. i made the mistake of driving in flip flops last night and i won't be doing that again. eek. 

i can't believe this asshole didn't leave a note or anything. that's $1400 worth of damage! i also can't believe that there were no witnesses. people are constantly walking up and down casey's street during sxsw, there's no way that NO ONE saw this. but i guess no one cared :( 

sxsw: your wristbands can s my d

before i get to the details of sxsw 2009, i have to vent about the shitty, awful, terrible, moronic wristbands they had for the festival this year.

i picked up my wristband in the early afternoon on wednesday, the first day of sxsw. an hour later, while drinking some sort of margarita wine cooler (hey, they told us they were free margaritas) my wristband snapped. it was still attached to my wrist but the plastic had snapped. wtf? i went to get it replaced a couple of hours later. the lady put the second one on a little looser because she thought that was the problem. 

after i got my second wristband i went to eat at guero's. shortly after leaving the restaurant i realized that my wristband was cracking again. not long after, it had completely snapped. now, my biggest concern with this was that i was going to get hassled at the door and possibly denied entrance because it looked like the wristband had been tampered with.

i went to get a THIRD wristband the next morning and was kind of made to feel that it was my fault they were snapping. that really, really pissed me off. it's one thing to keep giving out a really shitty, faulty designed wristband but it's another thing to BLAME ME when i did nothing wrong. so, sxsw, fuck you and your shitty ass wristbands.

back to reality

sxsw is over. thank god. don't get me wrong, i had a good time but i am sooo exhausted. i'll write a real recap later. don't get too excited about it, i didn't do much all week. i felt pretty sick a lot of the week so i had to really pick and choose what i wanted to do in order to conserve my energy for the important stuff. if i hadn't done that, i probably would have died by friday afternoon. 

visually impaired aviator

last summer i downloaded "go on, say it" by blind pilot because it was the itunes single of the week. i don't always download those free singles and, to be honest, i can't quite remember why i downloaded that one. i listened to it a few times and then probably forgot about it. a couple of months later, i came across something on the internet that mentioned them and i thought, "man, i should check them out again." this time, i bought the whole album, 3 rounds and a sound, and fell into a deep, deep love with it. they remind me a lot of the shins+death cab+a little bit of elliott smith. i highly recommend buying it and listening to it for a week straight :) 

i was beyond ecstatic when i found out they were playing multiple shows at sxsw. they are playing two official sxsw showcases:

3/18 at midnight at submerged (333 e. 2nd street)

3/19 at midnight at club de ville (900 red river street)

and some free day parties:

3/18 ioada party at 3pm at emo's annex (600 red river street)

3/19 npr music for the right brain at 1:15pm at the parish (214 e. 6th street)

3/20 burnside distribution party at 1:40pm at threadgill's (301 w. riverside drive)

3/20 soundcheck magazine's third birthday party at 3:40 at emo's annex (600 red river street)

and if you're not one of the lucky people attending sxsw, check their spring tour dates to see if they're coming to a city near you. those of us in austin are lucky enough to see them at sxsw AND again at mohawk on april 7 for only $7! 

cathedral of junk

today's sunday funday post brunch adventure was the cathedral of junk. man, there's a lot of junk there! it was pretty mind-blowing to see all of the junk that this guy has collected over the years. and he's somehow managed to make a structurally-sound pile out of it all. 

oh yeah, we had brunch at the woodland on south congress. i HIGHLY recommend the mimosas for two! and the yogurt. ooohhh the yogurt!

<3

i'm bored and missing san francisco so i made this silly picture. 

original photo by josh dorf

poladroid

this is the easiest, most authentic way i've found to create a polaroid image. it's called poladroid and i am loving it!

 

give it a try!

this video is AWESOME

despite what some of the comments on the youtube page say, this is amazing. it's the mentalists covering kids by mgmt using apps they've downloaded on their iphones and ipod touches. that's insane!

happy birthday to me

i bought myself this lens on friday. it should arrive this friday. i CANNOT wait! i'm gonna use the shit out of it during sxsw. it was sort of a birthday present to myself, i suppose. i used part of my tax return to buy it and i asked for only money for my birthday. oh yeah, i'll be 26 in 13 days. scary shit. i know that 26 isn't old but it feels old to me.