This is why I'm broke...

These sit on top of my dresser.

These do too.

I buy CDs.

Lots of them.

Way more than

I should.

It's an

addiction.

Let me show

some of them

to you.

I buy these.

I probably shouldn't.

And these sit on top of that over there.

This is what I play them on.

I can't actually

afford them.

But I stay strong.

I waste that

money.

But I don't think

it's wasteful.

I can buy toilet paper and deodorant with

change.

(I did that today)

As long as I've got a few spare dollars to add to this,

 

This is the rest of the collection.

I'm happy.

GLEEKS of the World Unite!

I am a GLEEK and proud of it! If you don't know what a gleek is you must have been living under a rock for the last year and a half. Glee is Fox's hit show that has the whole country loving showchoir! Glee focuses on the high school glee club New Directions competing on the show choir competition circuit, while its members deal with relationship, sexuality and social issues.

From Rachel, the talented but social awkward girl who wants to shine, to Quinn the pregnant captain of the cheer squad and president of the school celibacy club, to Kurt the only out and proud gay kid at a school who can't always accept him, Glee has something for everyone!

But it's not just the story line that gets people coming back for more, every episode is filled with wonderful music that any age, race, or religion can enjoy! The pilot episode featured Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" which has become the defining song for the show as well as the only song to have been used twice. I love being able to watch their talent grow but also growing as people.

If you haven't been watching this show for whatever reason you need to be! I watch every Tuesday night at 8pm and so should you!

Mates of State

Jason and Kori.















They're Mates of State.
They're Married.
They have two adorable daughters.
They're Musicians.
And in my opinion, they're awesome.

I [or rather a really cool (ex)boyfriend of mine] discovered them about a year and a half ago.
And for some reason, I find them extremely interesting.
Their music puts me in a fantastic mood. And the idea of a husband and wife making music and a family together gives me the warm and fuzzies.

perhaps they're not your style (although their older stuff sounds much different than their new stuff), but try to tell me this doesn't make you smile. or tap your foot. or jump up and down uncontrollably singing every single word:




In my opinion, it's the best of both worlds.
and I sort of envy their life...just a bit.

Music and Beer

Music is my life. It is such a part of my life that I cannot and refuse to imagine a life without music. I let music dictate my life and have no problem doing that at all. If you want a kick ass soundtrack that kind of defines what I like to listen to here you go. This soundtrack is 31 songs long and these are some of the more known artists that I listen to.



This is the type of music that I love to listen to. I know that I love much of this because I also play bass. Here is my baby.

My Growler and I love to play almost any type of music. Granted, the bass guitar is not my primary instrument. I also rock one of these bad bitches.

What I love about both of these, is that they both have a place that allows for each of them to be used in modern music. Take a look at this video from The Roots. They use both the Sousaphone and a bass.





I absolutely love The Roots. I love to play them, I love to listen to them, and I cannot wait till I get to see them live. Here's another killer video of them with Ice Cube.



As much as I love music, I love it more when combined with beer. Beer and music go hand in hand. This is my favorite beer. 312 out of Chicago hits the spot every time that I drink it. I drink craft beers mostly. That's not to say that I won't drink a Coors Light, but I generally prefer to consider myself a beer snob. I think that my total count of different beers that I have tried is sitting around 200-220 different beers at this point.

I find it awesome how good music gets when you are drinking beer or altering your sobriety in another way (prop 19-type of ways). Playing tuba drunk is one of my favorite things to do. It may sound nerdy or geeky or whatever you want to call it, but I think that it is so fracking goofy that it doesn't matter. Whenever I have played anything other than jazz (because I've mainly played jazz with my fraternity, Phi Mu Alpha), I have been not sober. Playing music is so much fun. There are few things in life that are better than playing music.

Drinking beer for enjoyment and not to get drunk is also always good. Granted, getting drunk is pretty good too. I think that part of my love for beer came from my love of music and more specifically, my tuba. Seeing as how the tuba was developed in Germany, and the German's have great beer (Oktoberfest is my favorite time of the year). I frequently associate playing tuba with drinking beer.

The midwest has a great selection of breweries that brew craft beers. Here's a list of great breweries in and around Indiana.

Goose Island
Upland
Bells
Sun King
3 Floyds
Oaken Barrel
Founders
Mad Anthony
Barley Island

This list is a small sampling. There are a plethora of beers and I think that there is a beer for everyone. You could say that you don't like beer and I challenge that notion and say that you haven't found the beer you like. Look around. There are literally thousands of beers to try.

