temptations.

so today, after getting through my second town meeting in as many days, i decided to treat myself. well, ok. i should clarify. i decided to continue my habit of treating myself, as i've given into temptation on several occasions over the past couple of days. all entirely justifiable, i say.

i digress - yet again. i decided to take the suggestions i've been hearing lately for new music and check it all out.

it began when i received pete's demo in the mail. "look what i can do. a demo." it was grand to hear pete in non-musical movie review form ... great stuff. i'm particularly keen on "whiskey song," although the song i sing along with most is "30down." i blame much of that on his description of it on brand x as his attempt to get on the real world soundtrack ("did they like it? i don't know, they never told me."). it amused me too much at the time to not sing along. but the entire ep is great - i've been listening to it pretty regularly since receiving it. hurrah, pete! get out to vermont, already! (wait, i feel a need to clarify, as i recall driving to bradford only days ago. get out to burlington, already! ah, now i feel better.)

today i was perusing the aisles, looking for something fun, when i decided to check out switchfoot (per suggestion by johnoghue). in my browsing, i also came along teitur's "poetry & aeroplanes," so decided to pick that up as well, as i've heard several people praising him as of late. what the hell - each less than ten dollars, so why not, right?

switchfoot's not bad, haven't had a chance to listen to the whole album. but i fell in love with teitur. very airy and dreamistic - it grabbed every bit of the unabashedly romantic side i hide and just ripped it to the surface. his voice conjures comparisons to elliott smith and rufus wainwright (an odd coupling, i know) and the simple, sentimental songs tug at you, no matter how cynical you may want to remain. by the third song, your inner romantic is letting loose. not something i'll listen to every day, i reckon, but certainly something i'll enjoy when i want to feel creative and don't want to care about letting the emotion flow. i highly recommend.

i also was incredibly excited to find the source of matty n.'s t-shirt from the higher ground show. so i decided to order it. it's been awhile since i had a random fun t-shirt - and this will support what looks like a cool place in texas - i'm assuming matt performed an instore there - i know mraz did and wouldn't be surprised if howie made an appearance at some point. and besides, i just like saying the name. "waterLOOOOO" - i know, wrong em-PHA-sis on the wrong syl-LAB-le.

but it's fun. and the shirt will tide me over til i finally buy my madam's organ shirt in adams morgan. ;-)

but for now, i am preparing to hit the street before the raindrops that are threatening to fall from the overcast sky. still warm (checked the weather report, supposed to cool down tonight and tomorrow - boo) and it's a perfect day for my first burlington run - not to mention my first run in i don't even know how long. it'll be short and sweet, i fear - but it's a start ...

ps. ACK!!!! teitur's playing burlington in april!!!! hurrah!!! it works out rather well - he'll be here on the thirtieth and i might travel to boston for a weekend of exploration/visitation/concert fun. while i won't deny that i'd rather be out in california rocking at coachella during radiohead, it appears that those plans will have to be scrapped anyway - as the only interest in my attending the festival has been (besides my own, obviously) from the left coast itself. so i can justify not attending (well, try to, anyway) by hitting up those shows instead and picking a date to hit up california a little later in the late spring/early summer.

april is shaping up to be a great stretch of music, as long as the damien rice show still goes up somewhere in the area ... i love having such things to look forward to.