round up

You've probably read through a bunch of different end of year lists already, and although line is better than most, I've certainly forgotten a few things here & there. Feel free to add your 2¢ worth of anything you deem worthy enough that I may have left off...

fave albums from 2005 (alphabetically):
...and you will know us by the trail of dead - Worlds Apart
beck - Guerolito
boards of canada - Campfire Headphase
broken social scene - s/t
chin up, chin up - We Should Never Have Lived Like Skyscrpaers
clap your hands say yeah - s/t
crooked fingers - Dignity & Shame
dandy warhols - Odditorium
death cab for cutie - Plans
the earlies - These Were the Earlies
fischerspooner - Odyssey
flotation toy warning - Bluffer's Guide to the Flight Deck
hudson bell - When the Sun is the Moon
kasabian - s/t
kingsbury manx - Fast Rise and Fall of the South
stevey malks - Face the Truth
mercury rev - Secret Migration
m.i.a. - Arular
moby - Hotel
new order - Waiting for the Siren's Call
portastatic - Bright Ideas
rogue wave - Decsended Like Vultures
sigur ros - Takk
the voices - s/t
the warlocks - Surgery
ween - Shinola Volume 1
white stripes - Get Behind Me Satan
wolf parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary

fave rewinds from 2003/4:
arcade fire - Funeral
the killers - Hot Fuss
postal service - Give Up

already have some faves albums for 2006:
belle & sebastian - The Life Pursuit
the strokes - First Impressions of Earth

fave/most memorable shows:
3 night ween run @ boulder theatre & fox
moby @ fox
sts9 live PA @ fox
trey @ red Rocks
1st night of built to spill double header @ fox
2nd night of BTS double header @ gothic
rogue wave @ larimer lounge
honorable mention - erasure @ paramount

'cool' things that still suck:
1. most everything related to DFA records and the entire dance-punk movement (except that song "losing my edge")
2. devandra banhart, sufjan stevens, and the entire new-folk movement
3. wilco

-all's well that ends well-

yuletide cheer

Hit copper bright and early with devin friday morning. Upon arriving, we discovered that tyhe mountain had been graced with close to a foot of pow pow, so we headed straight to the back bowls and rode fresh tracks all morning. Took in a viewing of King Kong later that evening. I rather enjoyed it, but I kind of got bored with the last bit after they left skull island.



Jacquie & Dylan hosted the fam for xmas eve dinner. I was in charge of the wine & proseco. They had a great spread of cured meats, cheeses, olives, mushrooms, whole artichokes, mozarella salad, salmon, pasta, and 7lbs. of steamed muscles. We all spent the night at hillside, so that we could be around when santa showed up. Lauren headed off to perform with the band at the Champs Bowl at noon, so we had to get all the gift openeing out of the way before her trip. Santa was kind this year and brought some swanky duds, some loot for new snowboard boots, and a posh panini grill. I went on a bikeride to take advantage of the 60F weather. We played some games, then feasted on lamb for dinner.

Headed back to copper yesterday with paul. No new snow, but the weather was beautiful and we had some great runs. Bumped into robert et al at the timberline. Got stuck in some serious traffic on the way home due to a car rolling over in the Eisenhower Tunnel. I-70 was closed at Silverthorne, and we were re-routed up the Loveland Pass which seriously took for-ev-er.



-snow style-

dream in black & white

vive la france!

strange design

At least someone's got their thinking caps on. A Pennsylvania judge ruled that teaching 'inteligent design' in science classes would violate the Constitutional separation of church and state. Thank god.

Like Wade Boggs before him, the Boston Red Sox's jesus christ figure, Johnny Damon is now quite the judas priest as he trades in his Beantown garb for the felonious pinstripes of the new york yankees. And for such blasphemy, the gods have plagued the big apple with a transit strike - ha!

-keep the tires off the line-

busy weekend

Lauren graduated friday morning. Commencement was at the Coors Event Center (basketball arena), and was short and sweet. They only called out the names of the PHD's and honors students, everyone else was called out by school. Went out to lunch afterwards, before heading back to work becuase we had our holiday party that night at Heritage Square (?), which was certainly an interesting experience...

Headed up to Winter Park bright and early with kerr. It sure was cold, but we got some sick runs in - definitely a great place for free riding. A little hard to get around, if you don't know where you're going though. We kept getting completely lost as if we were stuck in some sort of bermuda triangle. Had Lauren's graduation dinner at Carreli's later that evening before heading off to another holiday party at sheila & brenden's.

Met up with d&k on Pearl Street sunday afternoon for a few brews at the mountain sun, and came up with some potential nye plans. They split, and then I met up with abra to check out the grand opening of the billabong store - Donovan Frankenreiter performed solo for about 40 minutes or so, and I got a free pair of socks.

