Did Brown Reinvent the Wheel?

dfjacobs — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:42:28 +0000

Teenage fun

After reading my first few articles, hopefully you are all thinking, “Edward struck gold again, who is this young Renaissance man?” And while I hope that the belief applies to more of you than my mother, I trust that you are not so outraged by my writing and musical selections that you find yourselves collectively organizing to storm my house, pitchforks in hand, asking for my head, or at least my wordpress password. Remember, Edward has his reasons for everything; I was not just brought to the Show to end my incessant begging.

You see, young Skywalkers, the educational establishment which I attend happens to be the very same institution that famed Ivy League front man Adrian Simon and lesser known yet equally awesome Ivy League guitarist Alex Beer attend. And it just so happens that I am actually pretty good friends with the both of ‘em. Now, what does this mean you ask? Didn’t the Ivy League disband? Well, yes and no. Yes they did, but it lasted about 30 minutes. They have a new CD in the mixing stages and from the one or two songs I’ve heard, you will not be disappointed. “Adrian Simon and other kids playing instruments” stay true to their bubble gum pop roots and a bust out an even tighter record than their debut (I say all this having heard only two of their new songs, although I have heard most of the others live).

But for all of you New York based readers (or at least those of you within 6 hours driving distance), boy, do I have a surprise for you! November 14th at Don Hill’s, Adrian, Alex, Dan Hockstein (the regular bassist, for all of you non-Ivy aficionados), and Griffin Emerson (a dashing young drummer who’s been groomed for the role of drummer for about 4 years), will all assemble to play a show entirely devoted to covers. And good ones too, I can’t reveal the set list, but I can give you three previews of classic Ivy covers. I think it’s safe to say I’ll see most of you in a few weeks.

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The Good Life (Kanye West Cover) – Adrian Simon (YSI)

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Sleepyhead (Passion Pit Cover) – Adrian Simon (YSI)

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Buy U a Drank (T-Pain Cover) – The Ivy League (YSI)

But really, go to the Ivy League concert, it’s gonna be insane.

A Reintroduction

Edward — Sat, 30 May 2009 20:34:57 +0000

New suits in space!

Once upon a bible, Jesus spent 40 days and nights in the wilderness. I could tell you why, but I’m too lazy to ask my dad (getting told bible stories is the worst). I’m not going to call myself Jesus because we all remember why John Lennon was shot, but I will say this: I have returned from my own 22 days in the wilderness (or 317 blogdays), and, as I remember Jesus did, I’ve returned bearing a domain name. Yes, as you may have noticed when you clicked your old animalshow.wordpress.com bookmark, we’ve set up shop over at theanimalshow.org. And though my absence may have led you to frequent tears and repeated questioning of whether life is worth continuing, rest assured I’m back and badder than ever.

If your continual frantic facebook messages, emails, and drunken tweets are any indication, you haven’t taken the absence well. You want to know why it is I’ve abandoned you. Well, folks, there’s a joke answer and a real one. One is that I’ve been busy building an Uncle Fumerous entirely out of purple, green, and orange Play-Doh.

The other is that I’d simply burned out on mp3 blogs. For a little while now, I’d been feeling oversaturated with new music. The dozen odd requests for listens and mp3s I get sent daily don’t help, but I felt like it was time for me to take a step back and reevaluate what it was I wanted to do as a blogger, or whether I wanted to continue at all. It was becoming very clear that the need I felt to post 6-sentence blurbs daily to maintain my position on hype machine was sucking most of the fun out of this, and I ended up posting the sort of stuff I would normally sit on in order to keep a new post on the front page. The hours I spent on the top 100 songs charts on hype machine waiting for my songs rank among the time I spent playing one-suit spider solitaire as the time I consider most uselessly wasted. And they provided less entertainment at the time than spider solitaire.

Guess which answer was the joke!

Anyway, I’ve decided that, from now on, I’m only posting material I’m really excited about. I won’t put stuff up in order to have stuff up. And I’m not going to try to be on the verge of something hot and new. If I like it, I’ll post it. Old, new, obscure, mainstream, remixed, original — who cares. Just good material, and just when it speaks to me.

That said, I think I’ve got enough stuff from the past weeks to continue posting regularly for some time, so don’t take this as a “yeah, I’m back, but only when I want to be.” I’m still here for you, and I still want feedback, as always. Besides, we’ve got a number of pretty cool additions we’ll be sending your way. Longtime spiritual advisor Louis Weeks will be joining the staff to provide live reviews of up-and-coming bands he finds in the scene this summer, and that super-secret surprise Marquis Meowmers alluded to some time ago is still on the way. Keep your mouses pointing here, dudes. This is the summer of the Show.

Until we meet again (and it will be soon, I promise), here are some sweet summer songs for you to scarf down, including the song I listened to 57 times since we last spoke: Nickel Creek/Chris Thile’s phenomenal “If You’re Gonna Leave Me (Set Me Up With One of Your Friends).”

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If You’re Gonna Leave Me (Set Me Up With One of Your Friends) – Nickel Creek (mega) (YSI)

The Animal Show » T-Pain

Did Brown Reinvent the Wheel?

A Reintroduction