Cotton Ponies, Bug, Reserve, The Hyphens

On Monday, June 27th, Matt and I went back Upstairs to see the Cotton Ponies headline for Reserve, The Hyphens, and Bug.

The Hyphens

We didn't walk out on them. Standard rock and roll set with people who are good on their instruments.

Reserve

A young punk group with a wild bassist. On the first song he broke his D string and played the rest of the song by transposing onto the G. For the second song he borrowed the bass from The Hyphens; by the third song he couldn't get it to work with his amplifiers so, mid-song, he pulled the D off the borrowed bass and put it on his bass. This was neat, but while he did this he also ran across stage and jumped off the wall, climbed the amps, and posed atop the monitors.

On top of the great performance by the bassist was some fun punk. I intended to get one of their albums but somehow didn't. If they open again I'll definitely check them out.

Bug

Bug played some beautiful, swelling rock. Also an opener worth seeing again.

Cotton Ponies

While the other bands were doing their thing, the Cotton Ponies set up on the side of the crowd. As soon as applause for Bug began to die down, the Ponies jumped into String Puller. I imagine that this has been done before, but it was wild to see.

As is precedent, their music is exactly what I want out of a drone rock set, so I bought their album. (It's also the second album I got in the past month to have hand-written liner notes with a misspelling in it.)

Tags: upcoming:21318, livemusic, cottonponies, reserve,bug , thehyphens

Humanwine, The Cautions, Count Zero, Fluttr Effect

I had heard of Fluttr Effect from Silencio's Web site, so I figured they were worth seeing on June 25th with Matt. Not only were they worth seeing, but Humanwine was awesome and Count Zero didn't suck!

Photos

There were many people there with expensive digital SLRs, running around like chickens with their heads cut off, taking all sorts of photos from all angles. I can't find any of these online. Really, what's the point of taking photos of a band if you're not going to post them in an obvious place on the Web?

Humanwine

Live, they remind me of Tool; in studio, they remind me of Lacuna Coil. If you like either of those bands you should definitely not only see them live but also buy their album there.

The Cautions

I don't like Weezer and, thus, didn't like this band. Them playing a Devo riff or a Cars cover didn't make up for the fact that all the rest of their songs sounded like Weezer.

However, this was their CD release party. The vocalist, towards the end of the set, held up a copy of the CD. "The first person to the front gets this for free," he said. The whole front row just looked at each other (including Matt and myself). Ouch. In the future if you're throwing a CD release party, make sure to open for bands with a similar audience.

Count Zero

The bassist for this band turned out to be the bassist for the now-defunt Dr. Frog; this explains why so many people at the Dr. Frog show were also here tonight. They were a fun jam rock band who I totally recommend seeing open for a good band.

Fluttr Effect

The place was really starting to fill up, unusual for Upstairs, and it was now that I discovered why: Cos. He was in the front row (to my left), chatting with the band, which meant that he had advertised it on his music 'blog. That also explained all the people dressed as if they were taking a quick break from Manray.

The music was excellent: the cellist was fun and skilled, the guitar worked well with the cello, and the MIDI marimba was both visually neat and musically beautiful. The drums were boring and weak in places, and as pretty as the vocals were the vocalist herself had a grating, attention-loving personality that got to me.
The audience demanded an encore and, though they weren't prepared for one, they did a quick one anyway. That was nice.

Tags: livemusic, countzero, thecautions, humanwine, fluttreffect, upcoming:22239

Ruby REPL

I've been reading the Pragmatic Programmers Guide to Ruby, wishing I had a REPL, when I finally learned enough to write one. For the help of others and future experimentation I now present my Ruby REPL.

while true
  '> '.display
  gets.each do | e |
    puts(eval(e))
  end
end

Tags: programming, repl, ruby

Update: At the end of the book they talk about the interactive Ruby shell, irb. Now, why don't they mention this at the top of every chapter?!

On overtaking the world

Matt and I have plans to overtake the world—at least, the world of hispters online. We're guided by the awesome Semantic Web and semantic web technology out there, the many social networking Web services, and two quotes:

JWZ

So I said, narrow the focus. Your "use case" should be, there's a 22 year old college student living in the dorms. How will this software get him laid?

Blake Ross

The next big thing is the one that makes the last big thing usable.

We intend to start … eventually.

I'm still working on that AtomAPI server, only very, very slowly. Hopefully this new project will go faster.

Tags: socialsoftware, programming

Sick Guns and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum

A while back Matt, Sarah, and I saw some bands. One was amazing and the other put on an interesting performance.

