I have been overwhelmed with awesome new songs lately. It’s been a long time since I heard something that really got to me, and it has resulted in my listening to the same four Ben Folds albums on repeat all day long. Not that I’m complaining. But I’m happy to have some new stuff. (Links will take you to their myspace so you can listen and be amazed.)

1. Sex On Fire - Kings of Leon

Kings of Leon is one of those bands that I have always felt like I should be into. They have all the qualities of a band I love: southern, rootsy alt countryish rock, plaid shirts and long hair. They should be one of my favorites, but I never really got into them. Until I heard this song. It has an unfortunate title, and pretty unfortunate lyrics, too. (I think. He’s pretty hard to understand.) But I LOVE the way it feels. I love the guitar intro and how his voice sounds when he yells his way into the chorus and the way the percussion speeds up every few measures. It’s so cool.

2. Blue Ridge Mountains - Fleet Foxes

I first saw these guys on Letterman (video here), and their performance blew me away. This song is really beautiful and haunting and interesting. I don’t know a lot about this band, but I’m pretty sure I need to buy everything they’ve ever made. There’s all kinds of stuff going on in this song… piano, several guitars, some kind of effect on his voice, I think… it’s crazy and awesome.

3. Cheap and Cheerful - The Kills

The Kills are excellent music to listen to at work when you really need to be productive and knock some stuff out. It’s high energy without being annoying. I like this song in particular because of the line “I want you to be crazy cuz you’re boring, baby, when you’re straight.” I like that a lot.

4. The Garden - Mirah

Oh my gosh, I love this song so much. I first heard it on So You Think You Can Dance, when my season 4 boyfriend Mark danced to it. You can watch that routine here, and you should, because it is cool. There is no way to listen to this song and not bob your head. I love the beat and how crazy her voice sounds over it. Excellent.

5. Communication - The Cardigans

You know the Cardigans as the band who sang that love me love me say that you love me song from Romeo and Juliet that you used to sing along with really loud in the car in high school. (Don’t you? Was that just me?) What you probably don’t know is that they have made several really great records since then. My favorite is called “Long Gone Before Daylight”, and this is the first track. It’s the last thing you would expect if Lovefool is the only song you know of theirs. But give it a few listens and they’ll be a whole different band for you. An awesome band.

Enjoy! What have you been listening to lately? Give me some good stuff, people.

Do you ever find yourself in a mood you can’t define? I have been feeling really random lately. Sad, kind of, and emotional. Not depressed. Hopeful. Wistful. I don’t know. It’s a lot of things.

I’ve been looking for some new music and not having much luck. I’ve tried a few different things but nothing has struck the right chord with me. (Like that? Chord? Music? I think our band should be called the Chordvettes, like chords in our music.)

Then my friend Scott posted about a show he went to last weekend. I have heard good things about Brook Fraser, but he seemed to like this William Fitzsimmons guy better, so I decided to give him a shot. Scott has yet to steer me wrong.

You guys. YOU GUYS. The mood I’m in? That’s exactly what this music sounds like. William Fitzsimmons is my new boyfriend. (I had to move on from SYTYCD Mark now that the show is over and he’s not in my living room every week.) The combination of the acoustic guitar and his voice and the beats behind it all are exactly how I am feeling right now. Excellent.

Some friends and I are doing a mix CD circle. The theme of this mix is ‘music from where you’re from’, which is completely awesome, as I am from Texas. Where all the good music comes from. Everyone knows that.

So! Here’s the CD I made. It has a very klassy title.

SCREW YOU, WE’RE FROM TEXAS
made by Brandi (hometown: Mesquite, TX)

1. That’s Right (You’re Not From Texas) – Lyle Lovett (hometown: Klein, TX)
This is how we want you to think we feel about you.

2. Don’t You Evah – Spoon (hometown: Austin, TX)
So you’ll know it’s not just about country music.

3. Luckenbach, Texas – Waylon Jennings (hometown: Littlefield, TX)
Every frat boy in Texas has a Luckenbach t-shirt.

4. Pride and Joy – Stevie Ray Vaughn (hometown: Oak Cliff, TX)
Your state doesn’t have a guitar player like him.

5. Peggy Sue – Buddy Holly (hometown: Lubbock, TX)
Did you know he was only 22 when he died? Me either.

6. I’m My Own Grandpa – Willie Nelson (hometown: Abbott, TX)
Willie Nelson’s voice just sounds like Texas.

7. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend – Miranda Lambert (hometown: Lindale, TX)
Forget Carrie. This girl is what young country should sound like.

