SquirrelFood.net — Music Blog for Nuts — by Jamie KohnsMusic Blog for Nuts!

Yes, I know I’m a lame blogger

jamie on September 25th, 2005

It’s been well over a week since my last blog post, and I’m a lame blogger. It’s been a heckuva busy couple of weeks though: Saturday was insanely long, as I got to the drinky-drinky bit early while watching football*. I passed out early, but then woke at midnight sunday, and spent the night watching really bad late night television. About 6:30 am, Mike rolled into town, and we went to criminal records in little five points for Ashton Allen’s in-store appearance. I saw Ari Hest with a friend whom I don’t get to see enough of lately on Tuesday, and I managed to get turned around (lost) twice while driving to and from the show in Decatur. Oh, and I’m going to be playing violin in Ashton’s video- which means I’ve been practivcing like a fiend all week. Not that a week of practice will make up for nearly two years of not playing, but because it’s a video, I only need to LOOK like I’m playing the song. If my intonation is crap, it won’t matter (except for the poor souls at the shoot that have to listen to me). Oh, and I think my wisdom tooth finally has to come out… or it could just be the stress again- either way, my jaw hurts. It was so painful this afternoon that I felt sick as I was leaving the office. I actually felt nauscious on the drive home, just from the pain. And I was supposed to go try playing rugby tonight too. I didn’t even go to the gym. Just took a handful of advil. It’s late, goodnight.

Read More Comments (0) Uncategorized

Week in review

jamie on September 20th, 2005

It’s been a full week since my last post- actually, more than a week now. I just haven’t had all that much time- and there really hasn’t been anything I’ve been all that excited to write about. Well, except that I was able to see Missy Higgins play twice last week- that was great, and I did write a post about the shows, except my browser crashed, and I lost the post- and didn’t feel like taking the time to re-write it. But now, I’ve got a few moments where I don’t really want to work any more.

So, MIssy Higgins played the Atlanta Room at Smith’s Olde Bar a week ago - the tiny venue was a great place to listen to her music- even if the stage’s sound system is essentially the existing ceiling-panel speakers driven by a small mixing board (something Higgins mentioned while commenting on the “quaint little bar”- I think it was her way of saying “tiny little shithole”). Turnout was minimal (about 35-40 people), and gave the show an even more intimate feel. Anyways, despite the venue, Higgins put on a great show with guitarist Josh Cunningham, who was himself incredible. The second Missy Higgins show was exactly one week later at Park Tavern, as part of 99x/Park Tavern’s Unplugged in the Park series. This time, there were many more people in attendance. Unfortunately, only about half of the attendees were there for the music. It seems the other half were there for the parkside setting, beer, and perfect weather. It was a noisey event, but Higgins held her own, again joined by Josh Cunningham. I think I’ve go my fix now- I had to wait nearly 9 months to see her live, and then twice in one week. Now, how long will have to wait for a new album?

Next week promises to be event-filled as well. My friend Mike “Skinny” Grosvenor will be in town with his artist (he’s the tour manager for local artist Ashton Allen) for Ashton’s CD release show (back tothe Atlanta Room), then Ari hest will be playing Eddie’s Attic, and finally, on Sunday, A Squared-Manageed artist The Fray will be at the Unplugged in the Park event. All this, plus the usual weekend mornings at Fado. My beer gut is growing steadily.

In new releases, there hasn’t been all that much I’ve been excited about. I haven’t even started a September iPod Playlist- I usually take the best tracks from the month’s new releases, and compile them into a playlist that I load on my iPod. This month, however, I just can’t seem to find much to put into a playlist. Today, I’m going to listen to new Miri Ben-Ari, some Ryan Cabrera, check out the new Blues Traveller, and maybe  check out the new  Coheed & Cambria (if my brain can deal that kind of trip today).

Read More Comments (0) Uncategorized

New Music Bonanza!

jamie on September 12th, 2005

Whew- after weeks of light-weight Tuesdays, we come to a new music Tuesday that holds what could be a treasure trove of good stuff…or a big heapin’ pile of poo. Out today: David Gray, Stellastarr*, Iron & Wine + Calexico, Sigur Ros, Super Furry Animals, Trapt, Dar Williams, and Paul McCartney. It’s actually gonna take me a while to listen to all this, not to mention that Sara Cox is doing a guest spot this afternoon on the radio, so I’ll probably tune in to her today (because I miss her voice in my afternoons). Plus, we just got the new CD producer in at work, and I’m so tempted to start burning off random discs, just to play with the thing.

Read More Comments (0) Uncategorized

nos·tal·gia

jamie on September 7th, 2005

FROM MERIAM-WEBSTER ONLINE (www.m-w.com):

Pronunciation: nä-’stal-j&, n&- also no-, nO-; n&-’stäl-
Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin, from Greek nostos return home New Latin -algia; akin to Greek neisthai to return, Old English genesan to survive, Sanskrit nasate he approaches
1 : the state of being homesick : HOMESICKNESS
2 : a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition; also : something that evokes nostalgia
- nos·tal·gic /-jik/ adjective or noun
- nos·tal·gi·cal·ly /-ji-k(&-)lE/ adverb

Yeah, so I’m a child of the 80’s, and ‘yearn for a return to … some past’:

Now Playing:

Read More Comments (0) Uncategorized

The end is nigh!

jamie on September 6th, 2005

So, Antony And The Johnsons took the Mercury Prize…a true sign that the end of the world is near! When asked what he planned to do with the £20,000 prize money, he said something about buying a field of butterflies. Hard-Fi and KT Tunstall still rock my world, if I had £20,000 to give, I’d give it to them.

Read More Comments (0) Uncategorized

Welcome back to work…argh

jamie on September 5th, 2005

The downside to long holiday weekends is that going back to work on the day following is all much harder to do. Of course, the bonus is that this will be a short week!

It’s Tuesday, but the new releases today read like the cast of a super-micro-budget indie film. Instead, the Mercury Music Prize is to be announced later today (at an award ceremony in London, evening, their time). Every year, one album is awarded the prize, which carries a cash purse of £20000, signifying the best in British music that year. The “short list” for this year’s prize includes Bloc Party, Hard-Fi, Kaiser Chiefs, Maximo Park, K.T. Tunstall, M.I.A., The Go! Team, The Magic Numbers, Coldplay, Polar Bear, Seth Lakerman, and Antony And The Johnsons. My vote ths year is for Hard-Fi. Being neither British, nor on the judging panel, my vote doesn’t count.

Read More Comments (0) Uncategorized