Sick Guns

Interesting and fun, but the music was boring and repetitive. The lyrics were uniquely offensive which is refreshing when compared to the boring offensiveness that happens all day. "This song is about female ejaculation," they introduced for one of their songs.

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum

This is the best neo-traditionalist Christian performance art tree-hugging metal post-rock music group I've seen. Of course it's the only neo-traditionalist Christian performance art tree-hugging metal post-rock music group I've seen. Excellent music atop an excellent performance. Highly recommended.

Afterwards

To quote the great Jerry Seinfeld, Well, sometimes we do actually have to get up early, but a man will always trade sleep for sex.

Tags: upcoming:20692, sleepytimegorillamuseum, livemusic, sickguns

Heidi's Birthday Party

I threw a party to celebrate Heidi Howland's Birthday; other things celebrated were Fred's graduation, Sarah's birthday, and summer. In summary, I out-did anything I had done before.

People

Well over fifty people showed up, perhaps more than sixty people even. This time we advertised with social networking Web services, specifically The Facebook and MySpace. This brought in old friends, friends of friends, siblings, and even random people (some of these random people recognized me as their grader from a class). Aside from the party throwers themselves (Dan Moga, Fred Howland, Mike DiStaula, Matt Horan, and of course myself), most people showed up around 8:00PM.

Music

The original intent was to have two live bands; of course, this did not work out (maybe next time I'll get Silencio to play). To replace the live band I "hired" Fred as a DJ. Rather than combining his CD collection with mine (and Matt's and DiStaula's, plus others), we just used whatever music we had previously put on DiStaula's laptop, hooked directly into the amp.

Music has always been an issue at parties, and this time was no exception. We started off with a playlist that Fred made, but after an hour Fred went out into the party proper to mingle, eat, and drink. Exponentially, people came over and added to the playlist; this in itself was fine. The problems arose when people ignored the simple rules of DJ'ing a party (actual DJs may disregard these as needed):

• Do not cut off a song part-way though.
• Do not remove other people's songs from the playlist. Re-arranging them is fine, of course.
• Do not enqueue non-party music.
• Do not repeat songs.

In addition, iTunes did weird things like arbitrarily alphabeticalizing the playlist based on artist.

Firetruck

Somehow an antique firetruck appeared in my backyard a few weeks back. It has working sirens and horn. As you can imagine, this was quite the attraction. If you can, somehow get a working firetruck in your backyard.

Trampoline

We have a large trampoline, which was another big attraction. There was always at least three people on, including the chicks on the trampoline. Despite the alchohol, there was no trampoline-induced vomit. I highly recommend one of these for your next party.

Swimming Pool

A week before it was 97°F; on the day of the party it was 60°F. Despite the chill, at least ten people used the swimming pool. Those who forgot their swimsuit swam in their underwear; those who remembered enjoyed drying off with a towel. Two Matts swam in Speedos. Sadly, no one swam nude.

On the funny-uh-oh side: Fred was drop-kicked by Moga, and Moga found a dead squirrel. Upon seeing the dead squirrel, Sarah exclaimed, "Bring to me a hotdog roll!"

Food

Matt Horan pulled through to amazing levels; he showed up with his car filled with food: hamburgers, hotdogs, cheese, rolls for the hamburgers and hotdogs, mixed snacks, twelve 2-liter bottles of Coca-Cola, eight 2-liter bottles of Moutain Dew, and a thirty-rack of Sunkist. Much loved and appreciated by everyone.

Moga took over the grill, breaking the handle in the process. He's quite the great chef.

I provided pretzels, Jax, and Tostitos, with mild and medium salsa.

Keg

We had been discussing the keg for weeks beforehand, and by Thursday we had decided on a ¼ keg. Friday night and Saturday we discovered just how many people were coming, and Mosier decided to run drinking games. This lead to the decision to get a ½ keg (Mosier and Moga convinced Fred of this) and to charge $5/cup.

This was the right decision: a profit was made and the keg was empty by midnight (at which point we discovered that kegs float in the swimming pool). To enforce and motivate the $5/cup rule, DiStaula was the Kegmaster, complete with funny hat and a real rent-a-cop pin that says "Police & Security". He was an excellent Kegmaster.

To cool the keg we used Matt's industrial chiller, obviously.

Soon after the keg ran out, people left. Next time we'll need at least two ½ kegs.

Fire

On our deck is a Chiminea, which was lit. We wanted it next to the trampoline. The solution: wrap a towel around it and have Moga carry it, while lit, next to the trampoline. It's okay, he's a Marine!

The Chiminea was a big hit, both because of the chilly weather (especially after swimming) and because Petey-poo brought three bags of marshmallows.

