The band I discovered this week is West Side Winders. Amie Street has done some UI updates on the site, especially in the pop-up player, and in some other account-related updates. The West Side Winders are from the Chicagoland area, but tour all over the eastern midwest and New England area. I have a bit of a weakness for rockabilly and surf guitar, and I haven’t highlighted much of those genres here in quite a while. The surf rock guitars and the rockabilly lyrics make me want to paint flames on the hood of the jalopy, and go and find someplace to look surly…. This is a good-times song about wanting to go to a particular diner to hang out with everyone because there’s a girl who works there that you are interested in.
Enjoy!

During psychology classes (both in high school and in college), there was a section of cognitive psych that explored the ego and self-awareness, and there was always that foursquare chart that laid out personality traits known and unknown, public and private. I often think of that foursquare when I’m out people-watching.

The best manifestations are when people have a lot to do, or are fidgeting. Back before the “high-security crisis”, that place was the airport. At airports you would see some people in a big rush, others trying to get a cab or to a phone, still others bored senseless as they would wait for a layover flight, and many with pre-flight jitters. You can’t really go to the airport just to watch people anymore, though. You would be likely to get cavity-searched and charged with something obscure.

The public-known was usually in the person’s posture and eye-contact, as well as their mode of dress. The lady in the dark colored business attire with hard-set jaw and attaché was obviously busy, serious, and not there for fun, where the relaxed-looking couple in brightly-colored wind suits carrying athletic bags and easy smiles were likely embarking on a vacation getaway.

Sometimes there were some slight hints to both the private-known and private-unknown parts, especially if the onlooker is keen for details of the sort, The public-unknown area is often the most entertaining part of people-watching. Things that you are easily able to observe about someone’s personality that they are completely unaware of is the basis of quite a bit of comedy found in mass media, especially physical comedy.

The business-obsessed lady in the drab clothing has an unknown (to her) preference for the third seat from the aisle, and stands up when dialing her cell phone. The standing probably makes her feel in command of the call.

The other day I was reminded of the lectures on self-awareness after I had picked up the girls and we were on our way home. I was asking them a series of questions about how their day went down, and they started asking generalized questions about the nature of things. The two of them were on a tangent, making references to movies and potty humor, when A very seriously asked, “How big was my butt when I was a baby?”

I’m still wondering if eight is about the right age to be worried with such things. Before, the primary question of this sort was always how big they were when they were born. They love the part where I explain that at the time of their birth, each was able to take a nap in my hands. Now, we’ve moved from the body as a whole to an inquisition of particular parts. When do women start to obsess about the size of their posteriors? I replied, “It was very, very small. Like half of an orange.” The two of them giggled and went on to more one-liners having to do with flatulence as I started to think through the dynamics of what will soon become the “talk on body types”. It will probably be impending very soon. Then my attention got pulled back into the conversation as I became the door-answerer in an endless round of knock-knock involving the dreaded “Banana” response. Lately it cycles for around 15 times before the final “Orange” response appears.

I ran down to The Loft for what is referred to as “an industry event”. It was put together by a group called Badd Lemonade, which I wasn’t able to find much out about.

The evening featured a rapid-fire sampling of ten bands local to the Atlanta area. The bands playing included:

1. Leaving Araby
2. Kalvin Nova
3. The Rein
4. Xzamen
5. 1994
6. Fact Not Fiction
7. The Love Willows
8. Unusual Suspects
9. The Honor Roll
10. She Came From Above
11. Fox Trot November
12. The Pennies
13. The Nerd Parade
14. Auditioning Alice

I missed four of the acts, mostly due to my parking option not syncing well with the event. The staff at the parking deck were chatty and helpful, though. I’ve been to several shows at The Loft over the past couple of years, and it is a good, flexible space for various types of events.

