Update, Jerry Joseph Album Review, and Bonnaroo Plans

Que pasa?

I’ve moved into working more than full time this year, so the blog has suffered accordingly. You can actually suss out the last 3 years of my life by going back to the start of this page: there’s the post-employment barrage of music news and reviews, followed by the infusion of articles for Glide Magazine, the start of my concert photography dalliances, and the sudden emphasis on craft beer. Now once again gainfully employed, my writing time has significantly diminished. But I’ll still be doing reviews for Glide and going to Bonnaroo every year, and that’s what brings me out of the woodwork today.

My latest album review, for Jerry Joseph and the Jackmormons’ wonderful Happy Book, is now up at Glide. On that same front, I’ll be covering Bonnaroo for them again and tweeting like mad at WoundedTweeter, as usual.

From now on, my blog posts will be given increased visibility via Best Thinking. If you’re a blogger or writer looking for new assignments or a new outlet for your thoughts, check them out.

Follow Me to Bonnaroo – Setlists, Observations, and Other Tweets

Follow me to Bonnaroo by visiting the Wounded Messenger Twitter feed – The Wounded Tweeter. I’ll be providing updates on my whole experience at the festival this year, such as what music I’m seeing at the time, set lists from the performances, notes on the poster exhibit and other attractions, food reports, weather observations, crowd and atmosphere, and the like.

I’ll be updating the blog each day with thoughts and hopefully photos, plus – and this is only a possibility right now – video and audio from artists and their performances! We’ll see if the festival’s wi-fi and my technical skills hold up their end of the bargain as far as those possibilities go!

In the past few days, I have seen a number of blog posts and articles about “how to do Bonnaroo.” That’s great for camping topics and such, but as far as the music goes, I can only recommend that you do only what you feel like doing. If that means camping out at one tent all day or cruising the grounds in perpetual motion, that’s fine. Both are worthy tactics when it comes to experiencing Bonnaroo. This year, there’s enough going on that no one could possibly be bored.

Look for more previews soon, and a farewell note as I hit the road. I look forward to bringing as much of Bonnaroo as possible this year!

Get Phish in Hampton Updates Here!

Check here March 6th – 9th for setlists, photos, reviews, and other updates from Phish’s weekend stay at the legendary Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, VA! I’ll be doing my best to bring you as much coverage as possible after every show and the mornings after, including in-depth musical reviews, reports on the madness surrounding the shows, and more. Let’s just hope the hotel’s wi-fi cooperates! Have a great weekend everyone!

Back from DC

It was a wild and historic trip to DC, and it’s good to be back home…though I was surprised to find snow still lingering on the ground here!

My job for 5 days was to sell the official merchandise of the Inauguration Committee. My station was the Marriott Washington on 22nd St. between M and N St. I feel like I got very lucky, because the people there were simply amazing. The event managers, front desk folks, hotel managers, staff, concierge, loading dock guys, and tech support were all incredibly friendly and accommodating. Also, the guests were in a great mood and snapped up tons of memorabilia from my staff and I, including t-shirts, glassware, dinnerware, cuff links, buttons, wristbands, stickers, posters, and more! You can see some of the items we sold at the inaugural collectibles site. I was quite pleased to bring home some of these items myself!

I stayed at an apartment in Alexandria with my good friend Heidi and the owner’s gorgeous cat, Izzy. I got a unique DC experience riding the Metro to Foggy Bottom/George Washington University each day and braving the record cold temperatures in the streets. I had two of the most wonderful helpers, the soon-to-be-wed Julie and Mitch, who proved invaluable throughout the weekend and inauguration. Julie turned out to be quite the salesperson, making our customers feel happy and helped each day.

I also had a few fantastic meals – two at Meiwah, a relaxed but impressive Chinese restaurant in the same block as the hotel, and one at Jandara, a funky Thai place by the zoo. Both were excellent. The General Tso’s chicken at Meiwah and Chicken Satay at Jandara were my favorites. However the Marriott makes a very fine grilled chicken sandwich, if I do say so myself!

During the inauguration ceremony, Julie, Mitch and I gathered at the bar with some of the hotel staff to witness history. I must say that I have never experienced anything like those 5 days in the greater DC area. So many people from so many countries all coming together to celebrate a truly momentous ceremony. Sure, there were insane crowds too large for any city to handle, and yeah, I’ll try really hard to forget my experience on the Metro on Tuesday morning (sardines, anyone?), but I don’t think I’ll ever have an experience like that again, and I doubt anyone who was in Washington will either.

I’ll be back to the music soon – after all, I promised quite a bit of words that I haven’t gotten around to writing yet, and there’s a new album from one of may favorite bands – Umphrey’s McGee – to be digested, so look for many posts this week!

Inauguration Bound

The Messenger is headed to the frigid capital of our nation to sell official inauguration merchandise for a few days. While I have no political affiliation, I’m excited to get into the fray and be in DC during this historic event. The steady stream of music reviews will continue next week, under a new presidency! I might even get one done before I leave, but until then, have a great holiday and stay warm!

Merry New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and Hannukah, and I wish you all the best as we move into 2009! The Wounded Messenger is taking a break until the new year, but there’s a whole lot of good music lined up waiting to be reviewed, like Animal Collective, N.A.S.A., Howling Bells, DJ Signify, Six Organs of Admittance, and more. So bookmark me and stop on by every once in a while to check out the latest message!

Cheers!

Don’t shoot the messenger?

“Don’t shoot the messenger.” What did he do? Not the dirty deed, but the delivery of the tale. However, in this era of message boards and article comments and such, we all know who gets the public beatdown from the masses – the messenger.

That’s the inspiration for this blog, which will soon contain all manner of posts from my days as a music reviewer. After the foundation is laid, you can expect this place to host posts on a wide variety of subjects. They’ll mostly be about music, sports, video games, movies, television, and the like – the common interests of the common man. Besides that, I’m sure you’ll see the occasional halfhearted soliloquy about subjects much less interesting, and probably some vitriolic rants as well.

The messenger of the modern day will never escape unharmed. However, I will not allow potential virtual harm to impede my thoughts. Here’s to a start!