Fireworks

I only had simple fireworks lying around, so we lit sparklers, those snake things, and other ground-dwelling fireworks. Sparkler swordfighting was fun. For next time, we should get stuff that can blow people's hands off.

Go-Kart

When J.D. Leone showed up he made a bee-line to the go-kart. I figured that he'd drive around in the backyard, perhaps in the giant field behind the pool. Nope—he drove right into the street! Five minutes later the local police showed up and told us not to ride in the street, "and, uh, turn down the music, I guess."

Tags: party, heidi, birthday

"Big party, lots of kids"

I'm throwing a massive party on Saturday, June 18th, 2005. It's to celebrate the first day of summer, which is also Heidi Howland's birthday (this is on the 21st). Assuming everything works out, this party involves:

• A swimming pool (bring your own towel),
• One live band (contact me if you want to play as well),
• A keg in the pool,
• A trampoline, and
• BBQ.

In addition, it seems as if a whole truckload of people are coming (that's a lot). There's no reason why you shouldn't join in on the fun.

60 Elm St.
Wakefield, MA

Dr. Frog, Pako, Wack-ass Egyptians, Chinstrap

My new hometown friends are too poor to come to all the shows to which I go, so I went alone on Friday, June 10th, to the Middle East Upstairs and saw the event of my lifetime.

Wack-ass Egyptians

That funk hip-hop rock band from Boston was absolutely nutty. The vocalists were the drunkest vocalists I've seen since I first saw Black Helicopter, but that only made them better. Their drunken antics involved pouring beer on each other, humping the guitarist, and slow dancing with the bassist. At the end they gave out all their remaining beers. Absolutely awesome live performance and the music is great as well.

Pako

After seeing the Wack-ass Egyptians my only thought was, "What could possibly out-do that?!" The answer: Pako. They wore masks and had a dedicated cowbellist, with an array of eight cowbells. Their music was fun but the performance was definitively excellent.

Dr. Frog

After seeing Pako my only thought was, "What could out-do that?!" The answer: Dr. Frog. Dr. Frog was a brilliant cross between The Dead Milkmen, The Left-Rights, and Anal Cunt. However, this was their final show; you're welcome to imagine how wild it was, but if it doesn't include a jackhammer then you need to keep imagining. Beer was thrown everywhere (I got a half-full can of Pabst Blue Ribbon right in the chest) and everyone walked home with a piece of a Dr. Frog instrument. This is the show that you'll be lying about going to in 20 years.

Chinstrap

After seeing Dr. Frog my only thought was, "What could out-do that?!" The answer: nothing. Chinstrap was a funk band whose vocalist was belligerently drunk and spent more time arguing with the audience than actually making music. I walked out halfway through from sheer boredom.

Tags: upcoming:19368, wackassegyptians,pako, drfrog, chinstrap, livemusic

Enon, Thunderbirds are now!, Crystal Understanding

On Thursday, June 9th, Matt and I bumped into Nichole and Katie at TT The Bear's Place. They were there to see Thunderbirds Are Now!, I was there to see Enon, and Matt was there. It was an okay event.

No Photos

I try not to take photos using flash until someone else does, to make me feel like less of a jerk. Of course my camera isn't very good at taking photos without a flash. No one took flash photos that night, so I walked away with nothing. Oh well, you know what they look like.

Crystal Understanding

A trippy techno outfit who barely touched their instruments. They had a strobe light going the whole time and danced a bunch. The music was nice, but I've seen better performances.

Thunderbirds Are Now!

They were absolutely wild on stage: running around to the music, knocking things over, and shouting. The music was retro-rock, which is my current least favorite genre. Worth seeing if you like that kinda stuff.

Enon

They were absolutely not wild on stage, made a few mistakes, and played rather boring music. Their first encore was fun and rocking, though. Their second encore didn't happen because the audience left.

Tags: upcoming:17875, enon, thunderbirdsarenow, crystalunderstanding, livemusic

Nothing is secure

Attention people of the Internet: There is no such thing as perfect network security. If you do not want information to be public, tell no one about it.

Silencio, The Hate Game, Reagan Babies, Of The Hour

On Wednesday, June 8th, Matt and I were the only people to go to TT The Bear's Place. I suppose I exaggerate a little; the bands also showed up. During this "private" show, we saw Silencio, Reagan Babies, and Of The Hour.

The Hate Game

Pop punk. We heard the first two-and-a-half songs then decided that standing in the pouring rain outside was better.

Silencio

This band was the only one I had demoed before the show. They alone were worth the $6, and with some other good bands would be worth $10. They're metal as fuck.

