auld lang syne - my best of 2006

2006 is creaking to an end. It's been an interesting year for me, music-wise. I've probably been more involved in music this year than ever before. I attended SXSW in March, which was quite an adventure. It was a bit overwhelming for me, as a first time attendee. I hope to schedule myself better for it in the future. Did I say the future? Oh yes, I will be going back. Not in 2007. Maybe 2008.

I got to meet quite a few of my favorite singers this year, discovered some new music, increased my back catalogue of cds, designed promotional material for my favorite singer, gained some fantastic new concert buddies, and attended shows in five different states.

total new cds: 42. (19 new releases, 23 back catalogue)
total shows: 30+ (i can't recall all the sxsw shows.)
total artists i went fangirl on and took pictures with: 7

And because no year end wrap-up is complete without lists....my top 6 of 2006!!!!

Favorite songs:
1. Thin Blue Flame - Josh Ritter. This song is epic. Full of sweeping vistas, rumbling crescendos, and some of the most well-written lyrics I've ever heard. You can almost smell the fields and hay as he sings about them.
2. The Hole - Glen Phillips
3. Song for You - Alexi Murdoch
4. The Believer - Rhett Miller
5. Don't Want You to Wake Up - Teitur
6. Vampires in Blue Dresses - Margot & the Nuclear So and So's

Favorite lyrics:
1. "I got a girl in the war, Paul, her eyes are like champagne. They sparkle, bubble over, and in the morning all you got is the rain." Josh Ritter, Girl in the War.
2. "Her jaw aches from wanting and she's sick from chlorine" Neko Case, Margaret vs. Pauline
3. "Talking to you girl, is like long division." Rhett Miller, Singular Girl
4. "I'm trapped in the orbit of your rolling eyes." David Mead, Hard to Remember.
5. "I close my eyes to see if I can feel you in the air. I want to breathe you in me, it makes me dizzy, but there's nobody there." Glen Phillips, Marigolds
6. "Time is contagious, everybody's getting old." Damien Rice, Coconut Skins

Favorite concerts:
1. Glen Phillips - SXSW party bus, Austin. There's something incredible about hearing an artist sing without amplification, without a stage. Less than 20 people sat on a bus and just listened to him sing.
2. Dick Prall/David Berkeley house concert, Chicago.
3. Duran Duran - Sears Centre, Chicago.
4. Over the Rhine/Josh Ritter/Jamie Cullum - Paste Magazine SXSW Party, Austin.
5. Autumn Defense - Schubas, Chicago.
6. Tobias Froberg/Teitur - Double Door, Chicago.

Favorite new finds (artists I started listening to this year):<
1. Josh Ritter
2. Patty Hurst Shifter
3. Autumn Defense
4. David Mead
5. Margot & the Nuclear So and So's
6. David Ford

Favorite back catalogue pick-ups. (Okay. I admit it. I'm a little slow on the uptake sometimes. But these are the cds I picked up this year that came out pre-2006 that I'm kicking myself for not buying sooner.)
1. Death Cab for Cutie - Plans. What a genius album.
2. Dick Prall - fizzlebuzzie
3. Leona Naess
4. Josh Rouse - Nashville
5. David Ford - I Sincerely Apologise for All the Trouble I've Caused
6. Josh Ritter - Hello Starling


Favorite New Releases:
1. Josh Ritter - The Animal Years. I knew within days of first hearing this album that it would be difficult for any other album to surpass it as my favorite of the year. It is not only the best album of this year, but one of the best albums I've heard this decade. The songs are lush and rich. Josh Ritter courts you gently at first, then pulls you in for a long slow dance. The music is masterful, and the lyrics are like a painter's vision inviting you into his world. Simply gorgeous.
2. Glen Phillips - Mr. Lemons
3. Teitur - Stay Under the Stars
4. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
5. Alexi Murdoch - Time Without Consequence
6. David Mead - Tangerine

Music highlights:
1. Glen Phillips @ Schubas 5/21/06.
2. SXSW - Live Music all damn week. The dust bowl. Leaky vitamin water. Meeting dozens of amazing people.
3. Awesome new concert buddy James. He drives and brings the snacks.
4. Josh Ritter - so many memories linked to da Ritter. SXSW, Julie spitting on James, plus he was soooo cool to my kids. A special thank you to Erica for educating me on the importance of da Ritter.
5. David Berkeley & Dick Prall singing "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" while we all sang along.
6. Schubas in general. Sansone's socks, Julie being a cat, Autumn Defense, an explanation of Chodaboy, and the photo booth.

