I am reading a book called “X Saves the World; How Generation X Got the Shaft but Can Still Keep Everything from Sucking,” by Jeff Gordinier.    I’m only a couple chapters into it, but I’m already pretty sure that it is right on, and I get it on so many fun levels.

I have a 5 year old literally hanging on my arm and begging me to play with him, so this needs to be short, but I have to share one of my favorite parts so far.  He writes about Nirvana and the explosion that Curt Cobain caused in bringing “alternative” music to the spotlight.  Because before that, it was still alternative.

He says: “ By 1993 a bulletin had gone out, which is exactly why anyone with a sense of history knew it couldn’t last.  Scientists had located and identified the X pathogen, and they were doing everything  they could to keep the alternative epidemic under control.  From what I could tell, the experts were employing the same ingenious approach that they’d used on the California fruit flies.”

He goes on to describe this process, and then comes what could be my favorite line of the book so far: “This was the most sensible way to explain the existence of Stone Temple Pilots.”   There have been some much more obviously humorous and witty statements than that in this book, but THIS one speaks clearly to my burning irritation of how mediocre, boring bands continuously make it to the mainstream and the radio (ooh ick).  Seriously people, who is picking this stuff, and why are so many thinking persons allowing it to penetrate their ears?  How did it happen?

I think I offended a really wonderful chiropractor when we lived in Phoenix, because he was a huge fan of Rob Thomas and I just couldn’t leave it alone.   I really liked and respected our chiropractor and I just couldn’t be satisfied that Rob Thomas would be the pinnacle of his music listening experience.

Hopefully I will share more with you as I read more, but if you are a member of Gen X; usually born between the years of 1960-1977, or if you can pass Gordinier’s GXAT (Generation X Aptitude Test) which is only one question long, you will most likely appreciate this book.    By the way, the one question he asks is: “Do you want to change the world?”

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I am married to the man of social media.  He (unlike me) writes on his blogs daily, usually more than once even.  His NewCommBiz blog is where he writes about social media and all things connected to it, and how it connects to all things.  I came across this post today and had to share with all of you how he related business to indie music.

Check it out

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OK,  here’s the situation (my parents went away on a weeks vacation…Will Smith) Ha ha, I have no idea how that just happened, but it really did, please tell me I’m not the only old person who actually remembers when that song came out.

Actually the real situation is that I am kind of a slacker and haven’t blogged in a wee bit, partly because we moved to the Seattle area this month.  Issaquah to be exact.  The whole moving thing is never fun, but we are starting to get back in our normal life groove and I actually had time to blog.

I am happy to be writing again. 

Our new house

I wrote about Bryan Scary and the Shredding Tears 2 years ago, or so (if you followed that link I just made I hope you are listening to “The Zero Light” right now, what a fabulous song!).  Since then they have made another album called “The Flight of the Knife.”  I never wrote anything about it because I had just blogged about them, but we have been listening to that album at least once every day for weeks now.

Our house essentially turns into the stage for a musical when they are playing; singing, dancing and overall cheerfulness.  I don’t think I want to try and describe the music, you can figure it out yourself, and I hope you do because it has several of the best characteristics of different types and ages of music all in one, however it DEMANDS and DESERVES a second listen.

The kids favorite song is “Purple Rocket” because 1) its so awesome 2) we are reading a book called “Georges Cosmic Treasure Hunt” by Stephen Hawkings and his daughter Lucy, that is all about space and rockets n’ stuff.  This book has “blasted” Bryan Scary into our daily music fun.  I very much recommend this book and the one before it to any parent looking for something to read their kids this summer.

I somewhat obsessively check Bryan Scary’s concert dates hoping so very badly to see them live someday, so far they seem to stick to the east coast, but I’m comforted by the fact that Seattle offers me a much better chance than Boise ever did.

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We had a great Christmas season, filled with tons of family, junk food and good food, and some cool new toys too. ( I felt bad omitting that spiritually we also had a wonderful time, but this blog hardly seems like the place..) My new toys came in the form of 2 necklaces from a site that I have been drooling steadily on for some months now. I guess Tac got the hint when I showed it to him every day for like a week.