8. Three Days – Pat Green (hometown: San Antonio, TX)
He was a lot better before he ‘made it’. Damn you, Nashville!

9. How It Should Be (Sha Sha) – Ben Kweller (hometown: Greenville, TX)
I’ve spent a lot of time in Greenville. He’s the coolest thing about that place.

10. Opposite Way – Leeland (hometown: Baytown, TX)
This kid writes some beautiful songs. Seriously.

11. Murder (Or a Heart Attack) – Old 97’s (hometown: Dallas, TX)
I like this song because it’s about his dog.

12. Mercedes Benz – Janis Joplin (hometown: Port Arthur, TX)
This is a song of great social and political import.

13. Same Kind of Crazy – Delbert McClinton (hometown: Lubbock, TX)
This is possibly the truest love song I have ever heard.

14. Streets of Bakersfield – Buck Owens (hometown: Sherman, TX) & Dwight Yoakam
I’m cheating a bit, since Dwight’s not from Texas. But he should be.

15. Away – Toadies (hometown: Fort Worth, TX)
I lived in the same dorm room as their bass player, ten years later.

16. Sin Wagon – Dixie Chicks (hometown: Dallas, TX)
I will buy every record they ever put out.

17. I Thank You – ZZ Top (hometown: Houston, TX)
Sometimes I wish I was a guy so I could grow a ZZ Top beard.

18. She’s No Lady – Lyle Lovett (hometown: Klein, TX)
I could have put 22 Lyle Lovett songs on here and been totally happy with it.

19. Waiting On the Sun – Sixpence None the Richer (hometown: New Braunfels, TX)
In my next life I want to sing like Leigh Nash.

20. The Road Goes On Forever – Robert Earl Keen (hometown: Houston, TX)
This is the quintessential Texas storyteller song.

21. Beer Run – Todd Snider ((musical) hometown: San Marcos, TX)
If you don’t own any Todd Snider, go out right now and buy everything you find.

22. Screw You, We’re From Texas – Ray Wylie Hubbard (hometown: Austin, TX)
This is how we actually feel about you.

Do you ever have one of those days that starts off rocky and just goes downhill from there? The kind where you just keep talking, even though you know you should stop and you are annoyed with yourself for saying the words but they keep falling out of your mouth? The kind where all the stuff you were feeling good about turns out to not be so good after all?

I had that kind of day yesterday. And I was feeling pretty blah. Then I got in the car to find a live Lisa Loeb show playing on the radio. Lisa Loeb, the singer of “Stay”, the song that every girl my age knows every single word to, and also probably the only Lisa Loeb song anyone knows. And what song did she start singing right after I started listening? Stay! I couldn’t believe my good luck. I am always finding myself flipping over to a station just in time to hear the end of a song I love. But not this time! I tuned in just in time for that familiar acoustic guitar intro and Lisa singing, “You say… I only hear what I want to…” I turned it up, rolled down the windows, and sang and sang and sang.

I’m not saying it fixed all my problems. I’m not saying it negated all the crappy stuff that went down yesterday. But it certainly lightened my mood and made me evening better. And sometimes that’s all you can ask for.

Jonathan tagged me a while back to post my Life Canon. I think this is a really cool idea, and I love both lists and talking about myself, so I am all over this. Here are the rules:

1. Only individual works rather than artists are to be included in the canon.
2. The canon does not need to be restricted to textual pieces.
3. Sacred texts are banned from the list.
4. Because this is a written exercise, there will necessarily be an order, but these are no way a hierarchy.
5. There shouldn’t be an explanation of the works, just the list.
6. The list is restricted to ten items.

So here is what I would call my Life Canon, at least so far:

- August and Everything After, Counting Crows
- Til We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis
- Stevie Ray Vaughn & Double Trouble, Live from Austin, TX DVD
- The Harry Potter series
- Almost Famous
- Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith, Anne Lamott
- A Century Ends, David Gray
- Pride and Prejudice, A&E/BBC miniseries
- Everyone’s Little CD, Waterdeep
- Roaring Lambs, Bob Briner

I could have made a list three times as long… narrowing it down to ten was pretty hard. What about you? What’s in your life canon? Post it and leave a link in the comments.

This is another story about a concert in Kentucky. Monday afternoon we drove up to Louisville to see The Swell Season. If you are a sad sad person who doesn’t know who that is, well, I’m not sure we should be friends anymore. I’m really sorry.

I’ve written about them a time or two… they are Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, who you may know from the movie Once, which I know you’ve seen because I never shut up about it. They played with a full band made up of The Frames, who as best as I understand it are Glen Hansard’s band. It was a great show.

