Month: September 2005

Imagine what would happen if you legally forced Van Morrison to write 31 songs on the spot. Take into account that he didn’t feel like doing this at all and wouldn’t care if he wrote songs called “Chicken Coo” and “Want a Danish?” Some of the songs might even be about how you, the guy who foced him to write the songs, are really dumb.

Well, imagine no more because it happened and some website posted MP3s of the whole thing.

The New York Times article on CYHSY mentioned they were offered an appearance on the OC.

The buzz even persuaded producers of “The O.C.,” which is known for its indie rock soundtracks, to ask Clap Your Hands to perform on the show. The band turned it down. Too much popularity, after all, can diminish one’s credibility.

“I don’t like the idea of being overexposed,” said Mr. Ounsworth, who is dark in appearance and in demeanor. “Vincent van Gogh never sold a painting, and he was perfectly content.”

“Of course he killed himself,” one of the twins pointed out, more lighthearted.

“Perhaps that wasn’t the best example”

Wow, this guy has a lot of collectibles in his house.

Warning: That link contains a lot of photos and will take a long time to load. It just keeps going on and on and on…

I bought a pair of sunglasses a few weeks ago and they already broke. Good thing I never buy expensive ones.

If anyone wants tickets to the TLA CYHSY show on October 26th, they just went on sale for $15. It’s a benefit to raise money for victims of Hurricane Katrina and it’s not necessarily a commemoration of my birth. Still, I’ll take it.

MP3 Link:
This Home On Ice

I spent a few days out in the midwest for my mom’s birthday and took a trip into Chicago. I’ve been wanting to check out “Cloud Gate” at Millenium Park since I first heard about it. I got some great shots of it, too.

I was so glad a few weeks ago when they announced the Sunday night show. I bought tickets to Saturday’s show but couldn’t make it. Jeanne went without me and said the show was fun, but a little short since CYHSY filled the opening slot.

I got to the Khyber about 8:00PM and listened to Clap Your Hands do a half hour soundcheck. They played a little bit of Heavy Metal, which was probably the only time they’ve ever played it in Philly. I mostly hung out with Dan, a bartender from the Dark Horse and his friend Tammy.

The first band up was the trippy, jazzish, Aquilla Rose, which sounds like the name of a character from a bad Star Wars novel (it turned out to be the name of one of Ben Franklin’s friends). They weren’t too bad and I think they could have been a lot better if their singer sang more. Once and a while she played a little keyboard that you blow into. Does anyone know what that’s called?

Aquila Rose

The second band blew me away. I think Audible should always spell their name in parenthesis so it looks like when you call an audible in Madden, although they certainly don’t need my help coming up with ideas. Their band shirts had the band’s name in Morse Code. Audible is a five piece with three guys and two girls. Their songs were really great and everyone around me was impressed. Check out their myspace site for songs.

Audible

As soon as Audible finished, people started cramming into the stage area. Clap Your Hands hit the stage and started off with one of the three unreleased songs they play before going into Let the Cool Godess Rust Away. They played every song from their album except Heavy Metal and their encore consisted of Details of the War and Upon this Tidal Wave of Youngblood. Among the unreleased songs, I love Satan Said Dance and Some Loud Thunder (hear a rough version on Alec’s myspace site. If anyone has a decent live MP3 of Satan Said Dance, let me know!

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Check out the rest of the pics I took here.

Towards the end of their set, Alec mentioned they’re playing again in Philly next month at the TLA for a NOLA benefit on October 26th! Something seems familar to me about that date…

Overall, the Sunday Khyber show where they headlined kicked ass and that’s how their current tour should be, but it won’t. Most of their dates are in support of The National and will probably end up like this (via irockiroll)

I’ve see tons of shows in my life but I never saw what happened last night at the Iron Horse Music Hall in Northampton. I actually got to witness what happens when a band gets caught in the wake of another band’s success.

The show was billed as “The National with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah opening for them”. However, with the steamroller success of CYHSY, it wound up being “CYHSY with The National closing for them”.

I know CYHSY are very hot right now but The National has a damn good album out which I was excited to hear live. But I was in the strict minority. About 3/4 of the crowd emptied out of the place taking with them all of the juice out of the atmosphere.

Well, it came to the end of the set and as the band left the stage, Berninger left the stage, went out the door and just kept going. Finally, one of the guitarists went to look for him. A minute later the guitarist returned empty-handed saying, “I checked out on the street but I didn’t see him anywhere”. This was followed by more uneasy moments as the band tried to figure out what to do.

