beck.

please allow me to geek out for a sec.

Last week after the show in Denton we all went out for tacos and Devin from the Poison Control Center asked me what my favorite album was. It took me a while to narrow it down to a couple but I told him my default answer for years and years was always Odelay by Beck. I think I probably stuck by that answer until a few years ago when Guero came out: a poor imitation of a great album that mentally soured the original a tiny bit. Not that I don't like Guero, it was just a small disappointment to have one of my favorite artist retread some old territory taking on an impossible task of trying to live up to an album I love so much. When that came out about two or three years ago I was eagerly anticipating the 10th anniversary deluxe edition of Odelay as my copy has long been scratched in a few spots. It never came. Once the 11th anniversary came around with no sign I kind of gave up. After talking to Devin I started doing some research and sure enough, it comes out TUESDAY! and its going to be great. Two unreleased tracks and a disc of excellent b-sides (most of which I own hard copies of, but a few I've heard and still need)

Here is my pre-review/list of highlights

-it looks like the bsides disc is going to be split with all the hi engery songs up front and the quiet at the end. I.E. great to fall asleep too.
-The UNKLE remix of Where It's At features some sweet Street Fighter II samples
-The Odelay production rerecording of Thunder Peel a song off Stereopathetic Soulmanure is far superior to the original and was only released in Japan.
-The best thing to come out of A Life Less Ordinary: Deadweight
-a full string arranged version and mariachi version of Jackass


They left off a couple good bsides from that era, but you can only fit so much I guess.

Conclusion: If you don't own Odelay I would definitely pick this up. It's an album that flawlessly jumps genres and incorporates samples in a way that surprisingly very few have successfully pulled off, which to me, adds to the mystery of the whole thing. Why can't some one make another album like this?

in non related news MUCH THANKS TO:

I Guess I'm Floating
and
Eyes For Indie

for the props. Go check these great blogs out!

weekend recap. peel. mathletes. rushmore.

Last weekend, aside from getting sick up until this morning, was wonderful. It started early on Thursday night when we played at the Cavern in Dallas with Austin's wonderful PEEL and the Happy Bullets. We had played last Sunday in Austin with Peel and this was somewhat of a trade off. Sorry to say I should have let Peel folks know that we usually have better crowds at all ages shows since our audience is a good mix of the young and old. About six or seven people under 21 approached us outside before the show because they couldn't get in. I haven't played the Cavern in over a year but I guess the deal is they need to hire an extra person to walk around and make sure minors aren't drinking if they make the show 18+ and since it wasn't communicated before hand, no extra guy was hired. sooo SORRY six guys that had to be turned away, I promise we will play an all ages Dallas show sometime somewhere. The bands were great. We had a fun time. I got to borrow the Happy Bullets amp which sounded nice. I got home and went to bed at 3am only to get up at 8 for work.

Friday I took off work at four and we drove down to Houston through horrible rainy weather for about four or five hours and hopped out to find a little Houston club called the Proletariat. Appearently this place is about to be torn down, so what otherwise would have been a neat little rock club was now a post apocalyptic hole in the wall. (not that I wouldn't rather play a post apocalyptic hole in the wall over a nice little rock club, just sayin) The opening bands were superb and then we took the stage. Things were going along nicely when the right half of the stage totally lost all power causing Sweatpants to go into hyperactive-must-save-the-show-mode. (not that I wouldn't perfer sweatpants to go into hyperactice-must-save-the-show-mode) On top of this there was one super fan (who will remain nameless) who wouldn't stop yelling out for "Quatro!" Not just yelling out, but screaming INSANELY for Quatro as if she was being thrown into a trash compactor. Those of you who have seen us since the album came out are familiar that lately our set lists have been to play the album all the way through, rarely stopping in between songs so that we can get the most non stop rock in the shortest amount of time. I weighed my options and decided to just barrelle through the rock opera instead of playing Quatro. She only got louder. By the time our quiet closer came around she was yelling "QUUUUAAAAATROOOOOOO" and "I HAAAATTEEE YOUUUU" and "I WANT TOOO HEAR A SONG ABOUT A HORSE!!" (guess she thinks that song is about a horse) in between every line. I tried to make her part of the song by telling the audience to imagine a screaming inmate in the cell next to you as you came up with the song that was going to save the lone star state. That went over well. Anyway, we played a great set I thought.

