As you may or may not know...

Friday, February 18, 2011

The List!

I'm not going to lie. I'm super proud of my list of bands I've seen live. So I am never afraid to re-post it after I update it. Here is the official list as of ~~1/11/11~~ ~~2/3/11~~ 2/18/11.

30 Seconds to Mars
3OH!3
A Day to Remember
A Rocket to the Moon
All Time Low
Allred
Alyssa Bernal
Anarbor
Anberlin
Automatic Loveletter
Barcelona
Before You Exit
The Bravery
Breathe Carolina
The Brobecks
Chiodos
Chris Conley (Solo)
City Comma State
Civil Twilight
Cobra Starship
The Crash Kings
Creed
Cute is What We Aim For
Darius Rucker
Dashboard Confessional
Discourse
Epi
Every Avenue
The Fray
The Get Up Kids
He Is We
Hey Monday
Innerpartysystem
Jack’s Mannequin
John Lefler (Solo)
Jonathan Tyler & The Northern Lights
Karl Wolf
King Nikko
Kris Allen
Lady Danville
Lifehouse
Mayday Parade
Meese
Meg and Dia
Oh, Be Clever
Parachute
PlayRadioPlay!
The Recovery
River City Extension
Say Anything
Secondhand Serenade
Senses Fail
Single File
The Spill Canvas
Staind
Steel Train
Streetlight Manifesto
Suburban Boredom
Train
Treaty of Paris
Underoath
Vita Chambers
We Shot the Moon
Yellowcard

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Just click that fifth star to the right.

Think how great you will feel when you rate Fictionist five stars, they win, and you are able to say "Fictionist won because of me!" You know you want to! This is a local band that's actually worth claiming! But if you have no desire for a sense of accomplishment and self-worth by helping out some brothers from happy valley down south...you can go ahead and listen to those songs first, realize the band is great and proceed to rate them five stars. I won't even say I told you so.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Chris Carrabba

So I guess when my dad was younger he used to be the king of winning radio contests! Well, not only does it seem that the trait has passed on to me (at least partially, I've had okay luck), but it seems he still has the touch. Last Thursday I saw a facebook post that X96 would be giving away Dashboard Confessional tickets at 5:30 but it didn't give any details. So around 5:25, I had my family get ready to call as soon as I gave the signal.

So at 5:30, Todd Nuke'em played a three-or-so second clip of a Dashboard Confessional song and the first caller who could name the song won the tickets. So as soon as he played it, my family started calling, and sure enough, my dad got through. So while it's ringing still, I am desperately trying to remember the name of the song! All I heard was "And I'm throwing away the letters that I'm writing you..." and I totally recognized it! I even remembered that it was on the "Places You Have Come To Fear the Most" album! So I jumped on the computer and opened firefox and typed in the lyric faster than I think I have ever typed before. So thanks to Google instant, I was able to feed the name of the song to my dad a split-second before he had to answer!

Not only did I get the two tickets for free and saved myself a Grant (or a $50 bill for those who aren't keeping up with the lingo), I was also invited to the meet and greet! So Austin and I met up with Jake from X96 around 5:15 and then proceeded to stand around for what seemed like forever out in the balmy four-degree Utah sun! A few weeks ago I got to go to a "soundcheck party" at the same venue when I won tickets to Lifehouse, so I was expecting it would be a similar experience. I was pleasantly surprised though with how much better a "meet and greet" is! Rather than just being able to see the band perform a song and then getting handed a mass-produced "signed" picture, we actually got to meet and greet Chris Carrabba!

I'm just going to start by telling you how short he is! I still can't get over it! I'm pretty sure my mom is taller than him, and she's 5'4"! Anyway, he's seemed really genuine and actually went around and introduced himself to everyone and took time to sign a few things for everyone and take some pictures/ask questions, etc. Since this is the Swiss Army Romance Anniversary Tour, and seeing that I have Switzerland on the mind lately, I had to ask him if he'd ever been to Switzerland. And he hasn't. Oh well.

He's even shorter than he looks in this picture!

Recognizing the Spirit

Once upon a time there was a royal family who all played the flutes. One day they decided they needed to find a suitor for the princess and needed a grand competition. Next to the castle was a large evil forest, full of little creatures who had flute-like mouths and were very good at deceiving others. So the King decided that whoever could make it through the forest to the castle first would win the Princess' hand in marriage. To help them find their way, the King would play his flute for twenty minutes a night so that they could follow the sound and find their way through the forest. However, the creatures would also play their flute-like mouths at the same time, making it nearly impossible to discern between them. Now each contestant was allowed to bring one person with them. Most of the contestants brought big, strong men with them to protect them in the forest, but one smart villager had a different idea. He chose the Prince as his companion and had the Prince play his flute throughout the day so that when the King played for twenty minutes each night, the villager could tell the difference from the creatures. Needless to say, this smart villager was the first contestant to reach the castle and won the competition and the Princess' hand.

By practicing listening to the true flutes more and more, it became easier and easier for the villager to discern between the King's flute and the creature's mouths. The same is true with the still small voice of the Holy Ghost. The more we read our scriptures, pray, stand in holy places and practice listening to the Spirit, the easier it is to discern the promptings from the loud world around us.

"For they that are wise and have received the truth, and have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide, and have not been deceived--verily I say unto you, they shall not be hewn down and cast into the fire, but shall abide the day." (Or perhaps, win the Princess.)

