reading days

There were no classes Thurs. or Friday this week at VCU for a little mid-semester break called "reading days"... I love reading days. We went up to Baltimore on Thurs. evening to see some of our friends The Flying Eyes, open up for the Black Angels, and The Raveonettes, it was such a GREAT show, and fun to get out of Richmond for day. I must say that the Raveonettes show possibly was the loudest thing I have ever EVER heard. Even though we might have had some slight hearing damage, Im so glad I got to see them live.

We stayed in this great old Victorian Hotel downtown called the Biltmore. A perfect escape from your typical hotel experience. These was looking out our window at a Cathedral next door.

It was rainy, and freakin' cold so we didn't get to do much exploring BUT...
we did get to check out this awesome place. The very John Waters-esque Paper moon diner.

grrrrriiiizzzlly

I love this new song by Grizzly Bear, and the video? um, weird and mind blowing?
Two Weeks

if you are going to be anywhere close to Lubbbock next tues...

COME CELEBRATE WITH US

i am freaking out/my last 3 weekends rocked....literally

I started waaaayyyy back in September, 2008, preparing to apply to grad school. I had it all mapped out in a timely matter to have everything ready for submission early January: research, contacting schools for info, shooting my pieces and arranging my digital portfolio, visiting schools, checking out the schools surrounding community (which is very important to me), filling out applications, writing my "statement of intent" (which I think was harder than birthing a child... although I have never done that so I could not tell you for certain), and finally submitting all the requested materials in the manner requested by each school.... and I told myself in my mapped out calendar that I would submit, and then put it out of my mind... until March, which seemed sooooo far away at the time. WELL IT'S MARCH, AND I'M FREAKING OUT!!!!! I ended up applying to 3 schools, and I have heard from 2, and both places I am on the FREAKING WAIT LIST (which I guess is better than straight up being denied, but doesn't help my rising anxiety) AND my numero uno choice... I haven't heard from yet! EVERY-SINGLE-DAY I anxiously await a call, an e-mail, a letter, I may appear calm on the outside BUT I AM FREAKIN' ON THE INSIDE... hence the capitol letters, ahhhh, I should have told myself April...boo

On another, more interesting side of this post, March has been a-lotta rockin' for the Diamond Center. The first weekend of the month we played a show with our friends from Athens, Georgia, The Visitations... this is the second time that Davey and the crew have been thru Lubbock since we have been here, and I have to say that this is the best things about having transient/musician friends... you never know when they will come see you OR you will randomly run into them (this comes into play later in the post)! The second weekend we played a little mini-tour.  Thurs. we played a Conferette in Denton, the first annual NX35, AND we got to play with some other friends from Athens,  Madeline & the White Flag Band AND Ham 1. This posse included one of k's and I most favorite people in the world, the one and only, mr. Jim Wilson. Friday we played again with Madeline & the Band in Ft. Worth and then all 3 of us back together again in Austin on Sat. night. It was hard to say goodbye to that crew (and yes now I am breaking out in the Boyz II Men song). THEN, this past weekend we went down and played a day show in Austin for SXSW! I have now figured out that THIS is where it's at! Screw those official SXSW shows, the fun and the people are at the day shows. We played at an Ethiopian Resturant, Karibu (owned by our Lubbock friend Akiles' parents) with some of our other friends from Lubbock: The Numerators & La Panza, and some touring acts too... Treasure Mammal & Polka Dot Dot Dot. AND right down the alley was, in my opinion, probably the best outdoor day party, Ms Bea's. A long list of hip bands played there including, but not limited to, Marnie Stern, Mika Miko,  and my fav, The Vivian Girls, who were hanging out there all day. We also ran into several of our friends from Athens, Twin Tigers, and the Dark Meat crew, who we would be hosting for a Lubbock show Sat night. There are pictures to follow so I wont go into the details here BUT we basically squished about 3 days of SXSW into less than 24 hours.... enjoy!

ohhhhh yea, and I thought I would also mention that somehow, thru her magical powers, my sister Jana, drummer of the Diamond Center, convinced Ales Maas, the vocalist of The Black Angels to come to our SXSW show... AND HE DID! ....AND he seemed to really dig it, and came up immediately after we finished our last note and wanted to buy a CD.... AWESOME!

