Postblink

I’m stuck in a coma, stuck in a never-ending sleep
And some day I’ll wake up and realize I made up every thing

I’m not sure what’s more annoying. There appears to be a single cricket somewhere in the building that I’m in, chirping away the following fourty minutes until my next class. On the other hand, the only sound I have to drown it out is this stupid Senses Fail song that’s stuck in my head. I didn’t even like their latest album, but it’s just this stupid chorus being sung over and over in my conscious that’s driving my crazy. On that note, here’s three random thoughts.

1. I hope the debate happens tonight. As far as I’m aware, it’s still up in the air. I wish McCain would stop procrastinating and just get it over with. After some progress Wednesday and an agreement almost having been reached earlier in the day Thursday, everything ended up falling apart Thursday night when House Republicans walked out. Obama had suggested the candidates presence might cause that outcome and that’s likely what happened.
2. If tonight’s debate does not happen, I hope it won’t it end pushing back the vice-presidential debate on October 2ND. I’m really looking forward to watching Sarah Palin get her ass handed to her by Biden. What business does she have being a vice-presidential candidate? That interview with Katie Couric was pathetic and Palin was obviously very coached on her responses, except for maybe one - I doubt the McCain campaign would be dumb enough to coach her “foreign relations” experience with Russia. . .
3. I have tickets to see Weezer with Angels and Airwaves and Tokyo Police Club on October 3RD in Minnesota at the Excel Center. Probably the biggest venue show I’ll have ever been to. I’m hoping Weezer plays the old stuff too, I haven’t heard much off their new album.

I’ve been waiting for some new material from SoCal’s Something Corporate and Jack’s Mannequin front man Andrew McMahon for a while now. I was hoping to see a new Something Corporate album, but I’m more than happy to have the opportunity to review The Glass Passenger, a sophomore release from Jack’s Mannequin.

Shortly after McMahon put out Jack’s first album, Everything In Transit, he was diagnosed with leukemia. McMahon took some time for recovery and then followed up with extensive tours to raise awareness for cancer. Material for The Glass Passenger hadn’t even been written until 2007. With an initial release date of April 2008, complications delayed the album until late August/early September. The final release date would eventually end up September 30TH. Although backed by two EP’s, one in August and one coming September 9TH, the album has actually already leaked in it’s entirety. The 13 song disc runs is 52 minutes and 15 seconds in length.

The tracks, not unlike Everything In Transit, have a very upbeat feel. However, the production value has increased ten-fold. Although the piano is still a major player, this album features more guitar work and the percussion is definitely playing a larger role than past songs.

Closer to release date I’ll throw up a more in-depth, song by song review.

The walls are caving in
As far as I can see
The walls are caving in
The doors got locked for sure
There’s no one here but me

Beat my body like a rag doll
You stuck the needles in my hip
You said ‘We’re not gonna lie,
Son, you just might die
Get you on that morphine drip, drip’

After tomorrow is over I’ll officially have had my first week back to school. I’m taking 16 credit-hours total which is an okay load for this semester. I have classes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday which allows for some downtime. That’s about how often I went to high school too. . . Ba-da-tish. . .

Recently LeRoi Moore passed away. He was the saxophonist/wind instrumentalist for Dave Matthews Band and an amazing musician. I’m really bummed that I never got a chance to see one of my favorite bands before they lost such an important member of the original lineup that had lasted so many years. Hopefully they’ll be able to find someone who can step into his shoes, although I’m sure it will be extremely tough.

Anyways - between class days and getting back into the groove of education, I’ve been watching the Democratic National Convention coverage on MSNBC. Michelle Obama kicked it off with an amazing speech and Hillary did well too, but man - what an amazing speaker Bill Clinton is. We need another leader that knows what they’re doing and how to lead. You see, it’s not entirely about “government” experience. It’s important, but it’s not as vital as just having someone who’s a natural leader. Biden hit it out of the park as well. I can’t wait for Obama’s nomination acceptance speech tonight.

I know, I know. This is just a circus show. Nothing actually gets done at these conventions. They’re just pop and flare. I don’t care what you think, everytime Obama speaks, he’s proving something. Proving that he deserves to be where he is. Proving that he deserves to go where he’s heading, all the way to the white house. He’s gaining an even bigger following and it is critical.

Anyways, that’s my latest. Back to work on the site and then time to do some psych homework. Yay?

As I mentioned in the last post, Sunday we hit up Warped Tour in Minnesota and, while it was an amazing show, I was a little disappointed that Say Anything was unable to perform. Max was sick. Max was also sick for the Chicago show, but they got a little something we didn’t. Like Justin from Motion City Soundtrack singing Alive with the Glory of Love. Check out the video below and look around on youtube for other guest appearances from singers from Reliant K, Norma Jean, Every Time I Die & more.

So hear this please
And watch as your heart speeds up endlessly
And look for the stars as the sun goes down
Each breathe that you take has a thunderous sound
Everything, everything’s magic

Late Sunday night/early Monday morning we finally got back from the Shakopee, Minnesota Warped Tour show and I’m not sure it’s completely sunk in.

Warped is an amazing place not just because you have the oppertunity to see so many up and coming bands, as well as more mainstream bands, but because of the awesome people there. Whether it’s just the random people you see walking by in their strange attire or the people trying to get people interested in a cause. I don’t like pushy people, but they don’t come across as that and it’s always nice to see people movitated for something they believe in.

Oddly enough, the guys from Adventures of Brad and Jordan spotted me prior to the Anberlin set. It’s always nice to actually meet the people behind the writing you enjoy - if you’re reading this, sorry I disappeared. I had to get some air. Catch you at another show sometime maybe?

This year’s Minnesota date was somewhat different from the last time I went in that the sun was practically non-existent for the majority of the day. It wasn’t cold though and the breeze made everything just about perfect.

When we first got their we almost immediately headed towards the Van’s merchandise tent so one of us could get some actual shoes (flip flops are the worst thing you can wear to something like this) and while over there someone affiliated with Motion City Soundtrack asked me if we’d like to get some stuff signed. I think my response was pretty much “Uh yeah, are you kidding?”. I grabbed passes for the three of us so we could head back to the merch tent later for the signings. Three hundred total passes were handed out so I think we were pretty lucky.

At somepoint between waiting for bands we ended up walking by the ModLife bus when none other than Tom DeLonge walks out of it and starts hugging kids by the fence. Unfortunately we missed out on hugs/hand shakes as we were just a bit late but Tom was nice enough to give us some nice photo ops from the top of the bus and . . . well, we were just feet away from Tom DeLonge. What else can be said?

I wasn’t sure how Angels and Airwaves would be received at Warped. I guess these days that some of the bands at Warped are considerably softer than they would have been ten years ago, but AvA is in a whole new realm, vastly different from the likes of blink-182. Any hesitations I had about the energy of the crowd vanished as I saw the people filling in the area in front of both mainstages.

AvA put on an awesome thirty-minute set and the crowd was very, very into it. The atmosphere was amazing even without the lightshow from the last Angels concert I went to and the energy was intense.

And the last big set for me? Motion City Soundtrack in their home state. Things had drastically changed since 2005 when they played one of the smaller stages. Nope, that wasn’t happening this year. Mainstage Left in all it’s glory. Again, a ton of people swarmed in front of both stages to get as close as they could. MCS played a nice variety of stuff from all three of their full lengths and had people singing back the lyrics. It was an amazing show and I can’t wait to see them on one of their tours sometime.

Overall it was an excellent show this year and I’m looking forward to next year’s stop. Now I’ve gotta go finish catching up on sleep. G’night.