I got a double dose of DJ’d music this week.  I don’t know  what it is with the head-bobbing dudes and their giant headphones, but I want to make them all my future ex-husband.

Thursday night, M and I went downtown to see Flosstradamus spin.  We were a bit annoyed with the fact that the show was on a Thursday and that it was at Red 7.  On top of that, there were two openers and Flossy wasn’t going to hit the stage until 12:30.  We decided to camp out at the home bar and drink for cheap until the show started.

The set got off to a good start but then it got lame.  I though things would improve when the dudes mixed in the song from the Lion King and someone on stage lifted up the fan like Simba.  No such luck.

Friday night I went to Sock Hop vs. Soul Happening.  I put on a party dress (pink gingham halter dress), fluffed up the afro and hit the Mohawk.There is something to be said about live dj-ing on actual records.  These guys went the extra mile by spinning 45’s.

SSSH  ended up winning the battle.  They had better transitions and they had the crowd dancing until they could dance no more.

I spent the majority of the weekend camped out on the couch with unlimited streaming movies.  Why?  Because my place reeks of paint fumes and it is still on the f-ing market. Oh, and technically I was house/cat sitting.

Left to my own devices I managed to plow through 8 movies.   Most of which were total fluff.  One of them may have been considered a film, but I doubt it.  Day 1:American Pie 2, Penelope, Broken English, Carolina,  and 10 Things I Hate About You.   I OD’d on chick flicks.  I told M that I needed some scotch and an action flick or something to undo all of that.  Instead we got wine drunk and walked downtown with 2.0 to dance it off with the Hood Internet.

Day 2:  I left M’s around noon-ish and was craving cheese (Note to self, do not order a vegan burger after a night of drinking.  Order the f -ing grilled cheese.  Note to late night establishments, fries should be crisp, salty, greasy and still contain soft potato insides).  I stopped at the Target on the way “home” for milk, Amy’s Organic shells with white cheddar and  managed to consume it all during  the course of three movies… Julie and Julia, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, and Harold and Maude.

I have to say that the concept of unlimited streaming movies sounds like a good idea.  I am not sure who is out there selecting the movies to be screened. If you know who they are, please inform them that there should be more films, and less crap.

DSC_0126, originally uploaded by Limorama.

We went last week to see Tokyo Police Club open for Passion Pit.   Jen wrote about it a bit here.  They were great! I haven’t seen TPC in years. They sounded great, I guess the sound guy likes them. However, Passion Pit had a great energy, but did not sound so good. The guys were together and all that, but, it was way bass heavy.

Let’s just say that Jen and I got to be a little fun that night. We ended up getting a ride home from a friend (we took the car-to-go to get there) and as we pulled into my driveway, Jen and I started to go through his CDs.

Suffice it to say that Jen now thinks he’s a shoe-gazer lesbian because he listens to Tegan and Sarah. Ha! (Sometimes I’m sure that my stories would be more funny if you were actually there.)

Last night Passion Pit played “Dreams” by the Cranberries. [For the most part their set sucked.  I love PP, don't get me wrong, but the sound was horrible.  M and I walked around to a few different spots on the way back from  the port-o-lets and the sound was bad everywhere. ]  I was a big Cranberries fan in highschool/college and that song manage to restore my faith in PP and remind me that life is hard and sometimes you just have to fumble your way through it in order to get where you want to go.

Click here to listen to the cover.

Main Entry: ¹fum·ble

Pronunciation: \ˈfəm-bəl\

intransitive verb 1 a : to grope for or handle something clumsily or aimlessly b :<fumbled in his pocket for a coin> c : to search by trial and error d : blunder
to make awkward attempts to do or find something 2 : to feel one’s way or move awkwardly
3 a : to drop or juggle or fail to play cleanly a grounder b : to lose hold of a football while handling or running with it

So here’s the deal, when I turned 33 I was told by my Yenta that it would be the best year ever.  But it was unclear as to whether I had to make it my best year, or if I could sit back and just have it dished out to me.  I decided I didn’t want to wait.  I had things to accomplish. 1) Sell my fucking house before it was Africa hot out (mowing the lawn in 100 degree weather is not cool. 2) Live irresponsibly in someone else’s property (aka apartment) somewhere in the numbered streets. 3) Leave the country.

Here’s the part where I think it is appropriate to add “flying by the seat” of one’s pants to the definition of fumbling.

Here is a snapshot of what has been going on in my life:

• February- Get the house ready to sell Interview realtors. Get ready for SXSW
• March- SXSW. Showing the house (aka living in the store display). Scheduling volunteers for BluesShout! Dealing with retarded realtors. Traveling all over TX for work.
• April- BluesShout! volunteer wrangling.  More more travel in the nether regions of TX. Living in a store display.
• May- Attempting to grow grass in the front yard.  Firing the realtor.  Shopping for new realtors.  Prepping for a fashion show.
• June- New realtor.  Fashion show.

