The old blog is dead.

Long live the new blog.

http://thisboyisexhausted.tumblr.com/

The Border is now out of bounds.

Sign That I'm Getting Old #52: Taco Bell gives me nausea.

Holy god, when did this come about? When did my brain, stomach and the rest of my internal organs form a union and unilaterally decide that they just couldn't handle one more cheesy bean and rice burrito?

In college, I practically used to live off of the stuff. My fondest memories involve my friends and I making drunken late night runs at 3 AM, grabbing a heaping bag of burritos and cheesy gordita crunches, going back to whomever's place and watching DVDs/Stephen Colbert reruns until we passed out. And one time, my friend Andy and I bought a 10-pack of bean burritos during the intermission of a huge poker tournament we were having and promptly downed the whole thing. Plus, let's not forget all those times I would hit up TB, then go to my college girlfriend's place to watch two hours worth of What Not to Wear (yes, I'm a fan). Magical.

And today? I bought two items off the menu today for lunch, and about halfway through the second, my stomach said "Sorry sir, we're at capacity," like a bouncer at a fancy Adams Morgan nightclub.

"What do you mean you're at capacity?" the burrito would say. "There's tons of room in there! And you just that entire Nutri-Grain bar in like it's no big deal!"

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to step back. Thanks."

Gotta keep the ratio in check, I guess. Racist pricks.

Hello? Is this thing on?

Testing, testing. *tap tap tap*

Seriously though -- does anybody still pay attention to this blog'o'mine? Am I part of your RSS feed or maybe one of those bookmarks you check every so often to see if Jeff poked his head out of his tiny blogger hole? Well, if so, gimme a holler or something. I might just blow the dust off this thing and give it another try.

Jeff's Blog: Like an old Nintendo game, but only 68% as cool.

Bad Weekend.

The title kind of sums it up. Except for the Ted Leo concert, which fucking ruled. Pictures later. Sometime. And maybe an honest-to-god review? Perhaps.

So regarding everyone's new favorite rock'n'rollers (and provider of today's post title), Art Brut will be playing the Pitchfork Music Festival! Only they just haven't announced it yet. But god, does Pitchfork ever hint at it in today's article about the band. Also in the same article: news of an American release of their debut Bang Bang Rock & Roll, complete with three bonus tracks (i.e. b-sides). It's going to be a good summer, I can tell.

Tonight, the Arctic Monkeys and the Spinto Band are playing at the 9:30 Club. The show's been sold out for a while, but you can listen in to NPR tonight for the full show live.

The new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album is out. I haven't heard it yet, but you can go to Pitchfork for a review. Or better yet, go to the Wonderful World of Starr for a less snobby and much more forgiving review.

That's all for today. Hope everyone is well.

If blogs were pets, I'd be an unfit owner.

Hello! Back again. After hmm, how long? Over a month? Ouch. Sorry, guys.

Quite frankly, I've been keeping fairly busy between work, concerts, random goings-ons, and a fairly decent personal life. Much has happened, but I will spare you the details for now and just get to the good stuff.

Pics are up now at my Flickr site for the Feist/Jason Collett show I went to back in early February. The girl in the pics is my good friend, Laila. Part motherly-figure full of worldly advice, part impish demon who will kick your ass in a moment's notice. I do have other photos I have yet to publish, including concert pics from Belle & Sebastian, Cowboy Mouth, and the National, as well as photos from a book signing with Mark Cohen himself, Anthony Rapp. Problem is, it's taking me forever, cause I have like 100 photos just from the B&S concert alone. Sheesh.

Going to see Ted Leo + the Pharmacists this Friday! I'm über-excited. Apparently, he had to cancel his Houston appearance a few days ago cause he lost his voice and didn't want to blow them out again, so hopefully, he'll be fully recovered by the time he arrives in DC.

Other future concerts for moi:
Wolf Parade @ the Black Cat, April 12th
Headlights (holy crap!!!) @ DC9, May 22nd
The Walkmen @ 9:30 Club, May 25th
Pitchfork Music Festival @ Union Park, Chicago, July 29-30th

You read right, bitches. I'm going home to Chicago to attend the Pitchfork Music Festival in July. How can I NOT?!?! Spoon, Ted Leo, the National, Jens Lekman, Yo La Tengo, etc. etc. It's going to be fucking fantastic. (Everyone thank Sara for talking me into going.)

Lastly, check out the new Walkmen track, "Louisiana", over at their MySpace page. I'm liking it.

That's all for now. Hopefully more later, er, sooner.

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.