asimplechord | Entries tagged with cc

Yesterday's free show for the Big Dance: perfect weather and good company, and other than the fact that a huge TV monitor blocked our view of Spencer Smith, Panic! At The Disco's set was ridiculously awesome. Seriously, they seem really delighted to be performing again. I can't wait for their summer tour. (For a more complete review, see

shutyourface's entry. And

eckerlilas posted pics, but under f-lock. ♥)

Two fandom-y things:

1. Why hasn't someone in GK fandom written fic centered around Brad Colbert's license loss, with him hitching a ride with someone (Mike?) to base every day, and then having someone (Ray, Nate, whoever rocks your world) pick him up each evening?

2. This pic deserves Ivy League grad student fic, y/n?

(via

thesameband)

Ugh. Feeling sort of hungover and blah, and still cranky about the "GA" tickets that were the only choice for tickets in the Chris Cornell presale. It wouldn't've been a big deal if the venue set up the floor as they usually do. But the entire floor where the pit usually is was seated reserve, the upper level by the FOH was seated reserve, and the balcony was seated reserve as usual, leaving the area by the door, by the merch booth, and up underneath the overhang behind the seated reserve (where the sound is actually really shitty) as the only GA. Fuck you, Live Nation and House of Blues. Fuck you.

Really not feeling the drive to Austin for the PWTs.

+ Jeremy Scahill and Josh Foust on Democracy Now this morning, in the wake of JScahill's piece on Yemen. IDK, as someone who'd sort of forgotten about Yemen's place in military/foreign policy strategy after the USS Cole until the Wikileaks revelation that Petraeus had verbalized a deal with Saleh, I found it educational.

+ The Sony Ericsson Open has a Roger/Rafa match-up in the semi-finals in the offing, if they each win their quarterfinal matches today. In any case, my plan for this evening is to watch Rafa's match against Tomas Berdych, which ESPN2 is scheduled to broadcast.

+ Work. \o/ /o\ I spent yesterday going through a bunch of old data, for the project that was mine before the Chief decided that we really needed to get the Idiot's abandoned project consolidated and shipped out for publication. A year and a half later... yeah. I'd completely forgotten some of the experiments I'd done. I did a metric fuck-ton of work on this, and it links to the Idiot's stuff, so that time was not wasted, but I'm still angry that I had to stop working on the biochemistry that interested me to finish his shit. Beyond that, we've sifted through a ton of mass spec data, and I feel like there's SO MUCH that could be done, if only there were more hours in the day. Or I could clone myself.

+ Trying to decide if I feel up to dealing with the crowds at the Discovery Green two days in a row. I don't care so much about tomorrow's headliners, but The Hold Steady are playing a set at 7pm. Ditto for Saturday: I've seen Kings of Leon, but I'm totally willing to get there early enough for a good spot to see Panic! At The Disco.

+ CHRIS CORNELL. Saturday. (Really, I don't think that requires any more commentary.)

+ A's birthday Monday. He can't decide what sort of birthday cake he wants, or where he'd like to go for his birthday supper. Suggestions for a restaurant that will not require travel anywhere near Reliant Park during the NCAA Final?

Lollapalooza was AMAZING. Chicago was 10 degrees cooler than Houston, with half the humidity, so it was an absolute pleasure to spend three days outside.

Day 1. BoB (who put him on a stage at 11:15 on the first day?). Jukebox The Ghost. Neon Trees. Foxy Shazam. My Dear Disco. American Bang. The Constellations (this is the band I hadn't seen before that I enjoyed most; hit me up if you want some of their music). Jimmy Cliff. Cymbals Eat Guitars. Semi Precious Weapons (Dear Justin Tranter, you are awesome, but you are smoking crack if you think Lady Gaga is "rock and roll"; also, I was standing back in the shade, and didn't realize at first that the woman stage diving was Lady Gaga). The Strokes. I didn't go to the Lady Gaga set - it was set against The Strokes, and I prefer the Strokes' music; it was interesting to read reviews saying how amazing the spectacle was, b/c the people I know who *did* see her - who had seen her at Toyota Center a couple of weeks ago - said it was too slow for a festival show, and boring in the middle with her trying to tell a story and do her costume changes, but it picked up in the end when she did Poker Face and Bad Romance and Alejandro. People watching (Little Monsters) was outstanding.