It’s been a hectic six months.  Stay tuned for what’s to come

This was year 6 of volunteering my way to platinum. I have been on vacation for the past 2 weeks and living at M’s house.

(You should go back and read the daily recaps. I put this stuff out on the internet for you, little readers)

Total # of bands: ~24  ( City Riots, Best Coast, the DJs from the Hood Internet, Le Loup,  Typefighter, Sondre Lerche, Vivian Girls, Death Set,  :papercutz,  Oh Snap!, Rogue Wave, Miike Snow, Fucked Up, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings,  Hole,  Frightened Rabbit, Minor Mishap Marching Band , Mayer Hawthorn & the Country, Passion Pit (DJ set) , The Pains of Being Pure at Heart,  Broken Bells, Ezra Furman and the Harpoons ,Everybody was in the French Resistance…Now!, and  Diplo.)

Total # of movies: 6 (The Runaways, Tiny Furniture, Canal Street Madam, Barry Munday, the Freebie, Kick Ass)

Total $ spent: ~$115 In comparison to last year, I spent more money and came home with less loot (Recessioned!).

Things that vastly improved this year’s SXSW experience:

• Being a Crewchief: (Thanks to the Real Jew) I worked a ton of pre-conference hours and was done by Sunday afternoon of SXSWi
• New sidekicks
• Nap time

M and I went to the Middle East/Mumford and Sons show last night.  We bought the tickets after missing the Middle East on several occasions during SXSW.  As the show approached, we were feeling old and debating if we wanted to go to two concerts in one week.  As we walked to the Miike Snow show M checked CL and found out that the tickets were going for about $120 for a pair (we bought them for $15).  Tempting…

Wednesday morning we decided that we should eat our Wheaties and go to the show.  Since the hipster math has done us wrong on many occasions we headed to LZR at 8:30.   The show started around 9ish.   The Middle East was definitely worth the $15 and then some.  They reminded me of Los Campesinos!

Unfortunately about 4 songs in I didn’t feel so great. (more…)

I saw Miike Snow with M and the Jew on Tuesday night.  Antone’s was packed full of frat dudes and sorostitots (When will they get the message that I paid to listen to the band and not them singing along?).    Anyways, I was reminded that I needed to post this year’s Summer Skate Jam.

Passion Pit’s the Reeling was the Summer Skate Jam of 2009.

This year’s Summer Skate Jam is Miike Snow’s Cult Logic

So M and I buy tickets for shows during pre-sale or within seconds of tickets going on sale.
This is Austin, venues are small, shows WILL sell out.  When we tell you to buy your tickets, you should listen.  90% of the time we are right.

M bought the tickets for the upcoming Passion Pit/Tokyo Police Club show the day they went on sale. As always, we debated the need for an extra pair of tickets just in case.  We had a feeling that it would sell out fast so we decided to get them and deal with them later.

We bought our tickets for Miike Snow and the Middle East during SXSW (after we stumbled home from the Spin party).  We didn’t know if we would be available on those dates but we knew we couldn’t wait.  We ended up buying two extra tickets for Miike Snow because we knew that inevitably, one of our friends would forget to buy their ticket.

We attempted to get tickets to the Phoenix show (I gave M my credit card # so she could buy them for me while I was at the office).  Tickets went on sale at 10am.  M had the computer queued up at 9:45.  At 9:58 she attempted to hit the button to see if she could buy tickets. No luck.  The sale started at 9:56.  The show sold out in 2 minutes.

Vampire Weekend was a show we were on the fence about seeing.  Sadly we spent too much time on the fence and missed out on tickets to that show.

I received the email from the Pixies mailing list about the presale for the Doolittle tour over the weekend. I am not that excited about the show being at the Music Hall but it’s the Pixies and they rarely tour.  M and I WILL be going in September.

Fast forward to now…
Miike Snow (sold out). Great show, sadly Antone’s is not the greatest place to see a band.  The Jew got one of the spare tickets and the other one was sold on CL.

Middle East/Mumford and Sons (sold out and moved to another venue to sell out again).  La Zona Rosa was a much better venue to see this band.

Passion Pit/Tokyo Police Club (sold out, they added another day and they sold out again).  M and I plan on getting their early enough to be close enough to eat their faces.  The Jew gets the spare ticket.  Sometime between now and the show one lucky person will get the last ticket.

With the bikes downtown, and bad weather for walking around (cold and windy), M and I decided to take the bus ($1). We headed to the Brooklyn Vegan/M for Montreal Showcase at Galaxy but left when we couldn’t find a posted schedule.  The next stop was Maggie Mae’s for the Aussie BBQ.  Plenty of food for opportunivores but not vegetarians.  I had a beer and we stayed for City Riots and Best Coast.

