Holy facelift, Batman!

Well, I finally switched over to the new version of Blogger, and gave the ol' blog a revamping. I think this new style will make things a little easier to read. I also added in news feed from the Rolling Stone website on the right hand side.

This past weekend was chock full of adventures...

Friday - after dropping Evie off at Grandma & Grandpa's, we jetted out to Pepitos in Minneapolis for a birthday celebration for a few of Shel's high school classmates. After dinner, we retreated to a friend's house for some serious Guitar Hero 2 throwdowns. People who had never played the game before were picking it up and having a blast.

Saturday - picked Evie up at the folk's house and drove down to Winona to surprise Shel's grandma for her birthday. Got to visit with the relatives and play some Buck Uecker. I drank a good 6 or 7 beers so I'd get out of driving home. My plan worked. We drove through Cannon Falls twice, which got me to thinking - I'd really like to take a tour of Pachyderm Studios some day. For those not in the know this was the location where Nirvana recorded In Utero.

Sunday - we had a crew of friends over for bloody marys (delicious...need to make beef jerky next time), black bean soup (Michelle comes through with a great meal yet again), and some Wii antics. An awesome way to end the week.

Well, it's back to business as usual...I think I have some big news lined up for this Thursday, so stay tuned.

Don't call it a comeback

With the recent announcements of Rage Against The Machine and The Police reuniting, it got me to thinking - what are some other bands that you'd love to see back together? Here's a short list of my dream bands I'd like to see back in action - drop a comment and let me know who you'd like to see rocking the stage once again.

• Soundgarden
• Verbena
• Urge Overkill
• Led Zeppelin (with Grohl on drums)
  
• Superdrag

Cold snap

Well, we finally are kicking into winter mode around here. At the end of last week, temps dropped from the 40's to single digits. We got a few inches of snow last night, which means that I get to clear the driveway off this evening. After that, it should hopefully be a quiet, relaxing evening. Here are a few ideas that may or may not be helping me pass the time while trying to stay warm:

• Read a book - I haven't hunkered down and read a book (start to finish) in awhile now. Might as well give it a shot one of these days.
• Sell stuff on eBay - I've got buttloads of stuff in the basement that I'll probably never use again. I keep telling my wife that I'll go on a selling spree, but it never really materializes. Maybe this week will be different.
  
• Clean out the computer room cabinet - it's been a repository for items that don't have a proper place, kinda like the kitchen junk drawer. Time to change that.
• Go downstairs and record some jams - I have fun every time I hit the "record" button and map out ideas...it's cool to build a song up from nothing, layer it with different instruments and make it sound like a band.
• Rent/play WarioWare - Smooth Moves - all the initial reviews say this game is killer, with lots of fun minigames that invite a multiplayer environment.
  

That's about all I can think of at the moment. Being a husband/parent, chances may be good that not one of those items will be attempted this week. But who knows...stranger things have happened.

Cool concert alert - The Apples In Stereo will be playing the Varsity Theatre in Minneapolis on Saturday, 2/24 , at 10 pm. The show is in support of their new album, New Magnetic Wonder, which will be released on February 7.

Slip the drummer one

Since I haven't been very creative with my posting as of late, I thought I'd post this kickass video until I come up with something better. Check out this display of killer video editing.

I only wanna be with youuuuuuuuuuuuu

I heard a song on the radio this morning that got me to thinkin'...remember when Hootie and the Blowfish was big? Boy, was that a sad time.

What a bunch of wankers.

I wanna live in Los Angeles

Boy oh boy, this man is prolific. On the heels of releasing a double album this summer, Frank Black has a new album, Christmass, out for the holidays. It features an audio disc containing 20 tracks - a mix of live and studio cuts. The album also includes a DVD containing live performances of 12 songs. It was released on Monday this week, and the only way you can get it is by ordering through Cooking Vinyl. Mine's on the way from across the pond, and I can't wait to give it a spin. For those that are curious, here's the tracklisting:

