alright, mr. joshua mars robertson, just calm down...you don't need to email me complaining about my lack of posts...i know i haven't been around but i've been flying the friendly skies. 3 airplanes in 5 days. sheesh.



austin, tx rocks...more later...to pete & amy's i go...



cds i picked up at waterloo records in austin (i went to the record store every day i was in austin....that's what i call a great vacation!)--

on avery island--neutral milk hotel (the bomb!)

seven--james (courtesy of chris dye stanley the rubber chicken's original owner)

navy blue--sloan

just for a day--slowdive (i love neil halstead...i love neil halstead...i love neil halstead...)

lull in traffic--the gloria record

s/t--the gloria record (austin boys)

bryter later--nick drake (this is the first time i've found a used nick drake cd!!! that's like finding a used wilco cd!!!)

drawn to the deep end--gene

let it be--the beatles (and you don't find used beatles albums too often either)

odessy & oracle--the zombies

let us garlands bring--early day miners (i will be commenting on this cd later...let's just say it made me cry on the plane ride from austin to dallas...i still get teary-eyed just thinking about it...order your copy from secretly canadian...and they're coming to the empty bottle on monday 10/14!!!! they'll also be at the mercury lounge in new york city on 10/20.)

ok. yeah, it's been a while but i've been busy....ryan and jesse land @ o'hare in like 6 hours!!!! i'm totally psyched. but i haven't slept again. something about my seattle boys that i always end up not sleeping the night before seeing them. been working like a dog. the EEO-1 totally bites. but it's done. i'm off to spin cycle to pick up my load in the dryer...



p.s. my best friend josh PROPOSED to his girlfriend lielle on wednesday!!! i get to be a grooms-chick! i'm not sure how that works...

saw the international noise conspiracy and the promise ring from the pit at the metro. got photo clearance through the promise ring. God bless tim edwards of flower booking & davey vonbohlen & the rest of TPR.

watchers packed out the empty bottle on a monday night as they headlined.

the crowd just went crazy for them and didn't want them to stop. i was so happy for michael. he was totally psyched. they put on an awesome, awesome show...

today (monday) was a great day of rock 'n' roll for me...i love the rock & i love the roll...

more later...

ok. i don’t know about you, but at 1pm on a saturday afternoon when you’ve been conscious for only half an hour, the last thing you want or expect to encounter is a strange man peering in through your living room window. your attic apartment living room window, mind you. alright, he wasn’t exactly PEERING in, but it was quite a shock to be sitting there checking my email in just my damien jurado & GIS t-shirt and not much else and then to see this strange figure lurking outside my window. ok. he wasn’t exactly lurking, he was painting the facade of the apartment, but still…it would’ve been nice if my landlord had warned me that folks might be outside my window and not to scream or call the cops or push them off the side of the building. when you live in an attic apartment (i love my attic apartment…) you just don’t expect to see people at eye level when you look outside your window.



speaking of people painting your apartment, here is something i overheard:

guy outside my window (to colleague below): “hey! what are you smoking down there? what?! you better not be f’in’ around with me! i’m serious!” and later...."you've got to put the paint on the roller!" hmm...this is SOOO reassuring....



so let’s see now…oh yeah. the ok go concert. that was thursday, right. yeah, i picked up my friend michael & we went to the show. met tim the bass player and andy (michael’s old roommate) the guitar player before the show. they were sweet as pie. i was kinda out of it that night. i think i missed peter and amy who had left that evening for a wedding in CT, and they were the ones i’d first seen okgo w/ a few weeks ago and they really wanted to be at that show w/ me. and it was really crowded. and it was an all ages show…and you know how those get…i was just trying not to get my toes stepped on by swooning girls, ya know. they do put on quite a show though. i’m glad they had such an enthusiastic audience for the cd release. and as you can see from the lack of pictures, it was a standard camera policy that night. thank goodness i got permission from the promise ring to shoot photos for their show on monday. i hate not being able to use my camera.



so i was totally going to go to denison’s show in rockford yesterday. megan was gonna meet me there. but stuff happened, i kept making wrong turns and couldn’t find the frickin’ highway, and when i consulted w/ megan we both had this feeling we shouldn’t go so we stayed in our respective midwestern towns for the evening. i was totally bummed because i so wanted to surprise deni by showing up w/ megan in rockford. oh well. maybe we’ll surprise him for seattle. i better tell andy myers not to tell him we’re coming out for that show…



so instead of driving out to rockford, i stopped by my mom’s house and then went back to my apt. i called michael and he mentioned the pere ubu show which i had planned on going to if i didn’t go to deni’s concert, so i went over to his apt & we had some pasta. we debated paying $15 for a band whose good stuff was probably over before some of my friends were even born, and instead of trekking out to the abbey, we stayed in and listened to records. i love saying that. listening to records. not cds. records. ha ha ha. reminds me of one of my favorite denison witmer songs ‘light my way’ off of joy and sorrow. michael’s got all these cool records. he used to be the program director at WLUW (88.7 fm), the only indie radio station worth anything in the city proper. he’s actually the dude who revamped the station and gave it the current indie format as opposed to the high energy stuff i used to listen to on the station for back when i was in high school. so he knows his records.



