Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Enjoy the List.

These are not necessarily my top 50 favorite albums, but these are the albums that have had a great impact on my life. I have memories of these. I can place myself in a specific place and time where all of these were at somepoint the soundtrack to my life. Cases in points: Grade school sitting in Tom Altomari's house where I first started discovering cool music: Sublime, G'NR, Lagwagon, Offspring. Sitting in my room doing homework every day: Joel, Petty, Clapton, RHCP, Metallica. Walking to and from Judge with my Discman: MxPx, Midtwon, Green Day, Blink, NFG. Working at Rosewood Caterers washing dishes sucked except for a few reasons: A. They let us drink at the bar at the end of our shift when we were 16 and B. they let the dishwashers control the radio. We're talking Bad Religion, AFI, the Clash and Weezer EVERY night. I can even remember the day I bought/acquired certain CD's. NFG was at a mall with my friend Timmy Smink. He bought a NBA video game and I bought New Found Glory-s/t. How appropriate. Wu-Tang I remember sitting at my parents old hi-fi (which is not sitting in my room) dubbing a tape from the original copy i think Mike Eaton had let me borrow. I had to do it quick before my parents found out I was listening to rap music so I used that option where it would go really fast and make Method and the RZA sound like chipmunks. I remember having a CD burning party at Anth's house when I was like a junior in high school along with Dave. I got Can't Slow Down and so many other choice CD's which I'm failing to remember right now. Enema of the State I got cuz down the shore me and my buddy Tom Alto (again) went to a record store and he bought it...I bought No Pigeons, a spoof single of No Scrubs by TLC (which i STILL contest is a hilariously awesome song!). Listening to them on the way back home we traded and after hearing it I went out the next day and bought it. Dude Ranch came in the mail with a Columbia House order and I had to sneak and get it before my parents realized I just bought an album with balls on the cover. Eminem me and Nick Coco went to the Tower Records on the Blvd. with a fake note from his dad, cuz we had heard if you don't have a note from a parent, they wouldn't let you buy it!! Ok, I'm going on for a long time, enjoy the list.

Blink 182 - Dude Ranch
The Clash - London Calling
AFI - Dark Sails in the Sunset
Against Me! - Reinventing Axl Rose
Billy Joel - Turnstiles
Rancid - ...And Out Come the Wolves
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
Paint it Black - Paradise
MxPx - The Ever Passing Moment
Bouncing Souls - How I Spent My Summer Vacation
Sublime - Sublime
The Loved Ones - Keep Your Heart
Weezer - Weezer (Blue Album)
Less Than Jake - Hello Rockview
Kid Dynamite - Shorter, Faster, Louder
NOFX - White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean
Bad Religion - The Process of Belief
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - Greatest Hits
New Found Glory - New Found Glory
Saves the Day - Can't Slow Down/Through Being Cool (tie)
The Postal Service - Give Up
The Lawrence Arms - Oh! Calcutta!
Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros - Streetcore
Bayside - Bayside
Descendents - Milo Goes to College
Rancid - Life Won't Wait
Andrew W.K. - I Get Wet
Bouncing Souls - Hopeless Romantic
Hot Water Music - A Flight and A Crash
Eric Clapton - The Cream of Clapton
Offspring - Smash
No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom
The Ataris - Blue Skies, Broken Hearts... Next 12 Exits
Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang: 36 Chambers
Alkaline Trio - From Here to Infirmary
None More Black - Loud About Loathing EP
Lagwagon - Double Plaidinum
Midtown - Living Well Is the Best Revenge
Lifetime - Jersey's Best Dancers
Third Eye Blind - Third Eye Blind
The Explosion - Flash Flash Flash
Blink-182 - Enema of the State
Pennywise - Land of the Free?
Eminem - The Slim Shady LP
Rufio - Perhaps, I Suppose...
Anti-Flag - A New Kind of Army
Weezer - Pinkerton
Catch-22 - Keasby Nights
Strike Anywhere - Exit English
Thursday - Full Collapse
Guns 'N Roses - Use Your Illusion I & II

Even more honorable mentions: Mettalica - S/t and Green Day - Dookie. How can I deny those two their moment to shine??

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

i hate my phone

About 4-5 days ago, my phone started acting up.  First the sliding action stopped working so well.  It feels like it's caught on something inside the phone, so it has this herky-jerky feel to it when i slide it out and I feel like I'm breaking it every time I open it up.  Now the 8 doesn't work.  Goodbye texting becuz how can you text with using t's u's or v's?!?  I just used them 8 times in that last sentence!!  And 9 times in that one!!!  This might get interesting for all you out there that I text on a regular basis.  Get ready for some elaborate vocabulary words I'll hafta pull outta my ass just to get my ideas across.  Ugh.  Today me and Bri auditioned a girl to sing with our new side project with us two and Chris Pires.  It went well!  She can really sing and is cool enough to hang out with...and can tolerate the utter silliness of us two... so far.  Usually I can gauge how my days are gonna go by the way Septa treats me.  Today I was running late for this band get-together and got a bus in 5 minutes (good), the Subway in about 5 (better) and hopped on the R7 just as it was about to pull away (awesome!)  And I had a good afternoon.  On the back end however, half an hour for the R7, which I had to pay for b/c I had a ticket for zone 2 and I was in zone 3 (Cornwell Heights).  Bad!  Then I found out I would not be going out tonite with someone I've been looking forward to going out with.  Worse!  Then when I finally got to 4th street, I walked all the way to Christian before the goddamn bus picked me up, so I rode about 6 blocks before being dropped off.  And of course my phone is the cellular device from hell (did I mention the down button goes in and out now, it keeps bringing up options I don't need like Office Profile Mode and I think somehow I perpetually put it on complete silence b/c I don't know where to find that option and it shuts off every other time I try to use it!)  Fucking Sucked.  

