Hi there... it's been awhile!

It seems that my blogging on here, as well as my friend's blogs, have taken a back seat over the past several months. What caused this? Facebook? NKOTB reunion? Yo Gabba Gabba? Hope?

Well, for me at least, I've started working on a blog in a different location. http://stevealbers.wordpress.com to be exact. While it has taken me a while to get going with it, I'm finally getting with it... at least until the next presumed interval.

What about you? For those that have blogged at one point or another... what made you fall off? I know for me it was nothing in particular... partly a time allocation issue along with the feeling that no one really reads (or likes) what you write.

Oh well... I'm still moving forward. I hope you check out the new site and follow along. Please comment too... it might sound dumb, but it's a way for interaction to take place.

-steve

As you might or might not have noticed, this blog thing here hasn't been getting updated too much lately.  I've actually decided to branch out and try a non-myspace blog stevealbers.wordpress.com

I'll be using that primarily, but will still keep posting here once in a while. When I do post here, it'll probably be more of the personal stuff... since you are my Myspace friends and all.

In the mean time, check out the new blog (I'm only 3 posts into it so far). Leave comments, subscribe to the rss feed, etc.

Otherwise, carry on as usual...
-steve

Ever hear a random song and it takes you back?... of course you have. While unlike you, I don't rock out to Aqua's "Barbie Girl"... but here are three songs that recently came to mind.

These will take you back about 10-15 years... (I won't post any info about them, because you need to enjoy them... not pass them over).







And a little something extra for the ladies...


Enjoy yourself... and feel free to post any random music clips that take you back.

So a couple music blogs that I follow commented on the perfect song length (The Morning News)... found by me on Bows & Arrows.

Basically saying that any song over 2:42 is in excess (bloated might be an exact term). At first I thought it might favor oldies and punk songs, it was an interesting mix of genres... including some quite famous hits.

My songs (39 out of 10463) that clock in at 2:42... overall a nice cross-section of music:
Snoop Dogg - My Medicine
Alkaline Trio - Emma
Clint Black - A Good Run of Bad Luck
Pete Yorn - Man in Uniform
Pinback - Manchuria
Townes Van Zandt - Waitin' Around to Die
My Chemical Romance - Teenagers
Ramones - I Just Want to Have Something
Blitzen Trapper - Wild Mountain Nation
The Cranberries - I Will Always
Powerman 5000 - Tonight The Stars Revolt!
Liz Phair - May Queen
Bread - Down On My Knees
Bruce Springsteen - From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)
MxPx - Resonsibility
Band of Horses - St. Augustine
The Libertines - Up the Bracket
Live - Top
CCR - Up Around the Bend
The Mama's & Papa's - California Dreamin'
Chris Thomas King - Hard Time Killing Floor Blues
Jimmy Buffett - Why Don't We Get Drunk
System of a Down - Dart
Linkin Park - Faint
The Beach Boys - Hushabye
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Don't Do Me Like That
Asleep at the Wheel - Maiden's Prayer
Sam & Dave - Still is the Night
Simon & Garfunkel - Homeward Bound
The Fugees - Mista Mista
Otis Redding - Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay
CCR - Hey Tonight
The La's - There She Goes
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Breakdown
Neil Diamond - Dig In
Blondie - (I'm Always Touched by Your) Presence Dear
Neil Diamond - Memphis Streets
Sam & Dave - You Don't Know What You Mean
Green Day - We Are the Waiting

What say you?  Different songs on your list?
Feel free to post your collection of 2:42 songs

from: Zagbook.com

A quick, visual explanation of the difference between Marketing, Advertising, PR & Branding... I'm so glad I spent 4 years in college trying to learn this

In the past couple months, I've been able to start seeing more live shows... which makes me very happy. From The Drive-By Truckers/North Mississippi All-Stars at the HOB-Anaheim, to seeing Angels & Airwaves at the Wiltern, to the most recent concert... Bruce Springsteen at the Pond.

First things first, since I never really gave any info on the A&A show.... I'll start there.  As I said, it was at the Wiltern which is a pretty kick-ass venue around mid-Wilshire. An old theater that has lasted quite some time... and still is a great venue to see a show.

After a couple of opening bands (The Color Fred and Meg & Dia) A&A came out and rocked the house. Other than Tom DeLonge's spastic dancing and sometimes underpowered vocal volume, the show was pretty solid. If you like A&A you would have like this show. They did most of their good songs from the first two discs... as well as one Blink song and one Boxcar Racer song.

=============================================

Springsteen 4/7/08 Anaheim Honda Center
I've been waiting quite some time for the chance to see "The Boss" in concert. I tried to get tickets last fall when he was playing at the Forum, but no dice. So as soon as I heard about the two shows in Anaheim, I jumped all over that shit.

