Maritime and Leaky Music

August 15, 2007 //

Maritime is releasing their new album, Heresy and the Hotel Choir, on October 16th. Until then, you can enjoy two of their “leaked” tracks on music blogs such as Battle of the Midwestern Housewives and My Old Kentucky Blog. [A brief aside: Is it wrong to link directly to the MP3s that the good folks at these blogs have posted (all of which appear to be legally posted, by the way)? I seem to remember something on the internets about bandwidth and/or etiquette but I’m not real savvy on this kind of stuff. Thanks for any advice.] I have been a fan of Davey Von Bohlen’s work since the days of The Promise Ring — download TPR songs at Epitonic, another great music site (RIP) — and these tracks sound fantastic. If only more bands could create ultra-catchy indie pop gems that rhyme “science fiction” with “benediction.”

The evolving nature of the music industry has changed the way artists and labels release their music. There is an article over at Spin called “The Days of the Leak” that chronicles the travails of the music industry as they deal with the problem of music being leaked before the official release date — although it is kind of hard to muster up much sympathy for megastars like The White Stripes, Trent Reznor or Linkin Park.

A little bit closer to home for indie rock aficionados is the early digital release of the new Stars album. Although the physical album won’t be released until September, the band chose to release their album in digital formats in July. From their website:

Friends, fans and supporters of Stars… – July 10th, 2007

…Traditional music business practice says we are to begin sending out copies of this album now. We give advance copies to print publications in hopes of securing features that coincide with our September date. We meet with radio stations in hopes of securing airplay. etc, etc.

Inevitably someone will leak the album.

…We hope you’ll choose to support the band, and choose to pay for their album. However we don’t think it’s fair you should have to wait until September 25th to do so.

We believe that the line between the media and the public is now completely grey.

What is the difference between a writer for a big glossy music magazine and a student writing about their favourite bands on their blog? What differentiates a commercial radio station from someone adding a song to their lastfm channel? or their myspace page?

…It’s our hope that given a clear, legal alternative to downloading music for free, you will choose to support the creators.

………………………………

I heard it said the other day that content is still king on the internets and, after visiting all of these great indie MP3 blogs I tend to agree. I love sites like notcot, TasteSpotting and engadget because they do all the work for me — bringing together the latest & greatest in the worlds of design, food and gadgetry, respectively. And now I’m glad to discover sites like Who Killed The Mixtape and The Glorious Hum, along with the aforementioned MOKB and Midwestern Housewives, which do all the hard work of bringing together new & interesting indie rock songs for our listening pleasure. (Another aside: Anyone know why all these sites are hosted by blogspot?)

Categories hooray!, indie, music, reviews

Is it just Mii?

August 14, 2007 //

After months of pestering my beleaguered wife, our family finally purchased a Wii. Because of its unique playing system, this is a platform we can play with our four-year old daughter — and, boy, does she love it! Actually, her favorite part isn’t really even a game — it is creating virtual Mii characters. In addition to her personal Mii, she has created several others Miis named “Sleeping Beauty” and “Lumberwell.” We’re still scratching our heads over that one. If I ever figure out how to upload the images, I’ll show some of the funny Miis she has created. We’re also still trying to figure out how to get our Miis to look more like us. Maybe I should talk to Kye.

Our daughter has always named her dolls in a very creative manner. It took us weeks to figure out why she kept calling one her dolls “Ray-fa-fa.” Finally, it dawned on us that she had taken this name from her favorite movie, The Sound of Music — specifically, the scene where the Von Trapp children are learning to sing, “Do Re Mi” and they hit the funky breakdown: “Do mi mi, mi so so, re fa fa, la ti ti…”

I’m glad to report that we have managed to avoid any horrific Wii-injuries so far, but I must say playing the Wii is surprisingly demanding. While it probably says more about my physical conditioning than the difficulty of Wii gaming, I’m pretty worn out after a couple of rounds of boxing or after a homerun derby.

So far, our favorites are Cooking Mama (pictured above) and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Cooking Mama is exactly what it sounds like — a game of cooking up different kinds of foods. I was kind of skeptical at first but this game is seriously addictive fun. And, again, surprisingly demanding. Try racing the clock to stir up the batter or chop up some fatty bacon (in actual physical motions with your Wii-mote) and you’ll be sweating up a storm in no time.

Twilight Princess is an incredible — not to mention time-consuming — game. I really enjoyed Wind Waker (despite some negative reviews) and this takes the franchise in a new direction. Strangely, a lot of people end up here after searching for some variant of “Zelda” and “Wind Waker.” Ah, nerdom. Another birthday gift from my wife was this shirt, which pretty much sums it all up.

Categories family, hooray!, just grinning, reviews

Sushi!

August 10, 2007 //

My wife, being a foodie and an excellent “cooker” (according to the first-hand testimonial of our four-year old daughter), always knows about great places to eat. For my birthday, she took us to a place called Sushi Wasabi in Tustin. It reminded me of eating at Nozawa in Studio City — it’s all about the sushi. Both places are located in nondescript strip malls with pleasant, but forgettable, interiors. But man, oh man, was the fish good!

While some have referred these two chefs as “Sushi Nazis,” my experience at both restaurants was fantastic. Our family tried one of those fancy-pants sushi fusion places in LA once — designer decor, hip neighborhood, lovely presentation (not to mention crazy expensive), but I definitely prefer eating at these places.

Actually, my favorite sushi restaurant is Ojiya, way out in the sticks of Chino Hills (where, incidentally, my wife and I saw Snoop Dogg once at the McDonald’s drive-thru). Before we ate there, we used to crack up because they had a sign outside that said “Best Sushi In Town,” to which one of us would always say, “More like only sushi in town!” Seriously, though, the sushi there is amazing. If, for some reason, you find yourself waaay inside the Inland Empire — and you love sushi — go eat there.

