I'm back

Hey! If anyone still reads this blog, I just want to say sorry for disappearing for several months with no warning. Some things (e.g. family, health) come before writing.

But I am back and will continue to update. I am going to be playing catch-up for a while with a bunch of albums I should have reviewed this spring or summer, a few shows I went to quite a while ago and the like. Once I plow through some of that, I'll get back to a regular schedule with show listings (Wednesdays) and "Dust It Off" (Thursdays) and good ol' reviews the rest of the week. There may be a super-awesome new feature or two soon as well, so stay tuned.

Guest Review: My Parents - "Happy Birthday to You"

Jasper sent me a review over IM of the limited edition single "Happy Birthday to You," a cover of the classic Orem and Forman song performed a capella by husband-wife outfit My Parents.


Song: "Happy Birthday"
Voice Mail Records, 2009
Rating: ******** (8/10)

I just listened to a voicemail from my parents. As soon as I saw whom it was from and the length, I knew exactly what was going to be on it. It was 44 seconds long and from their home phone.

They did a pretty good job of it though, sang in approximately the same key. My dad even did a little harmony thing at the end. My mom was not quite prepared to hold down the melody so she dropped out, but still, on a scale with most covers of the song, quite respectable. I guess that is not saying much.

Wow, I think I just wrote musical criticism of my parents singing me "Happy Birthday."


I post this as a cautionary tale for those thinking of pursuing music criticism as career or hobby. Kids, you don't want to end up like this.

Trying Something New...

Hi guys,

I got bored recently and made a bunch of playlists on MySpace. I'll try to rotate good music through in case anyone is interested in listening. I'm still trying to figure out if there's a logical way to link to them here, so stay tuned.

One of the playlists I made will have samples of the bands I mention when I list upcoming shows. That's here.

I don't know if this will be useful, but like I said, I was bored.

RFR

E-mail Subscriptions Now Working Again

Apparently that little e-mail subscription thing on the left wasn't working for a while. It's fixed.

Sorry If You've Been Seeing Weird Formatting

I've been playing with the html code, and not always successfully. My apologies for everything getting messed up every two minutes.

I added MySpace links to old posts

My apologies, I've gotten lazy linking you to the bands I write about, but I just went back today and added links to my 2009 lists:

Albums to watch for in 2009

Fifteen bands to watch in 2009:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Sorry I didn't do it in the first place, but better late than never, eh? Check out the links and give the bands a listen!

RFR

E-mail Subscription Now Available

Hey everyone!

A bunch of people have been asking me about getting the review delivered by e-mail. So I figured that shit out and the feature is now available. It sure puts on the pressure to not screw up the first time I post things, though!

To subscribe by e-mail, just put your e-mail address in the form on the right. It's so easy!!

RFR

I'm trying to do computer things that are difficult

Hi everyone,

I just added some helpful (I hope) feed links on the right-hand side to make subscribing to the review a bit easier. Also, I added some links to the bottom so you can get in touch more easily. But this is all using html which I don't know very well, so please, please, please let me know if the links or buttons don't work or don't display right.

Thanks and enjoy!

RFR