Woody's Monthly "Things You Should Listen To But Probably Aren't An- WHY WOULD YOU NAME A BAND THAT?!"

Welcome to the first installment of WMTYSLTBPAAWWYNABT. Er, on second thought we'll just call it Woody's Indie Rock Blog. WIRB is so much easier to type. Yeah. Anyway, I figured this is probably the easiest way to get the word out on some bands I think people of The Circle would enjoy. Those of you already into Indie may feel like your intelligence is being insulted by some of the suggestions ("Brah, Cage the Elephant is SO old hat."), but bear with me, I'll be pulling some weird shit out of the bag as well.

Since this is the first of many to come, I figured for those not heavily into the Indie genre, I'd throw out a few of what I personally feel are bands that represent the Indie genre well as a whole. While they aren't necessarily the best of the best, they do lay down the foundations of Indie music. For example, you'd be hard pressed to find a modern Indie band that doesn't cite Neutral Milk Hotel as a influence on their work:

Neutral Milk Hotel
Cage The Elephant
Devendra Banhart
Guided By Voices
Iron & Wine
The Flaming Lips

The following list of songs is a compilation of my favorite discoveries from the bowels of the Indie internet-underworld (Interworld? Undernet? I like undernet!). Give them a spin and let me know what you liked most!

Song: Dance the Way I Feel
Artist: Ou Est Le Swimming Pool
Highlights: The perfect fusion of house rhythms and indie vocals.

Song: Concaves
Artist: Glorytellers
Highlights: The American counterpart to The Kooks. And a fondness for the harmonica.

Song: The Echoes of Time
Artist: The Smiles and Frowns
Highlights: Proves that less can indeed be more. Simple lyrics and minimalistic guitar manage to tell a complex story. Damn this duo for making it look so effortless.

Song: Baby Boomer
Artist: Monsters of Folk
Highlights: More like Masters of Folk. Takes Indie-Folk to the edge and beyond. Pure excellence.

Song: The '59 Sound
Artist: The Gaslight Anthem
Highlights: Your shampoo bottle will be hearing this chorus for weeks as you sing it in the shower. I hope mine likes my imitation of a gravelly man-voice. I sure don't.

Song: Are You Sure
Artist: Tutankamon
Highlights: The guitar riff is the ultimate earworm. I hope you like competition.

Song (Two recommendations this time): Anna, Simple Stones
Artist: Jupiter One
Highlights: Simple Stones is simply 80s funk gone Indie. It's brilliant.

Song: Waste Time
Artist: The Fire Theft
Highlights: A very chill song, makes the best impression though if it is immediately followed by Heaven by the same band - its more upbeat counterpart.

Song: The Indie Queens Are Waiting
Artist: Dan Mangan
Highlights: The guitar and piano are so soft the singers might as well deliver this one a capella - this might sound like a backhanded compliment, but it isn't. An emotional performance driven almost solely by voice alone isn't something one stumbles on often, and should be given special note when it is.

Song: You're In Love With The Sun
Artist: The Very Most
Highlights: Update The Beatles by 40 years and give them a surf rock twist. And there you have it.

Song: Come Out, Come Out
Artist: I Was Totally Destroying It
Highlights: Your steering wheel-drum kit will be slamming out this beat for weeks. I sure hope that if you're a foot tapper you don't drive a manual.

Song: New Theory
Artist: Washed Out
Highlights: A sort of low-fi ballad with heavy techno undertones. An interesting combination, but it really works.

Song: Tear Down the Opera House
Artist: The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir
Highlights: Oh, whoop-di-do. Another punk-rock influenced song about taking down the establishment. Ohhh, so clever. Wait for the Chuck Berry-style guitar solo. And then proceed to shit bricks.

I'll end with The Bravery's new album, Stir The Blood. Not quite as good as their previous The Sun and The Moon, but definitely worth checking out. And with that, I'll leave you to your own assessments of my choices, and to discoveries of your own.

Listen well!
Your Friendly Neighborhood Indie Music Guru

Interesting Things Nikki And I Talk About Late At Night:

Woody: "Do you think Tony Stark put a urine capture device in the Iron Man suit so he can pee in flight?"

Nikki: "Probably."

Woody: "...What if he has to shit?"

Nikki: "He can't shit in flight."

Woody: "Sometimes he's in that suit for over 24 hours! It's either take it off or shit in the suit."

Nikki: "Well maybe he's like a bear and eats a lot of moss to plug up his ass."

Woody: "That could be why he was drinking that green stuff in the movie. High fiber diet and all."