CD Tracklisting
1. Do What You Want Gyaneshwar
2. Bullet
3. I Burn Today
4. Wave of Mutilation
5. Living on Soul
6. She’s My Way
7. Massif Central
8. Where is My Mind
9. Raiderman
10. Demon Girl
11. Dead Man’s Curve
12. Cactus
13. Six Sixty Six
14. Radio Lizards
15. Don’t Get Me Wrong
16. All Around The World
17. Nadine
18. Manitoba
19. The Water
20. Outakes/The Shrimp Song

DVD Tracklisting
1. Brackish Boy
2. I Burn Today
3. Cactus
4. Nadine
5. Holiday
6. Sing for Joy
7. Dead Man’s Curve
8. California Bound
9. Ed is Dead
10. My Life is in Storage
11. Two Reelers
12. Whiskey in Your Shoes

Get Up I Wanna Get Down

I did something this evening that I thought I'd never do. I attempted to climb an indoor rock wall. And it was kicking rad. It's quite the workout. I didn't get very far on my first few tries, but that'll give me the motivation to do better in the future, I guess. It's a kickass workout, and it does wonders for the adrenaline. I think I'm gonna pick up some rock climbing shoes for myself as a Christmas present. If you have the chance to try it, do it. In fact, if anyone is interested, I'll bring you along to LifeTime so you can check it out for yerself.

A lost craft

Another holiday season is upon us, which in our household means that a special birthday has arrived. My better half's birthday is today. Right now, she's out celebrating with some friends, and I hope she's having a kickass evening. I wish I could be out with her, but our little munchkin needs monitoring. Plus, it's my turn to get up with Evie in the morning, so it's probably better that I'm at home right now. Chronicling my life on the Internet. But I digress...

I can't remember when I started this tradition (it has to be a good 7 years ago, if not more), but I've always recorded a song or 2 for Shellster's birthday. I just wanted to give her something different than the usual spa gift certificate, or whatever. It's something she could hold on to forever. Well, I really got in under the wire this year. I just got up from the basement recording studio, and the CD has been burned. I always seem to suffer from writer's block around this time (or maybe I always suffer from writer's block). I was a bit depressed when I fired up the ol' 8-track, and the last song I worked on was her birthday song for last year. I need to get those creative juices flowing again. But I digress...

Hopefully she digs what I came up with this year. The 1st track is an original ditty that I've been tinkering around with for the past few days. Hopefully no one else will ever hear it, because I've always found my original tunes to fall short. However, I will share with you the B-side to the annual Shelly's Birthday single. It's a cover of "On My Way" from Ben Kweller's album of the same name. Give it a listen and let me know if I should quit my day job or not.

We're not gonna take it

Twisted Sister played this on Leno last night...can't find the Leno version yet, but this should tide you over. Happy Holidays from Twisted Sister!

I can't tell which one of these people is the happier camper

Foo Exclusive # 4

Here's the 4th exclusive track from the Foos' Skin and Bones DVD - "What If I Do?" I believe that this live rendition is far superior to the album version. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Foo Fighters - What If I Do? (live)

Foo Exclusive # 3

Here's the 3rd exclusive track from the new Foo Fighters' Skin and Bones DVD - "See You". Dave does band introductions in the middle of the song, which ends up being pretty funny. Enjoy.

Foo Fighters - See You (live)

Foo exclusive # 2

Here's exclusive track #2 from the new Foo Fighters' DVD Skin And Bones - "Still". Enjoy, and happy Friday.

Foo Fighters - Still (live)

Foo exclusive #1

Here it is - the first exclusive audio track from the Foo Fighters' Skin and Bones DVD release - "On The Mend". You'll only find this one here, kids!

Foo Fighters - On The Mend (Live)

Where can I go make toilet?

I went and saw Borat last night with a buddy of mine (it was a toss-up between that or the Pick of Destiny - not sure if we made the right choice or not). While I was expecting more laughs, I did find it very enjoyable. If you haven't had a chance to see it yet, just let me tell you that there is a scene in a hotel room that is both hilarious and deeply disturbing at the same time.


Speaking of toilets, Axl Rose's mouth has been running like one again. In case you haven't heard, Axl booted the Eagles of Death Metal from the GnR tour after one night because of some pissy crowd reactions during their opening set. Jesse from EoDM recounts the story beautifully here.

