It's Official: I've Played an Instrument On Stage with a Professional Rock Band

So, it's probably not as impressive as it sounds, but it was one of the most exciting experiences of my summer, so it's still pretty sweet to me.

It was about two weeks ago that I saw that Headlights had posted a concert date in Madison on their Myspace. I investigated and found out it was at the UW Memorial Union Terrace and it was part of the union's free "Hot Summer Nights" series. The Terrace is a sweet place to watch concerts because you can buy pitchers of beer and enjoy the beautiful lake view. Once the band you're there to see plays you'll obviously want to move up, but until then it's nice to kick back and have some nice conversation and maybe get a little alcohol in you. This is what my friend, Jenny, and I did while the opening band, Scotland Yard Gospel Choir, played.

The demographic was clearly mostly there to drink. Much of it was middle-aged and unaware of who Headlights was. Even many of the college students there were just there to get drunk and dance to free music that they'd never heard before. Now, I have to mention Kansas-basketball-jersey-mullet-man. Now, the picture to the right was snapped by a young woman named Kayla Clarke, who also captured the video that will be embedded later. KBJMM as I will refer to him later was the sweetest dude ever. Drunk as a skunk and ready to party, he had a beer in one hand and his other hand in the air all night in various hippy symbols. The band loved him. The people loved him. God loved him.

Now on to my story. By the time Headlights played, I had a bit of liquid encouragement in me. It was my third time seeing them, and I had a short conversation with Erin last time they were in Madison at Forward Music Festival, so naturally in my state, I was determined to impress them. So what did I do? After every song I yelled out what album the song was from. I was standing in front of Erin, and I think she laughed a couple times due to it. After a new song, I yelled out "Wildlife, due October 6th!" Erin went, "Woah, who said that?" I raised my hand, and she said, "Come up and say that into the mic". I went up and repeated myself, and the band and a couple people in the crowd laughed. Feeding off that, I grabbed the mic back and said "AND! If you pre-order now for $20, you get a free T-shirt!" The band found this funny, and Tristan said, "That guy is now on the payroll".

Now, even if this had been the only happening of the night, it probably would have been the best story I'd have to tell from a concert, and I've been to a lot of concerts. But two songs later, it was time for the encore. Now's where the video comes in:



Basically, this is the gist of that video:
Headlights called up some people from SYGC to play percussion. Tristan said "Not to discriminate, because I don't know which of you guys (meaning the crowd) has rythym. I know Scotland Yard Gospel Choir has rythym". However, then Erin decided to ask me if I wanted to play tambourine and I replied "YES!". So I jumped up there. Then for some reason, I felt the need to say something, so I go, "It's in 4-4?" as in the time signature. And replied in the affirmative and clapped on the beat as Tristan played the intro. Then I recognized it as "TV", proceeding to say something stupid, which was "Oh, you know this". This was in response to Tristan earlier saying "Trust me, we don't know how to play it any better than you guys do", but Erin probably had no idea what I was talking about and was thinking Uh, yeah, I recorded the song, but she's really nice and would never say that. Interestingly enough, on their last tour I don't think Headlights played TV, probably because they were sick of it because that was there first "hit".

Anyway, what followed was three minutes of me smashing the crap out of my hand with a tambourine. At the end, I try to high five the lead singer of SYGC, which he meets with a drumstick. Then for some reason I keep my hands raised like a dork. Again, liquid encouragement. After the concert we went over to the merch stand and Jenny bought a shirt. I actually had all the merch they had, so I was unable to purchase anything. I thanked Erin for inviting me up and she and Nick both thanked me for the plug of their album. Afterwards I called my girlfriend, who probably couldn't keep up with my drunken school-girl-esque rambling.

So song of the day = TV by Headlights. I'll include the version without the drunk tambourine so you can decide wihether it sounds better with or without me in it.

TV by Headlights at YouTube

Inter-Web Gems

I've found a plethora of awesome/hilarious web vids/sites I've discovered lately. Thought I'd share them.

1. First one comes from Myspace. I use my Myspace primarily to keep up to date with music. It's a fake Bill Cosby Myspace I made in high school where I put Bill Cosby's head the body of someone doing a Jello shot and made him say dirty things. Anyway, I saw this on the home page and had to see it. I want to learn more about face pulling and how you train/make your face do such things. Is surgery legal? (Update: Apparently you can at least have your teeth removed)

World Face-Pulling Championship


2. If this doesn't blow (no pun intended) your mind I don't know what will.

See more funny videos and Technology Videos at Today's Big Thing.