If you are interested in either wearing or making a beautiful woman in your life very happy,check out this very uniquely beautiful jewelery at www.jewelsbynature.com, where you can link to her etsy site and see the SteamPunk line, which is where Tac did his shopping for me. ( I’m just linking to it because I like it so much, I am not “advertising” or anything weird like that, I leave the marketing in this family to Tac.)

This roused my curiosity about steampunk in general and I found out some really interesting stuff, like…

“Steampunk is a subgenre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date. Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of “the path not taken” of such technology”
and
“Various modern utilitarian objects have been modded by individual craftpersons into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical “steampunk” style, and a number of visual and musical artists have been described as steampunk.”
(from Wikipedia, follow this link to read more)

I also found a SteamPunk band; Abney Park, have you heard of them?

Well that should give you your daily allowance of semi-music related trivial information.

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Tac and I don’t get to as many concerts as we would like. Our children’s main reference in regards to concert attendance is seeing me get really excited because “so and so” is touring, then watching as I try to put together some kind of plan for how we could travel 100’s of miles to see “so and so” while still getting kids to school and husband to work, and then the inevitable pout of despair as I realize its hopeless.

From this they have inferred that it must be pretty fun to see live music, and they would like to see some for themselves. Taking them to a concert would be dangerous, sometimes illegal, the boys would whine and make us miserable, and it would be embarrassing.

I compromised with them by finally telling the boys they were too young; sorry, and promised Emma that if Seve vs. Evan ever came to town I would take her. I knew they would be at an all ages venue, and figured out of all the bands Emma and I both love they would be the safest (clean, fun, all around good time, etc..)

She made her own t-shirt for the night, it was so very cute. It was brown with a green Seve robot and a red Evan robot. We had a really good time, Tac was in Sun Valley so he couldn’t come, and while he asked me nicely to get him a shirt I totally forgot, so once again “sorry honey.”

We stood up front because Emma couldn’t see past all the overly tall teenagers. This was fun, but proved dangerous as said teenagers started a pit right next to us. One of them fell into me, causing me to fall into Emma, shoving her into the speaker. Luckily we had one of our own overly tall teenagers because my “baby brother” Kyle (he’s at least 1/2 foot taller than me) watched over us after that.

Seve and Evan sounded great, pretty much exactly like they do on their cd’s. Seve had a keyboard and a microphone, and Evan had the drums. I hadn’t noticed until then how much drumming there is in their music, Evan was impressive. Seve sang, played and talked to the audience like he does it all the time, but afterwards he told Emma that he had been a little nervous. He was really nice to the youngest member of their audience.

Emma has now been to a concert, her little brothers have Seve vs Evan pins; one on his backpack, the other on his “Wall-E” hat.

Somehow, S vs E fit perfectly in my music puzzle. Shoved in there somewhere between Muse, The Pumpkins, and Mew, underneath AquaLung, Say Hi, and Silversun Pickups is a little indie band from Utah. Honestly, I don’t know how anyone could not like them, especially if you have kids that you want to brainwash into liking cool music…they won’t be able to resist. Play a fun little video game on their site and listen all at once, Seth and I have been playing it lots today.

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One of the things I love about Stephenie Meyer so much is that music makes a big contribution to her writing. She is then so kind as to share her playlists with us, so we can hear what songs and voices inspired her books. She also thanks the band Muse in more than one of her books for creating their beautiful music, as it has fueled her awesome writing even more. Since I love Muse *almost* as much as Billy Corgan, that kind of thing makes me all happy.

