Floating In The Froth

The Quest for a new Summer Beer

2011-04-21T13:43:00.001-04:00

Sam Adams Summer Ale was once my beer of choice for summer drinking, its now become lemon flavored dish soap. Horrendous! I thought I got a bad 12 pack and maybe the bar had a bad batch on tap...I was wrong, it's just plain bad. So now i've decided to search for a new summer brew by sampling as many as I can until I find a new standby.

So I decided to take a trip to Austin Liquors at lunch to see what I could find. I've been searching for Bells Oberon and Three Floyds Gumballhead and apparently neither are distributed to Massachusetts. Oh well. As I'm browsing the beer aisle the "beer guy" asks if he could help me. I ask him about the Bells and Three Floyds and he confirms what I thought, or did he. I explain to him that I'm a fan of wheats and then he hits me with "have you tried Blue Moon?". Um. Not to come off as a pretentious asshole and a complete beer snob, I say yes kindly and laugh a bit. At this point I picked two six packs, one of Troegs Dreamweaver and one of Southern Tiers Hop Sun. I'm pretty sure "beer guys" next suggestion was going to be Bud Light Golden Wheat.

Beauty and Bombast

2011-03-09T10:12:00.002-05:00

Bands like Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, Do Make Say Think and newly discovered local band, Caspian, appeal to me on many different levels. Music like this is like a metaphor for life to me...they build you up, knock you down, build you up again and then make you explode. I find music like this incredibly emotional and incredibly beautiful. I wasn't entirely into these sort of bands earlier in life but really got into them during season one of "Friday Night Lights", which featured music from Explosions in the Sky prominently. The music was spot on for those big moments when the Smash scored a touchdown or when the Dillon Panthers won a game. Honestly, it was that first season of FNL that made me fall in love with these kinds of bands.

I recently came across Caspian via Pandora and have been listening to their album "The Four Trees" non-stop. From the opener "Moksha" through the closer "Reprise" it's one hell of an auditory experience, melding beauty and bombast straight through the entire album. "Moksha" is the standout track for me as well as "Our Breath In Winter". I highly recommend a listen to this as well as anything from the above mentioned bands...you won't be disappointed. Hell if its good enough for the Dillon Panthers, East Dillon Lions and Coach Eric Taylor, it's good enough for me.

Kaputt

2011-02-11T15:35:00.000-05:00

Yeah, so I got a job back in September which really has left me with very little time to update my blog (not really). I've just been preoccupied with other things to really sit down and fuss with this again. I'm going to try to make a genuine effort to update this more often from here on out.

So lets start with what I've been listening to over and over again lately. Destroyer. His new album "Kaputt" is absolutely amazing..I was hooked from the opener "Chinatown". The album has been called corny, cheesy, yachty...I think its all three but in a fascinating wonderful way. Lots of synths and sax throughout and oddball lyrics. Makes for a good listen to my ears. My standout track "Song For America", which i've heard described as "end of the party we're still dancing and its 3am". Make what you will of that, but give this album a listen, you won't be disappointed.

Autumn

2010-09-14T16:27:00.002-04:00

The air outside is getting cooler, I've worn jeans for the first time in months and there are some leaves beginning to fall from the trees in my yard. I've had Octoberfest and Pumpkin beer...that to me means one thing; Autumn. As you can tell, I have a thing for the fall. I love this season more than the others. I love everything associated with it: apple pie, pumpkins, the leaves, etc. I also find it a prime time to enjoy some music.

I've put together a Autumn playlist with some of my favorite songs for the upcoming season. Most of them have nothing at all to do with Autumn, they just seem to fit the season and most of them are depressing as hell. To me they represent the season and the mood and make for good driving "looking at the leaves" songs. Here you go:

In full Autumn color scheme as well...haha.

S. Carey - "All We Grow"

2010-09-10T09:21:00.001-04:00

You may know Sean Carey as the drummer for Bon Iver or you may not know him at all. His debut album "All We Grow" came out on 8-24 and its been a regular on my ipod since. It's a fantastic debut and something that will continue to get regular plays from me this fall. It makes another wonderful companion piece for Autumn. Carey is opening for the Tallest Man on Earth this fall, be sure to check them out. Check out these two tracks.

S. Carey - In the Stream

S. Carey - We Fell

"All We Grow" available on Itunes now.

Love Language and Sufjan

2010-09-02T10:12:00.003-04:00

Haven't blogged in a bit, been recovering from the sausage retreat. I'm back today with a short post about two songs I've been loving a lot lately. First up we have "Pedals" from the Love Language off of their new album "Libraries". The lyrics get me everytime, especially the end with "lay you down in my chest". Take a listen.

Second, we have Sufjan Stevens and "Heirloom" off his surprise "All Delighted People" ep. Haven't given the ep a complete listen but "Heirloom" is wonderful.

All in all two great listens and one short post. Enjoy.

