Ever since I purchased my first ipod, I fell in love with the shuffle feature; shuffle was just about the only way I'd listen to music anymore. This week I decided to return to some of my favorite albums, so I turned off the shuffle and scrolled through my options: The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Who's Quadrophenia, Pink Floyd's The Wall, and The Cure's Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, just to name four. There are tons more of course, but I immediately realized that most of them are from around thirty years ago and none are from the twenty-first century. I haven't checked thoroughly, but I'm not sure I could even find an album from the nineties that would qualify as a favorite.^*

Why is this? Does all current music actually suck? Certainly not. Was rock back then that good? I'm not that sure.

Most of the music released today seems to be made for the shuffle format. It's delivered in small bites and not often presented in the context of a full-length concept album; instead it's all mp3s. Why? Because this is how we're all listening to it now. When I buy a new album, I'll give it one or two listens all the way through, and then I'll throw it in the entire Itunes library. From then on, I'll hear it in bits and pieces among all that other music in there. With almost 9,400 songs and growing, it could even get lost for a while.

It's a shame, really. Ipods killed the classic rock album. Internet killed the album star.

* Perhaps some Radiohead or Flaming Lips. As I said, I haven't done a full inventory here.

Many people know of my hatred for anything corporate, especially that evil (burnt) Seattle coffee; I've never kept it secret. (I'd look up links, but I'm lazy and will let you find them yourself.)

Two things have happened in concert with each other that have challenged these feelings and served to send me to ultimate shame. First, an aunt gave me a gift card to said coffee shop for Christmas. Now this by itself only humors me, since I live nowhere near any of these shops; thus, the card could sit untouched for months on a dining room table, an object of scorn and ridicule. Of course, something else happened - I started working in the Loop. That's right. Giant Corporate Seattle Coffeeshop Central. As I'm sure you're aware, there's one in practically every building, including the one I work in.

It didn't take me long to realize this, and realize that with my gift card, I had access to this coffee free. What could it hurt? My fellow bloggers, I find this hard to admit. I gave in to the temptation.

Shortly after, I was running late to work one morning, so I didn't have time to stop at the Evil Corporate Coffee Shop. No big deal, there was free coffee in the office, right? (In fact it's even the same Seattle-based coffee.) However, I realized with horror that I was sad. I missed my new morning ritual. I wanted to worship at the Corporate Seattle shrine. Ack, I think I even feel comraderie with the others who join me at that altar. My cheap recycled paper coffee cup with the witty thought-provoking quote is a symbol of my new status! I was even considering moving to Seattle for a while!

Am I addicted? Have I become (gasp) one of... them?

I'm interested to find out if I'm willing to pay for this once the gift card runs out.

Bang! Bang! last night was another great show for the record books. Their new songs are much darker than their sound used to be, which worried me at first, because I thought that might take away from the excitement and party feel of their stage presence. Though I think this new sound may still be going through some growing pains, they still manage to keep the excitement they've always had in their shows. Gretta Fine's finally breaking through Jack's domination of the stage and coming out of her shell, revealing more range and development in her voice than we've heard before. She claims she hasn't taken voice lessons. Can you believe it? (Here are some pictures.)

Two bands opened for them who featured greats from other bands: La Scala (ex-Dirty Things) gave such an impressive debut that it's hard to believe they've never been on stage together before Saturday night. They're subdued Latin-infused rock is a new sound I think may catch on. Submarine Races features Ian Adams from the Ponys' old line-up on lead guitar and Steve Denekas (ex-Countdown) on bass. There's that jangly guitar I remember so well.

Once again, I had a great time doing the radio show. TJ was great and brought a lot of good music in, and I acted like my typical goofball self. Despite the setback of being moved to once a month, we have a lot of plans in store for this. Afterwards I worked well into the evening, up until this moment, to get it posted to the podcast. So if you didn't hear it live, you can subscribe to it or download it directly here.

Life has become too confusing - I can't figure out if I'm a member of the Reptoids or not. I end up on stage with them every other show.

What this means, of course, is I can no longer review them in good conscience. Come on, there's definitely a conflict of interests here with respects to last night's show. So what I'll do, is I'll tell you a little about the other bands.

Girl Activity opened and Stiletto Attack headlined this night at Red Line Tap. With a name like Stiletto Attack, one'd think they'd have been harder and more raw, but one'd be wrong. One'd also be the loneliest number. In fact, both bands were too mellow, too indie, if you'll excuse the use of the term, to play with the Reptoids. It felt like That Band I May (Not) Be In was caught in some kind of emo sandwich.