This sign is from Sushi Wasabi. (Apologies for the low quality — it’s from my cell phone again. Anyone wanna buy me a 2 mp iPhone? Anyone? You can find some higher quality images of the Wasabi signs here and here.) I’m guessing that this is what has earned the chef there the “Sushi Nazi” label — which is totally off-base, because he and his wife were friendly and attentive throughout our entire experience. This, despite having a tired, hungry and cranky four-year old in tow. And the sushi was amazing. The giant clam almost had me in tears.

Actually, I think it’s pretty nice of them to put these signs on the door. That way, people know what they are getting into. In other words, if California rolls are your thing, then you would probably be better off finding another place to eat. However, I highly recommend eating omakase here. Try ordering that way at your local favorite sushi joint sometime — usually, the chef there will send the best & freshest fish your way.

Categories food, hooray!, reviews

The Ways In Which God Answers Prayer

August 9, 2007 //

We have a really amazing bunch of youth group students here at our church. For our recent VBS, out of a youth group of fifteen, we had twelve of them helping (it would have been thirteen, but one was out of town for several weeks). An 80% participation rate… great stuff! I’ve been bragging about them to everyone I know :)

A couple of our elders wanted to treat all of the volunteers to a nice dinner at Todai on a couple Sundays ago — which was awesome! — but the restaurant didn’t open until 5:30 pm. So, with most of the afternoon to wait, we decided to catch a film together after church. We were this close to allowing me to nerd out over Transformers, but we got there a little bit too late and it had already sold out. [A quick aside: If anyone would like to join me on this nerd-venture in SD, please let me know.] So, we ended up watching Evan Almighty together…

While I must admit that I like most films, I really enjoyed this movie — as did the students and youth group teachers who joined us. I know some people have criticized the film for being simplistic or preachy, but it was lots of fun. There was one scene, in particular, that surprised me by how it affected me. Lauren Graham’s character has just left Steve Carrell, and finds herself unknowingly engaged in a conversation with God (Morgan Freeman) at a diner. Here is what God says to her:

Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?

Many young people want to be great in God’s kingdom — which is a noble goal. But we often send the wrong message to them by upholding bigger! flashier! cooler! as the standard for greatness. Maybe, instead of zapping us with a bolt of greatness, God gives us opportunities to attempt great things for Him (thanks, William Carey!) in our everyday lives.

For example, on Saturday, September 29, 2007, walktheirwalk is hosting a walk-a-thon to raise funds to build a school and provide fresh water “for children in Zambia, Africa who have been orphaned as a result of the devastating effects of HIV/AIDS and extreme poverty.” [h/t: Marko]. While I admit the prospect of walking 12 miles makes me want to take a nap already, I am humbled and moved to know that there are kids there who make this walk every single day to and from school. And that makes me want to attempt something great for God. Members of our youth group will be there. I will be there, even if I need to be dragged across the finish line. If you are in the San Diego area, let’s do this!

Categories films, outreach, prayer, youth ministry

The Harvest Is Plentiful (And Loud)

August 6, 2007 //

I took my students to the Harvest Crusade up in Anaheim yesterday. Just a couple of quick thoughts:

Welcome to the Big Rock Show. I think I tend to be a lot more cynical than my students about this kind of stuff. Maybe it’s just from longer exposure to the strange world of the Christian subculture — or maybe it’s just my cold, dark heart — but I am often reluctant to go to these kinds of events. Plus, I’m getting all old and driving up two hours from SD to Anaheim really puts the hurt on me. That being said, Greg Laurie shared a great message and reached the hearts of many of our students. Although my heart is moving more & more towards the simple living of life together as God’s people, there is still a place for blowout events.

Live music is the best. Some of my students, to my surprise, were pretty stoked to see P.O.D. perform. It’s been a couple of years since they stormed the charts, but the boys from Southtown still put on an energetic, and sincere, show. My four-year old daughter really liked them. However, we were all blown away by the opening act, Leeland. Man, that kid has some pipes! Most of my students had not heard of him before Harvest, so I picked up their CD and we listened to it on the way up. For me, the album has that over-produced, CCM-ified feel to it, though I did appreciate the thoughtful lyrics right off the bat. But everything changed when we saw them perform live — the band is tight, the rhythm section really came to life in the live setting and Leeland really opened up and let loose with the vocals. They managed to segue “How Great Thou Art” and “Agnus Dei” together without being corny. In fact, they ripped it up during the instrumental breakdown of Agnus Dei. I still want to give him a haircut, though.

The freaks come out at night. Seriously. Check out this guy. Remember what I was saying about nasty street preacher signs? I’m pretty sure this one will be hard to top. (Apologies for the poor quality — I snapped it from my phone while trooping around the parking lot looking for our van).

I’m pretty sure he doesn’t mean “Jesus kills” as in — “Dude, Jesus totally killed it on that last song when He jumped off the Marshall stacks and levitated over the crowd.” The other signs read: “Laurie leads to hell” which I can only assume was knock on Greg Laurie — although without more specific direction, it could just be a jilted lover railing against his ex-girlfriend. Maybe it was one of those newfangled emo bands that keeps sprouting up. Who knows? You can see if you have better luck creating your very own emo band name with an emo band name generator. For real, though, if you name your band “Laurie Leads To Hell” and you make it big, I want a cut of the proceeds.

Categories church, controversy, evangelism, just grinning, preaching, reviews, youth ministry