I Love This Video

Kid Rock Says “Steal Everything”

Greatest Musician Ever

Franz Liszt.

According to the AP Music Theory Teacher at my school, this guy is the greatest musician of all time.

Video from the PI Battle of the Bands

Many thanks once again to Angelo “Realnews” Bruscas for posting these videos from the Battle of the Bands:

Umbrella

Ironic

My co-vocalist is Mónica Guzmán and our fantastic guitarist is Mike “Big City” McLaughlin.

Recording from Battle of the Bands Practice

Thanks to Angelo “Realnews” Bruscas for posting these recordings (new window) of one of our practices for the Seattle PI Battle of the Bands last Saturday.

My co-vocalist is the stunning Mónica Guzmán and our fantastic effing guitarist is Mike “Big City” McLaughlin.

New Music Posted: Star Spangled Banner

I recorded the Star Spangled Banner last night over at my friend Angelo’s house after a band practice. I think it sounds pretty good.

What do you guys think? Should I send it in to the Mariners front office and see if I can sing it at a Mariners game. It’s been a lifelong dream.

Obama Brushes Off ABC Debate

Classy and funny.

If you don’t get it, here’s the reference, and here’s the remix.

Great New Music

Linkin Park released their new album recently. Very good. Here are a few of their songs.

Foo Fighters

I thought I’d take a quick break from blogging repeatedly about how much I love Barack Obama to blog about how much I love the Foo Fighters new album. Here’s the headlining singles:

Photos from Will Hoge Last Night

True to form, Will Hoge was absolutely spectacular last night. You should definitely check out his music on MySpace if you have no idea who I’m talking about.

The guy who opened for him — Jeremy Fisher — was also pretty damned awesome. He has this sheer genius song called “Lay Down (Ballad of Rigoberto Alpizar).”

Here’s are some photos from the show:

Here’s the link to the rest of the photoset.

What an incredible night!

Will Hoge Concert Tonight!!!

I’m so dadburned excited I think I might pop! I’m going to see Will Hoge play tonight at the Tractor Tavern in Ballard tonight.

This guy is like if Johnny Cash had a baby with John Mayer. I can’t believe I get to see him in a 400 person venue! What’s better, I get to see him in a 400 person venue with some of my favorite people in the universe: Andy, Ian, Mark, Megan, Arjun and Rama are all in for the treat of their lives.

::Initiates booting of happy dance module and floats in concentric circles around the house::

Christina Aguilera is a Goddess

If you’ve known me for more than five seconds, you’re probably aware that I’m a massive Christina Aguilera fan. She’s got more talent, nerve and class in her pinky finger than most of Hollywood put together. I was very pleased to read a few days ago that she’d given birth to a son: Max Liron Bratman. The name — as Perez Hilton cleverly extrapolated — means “my greatest song.”

Christina posted this video — a special rendition of “Save Me From Myself,” (iTunes) from her most recent studio album Back to Basics (iTunes) — on her site as a celebration for her fans. It’s spectacular. Enjoy.

Some Awesome Underground L.A. Hip Hop for the New Year

I’m pretty picky when it comes to hip hop, but when I love it, I really love it. My senior year of high school, our final paper for English was supposed to be about an American poet. I wrote about Eminem.

If you want to hear what will surely be one of the best collections of hip hop to come out this year, check out So Far (The Collection) from Inverse.

For more information, check out their Myspace.

Iowa Primaries Are Whack

Iowa Primaries Are Whack

by Sir-Votes-A-Lot

“Oh my God, Becky, look at him kiss butt.
And his ego is SO big.”
“Must be one of those Presidential candidates.
You know, they only vote for him because he acts like a TOTAL prostitute.”

“I like social conservatives and I cannot lie,
You other caucuses can’t deny.
When a liberal comes in your state,
Knowing abortion and gays are what you hate,
You get PANDERED to.
He’s gonna suck up quick.
Promote corn-subsidies, pretend terrorists might attack,
Even Iowans got to shout, this system is WHACK.

Yeah baby, when it comes to representing America,
Iowa’s not even close to an accurate cross-section.
Ninety-two percent white, overwhelmingly Protestant farmers who don’t support evolution?
HAHA.
Only if it’s 1953.

