Blue Sky Noise and the truth about Bowser

I'm quickly realizing that Circa Survive is the band music critics (and even people who matter) expect to hear when they pop in a new radiohead album. I HEARD their newest album "blue sky noise" when it first came out, but I didn't actually LISTEN to it until recently.

I feel like I had a $100 bill tucked away in my wallet but I didn't find it til now. Let's face facts here. (By facts, I clearly mean my opinion) "strange terrain" is just about the best way to open an album. I get the same feeling listening to the album starting as I do when I hear the beginning of "Floorbound" (The opener from Punch Drunk's 2004 album "pure unadulterated hate is the best medicine").

Its the feeling that there's a freight train barrelling down on you. There's nothing you can do to stop it. There's nothing that could make you WANT to stop it. It's that feeling of curiosity combined with adrenaline that silently urges you to keep your eyes open. To watch the train connect with your body.

Basically, if you haven't felt this feeling from music before, you're buying the dust jacket and ignoring the book it was meant to protect. You're getting cliff notes when you wanted the unabridged version.

Here's the point I'm trying to make:

There are literally zero radiohead album reviews that describe the sensation I'm flailing to convey. Check out blue sky noise, but also check out anything else you can get your hands on until you've experienced this feeling. I gotta warn you though, once you've felt it you can't unfeel it.

Also, I'm working on writing a short cartoon or comic about the truth behind Bowser "kidnapping" the princess all the time. It will NOT be G Rated, but it will NOT play off that tired notion that Bowser wants to get in her pants.

He's some sort of reptile, and he clearly exhibits his lack of genitalia. I can't believe the numerous discussions online where this glaring fact is miraculously overlooked.

-Kevin

Recording

So I read an article online that really psyched me up to record. I don't know why, but whatever.

So here's the plan, I'm about 25% done with an acoustic demo ep, and when I'm done with that I'll re-record it with all the instruments. It'll all be available online for free, and it'll hopefully turn out pretty sweet.

-Kevin

Here's lookin at you, kid

I recorded a cover of the song "here's lookin at you, kid" while I was sound checking. It's a straight through, live, one off track. I'm never gonna release it, and that my friends, proves that I am a better person than those people on youtube.

I might play it live though, which is a completely different bad idea alltogether.

-STEVE HOLT!

This one's by the gaslight anthem!

Dudes and dudettes, there are literally 8 million acoustic gaslight anthem covers on youtube. It's out of hand! Anyone with a guitar and undeservedly high self esteem jumps in front of their webcam and starts playing something.

The problem (besides the obvious) is that no matter how well you play guitar, or how well you sing, you can never perfectly mimic Brian Fallon. Regardless of the emotion you may feel from a gaslight song, it's still a second hand experience, and it will show no matter what you do.

This goes for all covers, but covering a gaslight song is like covering "layla". Or something. I don't know. Who am I to tell these people NOT to do that? I mean, on one hand it is really cool to see people taking a stab at it, but on the other hand I wanna break out the squirt bottle on them.

There is a profound lack of full band covers of tga songs. That's because in any band of 4 or more people, you're gonna have one dude who's like "no."

And you're gonna have a minimum of 3 people who can't play it correctly. Fuck, even CLOSE to correct! The 59' sound is my alltime favorite song, and it literally kills me a little everytime I hear someone butchering it.

Look, I play more gaslight than my own songs...at home. Or in practice. Or whatever, just not on a fucking webcam. If you were doing that on chat roulette, and the only other option was braving the sea of dicks which seem to be whipped out 24/7, Id dive into that ocean in a heartbeat.

Actually, I wouldn't go to chat roulette, cause its all dude's weiners, and at very best you might see an acoustic gaslight cover. By someone not wearing any clothes.

-Kevin

I wish I knew a dentist

Man, the broken tooth they repaired about 2 months ago started hurting today. They said either the nerve would heal itself, or it would die and I would have to have full on surgery to keep the infection from killing me.

Anyways, its been approximately the amount of time they said it would be before I saw some sort of indication of nerve death or complete regeneration.

I'm not sure if the pain is because the nerve has healed and there's something wrong with the tooth, or because toxins are slowly being released. You can totally die from that.

I'm pretty confident that I'm gonna die on a Monday, so its probably just a minor inconvenience with a major price tag. That's how all my illnesses are. Its always "good thing we caught it early, here's a bill for more than you've ever made in your life."

I don't pay medical bills. I'm hoping when china takes over they clean the slate, otherwise I'm going to canada.

-Kevin

Hahahahha!

So here's a little backstory before you hear what just happened to me.

Last night, the phrase that paid was "go packers!" Team spirit had nothing to do with it. You see, we were lighting off some very illegal fireworks, and when someone saw us (because I was doing it in the middle of a fairly busy street), we would yell "go packers!", and the people would conveniently forget about calling the cops. It worked like a swiss watch, hence me writing this from walgreens instead of bitching about it in jail.

Anyways, one of the pharmacists was talking to the others about these crazy guys lighting fireworks and yelling go packers last night. I'm not 100% sure she was talking about us, but she got really quiet when she saw me.

The moral of this story? Go Packers!

(Go anything that gets me out of a ticket!)

-Kevin

We won the superbowl, what are we gonna do next? Read on!

Our next order of business in this fine city of Milwaukee is to fix our local economy and clean up our dirty ass streets!

Wait, I confused that with "spend a lot of the city budget on packers memorabilia". Can someone explain that mass produced bootlegged football memorabilia is simply salvation army fodder come summer? No? Oh well, looks like we're gonna get some "rogers" jerseys.

The good news is tj maxx buys our misprint bootleg shit, albeit at half our cost, ever since the city's "farva" mishap in '97. I don't know what everyone's complaining about, just grow a mustache and carry a liter of cola with you.

People will applaud your excellence.

The ghost

So the haunted apartment we're renting just got a little weird.

I couldn't find my pants for days, and it was bugging me. I mean, I have lots of other pants, but those ones had my belt and wallet on/in them, and I need those.

So anyways, the first place I looked (and the first place shelica looked too) was on my side of the bed. After that we moved to the walk in closet, and so forth. I checked the whole house 3 times, and even checked the balcony outside.

You know where we found them 4 days later? My side of the bed. I don't care if the ghost is gonna use my shit, he just needs to put it back quicker.

Back to the grindstone

Man, I've had a long week. We'll skip the deets, but it resulted in 3 to 4 days of bed rest. I slept for like 48 hours straight, and then hung out in bed for two more days.

Whoops.

It worked out really well though, my boss called me on Monday and told me I had Tuesday and Wednesday off. Tomorrow I get my ritalin refilled, and that shit makes me feel like a million bucks. I'm not sure how I always get lucky, but I do. I love my life once a month, and tomorrow is looking to be that day.

Keep it real, and check out "parks and recreation" on nbc. Its like the office, but aziz ansari is in it. Rock out, boys and girls!