Free early shows rock

Like many other Austinites and touristy folks, I was very eager to listen to some music at SXSW this year. However, my mom is predisposed to hating SXSW purely because of the thousands of visitors that pour into Austin annually. Fortunately, my dad was willing to take me to see a few bands. 

We left the house at 8:00 in the morning, headed for the free KUT-sponsored shows at the fancy Hilton hotel in downtown Austin. When we arrived, we found a small stage surrounded by about thirty cushioned chairs. It was thirty minutes before the first band was scheduled to play, and only three chairs were occupied (Interestingly enough, I found my sixth grade English teacher seated in one of these chairs.) These early shows are obviously not for the people who like to stay out late partying and head-banging to the sound of grinding guitars and crashing drums.

The first performer, singer/songwriter Bobby Long, played at an eye-opening (or maybe eye-closing) 9:00 am. He just released his debut album in February, and is visiting Austin from his current location in NYC.  I really enjoyed Long's music and have been listening to it in various YouTube videos constantly since (I've yet to purchase the album, titled A Winter Tale.). Watching him perform was priceless. Long is very expressive while singing and his guitar-playing was absolutely amazing.

Bobby Long, performing "Dead and Done."

Also, about the videos: I'm a total amateur with video cameras. A) This was probably the first time I've used one. So, I apologize for shakiness and everything else, B) I did not have a tripod, and, being seated in the second row, had to hold my camera above the fat heads of the people in the first row and C) There was a very large speaker blocking part of the stage, so for the next two bands, I was unable to film both band members well. Again, sorry. But hey, at least you can hear the music!

The second band, The Old 97's, was extremely energetic. I enjoyed watching them because the fun they were having while performing traveled from their music to the audience (though we were all tamely seated). I recorded a video of their performance of "Time Bomb," which will hopefully be attached below.

The Old 97's performing "Time Bomb."

Tristen, the third band to perform at the Hilton, was a great finale for the morning music. Though more subdued than the Old 97's (who obviously don't understand the concept of apostrophes not making things plural), Tristen was just as enthralling as Bobby Long. The band recently released its debut album in February as well. It's titled Charlatans at the Garden Gate, and I'll provide a link to the band's website here. Below is a video of Tristen performing "Heart and Hope to Die."

Tristen performing "Heart and Hope to Die."

~ OMO      

Strangest Children's Books EVER!

I was perusing the musty shelves of Half Price Books about a year ago when I came across a very orange, very weird book that caught my attention. On the cover, were the famed Dick and Jane, but this wasn't just any "See Spot run!" type of book. No, the title was "Yiddish With Dick and Jane".

The book teaches children such important words as "schmooze" "kvetch" and "fress". Watch as Dick schmoozes with his boss! See Dick schmooze. Schmooze, Dick, schmooze! There were clearly lots of drugs and adultery going on in this book, but none of the personality-free characters seemed to notice anything strange around them. Told in a very ironic voice, making it clear that everyone in the story seemed to be brainwashed, this book had me lollin' all day long.

Okay, so it was pretty clear that this "children's" book should not be given to any children, but it made me wonder. What kind of creepy children's books are out there? So, of course I Googled it and came up with THIS LIST and also THIS ONE, which includes such gems as "Who Cares About Disabled People?" and "Cooking with Pooh" (just think about it for a while...yeah.)

Anyway, now I am severely disturbed, so I thought I would share it with you!! You are ever so welcome.

-Clyde

EJE is one excited chica!

Oh. My. God.

Like, seriously.
OH MY GOD.

So I emailed Bombay Bicycle Club last night so I can interview them... AND THEY SAID YES!! Even though it's going to be over email, I'm still interviewing them. This'll be so awesome!!

Also, I just checked my email.
...
I GOT INTO BROWN SUMMER PROGRAMS!!! I still need to see if I get a scholarship or not, but I got in!! Which means I can go beg my grandparents for money. I'm so excited!!

Also, here is my actual blog post. I went to go see Bombay Bicycle Club at their concert at Red House Pizzeria. It was pretty awesome.

My CD signed by 3/4 (Ed Nash was no where to be found D:)

Jack Steadman, the lead singer of the band.

Me with Jamie MacColl (guitarist and backing vocals) and Suren de Saram (drummer).

Three of the four, Ed Nash (bassist) was missing.

Me with Jack Steadman :D

He's cute :)

D'awwwww

- EJE ♥

PEOPLE!

I would like to remind you that we are currently churning out our advice column on our good old Vinyl Advice Blog.  

So you should totes check that out! And don't forget to submit your questions to vinylstaff@gmail.com

We will answer anything!

Seriously, you guys...

ANYTHING.

Okay, most things, but, you know.

irrelephant

SXSW and FREE MUSIC

South by is here. And with it, tens of thousands of extra people flooding downtown, and COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF MUSIC.

I cannot tell you how broke I want to be by the end of this week, mostly from spending all my money on busses, trailer food, music and possibly the occasional pedicap, if my feet are really killing me.

In hopes that not everyone will go broke, however (or may go broke all the faster), I have set out to compile some Free Music.

No promises on quality. I don't think I'd include anything that awful, but, well, some of it is just funny, and everyone has different tastes and all.

