hiss golden messenger

April 13-23, 2015

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Um.

Spent most of the week after Full Frame recovering from Full Frame. Did manage to make it out to see Inter Arma at the Pinhook – it was a good reminder of the life of the touring musician. They put out a nearly universally acclaimed debut album on Relapse in 2013, played a packed Lincoln Theatre at Hopscotch that year. And in April 2015 they played their asses off to a crowd of ~40 people on a Tuesday at the Pinhook.

My folks were coming to town on Saturday the 18th, Record Store Day, so the rest of the week was spent either cleaning house or getting ready for our simulcast of the big party at Chaz’s Bull City Records. Between Merge & the Record Store Day website, I was concerned that we’d get a flood of streaming listeners, so we shelled out for a month of third-party stream hosting (via ShoutCheap).

Apparently people are busy doing other things on beautiful Saturday afternoons in April, though – I think we peaked at maybe 40 listeners online, or less than half of what we’ve gotten at each of our Hopscotch/3 Lobed day parties. 

There were a ton of actual physical people at the actual physical show – I was impressed at how many humans can fit comfortably into Chaz’s parking lot. It looks so tiny when you’re parking your car in it. Good reminder that cars take up ridiculously large amounts of space that could otherwise be used for much cooler things.

Ex Hex totally blew me away, in welcome contrast to every time I had seen them before. Although I went back & listened to the recording of the show and was less impressed. They’re definitely a band you need to see up close & in person. Or on record. Love that record.

Sunday we watched the first episode of the new season of Orphan Black. It was pretty wretched, moreso even than the end of last season. Oh well. 

Gonna have to just shorthand the rest of this week, because I’m supposed to be packing to drive to Virginia.

High points:

Low points:

  • The crappy no-guitars mix at this week’s Sleater-Kinney show
  • The Back Porch Music-heavy lineup for this year’s Duke Performances Music in the Gardens series
  • Local businesses who try to crowdfund the purchase of luxury items (a pool table, for a barber shop) with “rewards” like “Hugs” for $75 donations.
  • The pitch timer

April 13-23, 2015

November 19-20, 2014

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I have three vastly different books going at once:

And if that was all you knew about me, I’d be an egregious White Male Tech Nerd. Ouch. 

Still, they’re all pretty solid. The Javascript book is actually outstanding – if you’re a software developer with an object-oriented background, this book is only 95 pages & it does a better job at telling you what you need to know than anything else I have read. Really well-written.

I’m liking the Gibson so far. Better than the most recent trilogy.

The cocktail book is ludicrous, which is why I bought it.

Ate dinner Wednesday at Piedmont, for the first time in a couple of months. Marked improvement in the entree – it was probably the best thing I’ve had there since the turnover. It was flounder with some fingerling potatoes, some fennel, and some kind of foam. In the old days it would’ve been aggressively salty or sweet or something, but this time it was subtle and delicious. No wonder they’ve been a lot busier lately.

Late Tuesday night, Hiss Golden Messenger were on Letterman. I haven’t watched late-night TV in ages & ages, and even my next-day internet watching has waned. I got kind of teary when I saw Dave Letterman, because I watched him [a little too] religiously in high school, and high school was a long time ago. 

Hiss Golden Messenger were great, as good as I have ever seen them. Glad they busted out the big guns for their national TV debut (whatever that means nowadays), and glad to see folks like Amelia Meath up there singing backup, taking a break from being Way More Famous than Mike is.

I have opinions about current events on various fronts, but they’re fairly predictable and I’m pretty sure I have covered them adequately, here and elsewhere.

November 19-20, 2014