2007 Show Review

Well, because I'm weird I keep a list of all the bands I see live. 2007 was a good year, even without attending Bonnaroo.

Alexi Murdoch - Headliner's Music Hall
Andrew Bird - Buskirk-Chumley Theater
Backyard Tire Fire - The Vogue
Charlie Louvin - The Brown Theatre
Damien Rice - The Louisville Palace
Dierks Bentley - Freedom Hall
Govt Mule - The Vogue
Grace Potter & The Nocturnals - The Vogue
Jason Aldean - Freedom Hall
Jenny Devoe - The Vogue
Jim James - The Rudyard Kipling
JJ Grey & Mofro - The Bluebird
JJ Grey & Mofro - The Vogue
John Butler Trio - Headliner's Music Hall
Josh Turner - The Great Lawn at Waterfront Park
Kellie Pickler - Freedom Hall
Ki: Theory - Headliner's Music Hall
Man Man - The Egyptian Room
Midnight Movies - Headliner's Music Hall
Modest Mouse - The Egyptian Room
Nickel Creek - The Ryman Auditorium
Patty Griffin - The Vogue
Paula Cole - The Brown Theatre
Rascal Flatts - Freedom Hall
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - The Brown Theatre
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - The Brown Theatre
Ryan Shaw - WFPK Studios
Sarah Elizabeth Whitehead - The Rudyard Kipling
Shaggy Wanda - The Bluebird
Shooter Jennings - The Bluebird
Suzanne Vega - The Brown Theatre
Terremoto - The Vogue
The National - Headliner's Music Hall
Trace Adkins - Freedom Hall
Vietnam - The Brown Theatre

Since it's the end of the year, I'm obligated to also make a best-of list. SO, the best five live performances I saw were (in no particular order):

Damien Rice - Beautiful show. Damien Rice is surprisingly funny on stage. The highlight of the show was when he sang Cannonball without any amplification. Pretty impressive in a 4000 seat theatre.
Dierks Bentley - Not only did Dierks have a set of bluegrass songs within his larger set, but he came out into the crowd. Not pretentious rock star style with the stage in middle of the crowd, but jumped off stage on whim and ran around in the crowd. It was a really fun show.
JJ Grey & Mofro (at The Bluebird) - Small crowd (people are dumb). Small venue. Great party. JJ Grey got pretty drunk and at one point was lying on his back singing a song. It was great. The Bluebird is so small that the fans always end up buying drinks for the artists. Then it gets wild.
Nickel Creek - The final show of the Farewell For Now tour. At The Ryman. Incredible show. Enough said.
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - This was his second show at The Brown. He is as weird as he is an incredible musician. Meaning that he is really weird and really incredible.
Ryan Shaw - This was a WFPK live lunch and because they were playing it over the air, it was in this little recording studio with a tiny crowd. Ryan Shaw has great energy and made it really fun. Plus I got a set list. Plus, I talked to Ryan.

You probably noticed that my top five had six. Well, it's my top five, so if I want it to have six it can. It should be noted that I didn't get to see My Morning Jacket this year, and that is sad.

The most disappointing show was the Govt Mule show at The Vogue. While faithful, the Govt Mule fans are terrible. I was really excited for the show too.

Just saw Patterson Hood's reviews for shows of the year over on Jambase, and now I'm kicking myself for not picking up those sweet tix to see Bruce Springsteen at Conseco in Indianapolis. Maybe $100 a pop, was worth it. Maybe, I just remembered that I'm broke.

Song Recommendation - Aint Love Strange by Paul Thorn

Soundtrack To My Year - 2007+ Edition

As most people are well aware, I love music. And, because I love music I try to put a song recommendation on each of my posts. The recommendations aren't necessarily something that's new, but something I like and think you should like too. I understand that you may not. I'm cool with that. I may think you're dumb for it, but we can still be friends. Music is different to different people. Just because I'm hyper-opinionated about music doesn't mean that I don't respect your music. Ok, maybe it does mean that I don't respect music, but what I do respect is that you like music.

So, I've compiled the list of the music I've been listening to over the course of the past year (with a little 2006 added....since I started this website last December). I hope you enjoy it.

