For some reason I have really been into quirky ukulele music lately. First it was YouTuber Molly Lewis. She has some awesome videos on YouTube, and has even played with Jonathan Coulton. She has an album on iTunes, and it is definitely worth the $6.93.

Then today Motion City Soundtrack’s blog introduced me to the greatness that is Garfunkel and Oats. You can listen to all their songs and watch a bunch of videos on their website. It was another easy iTunes purchase for me.

Nirvana’s album Nevermind changed my life. That one album single-handedly got me listening to tons of amazing lesser known bands. One of those bands was Green Day. Back in 1992 I picked up Kerplunk and was blown away. How could an album this good not get any radio play. That’s when I gave up on the radio. Since that Green Day album was so great I started listening to other bands on Lookout! Records. Screeching Weasel, The Queers, Squirtgun, and Mr. T Experience all suddenly became my favorite bands. Then I got into bands on Epitaph, and Fat Wreck Chords. Such great music, yet mostly unheard of.

I never got a chance to see Nirvana live, but I did see Green Day back in 2002. It was one of the best concerts I have ever seen, but it lacked anything from Kerplunk. Tonight Green Day is playing in Fargo. I can’t wait to see them, and will be hoping for some music off of Kerplunk, but I doubt they will play any of it. They have so many great songs, and most people probably don’t know much from Kerplunk.

I have checked their setlists and they do vary a little from concert to concert, but no Kerplunk songs. I am still hoping they play some “Christie Road” though. It’s one of my all time favorite Green Day songs.

I know they aren’t going to play anything older than Kerplunk, but how awesome would it be if they played “Paper Lanterns”?

Or maybe “80″?

Or even “Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?”.

I am sure the concert will be great, but I kind of wish I would have seen them back in ‘92 or ‘93 to see them play my favorite songs.

I was a huge Dinosaur Jr. fan in the early 90s, but wasn’t much of a fan of their last album they released in 2007. I just watched the video for their new song, “Over It”, that is off their new album coming out next Tuesday. I really liked the new song. It sounds like the old Dinosaur Jr. that I use to know and love, just with more gray hairs now. Here’s the video. It brought me right back in 1993.

I have been a “Weird Al” Yankovic fan since first hearing “Eat It” in forth grade. I have pretty much liked everything he had done since. I’m not a big fan of his latest song “Craigslist” though, but it’s not his fault. It’s a parody of the Doors, and I can’t stand the Doors. I can’t get over the crappy sound of the Doors to like the song. It’s a pretty cool video directed by Liam Lynch though.

I first experienced downloading MP3s back in 1994. Back then it was easy to find copyright infringing MP3s right on the web. The problem was they took forever to download, and took up so much space. Back then a 1 GB hard drive was huge, so 3 and 4 MB files started to add up. I didn’t download too many MP3s back then. CD burners were way to costly, so you pretty much had to sit at your computer to listen to them.

Eventually the RIAA and record companies discovered MP3 and started cracking down on them. When that happened I starting download music from FTP sites. I would sit in IRC rooms that would announce different FTP sites, and I would check to see what they had. It was a long and tedious process to find anything I wanted. That’s when I really started to download music though. It’s not that I wanted to steal it, I just wanted to hear it before I bought it. I discovered many bands that way, which lead me too more CD, concert ticket, and t-shirt purchases.

Then in 1999 Napster came around and changed everything. Suddenly anybody could download music, not just geeks. This month is the 10 year anniversary of Napster. Once Napster came out it was much easier to search for anything you want and find it. It was at that time also that I first got broadband, and a CD burner. It was becoming too easy to steal anything you wanted. I admit I download my fare share. There was no way to purchase song online, so we really had no choice.

Napster was shut down, but many other similar file sharing networks popped up. It was still easier to steal music online than to buy it. iTunes would eventually start selling music, but it contained DRM, so I refused to buy any of it. I don’t want my digital music to be locked down to anything. Once Amazon launched their MP3 store I finally had a place to buy music online, and now that iTunes is DRM free I even buy from there too.

Now days you can check out bands on Myspace, and then buy their music on Amazon or iTunes with just a few clicks. I can finally preview the music before I buy it, and I can buy it in my underwear in the comfort of my own home. Things have sure changed, and I am glad it’s getting easier and easier to support the bands I love. I never wanted to steal, I just wanted the convenience, and now I am getting it.

Sing it loud are an up and coming Minneapolis band. I have seem them, and they put on a pretty good show. Here they are doing an acoustic version of one of my favorite Jimmy Eat World songs.

I don’t know what it is, but I still like to buy CDs. I couldn’t tell you the last time that I actually put one in a CD player and played it though. Now days, they just get ripped and put in the closet.

Today the piece of plastic I bought was the new Green Day CD. My Green Day tickets also came in the mail today. I have seen them once before, and it was the best concert ever. I had tickets last time they were suppose to place Fargo, but they canceled. They will be here in July, and I can’t wait.

