Culture Greyhound

Hello all,

Today is my 27th birthday. If you don’t know, now you know. In lieu of this amazing, incredible, revolutionary, historical milestone, I am sharing with you a pet project of mine I’ve been working on since March. Although I’m not sure if you’ll have any interest in it after about ten minutes, just know that I enjoy it very much, and that was the intended purpose. If you also enjoy it, hooray! We should be friends.

Culture Greyhound Radio is an Internet radio station broadcasting live from my dining room table on a dusted-off, stickered Toshiba that was just sitting in my closet for about three years. For you radio nerds, I’m currently rocking the latest, licensed version of SAM Broadcaster, my hosting is provided by ViaStreaming, and I’m legally broadcasting under royalty licensing coverage via Loudcity. That’s right. It’s legit. Musicians are getting paid, yo!

I’ve got a lot of programming and production things planned for the station, but for now, it’s playing a pretty current-heavy playlist rotation structure. As far as the music goes, I’m pretty thrilled with it, and I hope you like it too. Know that suggestions and comments are accepted and considered, but most likely ignored. It’s not that I don’t love you, I do, but if I don’t dig a track, it’s not going to play. This is not KTXT reincarnated, this is not KISS FM, this is not The Llano Idea, this is not WOXY 3.0. This is Ben’s station, and likely the only person in the world who will absolutely 100% love it is Ben. That said, criticism is welcome and encouraged.

Listen here on this ugly, soon-to-be changed Loudcity page (I’m required by law to send you here, and the picture as of this point is my cat, who is cute, yes, but if anyone wants to generously design a logo for me, that would be great). Additionally, I’m working on a page for the station, which you can find at the top of this page in the menu. To use an old-school-Geocities-Internet term, it’s currently Under Construction (insert stick figure with a hard hat on here).

Birthdays are a reason to celebrate, and although I’m keeping the festivities pretty low-key this year due to some current soul-searching and whatnot, nothing lifts my spirits like music: listening to it, writing about it, talking about it, sharing it. And music goes hand-in-hand with another one of my passions: radio. So the logical conclusion here is to connect the two and share it with you, and I truly hope you enjoy it. And thanks for listening.

I’m a bit late to the show, but like all of Markham’s output, this one’s a grower. It might be the one you’ll have to spend the most time with out of all of the Markham albums. And that’s because, underneath the twang, the West Texas melodies, the semblance of loneliness, that dirgy Deadsy guitar, that brilliant album title, and that head-scratching album cover, Ruined My Life is a new side of Daniel Markham he’s merely hinted at in the past. With this, the first post-Lubbock proper full-length, and the first proper solo album, his eyes are turned outward, his head is held higher, and frankly, the mood’s a bit brighter.

The highlight here is “New Blood.” Uptempo and upbeat, Markham signals early this album represents a change in life, attitude, and perspective. And I can’t think of a single song he’s ever done that sounds anything like it. Throughout the album, a theme of “moving on” and “well wishes” are given as opposed to past Markham mantras of lost love and confused direction. Pronouns have shifted in his lyrics, giving advice to broken hearts rather than lamenting his own. One Wolf’s material produced an image of internal battle and identity struggle. Ruined My Life (with a title that’s simultaneously humorous, unfortunate, guilty, and, maybe for an ex, downright accurate) contains songs that signify that internal battle, at least for now, has been won.

The death of R.E.M. likely put a heavy weight on the songwriter’s psyche. I’m merely speculating, but I’d be willing to bet money that’s who the “favorite band” is in Ruined My Life. Regardless, the influence has never been more prevalent in Markham’s music than here. “Drag Up Some Dead” sounds like it could belong deep on New Adventures In Hi-Fi and “Killers They Will Creep” makes the younger Markham of Waiting to Derail fame sound like a guy wasting away in Margaritaville. We’ve certainly come a long way from “Wish,” haven’t we?

But mostly, it’s an amalgamate of good ol’ Markham. Combining elements of pretty much everything he’s ever done, from the lovelorn alt-country of Waiting to Derail to the pop laden with sadness throughout the first One Wolf album, to the cacophony of guitar and emotional torment in the second One Wolf album, there’s signature sounds here that immediately make me think of Lubbock, Texas, even though I haven’t been there in years, and I’ve never heard this new music there.