December 11th, 2006 - The Hardest Part by Ryan Adams
December 13th, 2006 - Make This Go On Forever by Snow Patrol
December 18th, 2006 - Empty by Ray Lamontagne
December 20th, 2006 - September When It Comes by Rosanne Cash
December 22th, 2006 - Bright Sunny South by Alison Krauss and Union Station
December 24th, 2006 - Lay Low by My Morning Jacket
December 25th, 2006 - It'll All Work Out by Tom Petty
December 31th, 2006 - Thunder Road by Bruce Springsteen

January 2nd, 2007 - Three More Days by Ray Lamontagne
January 8th, 2007 - La Ciegna Just Smiled by Ryan Adams
February 16th, 2007 - Wish You Well by Bernard Fanning
May 13th, 2007 - Imitosis by Andrew Bird
May 20th, 2007 - Two by Ryan Adams & The Cardinals
June24th, 2007 - It Makes No Difference by My Morning Jacket
June 26th, 2007 - Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show
July 9th, 2007 - Laid A Highway by Tift Merritt
July 14th, 2007 - I Found a Love by Ryan Shaw
August 12th, 2007 - Losing You by John Butler Trio
August 14th, 2007 - To Go Home by M. Ward
August 19th, 2007 - Paranoia in B-Flat Major by The Avett Brothers
September 21st, 2007 - Poor House by The Traveling Wilburys
September 26th, 2007 - Somebody More Like You by Nickel Creek
October 3rd, 2007 - Sweets by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
October 5th, 2007 - Hair of the Dog by Shooter Jennings
October 9th, 2007 - Boy With A Coin by Iron & Wine
October 15th, 2007 - Intervention by Arcade Fire
October 16th, 2007 - Ah Mary by Grace Potter & The Nocturnals
October 21st, 2007 - Cannonball by Damien Rice
October 29th, 2007 - On Palastine by JJ Grey & Mofro
November 13th, 2007 - Float On by Modest Mouse
November 16th, 2007 - House By The Sea by Iron & Wine
November 26th, 2007 - What Sara Said by Death Cab For Cutie
November 28th, 2007 - The Lighthouse's Tale by Nickel Creek
December 3rd, 2007 - Young Folks by Peter, Bjorn, and John
December 9th, 2007 - Southside of Heaven by Ryan Bingham
December 21st, 2007 - Full Moon Cigarette by Gran Bel Fisher
December 28th, 2007 - Wake Up by The Arcade Fire

I also created an iMix of these songs on iTunes. So, if you think you might like some of them, I'm making it about as easy as possible. A few are missing....I don't know what's that about. So, maybe it's not as easy as I would like.

Have a happy New Year, and here's to wishing you the best of luck in 2008.

The China Jungle

A Merry Christmas to all.

For some reason, I never read Upton Sinclair's The Jungle in high school. Also, for some reason, I had the urge to read it. And so, while I was out in Vail I read it and it wasn't quite the book I was expecting. I went into it with the notion that the book's sole purpose was to expose the reality of the Chicago's beefpacking industry of the early 1900's. Yes, the book did talk about the use of rotting meat and human appendages purposely packaged with hog meat, but that was just a side story. The real story was what the life of an immigrant was like in the early 1900's. Or supposedly what the life what life of an immigrant in the early 1900's. Unfortunately, the story went up and down so many times, that eventually I couldn't help but think, "Get to the point." Well, unfortunately Mr. Sinclair did get to the point. The point turned out to be 60 (of 380) straight pages of Socialist (I think we see how well that worked out for the movement) propoganda to finish out the book. Kinda disappointing.

One thing I did take from the book is that there are a lot of similarities between 1904 Chicago and 2007 China. I'll lay them out for you. I'll even number my points (you know to make the extensive list easier to read).

