One Week

First week on the job is up. Still haven't really done anything. Kept making progress and thinking I was about ready to tackle some work, but I still haven't gotten admin privileges and that turns out to be an insurmountable roadblock in what I'd be needed to do. But that's cool. Wednesday I got my badge, that helps in not feeling completely bootleg. Trying to think of noteworthy things. Been in on quite a few meetings. Friday I joined some coworkers at Mayuri for some indian buffet. Toby, my manager, just got a promotion like yesterday or the day before which was a big deal. A group of us went out after work yesterday (Mellow Mushroom, egads, but hey being social). Yesterday was Peter's last day on the job (I'm sort of his replacement). He mentioned something about the rain and needing to cover up his computer as he had to bring it to a show his friends asked him to record a little before leaving. I asked what show and it turns out his friends are in Shatterhand and it was the show we got asked to play but then it was booked too full for the place's hard curfew. I had forgotten about it given all that's been going on. Jacques was still going so I hit him up and we went together. The venue is literally this shed. It was pretty cool though. Art student kinda crowd. And the guy Jacques knows in Shatterhand he knows mostly through the Socialist Party. I did feel like the old guy there, but that's usually a given anyway. Two bands played: Woah, Blackberries and Shatterhand. There are two guys who are in both bands. The first was good, noisy effects-driven rock. They reminded me a little, though not directly, of Swell Maps. Shatterhand were a bit post-rock. Explosions in the Sky were mentioned to me befoer I'd heard them. They also reminded me of Windsor for the Derby with their mathy elements (though less minimal, I guess if the two previously mentioned bands did it). They recently started adding vocals and the singer sounds a bit like From Her to Eternity-era Nick Cave (without the growling and yelping, well, maybe even later Bad Seeds in those rare moments it doesn't suck, or at least with the voice...maybe Nick Cave with a slight tinge of Tim Foljahn). It was a really good show, oh and Shatterhand's drummer, the dude Jacques knows, was fucking badass. Also, makes me have some hope for the Youthful Generation in Memphis. Before the show and between bands, they had a Can station going on Pandora so it kept playing songs I know and love: Neu!, Can, Faust, Suicide, Kraftwerk, Stereolab, Wire, Silver Apples...for a stretch I was completely nerding out. Got my Criterion sale stuff in the mail yesterday: Jules and Jim, Bottle Rocket, and My Winnipeg. Really fucking excited about tomorrow. Fucking Wolf Eyes is playing in town!!! And to top it off, they're playing a small art gallery/house (Glitch, a place we looked at booking a show a while back, but couldn't because the late hours of my job conflicted with their curfew). Anyway, fucking awesome!

Oh shit, I forgot to include one of the funniest moments from last night. Jacques was talking to this guy who's a big organizer in the party and he was talking to a friend of his in some touring band from his hometown of Shreveport. Anyway, he starts to explain The Family Ghost to this guy and the first thing he says (he's very drunk too, mind you) is that we're a "parody of music" (pretty sure meant as a compliment but sounds really funny). He later revised it as "a critique of music itself." I guess "good review" vs "bad review" ways of saying the same thing. It was funny though and I would be honored to read that we're a parody of music in a review. Though I guess it says something about me that much of the stuff people say about us being so out there and noisy and unlike other music is unearned. Though we try sometimes, I don't think we've ever reached any of my own personal goals of what music or non-music or whatever should be.