Confessions of a Fanboy

Go big or go home.  Yes, sir, most days when I come to work I come heavy.  160GB iPod classic, brimming with treasures and wonders to behold.

The latest casualty of the terrible beauty of my new Macbook Pro was my iPod.  I had to re-sync it, which when we’re talking about more than 20,000 songs can take awhile.  Awhile gets longer when you factor in that the files aren’t on the laptop’s hard drive but are actually on an external drive being accessed through my wireless network.  I kicked this off last night before bed, but we lost power overnight.  Twice.  I woke up this morning with an iPod with 0 songs on it.  Fuck!  I almost took a day of vacation.  I don’t go to work without my iPod.

Instead, I had to compromise.  I put a couple hundred songs on my iPhone and trudged into work, hoping the power stays on throughout the day and that my iPod is fully restored when I get home.  I’m slumming today with only a couple hundred songs rather than my library proper.  I’m actually quite depressed- so much so that I’m considering going home for lunch to see if the re-sync has completed.  I need help.

Filed under: Tags: Let's Talk About My iPod | 5 Comments »

I’m not a risk taker by nature, but there are times I forget myself.  Last night while scrolling through my in-progress iTunes library I came across an album I’d not listened to in quite some time:  One Cell In The Sea by A Fine Frenzy.  I’ve had the CD on my mind a lot lately as I turned the daughter of a co-worker on to it.  Still, I hadn’t listened to it myself in quite some time.  Absentmindedly, I started listening to it while my wife worked on an art project in the other corner of the room.

“This is really pretty,” she said.  “Who is this?”

Uh oh.

“She calls herself A Fine Frenzy,” I said.  “It is very good though, isn’t it?”

When she asked if she could put the album on her iPod, I knew I was sunk.  I guess it’s good that after 10 years my wife knows I’m buying the albums for the music, not the cover art.  I suppose that’s like buying Playboy for the articles.  I’m of the opinion any man who made that claim was probably telling the truth.  If he noticed there are articles in the magazine he may well have read them.  Can you believe I’m not sleeping on the couch tonight?

Filed under: Tags: A Fine Frenzy | 9 Comments »

Welcome to the newest addition to the Fanboy factory: my new MacBook Pro. I’ve spent the last 24 hours migrating, customizing, upgrading, and tweaking this bad boy and only now am I really getting a chance to dial in and put it to one of its preferred uses: writing.

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Filed under: Tags: Ryan Adams, The Beatles, The Black Keys | 8 Comments »

I’m probably the only person in America who thinks it’s funny when they play “Drive” and “Driver 8” back-to-back.  I wonder if Peruvians share my sense of humor.  Probably not.

I don’t have some fancy database configured to prove it, but I’d be shocked if this exact set list hasn’t been used on some other date somewhere along this tour.

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Filed under: Tags: Accelerate Tour, R.E.M. | 2 Comments »

The best thing I can say about this one is they took “She Just Wants To Be” out of the encore and put “Pretty Persuasion” there.  Yes, they still played “SJWTB,” but if you’re going to have to hear it it’s best to get it over in the main set.  Every time I mock “SJWTB,” I get a stern look from S.Rod.  Apologies.  It just does nothing for me.

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Filed under: Tags: Accelerate Tour, R.E.M. | No Comments »

Circulating rumors have officially been confirmed:  Bruce Springsteen’s 24th album will be released January 27.

Once again teamed with his E Street Band, Working on a Dream is a 12-song set once again produced by Brendan O’Brien, who has produced previous Springsteen records The Rising, Devils & Dust, and Magic.  According to Springsteen, the seeds of the record were mostly sewn during the Magic sessions.

“Towards the end of recording Magic, excited by the return to pop production sounds, I continued writing,” Springsteen said through a press release announcing the album’s release.
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Filed under: Tags: A Day Late and a Dollar Short, Bruce Springsteen | No Comments »

Wow, so I pulled on a thread and now it all just wants to spill out of me. I started listening to Guster, which led me to their classic - yes, I fucking said classic - record Ganging Up On The Sun. For more than a year, the ringtone on my phone for my wife was “Satellite.” I’m not sure it was lyrically the right choice but I love the song, I love my wife, and I was obsessed with Guster so it all made sense. Listening to it right now, the full song rather than just that abbreviated ringtone was kind of weird.

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Filed under: Tags: Guster, The Bittersweets | No Comments »

In failing to explain what it is about R.E.M.’s “Laughing” I like so much, I mentioned some of the things I do like when I hear them in other songs. A couple of the things I mentioned were great melodies and great harmonies. Another word for that would be Guster.

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After a couple unfortunate incarcerations, popular legend suggest Chuck Berry became a bitter man and the youthful exuberance of his earliest, best material was gone in later days. Chuck may well have gotten bitter about his time in prison, but he was still capable of churning out some great songs.

We talked about “Tulane” and “Have Mercy Judge,” both released on Back Home circa 1969. Five years earlier, Chess Records released St. Louis to Liverpool, an “album” that collected some hit singles and a slew of other songs from his 1964 recording sessions. Among those songs is one called “You Two,” a swinging little number with an intoxicating sweetness and innocence. Chuck’s gentle croon glides over the shuffling groove of his guitar, creating a pure pop gem.

It’s not the kind of song that has “hit single” written all over it, but there is an undeniable appeal to “You Two.”

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I think people forget what a big Chuck Berry fan I am. Those of you who have been with me since the early days of my web site dominance will remember an old podcast I used to do. That old podcast included a famous Christmas episode. One of the Christmas presents I bought myself that year was the Chuck Berry Chess Box set.

Of all the box sets in the history of music, only a small handful really stand out as essential time capsules of rock and roll. Chuck Berry’s Chess Box is one of those. Anyone who cares enough about rock and roll to learn its history absolutely must own this box and plunder the treasures within. Read more »

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