Tuesday Tunes: The Offspring

The first band I ever fell in love with was The Offspring – I mean that I didn't just like them, I loved them. 

I was in 8th grade in 1997 when their album Ixnay on the Hombre came out.  I, of course, had heard "Smash" and "Self Esteem" on the radio (on the long gone KOME), but Ixnay was my gateway drug, so to speak – it introduced me to The Offspring's back catalog, and due to the amazing amount of punk compilations at the time, it introduced me to Epitaph bands, then to Fat Wreck Chords bands, and then to Nitro bands (the Offspring's own label) where I discovered the second band I became absolutely devoted to: AFI.

The Offspring gave me a taste of something, and I wanted more.  Because of this band I discovered 70s punk, and hardcore bands, and local ska-punk bands (it was the late 90s, remember).  I went to shows, loads and loads of shows.  I saw bands at big venues in The City, and small shows in people's garages, local YMCAs, and memorably, The Fishbowl, which was inside of a Le Boulanger.

Anyway, my tastes have evolved somewhat over the past 15 years, and I haven't listened to much of their new albums past Americana, but there is still a very special place in my heart for The Offspring.  So, when I learned I could get discounted tickets to their show next Tuesday, I jumped at the opportunity.  And my Jr. High self has been giving me high-fives all day.

Wanna join me and be nostalgic?  Get your tickets here!  I'll be the one acting old, standing in the back.

Also, check out their new album Days Go By that is mostly pretty solid (and complete with a reference to one of my favourite films, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb!)

Adventures in SoCal

Boyfriend and I journeyed down to SoCal the weekend before his birthday to visit his Grandma and to check out the new Cars Land at Disneyland. 

The trip didn't go 100% as planned.  We were meant to go straight to his Grandma's house, but half way there, we had to change our plans and head to his Uncle's instead.  Then due to an unforeseen freeway problem, our normal 6ish hour drive turned into a 10+ hour drive.  But don't worry, Dear Readers, there is a silver lining here – while we were stuck in traffic it hit 115° outside!  So, if we had to be stuck somewhere better it be in a car with AC!

We were a bit wrecked from the drive, but we made it to Disney the next morning and found out that it was a black out day for SoCal residents and that the park was crazy empty.  In fact, we saw a lot of the same people in line and there were wide open spaces for us to walk, which was especially good since the heat did not let up and it got to 106° while we were there.  Aside from Splash Mountain, the longest line we had to wait in was for Cars Land (and then we FastPassed it the second time).  It was Finn McAwesome and a perfect place to play Yellow Car while waiting in line.

Two things to note from our awesome Cars Land pic above:
1. I didn't realize I was standing so sassy.
2. I'm wearing my Snitchwiches shirt and Boyfriend is wearing his "You're a Timelord Harry" shirt.  Clearly we are at the wrong theme park. 

Tuesday Tunes: Japandroids

Guys, I cannot stop listening to this band. 

This is one of those weird cases where I've known about Japandroids for ages, and in fact, they'd been recommend to me over and over.  I had heard them a few times, and there was no real reason that I didn't listen to them, except that I didn't.  That sometimes happens.

Then Celebration Rock came out and, seriously, I have been listening to almost nothing else (except books on tape in the car because of reasons).  "The House that Heaven Built" is the single, and it's so damn good that I feared that it would be the best songs that the rest of the album couldn't live up to it (I'm looking at you, Walk the Moon).  But I needn't have worried – the album starts of with "The Nights of Wine and Roses" and never lets up.  In fact, the only song that didn't blow me away was a cover of "For the Love and Ivy" originally by The Gun Club.

Japandroids will be in at the Fillmore in November, and I'll be there and I'll yell like hell to the heavens!

Legendary Games of Awesome

 























 

My friends Jenny and Cristin host the most awesome events.  This weekend we participated in the 1st annual Legendary Games of Awesome!  And not only did they plan out a whole afternoon's worth of events, they got everyone team shirts and sweat bands!  They even had sliced oranges for half time!

The games opened with beer roulette to choose team captains.  One beer per team was shaken up, and who ever got the one that exploded got to be team captain.  This sounded a lot more awesome in theory; in reality, only 1 person got a really explody beer.

Games included: Synchronized Sipping, a beer-pong type game, a ring toss (which no one could successfully do), and something that involved getting an Oreo into your mouth without using your hands...

The trophies were dinosaurs.  And they were awesome.

In first place we had The Pickled Livers, who got the amazing golden dinosaur trophies.

Second place went to Team Dino-Might, who actually only had 3 participating members.  The other 3 were fashionably late to the event, but arrived in time for photos.

Third place went to the other 3 person team, Don't Let the Planes Crash, whose first names all started with the letter P and who did amazing airplane arms during Synchronized Sipping!
   

In the end my team, The Drunken Giraffes, came in dead last.  But for the record I'd like to point out that while everyone else was drinking Pabst, I was drinking wine.  Also for the record, we cheated proudly – and still lost.
But it's ok – we only came for the dancing.