3. I'm assuming one of the performers arranged this. The stage direction is hilarious. I've never been a huge video game fan, but that's probably because I never had a chance to be. My first system was an Xbox (if you don't count a Gameboy) in the second half of high school, and that is what I still use to this day, more for DVDs than video games. My parents never let me get games with violence in them, so I was limited to sports games essentially. I was okay for that, because really the only games I played on the computer were EA Sports games. The half-ice flip on NHL 99 anyone (You'd just tap the space bar at center ice and it'd go over the goalie's head and in the net. Worked about 80 percent of the time)? Anyway, I still appreciate the hilarity of this video.

See more funny videos and Music Videos at Today's Big Thing.

4. This is why I want to go to a big festival like Lollapalooza. We have hippies in Madison that are pretty sweet, but these aren't even hippies. I don't even know what to make of these guys. Rasta-ish dancing with Kiss shirts on? I dunno, maybe I've missed the new wave of hippies. In any case, I'd probably be speechless.

See more funny videos and Music Videos at Today's Big Thing.

5. The "WTF" tag on Amazon provides for hours of entertainment. Luckily, I haven't been sucked into buying any of these useless/expensive/enraging products, but I can't say I haven't considered. With that in mind, enter at own risk.

http://www.amazon.com/tag/wtf/products/ref=tag_gam_ptcn_istp

6. Who hasn't gotten a passive-aggressive note, or at least encountered them? An angry roommate who's mad because you forgot to flush the toilet, a parent who's angry you forgot to call your grandma on her birthday, someone whose dog you ran over... (RIP Mr. Waggles) I love this site, the notes are hilarious. Just the creative ways people say "F you".

http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/

7. I may have been living in a hole lately, because apparently everyone knew about this one except me. Myxer is a site where you can make a free ringtone out of any mp3 you own. Can't find one of Joe Namath saying "I wanna kiss you... YEAH!!!!" on the internet? No worries! Just record it off of YouTube using your microphone (which my webcam has), and then select the mp3 on Myxer.

http://www.myxer.com/make/

8. Amazing Super Powers. A webcomic I found that's very Perry Bible Fellowship-esque.

http://www.amazingsuperpowers.com/

9. Who doesn't have that really annoying Facebook friend who posts way too personal things? Heck, it may even be you. In either case, you're going to want to check Lamebook, because it highlights all of the lamest decisions people have made on Facebook. And if you find yourself as one of the culprits, don't worry, you can send them a message and they'll take it down.

http://www.lamebook.com/




I've gotten a lot of music lately, but I've been obsessing over three bands/performers as of late, so I'll give you three songs of the day.

The first is from Bat for Lashes. I've been enjoying her sophomore album, Two Suns, immensely lately. In fact, I even listened to it while I ran the other day despite much of it being slow and beautiful/eerie. I think it'd be really funny if someone was in their car going, "I wonder what he's listening to. Probably something that pumps you up like Nirvana or Pearl Jam, or some heavy metal or something." No, it was a female vocalist who's a step away from singing opera.

"Sleep Alone" - Bat for Lashes


Next is Chad VanGaalen. Chad's known for his high, wavering falsetto. Crazy enough there is no YouTube video - not even a fan video - of my favorite song by the Canadian Sub Pop artist, Dead Ends. So I'll choose another song from the same album, Skelliconnection. Note that Chad animates his own videos.

"Hot Red Drops" - Chad VanGaalen


The final video is also from an artist who used to be connected to Sub Pop. I've been listening to Modest Mouse for many years, and despite their mainstream success, they are showing no signs of becoming less weird. Thank God. If Isaac Brock tried his hand at singing like a normal human being, I might cry. Here's a song off their newest EP, No One's First, and You're Next. The video was directed by Heath Ledger shortly before his death, and let me tell you, the guys from Whale Wars would love this video, because it highlights the cruelty of whale killing by making the whales the hunters and people the prey. It's slightly graphic, but it's a cartoon, so I guess just use your discretion.

"King Rat" - Modest Mouse
Modest Mouse - King Rat

When I Die...

I want to be deep-fried and have an open casket funeral.

Fiona Apple, Planes, and Daydreams

This one's mostly going to be a stream-of-consciousness post because, well, I'm bored, so I'll talk about everything and anything that's on my mind.

Basically, I've spent an hour or so watching Fiona Apple videos. And this isn't the first time. She just fascinates me for some reason. Well, I know for what reason. Basically, she's known for being a little off her block, but in a sense, I believe she's one of the most sane people in show business. She knows the whole thing is a farce, she knows it's all fake.

Part of the reason she's "crazy" is for her 1997 MTV awards speech. There were a few outlandish comments like "This world is bulls**t", but essentially what she said is for everybody to not pay attention to what stars are telling you is cool and to make your own path. Psycho, right?