Not all of the bands on this list are held in my highest esteem though, some of them were never even considered for my own personal “Twilight” playlist, and while I am no expert in this, it would seem almost scientifically impossible for such fabulous writing to have been inspired by songs I feel such animosity towards. But I learned a long time ago that not everyone can share in my exact vision of what perfect music is

Breaking Dawn Playlist

Book I

* Beach Boys: Wouldn’t It Be Nice
* Billy Idol: White Wedding
* (INXS: Never Tear Us Apart)
* (Muse: Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You)
* Blue October: Congratulations
* Plain White T’s: Take Me Away
* Jack’s Mannequin: Dark Blue
* Coldplay: No More Keeping My Feet on the Ground
* Fuel: Hemorrhage

Book II

* Nine Inch Nails: Down In It
* Aerosmith: What it Takes
* Incubus: Earth to Bella (part 1)
* Interpol: No I in Threesome
* Korn: Twisted Transistor
* TV on the Radio: Wolf Like Me
* My Chemical Romance: The Sharpest Lives
* Motion City Soundtrack: Point of Extinction
* R.E.M.: Accelerate
* Blue October: My Never (song not released until March 2009)
* Jimmy Gnecco: Someone to Die For

Book III

* Smashing Pumpkins: Today
* Right Said Fred: I’m Too Sexy
* (Jimmy Eat World: Chase this Light)
* (Jackie Wilson: Your Love is Lifting Me Higher)
* Linkin Park: Pts. Of Athrty
* 3 Doors Down: Duck and Run
* Simon and Garfunkel: Hazy Shade of Winter
* Death Cab for Cutie: I Will Follow You Into the Dark
* Muse: Intro [Absolution]
* Muse: Take A Bow
* Muse: Assassin
* Ok Go: Invincible
* Travi: Safe
* Arcade Fire: No Cars Go

As much as I never wanted names like Linkin Park, Korn, Incubus, or Fuel to ever, EVER, make an appearance on this blog, I decided to give you the full (un-jen-edited) version. Stephenie’s site has a cool little player where you can listen to all of these songs if you like.

I was thrilled to see INXS’s “Never Tear Us Apart” because that was a favorite song for many years of my young life. “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” by Muse was a new found treasure for me, and I have enjoyed it a bunch. NIN’s “Down in It” paints an accurate picture of the emotional pain taking place in the book, I have not listened to that song in years so it was fun to hear it again. TV on the Radio’s “Wolf Like Me” is the most perfect song for Jacob, plus I totally like that song, and I always dig a little My Chemical Romance.

FINALLY!!!! The Smashing Pumpkins made it on one of her playlists; and “Today” is one of the greatest songs ever, its also one of their most popular and being the fan that I am I wish one of their lesser known songs could have found it’s way to the list as well…perhaps “Eye” since that is such a hot sexy song, and so is the PG honeymoon scene in the book…but I’m still overjoyed for “Today.” Also, “Invinsible” by OK Go is such a perfect song for the end of Breaking Dawn, great song pick. I have not heard Coldplay’s “No More Keeping My Feet on the Ground,” but it gives me something fun to look forward to buying soon…(along with Block Party’s new album which I was so happy to read was released today).

If you really liked the books, you might enjoy seeing a few pictures from a little Breaking Dawn party my cousin had a couple weeks ago. You can see them on my lovely sister’s site. Enjoy!

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I am having a dirty, hot, sweaty love affair. With my new mountain bike. Earlier in the month Tac and I took the kids to Tamarack for a little biking vacation. It was so fun. Yesterday for Tac’s birthday he and I went up to Tamarack *without the kids* and had such a fantastic time biking, anyways I did…he broke his rib.

He hoped after a nights sleep he would be up for more biking today, but he was in much pain. Happily for me he is a very sweet guy and read a book most of the day while I biked. Also happy for me, we invited my sister and her husband Rich (whenever I say Rich’s full name I always think of Hyacinth from the BBC show “Keeping Up Appearances”) to join us today so I had someone to bike with.

As we were driving up to Tamarack we listened to My Chemical Romance almost the whole way. I’ve already received an online lecture from a complete stranger about how dumb and immature I am for listening to that “teenager” music, so spare me another one if you were thinking of trying to help me better myself. There are some days when I am really in the mood for some MCR, plus they have a theatric flare to their music that I dig.

