I picked up the new albums by both artists, John Vanderslice’s Pixel Revolt and Common’s Be. Initial impressions of both:

Pixel Revolt seems darker than the last album, and that’s a hard thing to do. In fact, it’s quite possible that Vanderslice’s albums have become increasingly influenced by John Darnielle, which is fine, as long as Scott Solter is still engineering, it will be the Vanderslice we know and love.

Common’s album was produced by none other than Grammy award-winner Kanye West, and the first track I heard off the album was hot, but I kind of got lost in it by the time I got to work this morning. I imagine it’ll take a few listens to get into it some more, but more on that later.

Just a reminder to come to the show tonight if you’re in town – Jack found someone else to join so the bill is 3 bands, The Online Romance, Circus of the Stars and Live Active Culture. See you tonight! Or else!

Robert Moog died today. Thanks for the awesome sounds, man.

I forgot to mention that I saw Foghat at the Island County Fair last weekend. I also ate a sausage, a corndog, curly fries and a democratic 7-up (from the Island County Democrats Booth). It almost doesn’t matter how long I rode on Sunday.

Rode approximately 30 miles today, around 2.75 hours. We rode around Whidbey Island; the route had 6 moderate hill climbs. My legs are sufficiently tired, and our hard week is over with. When we got back, Revenge of the Nerds was on television.

I still haven’t found a good road frame to convert to fixed gear, but my obsession grows daily. Riding to work is one of my favorite things to do, and the ride home does wonders for clearing the mind; it’s really a fun commute.

and the only prescription, is TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT!

From the looks of it, this is for real, but I’m waiting to find out when it will come out that this is all just a publicity campaign for a movie in which Christopher Walken stars as president. The whois.sc entry indicates the registrant is indeed Christopher Walken for President, but is based in Los Angeles; which is, if you were unaware, where Hollywood is.

Ross Perot for president!

DNS must have been down all weekend, so anyone trying to email me in the past couple of days hopefully got a bounce, because I didn’t get anything. I found out this morning that the domain was expired. Luckily, domainmonger keeps a hold on the domain for a while before they release it to the hungry domain thieves.

Long story short, if you sent me anything over the weekend (which I doubt you did), send it to me again. Domain renewed, crisis averted. Real world stuff calls.

Ali and I have logged quite a few miles in the past 5 weeks; I think I’m going to start riding to work next week. I’ve spent all day (other than the ride this morning) reading about fixed gear bikes at sheldonbrown.com, and found the awesome Fixed Gear Gallery. I’m thinking of going to a few thrift shops to see if I can find a cheap road frame that could quite possibly turn into a fixed gear down the line, because judging by everyone’s stories about fixed gear, it’s a pretty great experience.

Check out that gnarly photo on the fixed gear page at Shelton’s. And I still want to try fixed gear!

brl, you should try it too and let me know how much you love/hate it. And good luck on the bRamble!

From the (International) Noise Conspiracy and Refused main dude, Dennix Lyxzen, The Lost Patrol Band has a couple of songs available for download over at Epitaph’s website. No New Manifesto has some good hooks on it, there’s a distinct smell of alt-country here. Trying hard, people.