Here's to 2007 being just as random and amazing.

it's flu season again. time for my yearly rant regarding the flu, flu shots, and "the stomach flu."

flu shots help prevent whatever strain of influenza virus they predict may be floating around this year. the flu is caused by the influenza virus and is a respiratory illness. symptoms of the flu are as follows:

• Fever (usually high)
  
• Severe aches and pains in the joints and muscles and around the eyes
  
• Generalized weakness
  
• Ill appearance with warm, flushed skin and red, watery eyes
• Headache
  
• Dry cough
• Sore throat and watery discharge from the nose

i know what you're thinking. where's the stomach pains, the diarrhea?? you got a flu shot last year and you still got sick! you were throwing up and had diarrhea for two days. it was horrible! that darn stomach flu. dianne, why didn't you list the vomiting and diarrhea?

well, because you had gastroenteritis. it's caused by any variety of stomach bugs, be they viral or bacterial. there is no flu involved in the so-called "stomach flu." no flu shot in the world will keep you from getting gastroenteritis. washing your hands might help, though.

remember: flu = lungs, nose, throat. if your stomach is involved, don't blame your flu shot.

nerd.

i make no attempt to hide the fact that i'm a total nerd. and in my nerddom, i admit that i love the following things: star trek, sci-fi, books about germs and forensic science, and fantasy novels. yes, fantasy novels. the more magicians and dragons involved, the better.

some of my favorite books as a teen were from a series called dragonlance. these books had it all. elves, magic, dragons, war, romance, death. and an evil mysterious master wizard.

turns out they are making an animated movie out of said dragonlance series. and to play the evil mysterious master wizard? only the man with the coolest voice of our generation.



seriously. i wet myself just a little.

dick prall, park west chicago

went to see my boy, dick prall, play last night at park west. we got there a wee bit late (oops!) due to total ass weather. it was like a monsoon was rolling through chicago. every dip in the sidewalk had become a lake, and traffic sucked nut.

dick rocks.


got dick?


went to dublins with my best friend lynn and my buddy robb. this is where you will find lynn and i after any show.we put $5 in the jukebox. the selection was crap, but we got some random stuff out of there. barenaked ladies, duran duran, foo fighters, johnny cash, michael jackson, tom petty, even some old school funk that made us break out our rollerskating moves. in all, the night was a big thumbs up.

she's crafty

having two little girls is like owning life-size baby dolls. i get to play dress up whenever i want. halloween is one of those times when i go a little crazy, but they like to play along.



scary.





yes. in fact she is missing her two front teeth.







this website's updated by witches.
witches.
witches and me.

dear chicago

so, yeah... i'm moving away. my husband got a job that will be moving us to albuquerque. i was born and raised there and never in a million years did i think i would actually move back. but here i am. and there i go.

i'm not sure when exactly i'll be moving, what with the real estate market being painfully stagnant. i'm hoping either the house sells really fast, or it doesn't sell until february so i don't have to travel for the josh ritter and glen phillips shows. is that sick? i think it is. i have an illness, and the only prescription is more folk singers.

speaking of folkies, i'll be heading into town for a night seeing my favorite local singer, dick prall, play at the park west on friday, november 10. if anyone is interested in joining us, we will be dining at stanleys before the show (mmmm fried chicken and hush puppies), walking over to park west to see dick play, then going to dublins on state street for drinks and merriment. i'd love to see everyone before i go.

if you don't have my cell#, let me know and i'll PM it to you so you can find us.

Josh Kelley, Shawn Mullins & Gin Blossoms - Park West 10/19/06

a friend of mine had free tickets to the gin blossoms show at park west last night, and once i confirmed that shawn mullins would be there, i couldn't possibly say no to attending. when we got to the show, josh kelley was on stage. i wasn't terribly impressed with what i had heard of his songs on the radio (i have an aversion to songs which use the word "baby", as a general rule). i was pleasantly surprised with his set. he's really quite a good singer, not to mention incredibly charismatic and entertaining.



i don't think his feet ever stopped moving




shawn mullins came on next. let me clarify this to anyone unsure on the concept. i *heart* shawn mullins. i want shawn mullins to record bedtime stories so i can listen to them as i go to bed at night. he's got a gravelly, groovy, man voice that makes me all swoony.



he played mostly songs from his new album, 9th ward picking parlor. a highlight was when he played the classic "house of the rising sun." when he picked up his lakewood and started tuning, something about the notes sounded familiar, and i leaned over to my friend and said "i think he's going to play the song he wrote with glen." sure enough, the next thing he says is "i wrote this song with my friend, glen phillips" and played "beautiful wreck"



shawn was accompanied by clay cook for most of the set. and clay actually graced us with a song he wrote years ago in atlanta with his old roommate, some guy named john mayer, called "no such thing" - prefaced with "this is the way it was supposed to sound."


oh yeah. and the gin blossoms played too.

i have their first two albums. i haven't listened to them in years, even though they were part of my soundtrack of the early 90's. sadly, i was seriously underwhelmed by them. their lead singer kinda cheesed me out as he hopped around the stage like a cheerleader trying to get the crowd to clap along with every song. then there was the cell phone thing. people kept handing him their cell phones, and he would sing into them along with the microphone. wtf? one time is kinda cute and novel. after that, he just seemed a little like a circus clown jumping around to amuse the audience.