The Mathletes were incredible. This post was originally going to be about how much I love the creative projects of Joe Mathlete (see the marmaduke blog to the right) but I'm running out of my lunch break and will have to b'logg about that later.

After the show we stayed at Clay from the Dimes apartment and got up in the morning to see different landmarks from my favorite movie Rushmore. Here are some pictures.
100000 miles at Rushmore Academy!
The gym to Grover Cleveland High School was unlocked.


this is a picture on the wall of the barbershop.

(insert your own quote from the movie under this picture)

a vision of things to come?

Last night/this morning I had a dream I was sitting in a church watching a couple songs being rehearsed for an epic stage production of Albatross. There was a large horn section for one song (proper name maybe) and then an intricate choir arrangement for another (definitely thought balloon) the sites and sounds were so overwhelmingly beautiful I started crying with joy and the old man sitting next to me looked over in confusion. 

In other news, I have submitted my songs for the Keith John Adams pre-order. His new album Unclever comes out soon and I can't wait to see what he comes up with!

THE PCC

The first time I ever saw The Poison Control Center was at the Athen's Popfest in 2005. I had heard some stories about them from Gabe Saucedo of Red Pony Clock telling me how they beat each other and the audience up during their sets so I was poised for some pain when they took the stage at the 40 watt wearing JFK masks and dancing to Edison Lighthouse. Needless to say the show was amazing and probably one of the only times I felt like I was in physical danger during a rock show. One of my many favorite memories of the show was THIS GUY losing his glasses in a mosh and yelling and everyone so that they wouldn't step on them. So yes, it was great and we instantly hit it off due to our similarities and love of pop music. Since then we have crossed paths several times on different tours and most recently their excellent bass player Joe Terry joined Fishboy in November on our tour of the western US. Their newest album A Collage of Impressions is a wonderful patchwork quilt of four song writers different take on the American pop song. Like Iowas own version of The White Album this thing goes to a lot of unexpected places, but you're always happy with the final destination. And while I often compare them to my own band, they are definitely light years ahead of us on guitar solos and backing vocals...and stage presence...and...so basically just light years ahead of us.. "Where can I see this amazing band?" well, if you are from my neck of the woods, the sad news is they've never been to Texas...

UNTIL NOW!

thats right! We're playing two amazing shows with the PCC on Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday the 12th at Rubber Gloves in Denton with Teenage Cool Kids and Sparlin Jessels

and Sunday the 13th at the Mohawk in Austin with Peel presented by Partyends.com!

you should come!!

eric

albatross on the netz

I know I swore I'd stop reposting things others have posted about us but I've got to give some shout outs and thank yous:

so... wow, we made some very nice year end lists this past week including:

#1 Album Of 2007 from INDIEPAGES.COM

 #2 Album of 2007 from Imaginary Liz of THREE IMAGINARY GIRLS

#1 Album of 2007 from KEXP Intern/DJ Assistant Keenan Dowers (we still have your key!)

(edit: Just found this one!) #2 Album of 2007 at Chucklehound.com

Also, the wonderful Julie from Fear of Arthropods (who is in a close running with retrolowfi for biggest albatross supporter) went on a very rad Atlanta podcast called Have You Heard and plugged the heck out of our little record. I listened to the whole show and it was great! Thanks Bradley Adam and Julie!

Coming up this weekend we are playing two amazing shows with THE POISON CONTROL CENTER! More on this soon. Here is the poster!

p.s. We've been confirmed for SXSW 2008!