Day 2. Blues Traveler, Against Me, Gogol Bordello, AFI, Social Distortion, Slightly Stoopid, Green Day. BEST COVER OF THE WEEKEND: Social Distortion's Ring of Fire. Green Day's set was pretty elaborate, with the skyline screens that held projections of everything from actual buildings' windows to starlight to words and phrases. Their entire set was slick, really, from years of crowd management. IDK, I think I'd've appreciated another full song rather than 10-minute versions of Hitchin' A Ride AND King For A Day complete with covers of a handful of other songs. LOL, the dude they pulled up from the crowd to sing Longview totally laid one on Billie Joe; he also did an outstanding job on the song. And the little girl who came up to bless him on East Jesus Nowhere clearly had a WTF expression on her face, like she was wondering why her mom handed her up on to the stage to this random dude. It's weird for me, now, to hear 21 Guns w/o Whatsername.

Day 3. Company of Thieves. Blitzen Trapper. The Ike Reilly Assassination. Frightened Rabbit (eh, too reminiscent of Gaslight Anthem and Lucero). Band of Heathens. Hockey. Wolfmother (best I've heard them, soundwise). Erykah Badu. Cypress Hill. Soundgarden. Soundgarden was pretty good. I am spoiled, and have heard Chris Cornell perform Soundgarden songs at small venues, and in comparison the sound at the park was not optimal, IMO. In fact, during Black Hole Sun, the guitar was so overpowering and dissonant that my ears hurt. I don't know if it was deliberate, lowering the vocals to make it less of the Chris Cornell show and more a team effort, or what. But the bass was as punishing as expected. I enjoyed that the stage set up was pretty simple, even the projection on the screens for the crowd was black and white.

Random thought: I would like to explore the differences in philosophy and aesthetics between the Seattle grunge scene of the 90s with the California punk scene of the 80s and 90s, which led to dudes like Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Ness having sleeves and scattered ink everywhere, where as the dudes in Pearl Jam and Soundgarden and Nirvana/Foo Fighters have little or no visible ink, in comparison.

When we weren't at Grant Park, we were either at Kuma's Corner or The Map Room, which is right around the corner from our friends' house. Mmm, beer.

During our travels, I finished reading Hella Nation, Evan Wright's other book. It's a collection of essays expanded from articles he wrote for various other publications, I believe. There is a great deal of self-description in them, far more even than Generation Kill. To me, he comes off as a self-centered misogynistic pig (YMMV). But now I understand the Jasmin reference in Stay Frosty, LOL.

Dear Gmail: STOP FUCKING WITH THE LAYOUT. NO LOVE, ME

Current Music: Angels and Airwaves - Do It For Me Now | Powered by Last.fm

1. Lollapalooza tickets purchased! (Soundgarden. Green Day. FUCK YES. That is all.)

2. Semantics. Apparently if you're a white American planning to kill law enforcement officers and terrorize citizens for political purposes, you're a militiaman, not a terrorist. Whatever, mainstream media. It is AMAZING what a difference skin color, nationality, and religion make, isn't it?

3. GK kink meme. :D Glasses!kink fic is partly written on my computer at home.

4. (I almost called it a ficlet, but I'm sort of not able to use that word anymore. Thanks, Andrew Exum, for that.)

5. Tonight's activities: watch last night's Castle? Finish the kink-meme fic? Or go see The 71s open for Seneca Ireland?

ETA:
6. WaPo's annual Peeps Show results are up. Some of the dioramas are amazing. I like the Where The Wild Peeps Are and Peeps and Prejudice and Zombies ones, myself. :D

I know I'm boring you with my heart-eyes for Rise Against. But seriously. I ♥ them.

Also? Soundgarden. :D :D :D Thank you for that live version of Spoonman. Now I'm going to be selfish and say GIMME MORE. Kthnx?

