I'm back! And it's only been two months since the last (and first) post. Ha, go me! Anyway, figured, y'know, might as well start it all up again now that I have more time. Let's launch into it:
Coffee!:
Coffee! Hooray! I love coffee. I'm a barista, and as such, have a more-than-casual interest in it. Let's preface this: I've been working at Bellano for just about a year now (1 year already!), and we've had Zoka's Espresso Paladino for the entire time. And recently, I've been thinking, "Hey, we should mix it up with our choice of espresso." Fortunately, my bosses have been thinking the same thing.
About a week ago, Bill (one of said bosses) came up to me and told me we'd be trying out a new espresso, and I was like, "Sweet." I asked what he had in mind, and from behind his back, like a tall, stealthy magician, he produced several bags of Intelligentsia Black Cat! Woo-hoo! At the 2007 Western Regional Barista Competition, one of the Intelligentsia baristas from LA made me a double Black Cat, and I was blown away. It was, far and away, one of the best espressos I've ever had, so when Bill told me we'd be thinking about Black Cat, I was stoked! We emptied the grinder of Paladino, filled it with Black Cat, and Jessica (co-worker) dialed in. She set her grind and served me the finished product. As expected, it rocked my face off.
Of course, after that, the next test of espresso mettle was a cappuccino . Now, as I said, we've been doing Paladino for the last year, and I don't really like it with milk, so I rarely have it in a cappuccino. As such, when Jessica offered me a cappuccino, I was skeptical. What if it was bad? But one mind-blowing sip put those fears to rest. It's great! I love it. Black Cat is freakin' awesome. I want to get to know it. I want to hang out with it, talk to it, learn its life story and bond with it. Word on the street is, when the Intelligentsia in LA starts roasting, we'll be looking into it. Unfortunately, I might be gone by then! Well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Show Review: Mystical Herb/the Chillin' Dogs- The Bronco @ Santa Clara University, 17 May 2007
So. Another show review. Which is okay, because I love shows. Especially free shows. I went with my homeboy D-Street, who was skeptical because he'd never heard of the bands, but I told him that I hadn't either and besides, it was free. So he agreed to go, and we went. We got there an hour early because the Asian Man Records staff told me the wrong time (how dare they?!), had some coffee, and waited to see what would happen.
As we waited, waited, and waited some more, strangers in a strange land, we were thinking about leaving when the show finally started. The Chillin' Dogs took the stage, and I recognized Bob and Mike from Shinobu, along with a fellow I didn't recognize. Immediately, I looked over at Streeter and said, "This can only be good." Little did I know how right I was.
Look, I'll be honest. The music was pretty good. I dig it. It wasn't AMAZING, it wasn't, like, so totally life-changing, but it was pretty rad. I like the rap music, I'm hip with the kids. But any show where one (or more) of the band members end up pantsless is freakin' great by my standards. I personally think that most, if not all, social functions should end with one or more people without pants. This and the presence of the most underrated of percussion instruments, the egg shaker, made me wholly regret the mere thought of leaving.
So, the Chillin' Dogs wrap it up, and roughly half of the people in the room gather and walk outside. I happened to recognize several of these individuals as members of Shinobu and Pteradon, as well as Skylar, the Asian Man Records mascot. Confused, all I could be sure of was that a band I've never heard of called Mystical Herb was going to take the stage.
And take the stage they did! They took it and they rocked it, like a hurricane. From out of nowhere, approximately a dozen and a half people in shiny, colorful robes and purple party hats ran on stage and started playing. It was easily one of the greatest things I'd seen all Thursday. So sum it up, it's basically the Polyphonic Spree meets Kali, the dark goddess of chaos. On top of a big pile of eccentricity and puppies. David Streeter said that it gave him a headache after a while, but he's probably wrong.
As far as I can tell, the entire set was one really long song. Either that, or 14 smaller songs. Or a hundred really small songs. Point is... well, I don't really know any more words for it. If you have the chance, you should check 'em out. Even if you don't have the chance, you should do it anyway.
Anywaaaaay... there it is. I'm back, and I anticipate updating much more frequently. You should to.
19 May 2007
20 March 2007
Music Things!
First post! Hooray. Let's get crackin':
Album Review(s):
First off: Where the HELL have the Flaming Lips been all my life?! I can't believe there was a point in time where I felt no need to ever know the Flaming Lips. How foolish of me! I was at the library the other day, and I passed by the Cd's, and I saw what I recognized as a Flaming Lips album, and I thought, "You know, me, I have been meaning to listen to some Flaming Lips, I might as well give it a shot." So I grabbed At War with the Mystics. I didn't put it on right away, but rather, decided to put it on yesterday morning. This turns out to have been a brilliant plan. As "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" kicked off, I experienced approx. 4 whole seconds of "what the hell?!" followed by roughly 43,200 seconds of pure, unbridled bliss. Sheer, blinding, unrelenting happiness. And that's just the first song. If you, for some reason, have not heard this album, do it now. Like, RIGHT now. Drop whatever you're doing and go find it. Hunt it down, capture it, trap it in your iPod, and never stop listening to it for the rest of the day. Let yourself be immersed in unicorns and euphoria.