But this is not Lubbock music. Lubbock is a wonderful place to live….for a while. But anyone who’s felt stuck there likely would put a few One Wolf tracks on their mixtape dedicated to a future away from the eerie desolation, the unending boredom, the strange loneliness in a town of 300,000 people. The Markham Sound is inherently Lubbock – it was born there, it still remains in his music; you never really wash off that red dirt. But lyrically, thematically, this is the soundtrack of Lubbock behind you. The melodies are more positive (“No Mosquitos,” which could be about leaving the 806), the thoughts are optimistic (“Best of Luck,” one of the strongest tracks on the album), and the humor, always hinted at in the past, is more apparent here. Less about love lost and more about change, traveling, touring, living life, Ruined My Life is a more mature Markham, a refocused, repurposed, relocated, and recalculated Texas musician Denton should be proud to call a resident.

Buy it on iTunes.

Once every three months I list the best of what I heard in albums/songs/remixes for the quarter. I do this to personally keep up with all the awesome music I hear, as it ultimately helps me at the end of the year when I do my overall listing for the previous twelve months. I also do it to introduce you cool cats to tunes you may have missed independently.

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As graduation has come and gone, and the job search in a big city becomes the highest priority, I have been coming to grips with the fact that I am probably growing up, and I have mixed emotions about the whole thing. I figured by now I would have a lot of things figured out, mainly dealing with self-esteem and the like, but I suppose truly being an adult is realizing that things aren’t as idealistic as we imagine them to be when we leave high school, and that life is a jumbled, unorganized mess of experiences and lessons that gradually develop us into who we truly are, and also that these experiences and lessons never stop. They come at you every day, and at some point, the only one who can present change in your meaningless life is yourself, the one who knows you the best.

Wow. A paragraph in and I’m already rambling.

So I’ve been thinking of my life at a high level lately, as I am wont to do when a chapter of my life ends and a new one begins. That and I’m spending a LOT of time alone and at home, with no one to entertain but my cat, so these nostalgic, big-picture, “how did I get here” thoughts naturally creep up. And since I am dying to be productive in some capacity, I decided to utilize this thought process that has no definite answer into a series of blog posts related to music. Because ultimately, on my thought train, I relate EVERYTHING IN MY LIFE to music. Because music is, and will always be, the glue that holds me together, and the most important thing in my life. Sorry, future wife and children.

I begin this series, which will be presented in chronological order, with the greatest band in the history of recorded music, the Beatles, and their first album, Please Please Me, recorded in one day on February 11, 1963. It is most definitely one of the most important albums ever made, but almost no one, including myself, will say it’s the best Beatles album. That honor usually is debated amongst the group’s later work – The White Album, Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road, Magical Mystery Tour (the correct answer), Rubber Soul, and Revolver are generally the nominees. On occasion, Let It Be creeps in there as well.

Historians can tell you about the album on a track-by-track basis, which I believe is the one with the most amount of covers and the least amount of Lennon-McCartney compositions. Even then, though, the duo was already making a name for themselves with chart-topping originals like “Love Me Do” and the title track. And of course, you can read about the vocal-shredding one-take of Lennon’s “Twist and Shout,” which was the last song recorded for that very reason.

My dad introduced me to the Beatles, and Please Please Me is the first music I ever remember hearing. I was probably two or three years old. I will never forget that old stereo system, with those giant Hi-Fi speakers on both sides of our 80’s era entertainment system. Those big knobs on that oversized amplifier, that now-antiquated CD player, which my dad probably bought the first day it was sold. I would later spend so much time using that system, more than my dad, and when everyone was away, I would blare the Beatles to full volume, eventually blowing out the bottom right subwoofer. To this day, Dad doesn’t know that was me, but who else would it have been? I imagine when my dad brought home all those copies of remastered Beatles on CD (which were released in 1987) and plugged in Please Please Me and saw the look on my face, he knew his son would appreciate this medium more than he ever did. In short, he had done what would ultimately be inevitable; he had created a monster. His son was a music lover and all it took was a single CD.