I have been a Green Day fan forever. They along with Nirvana were my gateway bands. they got me listening to a lot of great music. Back when Green Day were on Lookout! Records there were so many other great bands on Lookout!. I would pick up CD just based on the record label, and I was never disappointed. Now days with the Internet any MySpace it’s not really the same. Long gone are the days of picking up a CD and not know what it’s going to sound like. I don’t know if it’s better or worse, it’s just different. I don’t know if it’s that I am getting older, but I find myself listening to music less and less. I still go out of my way to find good music, and seldom like anything on the radio though.

Maybe I am just getting old or something, but music lately has really sucked. I haven’t really found anything good lately. The Forever the Sickest Kids album was pretty good. I like the new Sing it Loud, Jack’s Mannequin, and Punchline albums, but I haven’t found anything super amazing is quite some time.

The one amazing album that I have discover the past year has been Amanda Palmer’s Who Killed Amanda Palmer. For some strange reason I didn’t check it out right when it came out. I wasn’t a huge Dresden Dolls fan, so I didn’t think I would care for her much. Boy was I wrong. I can’t get enough of Amanda Palmer and am starting to get into the Dresden Dolls now.

The cool thing about Amanda is that she blogs regularly, is on twitter @amandapalmer, and even uses TwitPic from time to time. Last week she even showed us her cool undies. She had a blog post a couple weeks ago with a bunch of her videos in it. So go and watch them and enjoy the greatness that is Amanda Palmer.

Today would have been Kurt Cobain’s 42nd birthday. It’s crazy that he has been dead for 15 years already.

During my junior year of high school this album with a naked baby on it came out. A lot of people didn’t understand it, but I totally got it. It was something different. I totally related to it and it changed my life. That tape was pretty much glued into my tape deck. Not a bad song on it. There isn’t even a mediocre song on it. All were and still are great in my eyes. That alum opened my eyes to so much great music that wasn’t very popular. Many of those unknown bands would eventually get big and played on the radio. In the mid 90s the radio stations were playing music that I actually liked. Not so much now days.

Maybe I am getting old, but music now days seems watered down. Even the lesser known stuff that I listen too isn’t nearly as good. With the Internet and MySpace anybody with a computer and a guitar can be a band. To find good music now days you have to wade though much more crap. It’s no wonder the radio doesn’t play anything worth listening too. I still find and listen to good stuff, just nothing nearly as good as some of those 90s albums. The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins Sonic Youth, and many other bands all had killer albums in the 90s. There have been only a handful of great albums since.

Or, maybe I am just OLD.

I am a big music fan, but most of the stuff I listen to isn’t all that popular. I am kind of clueless when it comes to “mainstream” music. I never listen to music on the radio because most of it is crap. I found out on Twitter that the Grammys were on last night. I couldn’t care less to see them. First of all I hate all awards show, and second, I probably don’t know much about anybody involved in the awards anyway.

On another musical note, I have had this damn song stuck in my head all weekend. I don’t really know who Taylor Swift is, but the Forever The Sickest Kids version is so much better.

So have known who Amanda Paler is for quite some time. I never thought to check out her solo album because I was never much of a fan the Dresden Dolls. Today I heard my first Amanda Palmer song and fell in love with it. I think I will be getting her solo album and looking in the Dresden Dolls a little more.

Here is the video for the song I heard.

Pretty awesome, but something tells me that if MTV played videos these days, they wouldn’t play this one.

**Update**
It’s been an Amanda Palmer day for me today. I found out she is on twitter @amandapalmer, and she wrote a lengthy blog post about her video.

I have been bad at listening to music lately. I have a stack of CDs that I haven’t listened to yet. I have MP3s that I have bought that I haven’t listened to yet. It’s been a while since I have fell in love with a new band. I must be getting old.

A few days ago I came across an awesome cover of the Nirvana song “Drain You” by Straylight Run. I have been a fan of them since the band was formed when John Nolan left Taking Back Sunday. You can go to their site to download it for free, or you can listen here.

Yesterday I read about MTV’s launch of a new site MTVMusic.com. I didn’t think much of it. Whenever I want to watch a music video, I can usually find it on YouTube. Today I was bored enough to check it out. It was actually pretty cool to see a bunch of old videos. I wasted way too much time there. They didn’t have a lot of the videos I was looking for yet, but they did have quite a few. It will be my new first stop for music videos. It’s like MTV of the old when they played videos, but this time it’s only the videos you want to see. Cool stuff.

A new Motion City Soundtrack video came out today. It is for the acoustic version of “Fell In Love Without You”. It’s pretty cool seeing Minnesota license plates on the cars. I am guessing the video was shot by a lake somewhere in Minnesota.

"Fell In Love Without You" video

I can never get enough of this band. I have seen them six times, and can’t wait to see them again. Last time we saw them we got to meet the lead singer Justin, and I took a picture of him with my wife, remember? I sure do.

