Album Review #4: Whiskeytown

Pneumonia, by Whiskeytown (2001)

I've never been much into mainstream country (although I do go through phases once in a while), but one genre I have really grown to enjoy over the last couple of years is what some might call alternative country, or alt-country. (Easier to type.) My first real exposure was to The Jayhawks, which numerous websites have designated that grossly overused phrase, "Best Band You've Never Heard Of."

Whiskeytown drew similar comparisons during their short and fairly volatile history. They were only really in existence for two years, and only two members were constant over even that time: Caitlin Gary and Ryan Adams (not to be confused with Bryan Adams). I'd bought a couple of Ryan Adams's solo albums (he's had a pretty successful solo career), Heartbreaker and Easy Tiger, which I thought were starkly different. Heartbreaker was half near-punk and half extremely mellow rock, but the latter was decidedly more country, complete with slide guitars, etc. Pneumonia seems to fit somewhere in the middle, which works just fine with me.

Adams's voice is surprisingly versatile. In any of his (or his affiliated band's) albums, he could remind you of anyone from Harry Nilsson to Paul Simon to Gram Parsons to (insert very twangy-voiced country singer here), and you really get a taste of this in Pneumonia.

The album raises its proverbial curtain with a charmingly wheezy harmonica intro on "The Ballad of Carol Lynn". Each of the first three songs is of a certain flavor, light-hearted and walking-paced, with country influences. Really, most of the songs are like that. When trying to describe the album, I'm reminded of a phrase borrowed from the late Mitch Hedberg: "all exciting at first, but by the end your f---ing sick of it." (Note: Mitch's use of the phrase is quite different...that would be how he describes eating pancakes.) It really is nice to listen to for a while, especially on a road trip or something, but before too long I find myself skipping tracks, just a little bit bored.

When I do skip ahead, I usually look for "Jacksonville Skyline", with its really nostalgic lyrics. Sample: "Well Jacksonville's a city with a hopeless street light / Seems like you're lucky if it ever changes from red to green / Well I was born in an abundance of inherited sadness / and fifty-cent picture frames bought at a five-and-dime." I like the care-free-ness and rhythm of "Paper Moon", which has a faintly Latin taste. "Crazy About You" and "Bar Lights" are also favorites.

More than anything, it was a good experience to see where Ryan Adams came from. It's funny; kinda like he can't decide what kind of musician he is. Mainstream rock? Punk? Does he belong in Nashville? That musical indecisiveness and unpredictability is what makes his stuff appealing. At least to me.

Grade: B

The Issues

Turn on CNN or Fox News, and all you see is people talking about the problems of the world today, usually from some political standpoint. How refreshing that a couple of guys from New Zealand can candidly talk (and sing!) about the dire problems facing the world today. Do watch:



(More Flight of the Conchords stuff.)

So Awkward!

I ran across a Facebook group called "I'm So AWKWARD!" today, which I thought was pretty funny because it had a list of "Have you ever..." questions related to the topic of awkwardness and social clumsiness. I'm no Larry David (see an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm if you don't know what I'm talking about), but I'm not immune to these unfortunate occurrences. Granted, they never result in situations as painful as the following Sonic commercial:



Anyway, here's an excerpt of that list. You know you're awkward if...

1. you have stubbed your toe twice in one day.
2. you have had a conversation that has gone like this:
You: 'Hey, how are you?'
Other person: 'Good, how are you?'
You: 'Good, how are you?'
3. you have fallen/tripped in public, simultaneously making a weird noise, and then looked around to see if anyone saw you.
4. said goodbye to your friend you were walking with and thought that you were going to part ways, but realized that you were both really headed in the same direction, so you either laughed uncomfortably and walked in silence or pretended that you actually had to go in a different direction and then took a longer route to your destination.
5. told someone you had to leave a party, but didn't for a long time, and then saw the same person looking at you some time later with a slightly bewildered gaze.

As a result of this last weekend, I have two more items to add:

1. Made a phone call, recipient answers, "Hey Josh", to which I ingeniously reply, "Hey Josh.....uh, I mean...".
2. Wanted to make a pop culture reference to, for example, a movie, and so asked "Hey, have you ever seen (insert movie here)?", only to get the response "No", followed by you replying "Oh" and a short period of silence, because the story you were about to tell would've only made any semblance of sense with a response of "Yes".

And I'm telling you, I do that #2 a lot. (Urgent clarification: That would be the item #2 in the preceding list. I swear that was by accident. Clearly, such a sophisticated blog wouldn't trifle with such low-brow humor. Looks like I have a new one to add to the list.) Sure wish life came with a rewind button sometimes. Or at least pause.

