leftovers

I first got into Voice of the Beehive after hearing their single "Monsters and Angels" on a particularly significant day of my freshman year of high school, in the fall of 1991.  I immediately went to Musicland in The Mall in Hays, Kansas, to purchase the album Honey Lingers  (yes, that's a play on the word cunnilingus - say it with a British accent!) which included that song.   From there, I fell in love with the album and played it to death.  While it's a top-notch album, it's also fairly short - clocking in at just over a half hour. Soon, I needed some more Beehive in my life and was lucky enough to find their debut album, Let It Bee , on vinyl at my local record store (GB Records) and because it was a used promo copy, I paid around $1 for it - which was great since I was a broke teenager!  I thought Let It Bee was a little more raw, and had some strange songs on it, but I thought it showcased the girls' vocal harmonies even better than Honey Lingers . ...

I've never considered myself a "gear head" - one who is obsessed with the makes and models of musical equipment that one owns, or longs to own.  Much like my feeling about cars, as long as I have something that will do what I want it to do, I'm pretty happy.  I wanted to document the various keyboards and pieces of electronic music equipment I've used throughout the years, but I haven't kept meticulous records of the makes and models, so this could be interesting! Casio MT-100 This was my first keyboard ever.  I received it as a birthday gift from my parents and boy was I happy!  I had already been taking piano lessons, after my dad bought a second hand piano which was housed in our laundry room / my sister's bedroom, which was unfortunate for her that she had to deal with the sounds of the washing machine, the dryer, and my amateur ivory tickling.  But this being the MTV age, it was all about electronic keyboards for me, so I just HAD to have my...

2014 brought a lot of new music into my life, the return of some old favorites, and a lot of just really fun stuff!  First, the honorable mentions, which there were several this year: Lana Del Rey - Cruel World; Kylie Minogue - Into the Blue; Charli XCX - Boom Clap and Sky Ferreira - I Blame Myself. Also, although it may not technically count, one of the best musical experiences of the year was finally seeing Tom Bailey of the Thompson Twins live, and hearing his new version of "If You Were Here," which he added a whole new verse to. ( 1/28/15 update ) SO EMBARRASSING, but I forgot to include "Chocolate" by The 1975 .  This would have been in the top 10 for sure.  Oops!!! 10. Air Balloon - Lily Allen   I really admire Lily Allen's sense of rhyming, lyrics and melody.  I wasn't that into her at first but I have grown to really love her.  Her previous album "It's Not Me It's You" was when I really got into her, and her latest albu...

*This is all subject to my hazy memory malfunctioning, but I'm trying to remember the best I can When I was in seventh grade at Paradise Middle School, it was supposed to be the first year our class would be able to attend a school dance, which was the Christmas party and dance normally held in our school cafeteria, only for seventh and eighth graders.  However, the two classes above us really screwed up, starting a food fight or some such nonsense the year before, and as a result, the school decided to no longer sponsor this activity.  I was really bummed and told my parents how unhappy I was, and somehow, it was decided that we would host a holiday party and dance at our house instead! I don't remember how I convinced my parents this was a good idea, but I remember thinking I just had the coolest parents and this was going to be the best party ever! I went about preparing for the party with a fervor that was probably new to me.  Looking back now, this is officially ...

So these are the states that, as of today, I have visited in my lifetime.  I would much prefer that they all be colored in, but I think I've done pretty well for myself so far. As a kid, when we went on vacation, it was always west of the Mississippi.  I'm not sure why, and I also think it's common, that people who grew up in the US always wanted to travel west.  Most of the states that are north, south, or west of Kansas, I visited on family vacations.  I think Oregon is the only exception, as I only visited that for the first time on tour with Shitting Glitter. As for the states east of Kansas, those were all visited in college or later.  Brandon and I went on a road trip with Randy, and that's how I knocked off Illinois and Iowa.  Georgia was because I attended a journalism conference there in college.  New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts were accomplished during the trip Dylan and I made to celebrate the states that had ma...

This is our Halloween video!  We had a ton of fun filming it with Marky Make Up at Jarod's mansion in the hills.

The annual Retro Futura tour, previously known as the Regeneration tour, is something I've been aware of for awhile, and have been to on at least one occasion when Human League was part of it.  Though I was disappointed a year or two ago when Human League were again announced to be on the tour, but then ended up not being on it, I was very intrigued this year when they made the announcement that Tom Bailey, the musical force behind my first favorite band, The Thompson Twins, was coming out of "pop retirement" to headline the tour. At first, in my busy cocoon of a life, it was hard to muster much excitement.  After all, I wasn't initially too impressed with the rest of the lineup, and I was of course disappointed that Allanah and Joe (the other two "twins") would not be taking part.  But my friend Marc's enthusiasm rubbed off on me and I was texting with him while we were waiting for the minute that tickets would go on sale, so we could both get tickets...