Alrighty, these pics are from the night after we played with the Visitations in Lubbock. A band that Kyle regularly plays in called 90% death sex, opened up for Wovenhand. It was an ultra expanded lineup this night though with me joining them on TAMBOURINE and the Visitations guys on whatever weird sound things they could find. On the right is Kyle and our friend Kate (you might have seen her around this blog before) I mainly wanted to show this pic to showcase K's awesome slick-back-do.

Alan on the left (our newest member  of the Diamond Center) and Madeline, Jeff and Me on the right our first night at Rubber Gloves in Denton. The light in the green room was AWESOME.
I love this series of Jana changing in the Rubber Gloves green room.

HERE is K on the left and mr. Jim Wilson on the right mentally preparing for the show, i'm sure.


WOW... this is the Style Station outside of Waco, Tx. It's an AWESOME vintage shop that I will have to do an entire post on at a later time... this is the sneak peak!

I just had to throw one in of Cotton, what a sweet face!




This series is the alley in Austin that was between home base, Karibu, and party central, Ms. Bea's. 

The Vivian Girls. (I am really no good at shooting live music, sorry.... BECAUSE...

for some reason I am usually taking shots like this. For some reason I think it is very interesting to shoot the feet of people watching music.... who knows!?

Bike-land at Ms. Bea's

Austin sunset. I have also learned that this thing that I like to do where I shoot things out of focus ACTUALLY is called something.... Bokeh... check it out!

Dusk at Ms. Bea's with more feet and buts! Notice the sticker on the garbage says, "No texting on the dance floor" HA

We ran into Chris, Nate, Aaron & Charlie on 6th st. waiting to get into see Thee Oh Seas
We know these guy from Athens, and they all, at some time play in Dark Meat. Chris now lives in Austin, and Nate in Denton... so we actually get to see THEM pretty often.

This must be when Aaron & Charlie decided not to stand in line BUT to.....

come with us and find some pool tables. Here is Aaron showing his signature move... those are skills I tell ya!

We also ran into my friend from high school, Cory to join us on our pool escapades.

Now here are all the guys having some kind of serious conversation although it must be pretty boring because it seems that Cory & Charlie are asleep... hmmmm

Now here is Kyle, Aaron, Charlie and I attempting to walk to the pedestrian bridge to see The Vivian Girls again for a 2am show.... Although we did make it to the bridge....



we didn't make it until show time BUT we found a sweet cab for to take us home.

The end.

livin' for the weekend

I love bloggin'... but I was really bad at it last week, and after a week when I was really on top of it, and with no good excuses either, that and knowing that the weight of the world basically rests on whether I blog or not, I should be ashamed of myself. HA!

We had an awesome AWESOME long weekend and a mini-tour with some of our friends from Athens. My band, the Diamond Center played a couple of shows with Madeline and the White Flag Band, and Ham 1 in Denton, Ft. Worth & Austin.  This included the opportunity to hang out for 3 days with 8 AMAZING & interesting people, including one mr. Jim Wilson who is one of mine and Kyle's favorite people on earth... and play music, I don't think it can get much better than that. Weird fact... there were 6 people (out of 12) with names starting with the letter J with us. (Jeff, Jason, Jana, Jacob, and 2 Jim's!)

I'll have some images of our escapades later BUT here are a couple of weekend selections of random iphone gatherings. 

like an ear worm

These two songs keep rollin' around in my head, and are my JAMS recently... and yes I realize the presence of the reoccurring theme.

Psychotic Girl - The Black Keys

A couple of weeks ago we had a crew of buddies over to help us with some stompin' & clapin' on our new album. This is most of them gathered in our dining room for the session... and yes that is me in the green stripes, respectively.