Here's to You, Jimmy V

As I drive my little Corolla to the office every morning, my radio is always turned to Mike & Mike in the Morning. Each year for I don’t know how long, they take a day in July and have a sort of “Jimmy V Day”, and auction off cool items whose proceeds go to the V Foundation. One such prize (which ended up going for some 5- or 6-figure pricetag) was for Mike & Mike to be aired from someone’s house. Pretty cool if you ask me.

And just when I thought some rich guy would be hosting Mike & Mike from the third-floor balcony of his Florida mansion, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the winner of the auction was the head of Medical City Children’s Hospital in Dallas, right across the freeway from my office. Sometime in the fall, Mike & Mike in the Morning will be hosted from the children’s cancer hospital at Medical City. Which, of course, is appropriate, as the V Foundation is used to fund cancer research.

For those who don’t know, Jim Valvano was a legendary basketball coach primarily known for his tenure at NC State during the 80’s. The Wolfpack won the title in 1983, and Jimmy V was so ecstatic after the final buzzer sounded that he ran onto the court looking for somebody to hug. There really wasn’t anything not to like about him; sort of like how it’s hard not to like Mike Krzyzewski, coach of Duke basketball.

But at age 46, in June of 1992, he was diagnosed with metastatic bone cancer. Several months later in February of ‘93, he received the Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award at the first annual ESPY awards, where he gave probably one of the most poignant speeches in American history. In addition, he announced the start of the V Foundation, which has so far raised over $70 million for cancer research in only 15 years of existence.

He died only two months later.

I try to watch his ESPY speech every once in a while. It really puts things in perspective, and frankly is life-changing advice. So I’m posting it here...



Here’s to you Jimmy V.

(Image credit: ESPN)

The Other Josh - The One Who Can Hit a Ball 500 feet

Wow. All I can say is just, wow.

As is normally the case on a Monday night, I was all set to watch an episode of Family Guy, so I could continue towards my unending quest to memorize each and every script. And lo and behold, according to my digital cable guide, it was going to be one I hadn't seen before. But I just happened to stop on ESPN, because I had read somewhere that the Home Run Derby was tonight.

I watched as Justin Morneau and Ryan Braun stroked some pretty decent totals of 7 and 8 home runs. I say decent; come on, they're hitting baseballs one and a half football fields in front of millions of viewers. And then a large man named Josh Hamilton made his way to the batters' box.

Holy crap.

Here's a retrospective (and so possibly slightly inaccurate) record of my thoughts as I watched what unfolded.

8:24pm - Hmm, Josh Hamilton. I've heard of this guy. I went to a couple of Rangers games, and in one they played Tampa. Having fallen behind 5-4, Hamilton had a chance to win the game with two on, one out in the bottom of the ninth. We Ranger faithful rose to our feet, hoping that our little team might pull off a miracle and pull that much closer to a .500 record. Fly out. Crap. Oh well, maybe this guy can show me something here at the Derby.

8:29pm - Good start, he has 6 home runs and only 4 outs. The first one went to left-center, which was crazy, because he's a leftie. Looks like he'll get the 8 he needs to get to the second round. Nice to know someone else named Josh is doing well for himself.

8:32pm - Wow, he just hit one over 500 ft. They mentioned the record was Sammy Sosa with 524. Sure seems like these are going farther.

8:35pm - Up to 10 home runs! Still only 6 outs. I bet those tattoos only work if you have actual muscles. Maybe I should exercise some restraint and hold off on that.

8:38pm - My buddy John from Longview just IMed me making sure I was watching. Luckily, I was able to honestly put on the "I love baseball" facade, because I already was watching. This is awesome, but I'm missing Family Guy, surely he'll lose some steam here.

8:42pm - John and I keep exhchanging Wows on AIM. We're up to 18, and only 8 outs! Only 6 away from Bobby Abreu's record. The guy who's pitching to him is like 71...he might need some Vitamin Water before it's all said and done. He'll have to pitch the next 2 rounds, too.

8:45pm - Jumping up and down in my room in disbelief. Calling people. Texting people. He's hit shots to the upper deck, to the back of center field, off a Mastercard sign. Holy crap. Chris Berman is running out of things to say. "Back, back, back, that ball is going all the way to...uh...um...Lake Erie!"

8:51pm - He just hit one that I could've sworn was a pop out. Yet it carried all the way out to the upper deck on right field! I'm looking forward to watching this on ESPN classic in 6 years. 22!

8:54pm - 26!!! Is this real?? He hasn't hit an out since Family Guy started at 8:30, which by the way, I'm missing for this! Oh, what I wouldn't give for a DVR. They just showed a stat on ESPN, he's hit over two miles' worth of home run goodness. Nuts.

