Thursday, August 27, 2009

Frampton Comes Alive!

It seems like Medium Pace has died off a bit since SBTG decided to start taking names and kicking asses (off) the Buffet. I'm pretty busy at the office today but thought I should take some time to remind you all of a great album, Frampton Comes Alive.

I generally listen to my ipod at work and had fallen into a rut of Indie Rock lately so I decided that I should start listening to some of the other 20 gigabytes of music. While sorting through my extensive selection of artists, I came across Peter Frampton and realized it had probably been years since I had listened to his music.

Frampton Comes Alive took me back to a Summerfest long-ago when Rubie Q's pops first introduced me to Frampton. I think he was playing the MGD Stage and I remember standing on a picnic table for most of the show. I was completely blown away by the talent displayed by Peter Frampton... great performance.

My favorite part of the night was when Rubie Q Sr. asked, "do you smell that?"

My answer, "It smells like weed to me."

His response, "If you find it, we can smoke it."

Of course, I didn't find it since I thought it was a trick like the first time he offered me a beer at the Rubie Q Ranch. In retrospect, it probably would have been a lot cooler if we did.



Anyway, I was YouTubing for some classic Frampton and stumbled upon him covering "Black Hole Sun". I thought this was pretty awesome and I appreciated the posters comment on the video: 'Peter Frampton, a flippin' legend, drops Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" on an unsuspecting and remedial Chicago crowd. Good times (and confusion) ensue!'

Dead-on analysis!

Saturday, August 22, 2009

ZEBRAASSPANDAGAYNESS







Chayce is headed to the zoo tomorrow....Really the zoo...What in the world could possibly be there that could be all that exciting? Wait a minute....I know.....

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Jamesons Irish Whiskey Is Crack...

The only way to settle the Score...


Is a NERD battle royal of
Risk and Stratego!!!

Blog Throwdown.

It's time folks. This is something that has needed to be done for quite some time.

The blogosphere is a very interesting place. It is made out to be way cooler than it actually is and it is probably more like a bunch of high school kids in a basement playing Magic the Gathering.

Today a shot was fired across the nose of this here, innocent, blog.

I am now calling an all out war against Rubie and his Buffet.

So what if they have over 800 posts and we only have 22.

So what if we all read and contribute on that blog.

So what if Weird Al's "Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota" just cam on the iTunes.

Okay... maybe forget about this war. I feel better now.

I like Rubie Q.

SHAQ VS


So I found myself staring at Shaq's new show last night on channel 12 and the entertainment brought me back to the days of Kazaam and Blue Streak, although I actually thought Blue Streak was ok. Fun for about 5 minutes unless you don't have cable, so you may be better off going hurricane hunting and watching Jim Cantore and the weather channel.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Lolla Review 2009

Wet, loud, and awesome sum up my experience. While I was a little damp for the first 5 hours of Lolla on Friday, I have to say that it was preferable to the 90+ degrees days of Saturday and Sunday (I was happy to spend those in the AC). Grant Park is quite large so making it from the South End to the North End or vice versa between shows is tough. After my first show, I kept exclusively to the North End.

A quick run down and review of the bands I made it to...


2pm - The Gaslight Anthem: a punk rock/emo band from New Jersey. They put on a good show and the crowd was into it despite the rain; however, I was concerned about making it back to the North End for a 3pm show so I only stayed for about 35 minutes.

3pm - Bon Iver: a indie-folk band from Wisconsin. I was surprised to see the crowd that they were able to draw and they sounded a lot better than I thought they would playing such a large space.

4pm - Ben Folds: does anyone know what happened to the Five? Anyway, Ben drew a large crowd and sounded like... well... Ben Folds. This was purely a function of me being lazy; plus, I had never seen him before. I would not pay to see him again.

5pm - Fleet Foxes: an indie-folk band from Seattle. I aready knew that I liked these guys and they sounded great. BUT I suspect that the large crowd they drew was a function of The Decmeberists playing on the stage kiddie corner from them at 6pm.

6pm - The Decemberists: a rock band from Portland, Oregon. They performed the entire The Hazards of Love album and it rocked. The crowd went bonkers. I was impressed when they had 5 people playing drums during the "The Rake's Song". Great perfomers... I highly suggest you see them if you have not already.


7pm - I ate some pizza and peed in a bush.

8pm - Kings of Leon: a fucking rock band from Nashville, Tennessee. The North End late show was packed. I suspect that the organizers may have underestimated the draw KOL would have... I really believe they should have played the larger Chicago 2016 stage on the South End but Depeche Mode won that battle. Anyway, KOL rocked out and the crowd loved it.


Having attended Day 1 of Lollapalooza, I'd like to make two comments/suggestions that might help Perry Farrell improve the event...

Beer - only one spot serving draft imports and shitty one's at that?! I don't like Stella or Beck's. Otherwise, my options were Bud, Bud Light, or Bud Light Lime... like a homeless person, I drank several 24oz cans of Bud-diesel. Which I guess was fitting since I was wet and dirty. This is Chicago! Where was the Goose Island or Old Style?

Stages - I was really close for both The Decemberists and Fleet Foxes but I struggled to see. I know you want the bands to be close to the crowd but since Grant Park is flat, you need to elevate the bands a little bit so people like me who don't wait in front of a stage for hours watching crappy bands we don't want to see just so we can be in the first 5 rows of people and see the band whose t-shirt we wore (Note: I did not wear the t-shirt of any band to Lolla) can actually see them.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

80's Teenage Angst Icon Dead

Wow, I was trying to kill a couple of minutes before leaving the office and discovered that John Hughes died.

Talk about a major contributor to pop culture. Hughes was involved in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", "The Breakfast Club", "National Lampoon's Vacation", "Uncle Buck", and several other highly notable 80's flicks.

Without Hughes, skipping class to go to a baseball game would not have been as glorified. We wouldn't have Abe Froman, the Sausage King of Chicago. And, all those classic movie quotes.



You left this world a much better place than when you entered it Mr. Hughes. We bid you adieu.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Back to the Dave Grohl(s) Spooge fest

I never knew that Dave Grohl played with the D so I was YouTubing this morning and found the live performance which rocked. I just love Tenacious D and and Grohl looked like he was having a really good time.


Then I found this crazy shot of him playing "Tiny Dancer" on the Craig Kilborn Show... hilarious.


And, I linked from there to a video of him playing a set of kids drums. It's classic because the guys have funny accents and encourage Grohl to try them out... he rocks... and they totally get into it.