Well, the concert started about an hour late... which I have a feeling was due to the arena only being half-full at the time. Once the concert started... all was forgiven.
Highlights:
-Special guest Tom Morello singing a duet on "The Ghost of Tom Joad" and just killing it. Youtube clip
-After the encore, the back-to-back Rosalita & Born to Run just brought the house down.
-He also sang "Because the Night" which was written by him, but given to Patti Smith back in the day. I think most people are more familiar with the 10,000 Maniacs cover at this point though.
-Considering Bruce is in his late 50's... his energy, stage performance, and enthusiasm is hard to fathom. His voice still maintains the edge and vitality that brought him to fame back in the mid 70's.
-Other favorite songs played that night: Badlands, The Rising, Murder Incorporated & Working on the Highway. There were plenty of songs that he didn't get to, but considering he played for over 2 hours... who can complain? Full set list
-During the concert, Scott and I both commented on how we should have gotten tickets to the next night's show as well (it was just that awesome). I heard he opened with Thunder Road the next night too... which is one of my all-time favorites.

Overall, I couldn't have asked for a whole lot more. It's incredible to see your favorite music artist perform, and not to be disappointed (getting your hopes up too high). If they come anywhere near here again, you can bet I'll be sitting somewhere in the arena.

During the encore they turned the house lights on... which was actually kinda cool. As you can see our seats were at the other end of the arena, but not as nearly as bad as my super-duper camera phone makes it out to be.

While the subject of this blog posting might seem a little odd... it is now the current contents of my iTunes/iPod.

10146 songs
28.2 days
41.11 GB

I've finally reached the 10K mark!
I actually hit it about a week ago, but then I did the "Duplicate Search." Needless to say, I quickly was back in the high 9K's.

I'm not exactly sure what song was 10,000. but I think it might have been one of the three following:
1) "I See A Darkness" - Johnny Cash (covering a Will Oldham tune)
2) "Talkin' 'bout a Revolution" - Damien Rice (covering Tracy Chapman)
3) "Lolita" - Throw Me the Statue

I must have been on a "covers" kick that day... but all solid tunes for such a milestone.

A cool blog that I've been checking out for awhile, that has a lot of great live/in-studio tracks from good bands = Daytrotter
--I haven't had much time to devote to all of their archived music, but a few good ones I've heard so far: Rogue Wave, Vampire Weekend, The National, and The Long Winters.


PS- A big thanks to everyone that sent well wishes on the b-day. Not sure there was too much photographic evidence of the evening (besides the photo hanging up at the sushi joint).

So on the eve on another glorious birthday, I figured I'd make a little update (during commercials of Lost).

-Birthday plans tomorrow:
  -Pre-food drinks at the house
  -Sushi @ Fusion
  -Ai (Aculpoco Inn)... as if there was any other choice.

-Got my taxes sent off last week. I had to do the two state filing so it took a little more work, but still good to be done with... plus a decent return this year.

-I also finally got my car paid off this month... so expect to hear me bitch about it breaking down before March. Eventually I'd like to trade up and get something a little smaller (thing's like a boat out here), but not having a car payment is also enticing.

-Won free ticket(s) to see the North Mississippi All-Stars & the Drive-By Truckers this week (courtesy of the Aquarium Drunkard blog). It's been awhile since my last live show and also had never been to the House of Blues (Anaheim).  NMA was incredible... really impressed me. The Drive-By Truckers also sounded really good, and am very happy I got to see the show. (Check out some of the tracks on their myspace pages... linked above).

I was thinking that I had other stuff to write about, but am coming up blank now... oh well.

Quick three-hitter for your weekend...
Was doing some cleaning and the iPod was on shuffle... here are three songs for you to enjoy (just like I did today).



1) Shout Out Louds - Tonight I Have to Leave it
-The Swedes attack... again. Solid track, from the Sept. 07 release "Our Ill Wills".
2) Cary Brothers - Ride
-While most know Cary Brothers from the "Garden State" soundtrack... they also released an album this year ("Who You Are"). Solid disc... and Cary Brothers is just one person... not actually a group of brothers.
3) Stroke 9 - Tail of the Sun
A band that became known only for "Little Black Backpack"... but I was one that bought the entire disc on that basis.  Lucky for me, the whole CD is pretty solid... as is evident with "Tail of the Sun". It's not hard rock, soft rock... but somewhere in between (aka- just decent music).

So there you have it... some random stuff that I listened to today, that you can listen to tomorrow.

Cloverfield comes out next month, and is by the creator of Lost (and other shows) JJ Abrams. They just release a sneak peek of the movie (see below). If you can't get excited about the movie by this, then I'm not sure what to tell you. Hopefully they'll be able to keep the same pace going throughout the movie.