Band of Horses - Morning Becomes Eclectic

[flickr]

I was going to include this in the week’s recap, but figured that these guys deserve a post all to themselves...

It kills me that I missed Band of Horses come through DC not once, not twice, but three times in the past six months. Believe it not, prior engagements kept me from attending any and all of them. To make matters worse, the LOML has become a bit obsessed with Ben Bridwell and the boys. One day she rotated between Cease to Begin and Everything All the Time for probably eight straight hours and then made a fuss when I finally cut it off (needless to say, one of the albums "found" its way back into the CD player when I went to the bathroom). And the final dagger was that RatBat Bear scored FRONT ROW tickets to their upcoming show in State College, PA courtesy of his better half. Lucky bastard!

I came across an interview/set from Morning Becomes Eclectic on KCRW while browsing around the NPR website. Yeah it’s from September but better late than never, right? I’m actually listening to it right now and it’s just what the doctor ordered for a Saturday morning (almost afternoon). Anyway, there are some diddies from both albums and listening to it makes me regret not seeing these shaggy bastards in concert even more (and makes me envy RBB more too). Plus it has an interview with Bridwell sprinkled through the performance. He's is just like you’d imagine he would be from his looks and music – cool and down to earth. Not many people could pull off a beard like that, but Ben does it well and entertains the hell out of us at the same time.

Too much booze, not enough liver

Every time I go to the store to check out the latest Tasty Beverage of the Week, I always seem to find a few new microbrews or wineries that have popped up. And I always think of how cool it would be to quit my job and start my own. I mean could you imagine being able to say that you run your own small brewery or invite people to your wine tasting room to sample some of this year's vintage?

Problem is that the market for both beer and wine is flooded. No, I don't mean that there's too much beer or wine in the consuming sense (you will never hear me utter those words, I promise). But in the business sense there is - meaning that there is too much competition for a new brewery or winery to go up against and succeed. So what does that leave? That's right kids, liquor. Only about 10-20 distilleries open up across the country in a year. Bingo!

I always thought that distilling alcohol was a big no-no and was better left to the big boys like Jack, Jim and Jose. Apparently not, according to the New York Times. Looks like I might have a new hobby. So don't be surprised if you hear about some dipshit in the DC area who blew up his kitchen trying to make whiskey or the no longer banned absinthe.

Hooray Friday!

- Nominations for the 2007 MTV Video Music Awards are out. While I don't normally care too much for the awards themselves, I normally tune in to see the performances. However, Justin Timberlake's "What Goes Around..." is nominated for Best Video starring hotty-boom-botty Scarlett Johansson. So hot... want to touch the hiney.

- Eddie Vedder did the soundtrack for the upcoming movie Into the Wild, based on the John Krakauer book and directed by Sean Penn. Release for the soundtrack is Sept. 18, while the movie opens on the 21st. Thanks to Metro D for the heads-up.

- Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan's side project, Puscifer is getting ready for the release of their debut album "V is for Vagina" on Oct. 30. More info at Billboard here.

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Sorry to cut this short, but I'm off to hang with RatBat Bear for the weekend armed with a bottle of Tullamore Dew. Hopefully, I'll return in one piece.

Extreme Wine Tasting

Thanks to RatBat Bear for the heads up on this:

Check out this article in the New York Times about the new "problem" wineries are facing these days. Is anyone surprised by this? I can't believe this hasn't happened sooner. Actually, I'm pretty sure it did, but nobody cared enough to write an article about it. Well, pack the van - let's head back to wine country.

Beings that I'm a solutions-oriented person, I have a fix to this problem. If I owned a winery, I'd have an open field available so people could camp out at the end of the day. I know that's what I feel like doing after a tough day on wine tasting. Wait a minute... that's actually one of my better ideas - I'm going to start working that one immediately!

Reading this article brings up at few issues for me. First, some of the wineries in CA now have "no limo" policies? That seems a tad hoytie-toytie. Also, I've noticed that more and more wineries are charging tasting fees and this article answers why they are doing so. It just proves the point that a few people acting like morons can ruin a good thing for everyone. Finally (and most disturbing for me) is that people are streaking at these places. Every year, my parents head up to NY for a "winery weekend" with some of their friends. Do they engage in this tomfoolery? Just thinking about it makes me a bit nauseous. Not a much as if I walked in on them bumping uglies, but still.