Move Over Carrie

My crush on Carrie Brownstein is officially over, replaced with a new indie rock longing: Alexandra Lawn, the cellist from Ra Ra Riot.



To be honest, I hope this one is replaced quickly. Lawn is so beautiful in a traditional sense it is almost inappropriate to call this an indie rock crush. No quirkiness, funky glasses, obvious flaws that are desirable in spite of and even because of themselves. Nope, this one is just hot and I feel creepier than usual for including her. However, a little creepiness has never stopped me before, so here we are.

Polarity

I haven't written much about my Austin trip yet, but I probably will one of these days, when I get back from my trip this weekend to Chicago.

For now, let me leave you with an interesting and related set of statements I heard during different conversations with the two dudes I was hanging with while there.

Dude 1, during a conversation about the different types of friendships a guy often has with males versus females and how these differences evolve over time: "I'm not making any more dude friends for life."

Dude 2, during a conversation about how these young bucks always chasing tail are being stupid and getting themselves into crazy, bad karma trouble, "I'm done with these hos."

One dude is done making friends with other dudes, the other dude is done wasting time chasing girls. To make things even more interesting, these two dudes are brothers. Dude #1 is younger by a few years biologically and by a whole lot more emotionally. Both brothers fare pretty well with the ladies, given their minor league rock star status and personal charisma.

Anyway, as is often the case in life, I imagine being too far on either side of the continuum is problematic, especially when the other gender becomes demonized and/or objectified. But get beyond the urban (and misogynistic) rhetoric and you realize two different worldviews are being espoused about the nature of male-female (and same-sex) relationships. Kind of interesting, I thought.

And personally, if I had to take a position, I'm closer to Dude #2's position right now. Not the "ho" part but the being tired of the game part. As I announced a while back, I've been self-benched. That hasn't changed at all.

As we usher March out, I recall that I once, a mere 5 or so weeks ago, posted a contest concerning accurate prediction of March snowfall.

I'd like to award the prize, but ... I can't figure out how much snowfall Cleveland had in March. Can anyone help with this?

Thanks!

Offical Cleveland Bachelor Military Branch

We don't spend a lot of time thinking about our favorite branches of the U.S. military over here at Cleveland Bachelor HQ. However as "luck" would have it, the U.S. Air Force has recently inserted itself into my life in a way that demands I think highly of it.

My little brother recently left for boot camp in Texas to become an Air Force air traffic controller. One of my closest college buddies is shipping out to Saudi in a couple weeks to guard things - he'll find out what he's to guard when he gets there, apparently. A grad school pal is shipping out to the Green Zone to conduct intelligence briefings - according to him, he's basically a dude version of Kelly McGillis's role in Top Gun.

All these guys are Air Force men. All have my respect and affection. Therefore, I am now a fan of the Air Force. I'll even wear a hat.

Good luck, fellas.

Vacation

I'm off for a much-needed (if not deserved) vacation, pals. In an hour or so I'm making my way to Hopkins to catch a flight to DFW, where I shall rendezvous with my fellow band member/film maker/partner in crime and head down to ... brace yourself ... South By Southwest.

I thought about blogging during this thing, but that'll just be a hassle and will also make me do more real work while I'm down there than I'm willing to do (though I should be doing it). But I'll try to keep notes of some sort and fill you all in (i.e., talk mad shit) about what I see and do while there. Right now, I'm just hoping we make it to town in time to catch this great Kill Rock Stars party this afternoon that my friend Jen told me about last night. Other than that, I'm looking forward to catching sets by Daniel Johnston, Dinosaur Jr, Women, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Sholi, Vetiver, Black Joe Louis, King Khan, Thao Nguyen, Abe Vigoda, Akron/Family, Wavves, and many many more.

Plus there will be actually edible Mexican food and bbq to eat.

Take care of the place while I'm gone, Cleveland - I'll see you next week.

CB

PS - For those of you still here this week, check out the Friday night Beachland show. Sounds like it has a lot of energy building.

First Quarter Music Report

I'm just about done digesting all the various writers I enjoy and their end-of-2008 "best of" lists. Yes, I'm slow, but there are also a lot of them out there.

One thing I've noticed is that by the end of the year, they tend to (forgivably) forget the great stuff from the beginning of the year, and end up with an unintentional bias toward later releases and those big ones from earlier in the year that caught a lot of buzz.

To avoid that, I've decided to do a first-quarter report, about what I like in 2009 so far. Here goes:

TOP ALBUMS:

1) Sholi
2) The Pains of Being Pure At Heart
3) Coconut Records, Davy
4) Cotton Jones, Paranoid Cocoon
5) Abe Vigoda, Reviver

BEST LIVE SHOW:

1) Phosphorescent @ Beachland
2) Tom and Leia (from the Afternoon Naps) acoustic @ Beachland
3) Dent May/Afternoon Naps @ Beachland
4) Cotton-Jones in-store @ Music Saves
5) Anya Marina @ the Winchester

(Note: Anyone who follows this might notice a lack of mention for The Black Lips. I was at their show the other night and had the misfortune of speaking with some of these guys afterwards, and they are such testoro-douches I'm just totally turned off of them right now. That being said, the new album is pretty great, and I'm pretty sure I'll be digging it out and playing it some time in the summer after my ADD causes me to forget I didn't like them as people. I hate when my critical appreciation gets outweighed by my personal preferences, but whatever - I'm not a professional.)

EAGERLY ANTICIPATED RELEASES:

1) Jason Lytle
2) Wavves
3) Harlem Shakes
4) Papercuts
5) Akron/Family

EAGERLY ANTICIPATED LIVE SHOWS:

1) Dinosaur Jr. @ Akron Musica
2) Ra Ra Riot/Cut Off Your Hands/Passion Pit @ Akron Musica
3) Brian Jonestown Massacre @ Grog Shop
4) Jon Ganoli @ B-Side
5) Pains of Being Pure At Heart/Afternoon Naps @ Beachland
BONUS: Vetiver/Papercuts @ Beachland

Move Over Anya

I have a new indie rock crush, and this one is even more impossible.

Carrie Brownstein.

Still, I always dug the KRS sound and Sleater-Kinney is indisputably one of the most important rock bands ever (as much as I hate the word "important" as a cultural descriptor). I'd sorta forgotten about them since their hiatus, but when one of the dudes from Citizen Dick suggested the NPR "All Songs Considered" show as a good fit for my rock talk show pod-cast needs, I heard her on one of the episodes and was hooked. She's so freaking smart, funny, and nice. And she writes really well.



So, Anya, it was fun while it lasted, but we gotta go our separate ways. Don't worry - you'll have good company in my ex-pop culture crush club, which features such ladies as Victoria Bergsman, Juliet Berto (on a 40-year lag), and Kate Dollenmayer from Funny Ha Ha.



Update:

As I was googling for a good pic to accompany this post, I found this little post, which does a much better job of describing Brownstein crushdom than I have done. And they have much better pictures.