Overdue Recap: Grand Ole Party CD Release @ M-Theory & Starlite

I've missed the last few in-stores at M-Theory...you know, getting stuck late at work, caught in traffic...whatever. I was not about to miss Grand Ole Party's in-store CD release. My office is in Fashion Valley, so it was just a quick drive around Hotel Circle, up the backroad to Mission Hills, and I found a quick parking spot. The store was already a bit crowded, said my hellos to friends, and found a little spot up front where I could perch my camera a bit.

Grand Ole Party sounded very put together, really tight, and genuinely happy to be playing for the hometown crowd. I'm not one to be elitist about a band...that whole "I saw them first" kinda thing, so I was pleased to see what appeared to be a lot of newer fans there, as well as a lot of kids who probably miss out on the 21+ shows. A couple songs in, and M-Theory was packed, with a few people spilling out on the sidewalk. The band played "the hits", but also pleased the crowd with a couple new songs. They played about 8 songs, and Natalie wrote a pretty great review of the show here.





After the set, I picked up Andrea and we swung by my house to let my dog out and freshen up a minute, then headed down to Srarlite for the after party. I had not yet had the pleasure of going to the Starlite and I realize now that I've been missing out. While we didn't eat, we chatted with Tim Mays for a few and he took care of our first round. I don't know what Zee was drinking, but I went for the Mule and loved it. Mostly it was just a relaxing night...the band was there having a good time, Heather and Eric from M-Theory, a couple of the people from the band's label, and the Skull Kontrol guys. We stayed till the restaurant was closing up and then were on our way. After the night, I'm definitely looking forward to GOP's show at the Casbah next week, and really looking forward to another one of those tasty mules.

A Video Dedication To Skull Kontrol

The Skull Kontrol DJs were spinning vinyl at Starlite last night for the Grand Ole Party CD Release soiree.

Thank you guys for taking me back to junior high. I can't believe how long it had been since I've listened to this song.

Inspiral Carpets "This Is How It Feels"


While I'm at it, this one is for Mitchell, Michael, Alex and Joey.

The Charlatans UK "Sproston Green"


Seriously- you can find EVERYTHING on YouTube.

Recap...the rest of the weekend

Look, I'm only human. Cullen says I'm unguarded and it's true, but I can only be me. But sometimes that means being sensitive, grumpy, angry, and generally unbearable. It's these times you should hope I'm hiding at home under my covers with Ryan Adams' new CD on repeat (which for at least part of my weekend, I did). The Band of Horses show irked me big time. It's nice to hope being called out is something you can just brush off, but the truth is I probably slept about an hour last night because that and other weekend stuff was on my brain and I tossed and turned all night long. I appreciate all the people who messaged me about my rant and understood my need to vent about it. Fortunately I can predict that my funk was just a weekend thing and by the time I'm watching Jim James tonight at the Belly Up, everything will be all good again.

I did mention that the Band of Horses pre-show was a good time, so I want to still post a couple funny pictures we took out on the patio while the two opening bands did their thing.









Other than that video on the other post, BoH gets no pictures posted. Sorry. Once the incident occurred, we booked it outta there. We headed to the Ken Club and were able to catch most of Fifty on Their Heels and all of Vinyl Radio.







It was good to see friendly faces; for me that means friends and the bartenders, I'm sorry that other people continue to have issues there.



It's not that I measure the bar with a different stick, it's just I've never personally experienced any problems there. Yes, the sound could be better. The band room could use a couple good lights, some a/c, and better sound equipment. Don't even mention the constant suggestion that the bathroom needs more stalls. I know all this. But then it wouldn't exactly be a dive bar, would it? And vodka tonics would cease to be $3 bucks. And when all of you aren't there for a show, us locals are the ones in there essentially keeping the lights on. Just the way it goes. Also, the sound isn't nearly so terrible if you buy some good earplugs. Just a suggestion you might consider.

Saturday was Sophie's birthday at the Beauty Bar and I thought I was in a better mood butI guess I really wasn't, so I did my best to fake it. It was nice to get there early (thanks for the drinks, CatDirt) so one could actually have a conversation before the DJs raised the volume to 11 and all parts of a conversation are prefaced with "what? I can't hear you!"





When the bands started, I watched passively. During the Vultures I was tucked in the back where there was a gap in space and I could breathe. I did take a couple pictures of Fifty, but since I'd just seen them the night before, I was pretty passively watching them, too. I stuck around as long as I could, but while attempting to pass the dancefloor, I got popped in the face...a definite sign I was not supposed to be there one second longer. Learn from my lesson...do NOT attempt to pass by the dancefloor while sipping your drink. A flailing conversive arm came up under my drink and slammed my plastic cup into my bottom lip while drawing a tiny speck of blood from biting my lip. The boy whose enthusiactic gesture knocked my drink was very apologetic and he raced to get me napkins (in case there was more blood) and then promptly replaced my drink, so it definitely wasn't any bad on his part, just wrong place at the wrong time, but when the cosmos speak, I listen and I bid adieu to the birthday party.