Also, can I talk about the Red Line Tap for a moment? I hate that place. Well, more specifically, I hate trying to get to that place. Has everyone in the North Side decided they're suburban now? They all drive at about twenty miles per hour. Seriously. Plus good luck finding it. Just following the Red Line itself doesn't work, because up there that track curves like a spasmodic snake. I found myself exclaiming, between curses, "Ashland? how did I end up at Ashland?" By the time I arrived, I was in such a foul mood, I nearly punched the door guy. Of course I couldn't drown my sorrows in beer, because I drove. Wonderful. Then to add insult to injury, the bar announced at 1:05 that anyone in their parking lot after 1 am will be towed. Thanks, Red Line Tap! You really know how to take care of your customers. There's a last call for you.

This morning on the blue line, the operator announced the train would delayed at the Grand Ave. station for a "security check." After about five minutes, a police officer passed by the open door accompanied by a plain-clothed guy.

I'm pretty sure last Sunday's episode of "24" was on the minds of everyone in the train.

Dennis and I had a blast yesterday on his radio show. I'd like to say it went smoothly, but we had a lot of technical difficulties, the most noticeable of which being that my mic wasn't even on for the first fifteen minutes or so. Whereas we'll probably never fully get rid of our amateur feel to the show, I promise we'll get much better as we work out our mistakes with every week that passes.

So we're going to do this every week, and we have tons of plans for this show. Our focus is on Chicago music, and each week we want to bring in guests from the local music scene. Next week, local rock historian TJ will be with us to school Chicago on jazz, pop and garage music from the 50's to the current day.

Another hope we had was to podcast the show. I wasn't sure we'd be able to do this since neither of us knew how to do that, but you know what? It's amazing how simple and easy new technology is once you pop open the hood and poke around at the engine. Thusly and heretofore, I'm pleased to announce the Radio Reboot Podcast is up and running. You can subscribe by using this url. Before you know it you'll have me in your ipod. Ew.

Update: Well, it looks like WXAV's upper management has other plans for this station. They want to open up more spots for actual students, which is fair, I guess. Dennis gets to stay for three more years, but since I'm brand spankin' new, they'll only let me come in once a month. So you'll still be able to hear us, just... maybe not as often. We're also talking about pre-recording my segment to play on the air every Sunday. Hm, giving me access to a recording studio? Sounds dangerous... Either way, we'll give you something to listen to.

I know this is short notice, but I'll be on WXAV Radio tomorrow from 11:00am to about 1:30pm with my friend Dennis. If you're on the south side, you can catch that show on 88.3 FM. If you're not, you can still go to WXAV.com and click on "listen now" in the upper right hand corner.

We'll be playing the best of the current Chicago local scene, especially bands who have shows coming up or who just played recently. So expect to hear Cococoma, The Assembly, The Pumps, The Ladies and Gentlemen, Team Band, Holy Roman Empire, Thunderbirds Are Now!, Chin Up Chin Up, The Living Blue, Roosevelt Jenkins, M.O.T.O., The Ponys, and as they say in commercials, much much more!

Hopefully this is going to be a regular thing every Sunday afternoon. We're starting a little earlier this time because of the Bears game, so this should work in your favor. You know, you can sleep in, wake up to us, and listen to us while eating your breakfast and making those football snacks. I can't think of a better way to spend Sunday midday.

Peoples' Energy will no longer accept personal checks from me. My options are now cash (how exactly?), a money order, or a cashier's check. As if their exorbitant bills weren't hard enough to pay already.

Why did this happen? Years ago, I signed up for their automatic bill payment. This summer, I stopped it. Confident that I had no more services attached to that bank, I closed that account. Well, guess what? They still tried to make the automatic payments!

Two months and two "returned checks" later, I found out that Peoples' Energy doesn't even handle the automatic payments; it's all done through a service called "CheckFree." They informed me that I set up an account with CheckFree myself. Only, I didn't. I set everything up through Peoples' Energy's website. I even stopped it through their website. Not once in either of these instances did I leave their website. Their website told me I no longer had automatic payments set up. I was never even aware of an organization called CheckFree until last month.

So, let me get this straight: as far as I can tell, Peoples' Energy created an account with CheckFree in my name and without my knowledge. As far as I can tell, this is illegal. I don't know if they're actually informing customers about this, but they weren't three years ago when I signed up. Correct me if I'm wrong.

The end result is that withdrawals are being made in my name from a nonexistent account, and both companies have been telling me it's the other company's problem and they can't do anything about it.

Greeeeaaaat.

Needless to say, I've filed a complaint with the Illinois Commerce Commission, and sent something in writing to both companies explicitly removing authorization for any electronic transactions in my name.

After this, I finally got through to someone at CheckFree (after going through several sleuthing techniques to find their unpublished number), who figured out what's happening and promised to send a "good faith" letter to Peoples' Energy. Whether or not that will convince them to accept my checks or not is anyone's guess.

