Excellent Online

So every once in a while I roll back over to excellent online dot com and make sure that the site is still alive.  Why do I bother?  I'm not sure really.  It doesn't cost much to host the site and the traffic probably nothing.  But I like to keep it patched and keep the server up and running just to have it around y'know.

So my life in May was pretty much on hold because I was switching jobs.  And as regular readers might be aware, any slight modification in my life results in massive neglect to excellent online (hey, we've been doing this for over ten years, that says something right?).  I was contacted by a recruiter for a Seattle-based company back in February and went through several phone interviews.  After each one, I'd wait a week then politely ask for the status.  Another week would go by then a response saying that I've advanced to the next step.  So persistence is their first test.  How badly do you want this job?  Bad enough for you to keep emailing us?

After four phone interviews (all with their appropriate delays), I get invited for the onsite.  I was pretty anxious this whole time but the onsite interview really kicks it into overdrive.  Now I'm plagued with thoughts like, "how am I going to find a place to live in Seattle" or "will I adjust to the lack of sunshine."  Truely first world problems because obviously I can adjust to anywhere.

While this is happening, I interview with a local company (I'm in southern California, btw) and they offer me the position but I tell them that I cannot accept until I interview in Seattle.  I'm not going to bore you with the details of the interview other then to say it was a full day (10:30am-5pm, also interviewed during lunch!) and was the most intense interview I've ever had.  They asked if I wanted to stay in Seattle an extra day to check out the city.  But I was a big bag of nerves and wanted to get home as soon as possible and get back to my wife and kid.  The weekend was more of the same, a nervous wreck.  They were going to notify me on Monday evening about the status so I was super pissed that I didn't get a response until Tuesday morning.  They declined.  Bummer.

So I accepted the position from the other local company and while I'm sad that I'm not moving to Seattle, I think staying down here is good for me for right now.  So that's why there hasn't been a post in a while.  ;)

So the big news this week is that the My Bloody Valentine reissues are finally going to get released.  Good for them that it's finally getting done.  Also good for Kevin Shields that he's finally working on some new material.  It's only been 20 years.

The other link about Rodney on the Roq is kinda random.  My friend Brian asked me if he was still on the air so I looked him up and was happy that he's still being broadcasted on KROQ in Los Angeles.  His show is where I heard a lot of bands for the first time on the radio.  Granted I was getting most of my new music from friends, reading NME, and watching this public access show called Request Video.  But as Brian pointed out those were simpler times.  You'd read about bands in the NME, then Rodney would play them, then you'd make the hour long drive out to some dingy record store in LA to buy the import single for 10 bucks.  That's right, TEN bucks for three or four songs.

Don't get me started on how pissed I was when bands started doing that CD1/CD2 bullshit.  There are a lot of people that long for the good ol' days of record collecting, but I can't stand it.  Going to a good record store and casually walking around and picking up stuff is fun every once in a while.  But when we were kids we were obsessive about it.  And we poured tons of money into it.  So I'm glad that technology has brought us to this point where we can access way more music for less.  I think it opens it up to more people.  More people who can't spend 20 bucks on two CD's with 6 songs each.  Oh yeah, and since it's a double single, the main track is going to be on both CD's.  Plus that main track is already on the album anyway.  So you're really only buying four bsides for 20 bucks.  And if they just phoned it in by throwing on some bullshit remixes then fuck them.  God I love music but it's so frustrating.

My first post-Coachella update.  Looking back it was a pretty damn good festival, probably one of the best ones as far as how well it was organized.  The best year for music is too hard to determine.  It might be my last one as I'm just tired of the allergies and now with the two weekends of Coachella and all the local shows, it's not worth the hassle.  In anycase, here are this week's updates.  Enjoy!

Coachella 2012 was an interesting one.  First off, we're still not done with it.  There's going to be a "identical" weekend 2 coming up tomorrow which is just an odd idea.  Secondly, I actually had phone service for the first time ever so I was able to send out some random thoughts while I was there (collected for your enjoyment below).  This was also the first time it's ever rained at a Coachella, it's notorious for being VERY dry and hot all day.  In any case, enjoy!

Note:  It's in reverse cronological order so read it from the bottom up.

Just in time for the festival, I've finished my "one-line review" of all the bands.  I'm an old man now so I don't have time to keep up with all the junk the kids are listening to these days.  But I like to go through the Coachella bands and try to get a feel for what's out there

Methodology:   search for "<artist name> youtube" in google and judge the band on the first link to a youtube video.  Not their channel page or anything else, the first youtube video link.  So I just did "Radiohead Youtube", I'd have to decide to see Radiohead based on "Lotus Flower".  Bleh.  As you can see, my system has it's flaws, but it is a quick and dirty way to check out all the bands that are playing Coachella.

Note:  I have no idea why I threw out as much profanity as I did.  I really need to expand my vocabulary.
 

Orbital has been a favorite of mine ever since I found electronic dance music.  I loved Duran Duran when I was a kid because of my older sister.  Then my brother introduced me to the Smiths and Stone Roses.  He and I found electronic music together in the mid-90's (we argue about it to this day, he bought Prodigy after seeing the video for Poison, I bought the Orb after seeing them on the cover of NME for UFOrb).

In 1996, there was no Glastonbury so several of the electronic acts came out to the US to support the new "electronica" movement.  I went for the Orb but soon discovered Orbital, Underworld and the Chemical Brothers.  Orbital was the big breakout act for me because of Organic and I've seen then a dozen times.  One of the highlights of my life was getting to see them at Glastonbury in 1999, a truely amazing experience. 

Despite the headline, the real big news is that Grandaddy are gettin back together for some shows.  Hopefully they'll have a full US tour.  Check out the rest of the links below...

I skipped last week since it was a slow news week. Not actually slow since all the music blogs had tons of crap they were reporting. Just nothing new or interesting to me. (In a bad mood, sry)

I talked to my friend Brian today and he lives up in the north west so his festival of choice is Sasquatch while mine is Coachella (I live in southern California).  And he told me that Sasquatch is only going to sell 4-day passes.  Honestly it's kinda sad to see that this is becoming a "thing".  Coachella did this years ago and it sucks for the people that really want to enjoy the festival but can't commit to the whole thing.  And I gotta admit, a day or two of Coachella is all you really need.  Three full days is a little much (I'm an old guy now).  I can't even imagine FOUR days of Sasquatch.

I understand that at the end of the day it's just a business, but there's no reason to exclude a minority of fans that can't do it.  What I don't understand is the lame excuse, "there's such a high demand for tickets so we'll only sell 4-day passes".  It just translates to me as, "We can force people to pay $300+ for tickets, so why would we bother to accommodate the people that can only go one or two days?"  This year's Coachella is in such a high demand that they booked two full weekends of identical bands and sold them both out.

So as the demand increases it's just going to push the more casual fan out.  I know people really love the festival (I really do), but there are clear benefits of living in a major town with no festival scene.  At least then you have a fighting chance of seeing only the bands that you want to see and not have to put up with parking, dickheads, heat just to see Gotye.