Just to Catch Up

Remember Friday, April 10? I was ecstatic because two of my all-time favorite bands were going to play in Iowa. On Saturday, 8-19, Spitalfield plays in Des Moines and Bayside plays in Council Bluffs. On Sunday, 8-20, Spitalfield plays in Council Bluffs. I didn't know that was the actual daily schedule for the two day festival in Council Bluffs when I wrote the following post, but I know it now: Spitalfield and Bayside.
I also learned that Extreme and Living Colour are playing at the Paramount Theater in Cedar Rapids on 8-19-2023.
I also learned that the legendary metal band W.A.S.P. and Armoured Saint are playing in Clive on 8-19-2023.
How do I choose which of these legendary concerts I actually attend? It's a difficult decision.
I have an answer: don't decide. Instead, go with your family to an Iowa Cubs baseball game in Des Moines. I am not going to see any of those concerts on 8-19-2023. I am going to watch baseball.

Spitalfield and Bayside?!?!

In addition to the news that Spitalfield have reunited and are playing in Des Moines on Saturday, August 8-19, I learned that Spitalfield is playing in Council Bluffs at the Iowa is for Lovers 2 day festival... WITH BAYSIDE ALSO ON THE BILL!!!!!

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Spitalfield live at the House of Bricks

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https://youtu.be/ l4HXmXjvEA4 - Spitalfield live at the House of Bricks

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SPITALFIELD!!! Des Moines!! August!!!

This is the best news on a Good Friday that is possible!

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Bayside Gets Snubbed!

On this page - https://loudwire.com/trivium-matt-heafy-pop-punk-past-covers-blink-182-dammit-anthony-vincent - there is a section called 50 Greatest Pop-Punk Albums of All-Time and to say I'm disappointed is an understatement. Why? No Bayside album is included, not even their Sirens & Condolences, their debut. It's true that other pop-punk bands I like are excluded - Bigwig? Count the Stars? Somehow Hollow? Spitalfield? - but none of those bands have really made any actual impact on the pop-punk landscape. The albums I have listened to are in bold/italic.

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1. No Use For a Name, 'Leche Con Carne' (1995)
2. Lagwagon, 'Duh' (1992)
3. Millencolin, 'Life on a Plate' (1995)
4. Screeching Weasel, 'Boogadaboogadaboogada!' (1988)
5. The Queers, 'Don't Back Down' (1996)
6. Slick Shoes, 'Wake Up Screaming' (2000)
7. Rufio, 'Perhaps, I Suppose' (2001)
8. Brand New, 'Deja Entendu' (2003)
9. All Time Low, 'Nothing Personal' (2009)
10. Taking Back Sunday, 'Tell All Your Friends'
11. Less Than Jake, 'Hello Rockview' (1998)
12. Man Overboard, 'Man Overboard' (2011)
13. Knuckle Puck, 'Copacetic' (2015)
14. Set Your Goals, 'This Will Be the Death Of Us' (2009)
15. State Champs, 'Finer Things' (2013)
16. The Bouncing Souls, 'How I Spent My Summer Vacation' (2001)
17. The Story So Far, 'What You Don't See' (2013)
18. Neck Deep, 'Life's Not Out To Get You' (2015)
19. The Wonder Years, 'Suburbia I've Given You All and Now I'm Nothing' (2011)
20. The Academy Is..., 'Almost Here' (2005)
21. Cartel, 'Chroma' (2005)
22. The All-American Rejects, 'Move Along' (2005)
23. All Time Low, 'So Wrong. It's Right' (2007)
24. Descendents, 'Everything Sucks' (1996)
25. Acceptance, 'Phantoms' (2005)
26. Motion City Soundtrack, 'Commit This to Memory' (2005)
27. Blink-182, 'Take Off Your Pants and Jacket' (2001)
28. Say Anything, '...Is a Real Boy' (2004)
29. Fall Out Boy, 'Take This to Your Grave' (2003)
30. Something Corporate, 'Leaving Through the Window' (2002)
31. New Found Glory, 'Sticks and Stones' (2002)
32. Yellowcard, 'Ocean Avenue' (2003)
33. Good Charlotte, 'The Young and the Hopeless' (2002)
34. Blink-182, 'Dude Ranch' (1997)
35. Sum 41, 'Does This Look Infected?' (2002)
36. MxPx, 'Life in General' (1996)
37. Alkaline Trio, 'From Here to Infirmary' (2001)
38. A Day to Remember, 'Homesick' (2009)
39. Midtown, 'Living Well Is the Best Revenge' (2002)
40. Green Day, 'American Idiot' (2004)
41. Saves the Day, 'Through Being Cool' (1999)
42. The Starting Line, 'Say It Like You Mean It' (2002)
43. Jimmy Eat World, 'Bleed American' (2001)
44. Paramore, 'Riot' (2007)
45. New Found Glory, 'New Found Glory' (2000)
46. Sum 41, 'All Killer No Filler' (2001)
47. Fall Out Boy, 'From Under the Cork Tree' (2005)
48. Descendents, 'Milo Goes to College' (1982)
49. Blink-182, 'Enema of the State' (1999)
50. Green Day, 'Dookie' (1994)