Initially, as most fathers do, he was probably thrilled his young, impressionable son was in love with the music of his childhood. But by the time I graduated high school, it’s safe to say Dad probably would have been okay if he never heard a Beatles song again. I took that introduction and ran with it, eventually commandeering all those Beatles CDs when I got my own CD player and listening to them for hours and hours, obsessed with the band, their culture, their history, every single word, every single song. And my entire family had to put up with it. And so began what would be a lifelong passion that evolved with my own generation’s creations, and something I didn’t see until long after I left home – that my dad and I, like most fathers and sons, don’t completely understand each other, but we are extremely similar in many, many ways. If it wasn’t for my dad, I wouldn’t have discovered my favorite pastime, my reason for being, my life force. Music. I imagine my dad would say the exact same thing about his discovery of what he loved, and who showed it to him (his father), and how that person wasn’t really someone who completely understood him, but that ultimately that doesn’t matter, because you love him anyway.

I have always stood by the old adage that music brings people together in so many ways. When I started writing this post, I didn’t intend for it to be about my dad. I was going to write about my vivid memory of the first time I heard “I Saw Her Standing There,” how I would stand right by the speaker and pretend I was playing guitar (something I still do in the privacy of my apartment at age 26), how I would get in trouble for playing it too loud. In short, I was going to write about Please Please Me, which you can listen to in full here, and I encourage that you do. At the very least, you’ll hear a great album from a great band, and at most, you’ll get a sense of who I am.

But when I think of The Beatles, and in particular Please Please Me, I think of Dad. Because, even as I mature and watch him grow older and he watches me become who I’m supposed to be, the Beatles are still one of the very few things we have in common. There isn’t much else in terms of interests or beliefs or ideals. And when I was younger, I found that truth to be annoying. But as a whole, it’s quite the opposite. It’s just the way it is. The way it’s always been, the way it will be. And the discovery that love for your father has nothing to do with compatibility, or even understanding, really, is refreshing. It’s a blessing to realize after years and years, that these things aren’t important. It’s the experiences together. And my father and I have plenty of those. And we also have the Beatles.

And who could want anything else?

It’s 2AM, and of course I can’t sleep, even though I’ve been deprived of it for several days now. I suppose what’s keeping me up is the past two years. The classes, the homework, the papers, the logs, the WOB torture, the presentations, the internships, the debates and spirited arguments, the fantasy football, the awesome professors, the infuriating professors, the Ragsdale residencies, the All My Friends concerts, the venture creations, the makeshift tech startups with classmates, the playing-hooky road trips to Marfa, the ridiculously HAM/YOLO weekends, the karaoke, the watching friends get banned from Kerbey Lane, the watching us all get kicked out of G&S Lounge, the SXSW shenanigans, the house parties that got a little crazy, the Guy On a Buffalo.

Most of the above has culminated into today, where I and three of my fellow cohorts this afternoon will give a Capstone presentation to a local online digital production company. We have utilized all of our skills and experience, everything we’ve learned from this program. We have had several meetings, made phone calls, sent emails, scheduled Google Calendar reminders , had lunch pow wows, printed at home because Kinko’s is too expensive, and drunk lots and lots and lots of coffee. It almost feels like I’m an adult. Almost.

And we’re going to nail it.

And then? We’re MBAs.

I have a tendency in moments like this to get sappy, but this is who I am, so deal. I consider this day to be an important one for me. The ceremony on Saturday doesn’t mean much to me, frankly, other than making it official with a cap and gown, and making Mom happy. After this presentation, where my team will prove we are who we say we are, after the employees have left and the reports have been passed out and the grades have been jotted down, I am a student no more. Finally.

Most people will ask, well, now what? I’m asking the same thing….another day. Today is not the day to ask that question. Today I am busting my ass until 5pm, and then I am celebrating. Then my family is coming into town to celebrate with me. One thing is for sure, 2013 is not over, the work is never done, and there’s still questions to be answered. This time around, though, I’m optimistic, more confident. But that is a thought for another day, a day that’s around the corner.