Friday, February 6, 2009

Walking around is not so fun anymore

After a few days of peacefully walking through the city at night, I decided to take care of some business today and finally get my bike back (which has been broken and parked at work for the past month).  I stopped by Long in the Tooth mainly to pick up the new Loved Ones EP and the new Bruce album.  I ended up spending about an hour and a half in there talking to the guy who runs it.  From everything from music shopping in the NEast to how we like Gorilla Biscuits and hate Set Your Goals, to being sad over Joe Strummer's death to the Phils.  Unfortunately they were sold out of Bruce and I spent so much time there, Via Bikes was closed by the time I got there.  Walking from work to 20th & Sansom to South St was kinda brutal.  Not as quite and peaceful and wind-free as the past few days have been.  Went to Repo to get Working On A Dream, which was either 20 for LP or 12 for CD and even though I told myself I'd cut down on spending, I went for the LP becuz i just got the damn thing and I want to start my collection.  So sue me.  Also, I'm weak.  After about an hour back at home (complete with a chicken cheesesteak and fries from Ishkabibble's), I ventured back into Center City to meet up with Candice for beers at Oscar's in between her class and her ride home.  Fun!  We have entirely too much in common, it's almost scary.  An awkward moment when I stopped at Phillip's led me to Chima for a drink at Anth's bar and then back to (guess where) Oscar's for further drinks with Anth and the Mac's (Bri, Zach and Dan).  Off to Manhattan tomorrow for a show at the Annex and a night on the town (aka getting drunk all over the island and crashing a discounted hotel thanks to my crappy job).  The following is what I bought today: LP's: Bruce Spingsteen - "Working on a Dream", Chicago - "Chicago Transit Authority", Quiet Riot - "Metal Health", Elvis Costello - "Imperial Bedroom" and Prince - "Purple Rain".  CD:  The Loved Ones - "Distractions EP", Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros - "Rock Art & the X-Ray Style" and "Global A Go-Go", The Clash - "The Essential Clash" and "The Singles", American Steel - "American Steel" and "Rouge's March" and The Beatles - "1".....by the way, I totally closed this window and am SOOOO happy that they save drafts of everything now-days.  Have you noticed that?  Everytime you write a myspace message, blog or anything, every time you stop typing it saves.  Awesome!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

This long walk home...

With every step I take, a new motion-sensitive light senses my presence and turns on, lighting my path kinda like the Bill Jean video, only from up top rather than the cement tiles I walk on.  Sunday was the second annual get-a-six-pack-and-walk-from-Center-City-to-home night.  With a sixer of High Life bottles I ducked down streets I had never seen before, that I had never known existed.  This is what I love about the city.  A side street off of a side street.  An alley really, not nearly enough room to fit a car down, but with the coolest row homes.  It's like an oasis in the middle of chaotic Philadelphia.  Right below 9th and South exist these homes and the people that live in them totally separated, but at the same time right in the thick of things.  I envy them.  It's like stepping into a little secret world the common folk aren't supposed to know about... thus the motion lights going off as if to tell everyone "intruder alert, intruder alert!"  These walks give me time to be by myself.  It's why I do it instead of hailing a cab (that and I'm short on cash, although I'm perfectly comfortable getting a $60 haircut today... go fig.)  Last night after practice it was snowing, like pretty hard.  If you were out you know what I'm talkin bout.  Speaking of which, I should get outta bed and go shovel.  As soon as I'm done this post I will.  But I digress.  Despite the shown, it wasn't too cold or windy or anything thing, so I again walked, sans beer this time.  Hopped on the Night Owl bus down Market from 8th to 4th to save some time and walked down 4th street to home.  No one was out, it's like I had the city to myself.  I threw snowballs at street signs, I several times contemplated falling back into a snow angel, but on second thought, didn't wanna fall into a pile of dog shit covered by snow (b/c I know people do that instead of picking it up when it snows.)  Got Lorenzo's without waiting in line.  It was great.  Soundtrack to Tom's nighttime winter strolls:  Bruce Springsteen - "The River" & "Born in the USA" (goin to see him at the Spectrum, bitches!!).  Brand New - "The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me".  Latterman - "Turn up the Punk, We'll be Singing".  The Lawrence Arms - "Apathy and Exhaustion".  and The Decendents - "Everything Sucks"