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Belmont

Belmont is a new-to-me band who, apparently, have been releasing music since 2016, from what I can tell. I like this band. They remind me of Spitalfield if Spitalfield had double bass during some of their grooves. Also, Belmont reminds me of Count the Stars.

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Here's a reaction video to the above tune.

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Of course, one thing that I try to do when I hear a new band is to find out what they sound like "live" which is why I give you this:

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Flashback to When Spitalfield Dominated my Headphones at Work

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This Poor Publicity Team...

Throughout the years I wrote music reviews for dailyvault.com, I would receive promo CDs with a promo kit. I sincerely wish I had saved every promo kit I received as I read some whoppers. Some promo kits were structured well, tracing through a band's history to provide context for the enclosed CD, while other promo kits were so brief, there was no structure, meaning there would be a piece of paper that had a couple of sentences along the lines of "Enclosed is a CD. Hope you like it. Thanks." I admit those brief promo kits achieved their purpose and didn't need to say a lot more than that because, frankly, the enclosed CD was the resume and the promo kit was the cover letter telling me to evaluate the resume.

My point is that I would sometimes get promo kits for a band that felt like it was a resume for a high school kid who hasn't done anything! One promo kit once cited a long list of bands that the members of the current band had been a member of ... none of them ever playing outside of their city. For example, if I was promoting a band that had ex-members of Shotgun, Iowa Beef Experience, Horny Genius, Sludgeplow, and Critical Gopher, would you know any of those bands? I doubt it, but man, that promo kit acted as if I should know all of those bands and that by a former member of those bands, I should give this new band accolades. Yeah, whatever.

All that said, I truly feel sorry for New West Records, who sent me the following email. The Glands released 2 records that are out-of-print. The frontman for the group died in 2016 so they are releasing 23 tracks that use recordings he made over 20 years and the remaining members of the band did a lot of research to find the 23 tracks. All of that is said more beautifully than I just summarized it below. Will the Glands are going to become my next Bayside / Count the Stars / Bigwig / Spitalfield - all bands I discovered and adore thanks to promo kits like the one below? Time will tell.

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ATHENS, GA CULT LEGENDS THE GLANDS’ TWO-DECADES-IN-THE-MAKING THIRD RECORD DOUBLE CODA TO BE RELEASED VIA NEW WEST RECORDS ON NOVEMBER 9th, 2018 

THE BAND’S COMPLETE CATALOG TO BE REISSUED AS STANDALONE TITLES AND COMPILED IN THE LIMITED-EDITION I CAN SEE MY HOUSE FROM HERE BOX SET 

NPR MUSIC PREMIERES UNHEARD SONGS “SO HIGH” AND “ELECTRICITY” TODAY 

"...Do whatever you can to hear these records — they're ripe for re-discovery." - NPR Music

“You couldn’t make a movie about band life in the 2000’s without The Glands all over the soundtrack.”  - James Mercer of The Shins

“That self-titled second Glands album was my soundtrack for 2000 … and truly one of my favorite albums ever made by anyone, anywhere.”- Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers

“If it’s possible to wear a CD out with too much usage (it’s not) I did it (I didn’t because it’s not possible). - David Cross

The Glands by Sean Dungan 

On November 9th, 2018, New West Records is set to release the two-decades-in-the-making Double Coda, the fabled third album by the Athens, GA cult favorite the Glands, along with definitive reissues of their two long-out-of-print LPs, Double Thriller (1996) for the first time on vinyl, and The Glands (2000) featuring the band’s original 19-song sequence including 5 rare songs. Frontman Ross Shapiro passed away from lung cancer in 2016 at the age of 53, and the 23 tracks on Double Coda were compiled from recordings he had been making for nearly two decades.

Today, NPR Music premiered the video for Double Coda’s lead-off track “So High,” along with an eclectic new song called “Electricity” and a preview video of the I Can See My House from Here box set. They state, “The Glands may be the greatest band you’ve never heard of” and of Double Coda, “Like Double Thriller, like The Glands, every single one of these 23 tracks is a hit, and a testament to Shapiro’s warped-yet-grounded sensibility.” See the “So High” video and hear “Electricity,” HERE.  Standard editions of Double Thriller, The Glands, Double Coda, and the limited I Can See My House From Here box set are available for pre-order now via NEW WEST RECORDS.

