eternalnoob.net

Hello.

I just saw Rage play their first time since they broke up in 2000.

The End.

I think I’m going to die now. I am soooo tired. I might pass out mid post. Today was absolutely incredible and I haven’t even seen RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE yet! First off let me say this: I know I missed Hot Chip, MSTRKRFT, Peter, Bjorn, and John, The New Pornographers, Travis, Ghostface Killah, Blond Readhead, The Good, the Bad and the Queen, the Rapture, Justice, LCD Soundsystem, !!!, and Girltalk. But I think given my choices I made the right ones. I started the day waiting in line for almost 3 hours for a shower and then only made it in by like 4 minutes. Then I headed in the show and went to this tunnel that was Wonka-esque in that it shrunk as you walked around until you were crawling. It emptied into a little shaded dome where I just laid down for a while. Every single person in there (probably about 15) had a bowl. Tight security here, haha. I then headed to an awesome outdoor water place that had an awesome DJ. He was playing tribal sounding stuff and everybody was dancing around a sprinkler head like it was a god. When it would go off everybody would go nuts and jump and dance and yell and it was really like being in some ancient native civilization, I loved seeing (and partaking in) people basically becoming animals, it was awesome (in context). Then I hit the shows. Here you go:

The Frames (50 minutes, full set) - I stumbled in on this show not knowing what to expect and I think it was an incredible show. They are from Ireland and they have an awesome indie sound to them. They had an awesome sing-a-long at the end that was stuck in my head for the next two acts, I suggest you go listen to some of their stuff immediately.

Regina Spektor (50 minutes, full set) - I didn’t remember the stuff of hers that I liked. She came out with a song that she played by tapping the mic and singing which was interesting. As the set went on I realized why so many people like her. She had some really cool tracks including one I recognized from the radio where she goes “lo-a-uh-a-a-uh-a-a-uh-uh-a-ve” and I think its awesome.

The Night Watchman (50 minutes, full set) - Easily one of the best sets I’ve seen here. There was an incredible atmosphere in a room full of Rage fans who were there to see Tom. His songs are amazing. They are powerful, simple, complex, rebellious yet accessible by all, and overall amazing. After tuning his guitar in the middle of the set he said to us: “I hope in the time I was away you were planning a revolution!” If this is any sign of things to come this festival will be thoroughly ROCKED tomorrow during Rage Against the Machine’s set. If I don’t make it out alive: you can have all my stuff. He finished off by bringing out two other artists from the festival to sing a version of “This Land is my Land” with the inclusion of some verses typically left out by school teachers, etc. that show the true rebellious nature of the song. He finished with one of his own verses then we (the crowd) sang the chorus a couple of times. It was amazing. Afterwards he was doing an autograph signing. They had to cap his line because it was probably 50+ yards long. This is the first time in years they have had to cap an autograph line. I missed out but I guess it was for the best as otherwise I would have missed his last song AND the next couple of sets…Tom Morello is amazing.

My battery is dying and I’m ridiculously tired so I’m gonna finish this post later. You should know that the Red Hot Chili Peppers put on one of the best shows I have ever seen in my life and I wish it had never ended. Tiesto killed me because I did not stop moving once during his entire set.

Tomorrow is the day I get to see Rage Against the Machine. I will probably head over to the main stage at about 2 O’clock for the show that starts at 10:20. There is a good chance I will not make it out alive. I better bring some food in because there is also a good chance I will get very hungry/dehydrated while waiting. Every time I think about seeing them I can’t believe it. This is really very surreal for me and will probably be the pinnacle of my small, meaningless life. Anything can and will happen tomorrow. If you couldn’t tell I’m really stoked for it. Also they just announced another Rage show in NYC. I already had tickets to the first sold out show but will probably buy more so more of my friends can go the second day. This means that if all goes well I will get to see Rage Against the Machine on their last year together 3 out of the 5 times they will be playing. This is worth any amount of money to me and will be amazing. I don’t know what to say. Also my vocabulary is a bit limited due to my tiredness. Also there’s a good chance I would fail a drug test right now (though I don’t think I ever really got “high”) due to the sheer amount of weed being smoked absolutely EVERY WHERE. OK, goodnight.

Kings of Leon

The Decemberists

The Arcade Fire

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Tiesto

Braxton

Hello, loyal readers! This post is coming to you live from the Coachella campgrounds! I just got back from day 1 and it is about 3am. After the whole show I will probably post more with better descriptions, pictures, videos, and audio samples but this is just a quick update.