That’s a sad freaking situation. Phillyist pre-emptively called it the “Let’s Make The National Feel Like Shit” tour and anyone who was at the FUC show a few weeks ago shouldn’t be surprised. At least the guy had one amusing anecdote from the show:

I got down there shortly before showtime and headed straight to the bathroom after the 2-hour drive. The bathroom situation at the Iron Horse sucks.

Well, as I got towards the front of the line, CYHSY’s Alec Ounsworth comes sheepishly up to the front of the line and says “Uh, I have to play upstairs soon. Do you mind if I cut in line. I don’t know what else to do.” Of course, everyone lets him go to the front and do his business. On the way out, I asked Alec if he was starting right away and if I’d have time to make it to the bathroom. He stared at me for a moment, laughed and said, “I’ll wait for you. We won’t start until your upstairs.” It was kind of funny and true to his word, I didn’t miss a single note of the show.

If you’re not a CYHSY fan yet, check these songs out.

This Home on Ice
Upon this Tidal Wave of Young Blood
Over and Over Again (Lost and Found)

Update: 700 club has a review of Saturday night’s show.

Update: callmemickey also has a quick review of the Sunday show.

Update: The BM Rant has a review of the Sunday show and some great photos.

Update: Get tickets for that Katrina benefit show on the 26th of October. It’s at the TLA.

I thought I was getting screwed yesterday when I bought a tank of gas at $2.79/gallon because they had just jumped from $2.59. Today I saw prices from $3.00 – $3.19 (one crazy station in Sicklerville was selling for $2.89 and it was jam packed with SUVs).
I suggest filling up your cars today if you’re going to need to drive a lot this weekend. My prediction is that by Monday we’ll be up to $4.00/gallon for regular.

Of course, it’s the people of Louisiana who are really in bad shape. Donate to the Red Cross if you’d like to help.

GameShow fans need not wonder any longer. The wait is over. Jason Zahn has been unmasked, handed a drink, and photographed for the title bar of his site, jasonzahn.com so now all the online stalking and speculation can end.

Anyway, he added a ton of other stuff this month that you may be interested in, in addition to his picture:

Dear Friend:

A huge month at jasonzahn.com. Let’s get to it:

DAILY SUDOKU
The number game that’s sweeping the nation (no really, it’s a puzzle, and it cleans.) debuts today at jasonzahn.com. Three puzzles every day. Totally random. Totally unique. Only at jasonzahn.com!

play today at http://www.jasonzahn.com/sudoku/

Eventually, portions of the sudoku game will be premium site content, meaning you’ll need to donate to the site to access them, but all current members are premium members until October 1.

FOOTBALL SURVIVOR CHALLENGE 2005
Football Survivor returns to jasonzahn.com for its 4th year. Rules are simple: pick a winner and a loser in the week’s football action. Pick right, live to play another week. Pick wrong and it’s a long wait until Football Survivor 2006. It’s high stakes! It’s free! Tell your officemates, tell your friends, tell your cat! Last day to enter is Saturday, September 10 at 11:59 PM Central. Don’t wait!

enter today at http://www.jasonzahn.com/football_05/

GAME SHOW – AUGUST RESULTS AND SEPTEMBER EDITION
The bengarvey curse was invoked, agalvin fell from first place mid-month to make way for AMG117 of SHALIMAR, FL to win with 1064 pts (23 games). Little known fact: after the band Shalamar retired in the mid 80s, they moved to Florida, changed their name to Shalimar and founded a city. And that’s one to grow on. Joining AMG117 in the Hall of Fame, for the second month in a row, is BENSMOM of HAMMONTON, NJ with a top average of 49.00 ppg in 19 games. Also making it to the hall this month, is XCUSEME1961 of New Albany, IN with a shameful 16.88 ppg average.

The new edition of the Game Show starts TODAY and ends 22 phrases from now on Friday, September 30th. You’re in first place! Play now!

TODAY’S PHRASE
DISH _____
as suggested by trixmix

play today at http://www.jasonzahn.com/gameshow/

SITE REDESIGN
The site has undergone a redesign to tie some of its core sections together a bit better. I’ve spared no expense, even going so far as to hire an actor to play me on the new homepage. Stop by and check out the new look.

DONATE TO THE RED CROSS
Donate to the Red Cross today – http://www.redcross.org

A busy month here at the international house of whatnots. I’ll look forward to your visit.

Thanks for participating!
Jason