First up, some from Paper Garden Records. They've got seven and a half hours of free music the 17th and 18th with RSVP (can't find if it's all ages, but it is sort of a wine bar--bring an adult).

Pretty folky, chill stuff. Step above coffeehouse music. But it is also free.

The Lovely Hearts Club SXSW 2011 Mixtape by Paper Garden Records

Next, a step up on the scale. Intercept has a pretty freaking awesome website, which, more importantly, has a free download link for a song.

This song, in fact.



Also, it has a line about London in it. Which automatically means it wins just a bit more.

Get the free single here (might have to close the banner--congrats, Camilla Luddington, whoever you are!).

And last but certainly not least for this evening's post, a lovely little band I found which I will definitely need to stalk this coming weekend... The Bloody Irish Boys.






They, I think, rank as at least two steps above Intercept on the sliding scale of screaming.

Get some music here, I s'pose, if you want*.


Musically yours,
IBI




*Never play it in my presence or I will bloody kill you. This is a joke, ya'hear?

In which I talk at some length about COFFEE

This blog post comes to you in three parts, one in which I talk a bit about myself, one in which I talk about coffee, and one in which I talk about current events.

PART THE FIRST, in which I give an introduction

I am a relatively easy person to please. I like people, to an extent that some might find rather odd in that I rarely DISlike people. The same sort of thing goes for movies and hot drinks. As such, I am a pretty bad critic of everything except perhaps books. (Except that there are a fair amount of hot drinks that I dislike. But it's an overwhelming minority.)

I like chai and sample it wherever I can get it (Corner Bakery in Chicago sells chai out of a multi-gallon jug, and yes, if you are reading this, I reiterate that this is worse than a single-gallon pitcher, which is to say it is really, really terrible--so terrible that for the rest of the weekend I would feel a little sick when I heard someone ordering it). I drink copious amounts of hot chocolate. I'm a little picky about my tea.

Coffee, though, is GOD. At one point in my life, I got up to three cups of coffee daily (thank you, NaNoWriMo). I have had coffee that cost six dollars, I have had coffee that was free. I have had instant coffee and coffee from a French press and coffee from various chains and coffee from not-chains and lots of coffee that I made at home in a variety of different styles of coffee makers.

And I still feel I know nothing about coffee. Seriously. Because, remember, I don't DISlike a lot of hot drinks. I am not a connoisseur of coffee. I cannot comment on what makes good coffee and what makes bad coffee.

Today, however, I inadvertently ended up on something of a quest to find out what good coffee is, and really what coffee is at all.

PART THE SECOND, in which I educate yo selves about coffee

None of this I knew before today, which is why I am telling it to you now, as it makes me feel Informed&Intelligent, and also it is just pretty friggin' interesting, as a certain astronomy teacher might say.

A big, beautiful Coffea arabica tree in sunny Brazil.

This is a coffee tree. I don't know what I thought coffee grew on before, but somehow I didn't think it grew on a big bush-looking tree thing like this.

Perhaps I thought coffee beans were, you know, beans. But no. They're not. They're seeds. You see the little red specks on that tree? Those are coffee berries.

Coffee berries.

Inside the berries are the coffee beans. Apparently, you can also eat the berries and the leaves of the plant. Who knew.

Coffea arabica is the "good" sort of coffee tree, which is to say apparently this sort of tree makes better coffee than other trees. 

Unfortunately, it is also, as Mr Taylor Clark called it in the New York Times today, "A finicky diva of a plant". If it is below 4,000 feet elevation, if it gets slightly less than four inches of rain, if the temperature deviates too far from a balmy 68 degrees Fahrenheit, it could just up and die. 

The market is finicky as well. Nine years ago, farmers were being told to stop growing coffee because demand was so low, crushing millions of pounds into fertiliser. Prices had fallen to $0.48 a pound (the fair market price, at which farmers can eat and all, is well over a dollar). 

Today, prices are about eight times that.

The thing about coffee, though, is that it's ridiculously difficult to try and follow the capitalist supply/demand route, as it takes four years for the coffee plants to mature. So if a farmer plants his plot of extra coffee now because it's selling like crazy, it'll be four years before his investment comes back--and who knows what demand will be like in four years. Or whether the bloody plant will even live that long.

So then you end up with stuff like we've got now. The possibility of (I dearly hope you're sitting down now) A SHORTAGE OF COFFEE. (Told you so.)

PART THE THIRD, in which I talk about dire possibilities of the present and future and also Starbucks

Coffee, as most people are probably quite aware, is frequently rather expensive. And it is getting worse.

See, people are fearing we may have hit "peak coffee". If this reminds you of the term "peak oil", it is because they are essentially the same thing, except that one is talking about a plant and one is talking about a nonrenewable resource that takes millions of years to form beneath the Earth's surface.

Yields are declining. Because of global warming, diseases are beginning to become more prominent, and heavier rainfall can ruin crops. Prices are on the rise.

All may not be lost. Coffee is a ridiculously finicky plant, perhaps it's just in an angsty mood. It's probably not time yet to start stockpiling Arabica beans.

At the same time... It might be wise to think twice before the caffeine addiction starts setting in around finals. 

Shakily yours,

IBI

Pictures are from Wikipedia. Facts are either from this very interesting conglomeration of opinion pieces on the New York Times' Room for Debate, or this Science article.