Before I get into the details, let me tell you a couple of things I learned about the people of Louisville:
- they do not eat after 5:00 pm
- they consider themselves experts on all things Irish
- they have really cool looking shops that are never open
- they do not know where they are at any given moment

Now, maybe you live in Louisville, or your grandma does, or you drove through there once and you think I am wrong. “We eat after 5:00 every day!”, you might say. But you are wrong. There are no food options after 5:00 pm in Louisville.

So! The show. It was really, really good. The Brown Theater is a great venue… one of those old funky theaters with crazy moldings and giant chandeliers. It was the perfect place for them to play.

I have to tell y’all, I don’t think I adequately prepared myself for this show. We see a lot of concerts, and I really love live music. But when Glen Hansard came out on stage, I kind of flipped out. I might have squealed a little. Or a lot. Possibly I was kind of giddy. It was just so COOL. So he came out and did “Say It To Me Now” sitting on his knees at the front of the stage by himself, not plugged in or miked at all, and it was amazing. I don’t have a picture of that because I didn’t think my camera would take good pictures. Then I tried it later and it kind of did. Sad.

Apparently Barack Obama was in Louisville on Monday also, and they went to hear him speak, so he was pretty fired up about that. He also mentioned Deadliest Catch… if he had said something about FIFA for Playstation it might have been the best day of Aaron’s life.

They played a lot of songs off the movie soundtrack (including my most favoritest, “Lies“, seriously, watch that video right now and you will love it too), some new stuff and some Frames stuff. It was all just so pretty. I don’t know a lot about the Frames, but I am definitely going to check it out. The only downside to the whole thing was all the talking. I love a good Irish accent as much as anyone, but OH MY GOSH the talking. Super long stories before every song, random trails of thought, talking talking talking. Boo. If they had told just one fewer story maybe they would have had time for “Into the Mystic” and “Leave“, the only two songs I wanted to hear but didn’t. Glen Hansard even did a Van Morrison cover, and got my hopes all the way up before they came crashing down when he sang a different song.

Overall it was a great show. He is really funny, and they do a good job interacting with the audience. They are coming to Nashville in September (information that would have been really useful before we bought the Kentucky tickets!) and I will definitely go again. It was so cool to see them in person and hear the songs I’ve been listening to nonstop since October played live. If they are coming near you, you better go. You will not be disappointed. Especially not if you like epic stories. Or Justin Timberlake.

Sorry to write the third concert-related post in a row, but I have to tell y’all this story. It is insane.

Monday night, as part of GMA week, we got passes to go see Jars of Clay and Switchfoot. Jars of Clay is one of my most favoritest bands, so I was pretty excited. Switchfoot I could take or leave… I like a lot of their stuff, and the show was good, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to see them again.

(Third Day was on the show, too, but as I am pretty sure they don’t only play songs from their first two albums in their shows, I wasn’t too interested.)

The show was at the Wildhorse Saloon, which is this huge country bar place that has a giant dance floor with tables all around. We were standing on the left side of the floor, kind of near the edge. Jars of Clay came out and put on a pretty good show… they did a lot of new stuff, which I liked a lot, but they seemed kind of out of it and it was weird to see them in an opening spot.

So then Switchfoot comes out, and everything is all fine and good, they’re doing fun songs and the crowd is really into it and Jon Foreman touched Julie’s hand. We are in roughly the same spot, and there is a table kind of behind us. At that table is a guy we’ll call Big Crazy Dude.

Now I am assuming, as a general rule, that you have been to a concert before. You are aware of the fact that, especially in a general admission show, people move around. They shift and adjust and the people you start out next to are probably not the people you’ll end up next to. It’s just how it goes. It’s live music - people clap and bounce and dance a little. It’s not a motionless event.

I don’t think Big Crazy Dude was aware of that. Clearly this was his first concert, and possibly his first time out in public. About halfway through Switchfoot’s set, Aaron gets a push in the back. He turns around, and the conversation goes like this:

Aaron: What?
BCD: Get out of the way.
Aaron: Huh?
BCD: You’ve been moving in front of us for three songs.
Aaron: Are you serious? *looks around* Where am I supposed to go?
BCD: I already asked you nicely.
Aaron: What? It’s a concert, man. People move.