After their set the vocalist, Marcelo, chatted with his audience (that's Matt and myself, you'll remember). We exchanged email addresses, chatted about where we were from and the other smalltalk. We're close buds now, three days later. Probably.

See this band. I mean it. They're playing again on July 17th, so you damn well better be there.

Reagan Babies

The bassist and keyboardist for this band were absent (drunk and camping, respectively), so I really have no idea if this band is any good. They were quite political ("This song is about the oppression of black people. Uh, what a diverse audience…") and had an folky feel to them, which is cool at a rally or whatnot, but not so much at TT's. On the upside, they didn't totally suck.

Of The Hour

This band's vocalist sang really well. Of course it should be noted that I hate vocals and I especially hate singing. However, the backing music was really well-done and swelling, almost post-rock in a Talk Talk kinda way. Pretty songs, but not something I'd be interested in seeing.

Tags: upcoming:21158, silencio, reaganbabies, ofthehour, livemusic, metal.

Electrelane, Breaker! Breaker!, and Neptune

Matt and I were ready to go to the Joe Turner show at TT The Bear's, but at the last minute Sarah emailed me with her decision of which show I should go to. She was right.

So Matt, Mike, and I went to the Middle East Upstairs to see Neptune, Breaker! Breaker!, and Electrelane, and it was the best show we've seen in over a week. If you backed out of this, you missed an awesome show.



Neptune

Comparable to Einstüerzende Neubauten, but more raw. An amazing sound came out of their homemade instruments (including two homemade guitars), upon which they banged for their hour on stage. Matt bought two of their albums on the spot.



They are bizarre, fun, loud, experimental, and worth seeing live.

Breaker! Breaker!

This was the weakest band there, and probably one of the top ten best bands I've heard this year. They did a normal rock routine, teetering on retro-rock were it not for the electronics coming from the keyboard. Lots of energy and excitement, and the guitarist's seemingly drug-induced state was funny against the drummer's joy. They ended their set with, "We're Breaker! Breaker! from New York, and we need a couch to crash on tonight!", which made me wish I still lived in Boston.



Electrelane

How have I not heard this band before?! An all-chick math rock group where everyone had mastered their instruments better than I've seen in too long a time. The guitarist's skill is comparable to that of the guitarist from Darediablo, and the keyboardist nearly matched her when she picked up her own guitar. Excellent bass and drumming, too, of course, but the guitarist really stood out.



They did a planned encore, which is a bummer, but their last song seemed to be a cover of Peter Gunn. Flat-out awesome and amazing.

The Music over the PA System

Usually they'll quietly play obscure music over the PA system between sets, sometimes from bands who have played in years past. Instead they played non-hits from well-known classic rock bands, including the Beatles. Notable for the let-down it caused among myself and others.



Annoying Photography

Years ago, before I owned my camera, I was annoyed by anyone using a flash at a show. Cameras have become more popular and very few people seem to be annoyed by that now.

At this show I saw a new annoyance: this guy's camera had an orange targetting light. It would illuminate, in orange, whomever the target of the photo was. The bands made it quite clear that they hated it (he got no face shots of Electrelane).

That and his red-eye reduction flash annoyed far too many people. I hope this doesn't become acceptable.



Tags: upcoming:20262, electrelane, breakerbreaker, neptune, livemusic

Cotton Ponies, The National, Pela, Charlene

At least the Cotton Ponies were good.

Last night Matt and I went to TT The Bear's to see Cotton Ponies and anyone who wanted to headline for them. We left early, after The National got three songs in.

Cotton Ponies

Good post rock from some people who seemed serious about their music. The guitarists (no bassist) were really good and knew what they were doing. The most I can say about the drummer is that she could keep a beat. This is quite important, and not to be looked down upon, but also less impressive than the drummer for Pela.



This band would be worth the $9 if another good band played with them; if it was just this band alone, it'd be worth $7. Definitely a band to see again.



Charlene

A boring, whiny emo band.



Pela

A boring, whiny emo band with a yeah dude as the lead vocalist. However, the drummer not only held the band together but also threw some life into the music. Get this drummer out of the band and into something good.



The National

I have a strict policy when deciding whether a band sucks: I'll give any live performance two-and-a-half songs, any album three songs, and any demo from the band two songs. By the end of their first song I realized that they weren't going to last the full two-and-a-half, but I gave it to them anyway and was right. Boring moaning about lost love or something.



Yawn

Follow Cotton Ponies, get the drummer from Pela, and stop whining.



Tags: upcoming:21154, cottonponies, thenational, pela, charlene, livemusic