So if you haven’t heard, Weird Al is going to be releasing his songs online now as he completes them instead of saving them up for an album. Here is his newest song. Supposedly it’s a parody, but I have never heard the original.

Is the original a popular song? I have no idea. I am a big music fan, but I have no idea with what is going on with mainstream music. In fact I don’t think I have ever heard the original from Weird Al’s last hit “White & Nerdy”, which I think is a much better song than this one. Here it is if you don’t remember.

So I finally got out and picked up the new Jack’s Mannequin CD today. I swear the record companies are pushing everybody to piracy, or at least online downloads. $18 for a CD is crazy. If it wouldn’t have been Jack’s Mannequin I would have gotten it online instead.

Some bands I just have to have the CD, others I download from Amazon, and if it’s a band that I don’t know much about, but want to hear them, I will torrent it. Then if I like it I buy it, and if not, I don’t listen to it. Most of what I listen to isn’t mainstream, so I support them as much as possible, but the price of CDs is sure getting outrageous.

I have yet another new music video to share with you. This time it’s the only “Country” band that I like, if you can call it country. They do, but I’m not so sure about that. It’s Tumbledown, the country side project of Mike Herrera from MXPX.

I am a big Jack’s Mannequin fan. I have been looking forward to another album from them for quite some time. Well, tomorrow is finally the day. Here is the first video off their newest album:

And don’t forget to set your DVRs to record Leno on October 2nd, Jack’s Mannequin will be there.

My newest CD is from one of my favorite bands Punchline. They just released their first video off of the album. I thought I would share the love here. Enjoy!

Tegan and Sara have a new video from their 2007 album The Con. I kinda like it.

I love The Hush Sound. I have all their CDs and I have seen them in concert twice. I saw this video a couple days ago and can’t get this song out of my head.

How did I miss the release Juliana Hatfield’s latest album last Tuesday?

I didn’t get into her when she was in the Blake Babies. I first got introduced to her when she was a member of the Lemonheads in the early 90s. She released Become What You Are during my freshman year of college. I don’t know if everybody feels this way, but most of my favorite music came out when I was in college. My roommate and I listened to that album constantly that year. We both fell in love with Juliana. I have every album she has released since those days. Some are great, some not so great, but I still love them all. I have listened to a few of her new songs on her MySpace, and the new albums sounds pretty good.

I will have to pick it up today.

Here is the first video from the album.

So yesterday was our eighth wedding anniversary. We were married in 2000, so it’s easy to figure out. Our favorite band so happened to play in town yesterday also. It was our sixth or seventh (I kinda lost count) time seeing Motion City Soundtrack. This was the first time that they were actually headlining. We got right up front. The wife hates crowds, so the front is the best place. She doesn’t have to see all the people that way. We both had a great time. She was snapping pictures like crazy. She took around 90 or so, but most of them are the usual low light lots of blur pictures, but she did get a handful of good ones. After the concert we were picking up our t-shirts and Justin Pierre, lead singer of Motion City Soundtrack just happened to be hanging out there. The wife got his autograph and I took a picture of her with him. It was a pretty memorable anniversary, and I can’t wait to see Motion City again. I just can’t get enough of them.

Saturday night we went to RibFest. We had some amazing ribs and some roasted corn. It was all yummy, but spendy. I think we spent $40 on food, and we really didn’t eat that much.

The main reason we went on Saturday night was to catch Soul Asylum. They played RibFest a few years back and were awesome. They were one of my favorite bands from the 90s, and being from Minneapolis, always made them special. It’s kind of amazing that the band is still together with very few member changes. They formed it 1983 and have had a few different drummers, and with the death of Karl Mueller, they have a new bass player.

They played quite a few songs off of their latest album, The Silver Lining, which came out in 2006. I thought it was a great album and was surprised it didn’t get any radio play. Since most people didn’t know the new album, the crowed was kind of mellow when they played those songs.

We were right up front against the fence. At one point a fight or something started out in the crowd. We didn’t really see what happened, but the cops were on the lookout on the side of the stage. One of Soul Asylum’s roadies ran by and the cops grabbed him, and almost arrested him. It was kinda funny. Towards the end of the concert Soul Asylum had their roadies come on stage and play with them. The one that was almost arrested mentioned that. I glanced over at the cops and they were smiling about it.

Overall it was a good concert, and I wasn’t even bothered much by any drunks for a change.

So Weezer’s new album came out today. I picked it up at Best Buy for $18, kinda expensive, but hey, it’s Weezer. I haven’t had much time to listen to it yet, but here is a cool version of “Pork and Beans” sung by Tay Zonday of the “Chocolate Rain” fame.

Weezer is one of my all time favorite bands. They just released the video for Pork and Beans. It’s teh awesome!!! It is full of internet memes. I wish I could embed it here, but sadly they have disabled embeds. I don’t know why though. This video is going to be hugh on the net. You can check it out here.

**Update**
It looks like the video is getting really popular already. It has over 200,000 views. I was viewer number 204. They are also allowing embeds now, so here it is.