For all those who haven’t gathered from my last couple posts, I am in California right now for a music festival called Coachella! I met some people through the Coachella carpool forums and we drove down to Vegas where we stayed Thursday night. We walked around the strip, I went to an oxygen bar, we rode a roller coaster. Good times were had by all. Today we left at 8am and got to Coachella and set up all our crap. Then began the festival.

I didn’t really know what to expect but the day ended up being absolutely incredible. Apparently when I’m really enjoying myself I look not only high, but also packing of excess drugs because I got asked for drugs (weed or pills) no less than 5 times today. On account of I’m wicked tired and have a huge day tomorrow I will just list the bands I saw with a short description, here they are in order of the time I saw them:

Comedians of Comedy (20 min) - Wicked funny. Surprised to see how dirty “Spence” from King of Queens was stand up. Great way to start the day.

Tokyo Police Club (50 min, whole set) - Pleasantly surprised. Very cool band with a strokes sound, plus their Canadian!

Of Montreal (50 min, whole set) - They were every bit as ridiculous and over-the-top as I had hoped. Great sound and complete freaks on stage. Once I get some pics up you’ll understand.

Arctic Monkeys (45 mins, almost whole set) - At first I was unimpressed but all of their songs were solid and they had a couple tracks I really liked. Over all it was a great show, and even cooler because the sun set right behind them while they played.

Peaches (15 mins) - She was even dirtier than I remembered! This is some X-rated stuff (don’t worry, not visually). I left after she started climbing the scaffolding in her underwear, only because I was expecting a dance act. Still a fun show.

Felix Da House Cat (20 mins) - I left Peaches early to head to the dance tent to get a good spot for Benny Benassi and Felix was spinning. All I can say is WOW. He was awesome, probably better than Benny. I really started to lose myself and go nuts during his set. I met another guy in there who was sober (different reasons) but still danced like he was trippin’ balls. He was really an inspiration to me and I had a killer time the rest of the time I spent in the dance tent tonight.

Benny Benassi (1 hour, full set) - I knew his music before hand and expected him to just spin it so we could dance. He did some awesome things live, mixing all his tracks/samples together right there which was really neat to watch (he also had a tight light show). One thing I didn’t like is that he kept taking our (dancer’s) bass away. And then he’d laugh and give it back eventually. It is a great way to get the attention of the partyers and can get them pumped some times but he was just teasing us which seemed to detract in the end. Awesome show nonetheless.

Faithless (35 mins) - I wanted to go straight to Sonic Youth after Benny’s set but I couldn’t just stop dancing…Faithless came on and blew my mind. It was electronic music that was being performed live by instruments (drums, guitars, keyboard, synth) and they even had a singer. Absolutely incredible set…The worst part was dragging myself away to see Sonic youth (even though they rock).

Sonic Youth (10 mins) - One of the reasons I really wanted to see Sonic Youth is because Kurt cited them as a huge influence on Nirvana. I did get there late and maybe I regret it but the 3 or so songs I heard were freaking awesome. I think I’ll probably start listening to them more once I get back home.

Bjork (1.5 hours) - WOW. It’s BJORK! I really don’t know what else to say, she was incredible. She came out playing the song I’ve heard off her new album called Earth Intruders (maybe you’ve heard of it, the video is about 2 posts down). Eventually she played another one I knew called All is Love which was great. Every thing in between was great. I was trying to think of my favorite track when she came on for an encore and played the greatest song. Part awesome, Part icelandic, part dance it was an awesome, awesome way to end her set.

DJ Shadow (20 mins) - Since he was playing during Bjork I had decided to skip him and see him on Monday when I get back to Salt Lake City. Lucky for me his stage had been set back 20 minutes earlier in the day. He was playing one of my favorite songs when I first got there and then had a fresh track that was great to dance to (this was outdoor by the way, very cool). He finished with another awesome song but then halfway through was informed he had to close the night. He said “Aight well these F-ers want me to close it down and stuff so I’m just gonna let the F-in music run until they turn it off.” He proceeded to drop a phat record on and walk off the stage — pure class.

Overall I’d say tonight I had my mind blown and tomorrow looks like it will happen again. I should be gettin’ to bed soon but I think I might go look for that guy I met in the dance tent as I don’t have a sleeping pad/tent anyways. Well hopefully I won’t be too dead tomorrow to post this same sort of thing. I guess I ended up writing way too much for this — heh.