When I got to the Ken Club (I didn't say I was totally done for the night), Roxy Jones was playing in the band room. "Don't you dare bring out that camera," Peter joked, but it wasn't coming out anyway. The BoH thing definitely knocked me down a few pegs and I'm gonna be a little shier with the camera, I suspect.

Anyway, nothing particularly exciting on Sunday, unless you wanna hear how easy it is to drop serious cash at Target on kitty litter and toiletries. I watched the very hilarious and ridiculous "Sweet 16: The Movie" after catching pieces of the "Blingest Sweet 16" countdown. The winner: the son of Pebbles whose dad is a record exec...they spent over a half million dollars on his party. It's really disgusting actually, and I hate myself for watching any of it. Feeling shame, I realized that I should make something of my night and finally saw Firethorn play at the Zombie Lounge.

I was happy that when I walked up, the guys were all outside and hadn't played. I missed the opener, but did get to catch the full set of Tigers of Wrath. The singer's voice was a little high on the register for me considering his speaking voice was deeper, and he would pull his head away from the mic as a sound effect, which didn't really work for me. When he did belt it out and directly into the mic, they sounded 10 times better. They're doing a west coast tour, so I hope the experience helps them and I can catch them





Firethorn played next and I liked that they were more melodic than 97% of the bands who play the Zombie. That doesn't make them soft, it just means they actually sing instead of just yell. There were as many girls there to see them as guys, which I think definitely says something positive about the band. Plus, they're three of the nicest guys and completely supportive of other local bands with a near perfect attendance record for Tim Pyle's events, supporting all genres of local music.







I didn't stay for Someday Assassin thinking I was completely tired and then as I mentioned, I slept maybe an hour total waking up at least 30 times. It was pretty awful. Maybe I should've stayed and done a shot to knock me out... next time...

LMAOROTFL! OMG OMG

Just kidding with the title, but please check out the new Radio Sophie blog for laughs. And maybe my "voice" came across like a valley girl from a couple extracted quotes in the U-T (i.e. "If I don't go out one night in a week, I'll feel like, 'Oh my God I'm missing something,' ") but I would hope my readers would let me know if I sounded that way all the time. Please?

If you don't feel like clicking over, here's a quote I love:

"Ok, so remember Jared Leto from that show back in the day on MTV, “My So-Called Life”? Well he has a band, they’re called 30 Seconds to Mars… and they’re really good."

All the posts so far basically exude love and adoration for bands, which is fine, but coming from a radio station, there's insincerity to it, too.

I'm also really enjoying the whole debate happening in the comments section over at CatDirt's site. I'd love to create a debate like that over here but since I don't allow anonymous commenting, it might not be quite as effective. Here's his original post with the comments. I figured DJs were competitive, but I had no idea how they hate each other. I just think it's funny as someone who doesn't really care about who is DJing so long as I can hear myself think, how much they think people care. Is it just me? Do people actually care other than the DJs themselves? Just wondering.

Wednesday Newsy Bits: Skull Kontrol, May*Star, 91X, Cops out of Control

I'm a little behind the curve today, but some stuff I thought I'd still mention, even at the risk of duplicating other blogs:
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Check out your favorite Skull Kontrol/Art Fag boys in Street this Thursday, or check the Street blog here. Don't forget about the Skull Kontrol/Cat Dirt Sez event on July 7. CatSkull DirtKontrol. I like it.





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According to the Reader's Blurt section this week, 91X is slowly moving to a hard rock format. If that is true, I hope the on-air staff has got their resumés together. I'm not wishing ill on any of them, but format changes and new pd's usually eventually like to rebuild a station with a tabula rasa. Try Radio Sophie... the format is a little soft, but in my opinion more progressive than just shadowing KROQ.

Also, check out May in this week's Reader music feature.

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A very good friend of mine just had an incident with police harassment and I wasn't going to write about it because it's not my business to evaluate a situation based on one side of the story. But over and over again this blatant abuse of power and authority is broadcast in the YouTube world we live in. Is this cop out of control? He was antagonized and I'm not in his position, but I perceive this as excessive. I guess mostly I just feel people need to lead by example, starting with our Commander In Chief all the way down to Public Servants, clergy, and all the way down to moms and dads. A culture of violence promotes more violence, not less, and "absolute power corrupts absolutely." That said, I got this on MySpace today:

If you'd like to comment on this video, here is the contact information:

Hot Springs Arkansas Police Department
Phone: (501) 321-6789
Fax: (501) 321-6708
Chief of Police, Bobby Southard
Email: bsouthard@cityhs.net
641 Malvern Avenue Hot Springs, Arkansas 71901

(Arresting officer is Officer Joey Williams)

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