With Proper Training…

Now this is just plain weird.

Over the weekend while I was trapped at work for eternity trying to fix the server, Yaeka got bored (she was there with me all day Saturday) and drew the beginnings of what will become the logo for hiddenmusic.com. Check it out below and let me know what you think.

Yaeka and I went out on the town Tuesday to check out The Race perform on their first west coast tour as well as to do an interview. Before the show we were chatting with singer/guitarist Craig Klein about Seattle and the various weekly papers — well really there are only two now, The Stranger and the Seattle Weekly Craig mentioned that the Seattle Weekly’s review of their latest album If You Can was rather brutal, focusing mainly on the fact that they’re called “The Race” but don’t play fast.

I personally don’t think band names have to have relevance to music. The band name is just the band name. I do think that band names can be really, really awful however so really the purpose of a band name to be is to be memorable and interesting. I’m curious as to what you guys think about band names and also if you have some bands in mind that also don’t seem to match their music. The one that comes immediately to mind is Pinback. Yaeka always mentions how the name doesn’t suit them which I can understand. When I hear the name “Pinback” I think of Pinhead from those horror movies. Regardless of their name, I still think they’re great.

Well there’s definitely one way to measure the success of your prescription drug. Eli Lilly and Company should be very proud of their product Prozac after reading this article from The Scotsman. I mean how the hell does it get in the water supply? Maybe this is the new flouride.

The biggest challenge for me when it comes to trying to be some sort of “music journalist” or whatever has been interviewing. I’ve slowly become a little bit more comfortable with writing reviews and no longer write under alternate names, but interviews still give me a case of the shivers. Images of Penner and me sitting with Robert Pollard of Guided by Voices with not much to say flash in my mind, but I realize that it is something I have to do if I want to provide some more unique content on The PhiLL(er) and as a result have managed to schedule 2 interview in a 3-day span later this month.

The first is with Chicago band The Race which I sort of stumbled upon while working at the bookstore. Their new EP and album are a big change of direction from their first album, but I really really enjoy it and am eager to talk with them and also check out their live set.

The second is Cex who is labeled as an IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) artist. I also came across his work while at the bookstore in the form of his album Being Ridden. Yaeka and I checked out his live show in Newport, KY last year and it was a very interesting experience. The audience was small and he had us arrange in a semi-circle around him which created a sort of campground feel that fit quite well with his storytelling throughout the set. This interview is still a little shaky as I haven’t heard back recently from his publicity person, but I hope that it’ll still be a go.