(PS: Thanks to Kyle for reminding me that Low's Trust was indeed an inspiration to sit up and take notice. Duh, me.)

Damn it! Stupid catchy songs, I think I kinda like the new Strokes record now, especially "The End Has No End." I'm 3 for 4 with newish releases in the past couple days, the recent BRMC and Twilight Singers records are tops as well. I'm such a sucker.

Merry Christmas, Now Go Away

When I was in Philadelphia a few weeks ago, I received an email with the subject line "Sit Down! This is not a joke!"

I got an email from my friend at work, and it turns out that the pharmacy I work at is closing down. That's right, I'm laid off! I feel like a real American now, working my final weeks and wondering where I'll get the money to buy shoes and groceries. I'm really not that worried though, since I really wasn't very, uh, happy at my job, but I'm also not looking forward to the Bay Area job market. No worries though, I'm sure I'll be able to make rent, buy some food, and keep my car up working *somewhere*.

Because my work is closing down in a week, there is very, very little left to do besides clean up, pack up the remaining supplies, and send patient charts elsewhere. However, we can't really put stuff away until *after* we've closed, so now I do all day is walk around trying to appear busy, and eating Smarties one by one, counting the minutes until lunch time, and then counting the minutes until it's time to go home. So, very, dull.

Luckily, my boss likes me, and it looks like I'll be staying around at least a couple of weeks after we close to clean the place up and move the heavy stuff around. Mixed blessing? Not sure yet, but right now I'm counting my lucky starts to have work until Christmas.

(PS: New MP3 of the week, finally. Sorry for the weeks worth of Rockpile, I promise to never, ever do that again.)

So, we went to the Modest Mouse / Shins show on Tuesday, the third night of their three-night stand at the Fillmore in San Francisco. I love Modest Mouse, and I've seen them more than any other band, probably 15 or 16 times since 1997, and I hadn't seen them since their Noisepop 2002 show in San Francisco.

We got there just in time to see the Shins take the stage, and I really liked their set. Of course, I think the new album is fabuloso, and the songs translated well onstage (with the exception of the missing pedal-steel guitar on "Gone For Good," replaced instead by a supremely botched guitar solo by their newest member). Still, they were entertaining, interactive, and the sound was excellent.

After watching the Shins from the back of the room, I ended up getting pretty close to the stage for Modest Mouse. Then I waited, for, what, seemed, like, an eternity. It's not a good sign once the entire stage is set, and the band still takes more than 20 minutes to come out...and part of me wishes they hadn't shown up at all.

They were horrible...HORRIBLE. I don't know if this show was like the previous two at the same venue, but Isaac skipped words, fumbled around, blamed the audience for stealing his beer even though he forgot that he put it down on his amplifier, didn't play entire guitar lines, and took about 5 minutes between songs to blabber, babble, and berate the audience. The new drummer isn't half as good as recently-departed Jeremiah Green, and the sound in that room while they were playing was muddy and filled with feedback. Truly terrible, and I spent the rest of their set walking around aimlessly in the lobby, wishing that I could go get a slice of pizza.

There were a couple good things about their set: the addition of "Interstate 8," a song I don't think I've ever seen them perform live, a bunch of new songs that sounded like they might be promising on record, and the addition of Dann Galluci (The Murder City Devils) on guitar, backing vocals, and keyboards. Still, this might have been my last Modest Mouse show. Eww.

I'm all warm and back from tour now. I also made a little photo slideshow of a few choice events...I really need a camera that both has a functioning flash, and one whose batteries don't die after a mere 5 shots or so. Because of this lack of fine machinery, I present a very choppy view of our third US tour this year. Click on each photo to advance to the next one.

I'm going to watch The OC now, suckers.