the music was okay. for some reason the sound was far less than stellar. maybe it was balanced for the two acoustic acts that had preceded them. i don't know. but the vocals sounded fuzzy and nasal (which is similar to a fuzzy navel, but not nearly as tasty). we thought the sound might be better at the back of the room as we were getting beat up by jesse's monitor, but no. not much better back there. i took pictures for laura though.
we actually wound up leaving maybe six songs into the set. we didn't even stay for "hey jealousy" - the money song.

in summary:
josh kelley - i would see again.
shawn mullins - did i mention i *heart* shawn mullins?
gin blossoms - meh.

we were dancing to a song that i'd heard...

last night was the josh ritter / jamie cullum show. oddly enough, the first time i saw josh ritter play was at sxsw, and i was standing right by jamie cullum in the audience. i found a text message in my phone the other day that i sent to brandy from the show that said "surreal. jamie cullum watching josh ritter."

my uber concert buddy, james, was unable to attend the show and all my last minute attempts to procure alternate james fill-ins failed. so i had two options: A) actually attend a concert with my husband and pay a sitter, but arrive late to the show and miss ritter. or B) take the money i would have paid the sitter and take the kids to their third all-ages show. (first being glen phillips, dan wilson, and garrison starr and the second being nickel creek.)

if you know me at all, you know the option i chose. duh.

it was kinda rough seeing ritter as the opener. his set was painfully, agonizingly short. but, since the majority of the audience was there to see the man my friend k calls "mr. showtunes" it turned out to be easy access to the ritter.


damn hair flopped in my face - gah!

the girls and i went down and said hi to josh in between his set and jamie's. he is quite possibly the warmest, nicest, most well-mannered singer i have ever met. he talked to both of the girls and gave me a monster bear hug afterwards.

he asked the girls their names when cheyenne asked him to sign the cd, and this is what he wrote:



we left about halfway through jamie's set so we could get the girls to bed (school night, waw) and on the way out, josh was still standing in the lobby talking to people. cheyenne had picked up a flyer for josh's next show, and told me she wanted him to sign it. i told her that was fine, but she would have to ask him herself. she stood behind the other people standing there, and he saw her and said "hi cheyenne" and she handed him the flyer and asked if he would sign it. he wrote, " Cheyenne... One day we will meet again...Love, Josh Ritter." i got another hug out of the deal too.

side note: the man wears really nice suits. how he doesn't melt on stage is beyond me.

fyi for my chicago peeps (and mrs. labeef-ryzin if you will be in town in february) josh will be playing a seated solo acoustic show at park west on sunday, february 11. i will be at that concert, join me.

every living being is a dancer

the first time i saw teitur in concert was in november of 2003, opening for glen phillips. i hadn't heard his music prior to the show, and i actually just found the first thing i ever wrote about him:


Posted: Sep 24 2003, 10:19 PM
they have been featuring this guy on mtv on those little "hear it first" or whatever they call it...anyways, the little 2 minute blurbs they do for mtv news at the end of the hour. he's this danish (i think? short term memory bad.) kid who does this acoustic songwriter thing. i liked what i heard, but that was something like one line from four songs. and gideon yago did his "i'm a big music snob, you all suck, i am the greatest geek gone cool EVER!" (sorry, issues.) and made a snide comment about teitur touring w/john mayer. that's all i know about this subject.

fast forward to 2006. after many issues with obtaining his american work visa, missing the first week of his u.s. tour, and much breath-holding by me, teitur finally made it to the u.s. he played last night here in chicago, in support of his new album, stay under the stars. i've had the album for several months now, having spent many overseas shipping dollars procuring it from a scandanavian source.

the concert was brilliant. he came on stage alone, with only his guitar, and opened with the eerie "thief about to break in." his band joined him after a few songs to play mostly songs from the new album. he also played some songs i hadn't heard before, like "south of france" and "guilt by association." he also played a hilarious little ditty he called "the visa song" about his tribulations with getting into the country to play his shows. i really hope a recording of this song shows up somewhere...

i think i spent the entire concert with a giant grin on my face, because his music just makes me smile. and seeing him playing is such an incredible experience. he was joined by tobias froberg for several songs, including a few from teitur's first album. the crowd got really excited for the old songs, which i understand as every song on that album is genius.

i didn't get home until 2 am. but i was still up at 7:30, with the music still dancing in my ears.

go see him if you get a chance. and pick up those albums. in fact, if you buy his first album and you don't like it - i will buy it back from you. that is how certain i am that you will love it. when do you ever get an offer like that?