-one foot, two foot-

pomp & circumstance

Congratulations to my sister Lauren who graduated from CU today!

don't dig so deep

Caught one of Eric Bachman's (archers of loaf, crooked fingers) rare solo performances at the Larimer Lounge on wednesday. I met up for some drinks at lolo with dev & kim before hand. I rarely have late nights mid-week, but this show was well worth it. The show wasn't advertised very well (I only found out about it at the ween shows), and there were only about 100 or so people there. Which was actually nice, because if you've ever been to the Larimer, you know that it is ever so not condusive to large crowds. Tom (or was it Nick) from Devotchka opened. The funniest part of the show was when Eric asked if anyone could get him another beer, and pretty soon he had about 5 or 6, a couple of mix drinks, and a pitcher.



Man of War#
Bad Man Coming
Carboro Woman#
Broken Man
Juliette
Devil's Train
You Can Never Leave
Andalucia
Untitled 1# (Gimme Something)
Don't Say A Word
New Drink For The Old Drunk
Black Black Ocean
Untitled 2# (Song About a Bird)
You Must Build A Fire
E:
To The Races#
Rotting Strip
Red Devil Dawn
A Little Bleeding

# = New songs, perhaps even first time played

If you have an account over at Dime, you can pull down a copy of mike b's soundboard from the night.

-yeah it's a possibilty-

OOooo taaaAAUUunebaaAAUUums

Never made it to the mountain like I had planned to on saturday, got kind of a late start after post-dandying at robert & angie's, while they trimmed their tree. It was just as well, as I needed the extra chill time to offset the craziness set to ensue later that evening at mark & stephanie's holiday party. And ensue it did. Took it easy sunday before heading off to hillside for more tree trimming, this time with the fam. Mmmm - mulled wine...





-tis the season-

bAH rum pAH pAH puuuuUUUUUum (upm)

Just got back from the way packed Dandy Warhols show at the Gothic. I was turned away at the door with my rig, and I am glad, because it was a hard core cluster fwak in there. Never have I witnessed tighter quarters, granted the Gothic usually is a venue slightly larger than suited for the bands I have taken in there. Hey, they're big in Australia.... It was a pleasant reprise not having to deal with sound variables for a night, so we placed ourselves in front of where I would normally have been confined, and "rocked out" dandys style, which was pretty much the same setlist-style they'd been running since Carborro roundabout the same night we were at trey. What follows is mostly correct:

intro
Ride
Shakin'
Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth
Get Off
Holding Me Up
All The Money Or The Simple Life Honey
Godless
(?)
The Last High
I Love You
Minnesoter
Boys Better
Bohemian Like You
Smoke It
E:
We Used To Be Friends
(?)
Little Drummer Boy (they pretty much butchered this one. the last successful cover of this seminal holiday tune was prolly phish at starlake on my b-day '97, but I remenisssss)

So far, the documentary that has garnished all kinds of awards recently has done a pretty accurate job at portraying the dandys as being a little full of themselves. But their pomposity did provide us with an enjoyable show. Also worth noting was the addition of a horn player on many of the newer tunes.

-a long time ago-

family portrait

Refill, Scripy, Pilly and little Baby Aspirinita are thankful for all of your pharmaceutical needs, including over the counter and prescribed. With all your ailments and/or addictions this family wishes you Happy Pillidays & a Merry Prescripsmas!

reviews

the strokes - First Impressions of Earth: A slight departure from their straight line, slacker jingles. They try to change things up a little the third time around - Julian drops a few octaves to sound like Mr. Mojo Rising during the Soft Parade era, and there is also plenty of guitar appreggio noodling a la Iron Maiden. The album also clocks in at 52 minutes, 14 songs which is epic in comparrison to their previous 30 minute, 10 song offerings. You'll likely be hearing a lot of this record in the coming months of '06.

love is all - 9 Times the Same Song: Kind of like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs crashing a party at the Sugarcubes' house - fun at the time, but not worth remembering the next morning, unless you're forced to because you passed out on the couch.

mogwai - Mr. Beast: More epic post rock from scotland. Like a heavier sounding Sigur Ros, without the 'hopelandish'. More intense than 2003's Happy Songs for Happy People, and with boasts vocals(!) on a couple tracks. Hopefully a stateside tour will follow on the heals of this album's release, as I missed them last time around.

talk talk

Cell phones are OK to chat on when you're not lounging about in the comfort of your own home, and need to make plans on the go. But if you really wish to discourse at great length, nothing beats the old fashioned handset. But seriously though, who still has a land line that supports such antiquities nowadays? Not me. So, let's give a round of applause to Nicolas Roope, who invented a line of Hulger Handsets that plug into your celly.

-hey santa, nod nod wink wink-

the twoness

Wow, the wEEn shows just kept getting better! Some of the best I've ever seen, in fact. They pulled out all the stops friday with a good portion of my all time faves, and a bunch of material I'd rarely seen live before. Called it an early night after the show, so I could get up early and help paul string xmas lights and watch the Big XII championship (which was a complete embarassment, and hardly worth dicussing). We all did some pre-partying at the Sink before the Fox show. Seemed to have lost a few of our non sea-worthy companions early on in the show (they were later discovered asleep{?} in the car). The brothers ween et al went on to play over three hours saturday, and although we started hearing a couple of repeat tunes, it didn't matter because they rocked out just as hard, and it was fun as all hell. Pulled down great tapes from both shows - I'll see what I can do about getting them up on CoTapers sometime this week. As die-hard as I am, even I need a few days of ween detox.