No turkey this year

Well, Thanksgiving sucked ass for me this year. Sure, I have a lot to be thankful for. However, it was the actual celebration of Thanksgiving that unloaded a big turd on me. It all started Monday night when my daughter came down with the flu. 1st time in her life that she puked, and she took it like such a trooper - hardly a tear! But she was pretty out of it for quite a few days, which meant the wife and I had to take turns watching her during the day. We figured she'd be better by Thanksgiving, and we could go to the relatives to stuff our faces.

Wednesday night comes along, and you-know-what started coming out both of my ends. The timing was impeccable. Not only did I miss out on turkey day, but we ended up canceling a trip to Chicago that we had planned for months to see a good friend get hitched. Instead, the munchkin and I were homebound all weekend, and the wife was becoming stir crazy from being cooped up inside.

A week later, we've all snapped out of it. Evie is doing somersaults like it's no one's business, and Shel and I have a fun-filled weekend to look forward to. There's book club for her and a Guitar Hero marathon for me tomorrow night, a company holiday party on Saturday, and hopefully a chance to sneak out and get a Christmas tree this weekend. Wouldn't mind catching a few flicks (Pick of Destiny or For Your Consideration) either.

Happy hump day to my readers, and stay tuned: I'll be posting some more kickass tunes shortly (including some blog exclusive tracks from the new Foo Fighters live DVD). Glad to see the music link from the other day worked.

Heaven smiles above me

Hey guys...been awhile again. We had quite the adventurous Thanksgiving weekend...I'll post more about it later (I need some time to let all the excitement sink in). But for now, I wanted to share a new discovery I stumbled upon. I think I finally figured out how to share music on this thing. Click on the link below and let me know if it works...it's a live acoustic take of "No One Knows" by Queens of the Stone Age. If this works, more treats will be on the way in the future (including some possible compositions by yours truly).

Clicky

Long time no see

Jeez! Almost 3 weeks without an update. Where to begin...

Thanks to the warm weather we had this past weekend, we were able to get our Christmas lights up in record time...probably less than 2 hours. I think we finally have the system down to a science. I'll try to throw a picture of the light display up sometime after we are allowed to turn them on (which is right after Thanksgiving).

Saturday night I swung over to the local GameStop around 11 pm to pick up the new Nintendo gaming console, the Wii. I don't think I've ever been to a midnight release for a game system before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I was greeted to a cooler of pop, chips and cookies. Sweet. After a few rounds of Guitar Hero 2, it was time to snag the new system. I was out the door and on the way back home around 12:30. I spent the next 3 hours playing the sports games that came with the system, as well as the new Zelda game. Needless to say, I'm very impressed with Nintendo's new offering. The controller scheme is something you've never experienced before, but it only takes a few minutes to pick it up. I'm looking forward to checking out some of the classic games they'll be offering for download through their Virtual Console soon. And hopefully I can budget my gaming time so that my gals don't think I'm neglecting them.

We went bowling yesterday with Shel's side of the family and had a great time. It was Evie's first time bowling, and I think she enjoyed it. Daddy was pretty mediocre as a bowler, and Mommy had a little spill, but it was good to hit the lanes again. Afterwards, it was off to Megan and Jeff's for some lasagna. Their kids are growing up at a tremendous rate, and it was great to see them.

This week, we've got a buttload of things planned for what appears to be the beginning of the holiday season. I'll be sure to check in again and throw out some updates here and there. I'll close things out with a few recent albums you should check out when you have the chance.

• Army of Anyone - Self-Titled: STP + Filter = a tasty nugget of rock goodness
• Tenacious D - The Pick of Destiny: After my 1st listen, I was a bit disappointed. After a few subsequent listens, I was hooked.
• The Beatles - Love: This comes out tomorrow. A great album of familiar Beatles tracks that have been remixed/mashed together to form a new take on some old classics.
  

Punkin

Here's a shot of my Punkin next to a pumpkin carved by Grandma

New Foo record up on MySpace

The new Foo Fighters live record, Skin and Bones, is now available in its entirety to listen to on their MySpace page. Unfortunately, the fast forward feature has been disabled, so you can't pick and choose which tunes you want to hear. However, this gives you a nice chance to experience the Foos in an acoustic setting. Check it out before it hits stores on November 7th.