I am lucky to have been given this opportunity to pursue graduate work, to have a supportive family, to have understanding friends that I need to start hanging out with again, to have a life in my favorite city, to be able to study in such an innovative, amazing program that isn’t perfect, but I can’t say I haven’t learned anything. Quite the opposite. I have learned so much about my industry and others. I have learned a plethora of knowledge about the world of business. I have learned things about myself, my traits, my hobbies and habits, my ethics, my values, my esteem. I have learned all this from remarkable people. People who were hired to teach, and people who weren’t and have no idea they’ve taught me these things.

But most of all, I’m lucky to have been a part of the group that took the ride along with me. More than the schoolwork, the lifelong lessons, I have made friendships with remarkable people, friendships I hope and believe will last a lifetime. In terms of what would normally be classified as qualifiers for diversity, we didn’t really make the grade. But to say there wasn’t diversity in the Season 7 cohort is obtuse. The unique views and opinions, the insightful discussion, the jokes, the flat-out arguments were probably the most valuable experiences of this entire two-year daytime program, and I wouldn’t trade any of it for anything. I came to school everyday to learn about business, but it’s decisions like these that make you realize you are learning things all the time by everyone around you, that people are remarkable, and unique, and sometimes straight-up amazing. And that, through this program, I have made an unspoken bond with a group of people, some of whom I may never talk to again, some of whom I will talk to for years to come. But it’s a bond that will serve as a reminder through action and recommendation, through support and encouragement, a bond that reminds us: we all went through something pretty spectacular together.

And of course, from now until the end of time, there’s not a doubt in my mind:

Abe
Austin
Blake
Brandon
Chris M
Chris P
Jarad
Johnny
Kyle
Mike
Nick
Rachel
Rhys
Sam
Sawyer
Sean
Whitney
and Will

We are The Best Cohort.â„¢

Here’s to you guys.

My buddy Austin pointed me to this video that’s gone viral from Jimmy Kimmel. It’s a Lie Witness News report his show did during Coachella where they ask some attendees if they’re excited to see bands like the Obesity Epidemic and the Chelsea Clintons and they all express that yeah, they love those bands so much and can’t wait to see them. But here’s the catch: those bands don’t exist.

Now there’s probably 3 reasons for this, all of which I think are valid.

1) People who go to Coachella aren’t really going to see music or bands, so they probably wouldn’t be able to tell you who’s playing anyway (this one’s more accurate than you think).
2) They’re just being polite to the people asking them questions and don’t want to look like an idiot with a camera in their face.
3) They’re hipsters.

I would like, for the purposes of this little spiel, to focus on #3, though the other two are probably correct in some fashion as well. While the video was funny, I kept thinking to myself throughout the course of it, “Wow. I used to do that ALL THE TIME.” I remember being a young, impressionable 20-year-old, hanging out with new friends from bigger cities who I met in undergrad, trying to fit in, be cool, lying about how I know every lyric to every Mountain Goats song ever and how the Decemberists’ first album is way better than their last two, etc. These are conversations young hipsters have all the time. Yes, I too was a young hipster. I struggled to fit in with my musical friends, who I’ve now come to realize may have not even liked music at all anyway, or at least the trite shit they claimed to like.

At 26, I now understand my true self. I hate the Mountain Goats. John Darnielle’s voice is atrocious and his speaky-singy delivery irks me to no end. This is merely my opinion, but the difference between my age-26 Mountain Goats opinion and my age-21 Mountain Goats opinion, other than the opinions themselves, is that one is sincere and one is not. One is from a kid who thinks too much about what other people think about him. The other is from an older guy who is tired of listening to shit he will never like and tired of trying and doesn’t really care anymore. But it took me a while to get there. I spent a lot of time on music I respect greatly in retrospect, but ultimately I have determined just isn’t for me.