The epic, 23-track Double Coda serves as the anticipated third and final record from the band, with final production overseen by founding member and drummer Joe Rowe, bassist Derek Almstead, and Glands producer David Barbe (longtime Drive-By Truckers producer and bassist for Sugar with Bob Mould).  While all three titles will be available individually across digital platforms, on CD, and standard black vinyl, also released will be the limited edition 5 LP I Can See My House From Here box set compiling the three albums exclusively on colored vinyl -- Double Thriller pressed on electric pink, The Glands on Coke bottle clear, and Double Coda on clear vinyl.  

The box set will also include a 52-page book featuring an essay by the journalist Stephen Deusner, countless unpublished photos, and testimonials written by fans, friends, and fellow musicians from Athens and beyond, including James Mercer (the Shins), actor/comedian David Cross, Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers), Ira Kaplan (Yo La Tengo), Kurt Wagner (Lambchop), Dave Schools (Widespread Panic), Joey Burns (Calexico), Tim Rutili (Red Red Meat, Califone), Andrew Rieger and Laura Carter (Elf Power), Eric D. Johnson (Fruit Bats), John Davis (Superdrag, the Lees of Memory), Vanessa Briscoe Hay (Pylon, Pylon Reenactment Society), Parker Gispert (the Whigs), T. Hardy Morris, film director Lance Bangs, Christopher Lopez (the Rock*A*Teens), the acclaimed visual artist Wayne White (whose painting is featured on the cover of the Glands’ self-titled album), and many more.  

“In many crucial ways the act of making music -- almost always surrounded by friends, usually jamming at his house on Sunset Drive -- was so much more important and rewarding than releasing that music or dealing with labels or arguing with promoters or doing interviews,” Stephen Deusner states in his essay about the band.  “Ross lived for the spark of creation… Given how meticulous he was about his music and how dismissive he was about the music industry, it’s a miracle we have those two albums at all, not to mention the third LP in this set. We lost a unique human being and a remarkable voice, a crucial thread in the pilled fabric of Athens, a man who wrote songs that were hilarious and intensely sad, witty and deeply weird: snapshots from a Southern bohemia of his own making.”  

Of the new Double Coda, band member Derek Almstead states, “As a fan of the music and as a fan of Ross, it was a labor of love to get this set out, to get as much of the music out as possible and into the ears of the people who loved him.  A lot of the material came from CD’s he’d give us at band practice, like ‘Here’s some stuff I’m working on.’ It might have the vocals buried or it might not be finished. I found the best versions of the songs and put together a three-CD set, something like sixty songs.  We whittled that down to what Double Coda is.” 

Says drummer Joe Rowe, “The three of us -- Derek, David Barbe, and me -- all did a lot of research to find everything that Ross had given us over the years.  Derek took all of Ross’s hard drives and went through them, and it turned out that there’s maybe a dozen songs that sounded like they were finished. They just needed to be mixed. Then there was some stuff that was already mixed, already finished.  The record is all the stuff we could find that we felt really confident about. It took a while. It was hard. There were some days when I just couldn’t deal with it because of Ross’s passing. It was just too heavy to think about. But most of the time I felt like I was able to push it forward, even just a little.”  

Rowe continues, “It’s been eighteen years since we’ve released anything, but in rock and roll, mystery always seems to help a little bit. There’s always been a little mystery with the Glands.” 

The Glands Double Coda Track Listing: 

1. So High

2. Pleaser

3. Electricity

4. Possibilities

5. Every Time I Listen to a Stranger 

6. Todd Work

7. Sofa

8. Clover

9. Have Your Cake

10. Piano Jazz

11. Great Waves

12. Pie

13. Rose

14. Atmosphere

15. Rufino Tamayo

16. A Boy Without a Head

17. Tom Robertson

18. Sadie Song

19. Peter Acoustic

20. Body and Soul

21. (A Screwed Up Way of Saying) I Want You

22. Feelies

23. Save a Place for You

The Glands I Can See My House From Here Box Set Track Listing:

Double Thriller (1996)

1. Sunshine Happiness

2. Free Jane 

3. Pretty Merrina 

4. Grey Hats 

5. Two Dollar Wine 

6. Ruddy’s Waltz 

7. Welcome to N.J. 

8. World Half Over 

9. This is The Coat 

10. Call Me Doctor 

11. No. Zero 

12. Skin 

13. The Virgin Loses Again 

14. Son-O-Mine 

15. Two Dollar Reprise 

The Glands (2000)