Take my advice: don't use the automatic payment service for your gas bills! As far as I can tell, they're still using the same process. They'll use illegal methods to impersonate you and hand over your bank information to a third party!

So it seems, some of the new season of 24 has been leaked to the intarwebs.

Apparently Fox released a DVD of the first four episodes to the press only. Needless to say, there's a journalist out there with less than scrupulous journalistic morals.

All I have to say to Fox is, where was my DVD? I have a hat with "press" on it and everything. It must've got lost in the mail. Yeah. That's it.

To the piracy cops out there, I also want to say I wouldn't think of taking advantage of this news to say, get a sneak peak at next Monday's episode or something. Oh no. No way I could sit through 42 whole uninterrupted minutes of that adrenaline. I need those commercial breaks to get up and make a sandwich.

SPOILER: Jack Bauer's in it.

currently watching: Oh no. You're not tricking me that easily.

The wiring in my building is a dangerously bad concoction of something from 1926. Instead of going out altogether, the light in my kitchen has dimmed and now strobes a little, like a bad flourescent bulb. The overall effect makes me feels as if I'd taken something hallucinogenic or at least mind-altering about a half hour beforehand. Oreo's tail wags in some kind of pre-twilight slow-motion dream. Believe me, I haven't taken anything. At least, I don't think I have. This light is making it difficult to concentrate...

When I turn the fan on in the office, it makes the light start flickering wildly as if I'm in some room in Doom and an alien's going to burst out of the cabinet and devour me.

About an hour ago, the smoke alarm in the stairwell went off. Management told me it must be the new installation, and they're sending an electrician over to check it out. An electrician. They also told me it's safe to go back inside.

So now, not only is the electrical wiring going to burn my building down eventually, it's preventing me from being warned about it.

I have to move.

The temp-to-perm job I was at suddenly went temp-to-gone. I'm once again unemployed. Not sure what this means for my plans for future show promotions or photography hobby.

At least Cococoma put on a great show last night at Empty Bottle. I love the 60s/70s Paul Revere and the Raiders sound mixed with the modern Chicago punk frenzy. Between camera shots, I was bouncing around so fast I accidentally shook up my beer and made it overflow.

Monday nights at Empty Bottle are always hard to gauge, because you can never tell if the large crowd is there for the bands or just a free show and really cheap PBR. I should've stayed on that principle alone, but alas, I missed the Plastic Crimewave Sound and Vee Dee.

Last night I felt like I was in the movie "Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle," only the characters were Joey and I, and our destination was the Ladies & Gentlemen show at Subterranean. The impediments to our fun night included fruitless searches for parking spots, waits for friends who had to stop in Logan Square for an hour, Joey's ADD with bars ("We HAVE to stop in here first!"), the death of a friend's car, and bad comedy at the Pontiac.

To top it all off, I forgot my camera. There goes my promise to document every show I go to. Oh well, at least I had my camera phone. You know, I'm beginning to warm up to the idea of putting crappy cameras in cellphones. If. Only. They. Didn't. Suck.

Anyway, we made it to Subterranean in time to even hear two songs from the previous band and secure our spots in the front row. This was no small feat; Subterranean was packed because of a full-page article about the band in Friday's Tribune and Red Eye. How funny it was to see all those suburban Johnny-come-latelies try to dress like Skid in ties, V-neck sweaters and finely pressed jeans. I shouldn't make fun of them, though; they energized Skid to a lively performance (a 15-kick show!) I haven't seen in a while. Even Scott showed some new moves, treating his keyboard as if it were a bass guitar and throwing it (yes, throwing it) all over, though I kept fearing for the life of that keyboard.

No, Joey, this isn't name-dropping, because all the band members' names are publicized in the Red Eye, so I mention them merely for descriptive purposes and the edification of the readers.

I'm still not going to end by saying what I'm listening to right now. I just told you about a band, isn't that enough?

The new website is finally live. I'd waste space describing everything I did, but well, unless you're reading this through an rss feed, it's pretty obvious, isn't it? And if you are aggregating my blog through rss, then you don't really care, because you'll never see it anyway, right?

One thing you might miss that I want to point out, though, is that photos now have their own rss feed, along with the blog and calendar. It's that little orange "xml" box at the top of the photo gallery column. Now you can have my pictures automatically sent to your eyes, every time I take them. No more checking this cruddy site all the time. Ain't technology grand.

I briefly considered putting a last.fm list on here to let you know what I'm listening to (IN REALTIME! OMG!! LOL!!!!! EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!!111!! SHIFTONE!!!!), but this page is busy enough already. Besides, something tells me you don't really care THAT MUCH what I'm listening to. No, it's not Kelly Clarkson, Tankboy. It never will be.

Oh, and you don't really need to know what's in my sink anymore, either. If you must, I'll install a webcam or something.

That is all.