This post gets a C for effort, and a B for I'm going the F to bed.

How I feel is not reflected whatsoever by this picture

The Painted Desert
10,000 Maniacs
In My Tribe
Elektra / Wea : 1987
[Listen] [Buy]

City of Angels
10,000 Maniacs
In My Tribe
Elektra / Wea : 1987
[Listen] [Buy]

Louder
Actionslacks
too bright just right good night
Skene Records : 1996
[Listen] [Buy]

Suspended
Breaking Pangaea
Canon to a Whisper
Undecided Records : 2001
[Listen] [Buy]

Clockwatcher
Actionslacks
too bright just right good night
Skene Records : 1996
[Listen] [Buy]

Boogie Van
Fu Manchu
King of the Road
Fontana Mammoth : 2000
[Listen] [Buy]

I was at this show in Allentown. It was to see Less Than Jake I think. That may have been the show where I shat all over the toilet in the bathroom (though that's a story for a different time). Oh! That was also the night when this one band never played because the sound checks sucked and the lead singer eventually pissed off security, jumped off stage (security dude had two fingers on him by the t-shirt but just missed) and slipped through the crowd. All night I got a kick out of watching burly and his crew scan the crowd for some dude with a hipster-punk hairdo. He looked like one in five kids there.

And though it's chill as hell, that's okay. My mother was way into 10,000 Maniacs. It was another one of those bands that (surprise surprise) I was introduced to via car stereo tape deck. This version is ripped from CD though, so no Dolby NR for you! Why is this on my mind? Someone mentioned the Painted Desert the other day, I don't remember why. That song's been floating in an out of consciousness for the past few days.

I still think they're good. They're not breaking any standards or anything, but at least they cut a few good tunes. I had two jobs one summer. You know those pictures parents get of their kids when they're in sports? The ones with the cardboard frames that get set on the mantle for a year, or the fake baseball/soccer/football cards? After my first job, I'd head to the second where I checked the parent's order for accuracy, packaged them, and mailed them. It was mind numbing work, but I had this CD and Bad Religion's Generator to get me through. Clockwatcher was overwhelmingly appropriate.

I can't remember if they were the third or fourth act, but these three dudes got on stage and put out a sound that other bands don't achieve with 5 guys. Seriously, if you have 3 guitar players, (I'm not counting bass), you better be making good use of them. I was blown away, especially by the cognitive dissonance between their moving and earnest sound, and the fact that the lead singer looked like someone's nondescript, nearing middle age uncle. I bought their CD at the show, and of the tracks, was struck most by Suspended. Yeah, it's borderline emo, but I was going through a terrible breakup at the time, and they do a good job with the song.

We're all allowed at least one.

I don't get Los Angeles. I really don't. My aunt lives there. My aunt is 10 kinds of awesome, and I love her, but if ever there's a place I fit in by default, because no one's turned away, it's LA. Walking the streets or riding the bus reminds me of every mini-mall I've passed in every stripped out former small town I've seen. Minus the landscaping. Still, they've got palm trees. My tickets are paid for, and I'll be there in 6 weeks, thinking of this song.

I drove around campus one year in my dad's white cargo van. It had a ladder rack, tinted windows, and a drivers side door that I busted while backing into a gas meter (but that's a tale for another sitting). So's I'd drive this thing around, park, and exit out the sliding door.

There's no point to this story except to say that for one year of my life, I fit the role of the creepy is he going to do things to me guy on campus.