Singlewide

Check out this video promoting the new Dexateens record "Singlewide", which comes out May 12th. It features several notable Tuscaloosa citizens.

Incident #1

A customer came into my place of work yesterday to set up an advertisment for a classic car he had for sale. I typed up all of his information and gave him his total. As he was handing me the money, he told me that he was only selling the car because cancer had taken away most of the feeling in his fingers, and that he could no longer keep the car in good shape because of it. On his way out, he told me a joke, perhaps to cheer us both up.

I spent the rest of the day thinking about how hard it would be to deal with the fact that an uncontrollable force such as cancer stripped you of the ability to enjoy the things you are passionate about in life. The man seemed to have a handle on it. When he told me about his predicament, he wasn't looking for sympathy. He was simply venting about a particular frustration in the fashion that we would vent about having to take a late lunch, or standing in a long line at the grocery store. It was hard for me to process this at first. I hope that if something like that ever happened to me, I'd be able to have that kind of attitude.

Revolution Summer

I have so many decisions to make.

The Bars, Pt. 1

I just came across these incredible clips of Black Flag playing live on 12/20/84 @ Embassy Hotel, London Ontario. I am not sure of the order and highly doubt this is the full set, but it is well worth your viewing time. The audio is soundboard quality.























Hank fucks with a heckler...

I Don't Know Which Way To Run

I ended up going to see Lucero play again this weekend, this time in Jackson, MS. Crys and I left Tuscaloosa at 3pm on Saturday and arrived in Jackson about 3 hours later. The show didn't start until 9, so we had time for two very important things: BBQ and Records. On our way to eat, we saw an abandoned hotel:
It was fenced up, locked, and had obviously been that way for years, yet there were 5 or 6 cars parked behind the fence. Hmmm. Something sketch had to be going on back there.

We decided on T&A'S Barbeque after some web research. Their slogan is "Nobody Beats Our Meat." Excellent. We arrived and discovered that it was a walk up only type of place, which would have been nice on a sunny day, but it was cold and raining. We went ahead and gave it a shot and decided to eat in the car. It was great. Their sauce was pretty unique (unlike any I have tasted in Alabama...very thin, and an almost perfect mix of sweet and spicy), and the meat was very tender. I finished my sandwich in no time. They had good sweet tea, too. The woman working told us that another location would be open soon. Hopefully that one will be a full restaurant with seating. At any rate, I'd definitely eat there again. I completely forgot to take a picture of the building and their catering van, which featured the slogan and a painting of Betty Boop. Oh well.

Our next stop was Bebop Records. It was in a shopping center and we almost missed it, but luckily we turned one last corner and there it was. I ended up coming out with a Stevie Wonder Live LP on Tamla, The Jam - Setting Sons and Sound Affects LPs, an OOP Lou Rawls LP, VA - Stax Does The Beatles CD, and Elvis Presley - ST CD Remaster, all for around $45. I saw a really awesome Buzzcocks shirt, but couldn't justify dropping $18 on it. Maybe I can find one cheaper some other time. Check out this awesome Elvis Costello poster they have in the back:

After that, we headed over to The Ole Tavern. The show started around 10. The opening band was called Goodman County. They had a lot of energy, but the sound mix was terrible. They covered "Gimmie Danger" by The Stooges, which I thought was pretty cool...not a stellar version or anything, it just came out of nowhere.

Lucero finally hit the stage around 11:30. The set was great. I've seen them quite a few times, and while this wasn't the best of them all, it was up there. They played tons of requests as usual, including 3 of mine (Raising Hell, Across The River, Fistful Of Tears). Lots of bands claim to be all about their fans. Usually when I hear that claim, I just write it off as horseshit that is said only for good press. This isn't the case with Lucero. They talk it and walk it. Here are some photos I took:

(Crys got up and sang an impromptu cover of "Tiny Dancer." The alcohol made her mix up some of the lines, so I helped her out by yelling the correct ones at her. This was a totally hilarious moment that I'll never forget. The band was cracking up and everyone around the front of the stage high fived her afterward.)

The show ended around 1:30 am, so we hit the road immediately after. Once we hit Meridian, we stopped at Waffle House with Tory and Sophie (who had driven from Tuscaloosa and joined us at the show also). It must have been the only one in Meridian, because it was packed. Somehow we got out of there in about 45 minutes. Did I mention it was snowing for most of the drive back? I had never driven in that much snow before. It was an experience. Here's how things looked when I finally got home around 5:30-6:00 am:

Around 11am, after some much needed rest:

All in all, it was an extremely fun and memorable Saturday.