#189 - time to get away.

back when i was in my mid-to-late twenties, i went to a handful of concerts every month. these days, not so much. in 2010, i think i went to four, maybe five shows & i haven't been to one yet this year. other than the usual financial reasons, it's mostly because at some point along the way i burnt out on constantly standing around for hours in packed clubs to see my favorite bands. lucky for me, technology now lets folks stream their concerts LIVE on the interwebz, allowing me to see bands whilst lounging on my couch in whatever stage of undress & inebriation i so desire.

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#184 - please listen to my demo.

the only time i ever crashed a car was back at the end of my junior year of high school, when i took my mom's chevy corsica & drove it right off a new hampshire backroad & down into a ditch, smack dab between two thick new hampshire trees. for some reason, even though i didn't have a seatbelt on, i totally lived to see the day when i'd get to start this here awesomely irreverent snack blog. while i survived, my tape of EPMD's unfinished business was totally lost in the crash. from that point on, the frequency with which i heard their song "please listen to my demo" seriously dropped off. it told the tale of EPMD trying to break into the record business, as they shopped their demo around & around & eventually "signed on the dotted line" & got to "cruise in golden limos." success success success!

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#179 - tracks & snacks 2010.

alright loyal eat!drink!snack! readers, it's time to slam the barn door shut on 2010! normally, i'd reminisce about the past twelve months & be all "blah blah blah blog good blah blah blah blog bad," but i'm just not in the mood this year. instead, i'm just going to get right down to business. it's no secret that i'm both a music monger & a snack monger and as such, around these here parts we have a one year old year-end tradition of looking back at the ten tracks & snacks that totally rocked my world over the past year, so let's just concentrate on that for now.

2010 was definitely a great year for new music. for the past twelve months, it seemed like every single week i came across another new album or song or band that got me excited about music again, so that was coolio. per usual, the stuff that got me most excited fell under the category of "indie rock" with a smidgen of hip hop mixed in. what can i say? i like what i like & like to stick with what i like.

so yeah, this year was jam packed with fun time music, so much that the task of narrowing my favorites down into a top ten list was much more difficult than usual. in the end, i had to leave off a bunch of stuff i liked, including freddie gibbs' "the coldest," yeasayer's "ambling alp," the national's "bloodbuzz ohio," sleigh bells' "tell 'em" & frightened rabbit's "nothing like you," all of which got a TON of play on my stereo & ipod. sorry to them. this ain't tee ball. here at eat!drink!snack!, not everybody gets a trophy. let's check out who actually does get a trophy this year!

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#163 - middling tradition.

wow. we're already more than halfway through 2010. how time flies when you're having a so-so time! last year around this time, i took a look at my fave five albums of the year & five snack/drink pairings that i'd planned on writing about but never got around to. this year, i've decided to do the same thing, officially creating a tradition of sorts here at eat!drink!snack!

thus far, it's been a relatively solid year for indie rock (which is about 80% of what i deal in) & there's still a lot to come, with albums from favorites such as no age, superchunk, black mountain, blonde redhead, les savy fav, the walkmen, !!!, interpol, the thermals, menomena & the arcade fire scheduled to come out over the next few months. it's safe to say that i'm EXTREMELY stoked about all that new music. that's right. i said "stoked."

without further ado, let's get to it...my indietastic mid-year top five!

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#152 - twenty-two minutes.

this weekend, before i sat down for the evening's snack & drink, i was on the phone with a friend explaining that in my next blog post, i planned on discussing things that are twenty-two minutes long. his response was "like taking a dump?" i was all like, "twenty-two minutes? it takes you that long?" personally, when it comes to doing my business, i'm in & out in five minutes tops, but i suppose that for some people, if you're sitting on the can for twenty-two minutes, that's acceptable. if you're standing at a urinal for that same amount of time, that might be a problem though. if it takes you twenty-two minutes to deftly execute your corporate strategy, that's acceptable. if it takes you twenty-two minutes to execute a prisoner by electrocution...not so deft.

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