M and I braved the cold and headed to LoveJoys for the DC does TX showcase.  They were supposed to have free beer and Le Loup was on at 3.  By the time we got there, the beer was gone.   We decided to stick around anyway.  The music was good and we were out of the cold.   Yenta showed up at the end of the set by the band we don’t have a name for [edit 3/22: The name of the band is Typefighter.  They were a last minute sub for Title Tracks.].  We stayed for Le Loup and weren’t that impressed (it was Saturday, maybe they were tired)

After the show, Yenta headed to a movie and M and I made an attempt to see Thurston Moore at the Mog Show.  The line was wrapped around the building so we opted to hit the Under the Radar/Jansport Party. No beer but it was warm.  I stayed for Sondre Lerche [singer/songwriter, did the Dan in Real Life Soundtrack] and Vivian Girls [imagine what it would sound like if Au Revoir Simone rocked out]  M left to meet up with the Jew at the Hypemachine party.  My the time I got there Death Set still hadn’t hit the stage.   Once they got started, I wasn’t impressed.  I decided to bail and head over to PureVolume to see who the Special Guest was.

We aren’t sure if the random girl from OK was the Special Guest.  We hoped it wasn’t.  But at the same time, we couldn’t stand there to find out.   M, the Jew, and I decided to grab fancy dinner at Annie’s around the corner.  The food was ok.  A bit overpriced (I think we were paying for location). I had Arugula and Lemon Chevre with a glass of Prosecco.  We ordered 2 carafes of the house red (they were out so they gave us the Cabernet).  They have one veggie entree listed.  I probably could have asked them to make me something off menu but since it was SXSW, I decided on the Vegetable Risotto (they made it with caramelized onions, asparagus and a balsamic reduction.  The three of us split the ginger creme brulee for dessert.

After dinner, M and I decided that our wine drunk selves should go to Prague to check out :papercutz.  Sadly, the soundguy didn’t do them justice.   We left 5 minutes into the set and headed for Karma Lounge to dance it out to  The Hood Internet.  We got there early and caught Oh Snap! They made our SXSW 2010 highlight reel with their performances of “Rich Kids” and “I’m too fat to be a hipster”

After the shows, we decided it was too cold to walk/bike and decided to hail a cab.  We tried for over 30 minutes and had no luck.  We were close to the Stephen F. Austin Hotel, so we asked the valet to hail us a cab.  They worked their magic and we were in a cab home in about 5 minutes.

M decided to ask the cabbie if he had any tips on nights like this for hailing a cab.

1. Taxis don’t like picking up large groups.  They will pick up one or two people over a group of 5.
2. Do not try and hail a cab when you are smoking or have food/drinks.  Cabbies don’t want to deal with that.
3. If possible, hold up cash.  Cabbies like paper, not plastic.

Cost for the day: $10 for cab,$1 for the bus, $4 for M’s beer, $50 for fancy dinner.

Free: 1 beer

For some strange reason (well not strange, the sun was out and the people from the City were destroying the sidewalk outside the house) I woke up early.  I ended up going back to my house to check on things and mow the lawn.

I made it back to the house by noon and M and I rode downtown with empty stomachs (we were hoping to find free breakfast).  We were running a little late so we went directly to the Spin Party.  UV Vodka was a sponsor.  The beverage of choice for the day was UV Pink Lemonade with a splash of soda water and lime.

We got to the party in time to see Rogue Wave.  We found a good spot up front (near the VIP food that we weren’t supposed to touch).  After Rogue Wave we grabbed another beverage and M managed to procure food.    After our snack we moved back to the front to get a spot front and center for Miike Snow. They played a good set,  for those of you who don’t know the band, think about what the Cut Copy remixes sound like, but better.

By this time M and a were feeling good.  We grabbed more drinks and found a safe spot to watch Fucked Up (we did not want to end up in the mud wallow/mosh pit).  We debated leaving to check out another show and decided to keep drinking vodka and stay for Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings.  I was impressed (and it was not the vodka).  Sharon was on fire and put on a “James Brown cape-worthy” performance [this lady does not need autotune].

This is where things get a little fuzzy (we were going the route of an LA housewife minus the prescription drugs).  I remember Twittering the following, ” Vodka. Thank you for making me impaired but not hungry.” It was around this time that M and I headed to the restroom and managed to get some free shirts and give  someone some whiskey from the flask.  We grabbed more booze and went back to the “safe area” to watch Hole.  By this time I think M and I were 7 to 5 on drinks.  As the day wore on, the drinks got stronger (this is what happens when you tip your bartenders).  We made some friends, took some photos, and rocked out to the hot mess that is Courtney Love [BTW. She introduced a new phrase, Shitfuckers].

After the show, we went to Sidebar to use their clean bathrooms.  M ordered another drink and we stuck around and listened to some random punk band.  By this time I was starving.  I had 2 pieces of white bread, some coleslaw so far.  I snacked on some sesame crackers that were stashed at the bottom of my bag (we always have snacks).

M and I decided it was time to head to Jackalope for a mountain of fries (and burgers). We were half finished when the Jew showed up. We finished our food and made the executive decision to call it a night and cab it home (we left the bikes downtown).

Cost for the day: ??? tips for bartender, ~$15 at Jackalope (per person), $8 cab

Free: I think I had at least 5 vodka sodas (it was vodka and orange juice towards the end.