The organizers of the event were ensconced in a roped-off area, and were all hurredly scribbling notes as each act started to play. The format allowed thirty minutes for each band to set up, sound check, play (most of them played about three songs) and then clear off, including equipment breakdown. After seeing a couple of rounds, the personalities of the bands began to shine through, and certain things started to become much more clear. Primary of these things was stage presence, including segue and mic banter. Only having a true ten-15 minute block performing, those small bits of space between songs are the only bits you have to drive home the connection with the crowd you have laid down with your instrumentation and delicately laid lyrics. I’m not certain if the Badd Lemonade people were actively judging for record and promo deals, or if anything was really at stake, but the crowd was full of die-hard fans and family of the bands for the most part.
Here are links I found for several of the bands. I have snapshots, and if you check out this page of unedited photos, you can see the progression of the quality of the pics as I fine-tuned the camera settings, finally getting it everything right for handling upshot stage lighting. I also dug up links for most of the bands in the list, so be sure to check them out if you live in or visit the Atlanta area.

The Love Willows Made an impression as they transformed the stage from mostly blacked out to a glamor-splashed, candy-striped high fashion scene. This band played well, and is highly memorable due to the incredible contrast in both visual and musical style from the rest of the bands playing. reminiscent of a Gwen Stefani show, the songs played were very upbeat and loaded with energy, and are ones you could listen to with the kids in the car. They even wrapped up with a song all about having an acute shoe fetish and being okay with that.

The Unusual Suspects have a sound that is very hook-laced and clean, with a careful eye on traditional production values and meter. The track “People, Pills, and Problems” will have you hooked in a single dose.

Athens-based The Honor Roll came in like a thunderstorm… This is the kind of storm where you just want to see how it goes down, a train wreck of hyperbole and angst that is beautiful in its references to our stalking of each other, as well as the social impact of your myspace telling on your fibs. They opened up with “Bedroom Politics”, storming and pacing the stage in barefoot pissed-offedness. And the bass player is kinda nuts, too.

She Came From Above delves into the screamo metal area, though the guitar riffs remind me of the early speedmetal riffs that Metallica and Megadeath popuarized.

Fact Not Fiction really made an impression on me. From Hartwell, GA (outside Athens, at the SC/GA border), their sound is someplace between post-punk, and rolls near the melodics of true indie rock. There is a definite Anglo influence, with well-read lyrics and a mock English accent, you almost get the gist, then they throw another twist in the next song that gives it more dimension. “Here at Hartmin” and “The Ballad of Jack and Amy” get the must-listen tag.

Foxtrot November was much more at ease as a band. They seemed to ruminate and relax as they played, and I think giving off this vibe made the band members seem older and more serious about the music than they were about being seen on the stage. The vocals –for whatever reason– remind me of Kenny Loggins. The general sound of the songs are very unique, but similar to Wilco, and maybe Coldplay. Definitely check out “What if We Don’t Carry On”.

The Pennies This was the last band I saw for the evening, and they got a lot of reaction from the crowd. The sound is solid rock with Irish-inspired female vocals that range between a delicate lullaby and a soul-bearing wail that wends its way to your primal foundation. If you like bands like Evanescence or Dido, you should hear them. Check out “Love Me” and “Shine Within Sadness” for sure.

The Nerd Parade. I had been looking forward to seeing these guys, but had to leave before they finished setting up. Maybe I’ll be able to catch them some other time.

Now that I’ve been sorting the night back out from memory, I’m thinking I should have been ensconced in a roped-off area scribbling notes, too….

The band I discovered this week is Jotto, out of Philadeplhia, they have an interesting sound: melodies taht are almost Beatles-like, as well as a wet, grimy sound to the electronics, giving it an aged noise. There’s also a good bit of Bob Dylan and The Strokes influences there on the surface.

A bird will fly right into your eye and sing what you regret
A night a name it all seems the same way, too delicate
She’s young, she’s taught and stares as we stalk its all irrelevant
I Just Want to See You
I Just Want to Be You
We wait outside deciding if she lied as if it mattered
She walks on by pretending if she’s shy or flattered
It’s a wife, a kid we, all saw that falling bridge and scattered

I was checking in on MaxieZ and found another political quiz that maps you and also shows the candidates. Here are my results, which are a bit surprising.

