Weapons For War/Spread It All Around (7″).
We’re super excited about the release of our (A Lull) new 7″ “Weapons For War/Spread It All Around.” Get details here and pre-orders, downloads and remixes here. Thanks!!
Todd Miller: Blog
A Lull/Tour.
1/21 – Chicago, IL @ Schubas Tavern
1/22 – Indianapolis, IN @ Vollrath Tavern
1/23 – Louisville, KY @ Skull Alley
1/24 – Indiana, PA @ The Indiana Players
1/25 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Point Park University Ballroom
1/27 – Rochester, NY @ BugJar
1/28 – Manhattan, NY @ Pianos
1/29 – Brooklyn, NY @ The Grasslands
1/31 – Arlington, VA @ Galaxy Hut
2/1 – Charlotte, NC @ The Evening Muse
2/2 – Columbia, SC @ The Elbow Room
2/3 – Atlanta, GA @ Drunken Unicorn
2/4 – Tallahassee, FL @ The Engine Room
2/5 – Birmingham, AL @ The Nick
2/6 – Mobile, AL @ Alabama Music Box
2/8 – Houston, TX @ Super Happy Fun Land
2/9 – Austin, TX @ Hole In The Wall
2/10 – Dallas, TX @ Bills Records (In-store)
2/11 – Tulsa, OK @ Soundpony
2/12 – Lawrence, KS @ Replay Lounge
Definitely (a few of) the Best (Chicago) Sports Moments of the Decade.
1. Game 3 of the 2005 American League Division Series, Chicago White Sox v. Boston Red Sox
It was an early game, on a rainy Friday evening. The game was being played in Boston, but it was raining there too. I had somewhere to be, but I wasn’t going to leave until the game was over because I just wasn’t going to leave in the middle of a tight playoff game. In the sixth inning, the White Sox were ahead, but it didn’t look good. The bases were loaded with Red Sox and there were no outs. Ozzie Guillen called El Duque, Orlando Hernández, who had been a starter for much of the season came into the game, out of the bullpen to try and minimize the damage.
I have never seen a moment as tense as those next ten minutes in all of the sports I’ve ever watched, but somehow, some way, the base runners stayed where they were. The first two batters popped up and then Johnny Damon struck out swinging. The inning was over, amazingly, and the White Sox still had the lead. Of course, The White Sox went on to win the game and the series and the World Series eventually, but better than the four game sweep of the Houston Astros or the dropped-third-strike-stolen-base by A.J. Pierzynski against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim or the home runs by Scott Podsednik and Paul Konerko or the four consecutive complete games pitched by Mark Buerhle, John Garland, Freddy Garcia and José Contreras was the inning when the seemingly impossible feat of holding with no outs and the bases loaded was accomplished.
2. Game 6 of the first round of the 2009 NBA Playoffs, Chicago Bulls v. Boston Celtics
The one Bulls game that I made it to last season was certainly the best Bulls game in the post-Jordan era to date and was part of what will go down in history as potentially one of the best first rounds ever played. Granted, had Kevin Garnet been healthy, the Bulls wouldn’t have stood a chance, but he was injured and the the teams were as evenly matched as they could have been. Four of the seven games in the series went into overtime and on this particular night, at the United Center, there were three overtime periods played and everyone in the building was standing and screaming for the entire time. It was a game of buzzer beating three point shots, hard fouls, clutch steals ands all around great basketball. When the Bulls finally edged out the win, the on-court television reporter handed Joakim Noah the microphone but instead of talking about the positive or negative aspects of the game, he jumped onto the scorers’ table and belted out a high-pitched scream into the microphone, thanking the fans for the night and essentially for the season, as it would be the last time that the Bulls would appear in the United Center that season. In Game 7, in Boston, the Bulls weaknesses finally showed and they were eliminated from the playoffs. But, that night it didn’t matter what was going to happen the next day. The energy inside of that building was as if the Bulls had just won the entire championship.
3. Super Bowl XLI 2007, Chicago Bears v. Indianapolis Colts
The 2006-2007 NFL season was a strange one in Chicago. Rex Grossman was our quarterback and after every win, we were left looking at each other, wondering if we were dreaming or if Rexy was actually in the process of leading the Bears to the Super Bowl. Well, the Bears were underdogs from the onset, no questions asked, but Devin Hester had been blazing by just about everyone, returning just about every kick for a touchdown all season, so maybe there was a chance. Maybe. We bought into it anyway. Chicago stopped its normal activities on February 4, to watch the two teams play in the rain in Miami. Whether we were at bars, saving seats in front of a television for hours or whether we were at a party with friends or relatives or whether we were at home nervously munching on spinach balls, not saying much at all for fear of jinxing something, we were all watching. We were all watching when the ball was kicked off to start the game and we were all watching and screaming and cheering at whichever TV was the closest while Devin Hester returned the opening kick for a touchdown. What a pace setter. What a game changer. Even if Rex was our quarterback, we had Devin and that was enough. Maybe. But, the rain kept falling and that initial lead was lost with injuries to our number one running back, Cedric Benson, and a Colts team that wanted it more. Eventually the game was lost and there was no joy in Chicago that night, but Devin Hester’s electric abilities were reason enough for just a little bit of hope and excitement.
(Maybe) The Best Music of 2009.
Especially this year, for as many people who are putting certain records, Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavillion and Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest specifically, on their “Best of 2009” lists, a lot of people are also putting those records on their “Not Best of 2009” lists. Some of these people are people I know and I know that they know good music.
