Kweller

Ever forget about an artist and completely rediscover them? I first listened to Ben Kweller my senior year of high school (Sha Sha) and bought his second solo album my freshman year of college (On My Way). I went to see him co-headline with Gomez my junior year at Baylor, but I was underwhelmed with his new material, which was why I saw him neither year he played ACL (haha, or mostly because I wanted to see other sets).

2007: Robert Earl Keen- saving our spot for Wilco
2006: Galactic

About a month ago I couldn't get his music out of my head. I was literally walking around, working, driving all to the tune of Ben Kweller. To feed my sudden obsession, I checked out his MySpace and absolutely fell in love with the four songs posted. I bought the vinyl (which came with a CD!) that day. And now instead of singing "Commerce, TX" or "I Need You Back," I'm singing "Sawdust Man" and "Homeward Bound."

Random fact: Kweller sings lead vocals on Guster's "I Hope Tomorrow Is Like Today." (Thank you, oh marvelous Wikipedia!)

Brendan Benson

Whenever I come home, my favorite thing to do is play music catch-up with those who have similar music taste.

Alex: Do you like Brendan Benson?
Jordan: Yes! I love his song "Cold Hands, Warm Heart."
Alex: Yeah he's talented, but I guess that's a given when you're in the Raconteurs.
Jordan: Wait, he's in the Raconteurs?!

I've known his solo music, even enough to put him in my "iLike" two years ago. But I never knew he was part of a band that's popular enough to headline major music festivals? Crazy.

Really Random (Live) Music

In the past 6 months, I've been to some pretty random shows. I think the most random would have to be the show when Chris Barron opened up for Edwin McCain.*

Sometimes it's the people, and not the music, that make a show incredible. I really enjoyed the concert, but the real show was happening at the table beside us. The show was at Foxboro's new venue: Showcase Live. It's a beautiful place, serving dinner, desert and drinks, with tables which seat about 10 people. My parents, boyfriend and I were at the end of our table and there was a middle-aged couple sitting to our left. The woman spoke to my mom and said that they were there for an anniversary (and that I'll Be" is their song). As the night progressed, the man got sloppier and sloppier, shouting "Baylorrrr" and then giving my boyfriend "pounds" and "high-fives." It was terribly awkward, because no matter how much he avoided these gestures, he would somehow get trapped into them. But here's the thing: after 10 double Jack&Cokes and about 200 high-fives, the man suddenly turned to mush, grabbed his wife's hands (who he had ignored the ENTIRE show), gazed into her eyes, and sung the entire "I'll Be" song to her while Edwin played it. Then immediately after the song ended he looked away from his wife, turning to by boyfriend, and gave him yet another pound... shouting "BAYLOR- HOW'D YOU LIKE THAT ONE?!?!" We were all stunned. It's like the guy completely transformed. Twice. Safe to say, now when I hear "I'll Be" on the radio, I no longer think of middle school dances.

*Chris Barron=lead singer of Spin Doctors="Two Princes (Just Go Ahead Now)"
Edwin McCain="I'll Be" and "I Could Not Ask for More"

Ever Just Feel Like Dying?

Right now, that's me. I just got a text that Dr. Dog is playing ON BAYLOR CAMPUS April 22nd. I am flying home on the 21st.

The Vengeance

For the second morning in a row, I woke up far too early. After making some coffee and reading the morning news, I had nothing else to do, as normal people were still not awake.

So I checked facebook. Nothing had changed since the night before, so I went about my normal "stalking" activities. I mean this in the least creepy manner possible- reading the news feed, responding to wall posts, etc. But then I stumbled onto my mom's facebook (yes, she's had facebook for a couple months) and looked at her info. Under "favorite movies" she had a movie: The Revenge of Cinderella. I just died laughing. It was a terribly funny comedy/horror student film (or at least I think/hope) where my mom played the part of the evil step-mother, who is eventually killed by Cinderella.

After awhile of searching for this movie with no luck, I stumbled on a link that told me the actual movie title: The Vengeance of Cinderella. Praying that I'd find a trailer on the internet, I searched everywhere possible to find one. Again, no luck. But I did find a website of an artist, Nyree, who named this movie as one of her career highlights...



This made me laugh.

Only 30?

When I'm in the mood for an artist but don't have the album, I typically go to MySpace and listen to the four posted songs. One of my biggest music pet-peeves is finding out that there are only 30 second snip-its of the songs.

That's what just happened to me. I was craving Taylor Swift. I just love her.

What's the point of having only 30 seconds of a song? Recognition? I could understand if it was the norm, but most bands post full songs.

iTunes. They have 30 second snip-its. I would expect that there.

Anyways, I went to hype and listened to Taylor Swift songs, many that I've never heard before (not that I've heard many, haha) to my heart's desire.

Thank you, hype.

Jamie Cullum

Oh, how I would love to see this guy live. Anyone going to be in Rotterdam in July? He's playing at the North Sea Jazz Festival.



Other people playing the festival (just to make myself more jealous of attendees):
B.B. King
Herbie Hancock & Lang Lang
James Taylor