Well, just so you know, I at least think about making LJ updates on a regular basis. The execution, on the other hand, leaves a crap-load to be desired. But, hey! I'm here to make an update!

So, what's new? Hmm... I'm nearly done reading "World War Z". It's been a very enjoyable read thus far. But, it's good that I'm about done with it, I need to get back to reading my back issues of the New Yorker. And, lucky me, issue 59 of Giant Robot magazine arrived in the mail today. I've said it (elsewhere) before and I'll say it again, it's been great ever since they went to bimonthly issues! This issue appears to be another great one. Great cover artist as usual, that's for sure.

Last Wednesday night, I went to see Mastodon perform at the Fine Line Music Cafe in Minneapolis. Opening bands were Intronaut and Kylesa.

I hadn't heard Intronaut before, but I enjoyed them well enough. They played a rather short set, 30 minutes or so. To my untrained metal ears, they kind of reminded me of Pelican in some ways. That comparison may be way off. If you have suggestions on who they sound closer to, I'm interested in knowing.

Kylesa were relatively new to me, too. But, I did pick up their latest album, "Static Tensions", based on a promising review by Pitchfork. It also just happened that their album popped up on eMusic so I was happy to take a flier on it. I was not disappointed. And with that, you get to see one of the few pictures I took from the concert...



Kylesa played for about 40 or 45 minutes, I think. They sounded great. Unfortunately, because of the height of the stage (well, lack thereof) and where I was standing (towards the back on the main floor), I didn't get any looks at the two drummers. Yes, they have two drummers. Works great, sounds great. Couldn't see much of the lead singer/guitarist, Laura, or her two cohorts on either side. Which annoyed me because a big part of the enjoyment I get from going to shows is watching the musicians actually playing their instruments.

Then Mastodon came on. I would guess shortly after 9pm. As you can see in the picture from Kylesa's set, there was a screen behind the band. Mastodon, on this current "mini tour", are playing their new album, "Crack the Skye", in its entirety live with some video stuff playing behind them to complement the new material. It was all very cool to see together. They sounded great live. One minor change was the addition of a keyboard player to add some of the texture live that was on the album. The band played through the new album. Afterward, they took a couple minutes break on stage and then proceeded to play even more stuff from their prior albums. For this portion of the show, the video screen showed an image related to the album artwork related to the song they were playing. For example, during one of the songs off "Leviathan", they showed this...



Basically an image related to the album artwork, except the sky was in motion. Either moving stars or other stuff floating across the sky. Similar for material off "Blood Mountain" and "Remission".

In the end, I think Mastodon ended up playing nearly two hours all told. Set list for the evening (courtesy of setlist.fm):

Oblivion
Divinations
Quintessence
The Czar
Ghost Of Karelia
Crack The Skye
The Last Baron

Bladecatcher
Colony Of Birchmen
The Wolf Is Loose
Crystal Skull
Capillarian Crest
Megalodon
Seabeast
Iron Tusk
March Of The Fire Ants
Hearts Alive

I really wanted to hear "Circle of the Cysquatch". Well, maybe the next time around. All in all, it was a great show. I was glad I went even though Ticket Master gouged me for about $10 in fees (grrr!). I didn't really mind going by myself either. And, I was home before midnight! Perfect for a geezer like me.

This was my second time seeing them. But, it sounded a million times better because of the custom earplugs I bought over Xmas-time. More about those in another post. In any case, I only have a few complaints about the show. First, I wish I had stood upstairs instead of on the main floor, I probably would have had a better view of the bands. Second, I wish this show had been at First Avenue (no slight intended toward the Fine Line). But, First Ave probably could have put up a bigger screen to make the video part of this show more immersive. Secondly, there would have been more places to stand with better views of the stage.

Next up will be seeing Wolves in the Throne Room with Zebulon Pike and Krallice at the Triple Rock Social Club in a week and a half. I can't wait to see Wolves. Their latest album, "Black Cascade", is just more of their awesome stuff. I'm really looking forward to seeing Krallice too. Krallice's self-titled album is highly recommended.

To round out the month of concerts, I need to remember to pick up a ticket for the upcoming Camera Obscura concert. Their new album, "My Maudlin Career", just builds on the great stuff they put out with "Let's Get Out of This Country".

For those of you who read here and also visit the GR Lounge, I've sent an email to Eric and he said he'd put in a note when he gets off the plane.

I guess all we can do is sit tight.

Update: It's working for me now. I cleared my FF browser cache, cookies, etc. and restarted FF.

Not sure what happened.

It isn't always true, but it seems as though every Friday when I take up my turn in the on-call rotation at work, all kinds of s*t hits the fan. It happened again today. Three customers with problems on a product that I don't know enough about to deal with on my own. The other thing that seems to happen without fail is that a customer will call with a problem right at 4:59pm on Friday. WTF. Hopefully, it will be a quiet rotation for me.

But, enough of that junk.

Spent a bit of time last night watching Eric Nakamura of Giant Robot on Yahoo! Live. He was talking up some of the stuff that GR has going on now, upcoming shows, etc. I was on for about 30 minutes or so (I couldn't resist the call of "GH3"). And, I didn't have a web cam set up on me. Maybe for his next live chat, I'll get it set up on my home PC. It was nice to "see" Eric again. I haven't seen him since his visit to Mpls. awhile back. Timing didn't work out when we were in LA last May for my cousin's wedding either. I think the best thing he showed last night was a calendar called "Dogs with Abs" by, I think, Andrew Jeffrey Wright. Awesome calendar.

I upgraded my Xbox Live account, from a Silver (Free) to Gold ($$). You can't register your Guitar Hero 3 stats on GuitarHero.com with a Silver membership. So, I picked up a 3-month Gold one. It will give me enough time to find a deal on a 12-month membership. But, now that I've done that, I am officially on GH.com.

Alongside GH3, I recently started playing Dead Rising. Yes, it's old. But, let's remember I'm very late to the Xbox 360 party. One of the nice things about buying a console later is that there are a lot of games worth playing that are now available at lower prices (used or "Greatest Hits").

I also recently downloaded the demo for Audiosurf (PC). Audiosurf is a mix of gaming styles. At its core is a music-based puzzle game. One of its best features, though, is that you can use your own non-DRM protected audio files with the game. I tried it out with M.I.A.'s "Mango Pickle Down River" and The Bug's "Poison Dart (f/ Warrior Queen)". Beautiful to look at and fun to play. It's a shame that it's not available on Mac.

Here's a video clip of it being played using Dragonforce's "Through the Fire and Flames" (a song also available in GH3):


Plus, I'm still playing through "Professor Layton and the Curious Village"...

You know how some people have a stack of books and/or magazines that they're reading at once? I do that with games. I think I'm in the middle of playing 4 or 5 games right now. And, that doesn't count the many games that I lost interest in temporarily. I always return to games that I haven't finished. Even if I don't touch them for years.

Any GR folk on LJ know what's up with the boards? I haven't been able to get to it at all today.