What else? Without A Face (Lactose Intolerance! *cough* *gigglesnort*). I'd go, but BRMC's showcase at SXSW is that night, and they win. ETA: AND SO IS PATRICK FUCKING STUMP'S SO YEAH, SORRY, NO. NEXT TIME, BB. /ETA

Gretaaaaaa! \o/ I do not recognize the venue Gold Motel are playing in San Antonio on the 13th, but I'm willing to familiarize myself with it.

OK. I'm going to go watch some of S2 of The Wire and contemplate my BBB fic. Which really just means I'll fall asleep with the TV on, but whatever. I hope y'all had a decent Monday. ♥

Current Music: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - The Show's About to Begin | Powered by Last.fm

I MISS IMPORTANT THINGS LIKE THIS!

Oh, yeah. Um, happy new year, everybody! :D

Everybody around here knows how I feel about Chris Cornell, right? I mean, yeah, his solo stuff is decent, and Audioslave was definitely a success, but his best work was with Soundgarden.

So, y'all have probably read about the Pearl Jam concert in LA the other night? The one where Chris Cornell joined them for Hunger Strike? I know Rolling Stone posted an article about it.

Yeah. OK. So a) fairly high quality video, with decent audio is available (thanks, 94.5, for linking it). And b) rumor has it that he watched the set from the side of the stage with Kim Thayil and Ben Shepherd. Matt Cameron was playing drums. This was the first time all four members of Soundgarden have appeared together in public in nearly a decade.

I choose to believe that this means that there will be a Soundgarden reunion to go along with the Best Of album, sometime when Pearl Jam's off tour.

Please do not disillusion me with facts, okay?

+ RIP, Patrick Swayze.

+ I can't believe I just watched this movie trailer all the way through just to hear some of The Academy Is...'s new song.

+ Chris Cornell performed Imagine on Conan last week? Unf. Chris Cornell.

+ Still haven't watched the VMAs. I did, however, watch Muse's performance of Uprising. Multiple times. Until Viacom made ppl delete it from YouTube. NRGH, Matthew Bellamy.

~~Do any of you, dear friends, have the leak of The Resistance?~~

+ The GMBs are still the most adorable. I love how they have an entire sofa to share, and they sit right on top of one another.

+ Is Jack White channeling Sigourney Weaver? I mean, really?

+ ETA: (b/c I forgot) Srsly, Tyson? A hot pink suit? Glitter? Thank you. No, really. THANK YOU.

Current Music: Fall Out Boy - Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner | Powered by Last.fm

+ It was a shitty day at work. I had to deal with a fuck-up The Idiot left (which further convinced me that he was infuckingcapable of planning experiments logically). And five people (all admin/support staff) got fired. So I'm glad happier stuff happened elsewhere today.

+ New Perspectives. Everybody in bandom's already talked about this, but. Well. Yeah. My first thought was, "Did he really just sing about someone fast-forwarding to go down on him?" and when

vic_ramsey texted me more lyrics, I replied: Lolol, Bden wrote an entire song about sex with Spence? only to decide that I'm immature enough to hope that the whole album is less-than-subtle innuendo about sex, come, and facials. Thanks, bb.

+ YES, PLEASE, KIM THAYIL. GIMME THAT SOUNDGARDEN!

+ Gabe's "serious" blog.

+ Ludo. Broken Bride Tour. Houston. 14November.

+ Swim's official video is out. I haven't watched it enough to comment intelligently. I'm still at the Andrew! Dr. J! Bobby! SISKY! flailing phase. And I like the Japanese wave art over the drawing style that continues through the rest of the video.

Jack's Mannequin "Swim"

+ ETA: Ray fucking Toro! (even if I don't know what the hell you're tracking)

Current Music: Something Corporate - Drunk Girl | Powered by Last.fm

First. Chris Cornell on Sunday night? Amaaaaazing (even if I wasn't at barrier b/c MrIris doesn't like to do that - one crowd surfer gets dropped on his head and he refuses to be up front!). I was not particularly impressed by the band that opened for him, Outernational. They had a sort of funk sound, really driven by the bass-line. I'm not sure if that was deliberate, originally, or if it was because the lead guitarist wasn't that good.

Chris Cornell started his set with Part of Me, which is my least favorite song from Scream. But that meant it could all go uphill from there, right? And it did.

