Hello, M’lady

Hello Friday, thanks for stopping by.

Oh my, it’s been a long week. I’ve needed Friday since Monday if I’m being honest with myself, but whatcha gonna do? Friday is here, and I’m enjoying my second Founder’s Porter while playing Loose Fur’s self-titled. Groceries are bought, the house is picked up, and the kids are fed. Now it’s time for daddy to have some beer and listen to music…and talk to his friends in the blogosphere.

So this weekend is exciting as we are finalizing the kids new rooms. Just some painting and patching, then come Monday their new beds will be delivered. A room for every child. Peace on earth, goodwill towards parents. Or something like that. It’s been a long time coming, this new room thing. We had to make the basement safe for child living, so we had an egress window installed over the last three weeks. They were supposed to start on December 2nd, my birthday. Well, that didn’t work out. The guys with the backhoe didn’t show, so it was a week later that they started. Problems here and there, we’ve finally come to the end of the egress window journey with the contractor taking care of the final touches on the outside cover. Now, we are finishing the inside. It’s a good feeling, this whole home renovation thing. Not sure I could go through this sort of ordeal any time soon, but there are some other things we may do to this place someday. Some day.

Loose Fur. Yeah, I pulled out their Born Again In The USA cd this week and have been listening to it in my car. I love it. It’s Jeff Tweedy at his loosest and most artistically free. The self-titled, which I bought on vinyl back in the summer of 2011 at Neat Neat Neat Records is one of my absolute favorite albums…ever. “Chinese Apple” is simply transcendent. Glenn Kotche and Jim O’Rourke round out the band and they make this album both emotionally and artistically rich. There’s a great mix of pop, folk, and art rock going on here. O’Rourke really brought the best out in Jeff Tweedy, in my opinion. Side A sports the incredible “Laminated Cat”, which some may also know as “Not For The Season” when Tweedy would play in acoustic solo. O’Rourke sings “Elegant Transaction” and the song lives up to the name. Really, there isn’t a wrong note on this album. Recently I’d read a review of my own Cambodia Highball album where the review stated “Odd Geometry, to me, sounds like the kind of record Loose Fur would make if they got drunk for a week and finally decided that they didn’t care if they disappointed their fans.” Man, I don’t think I could ask for a better compliment than that. Thanks, Greg.

The other album spun tonight was Earthless Live At Roadburn. It’s Earthless, it’s live, and it’s a double LP and blue translucent vinyl that is over 90 minutes. Really, I don’t need to say much more than that. Isaiah Mitchell is my new favorite guitar hero. He taps into some old school guitar voodoo that you don’t hear enough these days. I also listened to Steve Reich’s Music For 18 Musicians today and I think I might have been inspired to do something different musically. More on that later.

Okay, time for another Porter. Have a good weekend my friends.

Check out the full review of Cambodia Highball’s Odd Geometry here.