9:01pm - Well, what a disappointment. He stopped at only 28! How dare he quit on us like that. No really, that was pretty frickin' awesome. Especially for a guy who had a drug problem like 4 years ago. It was weird, after a while, it was almost boring and exciting at the same time...he hit like 14 straight! Unreal. And it's great, because it looks like there's no asterisk with this guy like there was with Bonds.

Almost as entertaining was this commercial that kept coming on. "I'm gonna kick some dirt!"



Peace.

In Josh's Head

WARNING: rambly, stream-of-consciousness, and ridiculously self-absorbed blog entry ahead. I pledged I wouldn't go in this direction on my blog, but hey, who reads this thing anyway?

Ever had one of those situations when you feel like you're supposed to be enjoying a moment, but other attitudes brought on by other circumstances just get in the way? For a few reasons, I have had a rather cynical, almost bitter view of the world lately. That cynical tone is there in my head and influences my thoughts, but those thoughts luckily don't come out in everyday conversation. (Which is good, because if it did, people would get tired of me very quickly.)

Occasionally I'll be doing something cool, interesting, or otherwise not-sucky, but all of a sudden I'll remember, "Josh, you should be cynical and bitter right about now." Then that attitude invades my psyche, and it takes a good deal of effort to quell it. It's happened sort of often in the last two or three weeks.

I figure it's just a phase. I've worked to avoid excessive cynicism in my life (OK, I seriously need a thesaurus right about now...I can only use the word "cynical" so many times in three paragraphs), so there's no reason to believe I can't overcome this pattern, too. Take politics for example. I grew up as the only Democrat I knew in school and was dismissed as misinformed and wrong mostly everywhere I turned. But I learned over time that the correct response is to not fire back childishly, "No, you're wrong." It's better (usually) to just accept that's the way the other person views the world, and just stick to what you believe in. Which I feel is a pretty positive, decidedly un-bitter attitude. As John Lennon famously crooned, "Let it be."

But lately, it's difficult to hold on to such positive attitudes. So much so that it encroaches on my day-to-day experiences. Guess it just needs to get out of my system. In due time.

Bears!

Did I not say a couple of blogs ago that bears were a threat to our society?

(Courtesy: Non Sequitur, by Wiley Miller)

Album Review #3: South Austin Jug Band

Strange Invitation (2008), by South Austin Jug Band

Preceding side story: I kinda wish I had gone to UT for several reasons. One reason is that at UTD, our mascot is a flaming sperm, which is far less intimidating than even a large cow with big horns. Another reason is that the music scene in Richardson, TX (the community chock full of suburban neighborhoods and fast food joints that also happens to be home to my alma mater) left quite a bit to be desired. I'll begin making up for lost time in September when I go to Austin City Limits '08, an event I only hope lives up to my incredibly unrealistic expectations and dreams.

South Austin Jug Band used to be a perennial act in Austin (imagine that). According to my brother, they put on great shows with regularity. They had a guitarist/singer, kick-ass mandoliner and fiddler, an acoustic bassist/singer, and a heavily dreadlocked guitar virtuoso. As a casual late-comer fan, I really enjoyed SAJB's stylings, which sits on the fence between bluegrass and folk, as reflected in their first two albums, South Austin Jug Band and Dark and Weary World. The former boasts an unforgettable "Little Wing" cover, and the latter is played with high regularity on my (and I suspect others') iPod.

So imagine my enthusiasm when I ran across Strange Invitation one day at CD Source. A final side story: I finally got to see these guys at Threadgill's in Austin last fall. It was really chill; my fellow concert-goers were somewhat disenchanted by their lack of edge. Apparently they've lost a couple of their original crew in the last year or two. I hoped mightily as I struggled to un-shrink-wrap my purchase that Strange Invitation did not share the same fate.

It does, sadly.

I think there's some great music on this album, depending on what you like; it just is so different from what I'm used to. The first two tracks, "Come to Me" and "Falls So Fast" are really decent tracks, but not spectacular. But most of the songs are all the same: very tame tracks that put you right to sleep.

Even the big instrumental pieces (which occur in both SAJB's prior albums with excellent results), "Trek of Beandip Perkins" and "Reprise" don't get the blood going like good ol' straw-chomping, overall-wearing bluegrass is supposed to. It's like bluegrass on heavy-duty muscle relaxers.

If you haven't heard of South Austin Jug Band, consider this less a chastising of Strange Invitation and more a glorification of their earlier stuff. Plus, this happened to be in my work computer during a particularly crappy day at the office, so I have the whole negative association thing going on. (Had to stay until 9:30pm on a Friday, for those of you who are curious.) Ah well.

Grade: C