Peace
Braxton

Well looks like tomorrow is my last day at Brigham Young University. And what a year it’s been…The thing about things ending is that they end weather your ready or not. Time is like a 4th dimension. In the 3rd dimension (which we are in and have some control over) you lose control when you are falling. The best thing to do while tumbling through the air is to try to look good and land somewhere soft-ish. Time is a dimension we have no control over. It is as if we are falling continually down the never ending pit that is time and our life on earth. Some people just look better while falling.

Any ways, I’m off to Coachella on Thursday to hopefully get my skull blown wide open. So many new bands, so many bands I can’t wait to see…It should be an amazing time. One person who I was rather meh about was Bjork. I can’t understand why people think she is the best thing sliced bread. But that’s there issue. After seeing this video by her (and a couple live performances) I was actually pretty stoked to see her, but she’s playing the SAME TIME as DJ Shadow! Why, cruel world? I’ll probably see the first half of one of their sets…I guess it comes down to who do I want to end with: Bjork or DJ Shadow? Any ways here’s that video I was talking about, I feel that it rocks pretty hard.

Download:

Yesterday was the last day of classes this semester…I celebrated by staying up ’till 5am playing Fable. Yesterday I finished 3 CS labs and aced my piano final so it was busy…I also wore no shoes all day around campus which was more fun that you might think. I have 3 more finals to take (two CS finals and a music final) and then I’m done. I’m a little stressed right now because I have to figure out how to get myself home with all this junk and just recently threw all my boxes away (bad idea). Still busy studying/packing/getting stuff ready for Coachella (which is gonna blow my mind open) so the podcast will still be scheduled for early May, as mentioned previously. I was to see Modest Mouse the day I got back from school but it looks like the tickets were sold out so I’m still trying to get that figured out because I want to see them really bad, if you haven’t heard their new album yet (We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank) LISTEN IMMEDIATELY. It is absolutely fantastic. Anyways in the mean time try to enjoy this (I can’t get enough of the music he chose for the video: hilarious.):

I’m not sure why but so far all feedback to my first attempt at a podcast has been overwhelmingly positive…Due to this and the fact that I cannot sleep I am taking the time now to announce that the production of a second podcast has already begun. I am not sure I can get it released before May 10th-ish due to finals etc. but there is a good chance it could come sooner, thanks to my lack of a weekend social life. Once again thanks for all the good feedback. Hopefully I can get really good at this and turn it into some money making scheme so that my grades this first year of college can be overlooked as they will probably be the source of some good ol’ family beatings this summer. If there’s one thing I’ve learned this year its to respect college. Because it doesn’t like you. Or me, rather. Submit. Resistance is futile.

bm4n out

Welcome to my first podcast! Yet another expansion to your way into the universe of Braxton! Let me elaborate…

A couple of weeks ago I woke up with the strangest urge to create an online radio station or podcast…I wanted to do a radio station a lot at first but I realized people don’t read this stuff on demand, why would they take time out of their days to listen to me? I figured if I put it in podcast form they might download it then just accidentally listen to it sometime…Also I couldn’t get the broadcasting software working on my server…Well today presented me with plenty of time and I was extremely bored so I went ahead and recorded the first show of my new podcast called Radio Braxton (kinda like Radio Disney, but we play Rage Against the Machine…). This may or may not ever happen again, completely depending on the response I get from those who listen. It was fun to make but time consuming…I learned a ton, mostly what not to do next time. I slur a lot in this one so you can’t really understand what I’m saying, the volume can be inconsistent, there may be skips in the tracks, the voice is a little fuzzy, and there are plenty of other reasons why this first show reeks of n00bness (such as I recorded the songs in a really crappy bit rate for no reason at all). The next one definitely *could* be better, but like I said before, there may not even be a next one if people don’t listen to this or enjoy listening to it. One thing though: if you do listen to this *please* do so with an open mind…There is a wide variety of music included here so just because you hate one track please don’t stop listening! Just hear the whole thing…It’s only 50 minutes you can probably just leave it playing in your browser and it will be over before you know it! Also I didn’t talk much about the music. I was kind of nervous and I really only talk for maybe two or three minutes in a 50 minute long track. Any ways there’s a lot I can improve on so please listen and leave your feedback here!

You can download the 44Mb mp3 file or stream it from this page below. Depending on your connection it could take very long (or very short) to buffer the podcast so it may be faster and less choppy for some of you to just download the file. Anyways, here it is:

Download

bm4n out