Last night I was invited to go to a show at The Neurolux. I had never heard of Dead Meadow before but I’m now a fan. These guys rocked. They reminded me of The Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, at least in musical style but it’s not a close match. Check them out on myspace. After the show we went down to the pie hole for some pizza by the slice. The pizza there is awesome but only after a couple hours in the smoke filled Neurolux and after midnight. For some reason when those two criteria are met the pizza becomes the best in the world. Overall the night was awesome and I should do it more often.

I guess a lot of the fun that was had was just because of the atmosphere of the Neurolux. If you’ve never been down there I would recommend you try it sometime just for the experience. Great people watching and good drinks. But see a concert don’t go when a DJ is playing that’s when all the annoying “kids” show up. Seriously when did college students get to be so annoying?

The Law from Clayton Borah on Vimeo.

Muxtape is online way of making a mix tape to share with your friends. You can upload up to 12 mp3 tracks and arrange them in any way you want. When you’re tired of that mix just delete the tracks you want and upload some more. It’s fun and easy.

Listen to my Muxtape here, or make your own at muxtape.com. If you make be sure to let me know, I’d love to take a listen.

I was recently re-introduced to the glorious world of vinyl. By vinyl I mean those old black records that our parents used to listen to. I used to listen to them as a child, my parents had a couple records that had songs that I recognized from the radio, but I didn’t recognize most of the artists. Recently through a friend of mine the wonders of vinyl have come alive to me again. So I went to my parents house and dug through a storage area and pulled out 2 large boxes of records. After thumbing through them I realized that I had found a gold mine of music. There were maybe 2 bands that I hadn’t heard of and most of the music was something that I would listen to.

There are several Doors, Beatles, and Bob Dylan albums which I am very excited about. The problem lies in the fact that I don’t have a functioning turntable. I’m so antsy to listen to the forgotten music but I guess I’ll just have to wait and keep checking the thrift stores for a turntable.

This was the best song from this last weekends conference. Track is not available online but the lyrics are so here they are.

Let’s confess it: there’s a lot of evil, lust and greed in our world. Oppression and sin build up pressure within until there’s an eruption of corruption. Beneath the skin, we skid and spin in spiritual crisis where vice is the norm, and justice, kindness, humility, and civility are all too rare.Unaware of our despair, we smile in denial and say “It’s all OK. No need to change, no need to grow, just have another drink or smoke, tell another joke, and don’t think or rethink. Make another buck, with some luck you can buy a bigger house, store more stuff, drive fast, look good, keep up.”
Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy.

Meanwhile, addiction, rejection, and a lack of reflection spawn friction, dejection and a loss of direction. Every family, community, and nation are shaken. Creation’s resources are carelessly taken. And pollution scars every ocean, mountain, breeze, and shore, with visible symptoms of our inner war.

We’re all victims. We’re all villains. We’re stuck in the web that we spun ourselves. But God lights a spark of hope in the dark to help us cope with all that’s wrong and needs to be made right. God has come into all our pain, shame, and loss through the cross, and calls us to a path of life, love, purpose, and peace.
Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy.

If we humble ourselves to believe and receive, a river will flow and a candle will glow in a secret sacred place within us, very deep, where we have been wasting in shadows, half-dead or half-asleep. We’ve been falling in a vicious viral downward spiral that leads to death. Let’s wake up, hear God calling, take a deep, fresh breath.

Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

“We confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart and we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and please forgive, that we may finally and fully learn to live in dignity and unity, integrity and harmony, delighting in your will and walking in your ways, to the glory of your name. Amen.”

Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy.

As you may or may not know I am a connoisseur of the odd, different, and under appreciated. Here is a list of some of my sources for christmas music that is a little different that the normal fare in one way or another.

DJ Riko’s Merrry Mixmas
Every year DJ Riko releases another Merry Mixmas album, they usually run about 1 hour in length and are one continuous Christmas Mix. Songs range from traditional favorites, to foreign tracks, to newer artists to random stuff you’ve never heard. Always good to listen how someone else would line up Christmas Tracks together. Check it out here http://www.djriko.com/html/mixmases.htm

Santastic
Santastic is also a mix but it goes even further. It is what is called a mashup, there are multiple songs smashed together to make up one song. There are 3 Santatic albums definitely worth looking at.
http://www.djbc.net/christmas/
http://www.djbc.net/santastic/
http://www.djbc.net/santastic3/

Both Merry Mixmas and Santastic have torrent downloads and direct downloads. If you use the torrent on Merry Mixmas you get a higher quality track (320kbps). Torrents are a good way to go because then you can help distribute the tracks after you are done downloading and in this season of giving it is an easy way to give back. But if you are scared of or don’t know what a torrent is then just download the tracks using the direct download.

Last night was the David Bazan show at the Neurolux. Good Show, Good Show! I have only been a fan of David Bazan or his previous band “Pedro the Lion” for about 2 years. But have known of him for about 10. I must say he is a great songwriter and he has an awesome voice.

This show was good. I think he would have been better with a band but it was interested to see him by himself with only an electric guitar. He played several new songs and several older more familiar songs. He even played a Christmas song.

But I would have to say that the opening act (didn’t catch his name) was the highlight for me. This guy was amazing. His voice was like a combination of “Band of Horses” and “Devendra Banhart“. I loved it although I was very tired and could have fallen asleep at any moment.