Mountain Man

2010-08-24T16:50:00.002-04:00

Autumn is right around the corner. Time for sweaters, jeans, fireplaces, pumpkins and Octoberfest beer. I've recently discovered a wonderful band called Mountain Man, which could turn out to be my soundtrack for the fall. Mountain Man are Molly Erin Sarle, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig and Amelia Randall Meath, based out of Bennington, Vt. They remind me of the music from "O'Brother Where Art Thou?" and I describe it as hauntingly beautiful. Take a listen of a few tracks from their debut album "Made the Harbour" and decide for yourself. Do yourself a favor and pour a Shipyard Pumpkinhead to get into the spirit. "Made the Harbour" available on the iTunes now.

Mountain Man - Animal

Mountain Man - Loon Song

Cee-Lo Green says "F-CK YOU!"

2010-08-20T13:46:00.001-04:00

Check out the new track from Cee-Lo Greens upcoming album "The Ladykiller". Brilliant.

It's all fun and games until someone loses a sausage.

2010-08-18T09:56:00.002-04:00

It's that time a year again, when men in their mid thirties get to act like they are twenty-one again for a few days out in the woods for the annual "Sausage Retreat". Starting next Thursday in upstate New York twelve of us will converge on the camp of my friend John, free of wives and children for four days; eating meat, drinking beer, playing golf and horseshoes for the coveted "Sausage Cup". As current holder of the "Sausage Cup" with my friend Mike, I can tell you, there is no better feeling than to raise the cup and guzzle some cold ones from it.

This will be a tournament of some of the greatest and worlds best beer drinkers, golfers and athlete's from New England....yeah OK, its actually a collection of twelve of the most out of shape, beer belly hanging, liver marinating dudes you'll ever set eyes upon. Needless to say its bound to be a great time and a miserable ride home on Sunday.

I've come up with a play list of some of my favorite drinking songs for sausage retreat and I share them with you now. "Songs to Sausage By".

Tony Toupee

2010-08-12T11:19:00.003-04:00

AWESOME.

The Keys and the Dads.

2010-08-12T09:01:00.001-04:00

As many of my friends know, I've been a huge fan of the Black Keys since The Big Come Up. When people were getting into the White Stripes, I was getting into the Black Keys instead. I discovered them on a whim one day and haven't looked back since. I've seen them live a few times and the live experience is a blast, especially when you're fueled by nine to ten budweisers. They have gotten quite a bit popular over the past few years and I'm quite happy for them. Just don't let me catch any teenie boppers at their shows.

I got a link via Twitter yesterday in regards to this story on WKSU where Pat and Dans' fathers discuss their sons success. Its a great listen and great story.

Side note: I thought this was a picture of Pat and Dan in costume.

Here's also an old video to enjoy.

The Black Keys -Thickfreaknes - Live Conan O Brian
Uploaded by theleftieslive. - Watch more music videos, in HD!

Look out below!!!

2010-08-10T11:10:00.002-04:00

Here is my son on the left doing what he loves most...pouring sand on my friend's sons head. Ah good times. Needless to say when my friends son took a bath the bottom of the tub looked liked the Outer Banks. Giddy up kids!

Lewis and his shirt

2010-08-09T11:15:00.009-04:00

A couple weeks ago on Sirius XMU I came across Owen Pallett "Lewis Takes Off His Shirt" from his album Heartland. It blew me away. Owen Pallett is a Canadian composer, violinist, keyboardist, and vocalist from Toronto. He was formerly known as Final Fantasy (yes after the video game series). The song blew me away...especially the end. Why? Well if you see my last post you'll know why. I swear he's a dead ringer for Christopher Cross in the vocal department. Well at least at the end of the song. I'm yet to check out the album in it's entirety yet but I plan on doing so soon, its on my list. Enjoy.

Its not far down to paradise.

2010-08-08T20:42:00.016-04:00

When I was a kid there was no one cooler when it came to musical tastes then my dad, he introduced me to the Beach Boys and Boston at a young age and they went on to become two of my favorite bands. When I was a bit older he started buying records religiously to play on his new turntable. He'd come home with some albums that I strictly loved because of the album covers. One I remember in particular was Christopher Cross' debut album. The one with the pink flamingo on it. The one with "Sailing" on it.

I remember when "Sailing" would come on in the car and I would voice my displeasure to my father or mother about it. Secretly I loved that song and I still do. I remember listening to the radio with my parents and acting like I hated every damn minute of Captain and Tenille, George Benson, England Dan & John Ford Coley and the legendary Gino Vannelli but really I loved every minute of those songs . All I need is my captains hat, white slacks and huarache sandals and I'm good to go. So without further ado I present to you my "songs your parents played in the car and you secretly loved" playlist:

Godamn dance moves

2010-08-06T23:00:00.002-04:00

Tell me, how does one acquire moves like Ron Ron? The city of Worcester would love me if I had moves like this.

Arcade Fire - Modern Man

2010-08-06T18:15:00.006-04:00

So I've never been a fan of Arcade Fire ever. I always found them annoying and just really not my bag. I picked up "Suburbs" this week and again was not really digging it. I did however really like one song "Modern Man". What do you think?

Ronnie and OMD

2010-08-06T11:39:00.002-04:00

Ronniemeister goes well with OMD "Talking Loud and Clear"