Meanwhile, I back-burnered a lot of music I LOVED simply because it didn’t fit with the current catalog of “Things Okay To Like.” These are purely subjective, arbitrary things that make no sense to me whatsoever at age 26, but at age 21, I lived by The Code. I had to be cool, I had to gauge someone else’s reputable opinion of a band before I claimed my opinion. This was highly pretentious, it was sad, it was necessary. It was a period of self-discovery and it made me who I am today, a more self-aware, musically intelligent, but overall less snobby human being. But it was pretty bad, and I know if it was bad for me in Lubbock, Texas, I can only imagine what kids at Coachella 2013 are going through. THE PRESSURE.

I say this all a bit tongue-in-cheek, of course, because we all know that being insincere and insecure about your music taste is a dumb thing to dwell on to the point of flat-out lying about it. But these kids are dealing with it, and I can understand that. And it will take some time. It’s all part of a big painful process called growing up and your twenties and self-discovery and blah blah blah. All of which is easier said than done. And one thing that never happened to me during this time was I never ended up looking like a jackass on national television during this developing period of my life. So I kind of feel for these kids, even if you can look in their eyes and see nothing but complete cluelessness and low self-esteem and the general physical effects of recreational drugs. Because all they did was show up to have a good time, and then some millionaire has his interns put a microphone in their face and they opened their dumb mouths and pretended to know what they were talking about, like young hipsters do, and got called out for it on YouTube, and now they’re sitting in their chemistry class totally embarrassed and sunburnt and hungover. And this is part of the process. And it’s funny, funny, funny, hilarious stuff. But also, a little sad. But mostly funny.

Because we have to laugh at ourselves. That’s the first step to getting out of your young hipster phase. And most of them will get there. Some never do, unfortunately. And that’s not funny at all. That’s annoying. Because if there’s anything worse than a young hipster, it’s an old hipster.

Once every three months I list the best of what I heard in albums/songs/remixes for the quarter. I do this to personally keep up with all the awesome music I hear, as it ultimately helps me at the end of the year when I do my overall listing for the previous twelve months. I also do it to introduce you cool cats to tunes you may have missed independently.

Continue reading

Hey everybody! Long time, no blog. How’s your 2013 so far? Mine is getting mixed reviews, but we’ll get to that. Or maybe not, I’m not really sure yet. This is a stream-of-consciousness post. Should be a fun read! Or not…I haven’t decided that either.

So when I started this blog back in 2010, it was designed to be a forum for me to maintain what at the time I considered to be my greatest asset as a recent Texas Tech graduate and an unemployed barfly in my college town – my craft of writing. I still consider that to be a strength, especially now that I’m about a month away from earning an MBA. I’ve done more writing in the past two years than I ever wanted to, and due to time constraints (and the strange need I invented for myself to post something every day) this cool little blog turned into a place where I would just repost pop culture stuff, mostly embedded videos, because that was the quickest remedy.

I always wanted to focus this blog on pop culture (mostly music, of course, but also film, television, sports, news, politics, etc.), but I also wanted it to be a place where I could vent and celebrate, where I could relate these cultural aspects to my menial life, my personal experience, and my present-day comprehension. A place where I aped Chuck Klosterman, more or less. That happened for a while, but of course I got busy and lazy. I started hating blogging, I put it off until it was overwhelming, and then I would phone it in. And guys, I’m not going to do that anymore. But I’m also not going to blog all the damn time either. I’m going to use this for what it was designed. So that means sporadic posts that are higher in quality and ultimately more meaningful to me. Because really this blog is for me, and about me, and I could really care less if anyone reads it, to be totally honest. But thanks for being here anyway. You’re a good friend.

I’m running into the realization that I’m approaching a period of my life I’m all too familiar with – with an emerging graduation, no certain career lined up currently, a dwindling social life, and a continued nonexistent romantic life, I’m going to have a TON of free time, where I’m alone with my thoughts, my anxieties, my uncertainties, and an obscenely fast Internet connection. And my cat, of course. 2013, I can safely say, might be the scariest year of my life. My future is a giant question mark in almost every category.

