I decided at long-last to finish ripping the final few CDs from my collection into my computer. After several passes at the collection the last few years, the only remaining titles left were the majority of my Live Phish collection. The main reason I put them off is because they're all multiple disc sets and therefore time consuming to rip.

The original set of twenty albums came in binder pages loaded into cardboard sleeves. As those sell, the repressings are in regular quad cases. I had noticed a couple of years ago that some of the binder pages had started to leave a little bit of goo on the discs. It was only one or two of the set and so I wiped it off and didn't think much of it. I pulled the full set off the shelf on Thursday, pulled the binder page out of the first sleeve to note that it was wrinkled. I opened it up and the plastic has begun to break down leaving a massive amount of goo on the discs, which when it has sat long enough, is eating through the discs and into the foil layer, making the discs unplayable.

Setlist: Pump, Mesopotamia, Private Idaho, Give Me Back My Man, Funplex, Strobe Light, Quiche Lorraine, 52 Girls, Roam, Party Out of Bounds, Love in the Year 3000, Hot Corner(?), Love Shack Encore: Planet Claire, Rock Lobster

Setlist: Thunderbird, Francine, Waiting for the Bus > Jesus Just Left Chicago, Pin Cushion, I'm Bad I'm Nationwide, Got Me Under Pressure, Future Blues, Rock Me Baby, Cheap Sunglasses, I Need You Tonight, Hey Joe, Party on the Patio, Just Got Paid, Gimme All Your Lovin', Sharp Dressed Man, Legs, Encore: Viva Las Vegas, La Grange > Sloppy Drunk > Bar-B-Que > La Grange, Tush

Setlist: Hash Pipe, Troublemaker, Undone (The Sweater Song), Surf Wax America, Let It All Hang Out, Perfect Situation, Dope Nose* (vocal Scott Shriner), Say It Ain't So*, Can't Stop Partying, Why Bother? (vocal Brian Bell), (If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To, My Name Is Jonas (vocal Pat Wilson, Scott Shriner, Rivers Cuomo), Beverly Hills. Encore 1: Pork & Beans, Kids (MGMT cover) > Poker Face (Lady Gaga cover). Encore 2: Islands in the Sun, Buddy Holly

Setlist: Thriller, Rock With You, Off the Wall, Billie Jean, Don't Stop ('Till You Get Enough), Black or White, Smooth Criminal, Say Say Say, Bad, I'll Be There, Hot Tub, Beat It, We Are the World

One of my favorite shows of 2008 was Tragedy: The All-Heavy Metal Tribute to the Bee Gees. That group plays metal arrangements of the disco-era Bee Gees hits and sounds a bit like the Gibb brothers fronting Judas Priest and is complete with an over-the-top stage show. We saw them opening for a band we'll travel almost anywhere to see, 2 Skinnee J's. So, when we heard about Dangerous, the Heavy Metal Tribute to Michael Jackson, we were there.

Setlist (as best I can remember)
Set One: Dance Me to the End of Love, The Future, Ain't No Cure for Love, Bird on the Wire, Everybody Knows, In My Secret Life, Who by Fire, Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye, Anthem
Set Two: Tower of Song, Suzanne, Sisters of Mercy, The Gypsy's Wife, The Partisan, Boogie Street, Hallelujah, I'm Your Man, A Thousand Kisses Deep (Recitation), Take this Waltz, Waiting for the Miracle, Closing Time
Encore One: So Long, Marianne, First We'll Take Manhattan
Encore Two: Famous Blue Raincoat, If It Be Your Will, Democracy
Encore Three: I Tried to Leave You, Whither Thou Goest

I was originally planning on traveling around my birthday because I heard Tinariwen was going to be touring in the U.S. I was thinking that I might go to the Raleigh show midweek before my birthday as it was much closer than the show on the day in San Francisco or the shows following in Los Angeles. But then the 2 Skinnee J's shows were announced and we bought tickets. Soon after, dates on the Tinariwen filled in, including two New York area shows scheduled when we'd be there.

The first night in New York was the night of the 2 Skinnee J's show. The second was at a newer venue in Brooklyn called The Bell House. I'd never heard of the place, but before the 2 Skinnee J's show, Lance said he saw Eddie's other band play there and it was a really nice venue in a weird neighborhood. He said it looked like you were in the wrong place because there was nothing there.

A common complaint about bands like AC/DC is that they've been writing and recording the same album for twenty years. A further criticism is that all of their songs are the same. This is not quite true. I cataloged the various AC/DC songs in 2008. Following a long-standing argument between me and Eric regarding the true number of AC/DC songs (six or four), I present the following analysis of the six songs of AC/DC. This analysis is on the music, not the lyrics, which would be the subject of a different post.

Intro Song (Don't know the title), 2 Dimensional > Evel Knieval > Periscope > Mood for Food, The Best, Loud Neighbor, Pluto (w/J Guevera), "Party Favors Story" (Lance), You're a Champion, Girl with the World in her Eyes, "Quiz", Stockholm Love, Secret Frequency, Grown Up, Science, "Andy Action's prostitution story", Pass the Buck > Horns of Destruction > Big Beat Evangelists, "The poo story" (Eddie), "The pee story" (Eddie), The Good, the Bad and the Skinnee > Ballpoint Man > Wild Kingdom > Organic Machine > The Whammy, Riot Nrrrd, Mindtrick, 718

Encore: "Q&A", BBQ, Get in the Van, Sugar and Candy

This weekend, I finished my first RPM Challenge project. I decided to do it this year as I have not worked on a new music project since I moved from Syracuse. I wasn't able to set the drums up at our apartment, but did play guitar a bit. I have been playing guitar and drums since we moved to the house. But I haven't started (or finished) a project. I thought the RPM Challenge would break the ice, get me working on something and also force me to finish it as there was the built-in time constraint.

The completed project was not exactly what I expected going in, but it is not too far from it. It's definitely sloppy in parts, as I didn't have time to really get the parts right and I didn't finish all of the tracks I started.

Was this the best album I could have made? No. But that would take countless hours, weeks, months even. Part of the appeal of a challenge like this one is the time constraint. Projects tend to work better with built-in limitations, whether they be time, budget, method of recording or something else. That said, there are some things that happened over the course of the month that adversely affected the end product.