Vibes blog

It’s funny the ways you can stumble upon new music.

A good buddy of mine is from Houston. When we lived together here in the Elizabeth neighborhood, he subscribed to a magazine called Texas Monthly. For a while after he moved out, we’d still get the issues in our mailbox.

Bored one day, I decided to pick one up, flipping through the pages of the May 2009 issue until a short story on a musician named Ryan Bingham caught my attention. After all, it’s not often that a pro bull-rider quits the rodeo circuit to pick up the guitar and tour the country as a country rock artist.

If my friend wasn’t from Houston, chances are I never learn about this Bingham guy. Never would’ve become a fan. And quite honestly, I wouldn’t be going to the Evening Muse tonight for the early evening show to see him play.

Check him out. He and his band, the Dead Horses, make really, really good music straight out of the Lone Star State.

You can thank my buddy’s magazine later.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

Whether you’re on Gmail, Yahoo or tempting fate on a work e-mail address, it seems that most people have been part of a few lengthy personal e-mail chains with a group of friends.

Some are recurring, like the fantasy football thread that runs from late July through the holidays. And some die out after a stack of 15 emails, like the hilarious group dialogue about Betty’s gnarly spill on the dance floor.

My personal favorite is the music thread that I share with a few buddies. This week was a big week for us because we added a new member (welcome, Donnie), boosting our group’s total to six. It’s a fine number considering most of my friends think that M. Ward is the fifth district in uptown Charlotte. (more…)

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

I’m a simple dude. T-shirts and flip-flops. No video games or HBO. Haven’t changed the filter in the Brita since 2007.

Not many assets, either. I’m a renter with a thrift-store living room. Got a mattress with no headboard. Admittedly, other than the truck, the most valuable possessions in my name might just be a fifth generation iPod classic and its Bose docking station.

For a guy with secondhand sofas, you can imagine the extent to which my world was flipped when the iPod suffered a ‘hardware issue’ late this summer. Hell, give me a completely empty house, high quality stereo sound and shuffle mode (and maybe a beer) and I’m content. So this was bad news. (more…)

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites

I highly doubt that German composer Richard Strauss was a big college football fan, but when it comes to slapping a game face on 80,000 crazed fans for kickoff, the man’s got skills.

The 2009 college football season is upon us, my friends, as South Carolina travels north to N.C. State for a season-opening showdown tonight on national television.

Now, I pledge no allegiance to the Gamecocks (more of a Hokie guy), but there’s no better tune than Strauss’ “2001: A Space Odyssey” theme to incite near-riots at major college football stadiums.

It’s a tradition down in Columbia, and even though tonight’s game is in Raleigh, I thought I’d share with all you hybrid music lovers / college football aficionados out there. After all, no matter who you root for, it’s game time.

I’ve mentioned it before in this blog – the right piece of music can provide the perfect backdrop to any emotional sports scene. I immediately recall the subtle guitar work in Any Given Sunday, drifting and building over Al Pacino’s halftime speech, or “New Noise” by hardcore band The Refused in Friday Night Lights.

The end of Rudy? No question.

Bookmark to:

Hide Sites