So he turns around and we exchange that ‘what is up with this guy?’ look with each other and with the people around us. A few minutes later, and I swear I am not making this up, BCD comes up around the side of Aaron and stands directly in front of him. As in, it would not surprise me if he was standing on Aaron’s toes. Now, Aaron is a big guy, and this guy easily had six inches on him in all directions. And he is literally standing right in front of him. The conversation goes like this:

Aaron: Dude, what are you doing?
BCD: I asked you to move.
Aaron: Are you serious?
BCD: You kept sliding over in front of us until we couldn’t see.
Aaron: It’s a CONCERT. With music. That people move to. What did you expect?
BCD: I asked you nicely to move and you didn’t. You brought this on yourself.

Sidenote: This guy was easily in his late thirties and was wearing a Third Day t-shirt with a Bible verse on the back. Also, around this time in the show Jon Foreman started moving out into the crowd and BCD started rotating AROUND Aaron to stay in his line of vision.

Aaron: You can’t come in here and sit at a table and expect to have a perfect view.
BCD: You got in my way, now I’m getting in your way.
Brandi: *laughing* Is this a joke?
BCD: Nope. Just giving him a taste of his own medicine.
Brandi: Right. Because that is totally what Jesus would do.

At this point Aaron turned around and took the stool BCD had been sitting on and sat down. BCD was just about sitting in his lap.

Aaron: Hey, man, you’re right. I’m sorry I came to a show to see a band I like. I’m sorry I didn’t stand still through all the songs. I’m sorry I sought you out and deliberately stood directly in front of you. I’m such a jerk. You have taught me a valuable lesson.
BCD: Funny.

It went on like that for a while. Clearly BCD had no intentions of leaving. It was insane. All the people around us were moving and shifting and trying to give Aaron a better view. The girl in front of me told BCD that she teaches 5th graders and they behave better than he did.

Then they started singing Radiohead’s “High and Dry”. Aaron taps BCD on the shoulder.

Aaron: Hey man, do you know this song?
BCD: No.
Aaron: Really? Is it because it’s not by Third Day?
BCD: What?
Aaron: It’s by a band called Radiohead. You should check them out.
BCD: Whatever.

That’s right, y’all. Aaron decides that the way to win this battle is with MUSIC SNOBBERY. Genius.

No lie, BCD stood directly in front of Aaron for at least 30 minutes. He finally started moving back around the table when Switchfoot finished their set… but then they came out for an encore. And he came back! You guys! He came back! It was so awesome. He was determined to make Aaron miss Switchfoot’s set, and he would not rest until he did it. Insane.

We left when the encore was over, and Aaron gave him a nice “Enjoy Third Day” on the way out. Neither he nor his wife looked at us when we walked by.

It was one of the most crazy things I have ever seen. Seriously! Who does that? Is this typical behavior from Third Day fans? Christian music fans? GMA attendees? Nashville tourists? I have no idea. But let me warn all of those people… don’t mess with Aaron. He will break you down with his music knowledge. I know you’re scared.

Oh my gosh, you guys. YOU GUYS. I am going to say this, and it is going to sound a little extreme, but it is absolutely true: Yesterday was one of the very best days I have ever had. Seriously.

Yesterday morning was a great one for the youth. We had four kids get baptized yesterday. Four! It was crazy. Over the last few weeks they all approached me separately to talk about it and it all came together yesterday. It was really special - just knowing these kids’ stories and how they got to where they are… it was a big thing, y’all.

(Also, and it feels weird to even type this but I wanted to get it in print for the days that really really suck - our senior pastor told the WHOLE CHURCH yesterday morning that I am one of the best things about GracePointe. He was probably just trying to be nice, but still. Whoa.)

Yesterday afternoon Aaron had a lot of errands to run, so I was on my own. It was an amazing beautiful day, and I spent about three hours laying on a blanket outside reading. Fabulous.

Yesterday evening was a really big one for us, Aaron in particular. This week is a big industry week for him, full of conferences and lunches and showcases and meetings. A couple of months ago, in preparation, he was trying to figure out the best way to showcase his two bands, Remedy Drive and Jackson Waters. Their labels weren’t putting anything together, so Aaron decided to just do it himself. He got himself a sponsor, a club, some supporting acts and a fancy invitation and before we knew it, we were putting on a show.

I don’t know that I can make it clear how big of a deal this was for Aaron. It was like a coming out party for his company. He started this business for these two bands, and last night was his first opportunity to show people what he’s got. Failure wasn’t really an option.

As it got closer, Aaron was getting visibly more nervous. All of our conversations centered around it. How many people would come? Did we remember to invite everyone? What songs should they do? Do we open the bar? Charge admission? How long should the sets be? WHAT IF NO ONE COMES?!!?!?!