we also listened to cds. we put on the cure’s disintegration which I’d really been wanting to listen to before i’d left my apartment, and he also played slowdive’s pygmalion, which is the most beautiful album i’ve ever heard. i need to get me that. it’s out of print. there’s one on ebay now for like a million pounds. shoot. do you know that feeling you get when you hear the most beautiful aural stimuli you’ve ever encountered and you’re like “i must have that for myself. i must have it…” that’s what i felt when i heard ian moore & the port eleki dudes doing the neutral milk hotel songs. fortunately, that album wasn’t out of print. i guess i’m just going to have to ask michael to play that slowdive one for me a lot until i can afford a million pounds…



speaking of michael, his band watchers will be headlining monday night on 9/23 at the empty bottle. the apes and gogogo airhearts open. show’s at 9:30pm. i’ll be heading over there as soon as the promise ring are done at the metro. watchers put on a rockin’ good show. guaranteed. refer to my 8/26 post.



stuff i listened to recently—

serene—serene

holiday runner—holiday runner

roobrik—the world inside

philadelphia songs—denison witmer

live—denison witmer

and all the colors...--ian moore

pictures of you ep—the cure

disintegration—the cure

pygmalion—slowdive

campus party—henchmen

wish—the cure

souvlaki—slowdive

retrospective—red house painters

nick drake comp—nick drake

start here—the gloria record

in aeroplanes over the sea—neutral milk hotel

wood/water—the promise ring

figure 8—elliott smith

either/or—elliott smith

films for radio—over the rhine

ah yes. denison was in town on tuesday and it was lovely. megan & i met him for dinner & we went to penny's noodles & hung out at my favorite record store next to the double door. the guys who opened up for denison were actually pretty good. lesser birds of paradise. i'd heard of them. there was an accordion involved, which is probably why i liked them. and then denison was of course lovely, although the double door is a strange venue for a guy sitting down w/ a guitar. lotsa chatter going on. megan & i moved our bar stools way up front so denison wouldn't feel lonely, and that encouraged a few others to do the same. i really like denison's new album philadelphia songs which you can get on burnttoastvinyl. he has this one song called leaving philadelphia (arriving in seattle) that makes me think of my own possible move to seattle and how much i'm gonna miss chicago if i do.



i also fulfilled one of my life goals to see the trouble w/ sweeney, who denison had been touring w/. it was funny when denison introduced megan & me to joey sweeney before the show, cuz joey probably thought we're just denison's friends and don't know his music, but i have like ALL of their cds (yeah, all 3 of them), and i've been a big fan ever since i discovered them last spring. i didn't say anything when i met him though cuz i was way too shy, but after the show i did mention that i really had been looking forward to this show since i'd missed his solo show @ schubas back in may. that's when my computer was on the fritz & i was too stressed out to make that show. joey sweeney is a lovely guy, and totally fun to watch on stage. i love the way he dances around while he's playing. he doesn't dance like a rock star. it's more like...uhm...like i would imagine the pied piper would dance. totally awesome though. if you ever get a chance to see joey sweeney or the entire band play, go. just go. and buy their cds at burnt toast vinyl. get dear life. it's awesome. like totally.



after the show, we went back to my apt and hung out. denison was so tired...i felt bad...he did play my guitar though, which is a requirement for staying w/ me if you're a musician. megan had to leave really early in the morning, so we ended up just going to sleep at around 3am. i let denison sleep until around 10 and then he took off for columbus, oh. it was nice to hang out w/ him and get his advice on my future in the music biz. i also got to give him one of my serene cds so he could listen to it since they're probably gonna play some shows with him in the next couple months. i think i'm gonna go see denison play in rockford tomorrow.



ok. i'm going to the okgo concert. my friend michael of the band watchers is supposed to go w/ me. turns out he used to be roommates w/ andy the guitar player. i didn't think he'd be into music like them but maybe he is. ok. gotta go. time to rock and roll. to the metro i go. adios.



oh. p.s. watchers are headlining @ the empty bottle on monday 9/23 at 9:30pm. it should be a rockin' good show. put on your dancin' shoes. no joke hombres.