My Mind: Lifesized

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Jeff Tweedy and his son Spencer last Wednesday night at the Top Hat.  I wanted to go but missed the boat on tickets as the show sold out super fast (Missoula loves anything related to Wilco and Wilco seems to love Missoula as well). I'd resigned myself to just hear about the show, which unfortunately seems to be the trend in my life rather than the exception these days. But happenstance and luck reared their heads again and two tickets fell into my lap thanks to Alex & Nick Simmons making the state high school basketball tournament.  Jen pooped out and various friends couldn't go for one reason or another (the best excuse coming in the form of a text from Mexico apologizing he had to miss the show due to lounging on the beach....BAH), so I headed to the show with my friends Karl & Lolo sans listening partner.  As for the problem of the extra ticket, after standing out front for 15 minutes with no taker, I popped a message on...

I am blown away, even to this day, every time I hear this song. 1998...if I had heard this while in college, I just might have remained frozen in time. JTB were just down right awesome.

Tasty!

North Central High School 1981...yes, this was popular. Much to my kids horror, I danced to this song tonight in Old Navy. Why not, they already think I am totally uncool.  Luckily I was gravitating towards The Replacements, New Order and others and escaped pop music for several decades!

I absolutely love this song. Every single time I hear it I sort of just freeze. What a beautiful voice and what great lyrics. A must watch. Oh, and hi, I am back.

I mentioned that I was in the midst of a year-end gorge of 2011 music in an effort to solidify my best of...I'm happy to report I keep finding more and more sites with great reviews and, once again, music that hadn't reached my ears. Here is another example I Guess I'm Floating Presents: The Best Albums of 2011 . I'd never heard Pepper Rabbits before, but am loving their sound. 2011 was indeed a good year in music and I can't wait for my compilation to be complete so I can share. Back to work....

I've always loved music, always. I have strong memories of my childhood and some that stand out are of my Mom, driving the car and signing out loud an d"dancing" as she drove. She had this elaborate hand dance she did that made both me and my sister laugh. We didn't think she was a dork, we thought she was cool. At some point, I think around my college years, I started making "best of" lists and compilations. In college these were done on cassette tapes and I prided myself on my ability to make songs fade and blend together. My tapes were all titled, "Juicy John's Best of...". At some point the cassette's were dropped for mixed compact discs and I developed a whole network of like minded friends who would trade me their best of discs for mine. I guess I've been at this for 35 years or so, wow! Since the birth of my first son, Liam, the importance of always being ahead of the curve when it comes to music has diminished somewhat. I n...