Thursday, August 19, 2010

Hmm...I forgot you could tempt me with things I want




These are a couple pics from the ACL: Satellite Sets recording we did last Friday by photographer, Jonathan Jackson. There are more pics on his site.

That show was really fun and really crazy and really surreal. I just sat there thinking, "...Yeah...Ray Charles played this piano...Etta James sang on this stage....Michael Stipe sang into this mic..." I can't wait to see the final footage. The plan is to release a dvd of the show so hopefully, everyone will get a chance to see it.

My one complaint with the ACL taping is that, apparently, I am not a fan of Steinway pianos. Tommy said their action is notoriously heavy and I can attest to that. My hands were actually tired and hurting after 2 songs on that thing. Looked cool, though.

Leah got back from London on Thursday, we had to be at the ACL studio all day Friday, Leah had weddings all day Saturday and Sunday, and then Quiet Company had two more shows on Monday and Tuesday. So last night was Leah's and my first night, since she got back, to actually relax together. We went to the mall, had dinner, let Harper run around, came home, put Harper to bed, and then watched the most recent True Blood and Greenberg in bed.

True Blood was great, as usual. I could've done without Greenberg. I feel like there are a ton of indie movie directors that just got together and said, "Hey don't you hate how movies always have stories. Let's make movies without them or at least have as little change as possible take place in the protagonist's life, so much so that the audience comes away wondering what they just spent the last two hours of their life doing." I chuckled a few times during the movie but this morning I woke up thinking that I really could've used that time for sleeping or, at least, watching something where the story and/or characters develop.

So it goes.


I didn't really know what to think of the new Arcade Fire when I heard the single on NPR. I didn't think I liked it, though, and I was not optimistic for the rest of the record. However, a few days ago, I finally got around to listening to the record all the way through a few times and now I am convinced that it is easily the best record of 2010.


A close second is the new Starflyer 59 record, The Changing of the Guard, which came out last week. I've long been obsessed with this band. I'll buy anything that they put out, in fact. It's even more impressive that the band is still putting out some of their best work when you consider that this is something like their 14th record.

Harper has started saying "thank you" which is adorable, and yesterday, I think she found her first boyfriend in a little Indian boy at the Disney Store.

I'm just really glad that Leah is back and that she brought me back a replica of Harry Potter's wand. It chose me.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Damn!!! The new Eminem record and the Arby's value menu are both equally amazing!

My brother, Cameron, once said that the mark of a classy establishment was when they serve Pepsi, rather than Coca Cola. I disagree. To me, the biggest indicator of an establishment's level of class is whether or not toilet seat liners are available in the restroom. Also, I prefer Coca Cola.

It's been about 4 weeks since I wrote here, and it hasn't been uneventful. Quiet Company did 3 more shows with one of my favorite bands of all time, The Toadies. One of those shows was a sold out crowd (1725+ people) at the House of Blues in Houston. I could get incredibly spoiled by the House of Blues. I've never been treated so well or played in a venue so nice. They carried our stuff for us, they fed us, we even had a real green room. It was like they actually cared about the opening band. We also played another show with Bob Schneider at the House of Blues in Dallas, and had a similarly awesome experience. That show wasn't sold out, though. We had to make due with only playing to about 1400 people there.

We had another song (The Biblical Sense of the Word) played on The Real World and this time we saw a huge spike in our Itunes sales in the following days. We made the top 50 on that first day, even.

Speaking of TV, there's a new show coming on ABC this September called "My Generation," and at least one episode features some pretty awesome montage acting by Quiet Company. So we're going to be on TV as a real band, playing a fake version of...ourselves. It's weird. Anyway, stay tuned to all the QC pages for more information about all of that.

Leah has left me to journey across the pond to visit her sister in London and won't return until the middle of next week. Needless to say, I'm having a great time. PARTY!!! PARTY!!! PARTY!!!!

I'm kidding, of course. I miss the hell out of her. My mom is in town to take care of Harper while I'm at work so Harper is having a good time, though I'm sure she would miss her mother if she could grasp the concept of Object Permanence.

I hate sleeping alone. It's just one of those things that you get really accustomed to when you're a married person, I guess. I didn't go to London with Leah because I decided that I should use my vacation time for Quiet Company to go on a small tour in Sept. It hasn't come together as easily as I wanted, which has me kicking myself everyday when Leah tells me how awesome England is.

After Harper goes to bed, I've been working on cleaning up a cabinet that I bought at the government surplus store for my comic books. I've been going to bed shortly after that. My mom has been making awesome food for dinner (chicken & dumplings, fried steak cutlets, English peas, mashed potatoes, and coconut custard pie). So that has made missing my wife a little more bearable.

Tonight, I may go see Inception after Harper goes to bed.