Woody: "Why would Bella and Edward think it's a good idea to have a fucking baby?"

Nikki: "Why would they think it's a good idea to be fucking?"

Woody: "I mean, vampire baby, shit's dangerous. If I were her, I woulda been like: 'Whoa, why didn;t you tell me this child would try to eat my uterus.' And then it would've been whisk time."

Nikki: "Like Emeril? *mimes whisking motion* KICK IT UP A NOTCH."

(Talking about the sex scene between Dan and Laurie)

Nikki: "At first he's like: SEX. YEEEAAAAAAHHHH! But then he has E.D. so he's like: NOOOOOO!"

A Little Slice Of The College Life

As I begin classes tomorrow, I figure now is a good time to reflect on what the past few days of living in a dorm room has taught me about college life:

-Never go to dinner at 6:00 pm.

-Never try to shower at 7:00pm.

-When swearing loudly over video games/WoW, make sure no one is standing out in the hall that can hear you, lest you offend them.

-Always know where the closest ATM, comic book store, and drug store are.

-All the men on our floor are chill, efficient, and decent human beings in general. The women are bitches.

-Only leave your door open if you want people running in at 10:30 at night wanting to play Rock Band. No matter how hot it is.

-There is no such thing as too many posters.

-Bring plenty of munchies.

-Telling the story where I say "I feel like every liquid currently in my body is piss" is not a good way to make new friends.

-Don't get on your RA's bad side.

-And finally: disregard bitches, acquire currency.

UPDATE!

NO ONE GIVES A SHIT! (No, really, I don't know if anyone even reads this anymore so it is a logical assumption.)

Anyway, on to business.

Currently playing: The Minstrel's Prayer by Cartel

Days until I move into my shiny new dorm room: 29

Days until I start fucking up things in my shiny new dorm room: 30

Days until FUUUUUUU- (read: first class I will ever have is Chem lecture at 7:30 am): 34

Art projects finished: 1

Art projects not finished: 12

iTunes library status since grey-screen of DOOM: 4, 203 songs, 22.14 gb

Indie-fied: Very much so.

On a scale of "Nah" to "OH MY GO-AUBSIYVAYAV", how much my room needs to be cleaned: "I think that pile of laundry is trying to communicate through pantomime. That or my dog is stuck under it."

Things purchased in the last week: 

-Time Capsule

-Post-it Notes

-Socks

-Earplugs

Things I have in my room that don't belong in my house: 12

Number of people that need to be given their shit back: 2

WoW Accomplishments:

80 Death Knight (Saintmurder)

80 Mage (Oddity)

79 Warrior (Stimpak)

73 Druid (Chemo)

68 Rogue (Radium)

36 Shaman (Ectoplasm)

29 Paladin (Acumen)

20 Hunter (Acehigh)

Man-Harem Additions:

Craig Parker (NOT in Haldir costume. He looks retarded. Zap the wig though, and nnngghh. Pretty.)

Sam Neill

Paul Bettany

Ethan Hawke

Alejandro Manzano (Lead singer of Boyce Avenue. Check 'em out on YouTube.)

Current music obsessions:

The Bravery

The Dead 60s

Eisley

Keane

Locksley

The Real Tuesday Weld

TV on the Radio

To-Do List:

Finish packing

Clean room

Finish Packing

Clean out mini-fridge

Finish packing

Baby-proof house

Finish packing

Wash car

Finish packing

Explore phenomena called "sunlight"

Finish packing

FINISH PACKING!

...

Oh, I need new jeans too.

Care level: I_I

("Ahem, Thisby."

"Aye, Cap'n. Quite."

"Thisby, it appears that the lass's care cup is still rather empty."

"Indeed, Cap'n. Most remarkable."

"...Well, do something about it, Thisby!"

"Erm, what do you propose, Cap'n?"

"Well, first things first, those pants are going to have to come off."

"C-Cap'n?")

"Trent?" "Yeah?" "I think I just came. I'm standing 15 feet away from Chris Martin."

So, Coldplay in concert...holy shit. Like, I knew they were good, but they were a million times better live then I ever expected. And it was more than just the fact that these are four very talented guys bouncing around on stage and having so much fun doing it, you're having fun just WATCHING them...it was the whole event. The lights, smoke, acoustics, balloons, GLOW IN THE DARK BUTTERFLIES. It was just...magical. I know that sounds corny, but for two and a half hours I wasn't in Irvine, California. I was in a completely different world. And the population was 20,000 screaming fans and 4 very talented musicians.

