Lucky Kitty

Out of the Loop...

 

I know I'm probably the last person in the whole world to hear about this band, but I am so in love with them, I just had to share with you today!

Sleigh Bells.  They rule.  Go forth and listen to their album 'Treats'.  You will be pleased.

Pretty much everytime I find a new band that I like, they almost always remind me of an old band that I like and I end up just wanting to listen to the old band. 

Tis the case with Sleigh Bells too, though their record doesn't sound much like the records it reminds me of, but rather a general feeling of awesomeness that they all seem to have in common.

The first band that came up in my memory bank was I Am the World Trade Center. 

 
This is the best pic I could find... sad...

They were on Kindercore back in the early two-thousands...  I think they have three releases, but my favorite is 'Out of the Loop'. 

The second band is also on Kindercore - Kitty Craft.

 
I literally bought Beats and Breaks From the Flower Patch because the cover is so awesome.  It quickly became one of my favorite records ever, so, guess you can judge a book by it's cover sometimes! 

...and there you have it - new music listening to inspire old music listening!  Good times...

It's never too hot for cake...

Me and Jason Spaceman - ACL Fest 08

What a Saturday! I decided to tag along with The Husband out to the ACL Festival this past Saturday to see my all time favorite band, Spiritualized.


It was pretty darn awesome - I had never seen them in the daylight before - so, that was new and different. It was fun watching the people in the crowd that weren't familiar with them be shocked by how incredibly loud they were...

I was also lucky enough to be able to tag along with my buddy Jessie to pick Jason Spaceman up from his bus to take him to his autograph signing.

At first, he wasn't into the idea, but between Jessie, me, his manager, and the label rep one or all or just some of us convinced him to wake from his nap to go and meet and greet his fans.

Here's the conversation that occured on the golf cart ride from his bus to the autograph signing...

Spaceman: The last time I played at Waterloo it was my birthday.
Me: I remember, I baked you a B-Day cake.
Spaceman: That's right! That cake was f*&%$@g awesome! I have pictures of it.
Me: Yeah, I have pictures of it too...
Spaceman: So, where's my cake for today?
Me: Uh... well... I thought it might be too hot for cake...
Spaceman: It's never too hot for cake.

OMG!!!! I agree, it's never too hot for cake... I should have come prepared!

Once his signing was over, we took him back to the bus where he proceeded to tell me what a special day it was for him when I made him cake for his birthday...

I told him it was quite a special day for me too...

ACL Festival

When I quit my job at the Record Store, I swore up and down that one thing I would never ever do under any circumstances would be to ever step foot on the grounds of the ACL Festival again. Never. Ever. Not kidding.

Turns out, after all these years of being forced against my will to sweat it out for four days straight year after year and not being remotely interested in any of the bands that were playing (although I did end up seeing the last song of some great sets when waiting backstage to kidnap bands to take to their autograph sessions), the ACL Festival goes and books my favorite band this year...

Spiritualized


I have seen them a million times, met Jason Spaceman many many times, heck, I even baked him a red velvet cake on his birthday - because he happened to be playing an in-store at my store that day - not because I'm a psycho...

So, for months now, I've been saying to myself... you don't have to go... you've seen them a million times... it will be hot out there... 65,000 people will be there...

But it dawned on me just a couple days ago that I will kick myself if I don't go... many of my friends that I never see anymore will be there... my husband will be out there all day... oh, and one more reason to go???

Chicken Cone...

Okay, so, it's not really in a cone (although that would be awesome), but it is one of the best Festival-type foods that exists on this planet...

Crispy fried spicy chicken, yummy sauce, slaw - all wrapped up in a fresh tortilla...

The best part? Yes, it get's better... you can have them include a slab of fried avocado in that beast as well... yes, the second fried item in the picture above is an avocado, my friends...

Good times...

Another one bites the dust...

Whew! Sure am glad SXSW is over! It actually wasn't all that bad - had some good dinners with label friends, saw an amazing movie - Heavy Metal In Baghdad - it's a new film from the Vice kids - so great - you'll need to check it out!

We hosted 15 in-store performances over three days - that's five per day... yikes!

One of my stand out favorites was The Saviours - a metal band from Oakland... they rule... check them out here

Their Marshall stacks were so big, they could only fit the drummer up on the stage with them...

...and the rest of the band lined up in front of the stage...

Another fav of the 15 is my pal David Wingo's band - Ola Podrida. Check them out here

Here they are on our little postage stamp sized stage...



We even managed to coax real live rock stars to play in our little store... Carbon/ Silicon - which is Mick Jones (the Clash, Big Audio Dynamite) and Tony James (Generation X, Sigue Sigue Sputnik)...

They brought all of their guitars... all of 'em...


I know I mentioned to the tour manager (all business Phil) that they were only playing 4 or 5 songs...

Here they are rockin' out old man style...


Turns out these brits sure do like Corona Beers... who knew??

All in all, we managed to have fun, eat lots of cheese, Dolmas, and peanut butter cookies off the band deli trays, and best of all - survived another round of "1800 bands and every record label rep you've ever even remotely heard of are all coming to your town for the weekend"... Yay!