Monday Morning Music Video : Neo Geo

Ever since my girlfriend introduced me to Nathan Barnatt I’ve been a fan, not quite as big a fan as her, but a fan none the less. One of his more popular characters is Keith Apicary, a gamer in his late 20′s who loves Sega & Neo Geo and is the subject of an on going documentary. In that time he’s done a few music videos, this is one of them.

Chicken & Waffles

This isn’t where I went last night for my birthday chicken and waffles, but a prior adventure w/ Jake for some deliciousness. Chicken and waffles is not a joke, it is pure awesome on a plate!

Monday Morning Music Video : Vancouver

One of my favorite bands growing up was They Might Be Giants. So, in the tradition of looking back, as an old man is wont to do so close to his birthday (it’s tomorrow, I expect accolades for not dieing yet people) I’m hitting up an old favorite. The appeal of this song over other more recent TMBG songs is one that I can’t put my finger on, but I just know I like it better. It is from the time they were writing songs for every venue they played in that tour, they then went and professionally recorded the best ones and then animated them. This also features an intro by PC and expert on everything , John Hodgeman.

23min of Ska : Rebirth

In a few short days it will be my birthday, hurrah! What better way to celebrate than with some of my favorite ska songs? In the old school category we have the Wailers and Althia & Donna. Both songs are totally great, and make be want to dance, especially “Uptown Top Ranking”. Johnny Socko is the first band to repeated in this series, I there’s been a decent amount of separation from the first episode to this one to warrant that. Seeing Johnny Socko on or near my birthday was a tradition for most of my early 20s. For my 23rd they sang happy birthday to me in the middle of “Dancing Queen” at the Elbo Room in Chicago, it was such a trip. I picked “Hey Hey Hi” because it is from the later version of Socko that was more classic for my personal experience: Chris, Josh, Dylan, Matt and Demon Hooter personally gave me hours of excellent shows as well as fun converstaion. I included Lockstep because some of the members are close personal friends of mine (which I met through going to see Socko) and what better birthday music than something rad played by your friends? Speaking of friendliness in ska, Dan Potthast has always been super awesome to me. He’s always super nice to me when I see him and after about 4 minutes of chit chat it hits him that we’ve talked several times before and it is like the conversation starts over again, it makes me laugh every time!

If you’re in a ska band and would like to be featured or if you know some music that you think I should hear for future inclusion, please email me at radjose[at]gmail[dot]com!

You can also subscribe to the podcast by going to your advanced tab on iTunes, then select “subscribe to podcast…” and entering this: http://23minofska.podomatic.com/rss2.xml into the box that opens. Or downloading, there’s always downloading!

Guess who ate at the Vizzi Truck?

It was me! And, boy, was it tasty! I even got me a Jones Green Apple soda to wash down my balsamic BBQ braised wagyu sliders and cookies.

Check it out my homies in LA!

Gamblin’ with Jake

In the Tropicana Jake wanted to drop some cash on some slots, who was I to say no?

Monday Morning Music Video : Dopeman (Remix)

I’ve always been a big Less Than Jake fan, I’ve seen them at least a dozen times and own all the CDs and blah blah blah I’m a fan OK? I first picked up “Losers, Kings & Things We Don’t Understand” after listening to my friends copy of “Pezcore” on the way to the record store. I still think “Hello Rockview” is a totally classic album and “Anthem” has some of my favorite songs they’ve ever done on it. This video was rejected by Mtv for either having too many drug references or being too goofy, to which many people said “not as many drug reference than half the videos you already show” and it was followed mere months later by Sugar Ray’s “Every Morning” video which is just as goofy in the same style. Either way it was a shame. Also, watch to the end for a surprise guest!

5 Favorite Things About Vegas

Yay! This weekend Allison and I are headed to Vegas! Time to celebrate! Celebrate with a LIST!

Hash House A Go-Go’s Chicken and Waffles
It’s off the strip (but I think they built a new one close to it) but worth the drive. Everything there is yummy, but the fried chicken is something I dream of, and the waffles have bacon cooked in them. They are a masterpiece of culinary achievement.

Nine Fine Irishmen
It’s the Irish themed bar in the New York New York casino. It’s just so inviting. I’ve never even been there when the band is playing and I love it! It’s just a cool place to chill out and sip a Guinness.

The Burger Bar’s Desert Burger
It looks like a burger but it’s all candy and fruit. It’s effing good! If Hubert Kellar came up with this, he’s a genius, and if he didn’t, he hired a genius. Sometimes I don’t even want a genuine burger from the Burger Bar, but I’ll always want the Desert Burger!

The Tropicana
The Tropicana is pretty much the go to place to stay for Allison and I when in Vegas. It’s not too fancy and still holds some of that awesome old Vegas appeal. They’re doing it up all fancy, but I hope it doesn’t change too much, I really like the place! It might not be trendy, but it feels a lot more like the Vegas I enjoy than a bunch of the other hotel/casinos do.

Ridiculous Drinks
I think that each time one goes to Vegas they should find a place that serves some ridiculous drink, or a drink in a ridiculous fashion. Either be the Girl Drink Drunk or drink out of a plastic guitar, it makes no difference, it’s always awesome and Vegas is the only city where it won’t look out of place.

23min of Ska : Infinite

Woo! The infiniteness of ska! Spanning several decades! And yet, save the opening song, this is the most ’90s centric episode I’ve shared. Orangetree was a great band from St. Louis, I saw them play several times, the lead singer Jason used to be in MU330, and was also known to jump all over audience members, which somehow always seemed to be me, it was hilarious. Other than them, this is chock full of well known bands, Madness is a total classic, Goldfinger is still kicking around w/o doing the ska-punk thing much any more. The Impossibles and Dance Hall Crashers each left a legacy of fun albums in their wake and Mephiskapheles just plain cracked me up. Yup, other than Madness, this is a pretty good overview of ’90s ska, next episode I should stretch myself a bit more.

If you’re in a ska band and would like to be featured or if you know some music that you think I should hear for future inclusion, please email me at radjose[at]gmail[dot]com!

You can also subscribe to the podcast by going to your advanced tab on iTunes, then select “subscribe to podcast…” and entering this: http://23minofska.podomatic.com/rss2.xml into the box that opens. Or you could download it, yeah, downloading works.

Monday Morning Music Video : the Future Freaks Me Out

I’ve been a big fan of MCS for a long long time, I go way back w/ these chaps. Even before they were signed there was something special going on, tons of fun and all that. This is the song that gets stuck in my head, and the video has a whole “Max Fisher Players” feel going on too, and that’s awesome.