1. Quality issues in respect to foreign countries - In the book, they say numerous times that the meat being processed in Chicago cannot be sold in Europe because of quality issues. So, although it is the cheapest, there are quality problems. Does that ring a bell?
2. Poor living conditions - The areas around these processing facilities were shanty towns. People that worked nights shared houses with people that worked days since they never saw each other. This is true in China today. A key difference is that often companies build dormitories for their workers.
3. A very small middle class - You either owned the company and were extremely wealthy or you worked for the company and barely made ends meet. This was true even for supervisors. Same is true in China today.
4. Long hours - Workers in the processing plants worked 12 hour days for 6 hours a day. Year round. That's unheard of in America in 2007, but commonplace in China. Sure, if you're an IT consultant at Crowe Chizek you might work 1,000,000 for one week at a time, but never year round.
5. Loss of an agrarian society - I was reading this book, and thinking you idiot. Move out of the city, work on a farm, live in a forest. It's not worth. Eventually the main character does, only to find that all the farm workers are moving to the city to find more lucrative work. That migration is happening as we speak in China.

So what does it mean? This was beginning of the American industrial revolution and a time when what we are as a country today as being formed. The effects of WW1 and WW2 can't be discounted though, because nothing helps an economy more than a war (that you eventually win). Today, I think the type of war can be different though. I think the war could come from fighting a disease or a space race, in addition to saving Europe from Hitler. So, it's not that much of a leap to assume that China will be in 100 years what America is today. All great civilizations fall. That's a fact.

Exciting news. I found a Google application called Google Analytics that is used to track traffic to your website, so you can target ads better. It's easy to use and pretty with charts and graphs and maps and all. It also tells you what city people are visiting you from, and the frequency of those visits. Since I've been using the application I'm pleased to announce that I average an ASTOUNDING 1 unique visitors per day. Simply incredible. This website is well on its way to becoming a cash cow for me. So, if Jake, Adam, Sara, and my sister want to go ahead and let me know what ads they would like to see. That would really help me with my effective advertising.

Song Recommendation - Wake Up by The Arcade Fire
(The Arcade Fire is #1 of bands I need to see live now)

To Vail and Back

The largest ski resort in the U.S., the most groomed terrain on the planet, seven back bowls, 300 days of sunshine, voted Number 1 for the 14th time in 19 years in SKI Magazine's "Top 50 Resort Guide" and we didn't ski. Nick, you're an idiot.

Let me explain. In business school they teach us that lots of fledgling businesses fail not because of bad products but because of cash flow problems. I know, that makes no sense. Let me explain (again). Say I make shoes. I sell a lot of shoes to a retailer and send them a bill to pay within 60 days. It is benefical for them to wait until the last day since their money is earning interest in bank somewhere. Since I'm a new company, I'm super close to the edge and need their money to buy more rubber and shoestrings to make more shoes. So, although I've been successful at selling my product, the cash flow isn't there and my company fails (I hear this happens to a lot of IU MBAs).

So, I told that long and somewhat boring....yet informational....story to say that I didn't go skiing because I'm having a bit of cash flow problems right now. That loan money is coming in January, I'm starting work in January, and my check for grading papers is coming in January.....but it's December. $81 for a lift ticket and $25 for ski rentals really doesn't fit into the budget right now.

We still had fun though. Vail is a pretty cool place in that it calls itself a resort, but is almost a little city. A little city where you can't drive on any streets and they all lead to the lifts (33). A little city with The North Face, Patagonia, and Burton stores. A big resort with upscale hotel rooms 30 feet from the lift. A little city in that the nearest movie theatre is 20 miles away, but they're in the process of building one outdoors (don't really know how enjoyable that will be). You could tell that every person that drove a bus, or worked in a subway, or took tickets on the Gondola did so just they could afford their ski passes.

It was a cool place. I don't know that I would want to drive two hours in the middle of night across the Rocky Mountains (note, You have to drive over and around mountains to get to Vail) in a Chevy Cobalt (note, Cobalts have the worst headlights ever) without cruise control (note, without cruise control you have press on the gas peddle when on the highway....weird). I want to go back. Maybe next time, I'll ski.

What's the deal with Jack Johnson releasing the single for his new album a full 2 months before the album is released. That's dumb. Radiohead finished their album, then sold it on the internet the next week.

I was about to grab a couple of Bruce Springsteen tickets at his show in Indy, but I balked at the $100 a piece price tag. Sniffle.

