i am a scientist - i seek to understand me
i am an incurable and nothing else behaves like me

I wanted to post about this San Diego band called the Kite Flying Society before they potentially blow up and become indie darlings, etc. They have a nice, mellow pop sound in a vague Beach Boys way, sometimes, and are appropriately influenced by We Anderson, hence the name. Makes me wonder how you could be inappropriately infulenced by Wes Anderson? You can download a few tracks here or stream from their myspace page. BTW, I hate myspace. It's slow, the music player usually does not work for me and it freezes all the time or I get that "unexpected error..." message. It's crap.

Watch a VW bus fly.

Tracey in Africa


"According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Fausto Carmona, of the Cleveland Indians, is only the second pitcher in major league history to lose four games in relief in a span of no more than seven days."

Street Scene Report

I believe I am mostly recovered from the weekend now. As I mentioned in my last post, I was not super stoked on too many bands at Street Scene, but I ended up having a great time anyway and saw quite a few amazing shows. Let’s get to it.

Day 1

I did not get out of work in time to get to the fest and see What Made Milwaukee Famous. I had not even heard of them before they showed up on the lineup. They have a song called Hellodrama streaming on their website that has my favorite current chorus. Is that possible? Wait for it, it’s good.

I watched a few songs of She Wants Revenge and they were as horrible as you could imagine. The only entertainment was the lead singer having a verbal spat with some guy in the crowd with a green shirt.

Up next was Wolfmother. I bought their cd at Circuit City for 8 bucks awhile ago. I like it. It’s like the new Led Zeppelin or whatever. I have not made a final decision, but I think this was my favorite show of the weekend. It was like watching the White Stripes or Rush in that you think, how do they make so much noise and good sounds with only 2 or 3 band members? The crowd was totally insane and into it and rockin. Check them out if you ever get a chance.

After Wolfmother we watched Queens of the Stoneage. I’m not a huge fan, but it was a good show the crowd was super into them as well. We had meant to head over to see some of Bad Religion, but we forgot. We finished the evening with some of AFI, which did not do much for me. We also watched a drag show of some sort, which was scary.

Day 2

Thanks to My Chemical Romance getting hurt or something and cancelling, I was able to catch Tapes n Tapes and Futureheads. Originally they were on at the same time. Tapes n Tapes was good, but not as good as I was hoping. The Futureheads on the other hand absolutely brought it. Ok, hold on. I need to mention that I’m a horrible speller. I just tried to spell absolutely with a “p”. Who does that? Good thing I’m a tech writer. So this was the third time seeing the Futureheads, and even though it was in broad daylight, they played like it was a small club. This was the best I’ve seen them play. The crowd was not super into it, but not too bad. This was probably my second favorite show since I knew all the songs. I have to mention that I’m still amazed by people’s blatant drug use in broad daylight with Sheriffs walking all over. Especially at the second show of the day. Not many people around yet to hide your highness. I think it was mostly high school kids at that point. Teenagers are invincible aren’t they?

After Futureheads came the Editors. They were very tight and played a very inspiring set. The miracle of technology moment for me was that I watched the Editors play Lollapalooza online on Friday at work, then the next day I’m watching them live in SD. Dare I call these amazing times to live in? I shall, since this is the only time I get to live in.

Up next was a great double shot of the Shins and then Bloc Party. Tracey and I saw the Shins about a year ago in a small venue and it was amazing (insert your own “the Shins will change your life” sarcastic remark here). I still really enjoyed their set, and the new songs they played sounded good, but to me, it did not translate as well in the big fest setting. I really liked Bloc Party as well, but we left half way through to get a decent spot for Tool.

I’m not really a Tool fan. I guess they are one of those bands that are really good at what they do, but I still don’t really like it. There must have been 10 or 15 thousand people watching their set, it was pretty insane. We were not really that close, but when they came out for the first song, tons of people rushed forward to get closer and it got a little rowdy and pushy. A bunch of people got crushed up front and they stopped playing for a bit until they were taken care of. You can read a decent review of the fest here and you can watch some video of it here.

On Sunday Andy and I went to see Talladega Nights Ricky Bobby. I did a lot of laughing out loud. The funniest part to me was in the outtakes during the closing credits. I don’t remember the exact line, but there is a Manimal reference in it, and that’s all I need. I was only 8 when it came out, but somehow I still remember it.