Some front-runners wanna play that hard role,
And pretend that Iowa ain’t gold,
So they toss it, and leave it,
And Huckabee pulls up quick to retrieve it.

So Americans when you look around,
And you see every politician acting like a clown,
Just turn on FOX News really loud,
And kick them rational thoughts.
Iowa primaries are whack.

Do you really want a candidate chosen by a 14% voter turnout
in a small, homogenous, socially conservative mid-western state?
Iowa primaries are whack.”

Stuff I’m Into Recently

I’ve been playing with a lot of cool new applications and listening to a lot of cool music the last few weeks. Here are a few of my favorite things:

• Twitterific. It really is as cool as all the hype. It’s nice to have people’s tweets — from the Twitter micro blogging application — show up on my desktop and activate growl so that little bubbles pop up on my screen letting me know what my friends are up to.
• Uh Huh Her (iTunes). Ever since meeting Leisha Haley from The L Word a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been mildly obsessed with her band. Uh Huh Her’s debut record I See Red (iTunes) sounds like something you’d listen to driving home down the LA freeway at two in the morning. It brings back a lot of stuff for me, even though it’s brand new. If you want to listen to the music before downloading it, check out their MySpace.
• Adium is quite possibly the coolest instant messaging application I’ve ever seen for the Macintosh. It integrates all of my instant messaging programs into one stable, beautiful buddy list that looks like it comes standard on every Mac. It’s also fully customizable with a bunch of add ons that you can play with to your heart’s content.
• Brendan James. I admit it, I clicked through to his iTunes listing from a Facebook flyer and then bought his record. And it’s damn good. I think FB flyers are great for targeted advertising to music lovers. It certainly worked on me.

If you’ve tried any of this stuff, or know of another cool service that I should check out, please let me know in the comments.

I’m Ready to Start Making Music Again

A couple of years ago, I wanted nothing more to do with professional music. I had a particularly painful experience with a former bandmate and decided that it simply wasn’t worth all the drama and soul-sucking to strut and fret my hour upon the stage any longer.

To my surprise and delight, I had no regrets. There was no wish to return. There were no furtive dreams about spotlights and clapping. There was simply a quiet sense of relief. I needed a break.

When I was younger, I used music to get the attention I so desperately needed to feel OK about myself. I would get up onstage and sing, and everyone would tell me just how amazing I was. It was a refreshing change from the usual, “Teresa is ugly and stupid and nobody will ever like her,” that was the subject of most middle school discussion about me. It was a refreshing change from the fighting at home and the sudden focus on my parents, their relationship, and the division of my life into “Mom’s House” and “Dad’s House.”

But music as an escape from something more bitter can only last so long. Music isn’t enough. It slowly transitions into meaningless, unprotected sex with complete strangers. It transitions into drug use and heavy drinking and even more bitterness and sadness. Music — wonderful as it is — cannot heal the broken soul unaided.

So I made myself happy. I got down to the business of loving Andy like he’d never known before. I found work that sustained me and interested me. I lived.

But lately, I’ve found myself hankering to make music again. Not because I want to be up in front of people and receive their “atta girl”s. But because I’m really ready to dip into that place inside myself again.

I have an audition for a new band in a couple of weeks. Wish me luck!

Amos Lee is the New Aaron Neville

I grew up listening to Aaron Neville’s impossibly smooth voice flow around impossibly complicated runs like water across a flat surface. His “Ave Maria” (iTunes) and beautiful duet with Linda Ronstadt to “Don’t Know Much” (iTunes) were musical staples around my house when I was little.

Wednesday, on the way back from Quinn’s, Megan put on a song from Amos Lee’s second record (iTunes) and something instantly reminded me of Aaron. Upon downloading the entire record, I can officially say that Amos is the new Aaron. The song that brings it out the most is “Southern Girl” (iTunes).

I’ve been listening to the record almost nonstop, and I’m just about ready to shell out for everything else he’s recorded and create an Amos/Aaron playlist that mixes their complete works into one past-present raspberry swirl of good music.

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