1. Livin’ Was Easy 

2. When I Laugh 

3. Swim - Prelude 

4. Swim 

5. Mayflower 

6. Lovetown 

7. Straight Down 

8. I Can See My House From Here 

9. Fortress 

10. Work It Out

11. Soul Inspiration

12. Ground 

13. Favorite American 

14. Breathe Out 

15. U R The Mountain

16. Something In The Air

17. Holiday Walk

18. Head That’s Mine

19. Doug’s Hall Rag

Double Coda (2018) 

1. So High

2. Pleaser

3. Electricity

4. Possibilities

5. Every Time I Listen to a Stranger 

6. Todd Work

7. Sofa

8. Clover

9. Have Your Cake

10. Piano Jazz

11. Great Waves

12. Pie

13. Rose

14. Atmosphere

15. Rufino Tamayo

16. A Boy Without a Head

17. Tom Robertson

18. Sadie Song

19. Peter Acoustic

20. Body and Soul

21. (A Screwed Up Way of Saying) I Want You

22. Feelies

23. Save a Place for You

www.TheGlandsBand.com

www.NewWestRecords.com

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Going Back to 2005 for This Gem

The Start Begins

It's a new era in my life. The sun is shining, Spitalfield is playing, and frankly, I feel great. I didn't cut loose last night. I don't plan to do so in 2011, a New Year's resolution, if you believe in them. I don't think I do. I'm more of a 'change the lifestyle because the old lifestyle isn't helpful to me' type of person. I don't need "1/1/11" to decide, "I'm going to do more of X, I'm going to eat less of Y." or declarations like that. No one keeps their New Year's resolutions. No one remembers what they swore so emphatically today in six months. Why bother?

Instead, I'll go on record and say I am going to have a much better 2011 than 2010. Period. I am going to take the necessary steps to ensure my life is the way I want to live it. I will do so by making small steps in the direction I want to go. I understand fully that some of the decisions I make have an impact on others. Fine. I also understand that I only have one life. This is it. This is the only life I get to live. If I want to live it the way I want, I no longer consider it selfish or self-centered. You, reading this, have that power. Perhaps you consider it too difficult to make a change in your life, that you are firmly entrenched in the patterns and routines that have defined your life. I would rather define my life first, then come up with the patterns and routines that help me carry out how I have defined my life. I see a subtle difference in the way I phrase that concept.

Welcome to 2011. Without a doubt, I feel the most empowered by my disposition and attitude. I am hopeful that the start begins today and carries through for longer than 1 month or 2 months or 3 months. I want it to last so that when I sit in front of this PC on 1/1/2012, I can reread this and think back to what I feel right now and feel comforted by the fact that I did what I said I was going to do in 2011.

Call it a Wrapper

The end of 2008 is upon me like a wet blanket.

This year was pretty good for me. There were a lot of ups and downs. One of the ups was seeing Rush in May. That rocked. Another up was getting some extra freelance moonlighting technical writing assignments. I am uncertain if they will be repeat customers but I hope they will be in 2009. I also got to mow the neighbor's yard. Of course, one of the downs is that all that extra $ was used for one thing or another. It doesn't really matter. Another sad thing is the disappointing losses Alex's Dudes basketball team went through.

Musically, I am still entrenched in Somehow Hollow, Spitalfield, Ten Foot Pole, and Metallica. Count the Stars also got a lot of listens. I liked the new Offspring and the new Puddle of Mudd. I liked the new Bayside release and I also liked Death Cab for Cutie. I also got a Who DVD and listened to more of their material than I ever have before. I'm not rushing out to buy their releases, but I probably have a deeper understanding as to why Keith Moon is considered such a legendary drummer. On the opposite end, I heard a lot of crappy death bands that couldn't play a decent riff if they were taught it.

2009 looks to be a good year for me. I am hopeful that I will continue to be happy at work and make good decisions there. I am hopeful that I will actually get to do some tech writing the first week of January. I have about 8 weeks stockpiled up and I think my next cut is going to be early February so there's not a lot of time to do a lot of things. I just have to make the best of it.

So with that, and a glasses prescription to be filled tomorrow, I bid farewell to 2008. No crazy plans tomorrow night, which is kind of strange.

Best website of the year still is: http://www.freearcade.com/SuperCrazyGuitarManiacDeluxe3.flash/SuperCrazyGuitarManiacDeluxe3.html

In the 11th hour...

I haven't been on the PC much this week.

On Monday, I mowed the front part of the neighbor's yard and started on the back. Then, when my mower ran low on gas, I quit. I then took a shower and Karen and I went to Bennigan's for supper.