Click the graphic to go and take the test to see where it puts you.

It looks like I’m floating out there in space. Apparently when most people take the quiz, the Ring around the peg is kind of elliptical, showing the standard deviation. The ring around where it pegged me is a circle, and it covers a whole lot of ground…

So it still stands that I’m in the non-group, the ones that are the bane of hardcore, party-line-spouting majority. Those of us who live in this grey area are dangerous, because those who walk the party lines will vote with the party no matter which two canididates it comes down to. Those numbers are known way ahead of the game. If enough people are in this grey area, the final results of an election are completely veiled until the last vote is counted. (unless those votes are stored and counted by Diebold, apparently).

Where does it put you on the map?

Way back in my teen years, I was involved in a peer counseling group, and part of being one of these peer counselors was taking huge amounts of classes and workshops covering a ton of general topics having to do with counseling and psychology, and then there were tons more having to do with the gritty details of topics that people in our age group (teens) would be tackling with. Which meant that we ended up with a really in-depth knowledge of human sexuality in all its forms, with issues arising from sexual choices, social impact, even epidemiology and contraceptive technology.
All of this information was timely for us, and we were charged in a lot of way to disseminate the knowledge whenever possible. In our new time, the internet is one of the best ways to educate and entertain. I still have a few years before I start having these discussions with my girls, but I’ve noticed a lot of parent-bloggers making posts about how they talk with their kids about sex.

I’m not talking about the birds-bees-let’s-get-it-overwith talk that’s been bandied forvever and parodied ad nauseum. I mean real, ongoing discussions of the full range of sexual topics.

The first such post was over at Angelika’s blog, where she says “Life has an NC-17 rating”.
As an aside, I’d like to say in response @ Angelika’s post: A lot of things happened in my coming of age, and at my age, I did know about all the deprived things that go on out there…. Those things didn’t just materialize out of nowhere.

I usually stay brushed up on these topics on one level or another, and am always on the lookout for more sources of good information.

Back in early November, Mouseclone won an iPod device with video capability, and later began a sortie into the current podcast landscape, mostly with tech-related podcasts, but also found a video podcast that I’d like to share here in the hopes that anyone who wants/needs/is mildly interested will benefit:

The Midwest Teen Sex Show Is a video podcast. If you have no idea what that means, it’s a video blog. If your eyes are glazing over, don’t worry. The best way to understand is to watch a couple of episodes. When you hit the link here, You will see three columns. In the middle column, find the spot with the “Episodes” heading, and go ahead and hit episode #1 (may as well start at the beginning!).

You can watch the videos right there in the page. It being a podcast makes it possible for you to use a tool that will automatically download new epidoses for your portable device, etc…

The show is open and informative, it is clean, doesn’t skirt topics, and although it is serious, they are never too serious to make the topic fun, even at the peril of poking a little fun at themselves. This is a brilliant jumping off point for discussions with the kids. If you are a teen and don’t have anyone to talk with about any of this, the show is very helpful, but please do find someone you can trust who you can talk with candidly if your parents are too uptight or bashful about sexuality. It’s for your health, and you need good sources of information, and you really need to be able to talk about what’s real out there and on your level.

I was reading about Mrs. Sparrow’s woes in finding out that she’s “only” a B-list blogebrity…. Whatever being a blog-ebrity might be worth. I took the test, and It says that:

I’m a C-lister! Just like in birth order, I’m stuck in the middle. Average. Blah.

Looking at it again, in order to hit the A-list, I’d likely need a steady supply of gadgets to review, write bagloads of articles on “blogging for bloggers” and “how to make money by writing your own blog”, and eventually corporatize the whole blog here.

Doesn’t sound very original or thought-provoking.

The band I discovered this week is Fat Robot. I was following links, and the band seems to be off-and-on, and possibly defunct. Out of Toronto, this three-piece includes an engineering student and a world traveler, and they have a sound similar to The Strokes and maybe even Modest Mouse, especially on the track “I Roll“. I hope you enjoy them!