Y-U-mmmmmmy!!!

For a while now me and mr. K baby Harris have been making a conscious effort to eat good & healthy food. Making good choices is a daily battle BUT it gets easier and easier day by day. This is what fueled our decision to be, or attempt to be, vegetarians AND helps us eat lots & lots of veggies, which is just plain good for ya anyway! This is not to say that every once in a while we wont splurge on some McDonald's french fries (which is something that I did this past weekend) BUT, we are usually pretty good.
SO... I thought I would share our FAVORITE recent meal. It's TOTALLY yummy, easy to prepare... and vegan to boot!

VEGAN TACO SALAD

Steamed Cabbage (packs more nutrition than lettuce)
Corn (one of my favorite veggies, we use the sweet white frozen kernels)
Fantastic Foods Veggie Taco Filling (this stuff, and everything from FF is the BOMB!)
Shredded Soy Cheese (which is actually tasty, and SO SO much better for you than it's traditional component)
Salsa
Cilantro 
& a twist of LIME!

Just try it! Tell me what you think! AND the bonus: this whole meal AND a glass of Light Soy Milk (another obsession of mine) is less than 500 calories!!!!

no animals were harmed or scary growth hormone chemicals consumed for the enjoyment of this meal.

beach house... my inspiration

I absolutely love this video for Beach House and their song Used to Be. It's a package deal, the color, the mood it creates, and the fact that it makes me create a little tear every single time I watch it. THIS is what made me want to try to make a music movie... and as soon as my video camera (which was handed down to me from my little brother in a non-working condition) gets back from the Canon shop (barring any ridiculous fixing charges) I will set forth in my attempt to do so. 

because I love animals... and Neko Case

On March 3 Neko will release her new album Middle Cyclone, and Anti- has released the first single from the record, "People Got a Lotta Nerve" as a free download! It's a classic Neko track with soaring vocals, great hooks and that country flair. 

People Got A Lotta Nerve - Neko Case

& for every blog that reposts the song, Neko Case and Anti- will make a 5 dollar cash donation to Best Friends Animal Society.

righteous!

dear chan marshall (aka cat power)

please stop making cover albums, and return to making music like this... 

He War - Cat Power

thank you, brandi p

the best of 2008... in this gal's opinion anyway

So this is a big BIG deal to me, something that I seriously start considering at the beginning of the year, and is never far from my thoughts. SERIOUSLY, I guess you can say I am a tad bit obsessed. 

I was a little concerned because up until around the summertime, I had not been genuinely touched by an album, which greatly saddened me! BUT as always the late summer/fall releases came in and saved what started to be a dismal "Top 10 Albums of 2008" list. So hear it is... and know when reading this that many many hours have been spent considering what would show up on this very, very important list. 

... Well let me start with this. I am an album girl. If I want to listen to something, it has got to be something that I can listen to the entire album. So know this: if an album is on my top ten list... the entire thing is good! I am also going to add some singles that I thought were AWESOME, but maybe I did not have a chance to check out the entire album. Looking back at my choices I realize that as far as entire albums go, I generally like moody, reverb drenched or dramatic albums but when it comes to singles... it's the total opposite! HA! go figure. 

So now that you are on the edge of your seat and can not stand one more single second before you know exactly what I loved about music this year... here it is: now you can breathe again ;)

NUMERO UNO... yup Im gonna start with my favorite

1. Deerhunter, Microcastle 

(buy it and listen to it over, and over, and over, and over... then go see 'em live, you will not be disappointed) moody, reverb drenched, and dramatic!

Agoraphobia - Deerhunter

2. Stephen Malkumus & the Jicks, Real Emotional Trash

The entire album is full of great rock tracks, the song Hopschotch Willie, was my personal jam/mantra/song in my head for a solid MONTH. What else would you expect from Stephen (of pavement) and btw: the Jicks drummer is Janet Weiss (of Quasi & Sleater-Kinney)

Hopscotch Willie - The Jicks, ...

