Author: jbenton

d-plan and death cab last night

Stayed out far too late last night to see the Dismemberment Plan and Death Cab for Cutie last night in Fort Worth with Matt, the newly redesigned Erica, and non-blogger Vikas. (Last night was sort of a trial run for the eventual merger of my blog and non-blog worlds. Vikas handled it admirably, I thought.)
It was my first show at the Ridglea Theater, so it was a surprise to hear how bad the sound was. With Death Cab, that’s almost acceptable, since their sound is pretty consistent and if you just mike up the guitars, it still sounds nice. (Even though lead singer Ben Gibbard compared the show to “playing in a high school gym.”) But with the Plan, you really need better sound for the keyboard-heavy tracks. You wouldn’t think there were any keyboard-heavy D-Plan tracks from last night. (I’m a little concerned about the Luna show there next week — that’s another band that really needs good sound.)
But enough bitching — it was a great show. Travis from the Dismemberment Plan was more spastic than usual, which was fun. And they seemed to be in a punkier state of mind than usual, which would explain rocking out to some unusual early selections from the D-Plan canon. (Yeah, I’ve seen them all of one other time, so I’m an expert on their usual “state of mind.”) Death Cab was calmer, but their sounds transfered well into the setting, in a head-nodding kind of way.
In all, I agree with Erica, that it was great to see a bunch of talented musicians having a blast on stage. Two very fun bands I can recommend to you when they come to your town. The show gets the official crabwalk.com seal of approval.

new music

Newish music I’ve been enjoying the last few weeks:
DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist, Product Placement (two hip-hop geniuses come together, Shadow from his solo work, Quannum, UNKLE, etc., Cut Chemist from Jurassic 5, Ozomatli, and others; not quite as brilliant as it should be, but would be top-notch if it were created by mere mortals)
The Avalanches, Since I Left You (best Australian dance record ever? unless the Kylie back catalog’s got an unexpected gem, yes. listen to the whole album online here)
Beulah, The Coast Is Never Clear (indie rock as updated ’60s orchestral pop; better than expected, particularly if you like a little horn in your rawk)

is a hog’s butt pork?

Ah, it is truly amazing what two days off can do for a man. For the record, my last day off was Feb. 3.
Just learned a great Texas phrase for saying something similar to “Isn’t this statement obviously true?”: “Is a hog’s butt pork?” I’m becoming more Texan every day.

boy genius not so genius

Remember the story I linked to about a month ago, about the “child genius” who might not have been all his mom cracked him up to be? Well, Mom’s admitted faking her son’s IQ tests, as part of an (ill-conceived?) plan to get him back from the authorities who took him away from her. “Ms. Chapman said that last week, she told her son what she had done. ‘He was so forgiving when I told him the truth,’ Ms. Chapman said. ‘He gave me a hug and said, “I understand.”‘”
FYI, now that I’m all broadband and stuff, I plan to be available for IMing for the first extended period in my existence. I’m crabwalkjb on AIM.

broadband, yowzers

Today is the first day of the rest of my life. Today I have broadband Internet at home. I can’t decide which is more life-changing, brushing up against Katarina Witt or this.
The cable guy doing the install overheard me talking to my boss about a story that’ll be on the front page tomorrow. “Yeah, I think we should just say it’s $150 million and leave it at that,” I said. “It could be closer to $200 million, but let’s be safe and call it $150 million.” As soon as I hung up, the cable guy asked, “Excuse me, but what line of business are you in, exactly?” I had evidently sounded like a big dealmaker.
A few photos from SLC may be making their way onto this site this evening, if I judge them non-humiliating enough.