Posts from January 2013

This played in front of Wreck-It Ralph. It is beautiful, and is rightly nominated for an Oscar. Enjoy:

[More info]

The Greatest Adventure is What Lies Ahead…

I know this film has been getting a lot of backlash, and I guess I can kind of see why. But I really enjoyed it. And anyway, I’m not here to conjecture about other opinions. I’m here to give my own. I thought it was a lot of fun, nicely silly, and really beautiful to watch. [Read my full review]

There’s a hypothesis that you can take any comic strip and replace the punchline with one phrase, and it will always be funny. Here’s an example:

As seen on Robert Sinclair’s website. Christ, what an asshole…

Robert Sinclair’s website has about 20 more examples (probably NSFW). It’s true. It’s funny every time. I laughed my asshole off at many, many of them.

Via Roger Ebert

Last Thursday night Carrie & I went up to Darrell’s Tavern in Shoreline to be a part of an extremely important evening: the Julia Massey’s Surprise 30th Birthday Party! It was thrown by her husband Jared and dozens upon dozens of people showed up with a singular message: “Julia Massey, we heart you!”

There was another surprise after the initial surprise. A whole bunch of Julia’s musical friends performed covers of her songs for her. Below is the lineup. Where possible I’ve linked to the websites or Facebook pages of the performers, and linked to Julia’s original versions of the songs for download. Enjoy:

1. The Jesus Rehab:
   Rock duo The Jesus Rehab (Julia’s Husband Jared on guitar & his brother Dom Cortese on drums) did a rockin’ version of Light Reminder. It might have been a little bit cheating since Dom is also the FFD’s drummer.
2. Jon Yoon:
   Mr. Yoon did a lovely acoustic version of Bottom of the Ocean.
3. Michael Raley:
   Mr. Raley did a spoken-word performance of Good Fish.
4. David Miner:
   Mr. Miner is the guy who mixed Julia’s latest album! He performed a saxophone-only version of Outro.
5. Bob and Sheldon:
   Bob and Sheldon are a very talented duo who specialize in covers. They performed at Julia & Jared’s wedding! They did two songs from Julia’s first album: Try to Convince You and Dancing in the Kitchen.
6. Yevtushenko:
   I first saw Yevtushenko the week prior when they opened the Five Letters From Far Away CD Release Party. They’re a 4-person rock group headed by singer Amber Shine. She and her guitarist performed Aghadoe.
7. Andy Kingham:
   Mr. Kingham has quite a history with Julia and Jared; he used to play bass for both of them! He rocked out two songs: Bullfrog and Salty Schemes.
8. Robb Benson:
   Seattle music mainstay and all-around rockin’ good guy performed a really heart-felt version of Here Is a Stone Wall.
9. Christa Fisher:
   Ms. Fisher heads the group Christa Says Yay! She has a gorgeous voice and absolutely belted out an amazing version of Someday, Our Bodies Are Gone.
10. Safeword Sasquatch:
    Safeword Sasquatch is sometimes also known as DVoD. They’re headed by the duo of Eric Weber on guitar, and Liz Mayer on cello and ukulele. They did #712 and bridged it to Spaceships, then did a great version of Don’t Worry ‘Bout Us where the piano parts and much of the bass solos of the original song were done on electric guitar.
11. Terrapin, AKA Gary Lappier with Katie Stricker:
    Gary did an extremely spaced-out version of Skatepark with his lovely fianceé Katie doing backing vocals. It was cool because it was so way different than the original version. This was Carrie’s favorite performance of the night.
12. The Crazy Boy Floyds:
    Geoff & I programmed an absolutely batsh*t crazy version of Yeah, which Geoff sung while I activated an animated band on a laptop screen. Sorry we only have a MySpace page to link to, but we haven’t actually done anything for a few years.
13. Three Ninjas:
    Threeni did a very cool electronic version of Honeycombs.
14. Katie Larson & Jill Cimino with Jared Cortese:
    These two girls did a version of Brains & Bubbles (which is a very funny song that isn’t available on any album) with Jared backing them on Guitar.
15. Red Heart Alarm:
    Catacombs and then did an absolutely scorching, country-tinged version of Soaked Through Matches. Red Heart Alarm was very impressive and super polished; it sounded like they’d been playing these songs for years, and they killed Soaked Through Matches so hard that they made it sound like it was their song.

It was a pretty amazing night. It was humbling to see how grateful Julia was for everyone who showed up, and it was an honor to be involved in it (even as little as I was).

I didn’t take any photos because (A) my camera phone is crappy and (B) I was too busy having a good time and enjoying the night to worry about taking photos. Luckily, another blogger took plenty: LiveSeattleMusicInTheClubs (who didn’t even know Julia; just happened to be there when it all went down) blogged all about the whole night, even the parts after Carrie & I had to leave (which was right after the tribute part). So check that out as well.

Geoff recorded audio for the whole tribute, but I don’t know when or in what capacity that’ll be available to me. I’d love it if he would record a studio version of our Yeah. Hint-hint, Geoff.

If you would like to get in on the Julia-loving action, she and the FFD are playing a show tomorrow (Thursday) night at the Tractor in Ballard! We will be there. So can you!

Anyway, happy birfday, Julia! We love you! You deserve it.

Simon Says, “You Are OK”

Good pal and Fools Play member Esa Hakkarainen (the Periwinkle Fool) has become the third Fool to be in a band that has had a Kickstarter campaign (after Geoff the Yellow Fool and Nathan the Orange Fool). Esa plays bass for the band “Simon the Leper,” which I can best describe as kind of a cross between spacey post-rock and screaming metal.

You can head over to their Bandcamp page to listen to an EP and a live album. Here’s a sample from the “You Are OK” EP (mixed by Geoff the Yellow Fool, incidentally):

And if you like what you hear, of course head on over to Kickstarter and toss in your two cents.

Breaking Bond

There was a point early on in Skyfall when I realized that I was watching something special. And steadily throughout the rest of the film a certain feeling steadily grew. Skyfall is an astonishing movie. Not just astonishing for a James Bond movie, but astonishing, period. It is the epitome of a four-star movie and by leaps and bounds my favorite film of 2012. [Read My Full Review]

Tonight (in just about an hour) I’m heading up to Seattle to go see my pal Three Ninjas in a tribute to Hank Williams:

Celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the Death of Hank Williams (link goes to the Facebook Event)

Thursday 1/3/13, 8:00 PM
The Skylark Cafe
3803 Delridge Way SW
Seattle, WA (Map)

We are celebrating his music by singing his songs and getting drunk on stage.

Lee Rude & Clovis!
Three Ninjas & The Entitled Houseguests!
Safeword Sasquatch!
A lot of beer and whiskey!

$5 cover!

Then the very next night, I am heading back up to Seattle again for the CD Release Party of Julia Massey’s newest album, “Five Letters From Far Away!”

Julia Massey & The Five Finger Discount’s CD RELEASE!!! (link goes to the Facebook Event)

Friday 1/4/13, 9:00 PM
The Sunset Tavern
5433 Ballard Ave NW
Seattle, WA (map)

Join us as we bring “Five Letters From Far Away” to the world at one of our favorite venues, The Sunset!

Doors at 9pm, $7

Yevtushenko
The Glass Notes
JMass & the FFD

I will be there. So can you!