3. The Raveonettes, Lust Lust Lust

again dramatic and reverb drenched awesomeness, The album makes me want to put on boots and dark sunglasses and walk, with attitude, down the streets of New York City (I don't know, it just does) AND on top of that... their appearance on Conan is what inspired me to force Jana to play drums with the Diamond Center.  

Aly, Walk With Me - The Raveon...

4. Black Mountain, In the Future

This is one of those albums that I fell in love with early in the year. Moody & dramatic, it reminded me of the Jesus and Mary Chain, which is always good. PLUS they have a tambourine playin' female vocalist that makes some Yoko-ish hollers come out, which is just cool. 

Stormy High - Black Mountain

5. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Dig Lazurus Dig

Moody and dramatic, I am semi-obsessed with Nick Cave and this album is awesome! 

Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! - Nick Ca...

6. My Morning Jacket, Evil Urges

OK... so Jim James does sing about a peanut-butter & Jelly in a falsetto voice, WHATEVER! this album is my guilty pleasure and the first one that I put on when I am home alone, and no one is there to judge me (j.k. HA) I am not a HUGE My Morning Jacket fan so I think that I can appreciate some of the chances that they took with this album.

Evil Urges - My Morning Jacket

7. King Kahn & the Shrines, The Supreme Genius of King Kahn & the Shrines

Part of the reason that I love this album is because of King Khan and his over-the-top personality. At the beginning of the summer there was all this festival footage coming out showcasing his outlandish antics... and I fell in love. PLUS, the songs are great, and it sounds like old music ( which is another of my likes ) AND there is a song where he talks about his baby being "Fat & Ugly... but he loves her anyway" now how can you resist that!

8. Vivian Girls. Vivian Girls

This Brooklyn, all girl, trio embraces the moody, and revebed sound I love... plus the songs are simple and infectious.

Tell The World - Vivian Girls

9. Tilly & the Wall, O

This is the first of their albums that I have gotten into, probably due to the fact that some tracks have that 60's girl group flair.... and one of the percussion sounds is the tap dancing feet of a member of the band, now that screams cool! Iv'e gotta see them live!

Pot Kettle Black - Tilly And T...

10. Kanye West, 808s & Heartbreak

This album probably would have ranked higher if I would have gotten it earlier in the year BUT because I got it from everyones favorite, santa, I haven't been able to spend the amount of time that I would like to with it... yet. BUT I will say this.. from the moment that I heard Love Lockdown, I knew that album would be awesome. There is this drumbeat/sound that happens throughout the album that is so deep pounding it is like it is drumming on your soul... or something like that.

Love Lockdown - Kanye West

side note: K bought me the 2008 Calexico album yesterday, Carried to Dust, which would have probably made it onto this list if I had gotten earlier and not taken the advice from the weary record store dude... thanks for saving it K baby!

Alrighty, now for the singles:

Kings of Leon-Sex on Fire

Sex On Fire - Kings Of Leon

Brendan Canning-Hit the wall

Hit The Wall - Broken Social S...

Deptartment of Eagles-No One does it like you

No One Does It Like You - Depa...

Beach House-Gila

Gila - Beach House

MGMT-Electric Eel

Santogold-Lights Out

Lights Out - Santogold

Marnie Stern-Ruler

The Ting Tings-That's not my name

That's Not My Name - The Ting ...

Fleet Foxes-White Winter Hymnal

White Winter Hymnal - Fleet Fo...

Wow... well that's that. What in the world would I do if I had no music to obsess over?

heartless

On my drive to work this morning as I was flipping thru the channels of the Lubbock air waves, and found absolutely NOTHING that I wanted to listen to. I again became frustrated with the KTXT situation. I love music, I can not live without music, it is what pumps the blood thru my veins, who needs that muscle "they" refer to as the heart when you have good tunes. Of course I own good music and there are billions selections I could make between the CD's of K's music collection and our growing digital music library BUT that is not what I want to listen to while Im driving. I want to listen to KTXT. I love the spontaneous nature of the radio. I love not knowing what song is going to play next and what mood it will instantly catapult me in to. Whether they play my personal life mantra jam song OR a song that is so bad I wish was never created... who CARES... that IS the awesomeness of the radio and KTXT had that mastered. So here is my next story of the cold-blooded nature of the Student Media decision makers. Just like Kanye says, "how could you be so heartless?" side note: I am currently obsessed with Kanye.

