I can sing, too.

Seriously debating whether or not to participate in this contest. Winner gets to sing live with Belle & Sebastian at their concert in Seattle in late March. Gotta hurry though -- contest ends February 20th!

Tender is the night...

Hi there. It's been a while since I've posted (a week -- eep!). I have been keeping plenty busy, though, between work, drinking, reading awesome comic books, and a supercool Feist concert (I've got photos, they're just not up yet.)

So tonight's post is a little different. Instead of my usual music news, personal opinions, or general ramblings, I've decided to post about any memories I have connected with listening to one particular album. I'll try to pick one at random, and of course not an album I just picked up in the last few months or haven't given much attention yet. This week, I'll be reminiscing about Blur's 13.

I bought 13 back in college during my second semester of freshmen year. I remember I had purchased it -- from Record Service, no less -- right before my MATH 130 class (the second time I was taking the course, teehee). I got it mainly because I loved the tracks "Coffee & TV" and "Tender" and had wanted to hear the rest of the album they originated from. It's funny, because my best memories of listening to this album are when I secluded myself in my dorm room and played Counterstrike on some weekday afternoon, probably when I should have been at class. (I had a single that semester, it was awesome.) 13 was almost always in my stereo when I was playing Counterstrike, too. The other albums that accompanied it while I played where usually Tenacious D's self-titled and Gorillaz' B-sides collection, G-Sides. Ahhhh, fun stuff.

If you have any memories connected with this album you'd like to share, feel free to post 'em in the comment section!

Rock over London! Rock on Champaign

Today's post at Chromewaves.net features an article (with photo!) of my all-time favorite Champaign-Urbana band, Headlights. They link to an interview of theirs with Under the Radar, as well as an mp3 from their The Enemies EP. They're going on a massive tour all over the U.S. (except for anywhere near DC, boooo!) for the next couple months, so check them out if you can.

Listen to B&S's The Life Pursuit NOW.

AOL is streaming the new Belle & Sebastian album, The Life Pursuit, here. It won't come up right away, though -- you have to click on the album towards the top of the page to get to it.

Surprisingly, I've been able to contain myself and only listen to about half of the album. The standout tracks so far: "White Collar Boy," "The Blues Are Still Blue," and "Sukie in the Graveyard." Fucking fantastic.

Thanks to Laila!

We've been Punk'd...?

Last night, my friends and I were out playing Quizzo (the pub-quiz night at the Pour House), and for some reason, Kevin Federline came up in conversation. (God only knows why, but he did, okay?) So anyway, my friends Emily and Starr and I were talking about the usual stuff like "Oh my god, have you seen that video?" and "blah blah blah," and then, out of the blue, an idea was brought up that was so perplexing and absurd, it made us wonder... what if K-Fed was the greatest prank ever known to man?

This is our theory. For his senior thesis, an MIT student, studying postmodernism under Noam Chomsky, enters Los Angeles under the guise of a backup dancer named Kevin Federline in order to examine and test the cultural behavior of Hollywood. Somehow, while deep in his role as K-Fed, he gets the attention of Britney Spears (who is completely blind to the fact that she is just part of the experiment), ends up marrying her (again, all part of the experiment), and proceeds to challenge everybody's ideals of what a celebrity could be. In order to do so, he becomes the biggest mooch ever, tests everyone's patience with Chaotic, then releases quite possibly one of the worst songs ever recorded in the last 20 years... all while remaining completely serious about everything he does.

The real surprise comes in 2 years, when Britney and the Fedster divorce, and the man we all knew as Kevin Earl Federline from Fresno, California reveals himself to be who he really is (I imagine with a name like Stpehen Horowitz or something along those lines.) The ironic twist: Britney's money would be long gone, having all been spent by her "hubby," and the man once known as K-Fed is making millions from his book sales. It's okay, though -- he'd be paying his child support.

Just something to think about.