I'm wasting time while waiting for our ride to the mountains for the weekend, eating a blue cheese and almond salad, and watching the video for this Joggers song that my friend David made. Pretty rad stuff, which involves dismembering and being chased by giant ants. Go check it out.

I can't get the new Modest Mouse single out of my head, and now that I've finally found the MP3, I won't need to.

Luckily, my friend Sally up in Seattle clued me in this morning that KEXP Seattle played some tracks from the new MM album this morning on the "John In The Morning" radio show. Luckily, the stream is archived (in awesome quality too) on their site, and you can go back and listen to the show.

I'm all busy today, but it's an absolutely *gorgeous* day today, so the sun filling up the home office feels good.

Spent a day catching up on errands after interning over @ Absolutely Kosher records the past couple of days. It felt good to get dumb stuff done (post office, cooking, getting a backup HD) even though it felt better to get something meaninful done (working at a good record label). My time at ABK has involved a lot of mailorder, and a lot of phone calls to record stores, something I'm still getting the hang of.

As luck would have it, the headliners (and consequently their whole tour) have pulled out of our Noisepop 2004 show, and now we're playing a newly added night show with The Wrens, who coincidentally released their last album on ABK. Very cool, since now I get to both play *with* a great band, and then *see* said great band after we're done. Not too shabby.

Other than that, it's been a whole lot of sitting in front of the computer, ripping CDs to add to my newish MP3 player and organizing old stuff. It's taxing, but I kinda like revisiting track names and bands time and time again. Feels more like pleasant studying than crappy work.

Funny though to catch a picture of my friend J.R. dancing over @ catchdubs. Couldn't miss that guy's moustache anywhere. High-larious.

Drinking a glass of wine before the O.C. tonight. Band rehersals start back up Monday, after our weekend in the mountains. I haven't touched a keyboard in weeks, so things should be interesting at the start.

P.S. - I call dibs on the band name Krautkast, in which we cover Outkast in the style of 1970's German Electronica. Mine!

motown vs. the bun

Wait until you see the polaroids. We had a last minute housewarming party last night, full of friends and strangers and beer and wine and talking and a lot of good music, thanks to my DJ skills on the MP3 player. I made the raddest 8-hour mix ever, and we only listened to a little over half of the goodies I had stacked there. It was nice though, even though we had to give the boot to some stragglers come 3:30 AM. It was time to hit the sack.

Took off on Tuesday for Los Angeles on a non-band related journey meant for relaxation and visiting with the brother purposes. The drive down was cold and rainy, but Los Angeles, as always, was sunny and warm most of the time, although there was a strange cold wind that bit through my multiple jackets once the sun set. We had a good time playing soccer on his X-box, drinking whisky, and going out to some nice Echo Park drinking locations, one of which is owned by Mr. Afghan Whig/Twilight Singer Greg Dulli. Good times all around with some old friends, a lot of talking, which is what weeknights out are for anyways.

Thursday I lucked out and got to see The Shins at the Henry Fonda theater on Hollywood Blvd. Good show, although I think they could *really* use the skills of a 5th member onstage. When the keyboard player stopped playing the keys and switched to guitar or bass, I missed the sounds of the keys, but when he'd get back on the keyboards, everything sounded too thin due to lack of guitar. Other than that, they played well, and after a few backstage antics we all went over the Beauty Bar for some late-late night drinks. Good times all around, and now I'm back home in Oakland, recuperating from a week of going out in LA, an insanely good friday night dinner, and a late night house party. Sleep will be my new friend.

The Communique record is finished, and the masters are waiting to be delivered to the label tomorrow (a shipping snafu has delayed them over the weekend, I should have gotten in on Friday). I'm excited to hear it, and more importantly I'm excited for *other human beings* to finally hear it. Oh, and check out page 58 in the new issue of AP magazine for a little band writeup. Thankfully, they say nice things. We're playing a show later this month, so from now until then it's practice practice practice nonstop to get back into shape.

Oh, and I'm going to start interning at Absolutely Kosher records tomorrow. It will be nice to help out a good local label and at the same time escape the house for a bit. Sometimes it feels good to be busy.

MP3 of the week: I listened to Otis nonstop while cleaning my brother's apartment last week, such good stuff. The song is short, I know, so look for a midweek minimix (it's been forever!) up soon.