THIS is Wombat, or as the media is referring to him "J. Wombat Porter" and this is his story of what happened on 12 10. 2008. (get out the kleenex, this is a heartbreaker):

Wombat is the station manager for KTXT and this man lives and breathes selflessly for KTXT. On that fateful day he had a meeting with the Student Media, a monthly scheduled meeting in which they were to discuss different matters that concerned the station. Wombat came to the meeting inspired with the love for KTXT and notes on how the station would continue to improve into the 2009 year. It was at that very instant that he was informed that the station would be taken off the air waves in 10 min.... 10 min! Wombat quickly jumped up and ran to the station, attempting to call some fellow DJs and staff on the way to inform them of the fate of the station. Wombat got to the station and was literally  3 steps away from the mic when the station was terminated.... permanently! No final farewell, no last song, no thank you for the last 47 years.... NOTHING! Heartless.

The story is getting some national press. Hopefully it will do some good. HERE is the link to find out what is going on as of now. I believe in the power of the people, maybe it will bring our station back.

side note: I like to pretend that Wombat is actually the red-headed illegitimate great-grandson of, the one and only, Buddy Holly. The resemblance is uncanny... don't you think? btw: this has nothing to do with the afore mentioned story... or does it.

side side note: this is my personal life mantra jam song for the moment

the independent voice has been snuffed in west texas

For over 47 years, KTXT 88.1 FM has been Texas Tech's student run radio station. Yesterday, with no warning, it was shut down. The director of Tech's student media department,  states that the decision was purely financial... FINANCIAL...HA! Maybe this squeeze is coming in order to fulfill the millions the university is promising the football coach to stick around. This is an OUTRAGE! This station is invaluable, it is an institution in itself, and its eradication is intolerable. The station, and the students who dedicate themselves to run it, are the sole supporters of local music. If this institution disappears, so will the music, period. As a local musician myself, this is disheartening. Although we are not the masses, there are many who appreciate what this station provides.  I believe this is not an abject cause, there are things to be done. There are numerous reasons that this station should continue it's legacy. People are banning together, you can do something to help us here in our almost culture less environment, the independent voice must be heard! Lubbock would be unbearable without 88.1. Click HERE to find out how to help.

ps- this poster was created by the ingenious Dirk Fowler

marfa

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, the Diamond Center had the opportunity to play in Marfa TX this weekend in support of the Waypoint Gallery - Chinati Art Opening and some friends from Lubbock, Ryder Jon Piotrs Nomadic Gallery. The evening went over fantastically and our time in Marfa although short, was magical. Kyle and I were also asked to find the other bands for the evening and we asked our friends La Panza, from Lubbock, and Red Leaves, from Austin. They are both amazing and a perfect fit for the evening. The "white/sphere" concept went over great, and the audience shook their paper maché maracas the entire show. I was unable to get any images of us performing (obviously) BUT I did get some shots of the before and after. I have now realized that I do a HORRIBLE job of documenting anything when we are also playing a gig. Basically if I at anytime in the evening wear my guitar, my camera does not work. ha.
I wish I could have spent a little more time photographing in Marfa, but we were in and out within 24 hours. 

Side note: I need a tripod, its pretty obvious.
This shot is in between Ft.Davis and Marfa on the way down, just about sunset.
Setting up. Here you can see the Waypoint gallery and our friends nomadic gallery, what a great concept, and executed so well.
Inside the Waypoint.

Our spheres in the car, pre show.
...and after the show.


Kyle, the DC messiah, with his crunchy donuts the morning after.