--Doctrine and Covenants 45:57

"The voice of the Spirit is described in the scripture as being neither ‘loud’ nor ‘harsh.’ It is ‘not a voice of thunder, neither . . . voice of a great tumultuous noise.’ But rather, ‘a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper,’ and it can ‘pierce even to the very soul’ and ‘cause [the heart] to burn.’ (3 Ne. 11:3; Hel. 5:30; D&C 85:6–7.)

"The Spirit does not get our attention by shouting or shaking us with a heavy hand. Rather it whispers. It caresses so gently that if we are preoccupied we may not feel it at all.

"Many voices in the world compete for your attention, and they can easily drown out spiritual impressions if you are not careful."

--President Boyd K. Packer, Preach My Gospel

A special thank you to my efy counselor Adam Nickle for sharing this story idea with me.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

#yellowcardisback

Yellowcard was my first ever hands-down favorite band. I still remember the very first time I heard one of their songs was on a school bus headed for Mill Hollow. It was after my fourth grade year and the song was Ocean Avenue. And then I was hooked.

That was a defining moment in my life, which may sound completely ridiculous, but it's true. I remember that before then, I thought X96 was WAY too hardcore and 107.5 The End was just weird stuff. There was no My 99.5 or 104.7 The Point. I'm pretty sure I listened to Bee 98.7 with maybe an occasional 97.1 KissFM. I was absolutely enthralled by Phil Collins. I also listened to a lot of 103.5 The Arrow (and still do). After "Ocean Avenue," though, I started easing myself into the likes of Star 102.7 and such.

Now all of this was pre-iTunes. With Steve Job's brainchild came another big step in my music-um...ness? I bought a Samsung YP-Z5 (because I wasn't rich enough to get an iPod mini), then I started getting music for it. Of course I had every Yellowcard song I could get my hands on. Then I discovered bands like the All-American Rejects from Adam Hendrickson and it started expanding from there. I remember the first song I ever bought on iTunes was "Dare You to Move" by Switchfoot. But thank goodness for LimeWire for really getting my music collection started. (We all know we used it, but I sure don't use it anymore!)

I started to listening to all types of music, even the types of music on that "hardcore" X96 station and while listening to X96, I heard an announcement for a concert. I was finally able to convince my parents to let me go (by agreeing to let my dad tag along), and who was playing this, my first concert? You guessed it, good 'ole Yellowcard. Fast forward to now, I have (and even know) over 8,000 songs on iTunes, have seen like sixty or something bands live and pretty much live for music. And in a way, I owe it to Yellowcard. And after a few year hiatus, they're releasing a new album in the next couple months. Welcome back!

Dear Sarah Palin,

Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential candidate, posted a controversial map on her Facebook page depicting spots where Democrats were running for re-election; those Democrats were noted by crosshairs symbols like those seen through the scope of a gun. Ms. Giffords was among those on Ms. Palin’s map...

Dear Sarah Palin,

I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you did not mean for this to happen. I know you would never condone violence. But do you remember when you put up those controversial maps on Facebook with the cross-hairs over the democrats running for re-election? "Don't retreat, instead RELOAD!" is what you said. Do you remember how everybody was worried that it would, even if inadvertently, incite violence?

Well guess what, there are people out there who are--dare I say it--even crazier than you!

Last March, after the final approval of the Democrats’ health care law, which Ms. Giffords supported, the windows of her office in Tucson were broken or shot out in an act of vandalism. Similar acts were reported by other members of Congress, and several arrests were made, including that of a man who had threatened to kill Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington.
And in August 2009, when there were demonstrations against the health care measure across the nation, a protester who showed up to meet Ms. Giffords at a supermarket event similar to Saturday’s was removed by the police when the pistol he had holstered under his armpit fell and bounced on the floor.

And now today, in the same city where you called the worries of your actions by the "lame-stream media" "B.S.," Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, who was on your cross-haired list, was shot along with seventeen other Americans. Five are dead including a federal judge (who wasn't even invited to the event, but decided to show up) and a nine-year-old girl.

Thank you for hurrying to take down your map as soon as you heard about the incident. Thank you for releasing a statement even though you technically don't hold any political office. Like I said before, I know you didn't mean for this to happen. Maybe the idea that it could incite actual violence didn't even process with your "common-sense conservative"-thinking. But next time, please listen to the concerns of Americans, like Gabrielle Giffords was trying to do in Tuscon today.

Thank you,

Alexander Hughes

Friday, January 7, 2011

Top Albums of 2010

This post is in the process of being completed! Descriptions and explanations will be added soon!

Here we are. Already a week into the new year, and it still doesn't even feel like it should be even close to the end of 2010. Oh well. It's time for the second annual "Top Albums of the Previous Year" post! I understand that this may be one of the only posts of the year that is worth reading because it isn't full of my useless ramblings, so enjoy every line of this post!

I am sorry to say that 2010 wasn't the greatest year of new albums. There was a few really good songs, and maybe a couple great albums, but compared to years past where there were some absolutely incredible albums, this year was on a low. And so be warned! I am going to be pretty lazy this year and not make the tough decisions of putting them in a countdown list. Also, I am going to try naming fifteen top albums (because there weren't ten that definitely stuck out and I couldn't decide which ones to cut). And finally, remember that I am choosing the top albums and so many of my favorite songs of 2010 won't be included simply because the rest of the album wasn't the greatest.

Here we go (in alphabetical order):