Amazingly enough, my schedule this week has absolutely nothing on it. I love it. I remember when my schedule used to be empty, and I’d complain. I had nothing to do, and was completely bored. Then, sometime around May or June of this year, my calendar started to beef up. Random appointment here, band practice there, show here, open mic there, party here, etc., etc. This week (Monday to Friday) has nothing at all, and I keep staring at the calendar loving every minute.

I realized while driving tonight (yeah, I wrote this in parts) that rather than be happy about an empty schedule, I should be focusing on what I am forgetting. There’s no way I have nothing going on. It can’t be true. Oh well. If I’m forgetting something, somebody will let me know, I’m sure.

I was at a halloween party this past weekend, and I was going for ‘the lamest costume award’, if there was one. I was the Listen-To guy. Lame, eh? Yeah. You can see other costumes up in the moblog gallery up top. I guess one of these days I really need to get crackin on that Listen-To site. I guess the next step is turning the server back on after the latest power outage. I’m so lazy.

Speaking of websites .. if it’s possible to fall in love with a website’s design, I think I just did. hicksdesign just redesigned, and oh my do I love staring at that design. One day I wish I was that creative, to be able to design something like that and have it so awesome that some random guy in Michigan stares at it and salivates for hours. Seriously — hours.

And, the obligatory music talk. Concept albums are the in thing, lately. Coheed & Cambria’s two albums, My Chemical Romance’s latest, Say Anything Is A Boy, etc. I just got my newest concept album, or what I think is a concept album. The songs seem to tell a story, maybe it’s just a coincidence. Anyway, it’s the new solo album from Ace Enders (The Early November) entitled I Can Make a Mess Like Nobodys Business, and it is superb. It more or less sounds like the slower, acoustic parts of any The Early November song. Lots of strings, quiet vocals, but there is the occasional build up to a powerful ending. I can’t think of anything else to say that hasn’t been said better elsewhere, so I’ll just quote parts of the ‘About’ section on the ICMAMLNB website.

Lyrically, the songs take a sophisticated approach to exploring and breaking the barriers that block true communication in our fast-paced, technology-based world. “Everything is so planned out these days that it’s not even real. From the things people say to a lot of the music that’s out there. I like to just let things happen, in the studio and in life,” Enders explains.

In the midst of bittersweet guitars, airy keys, fervent strings, and even the hum of soap operas and game shows in the background, there is a message in this album that will hopefully catch on as well as the melodies do. Enders explains, “Whether it’s a career or a relationship, there are so many things that make you lose touch with the pure love that made you start from the beginning. I think it’s important to weed all that other stuff out. I guess you could say it’s like picking up trash, even if you weren’t the one who threw it on the ground.”

The background noise heard throughout the album is a symbol of this theoretical “life pollution.” Enders wanted to represent the clutter in life that often pulls us in every imaginable direction until it’s unbearable, and you “want it to just stop” as he plainly states in track 11, “The End of the Background Noise.”

During the epiphanic month-long writing and recording process, even his appearance experienced a transformation when Enders cut his hair off in front of a hotel room mirror. “I just picked up a scissors and started chopping. My hair felt dirty, but not because I don’t wash it. I guess tainted is a better word,” Enders said.

The theme of the album is summed up in Enders’ simple explanation, “It’s about the questions you ask yourself in the middle of the night, but for some reason forget about by morning.” Undoubtedly, I Can Make a Mess Like Nobody’s Business is a welcome reminder, and just some good “clean” fun.

You like The Early November? You’ll like this. A lot.

So, I have a new phone and, like most newer phones, it has a camera. I figure why not use it, so I will be putting pictures on the site a la moblog.

I wrote a hack that integrates with WordPress (the software that manages these posts), and I am still considering cleaning it up and releasing it for others to use. It checks an e-mail account (providing the email is on the same machine as the blog, for now) every X minutes via a cron job and if there is any new mail it makes a post to the moblog category of the site. It pulls the picture and text out of the body of the email and stuffs it in the body of the WordPress post. It uses the subject of the e-mail as the subject of the post. I’ve also hacked my site so that the moblog category doesn’t show on the main page, but rather the 4 most recent pictures will show at the top of the main page, with a link to view all pictures. I am probably going to write a better archive page for those pictures, rather than list every picture on one page. I can imagine after a few months, that could get huge. It’ll probably turn into a multi-paged gallery of some sort. (edit: archive/gallery is done.)

I was considering not posting any music stuff, but eh, here it goes. The new Sum 41, titled Chuck. When I first saw it online for download (I know, bad Brandon, bad) I wasn’t even going to download it. I figured “Eew. More pop-punk garbage.” So I ended up downloading it last week, and oh man. Remember how rad Metallica was back in the Ride the Lightning days? Remember how much Slayer rocks? Do you like remembering that? Listen to Sum 41’s new album. Sure, there are a few semi-pop-punk songs on there, but they’re intermixed amongst a bunch of metal songs. I could’ve sworn The Bitter End was a Metallica song, if the vocals weren’t there. Anyway, check it out, it’s worth the $9.99 at Best Buy or Amazon. I need to pull up my old school Metallica now. “OK ADAM .. ARE YOU READY FOR SOME MORE METAL!!!!!!!!” –FenixTX.

My life is a zoo … not really one with animals, but ‘zoo’ because I’ve just been pretty busy lately.

I’ve been trying to get Listen-To somewhere near ready to turn back online, and really haven’t been devoting enough time to it. I planned for early an September Grand Re-Opening, but now it’s looking like Early 2005, if that. I’ve been busy with the band lately. We’ve been writing new songs, trying to get some shows lined up, and generally having a great time together. Those guys (and girls) are awesome musicians, and great people. Check out our new website .. my latest spurt of creativity. Sign up for the mailing list, visit the forums, download some music, etc.

Speaking of music ..

I pre-ordered the new Anadivine CD a while back, and it’s been in stores for a few weeks now, but I really haven’t had a chance to listen to it enough. I was listening to it while writing the previous paragraph, and decided that it was definitely worth writing about. I really love the songs they’ve come up with for this album. You should go check them out, and if you like it, you should buy the extra CD I have. I pre-ordered it real early, and then forgot that I had done so and bought it the day it came out. When I got home, it was waiting for me in the mailbox, so I have two. I’ll sell it for $7 (its $12 retail) plus shipping ($1-$2) if anybody wants it .. just e-mail me for details. You won’t regret it … check out the samples here if you want a taste. edit: it’s been sold.

Like The Postal Service? You will probably like Dntel, then. Dntel is Jimmy Tamborello (who does the electronic music for The Postal Service) and I’m still amazed that I like it as much as I do. I really am not a fan of electronica or techno or anything, but for some reason I am digging the Dntel a lot. There are a few songs (ok, maybe one) on the CD (early 2000’s) that have Ben Gibbard doing vocals, so that is kind of cool to see something by The Postal Service before they were officially The Postal Service. So, add ‘electronica’ onto my list of genre’s I like, that at one point were on my ‘no way’ list. I think ‘hardcore’ was once on there, which is now one of my favorites. It’s funny how things change (deja vu.)

I spent $250 on music this week—but technically didn’t spend any money. I got a gift certificate to the iTunes Music Store from that FreeIpods site that’s been floating around. IT WORKS. I know two people who have new 20GB iPods, and I have $250 of music — for free! Click the link I just provided, and help out an awesome friend, and then go and get yourself a free iPod. It works. It’s easy. It’s free.