You guys know I'm a CC fangirl, right? Yeah. His voice. Seriously. And he sang for nearly three hours. IDEK how he does it.

He did a good mix of Soundgarden, Audioslave, his older solo stuff, and new stuff. And he covered Billie Jean and some Marley and some Zeppelin. And a medley of All Along The Watchtower, Sunday, Bloody Sunday, and... another song. The crowd was definitely more into the Soundgarden stuff, though. Even You Know My Name didn't get much response from them.

I... have to admit, I am not the world's biggest fan of his new album. It's not because it's more pop than rock, I think. Not a genre issue. I mean, I love his bluesy version of Billie Jean, and I listen to his version of Ave Maria all the time. HIS VOICE, OKAY?

He and Timbaland did a decent job writing music that suited his voice and would broaden his audience. But I think the lyrics are repetitive and simplistic than I'm used to from him. Some of it'll go into my "music to sweat to" playlist, but none of them will outstrip the Live In Sweden bootlegs for most-often-played.

So. Went home, slept three hours, stumbled to work to feed and split cells, then back home to shower, then I picked up

vic_ramsey and headed to Austin.

vic_ramsey,

playfullips, and

arielchan have already recapped the Snakes and Suits gig, so I won't go into a ton of detail, but

a) Sean Van Vleet - Before yesterday, I'd have said he had an awesome voice and I loved his songs, but didn't find him attractive. And he's still not in the "I'd totally bang him" category, but he's got a presence, and he's personable, and yeah, I'll have another sip of that Kool-Aid.

b) I got the set list that was by Max's feet. I am inordinately amused that the last song reads "Haley", which is not the title's spelling on the album.

c) Yay for fangirling Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder with SVV approximately sixty seconds before William Beckett started his cover of Jeremy.

d) Thumbs down for the "Sexas Posse". Seriously? There are so many inappropriate jokes I could make about a bunch of high school kids using Gabe Saporta's term of... I guess you could call it affection... personally. And unironically. I am restraining myself.

e) I like Bill Beckett and his boy haircut and his little black glasses and suspenders, but twenty songs of mostly just him (including Damien Rice and Death Cab covers)? Eh. I prefer the entire band, tbqh.

f) LOL at Tom Conrad wearing bedroom slippers. Actually, during SVV's rendition of Hayley, he sat back in the corner with his head down, eyes closed - SLEEPY BOYS! - and I wanted SO MUCH to take a picture of him like that, but I felt like a creeper. So. No pic.

g) I'm still squeaking happily when I think about the fact that they have enough stuff written and plan to go back to the studio soon. And Max will be producing again. :D

( Speaking of pics... )

I took one crappy picture of the This Providence guys, and I talked to them when they were at the bar because they were just STANDING THERE expectantly, and NO ONE was approaching them. But I remain unimpressed.

And finally. I filled out the comment fic that went along with The Perfect Gifts Are Little And Lacy the other day, but I didn't have a chance to edit or post it, so I'm gonna do that tonight, hopefully.

THEN I'M GOING TO WATCH LENO, OKAY? :DDD

And then I've got a hot date with my pillow, with which I have not spent nearly enough quality time lately.

Current Music: The Gaslight Anthem - We're Getting a Divorce, You Keep the Diner | Powered by Last.fm

+ I spent the day perfecting figures for a manuscript. I haaaate it when I make figures, The Chief says, "These need to be the size of a column in JBC" so I resize them, and then when he looks at them, he comments, "These need to be larger."

Nasty words were growled.

+ I suppose it was to be expected. What good can happen on a day that starts with donning one's underpants inside-out?

BUT.

♥ CHRIS CORNELL AT THE WAREHOUSE, Y/Y/MFY?

I'm going to go write porn until Criminal Minds comes on. Ping me on Y!M if you need me. :)

ETA: Also? Jack's Mannequin? Anyone else going to the shows in Houston and/or Austin?

ETA2: My interpretation of the Fuckcity twitters:

Andy: I wish I were home, not missing you~~r set~~! *sad sigh*
Mixon: No, I wish I were in Asia with you! *longing sigh* We'll be together soon, but it's so far awaaaay.
Andy: *kissy face*
Mixon: *kissy face*