mix it up
status check - relaxed (and/or bored)
background ambiance - pete thurston, comfortable (yes, a mayer cover)

as i've spent today recharging myself (as i've drained my batteries over the past several weeks), i decided to do something at least remotely productive. in weekend mode, that means downloading live shows and expanding my musical horizons. what did you think i meant? found the meaning of life?

with the new (or comparatively new) music i've acquired, i also downloaded some more of my favorites. among the bushwalla goodness and matty nay love, i also downloaded a couple of shows from my favorite westie chum but imagine my surprise to listen to the live goodness and hear an unexpected cover thrown into the mix ...

the show's back in '02, but he covers mayer's "comfortable," a song i hadn't heard, in any form, in well over a year, probably closer to two. it was always one of my favorite mayer songs, but after the whole sold-out-crowds-i'm-jamming-on-neon-for-twelve-minutes-at-lupos experience and the split of mayer into two separate musicians*, i haven't listened to much mayer at all, whether good (inside wants out days or paradise show days) or evil ("clarity" or - wait - anything off "heavier things" other than "wheel").

so i was more surprised than i'd expected to be smiling and singing the harmonies to pt's version as i listened to it. it was nice to hear the song prefaced by remarks about the funny decor of the room in which it was played and hear the sound of chairs scraping against the floor. you don't hear that at mayer shows these days - all you hear is the collective audience roar. blah.

i actually really liked the version. who knows, perhaps i'll go through my old cds and find my burned copy of "inside wants out" and give it a listen for the first time since maybe just after college.

ok, maybe i'll just listen to pete's version every once in awhile. let's be realistic.

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* for our newer readers, i should offer an explanation about the mayer bit. (for older readers, restating the well-established. feel free to skip)

i first listened to john in late 2000, when (yes, i admit it) i found an mp3 of "victoria" on napster (thank god for slightly narcissitic tendencies every once in awhile - dammit, there are never good victoria songs!) and, after listening, promptly downloaded everything i could find.

a few months later, michelle and i were djs for a campus radio show and i decided we should interview john for the show when he performed at higher ground in february (opening - for glen phillips, no less. this is waaaaay pre-band). we then held what i still consider one of my favorite interviews ever. that june, i saw him play paradise with howie day and he continued to rock. this was with dela. oh, and he remembered meeting us, for which i loved him.

anyway, saw him in feb. '02 at lupos (rip) and it sucked. he'd become more popular and the place was packed, he had the full band and it was just layer upon layer of unnecessary sound covering up the lyrics and voice i'd grown to love. then the whole superstar thing happened and i've only seen him once since - co-headline show at SPAC with counting crows. and the only reason i was there was for c.c. mayer sucked. he tried rapping.

so i have this theory now. there's old mayer and there's new mayer. i love old mayer - the charming guy who philosophically discussed the creative essence of count chocula and chatted with me about our mutual love for david gray (and later played a bit of "babylon" for me during soundcheck). the guy who posed for a photo at paradise and said, "just say i started playing 'wanted dead or alive' and things got way out of hand."

new mayer is fine, i suppose, but i don't see what all the fuss is about. the overly polished "room for squares" didn't grab me (either version - aware or columbia), and i gave "heavier things" a chance. but i hated it. i probably wouldn't have found the one song i like on it, "wheel," had he not performed it at the spac show. when he performed that, i felt like i was watching old mayer. kind of.

so the two exist separately for me. but old mayer's taken on the role of someone you went to school with you might occasionally hear about every once in awhile. and you wonder how things are going with him, but that's about it. and this new mayer guy? never knew him, have no interest in starting now.