Souled American

Public service announcement: If Souled American is playing in your town, see them. It looks like they're swinging through California, then the upper Midwest, then the Northeast.

I caught their show last night in Portland. I had seen them several years ago and wasn't sure what to think. It had been in some rock bar (Berbati's Pan, wow, how long has it been) and they had gone on late so I was halfway in dreamworld. But last night - hooray for early shows - I was on the right wavelength. I sat down in the balcony and after doing a few nervous crosswords, the music stopped and the band started playing. I could feel the universe's frames per second rate change. Slow, deliberate, human, stately, a little incomprehensible. 

I had always admired Joe Adducci's fretless bass playing on record, but it's magnificent to see it live and try to figure out what makes it work. I think by the end of the night I had deduced some basic patterns, but I wasn't close to cracking the code. There were things he did that did not appear to even make sound, yet seemed to be crucial. 

They had an "elegantly understated" t-shirt that just had their band name/wordmark on it in quarter-inch letters where the pocket would be on a pocket-T:

Souled american

I admire the commitment to minimalism, but I saw myself having to explain the spelling and capitalization choices to normies and decided to steer clear.  Kind of the opposite of the band shirts I wear the most, which don't even have a legible band name. And ultimately a band t-shirt should distract from my dad bod, not emphasize it. 

Rock Mix (Focus)

YouChoob Music in all of its wisdom promised me a "Rock Mix - Focus" that contained Rllrbll, Eternal Tapestry, Pere Ubu, some other stuff that I could conceivably use to promote focus. I click on it and get this:

I suppose throwing my speakers out the window when the Doors come on might result in a sort of focus?

The Minor Thirds / April recap

Friend of Tape Mountain Chris P./The Minor Thirds has a new single/suite/epic/minepic, a five-in-one called Reckless. I always like when Chris goes a little dark and this is no exception.

Things I did in April and early May:

Went to Seaside on the beach. I'd never been into Seaside, thinking it a little declasse, but looking at it with fresh eyes, it's compact and fun, the sort of place that's fun to walk around for a long time with a kid. The kid got a stuffed octopus. I was very pleased that he has assigned the cephalopod they/them pronouns.

Bought wine at a yard sale. I take a particular forbidden pleasure in buying weird wine at yard sales. This wine was much less weird and old (and spoiled) than some of my previous finds but still pretty tasty.

Played Dragon Quest IX. So twee, so silly. Lots of opportunities to dress up little ciphers in silly outfits. Run around doing repetitive tasks while riding the exercise bike. And even by DQ localization standards, this one is bonkers. Any game that shamelessly spits out lines like this is A-OK by me:

Success! The Top-Flight Knight Fight Quest has been transgressed with finesse!

Hung out at L.L. Stub Stewart State Park and hiked with the family in early spring. So nice. Everything endlessly blooming and budding. Critters aplenty for JL to gawk at. Need to head back there.

Went to a PTA convention (!) Was delighted to see that the only other bicyclist at the convention was our old housemate (and JL's friend for decades) James.