Friday's show:
Don't Shit Where You Eat
Golden Eel
Baby Bitch
Light Me Up
Nan
Touch My Tooter
Dont Get 2 Close (2 My Fantasy)
Roses Are Free
Albino Sunburned Girl
Push The Daisies
Springtheme
She's Your Baby
Final Alarm
Richard Smoker
Waving My Dick
Stroker Ace
Awesome Sound
Zoloft
Mollusk
Don't Laugh(I Love You)
Dr Rock
Goin Gets Tough
Never Squeal On The Pusher
Powder Blue
You Fucked Up
Sketches Of Winkle
Someday
E:
I'm Holding You
Piss Up A Rope
Big Jilm
Ace Of Spades (motorhead)
What Deaner Was Talking About
Ohio (neil young)
Tender Situation
Homo Rainbow



Saturday's show:
Birthday boy*
Chocolate town*
Help Me Scrape The Mucus*
Tried & True*
I Dont Want It*
She Wanted To Leave
Now I'm Freaking Out
Back To Basom
Take Me Away
Hey There Fancypants (!!!!)
Transdermal Celebration
Freedom Of '76
Puertorican Power
Voodoo Lady
Light Me up
Frank
Mollusk
Tear For Eddie
Argus
Stay Forever
Ocean Man
Captain Fantasy
Papa Zit
You Fucked Up
Pumpin for The Man
Buckingham Green
Can You See Me
Polka Dot Tail
Cover It With Gas
She Fucks Me
Even If You Dont
Waving My Dick
Blarney Stone
E:1
Licking The Palm
Mushroom Festival
Tick
Fat Lenny
Sorry Charlie
Fluffy
E:2
Buenas Tardes
(* denotes acoustic)

-the sun comes up and I'm all washed out-

you f-ed up

Go home the lot of you loser canucks...

-how many assholes does it take to make a videotape-

p.s. too bad one of you got thrown out - ha!

975 people singing 'bludgeon yer eye' can't be wrong

A quick report from the trenches that are one of three nights of dean & gene's flatiron's invasion... Let's first thank me boy mike B for lettin'his freek stand fly so I could clamp the the mofo, and not worry 'bpout flankin' me sides. Aye, twas a weird vibe and sanctioned ares fer ye tapers ternert!! Sunk up with the seaworthy mark wesson, topher & crew, for are voyage. Preliminary tapes (which sound darn toooOOOOOoooootin'!) say:

Squelch The Weasel
HIV
Marble Tulip
Happy Colored Marbles
Take Me Away
Grobe
Even If You Dont
Voodoo Lady
Stallion Pt 3
Leave Deaner Alone
Exactly Where I'm At
Mutilated Lips
Booze Me Up
Fat Lenny
Johnny On The Spot
Buckingham Green
Bananas & Blow
Pandy Fackler (with a wickit fukin jazzzzzy breakdown!!!!!!!!)
Help My Pony
Sweet TeXas Fire
Reggaejunkiejew
Drifter In The Dark@
Tried And True@
Joppa Road@
Spinal Meningitis
El Camino
Blarney Stone
E:
Stallion Pt 5
Boyz Club
Gabrielle
[wicked finger intro]
Carn't Put My Finger On It...
{@ means acoustizied bitch}



-headers?, {or} I ain't dead YET!-

sick day reviews

belle & sebastian - The Life Pursuit: Previously wildy inconsistent twee masterminds are back after their recent 2 disc comp of all their jimpster ep's. This album, or at least this leaked version, actually boasts some much needed cohesiveness, while still reveling in harmless pop territory. Hopefully a u.s. tour is planned in support, because they're rather swell live.

cat power - The Greatest: Chan Marshall is usually showered with praise, but I've always found her music to be quite boring. She performed a free show not too long ago at the boulder hatsheel on broadway, and it bored me to tears. It was just her and a piano, or her and a guitar. Good thing I had a bomber and my bike, becuase then I found something else to do. Great if you like mopey chick indie rock. Songs from this album will likely wind up on Grey's Anatomy or some art house flick soundtrack.

milemarker - Ominosity: Fairly average sounding stuff, no longer on the Matador label, from a band that gains most of their street cred from working with Bob Weston.

the kooks - Inside In Inside Out: Holy shit, it's a new franz ferdinand album. Oh no wait, it's the kooks' debut. They share that strikingly similar squawkey brit sound, so if ye likes one, you may like the other.

great lake swimmers - Bodies and Minds: Maybe it's because I was too sick this past week to bother changing the cd in my car, but I've found myself listening to this one over and over lately. It's simple, in the way that the western plains become in the winter, but with lines like, "I have seen you in various stages of undress, I have seen you through various states of madness", it's rather haunting at the same time.

let your soul glow

Wanna spice up your name a bit? You should get it pimpified and earn the love of your fellow playas!

-mack master preo slither-