On the way home, we listened to everything by The Smashing Pumpkins on shuffle. It confirmed to me that as hard as I was trying not to get too excited about their new song coming out in September, I am in fact fairly excited. Also, when the song “Bring the Light” came on I realized that was the perfect soundtrack song for my day; the best part being taking the lift and riding the downhill trails. They were amazing and fast and technical and without being all tired from a long uphill, I had so much energy to devote to the downhill. The fact that it was the best biking day of my life, made me double sad for Tac though (especially since it was his birthday). I hope he gets better soon.

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Our family went to McCall, ID last week and we got to go biking at Tamarack every day. It was incredibly beautiful, the trails were so nice, and our kids totally impressed us with their hard work and tenacity…in other words there wasn’t too much whining and the words “I quit” were only said once. I am so proud of them, they worked hard and wrecked hard (mostly Xzavier), and we all had a great time.

Here I am riding through a gorgeous meadow, and I know it’s hard to tell from here, but I have a really cool bike (I don’t think I have gushed about my new bike on this site yet…I love it)

This is of the kids in the car after one of their best rides, they were so sweaty and in such high spirits. Much “woo hooing” was done that day.

Tamarack has a stunt park area with all these neat (scary) raised wooden tracks that tilt all crazy, including a huge teeter totter. This is Tac riding part of it.

Xzavier before we entered one of the trails.

I took this while Tac was pulling Seth on the tag a’long bike and Emma and Xzav rode through the meadow.

Here’s Xzavier on a different part of the stunt park. He was almost fearless in here.

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First, Tac BBQ-ed some fantastic bugers, then as I was baking cookies and slicing up watermelon for dessert we all gathered round the kitchen table where my laptop sat playing the DVD “HAARP” which is Muse live in concert at Wembley Stadium in London last year.

It was our first time watching it, ( I ordered it right before we left for vacation last week, which I will write about tomorrow because it was very fun) so spirits were high. Seth, our 4 year old, called out at least 4 times that it was “awesome.” He was almost as excited watching Muse live, as he was during the fight scene in Kung Fu Panda, where he was bouncing up and down in front of his seat wildly.

“HAARP” is incredibly captivating, lovely and rocks you like a hurricane. It is so much fun to watch Muse play, I especially enjoyed the piano parts….oooh and everything else. I still dream of seeing them live in person, but this serves nicely to placate me in the mean time.

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I have been under the impression for quite some time that I didn’t like Shiny Toy Guns, for a “good reason” too; I heard one of their songs and didn’t like it. The song was “Le Disko” and I still have no love for it, but the rest of their album “We Are Pilots” is fantastic. Oh the luck of hearing the one song that I would passionately dislike, leaving me no desire to hear anything else by the Shiny Toy Guns.

At the same time I realized “STG” was going to be one of my favorite bands, I was reading “The Host” by Stephenie Meyer (which is about aliens taking over human bodies, and one body in particular that resisted, its really good). So now I associate “We Are Pilots” to the book, and it will most likely be the headliner for my own personal book soundtrack. I love having/making a book soundtrack, I just put them in my playlists on my ipod and then whenever I listen, I am kind of immersed in that book again.

So after a bit of a dryspell in the music department of my life, Shiny Toy Guns and their smooth electronica sound came along. DO listen to them if you have not already, and DO listen to more than one song before you decide if you like them…especially if that first song to play happens to be “Le Disko”

I was actually listening to them yesterday when a car rear ended me ON THE WAY HOME FROM THE BODY SHOP WHERE MY CAR HAD BEEN FOR OVER THREE WEEKS GETTING FIXED FROM THE LAST PERSON WHO REAR ENDED US. (I mentioned in a previous post that we were in a car accident almost a month ago, and we are still in pain from that one.) It was truly unreal, I never know if I want to laugh or cry more when I think about it, it even happened at the same light we were hit at last month!!! I was just sitting at the light, listening to music, happy to have my car back when the Crunch came. I was not my normal sweet self either, I got out of the car and sort of let the guy have it. Then he tried to make me feel sorry for him by pointing out that the damage was worse on his car, as if that was in any way my problem.

Here’s a link for a Shiny Toy Guns music video, it’s kinda funny in a we’re performing while water is being splashed all over us sort of way. Enjoy.

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