I got some hazardous chemicals, so drive around to the window

The Hold Steady show Tuesday night was awesome. I got a nifty thing I'll try to post pictures of. Had a nice chat with with couple of guys in the band earlier in the evening, but not in an obsessed fan kind of way, no no.


Inspired by a comment Flasshe left on a another blog.

What song would you least like to hear your medical practicioner playing while you wait or they're examining you?

Some examples:

Burning Inside - Ministry
What the use of getting sober(When you're gonna get drunk again)? - Joe Jackson
I Kill Children - The Dead Kennedys


I recently downloaded pretty much the entire Rainier Maria catalog from EMusic. Great stuff, and unlike my other recent great love, The Anniversary, they're still around.


Alan thinks it's strange how the ears ring

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Love'll get you like a case of Anthrax

Have you ever looked forward to a show for months, and then the day comes, and you're tired or cranky. You're thinking you should just blow it off, that the performers can't possibly meet your incredibly high expectations. Then you go anyway, and it was better than you had hoped?

The Gang of Four show last night was off the fucking chain. See this tour. Lots has been written by people better with words than I am, so I won't try to deconstruct it. I will say the highlight song for me was At Home He's a Tourist, but there was a whole lot to choose from.

Shoutout to my friends in The Swayback, who played a kickass opening set. Even with all the great GoF songs to choose from, my internal soundtrack was playing their song Distinguished Guest when I woke up this morning. Check these kids out. Otherwise more kittens will die needlessly.

The support band, Men, Women and Children, didn't really do it for me. First off I was biased a little by the fact they took 35 minutes to get their gear set, even though most of it was on the stage already and they'd had a lengthy soundcheck. They were very energetic, playing in a disco-revial style, and obviously put a lot of time into their lights and choreography. Unfortunately I thought their lyrics were uninteresting, and their singer's voice was totally unexceptional. Once you got past the flash in the arrangements, there wasn't any there there.

In other news, the stalwart quintet of Monofog is now a quartet, but I actually think I might like this version better. There's a little more room for everyone in the arrangements, and you can follow some of the really neat rhythm stuff they do a lot better.

Saw The Symptoms Friday night as well. I've slowly developed a mad love for this band, unfortunately it was their second to last show :( Rumor has it one of them is going to be going to Law School out of state.

Closed out the night Friday with a tasty and bootilicious set from The Sleepers. They stopped just short of a full instrument-smashing frenzy, but it was a near thing. Kat was rocking her keyboard back and forth so hard she knocked over her bass, and only quick action by the audience kept the keyboard from going all the way over and landing on top of it.

More rockin' tonight maybe, Frontside Five, Love Me Destroyer, and Zeke at the LL. I'm planning on going, but the flesh is a little weak at the moment.

Alan fills his head with culture

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Down Under Where the Lights are Low

Stolen from this clever and interesting person, who got it from this one.

Some of these are true:

1) At one time, my favorite Devo song was "Going Under".
2) If I'm massaging the feet of someone who I know cracks their knuckles, I will crack their toes.
3) The first car I owned at the age of 16 is still the coolest one I've ever had.
4) I saw Black Flag pre-Henry.
5) Every time I've played pool with the members of a band I've never seen before, they've gone on to sign a national recording contract.
6) Brussel sprouts and tongue are two of my favorite foods.
7) I can sing both the Bobby Hatfield and Bill Medley parts on Righteous Brothers songs.
8) I am one of the most polite people I know.
9) I own a CD of dance mixes of Paula Abdul songs.
10) I very rarely swear, or display visible signs of anger or irritation.
11) ...Except when I'm driving.
12) I read the newspaper daily for the comics.
13) I'll sometimes listen to the same CD over and over again, even if I have lots of things I haven't heard yet.
14) The surest way to tell if I'm really focused on a project is if the music isn't going.
15) I spend more money on CDs and DVDs than liquor.
16) ...And I spend more money on liquor than on food.
17) I own more sets of color-coordinated sheets and towels than any straight man should admit to.
18) ...Likewise with the pots, pans, and cooking utensils.
19) I've cooked food for more than 200 people at a time.
20) If I didn't have a shop vac, I would never dust.

Alan is going to the place where all the mutants go

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I always thought you'd be my shining star

Abra Moore asked me to be her Myspace friend. It's not the first time a musician or band has asked me first, but she's the first national act to do so. I and the several hundred others she's asked feel all warm and tingly.

I saw the Frames and Josh Ritter last Friday, and it was most excellent. Ritter does the singer/songwriter thing very well, and had a full band backing him up. They'd apparently actually spent time doing full band arrangements and practicing, which isn't always the case with backing bands, and it showed. Very, very nice, and I'm digging his records as well. The Frames were awesome. They have a largish catalog (6-7 albums), and I'm not familiar with all of it, but some of the new to me stuff was fantastic, as good or better than the album that got me into them, Burn the Maps. It struck me at the time that one way to describe their music would be Cat Stevens fronting the Pixies. There's a certain vocal similarity, and some of their slower songs wouldn't be out of place on a Stevens album, but they do the soft/loud thing incredibly well, and without being the whole point of the song. They also have a very skilled violinist, and rather than just adding ornamentation to the rhythm parts like some bands, he played more vocal/melody type lines, and it seemed to me like the arrangements were constructed around the vocal and violin parts.

Tonight I'm going to see a set from Monofog, then to another bar for The Sleepers, tomorrow night is Gang of Four, and if I have any energy left after that there's about 8 other bands I want to see play. It's a good problem to have, but there's so much good music playing in Denver I often have to choose between 3 or 4 shows, especially on the weekends.

The Hold Steady are playing the LL again on the 25th, and I'm eagerly anticipating that show. Earlier in the day they're playing at Littleton High School, details here. It's not open to the public, but I think I can pass for 17.

Mark your calendars for November 11, as well. Reigning Sound, The Detroit Cobras, and Call Sign Cobra. More fuzzy blues rock than you can shake a telecaster at.

People keep calling Alan Right Said Fred

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It was fine at the time

Saw The New Pornographers show last night with Flasshe, and it was most excellent. Our opinions were split on the opening act, The Immaculate Machines. I thought they needed a little more bite to their music and arrangements, Flasshe liked them because they made happy music. Neither of us was that impressed with Destroyer's set. I thought it was kind of the epitome of the tortured artist stereotype, and Dan Bejar fits the visual part of that cliche extremely well, unfortunately. The songs he did with the band were much better. Though he appeared to be somewhat the worse for drink at that point, his vocals were spot on. The NPs set was fantastic, if too short by half at about 70 minutes. No real surprises, other than the dress Neko was wearing, a sheath with a gauzy caftan-like over part. When I saw her carrying in t-shirts earlier she was wearing jeans, like she did when I saw her play solo, but maybe she was going to a Homecoming dance after.

Alan's slow, slow descent into alcoholism, it went

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