The Breakdown:

7:00 - The first opening band starts, a very odd swing/pop/country/blues compilation band hailing from the UK. The male singer was very good, but the female drummer kept throwing me off. She used her entire body whilst drumming. Very strange.

8:00 - Second opening band begins, even weirder than the first. Sort of a African choir meets Techno meets Blues. Very bizarre combination, but it kinda sorta (not-really) worked. Either way, opening bands are supposed to be mediocre anyway.

8:50 - Roadies begin setting up for Coldplay. I squee at the sight of Chris Martin's signature acoustic guitar.

9:10 - The show kicks off with a blast - lights, color, and sound - to the tune of Life in Technicolor. Chris Martin is bouncing around the stage like he's walked every inch of it since he was born. It's hard to describe how happy I was that they opened the show with my favorite song from Viva La Vida.

From there the set followed thusly:

Violet Hill (My second favorite song off the album, who'da thunkit?)

In My Place

Viva La Vida (I shouted myself hoarse on this one. You couldn't NOT sing along.)

Yellow (Here they had giant yellow balloons out in the crowd.)

Glass of Water

Cemeteries of London

42

Fix You (Imagine 20,000 people singing along with this. EVERYONE was on their feet.)

Strawberry Swing (One of the best performances of the night.)

God Put a Smile On Your Face (This is the song where they played on a stage in the middle of the crowd and I was 15 feet away from them. It was insane how close I was. I - just - it was amazing.)

Talk

Lost

Green Eyes (Again, they went and played in a different part of the crowd, but this is my favorite Coldplay song of all time. I was very surprised that they played it. In fact, I bet Trent before the concert that they WOULDN'T play it, heh.)

Billy Jean (Yes, they did an acoustic version of this song. Also, my favorite Michael Jackson song. Funny, innit?)

Death Will Never Conquer (Much to my surprise, the drummer really could sing.)

Politik

Lovers In Japan (Here they launched thousands of thin plastic butterflies that glowed in the dark into the crowed. NEON RAIN!)

Death and All of His Friends

Reprise of Viva La Vida

The Scientist

Life In Technicolor ii (A nice way to wrap up the show with this one.)

The show ended around 11:15, and I called Trent right after it was over to ask him what he thought. Most of the phone call was silence because we couldn't put how it felt to be there into words. I still can't. 

I honestly think the best part about the whole thing was that you could see how much fun the band members were having. I've seen many shows where the band looks like they can't wait to get offstage. Their whole performance says "Damn, I have to do this 100 more times." During this show, there wasn't even a hint of that. Either the members of Coldplay are very good actors, or they genuinely enjoyed what they were doing. It was impossible not to have fun.

Simply put, Coldplay in concert was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. I've stood inside St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. I've seen the Panama Canal. I've stood at the highest point in the continental United States, and seeing them play live is right up there with all those.

...And the only thing that could top it would be seeing Bowie in concert.

Blink

So I finally did it. Fuck.

I started writing the epic story about time travel that I've had stuck in my head for three years now. It's been rattling around up there because I've always been too terrified to try and put it down, like trying to capture a waft of smoke - reach for it and it's gone.

The Players:

Evan Hoffling - Called 'Hoff' by most people but can't stand it.

Fadir Mittal - Evan's best friend who is convinced he can travel in time.

Juliet Fenwick - I don't know how she fits yet or what she does, but holy shit that's too cool a name to waste.

The Problem:

Okay, now me actually telling you how Fadir thinks he could travel in time would defeat the point of me even writing, yes? Just so you know, it has to do with strings and paradoxes and the constant movement of molecules. Oh, and blinking.

I'm certain this will turn out to be yet another one of my partially-finished, hair-brained schemes that never see fruition, but here I go anyway.

On The Proper Use of Leverage

"Give me but one firm spot of land on which to stand, and I will move the world." - Archimedes

So says the man that was the first to discover the properties of buoyancy, to give practical uses for mirrors and levers, to calculate the volume of a sphere. Archimedes was hailed as the one of the greatest polymaths ever to live by taking theory from the abstracted mind, and giving it a practical use. Archimedes stood on the library and museum at Alexandria, and from there he changed the world.

I have Lancaster. And I will have UC Davis. Certainly they are no match for the birth place of modern thought and reason, but maybe - just maybe - they're firm enough that I can change the world too. 

Archimedes changed the world with a lever and fulcrum, what will you change the world with?

(I blame illness on this post. I have been reading "The Rise and Fall of Alexandria" while I've been bedridden...blasted philosophers.)