One of the most intriguing interviews with her is on the Howard Stern Show in 1997. First off, Stern is a pig, constantly pointing out how "messed up" and "troubled" she is, even asking her what it was like to be raped at 11, but she totally takes it in stride. It's impossible not to be impressed by how mature the 19-year old is. Sometimes people mistake a lack of child-like naivety for being troubled. Apple displays an ability to see the hypocrisies and injustices in everything, and how much of life itself is theatrical. I feel like she and Dostoevsky would be friends. "Everybody's messed up" she says (Part 1, 1:14), and it's true. The problem is that when people are honest about their insecurities and how they see the world, it tends to come off as crazy. Most of Hollywood tries to keep that part private, and understandably so as there's media ready to pounce at any mistake or flaw. But what will strike you about Apple is how she doesn't feign excitement or perkiness in any interview she does. There's nothing fake about her, she's genuine in everything she says.

I won't declare Apple a victim of Hollywood however, but rather her reputation is the victim. She's pointed out herself in an interview with Craig Ferguson in 2006 that the ugliness of the people that are negative towards her gets processed through her and comes out as something beautiful. How strong is that? And how lucky are we to receive the benefits from that?

Unsurprisingly, this ends with me buying her music.

In other news, I went to the EAA Airventure yesterday. First of all, it was great to get a day-off from my soul-sucking job. It seemed like we missed a couple opportunities because we were a step behind, but it was still an awesome time. The biggest attraction was the A380, the largest passenger plane in the world. Unfortunately, we got in line to view the inside just as they closed it, but it was still a sight to see from the outside. Now, the A380 is an Airbus, which is the competitor for Boeing, who employs my uncle. Basically, Airbus has a far worse disaster record than Boeing, as many of their parts are cheaper and made of less strong material (read: plastic). However, this plane is pretty awesome. The pilot was a regular Evil Knievel. During its demonstration, he had the plane climbing and turning at angles that seemed like they should make the plane stall out or flip (Actual video of what I saw). Basically, it looked like it was doing things passenger planes should not do. He also pulled the plane back to low speed, even putting down it's landing gear, and it almost looked like a Harrier, just floating in the air.

The underbelly
Originally uploaded by ntdlosangeles

The other pretty cool attraction was the WhiteKnightTwo. It's a crazy plane, with two cabins, designed to launch Virgin's SpaceShipTwo into space. The SST will take customers into space for the low low price of 100,000 to 200,000 dollars. Anyway, the fly-by was mostly just interesting because you thought to youself, "How does that not snap in half?". You also could barely hear it. But another cool thing to note about the plane was the paint job on the bottom, which showed the evolution of flight on the bottom of the cabins. It showed what I believed were, in order, Icarus, The Wright Flyer, the Spirit of Saint Louis, Chuck Yeager's X-1, the Boeing 747, the Apollo Eagle landing craft, and the SST.

For the last couple years my father and grandfather had tried to get me to go on a 1929 Ford Tri-Motor flight, which you can do for just over $50 at the Airventure. I used to refuse because the thing looks like it's made of cardboard, but over the years I've become less afraid of death. So yesterday I finally accepted the challenge. However, we got to the stand as they were booking the last flight, and I was #11 in line for a flight of nine people. All in all the Airventure was tons of fun, though.

Finally, to totally switch subjects, I've been daydreaming a lot, and here are some of a few of the daydreams I've had lately. First, I imagined myself winning the lottery and starting a record label. I was thinking about the bands I would sign. Three came to mind. Obviously, I'm a huge The Velvet Teen fan. Their record label, Slowdance, recently folded in the middle of them recording a new album. I don't know what they have in the works, but I'm hoping they'll still be able to release their album soon. Secondly, I would sign St. Sat B, who is a band from New Jersey that I communicate with often. It's surprising that somebody hasn't knocked on their door yet, considering how talented of a songwriter Jimmy Francis is and how great their sound is. Finally, I'd sign my friend Nick Miller, who is a talented solo artist with the voice of an angel. Check out all three of them.

My other daydream was of becoming a author. I'm going to school to become a history teacher, but I'd love to work on a work of fiction on the side. I used to do a lot of creative writing when I was a kid, just for fun. Back then my influence was Matt Christopher, and I wrote stories about hockey. I had a 20-ish page story called "Skating from the Law" published in my middle school's collection of works that followed a promising juniors player whose unknowingly drugged at Prom, resulting in a car crash that leads to his arrest. Anywho, I haven't written creatively since the sequel to that story, and I'd like to try my hand at writing a novel. I've often thought that if I ever become homeless and have nothing left to lose, that would be my backup plan.

Okay, this post is long enough. On to music. Basically, this song has helped to make me happy because you can't listen to it without singing along and wanting to dance. I've been in a nostalgic phase lately, and this song screams nostalgia. Plus some of the lyrics are so witty you don't know what to do with yourself. "If you're bored, then you're boring".

Harvey Danger "Flagpole Sitta"

Flagpole Sitta @ Yahoo! Video