upcoming dates:
Sep 23 2006 Blueberry Hill's Duck Room Saint Louis, MO
Sep 24 2006 Maintenace Shop Ames, IA
Sep 25 2006 Quest Club Minneapolis, MN
Sep 26 2006 The Bottleneck Lawrence, KS
Sep 28 2006 Walnut Room Denver, CO
Sep 29 2006 Trilogy Boulder, CO
Sep 30 2006 Kilby Court Salt Lake City, UT
Oct 2 2006 The Independent San Francisco, CA
Oct 3 2006 The Largo Los Angeles, CA
Oct 4 2006 The Largo Los Angeles, CA
Oct 5 2006 Coach House San Juan Capistrano, CA
Oct 7 2006 Take Root Festival Assen
Oct 8 2006 Paradiso Amsterdam
Oct 21 2006 AB Club Bruxelles
Nov 1 2006 Studio One Hamburg
Nov 2 2006 Tower Bremen
Nov 3 2006 MTC Koln
Nov 5 2006 Atomic Cafe Munchen
Nov 8 2006 Muzikcentrum Nord Hannover
Nov 9 2006 Kalkscheune Berlin

in for a treat and a time travel

via the randomness and beauty of the .org, i shall finally be seeing a band that i have wanted to see since i was maybe 9 or 10 years old. the progression went as such:

What were you doing in 1985? dancin in the streets perhaps?

• Author: dianne
• 9/14/06 12:32:29 PM

i was eleven. and i was convinced i would someday marry john taylor of duran duran.

• Author: Bonochick
• 9/14/06 12:35:15 PM

You still might.

• Author: J.J. LaBeef
• 9/14/06 12:36:50 PM

I wasn't eleven, but wrote my name down as JJ Taylor-LaBeef.

• Author: dianne
• 9/14/06 12:49:23 PM

oh bonochick - could there still be a chance? i bet i can still do the 'dianne taylor' signature that i practiced on all my notebooks. they're all getting old, but i think he's aged the best of the duran boys.

• Author: rahbee
• 9/14/06 12:50:42 PM

hungry like the wolf dianne?

• Author: J.J. LaBeef
• 9/14/06 12:52:11 PM

John Taylor will NEVER stop looking hawt and he's mine! or my name isn't Mrs. John Taylor-LaBeef.

• Author: dianne
• 9/14/06 12:52:19 PM

hungry like the wolf, indeed. they made some sexy videos back in the day. timberlake wishes he could make a video as hot as girls on film.

• Author: rahbee
• 9/14/06 12:53:40 PM

what was the video where they were on the boat, i always thought one was kinda gay...

• Author: J.J. LaBeef
• 9/14/06 12:54:38 PM

Rio? And DON'T call them gay!

• Author: rahbee
• 9/14/06 1:04:01 PM

i wasnt calling THEM gay, just that video.

• Author: dianne
• 9/14/06 1:05:45 PM

oh my god, i love that video. and obvs not gay with all the crotch shots of that girl. granted, if a man dressed like that today - totally gay. but in 1985, they were just european.

rio was my first ever album purchase of my own. i saved my allowance and bought it. i remember my stepfather becoming very offended by the moans on hungry like the wolf. it was awesome.

• Author: Indian Runner Duck
• 9/14/06 1:09:23 PM

Rio was my first vinyl, a good catch

• Author: dianne
• 9/14/06 1:21:27 PM

holy crap.

all this duran duran talk led me to see if they were touring, and they are the grand opening concert at the new venue they are opening across from my husband's work here in chicago.

*drools*

• Author: J.J. LaBeef
• 9/14/06 1:22:42 PM

whenwhenwhenwhenwhen? Well, I'm pretty soon it would be too soon for me to be there. Next tour we'll have to go, Dianne :)

• Author: dianne
• 9/14/06 1:25:18 PM

talk about fans though, i was checking out their fan club package. you pay $35 for membership, but then you can purchase the ultimate platinum vip tickets - the first 5 rows are reserved for the platinum tickets and you get a pre-gig party, possible meet and greet.

all for only $345 a ticket.

them's some fanatical durannies.

• Author: Indian Runner Duck
• 9/14/06 1:26:22 PM

those a special albums jj. i saw them live at the roskilde festival last year, not to bad,

oh well, it was a bit bad but funny though, like time travel

• Author: J.J. LaBeef
• 9/14/06 1:29:32 PM

Time travel seems like an excellent word to describe it :)

$345!!!
*faints*

For a 100 more I could get myself arrested for threatening to have someone killed off someone MySpace page!

• Author: dianne
• 9/14/06 2:07:06 PM

my husband just bought me tickets to see duran duran because he gets tickets before they go on sale since he works for sears.

i'm so lucky that he indulges me on my freakish impulses. *swoon* i love him.

• Author: Indian Runner Duck
• 9/14/06 2:12:20 PM

congrat dianne, you're in for a treat and a time travel