Christie Front Drive

I have been meaning to post about Christie Front Drive for a while now.

I can't think of any good bands from Colorado except for Christie Front Drive. I bought their self-titled "Stereo" album last year for $5 at one of my favorite record stores.

Their songs are epic and actually sound like Colorado.

Here is a link to some of their tracks as well as an interview with the singer:

http://www.liepaper.com/eric.htm

Here is a link to a few more of their tracks from a fan site:

http://www.christiefrontdrive.com/

Low quality photography of bands: Part One.

Of course, while I promise a series of compelling "greatest hits" and "best ofs" posts, it's only natural to start another series.

I used to be very opposed to concertgoers taking pictures of bands during their shows. In my old age, it's one of those things I guess I just don't care about, like boycotting Old Navy and The Gap.

I am not a very good photographer and I take pictures only with my cell phone. Here is !!! from a thursday night show a few weeks ago at the Someday Lounge:

THE VERY BEST OF...

A lot of bands that I love are never going to be big. They're on the decline, they've broken up, no one knew them to begin with. It goes like this. But, in my mind they're huge. They're fantastic. And anyone who saw them years ago or even heard of them is rad. They've had superhits stuck in my head for years.

And it's better if this happened for my friends, too. This was the magic of college radio - there were secret superhits that only we knew about. Tons of bands like this: The Dismemberment Plan, The Weakerthans, The Wrens, Ted Leo. Bands that were sort of pop, sort of punk, all indie.

Now, it's been years since I first heard these bands. I feel I should be stopping by Best Buy picking up their "Gold" collections, their best ofs and box sets. But these bands will probably never have best ofs.

That's where I come in. I'm going to put together some best ofs for my favorite bands that will never have their own.

First on the list is Jawbreaker. I'm trying to get Dan into Jawbreaker, so I'm going to pick out my ten favorite songs and see if it works. Wish me luck.

My new ride

1976(?) Raleigh Grand Prix fixed gear.
Thank you Dan!

Fixed gears are the new skateboards.

BOUNCIN'

I've been listening to a lot of music from about ten years ago. Kind of unpredictably, I've gotten back into jam rock supergroup PHISH. I have been downloading many shows from www.momadance.com and enjoying them very much. My tattooed punk girlfriend refuses to hear about how DIY and great Phish are, how they are so DIY that they only play guitars made by their neighbor from Vermont, how they give all their profits from Phish Food ice cream to charity, how they have a great sense of humor, and how they became huge without any mainstream radio or pop culture support. Actually, I don't think any of my friends want to hear about how great Phish is. So, here is a performance of Phish's biggest "hit" - hated by all mid nineties Phishheads as the ultimate "newbie" song, only suitable for bathroom breaks mid set:

Bouncin Round The Room, performed in 1990

Maybe it's how I don't want to talk about politics any more and have a boring job that Phish's music calms me for. Maybe it was seeing the Phish tribute band Phix play last year. Maybe it's that I'm getting old and I actually saw Phish shows over the summer every summer from 1997 to 2000. I don't know.

My favorite Phish song of right now is "Punch You In The Eye". Look it up.

For the punkers out there I've been downloading all these tracks and loving them too:
One guy's history of Emo from the 1990s to 2000s:
http://www.canyouseethesunset.com/2007/04/spoonful-of-emo-revisited.html

My favorite song from this collection right now is Jejune's song from the split with Jimmy Eat World. I'm totally ripping off stuff like that and Unrest for our band Apples of the Earth.