Autumn Souvenir

In September of 1995, Gainseville, Florida's For Squirrels were returning to Florida following a performance at CBGBs at New York's CMJ Music Festival. The van they were in blew a tire and the van spun out of control. The lead singer, bassist and manager lost their lives in the wreck. The remaining two members suffered extensive injuries, but survived. One month later, Sony released the band's first and only record, "Example". It was a smash hit on college radio, primarily due to the haunting "Mighty K.C.", a beautiful and tragic pop masterstroke, which also served as a tribute to the late Kurt Cobain. In the mid-90s, this record rarely left the tapedeck of my Mazda 626. "Mighty K.C." along with "Orangeworker", were, and still are, two of my favorite pop songs ever recorded. The career and art of For Squirrels was cut short just before they were set to leave their mark on the pop-rock world. Although a few of the tracks ultimately gar

YES YES YES YES 9/6 Bottom of the Hill, SF CENTRO-MATIC I may take the week off and travel with them up-and-down the West Coast. Aside from Springsteen, this is the most inspiring band out there right now.

1980 would probably be the year that I fell in love for the first time. Mind you, I was only seven years old. And it wasn't falling in love with a girl. (That happened for the first time ten years later.) My folks divorced before I hit the age of five. It was a fairly amicable split (mostly because my mother was and is so classic). Following their divorce, I was raised by my mother. She supported my brother and I by working as a crossing guard in our suburban town in Northern New Jersey. She put every penny earned towards feeding us, clothing us and paying rent in our two-family house. My father's career was taking off at the time, and he only lived one town over. Nevertheless, we still lived a pretty meager life, but I look back on those days as a strong source for what I believe shaped my character. Ok, back to falling in love. Every other weekend (or so), my brother and I would head to my father's house for the weekend. Given his penchant for the bottle (err, the beer c

Those Top 100 Albums of All-Time. I've decided to take more time and actually include a little review of why each record made the list. And keep in mind, this list will not be the records that I think are the greatest of all-time, but rather MY Top 100 (which, if I were more of a narcissist, would mean the greatest ever). This is going to be one hell of a list.

This could be it: The Independent, SF, CA June 28 Apollo Sunshine Cold War Kids

My Top 100 Albums of All-Time. It's been about ten years since I've put together such a list and it's time to see where things stand. Many of the records that stood atop my list in 1996 will probably still be there, but there's been a lot the past decade that should position pretty well. On the weekend front, just a great few days in SF. Finally met my buddy Joel's wife and adorable daughter, shot some hoops in the park, saw an outstanding new band called Cold War Kids, sat on the fringe of the Pacific Ocean in Ocean Beach, caught up with some siblings, family and a long-lost friend in London.

Last weekend I went to my local park to sit on some grass, read a book and waste away a few hours on a Sunday. I've actually started doing things like this quite a bit on the weekends. Whether it be sitting on a bench in the Marina, driving up to the mountains and having lunch or just driving, I've felt the pull to spend maybe half a day each week just doing, well, nothing. I never bring my phone on these mini-trips and usually the only thing on hand is my ipod. It's been unbelievably cathartic. While laying in my local park last weekend, a young couple walked up and sat a few feet from me. They rolled out a blanket, dropped some snacks on the blanket and before sitting, both fired up their cell phones (the man was actually alternating between two phones). I tried to relax for about 15 mins. but I couldn't help but listen in on their conversations. I moved. While I finally managed to find a little peace, I looked over a few times and sure enough, both of them were on th

I've been on a bit of a media craze lately. Having been bitten by a bit(ten) of the flu, I've had a lot of time to listen to records, read books and watch movies. Here's what's captured me attention: MUSIC Neutral Milk Hotel "On Avery Island" (John's pumped) Emmylou Harris "Wrecking Ball" (Belgium) K. McCarty "Dead Dog's Eyeball" (Brings me back to 1995) Damnations TX "Half Mad Moon" (SXSW) Cracker "Kerosene Hat" (Boston) Tim Easton "Ammunition" (New one) Yo La Tengo "Fakebook" (1995) Bruce Springsteen "The Seeger Sessions" (Shocking) Cat Power "The Greatest" (Favorite Record of 2006) Paul Westerberg "Stereo" (It's about time) Luna "Lunapark" (Oh yeah) Sam Cooke "Portrait of a Legend" (Most accurate album title ever) BOOKS Raymond Carver "Cathedrals" (Brings me somewhere) Harp Magazine (Great new issue) MOVIES "Murderball&quo

I'd have to say that this past weekend was the most satisfying weekends I've had in this fine city. One of my closest friends from NYC arrived on Thursday night. We made pretty much no plans and figured we'd just do whatever comes to mind. Friday: Outstanding mexican food in Noe Valley followed by a trip to see an MIA-imitation hailing from Japan named Tigarah. She was ok, but left a lot to be desired. Another friend met up and she was in quite the jovial mood, somewhat surprising given that by the time she landed at the bar we were about 48 drinks in. We all ended up going back to my apartment, drank a bottle of wine (ok, I drank a bottle of wine) and listened to T. Rex, The Replacements, Centro-matic and other great shit until about 4am. Saturday: Late start. A great breakfast. A trip down to the Embarcadero to catch "An Inconvenient Truth". Although Al Gore remains one of the my present-day heroes and his environmental ambitions are extremely inspirational to m