Song Recommendation - Full Moon Cigarette by Gran Bel Fisher

Bonnaroo, ATO, and Lost Highway

Rumor on the internet is that Led Zeppelin will be headlining Bonnaroo in 2008, and I'm hoping with all hope that this rumor isn't true. I mean, yea, I would love to see Led Zeppelin, but I'm going to be out West on THE road trip (you'll here more about this in the coming months) and, I would rather not fly back to Tennessee for the weekend. Which, I would have to do if Led Zeppelin was playing. I'm guessing that Alison Krauss and Robert Plant are already signed up to play based on the fact that they are touring together in 2008 in support of their Raising Sands cd, and Alison has played Bonaroo before. So, it wouldn't be that far of a leap for the rest of the guys (John Paul Jones played Bonnaroo last year) to jump onboard. I would love nothing more than an off year for Bonnaroo. A year where none of the artists interest me (rumor also has it that MMJ won't be playing Bonnaroo again because they wanna headline, that's good news to my ears). Here's to hoping.

As for today's song recommendation, Ryan Bingham is another artist in the Lost Highway family. I sent this song to DMassey because he's from Georgia and his old lady is from Texas, and I knew he would probably dig it. He said, "I enjoyed the hell out of that video. It made miss places." I could only reply, "It made me miss places too, and I've never even been to those places.

So, after finding another great artist from Lost Highway. It makes me wonder. Which is the better record company, Lost Highway or ATO? On one hand, you have ATO (owned by Dave Matthews) headlined by My Morning Jacket, Patty Griffin, Gov't Mule, David Gray and the recently added Radiohead. Lost Highway is fueled by a much more country sound with Ryan Adams (not for long), the later Johnny Cash stuff, Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, Elvis Costello, Tift Merritt, O'Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack, the Night Train to Nashville compliations, and about 20 other artists. You can decide for yourself.

Song Recommendation - Southside of Heaven by Ryan Bingham

These Aggressions Cannot Stand

Recently, I was the victim of racism. Ok, maybe not racism. But definitely discrimination. The worst kind. Someone discriminated against me in a way that hurt deep down to my core. They assumed that I wouldn't try to smuggle drugs into a Modest Mouse concert. See, Sara and I had to wait in an extrodinary line to go through security to get into the The Murat. They were basically giving everyone the third degree. They made people take off their shoes. They searched peoples hats. They made people take their cigarettes to out of the package so they could search both of the cigarettes and the package. Then it was my turn. They took one look at me and my J Crew sweater and just told me to go right on through. I even had everything ready to take out of my pockets. Don't they know. I'm from the suburbs. I could have had a meth pipe or some coke in my pocket. I mean I didn't. But I COULD have. Don't they know what the drug lords look like. They don't look like dope slingers. They look like CEOs.

As you know, this past summer I worked at Humana (I know you know because as a loyal reader, I know you probably know everything about me). Anyway. The entire time I was there, consumerism was preached upon me. Consumerism is the education of the consumer so can make educated choices when it comes to healthcare. The belief is that the educated consumer will cost less to the healthcare provider, thus lowering costs (which raises net income for the same level of revenue, inflating the stock price, making the everyone happy). So, as an employee of Humana, I should know that being an educated consumer is important. I should ask questions. Well, a recent trip to the doctor showed that this was infact not the case. Not only did I chose the an expensive specialist(the premium for having the best), but whenever the doctor said he was going to give me a cortizone shot, I was all about it. An informed consumer would have asked how much that shot cost. An informed consumer would have asked what alternatives were available. An informed consumer would NOT have just said, "Ok." So what does this prove. It proves that converting people to be informed consumers is much more difficult than just tell them they SHOULD be informed. That they SHOULD ask questions. It isn't even enough to tell them the benefits of being informed. Imagine if the doctor told you that you should have a shot. You're probably going to get the shot. That's the state of healthcare today. Maybe the fundamental change in the industry needs to be more transparency between doctor and patient. Maybe that is where insurance companies should be making their efforts. I don't know. I don't have the answers. I'm just an uninformed intern.

Song Recommendation - Young Folks by Peter, Bjorn, and John