On a related note, I also picked up Ringleader of the Tormentors by Morrissey. Morrissey (and the Smiths), by contrast, I have been a fan of for a while, I just haven't felt the desire to listen to him for quite some time. I love this album just about as much as the aforementioned Mystics, because it's the exact opposite of Mystics; where the Flaming Lips are the physical, human embodiment of joy and happiness, Morrissey is the embodiment of all that is sadness and tragedy. Just as they are polar opposites, they are the same thing- an utterly pure expression of a generally indescribable emotional state, and one I find myself fluctuating between constantly. Incidentally, they both seem to be preoccupied with love, in all of it's many forms.
I guess I might as well rate albums on some kind of definable scale. I like seeing that, so why not. All ratings are out of 10.
At War with the Mystics by the Flaming Lips- 8.5 out of 10. Amazing, brilliant even, but it still had it's lower moments. But even those were enjoyable.
Ringleader of the Tormentors by Morrissey- 9 out of 10. Consistently enjoyable, and Morrissey definitely has a way with words. I'd put him as, perhaps, one of the greatest lyricists to come out of the "Modern Rock" era, and the fact that he has kept it up for 20+ years should be proof enough of this.
Show Review: Shinobu/Chotto Ghetto/Pteradon/Bluepoint- MACLA in San Jose, CA, 18 March 2007
To start: Shinobu are amazing. If you don't live in the SF Bay Area, you're missing out, because they play fairly frequently around here. I've had the privilege of seeing them several times in the past few years, but then again, I went to the same high school as one of the members, and as such, saw (and still see) them at a lot of local shows. I'll be honest- I couldn't stand them in high school. But, then again, my musical tastes have grown enormously since then. Worstward, Ho! was, without a doubt, one of my favorite albums of 2006 (not to mention a reference to one of my very favorite writers), and until this past September, I hadn't seen them perform in a few years. I have seen them a few times since, and each show easily tops the one before it. This one was no exception. But more on that later.
The show opened with Bluepoint (I believe...), a band I'd never heard of, and I caught the second half of their set. They're from San Jose, and to be honest, I wasn't super impressed with their set. I liked them, but they were a bit simple and formulaic. Not that I don't like that; I've just seen it done a million times over. They reminded me a lot of Alkaline Trio, but without the awesomeness.
After they finished, Pteradon took the stage. Now, Pteradon, I had heard of. They're great. Dare I say SUPER-great? I do dare. I first saw them a few months ago, also with Shinobu (who they're friends with), and I've been hooked ever since. They're good people, and they do a great show. They have more heart and energy than most of the bands in this city, and in the intellectual wasteland of San Jose, their introspective and witty lyrics are MUCH appreciated. That, and they rock out ultra hard. Picture Dillinger Four meets Jawbreaker meets the Broadways. And I dig that a lot. I see them whenever I get the chance, and I've heard many a good thing about the singer's solo act, I Sing The Body Electric. Anyway, medium sized story short, they were awesome.
After that was Chotto Ghetto, who were, by far, the worst band of the night. I was really impressed with them, but in a bad way. In a, "Wow, it's impressive that they could hear themselves and go, 'Yeah, that's really great'," kind of way. I'm also impressed at the poor structure of the sentence I just wrote. The point is that they were pretty terrible.
After they finished, it was time for Shinobu. Each time I see them, I think to myself, "I've already seen these guys several times. Why am I here?" And then they start playing and I remember, "Oh yeah- it's because I think these guys could be one of the most important bands of my generation. Duh." And I do. I feel this way. It's a blend of Punk-With-Beards and indie rock, and it's amazing. Think the Pixies meets the Weakerthans meets the Lawrence Arms meets Stephen Malkmus meets a basketful of cuddly ferrets. Their set climaxed all over the audience, dragging up all of Pteradon, a trumpet, part of a bass drum, and 1/2 of the employees of Asian Man Records awkwardly playing guitar from within the crowd.
It was great. You should have been there.