On Tuesday, I mowed the rest of the neighbor's yard and did two strips of our yard. Then, I took a shower and Karen and I went to Red Lobster for supper.

On Wednesday, I arrived home @ 5:20 and we left for Cedar Rapids. The original idea was to see the 4th Indiana Jones movie b/c I thought the movie was @ 7:30. Turns out, the movie was instead @ 6:30. So it was decided rushing to get to the 6:30 movie was a stupid idea so we went to the Edgewood Road theater to see what was available. I lobbied for "Journey to the Center of the Earth" but it was decided the 3-D aspect might not be something to see. "Mama Mia" was one of the choices that Karen wanted to see. I relented and said that if we saw that tonight, we'd go see "The Dark Knight" tomorrow, assuming the kids weren't coming home until Friday. Keep reading.

After supper @ IHOP, we went to see "Mama Mia." It wasn't terrible, but I wouldn't pay $8.50 to see it again. I thought the plot wrapped itself up too conveniently. During the movie, the kids called. They were on vacation all this week - hence why we didn't cook - with my parents in MI. They told me they were coming home today.

After the movie, a light illuminated when I turned on the headlights after starting the car. It was quickly diagnosed to be a burnt out headlight. We went to Advance Auto Parts and a nice worker there, Brendan, replaced the headlight and sent us on our way home. Instead of returning to NL @ 9:30-ish, it was 10:15.

So the kids are home and thanks to my parents for coming home a day earlier than expected. We thought they would come home on Friday so we gave our in-home daycare provider the week off. Karen is off @ 2 and they'll probably sleep in, per each of them. Vacation was rough - they were up @ 7 each morning. They'll spend the day by themselves. Even when I told my father on Monday "We don't have daycare for them on Friday," they still came home early. Maybe my kids are brats or maybe people really only hear what they want to hear.

So, as it is, I had an unproductive week. I didn't work on my contract and I didn't work on this blog and I didn't write any music reviews.

My friend Phil sent me a link to a Youtube video of a heavy metal monk:

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I think there are a lot of good reasons why August is going to be busy for me. At work, here's the scoop. We have our Client Conference in a couple of weeks because, for Client Conference, I have a lot of work to do. I am designing the Windows UI for a major new system that was coded on a text-based green screen. When I get that done, it will be time for Client Conference.

Beginning the week of 8/18, I will begin working on the projects that are slated for the next release. There are a lot of projects. I went through my 8 page list of projects that are confirmed to be on the next release and guestimated that I have 481 hours of work to do. Divide 481 by 40 hours in a week and you get around 12 weeks. Unfortunately, I am not going to get 12 weeks. I am going to get 5. Serious. And that is not counting all the projects that are likely to be added to the release that could, possibly, not even by known about yet - things happen fast and new projects surface daily. So, my job for the next 5 weeks is to complete 12 weeks worth of work. Granted, the 481 hours is based upon rough estimates and up to a 5 line description of the project. I can say this - I will be jamming to Count the Stars, Spitafield, Bonerrama, the Twits, and a slew of other releases while I do my work.

Finally...

Unfortunately, Alex's team lost their game last night 5-4 so the Rays season is over. We played the Royals, who had beat us twice previously 5-4 so it was fitting that our season was ended by the team that we couldn't beat twice before.

Megan's team, however, won and plays for the championship game tonight. If they lose their first game @ 5, they have to play again b/c it would be their first loss. If they win their game @ 5, then it's over and Megan's team are the champions of their league.

Alex's team only played 1.5 innings on Wednesday because there was lightening. I was asked what I thought about the weather and I said, "Keep the kids safe. If there's a storm, I don't want any kids on the field." I think the person that asked me that wanted me to say, "Let the game go on!" but I didn't feel that way.

Karen made the comment that next week, when there are no games, she will have so much free time, she won't know what to do. I think our nights will get filled up with various other things - we don't have "free time" any more. For me, I have some TWing contract work to get done and many, many CD reviews to write.

Right now, I'm listening to Spitalfield. They have replaced Count the Stars as the band I can listen to over and over.

I haven't been able to find a release date for Metallica's "Death Magnetic." I just know it's September. I can't wait! I will buy it on the day it is released, in the same way I bought their "St. Anger" release on the day it came out.

It's 7:20 AM. I have a busy day @ work ahead of me. Lots of projects, lots of stuff piled up on my desk and not nearly enough time to do it all. There are 3 major projects that I need to get done and they all are going way too slow. I need to put Spitalfield's "Remember Right Now" in my CD player, put on my headphones and tap tap away...