So, why go as far as to say that these records aren’t any good? Independent music listeners have a long history of going against the mainstream, turning on bands or artists that have “sold out,” even if they are still producing worthwhile music. The only thing I can think of is that these bands have gotten too “big” for people who want to be on the fringes more than to be a part of a large group. Maybe they just want their lists to be different from everybody else’s lists. There could be a bunch of reasons for people turning on these genuinely great records, but whatever they are, it’s happening. So, put these records on your on your “Not Best of 2009” lists, but I will not. These two records in particular were records whose release dates I anticipated and they were records that did not disappoint and they were records that I am still going back to, months after their releases.
Best 10 Records, in my opinion, of 2009
1. Grizzly Bear- Veckatimest
2. Dirty Projectors- Bitte Orca
3. Phoenix- Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
4. Animal Collective- Merriweather Post Pavilion
5. Peter Bjorn and John- Living Thing
6. Acron/Family- Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free
7. Raekwon- Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Pt. 2
8. Tortoise- Beacons of Ancestorship
9. The Very Best- Warm Heart of Africa
10. Mos Def- The Ecstatic
You write about music? You should write about my band.
Yeah, I probably should write about your Hip-Hop-Rock-Dub-R&B fusion-jam project or your Rufus Wainright “inspired” (cover) band. When are you available for an interview?
Slowly.
Things moved slowly and easily there. There was no great importance held on anything really, at least that’s the way it seemed. It was quiet because nothing much ever seemed to happen. But while it was quiet and still, it was filled with little sounds and motions and activities that became familiar and part of what everything was.
In the morning, at first light, there was wind, the wind that pushed the ripples across the surface of the lake, and woke the sleeping adults and children to the gentle sound of the water meeting the wooden docks and aluminum boats that floated near the shore. At the bait shop, there were men quietly exchanging tips and secrets and hunches on where the Bass and Bluegills were biting and bragging with real accounts and tall tales of how many had been taken the day before. Later in the morning, there were sausage links sizzling on the griddle, popping and crisping until they were brown on their outsides. Even later in the morning, there were the sounds of The Price is Right gently spilling out of screen windows and subtly competing with the last sounds of the water before the wind would move off of the lake and into the corn and bean fields, where it stayed until the evening. Pages of books and magazines flipped and turned. In the afternoon there were the sounds of naps and flies. In town, bells on cash registers chimed and drawers shuffled in and out at the grocery store. Back at the lake, hummingbirds fluttered as they sipped nectar from plastic feeders. Far away, a lawn mower growled and trimmed. As the sun was on its way down, the evening news and Jeopardy then drifted out of those screened windows. In the evening, bonfires cracked. Bugs fried on electric zappers. An occasional bullfrog spoke up. On some nights, there were some fireworks in the sky, somewhere across the lake. Then, when the sun was all the way gone, the news was over and the TVs turned off, the fires had died out, and the mosquitoes had even gone to bed, there was almost silence. It was so close.
At any time in the day, though, morning, afternoon or night, layered far below everything else, there were reels casting out, and pulling in. There were bobbers and bait plunking into the water, softly, but with a slight clap, like the sound of skin slapping skin. There were distant voices of stories being told, and men growing old and boys growing up. The fishing never stopped, and it was what brought everything together, in a place set apart from reality and the rest of the world, on a relatively small lake in Indiana.
The Baddest Things: Opening Themes #2
The Wire: “Way Down in the Hole” Written by Tom Waits in 1987
One song, five different ways. For each of the five seasons, the song was arranged and performed by five different artists or groups. I can’t decide which is my favorite, maybe season 2 or season 3 or season 4 or maybe 1 or 5. I don’t know, but it’s the best show that’s ever been on television and all five opening themes are simply further evidence of that.
Season 1: The Blind Boys of Alabama
Season 2: Tom Waits
Season 3: The Neville Brothers
Season 4: DoMaJe
Season 5: Steve Earle
The Baddest Things: Opening Themes #1
True Blood: “Bad Things” Written and performed by Jace Everett in 2005
This song and the sequence of images is better than the show. After watching two seasons, I don’t strongly like or dislike the show, but I know that the theme is perfect. I will say that if the show was at all as raw and creepy and intriguing as the opeing theme, it would be, by far, my favorite thing to watch on television.
Set in the backwoods of Louisiana, this opening theme embodies everything I’ve ever been, simultaneously, afraid of and intrigued by pertaining to the south. It’s too bad the show, despite its occasional high points, gets kind of goofy at times and looses some of that grittiness that is all over the opening. It kind of makes me want to move to Louisiana, there’s a rapidly decaying fox and it’s perfect.
Exclusive: Interview with the Balloon Boy
Don’t ask me how, but I managed to score an exclusive interview with six-year-old Falcon Heene, otherwise known this afternoon as Balloon Boy, moments after he emerged from the attic in his family’s home unharmed. This all after he hid in a box for hours while authorities in Colorado scrambled to save him from the makeshift hot air balloon he was allegedly piloting and while the Internet and daily routines screeched to a halt while people were waiting, saying things like, “Forget work, what about Balloon Boy?”
Q: How did you get such an sweet name?
A: Which one? Falcon or Balloon Boy?
Q: Why did you untie the balloon in the first place?
A: Because… Why wouldn’t I? I have the CNN app on my iPhone. I was just watching everything go down, laughing.
Q: Your brother said that he saw you get inside the balloon as it left the ground. This wasn’t exactly true?
A: If you knew him, you’d know that he’s always been a liar. He’s had it out for me since I can remember.
Q: Would you do it again?
A: Hell yeah.
Q: Any regrets?
A: Hell no. I don’t regret anything, ever.
Finally Zombies.
The geniuses at Men’s Journal apparently haven’t heard of the usefulness of the internet, thus not making this story available on their website until well after it was published in print. I happened upon it a while back and have been looking for it on the internet ever since. It’s a great piece written by Mischa Berlinski about “zombies” in Haiti and it’s finally up on www.mensjournal.com. Follow the link below to read it.