Last week Aaron had taken to saying that 75-100 people would be awesome. The club is split into two levels, and that number would fill the bottom half really well. It’s important for the place to feel full, you know? So that was kind of the plan… block off the stairs and fill up the bottom level.

Y’all. When I got there at 8:30 (the show started at 9), there were easily 100 people there. By the time Remedy Drive went onstage, there were 250. When Jackson Waters went on, there were people everywhere. Both levels full, every stool taken, the stairs packed with people. They were spilling out into the courtyard and the bar area. There were people EVERYWHERE.

Who are these people? Where did they come from? How did they know about the show? I have no idea. There were about 20 of our friends there, plus the label people and some festival and booking people. But seriously, between the two of us, we maybe knew 100 of those people. I don’t know who everyone else was or where they came from, but they were there in droves. It was unreal.

It was such a huge night for Aaron. It could not have been bigger or more successful. Both of his bands put on amazing shows and there were tons of people there to see them. I have never been so proud as I was last night watching lines of people wait to talk to him after the show. It’s like he (and his company) are legitimate now, if that makes any sense. He went out on his own, he has two great bands, and he put on a great showcase. Because he is awesome.

Last week we drove to Murray, Kentucky to see Ben Folds at Murray State University.

First thing first - do not go to Murray, Kentucky unless you absolutely have to. But! If Ben Folds is playing there, you have to. So we did.

I love Ben Folds so much. This is not news. So when those freakishly accurately targeted Facebook ads told me he was coming within two hours of town, I was in. (We won’t talk about how he LIVES IN NASHVILLE but rarely plays here.) Aaron and I drove up with our friend Becka and grabbed a super delicious and oh so fancy dinner at KFC before heading over to the campus.

The opener was Eef Barzelay, who you should know about if you don’t already. I had not heard of him, but late in his set he mentioned that his band is called Clem Snide, who I did know about, thanks to Mike and Kari. (That was a terrible sentence.) He? Was great. So interesting to watch and such good songs. We really enjoyed him as he played… and played… and played. It was seriously the longest opening set I have ever seen. Becka leaned over to me and said, “Maybe something happened to Ben Folds and there’s a guy in the wings doing the ‘keep going’ hand motion and whispering ‘One more!’”

It was funny until we realized she was right.

After Eef left the stage some kind of campus activities guy came out and said that Ben Folds was stuck in someplace called Beaver Creek and would be there as soon as he could. Everyone started groaning, except for us because we had no idea where Beaver Creek is. We asked the guy behind us who told us it was ‘down past the river, over the bluffs, on the other side of Hillbilly Junction but before Roadkill Bluff.’ (It’s possible that I am making some of that up.) When we asked him to clarify, he informed us that Beaver Creek was about two hours away. TWO HOURS. The promoter guy was telling everyone to head back to their dorms and come back an hour or so.

What the heck.

So we kind of sit there for a minute, because surely this is not real. We drove two hours to be here on a Monday evening. As much as I enjoyed Eef Barzelay, we did not make that trip to see him. We decided to go outside and try to find something to drink. We were just off the front steps of the auditorium when the promoter guy came back out and yelled, “They just got here! The show will start in 20 minutes.”

What the heck.

How he went from being two hours away to being 20 minutes away we will never know. If we had left when they told us to we would have missed the show completely. Instead, we got to move down to the front row of the half-full balcony and enjoy the show with no one sitting next to us. Pretty sweet.

I have to say, as much as I love Ben Folds and his shows, I am pretty much over his audiences. I have written about this before, and nothing has changed. He has a wide appeal among lame frat guys, and those guys turn out in droves for these shows. I think I’m kind of over it. He put on a great show with lots of new stuff, AND he played The Luckiest, but I just don’t know if I can sit through it again. They yell for the rap songs during the slow songs, talk through the ones they don’t know, and just generally make me insane. For the next Ben Folds show I go to I would like to handpick the crowd, pleaseandthankyou.

Overall it was a fun trip… the drive up was pretty and we had a good time hanging out. I’ve been listening to some Eef this week, which I love, and I bought a sweet t-shirt that I can’t find online. But, sadly, I don’t think I’ll be road-tripping it for a Ben Folds show again. If he wants to come to my house and play (it’s right around the corner!), though, I would totally be up for that.

Cleaning supplies to get the house ready for the video shoot: $25

Snacks for the band and video guys: $50

Video equipment fee: $1000

Starting a company to manage the band: um, lots of dollars

Coming into the room to find Aaron playing makeup artist: priceless