Everyone has their own tastes in music and I would definitely say that everyone has their own tastes in beer. You just have to find what you like and stick to it.

Sleigh Bells are happily ruining my music credibilty.

**For full effect, please listen to this song repeatedly (and picture me dancing to it) while reading the following post. Make sure your speakers are at full volume...it might be a little quiet.**

I used to be that guy.

The one who hated every song you played him. It wasn't good enough for my tastes. I only liked the obscure, the different, the true musicians. And true musicians can't make danceable music...all the critics know that.

I usually listen to bands like this:

The Gaslight Anthem
Two Gallants
The Kills
The Heartless Bastards
The Weeks
Left-Lane Cruiser

Real bands with real musicians.

Respectable...and not at all danceable.

Sleigh Bells are slowly changing my mind and destroying my good taste.

I started listening to them early this summer, called them a guilty pleasure. No way were they reaching higher status than that. They were dance music. Incredibly poppy. Not the cream of the crop that I generally listened to. Plus, they made their music on the computer...and that's just not how it's done.

Then, last weekend, my musical life changed.

I saw these guys live.

Let me paint you a picture.

Sleigh Bells as art?

It's got to be a Pollock to show the necessary insanity of the experience.

Hundreds upon hundreds of people flailing on a dance floor made for a couple dozen. Pushing and shoving and dancing and loving. Fantastic.

It was literally breathtaking awesomeness of the most grandiose kind. The music was everywhere, flowing through everyone. I could feel the bass lines thumping louder than my heart.

Doesn't this sound amazing?



It does, but it shouldn't. I shouldn't be this excited over a guilty pleasure. I should get this excited over one of my favorite bands. This is where the problem comes in.

Sleigh Bells have become one of my favorite bands.

I don't know how it happened, but seeing them live proved it...they're one of my favorites.

On the surface, this may not seem like a band thing...but get to know me and you'll see the problem. These guys are everything that I've called wrong with the music industry. It's loud, techno-y, poppy, bass driven, tubthumping, over dubbed, computer enhanced, embarrassing, pounding, occasionally remixed, incredibly danceable, no musicianship music. I feel like I'm letting down those aforementioned bands by listening to this.

But, for some reason, I'm hooked.

All I want to listen to now are bands like these. I want this loud, overproduced, no skill techno crap.

I love it. Guilty pleasure has become legitimate joy.

Listen (and dance) with me...but be careful. It'll get ya.

Shiny Toy Guns
CSS
Zach Hill
Sohodolls
Tobacco
Deadmau5

At least these are still relatively obscure and I can pull away a little bit of credibility from that.

A Pirate's Life for Me

(for best dramatic effect, please play this video in the background while reading)

For the lucky few that get to cast their eyes upon me booty, a full 65 gig o' tunes in me music library, they may shout, "Blimey, where'd ya find such a motherlode?"

In most cases, a good cap'n ne'er reveals his tricks, but i'll tell ye this once and only once:

I've been anchored in Pirate Bay for many months.

"Avast, ye scallywag! That be stolen loot!"

Aye, but this pirate is done paying fifteen dollars for three to six minutes of good music, only to find out that its another forty minutes of crap. I'm tired of paying good money for a reliable band's new album just to find it full of unsubstantial radio bait. I'm talking to you, Snow Patrol!

I may not have obtained some of my new ships by "legal" means, but they be strong vessels nonetheless, and I'll sail them for many seas. Had I not embraced the philosophy of downloading music, I surely wouldn't have gotten into:

Frightened Rabbit
Beth Orton
Manchester Orchestra
The Flaming Lips
Sigur Ros
Jon Hopkins
Jets to Brazil
God is an Astronaut
City and Colour
Bright Eyes
Air
Stars of the Lid
Bon Iver
The Airborne Toxic Event

or

The Great Lake Swimmers
Band of Horses
The Tallest Man on Earth
Sparklehorse

I never thought I could be a 30 Seconds to Mars fan. But after downloading their music, I realized that I liked them so much that I sailed all the way to Indianapolis on a Wednesday night to see them in concert, where they pull in most of their bounty anyway. If I steal and pillage music from an artist and I think it's a fair effort on their behalf, then I will give them all the financial support I can. If it's not quality, then they didn't deserve any of me gold anyway.

Outlaws such as meself don't plunder from such good mateys because we want to blow the man down. We do it because the system be broken, cast adrift. Maybe the lot of us that sail through Pirate Bay are on our way to fixin' it, or maybe we're all heading for Davy Jones' Locker. Either way, we be livin free 'til we get there.