At the same time, I am more optimistic this time around for whatever reason. Maybe it’s because I’ve surrounded myself with people who have given me confidence and self-worth. Maybe it’s because I’ve taken to heart my lessons from grad school. Maybe it’s because I have finally stopped comparing myself to others and matured to the point where I’m finally just comparing myself to the past version of myself. Maybe it’s because I know that I have a family that supports and loves me, that will always tell me they’re proud of me, that will always make sure I always have a roof over my head and food on my plate. It’s probably all of the above. Ultimately, I know if I turn negative, I’ll just give up on everything, and I feel I’ve made a lot of significant steps in my life, and to do so would be foolish, because it’s all uphill from here. The 2010 guy who started this blog has come a long way, and I feel pretty great about that, and I firmly believe in that old adage everyone’s mother always told them – that if you just give it 100%, everything’s going to work out in your favor in the end. I don’t sweat the small stuff like I used to, I don’t worry about what others think as much as I used to, I don’t get angry like I used to, and I don’t fret over things I can’t control like I used to. All in all, I’m on a very uncertain path, but I feel pretty good that I have the intellect to make things work out in my favor – if not immediately, then eventually.

So what else, since we’re playing catch-up? 2013 music has been blowing 2012 out of the park. I’ve finally started going to the movies again (shout out to the Saturday Morning Matinee Club!), I’ve been dating (!), and baseball is back in season, so that’s been taking up most of my time recently. Yu Darvish is my hero. Spring time is my favorite time of the year, hands down. I still live in the best city in Texas. SXSW was amazing this year, maybe the best of my seven years of going. I’m going to have some serious platinum badge withdrawals in 2014. I saw Green Day, Justin Timberlake, caught some amazing panels, some hilarious movies, saw some old friends, and did it all in a fairly responsible fashion. Like, with minimal hangovers and all that jazz. I know, right?! Well, I guess this is growing up. Sorta.

That’s another thing, guys. I don’t think I’m ever really going to grow up. I know 26 is still very young, but at the rate I’m going right now, which is moderate, I don’t perceive slowing down or settling down or being a miserable old man anytime soon. No matter where I end up, be it Austin or Portland or Dallas (ugh) or London or wherever, I’m going to find the right balance between work and play, and probably ruin the balance occasionally. But only occasionally. Because, really, that’s the way I’ve always done it. Minus my 18-month Lost Weekend in 2008-2009, I’ve been able to keep my head above water, because I was raised by sensible people who taught me good morals and let me do my own thing.

So here’s to 2013, what could possibly be the greatest year of our lives, because we were all supposed to die in December, remember? And here’s to the return of this wasteland blog. Since I’m a personal goal-setter of sorts (with the exception of physical activity), I’ll probably make a concerted effort to post on this thing at least once a week, if not more. But if I’m not inspired, I’m not writing. Them’s the rules. So cheers!

As a final housekeeping note, yes I know what day it is: the next post here will be the Quarterly Review, and hopefully I can hash that out this weekend. Fingers crossed!

30. Toadies – PLAY.ROCK.MUSIC

Sure, No Deliverance was a fun reunion album, but it lacked the punch of the early material.  No more; PLAY.ROCK.MUSIC seamlessly blends the old with a new, raw sound that carries Toadies’ now-legendary Texas rock swagger into the new millennium the way we true fans have always imagined.
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I invite you to partake in my painstakingly ranked (not really) 200 favorite tracks from the past twelve months. Some you will totally agree with. Others you will listen to, and then proceed to question why you even clicked on the link/why you’re my friend/etc. Such is the beauty of the subjective beast that is music.

Keep note that this is probably the least diverse track list I have ever made, and I’ve been doing this for a while. This year, due to an increasing indifference in “indie rock,” a busier schedule, a large bias towards general hedonism, and an overall “I don’t care anymore” attitude, this list is probably as close to a personal “favorites” of the year as I’ve ever come. In other words, no one likes this list as much as I do, at least at this point in time. You will find a lot of dance and hip hop here, as well as a large sampling of tracks from artists I’ve publicly proclaimed to be my all-time favorites. Having said all this, there’s plenty here to chew on, and I have always prided myself on my diversity, so I believe there is still something here for everyone.

Rock the Spotify playlist below. I’ve provided the text list below with YouTube/Soundcloud/Pitchfork links to tracks that aren’t available on Spotify. Enjoy!

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