Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Here we are now, entertain us


This weekend marked the debut of darling brown boy’s 90’s cover band, My So-Called Band. Niiice name. The first show was a Memorial Day pool-side BBQ at the drummer’s apartment complex. Here is my attempt to chronicle the event. Keep in mind I have piss-poor photography skills.

Check out the setlist (which I got autographed). Lots of rockin’ oldies but goodies. Strangely, “Bombtrack” turned out to be the biggest crowd pleaser, especially among the 40+ demographic. Interesting. My take on it is that it was obvious that the band loved playing that song the most. And lil Amy, the singer, managed to scream “Burn Burn!” with admirable gusto.
I gotta say, I did not know all of these songs by heart. During the 90’s I was sort of really poor and couldn’t afford cds, thus managed to miss out on the bulk of the grunge movement. My friend Lauren and I would check out 60’s and 70’s cds from the library and make tapes of them (ah, tapes). I think this explains my love of classic pop, my bubbly demeanor, and my obsessions with David Bowie and The Beatles. Ha. At any rate, if I was in a cover band I would either choose 60’s all-girl or 70’s glam rock. Comment below on your cover band of choice. But this isn’t really about me, is it?

Moving on, here is a pic of Sommer, the hot chick bassist. She is not intimidated to play bass in a band with Aneil, so you gotta give her props for that. Plus she’s real nice to me so we must love her.

Sommer is married to Jim, who is a much much better significant other than yours truly. He had a fancy camera (a la Bo) and ran about getting artsy camera angles. Here is a shot of him taking what is likely a far superior photo than I could take. Think of this as a photo within a photo. Like Hamlet’s play within a play, but more grunge. Although, if you think about it, Hamlet is pretty freaking grunge. Oh, the angst!

To reiterate Jim’s superior husband skills (I almost typed husbandry and it made me think of A&M’s excellent ag dept), here is a link to the website (!) he made to put all his superior photos. There are some really charming shots of Aneil, so it is worth a click if only for that. Well, I guess the whole band is attractive, but like how we all have a favorite New Kid on the Block (mine? Jonathan. I know, lame in retrospect, right?), Aneil is obviously my favorite My So-Called Band-er.

Click here for much better photos.


Here is my completely non-artsy photo of Aneil, in which he smiles at me. It reminds me of the time me and the brown gals went to New York and Maria, fresh out of a photography class, kept getting annoyed with Neha for making us smile and wave in front of landmarks rather than taking candids. This photo does not necessarily represent the essence of the band, but I like to think it expresses Aneil’s undying devotion and constant willingness to amuse me and/or humor me.

Here is the only decent photo of John that I took. He has one of those slick yet disconcerting electric drum kits. I’m not sure if Fro approves of those, but will ask him next time I see him. At any rate, John is Aneil’s BFF and he is real cutie and funny and managed to survive a Spinal Tap moment during setup when a pillar fell from the apartment staircase and almost crushed him. Scary.

Kenneth plays lead and he is also one of Aneil’s close friends. He actually showed up to the show wearing a cropped sleeveless Megadeath tshirt, so I dunno why he changed. Didn’t get a photo of the original outfit (sorry ladies). Kenneth is lovely and likes to hug and makes me laugh a lot, so he gets a thumbs up from this critic.

Amy is the hot singer girrrl. She has one of those husky slightly affected voices that I really wish I had rather than my limp Jewel-like instrument. She held her own on the mostly boy music that was played (apparently the Lillith Fair did not occur according to this 90’s band…good/bad? Discuss.) Plus she is wearing shorts with roses and skulls on them and that’s pretty rock n’ roll.
Here is a pic of a dude who came out on his balcony to check out the band. At first he seemed confused, but he sort of got into it. A fan!
Here’s some of the crowd around the pool.

Also, I kept making fun of a couple of dudes who kept eating kielbasas, like the entire afternoon. Seriously every time I saw them they were getting more food. I thought this was freakish until I was later told that they had competed in a triathalon earlier in the day. Ha. I’m such an asshole sometimes.

Sadly/awesomely, some cranky neighbor called the cops and the show got shut down with only 2 songs to go. Doh. I think the band felt validated in a way, so that was good. Plus the cops were very nice about the whole thing.

Most of the rest of my photos are blurry, so that's it from me. If I wouldn’t have been so delirious from the heat, I would have thought to get everyone together for a band photo, but alas, we will have to wait until next time.

XOXO, Groupie Girl

Thursday, May 22, 2008

"I Believe" that "This Is My Now" because in "A Moment Like This" I wonder, "Do I Make You Proud?"

Hi there Upper East Siders,

Today my coworker and I could not stop talking about the stellar American Idol finale and our weirdly overwhelming crush on the winner, David Cook:

Seriously, this dude started the season with a strange comb-over hairdo (I believe streaked with magenta?) and a sad lil soul patch and now he's Dreamy McDreamerson. It's amazing what a decent haircut and growing a beard can do for you. Plus he loves crosswords. At any rate, my American Idol loves are typically not everlasting (i.e. I never actually purchase any of their post-Idol records, albeit I downloaded at least 3 Kelly Clarkson songs back in the day). But I dunno, I spent all night fantasizing about my dream wedding to David Cook (obviously he would serenade me with his strangely awesome cover of Mariah's "Always Be My Baby"). Ha.

Not to be outdone, Aneil pointed out that he is a better boyfriend than the Idol ever could be, as he has never had an ugly haircut, and his beard is far superior (both true):

I guess he has a point. Besides, based on the Idol's profile, he loves Our Lady Peace (ha) and he sang that stupid "Dare You to Move" song as his singer's choice, so obviously he has questionable taste in music. Aneil trumps him on that too. Ha. (No doi, Aneil, I love you the most!)

The other highlight of this week was getting to see Amee (!) and her sis Megha (now a doctor) and her friend Tianna. I had been yeaaarning for girlie hanging out time, so Monday was ideal. We feasted at Lupe Tortilla, talked smack about our frenemies, giggled, then came to my house for Abita! Strawberry beers and the premiere of "The Bachelorette." I was so excited!!! I miss Amee so.

Also I worked out 4 times this week already...am still averaging a 13 minute mile, though. i.e. sloooow. I had to start icing my leg...running sucks.

In other news, this weekend I will be in Austin for hanging out fun times, a birthday party, Aneil's mom's Indian chicken (yum), and the debut of Aneil's 90's cover band, brilliantly named "My So-Called Band". I'm ready to get my jam on!

In summary, this week I hate: my stupid apartment and its stupid noises, Algebra II, and no "Lost" this week.

This week I love: the new American Idol (le sigh), Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings, Scrabulous, and cookies.

XOXO,
Shells