Quick Random Blasts

My review of the new Red Wanting Blue CD "These Magnificent Miles" is here on my Just Another Columbus Ohio Music Blog. Come get your face rocked off at the Lazy Chameleon with Red Wanting Blue on Saturday.

The Semi Precious Weapons show on Sunday, 8/31 at BoMA is 18+ ... sorry kiddies.

And today's Oh, Eric moment:

I think they guy who wrote "100 Things To Do Before You Die" should have added protective headgear somewhere early in his list. I'm just sayin'.

Musical Wanderings

(cross posted from my music blog ... go read it. Good stuff there.)

Red Wanting Blue's new album, These Magnificent Miles, is available on this website, where you can also get a limited edition, signed poster with your order, while they last (only 500 total). The album was officially released on August 19th, I got a copy today and will have a full review posted after a few more listens.

The track list features quite a few of the songs they've been playing live (click here for photos) for the last year, including You Are My Las Vegas, Gravity, Where You Wanna Go, The World Is Over, Finger In The Air, Spacetime, U.S. Bumper Sticker and a few others you might recognize.

Red Wanting Blue is playing the Lazy Chameleon in Powell on August 30th with Nate McDonough who's been on my list of people to see for a while ... so I'm looking forward to that.

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I rode to work the other day listening to 13th Star ... the latest album by Fish, the former (and in my opinion, only) singer for Marillion. Upon my first listen back in June I said this would be one of my favorite albums of 2008 ... so far, it still is. Dark Star is one of those great songs that will be in my playlist for a long time.

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Semi Precious Weapons is playing at BoMA on August 31st ... that should be a fun night. They are re-releasing "We Love You" on September 30th, this time on Razor and Tie Records. The songs are the same as on their independent release (on Justin's own Fetty label) of "We Love You" with new artwork, and radio-friendly edits of "Her Hair Is On Fire" and "Magnetic Baby" ... here's the new cover:

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Other things high on my iPod/iTunes playlist:

• The Milwaukees - American Anthems Vol. 1
• Green Day - American Idiot
• Kathleen Edwards - Asking For Flowers
• Guided By Voices - The Best Of
• The Clarks - Fast Moving Cars

What are you listening to?

Good Candy Gone Bad

There are few things in life better than chocolate and peanut butter ... specifically in the shape of a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Even better ... a Reese's ... frozen.

That's some good food. And that's not just my opinion (nor my photo. Since I stole it from that blog, I figured I should link to it!)

One day last week I went to the vending machine at work wanting the little bit of flavor love that only a Reese's can give ... only to find the vending machine downstairs had NO peanut butter cups, and the upstairs one had the Boyer Peanut Butter Cup. Yes, Boyer, as in the company who gave us the Mallo-Cup.

So I figured ... well, it's chocolate. And peanut butter. How bad can it be? So I took a bite.

Awful. Fucking awful.

Let's look at the top photo of the luscious looking Reese's cups, out of the package.

Now let's look at the competition, out of the package

While it is candy, it's not eye candy. Doesn't look appealing. Looks even less so out of the wrapper

In fact, the only place this alleged peanut butter cup looked good -- the garbage can.

So now I have to say ... there is no Peanut Butter Cup, there is only Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. And if you're charging me 80 cents, mister blind man who fills our vending machines at work, at least give me real candy. You have Snickers and M&M's and other brand name chocolate goodness. Why do you deny me the Reese's?

It's not just me ...

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

How many songs does a rock band have to make about wanting to be rock stars before they realize they're corporate Clear Channel-created rock stars and start doing all the things they sing about wanting to do?

Besides, you wanna hear a great song about what the music business is like ... try out "Welcome To The Machine" by Pink Floyd.

God lowers gas prices???

Oh Jeebus.

Prayer lowered gas prices in DC? Cause apparently God is more concerned with making sure people in one of the worst places in America to live have an additional $2 for crack.

Pardon me for leaving the rest of this blog unwritten while I go change my pants because I pissed myself laughing so hard.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7566566.stm

Famous ... and sick

So one of my favorite reads is the Pop Candy blog in USAToday ... today I was the featured reader. Here's the whole blog ... here's my part.

Sadly, on Eric Broz day (as it's known when you're the featured reader) I'm home. Sick as hell. Close to the bathroom. Lunch yesterday was NOT my friend.

Before blogging ...

I think I was Indie Rock Pete ...

Except I knew where to steal photocopies from.

But I did a hockey magazine. No wonder I never got laid.

DOH!

Iran suspends death by stoning

Wow. Way to go Iran. Way to show you're a 10th century nation now and have escaped those bloodthirsty ways of old school law by eliminating death by stoning. (No, pot-heads. Wrong kind of stoning.)

The country's penal code stipulates that before carrying out the punishment, men should be buried up to their waists and women up to their chests. The stones used must be large enough to cause the condemned pain, but not sufficient to kill immediately.

It is a penalty permissible under Islamic law (but not spelled out in the Koran) for crimes such as adultery, incest and prostitution. Sounds right up the alley of the religion of peace, eh?

Wow. Next you know they'll get rid of all the gays and figure out photoshop and forget about that whole Death to America/Death to Israel thing they have going on. (Oh, well, two outta three ain't bad, right Meatloaf?)

Apple <3's Jay Farrar

So I've noticed a trend on my iPod and my iTunes library.

I currently have 3216 songs in my iTunes library. 132 of them are Jay Farrar related (Uncle Tupelo songs he sings, his solo stuff, or Son Volt). That's 4.1% of my tunage being directly related to the genius of Jay Farrar.

However, 11% of the songs chosen in "shuffle" mode the last three times I've tracked have been the genius of Jay Farrar.

That's not all. It's NOT only iTunes. It's the iPod, too.

Of the last 14 times I've clicked on the 'shuffle' mode of my iPod touch ... I've had Jay Farrar/Son Volt/Uncle Tupelo come up 10 times as the FIRST SONG PLAYED.

That's nearly 72% of the time for those of you with math issues. Of the 2412 songs on my iPod, with Jay represented in 5.47% of those songs ... those odds lead me to belive that somewhere, an iTunes and iPod programmer or three has weighted the genius of Jay Farrar, Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt higher in the algorithm used to dictated the first song played, and the frequency of the shuffle mode.

Yeah, it's a world of conspiracy therories. I've just added to the list.

PunditKitchen - LOL Cats for Politics

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