-RP
Album Review(s):
First off: Where the HELL have the Flaming Lips been all my life?! I can't believe there was a point in time where I felt no need to ever know the Flaming Lips. How foolish of me! I was at the library the other day, and I passed by the Cd's, and I saw what I recognized as a Flaming Lips album, and I thought, "You know, me, I have been meaning to listen to some Flaming Lips, I might as well give it a shot." So I grabbed At War with the Mystics. I didn't put it on right away, but rather, decided to put it on yesterday morning. This turns out to have been a brilliant plan. As "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" kicked off, I experienced approx. 4 whole seconds of "what the hell?!" followed by roughly 43,200 seconds of pure, unbridled bliss. Sheer, blinding, unrelenting happiness. And that's just the first song. If you, for some reason, have not heard this album, do it now. Like, RIGHT now. Drop whatever you're doing and go find it. Hunt it down, capture it, trap it in your iPod, and never stop listening to it for the rest of the day. Let yourself be immersed in unicorns and euphoria.
On a related note, I also picked up Ringleader of the Tormentors by Morrissey. Morrissey (and the Smiths), by contrast, I have been a fan of for a while, I just haven't felt the desire to listen to him for quite some time. I love this album just about as much as the aforementioned Mystics, because it's the exact opposite of Mystics; where the Flaming Lips are the physical, human embodiment of joy and happiness, Morrissey is the embodiment of all that is sadness and tragedy. Just as they are polar opposites, they are the same thing- an utterly pure expression of a generally indescribable emotional state, and one I find myself fluctuating between constantly. Incidentally, they both seem to be preoccupied with love, in all of it's many forms.
I guess I might as well rate albums on some kind of definable scale. I like seeing that, so why not. All ratings are out of 10.
At War with the Mystics by the Flaming Lips- 8.5 out of 10. Amazing, brilliant even, but it still had it's lower moments. But even those were enjoyable.
Ringleader of the Tormentors by Morrissey- 9 out of 10. Consistently enjoyable, and Morrissey definitely has a way with words. I'd put him as, perhaps, one of the greatest lyricists to come out of the "Modern Rock" era, and the fact that he has kept it up for 20+ years should be proof enough of this.
Show Review: Shinobu/Chotto Ghetto/Pteradon/Bluepoint- MACLA in San Jose, CA, 18 March 2007
To start: Shinobu are amazing. If you don't live in the SF Bay Area, you're missing out, because they play fairly frequently around here. I've had the privilege of seeing them several times in the past few years, but then again, I went to the same high school as one of the members, and as such, saw (and still see) them at a lot of local shows. I'll be honest- I couldn't stand them in high school. But, then again, my musical tastes have grown enormously since then. Worstward, Ho! was, without a doubt, one of my favorite albums of 2006 (not to mention a reference to one of my very favorite writers), and until this past September, I hadn't seen them perform in a few years. I have seen them a few times since, and each show easily tops the one before it. This one was no exception. But more on that later.
The show opened with Bluepoint (I believe...), a band I'd never heard of, and I caught the second half of their set. They're from San Jose, and to be honest, I wasn't super impressed with their set. I liked them, but they were a bit simple and formulaic. Not that I don't like that; I've just seen it done a million times over. They reminded me a lot of Alkaline Trio, but without the awesomeness.
After they finished, Pteradon took the stage. Now, Pteradon, I had heard of. They're great. Dare I say SUPER-great? I do dare. I first saw them a few months ago, also with Shinobu (who they're friends with), and I've been hooked ever since. They're good people, and they do a great show. They have more heart and energy than most of the bands in this city, and in the intellectual wasteland of San Jose, their introspective and witty lyrics are MUCH appreciated. That, and they rock out ultra hard. Picture Dillinger Four meets Jawbreaker meets the Broadways. And I dig that a lot. I see them whenever I get the chance, and I've heard many a good thing about the singer's solo act, I Sing The Body Electric. Anyway, medium sized story short, they were awesome.
After that was Chotto Ghetto, who were, by far, the worst band of the night. I was really impressed with them, but in a bad way. In a, "Wow, it's impressive that they could hear themselves and go, 'Yeah, that's really great'," kind of way. I'm also impressed at the poor structure of the sentence I just wrote. The point is that they were pretty terrible.
After they finished, it was time for Shinobu. Each time I see them, I think to myself, "I've already seen these guys several times. Why am I here?" And then they start playing and I remember, "Oh yeah- it's because I think these guys could be one of the most important bands of my generation. Duh." And I do. I feel this way. It's a blend of Punk-With-Beards and indie rock, and it's amazing. Think the Pixies meets the Weakerthans meets the Lawrence Arms meets Stephen Malkmus meets a basketful of cuddly ferrets. Their set climaxed all over the audience, dragging up all of Pteradon, a trumpet, part of a bass drum, and 1/2 of the employees of Asian Man Records awkwardly playing guitar from within the crowd.
It was great. You should have been there.
-RP
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