Weekly Song Recommendation: BT – Circles

I knew when I started this song recommendation column day one I needed to feature a @BT track.  But I didn’t know where to start.  He is one of the most talented musicians of our generation hands down.  You hear his music in soundtracks, remixes, games, so many things.  His solo work is only a small drop in the bucket for a guy who’s been a huge influence to me since I first heard his music in the early 90s.  He also holds a spot for me in having one of the most amazing shows I’ve ever seen.  He toured with a full band in support of the release of Emotional Technology and was just an awesome experience.

He’s primarily known as an electronic artist.  And really that is what he is.  A talented DJ and producer.  But he’s written full orchestral compilations and directed orchestras.  So how do I pick a song that can really show off the depth of this musician?

I don’t.  It’s not possible.  So I just pick a song that I think both electronic, pop and rock fans alike would enjoy.

This track isn’t a single of his, never really been featured anywhere, but it’s one of the many amazing tunes from BT’s album “Emotional Technology“.

I can’t say enough about this album as a whole.  I can simply say It is one of the best albums I’ve ever heard.  But I understand it’s not for everyone, so if you don’t like electronica/dance/trance stuff you may not really like it.  And that’s ok.  But I think you’ll like this song regardless.  Besides, look at this tidbit from wikipedia:

The single “Somnabulist” holds the Guinness World Record for most vocal edits in a single track, with 6,178 in the album version.

Well holy crap.

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And if you’re interested, here’s what I listened to last week. (dynamic depending on when you read this post).

Ten year class reunion

Wow, ten years since I graduated high school.  Many probably will say “it seems like only yesterday” but to me it seems much, much longer.  In fact, to be honest, I hardly remember those four years at all.  Sure some special moments stand out that included performances or things with friends, but on the whole… really, nothing.

I wasn’t planning on going to the reunion.  It wasn’t until my friend Becky from high school asked me to go did I cave and signed up and booked a flight.  I figured the people I wanted to talk to I already have on Facebook, and the rest I don’t remember anyway.

I kind of feel bad.  I hear my friends on Facebook mention names and I have zero recollection to who they may be.  I suppose I could dig through a year book or something before I head back to Illinois and try to recount people I may run into, but I don’t care that much.  I have a group of about five people I’m really looking forward to seeing.  The rest I guess never mattered enough for me to remember that they existed.

We’re (more or less) going to stick together as a group and travel via Becky’s mom’s car who only has a tape deck.  I volunteered to put together a sweet mix tape that would jive with our four years we were there.  And here it is:

1. Third Eye Blind – Semi Charmed Life
2. Bush – Swallowed
3. Oasis – Wonderwall
4. The Smashing Pumpkins – Tonight, Tonight
5. Hanson – MMMBop
6. Goo Goo Dolls – Black Balloon
7. Merrill Bainbridge – Mouth
8. Meredith Brooks – Bitch
9. Sarah McLachlan – Building a Mystery
10. Jewel – Foolish Games
11. Natalie Imbruglia – Torn
12. Cake – I Will Survive
13. Savage Garden – I Want You
14. Spice Girls – Say You’ll Be There
15. Fool’s Garden – Lemon Tree
16. Beck – Where It’s At
17. Beastie Boy s- Intergalactic
18. Bloodhound Gang – The Bad Touch
19. Santana and Rob Thomas – Smooth
20. No Doubt – Sunday Morning
21. Chumbawamba – Tubthumping

So here’s to Grant Community High School class of 1999.  Go Bulldogs.  Here’s where I’ll be going, and for your entertainment some photos.

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Weekly Song Recommendation: The New Pornographers – Failsafe

The New Pornographers - Challengers

Failsafe isn’t the best song by Canadian supergroup “The New Pornographers” to be honest.  There are many I enjoy more.  But the history of this song is so cool that I’d be doing you a disservice by not sharing it with you.

I originally got into The New Pornographers via their 2005 album “Twin Cinema“.  I absolutely fell in love with the song “Stacked Crooked“.  It is this epic, long form masterpiece that totally resonated with me.  From then on I’ve enjoyed all of their albums and seen them perform live numerous times both in large and small venues and festivals.  High quality band of very talented musicians.

The first time I heard “Failsafe” was on The New Pornographers newest album “Challengers“.  I thought nothing of it until I was watching an episode of Moral Oral on Adult Swim and heard it playing in the background by a group and arrangement I’ve never heard before.  I waited until the episode was over and watched the credits to see it was a group called “The Choir Practice” performing it.  So I wondered “who are they?  Did they write the song and The Pornos covered it?”  So I went to the internet.

Luckily I stumbled onto a wealth of knowledge on this song due to a podcast done by CBC radio.  They gave a historical retrospective of the evolution of the song and its origins.  I have a link to this podcast in this post below that I recommend you listen to if you’re at all a song nerd like I am.

It turns out Carl Newman, lead man of The New Pornographers, originally wrote and performed the song as a part of his A.C. Newman solo project in 2004.  A member of the band who performed with him formed The Choir Practice, and then rearranged the song for that group.  After Carl Newman heard that version he decided to create another arrangement that would stand out from the other two and record it for the new “Challengers” album.  It’s actually a cover of a song that he originally wrote.

I love the story and the history behind songs like this.  But I’m a music nerd and totally get off on this stuff.

Oh, and @Maukingbird likes this song.  So hi to her.

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And if you’re interested, here’s what I listened to last week. (dynamic depending on when you read this post).

Gabe Kangas Association for Awesome is proud to sponsor Omaha Bar Camp 2009

The Gabe Kangas Association For Awesome

The Gabe Kangas Association for Awesome (GKAFA) is proud to announce they will be sponsoring this year’s Omaha Bar Camp.

As you may know The Gabe Kangas Association for Awesome is the branch of Gabe Kangas who’s goal is to spread awesome both in local and remote markets.  When the opportunity arose to take part this year team awesome jumped at the opportunity.

GKAFA has a long history of spreading awesome via sponsorships.  You may recall the time the organization left change in the “give a penny/take a penny” jar at the gas station, or the infamous “let me buy you a coffee”  event of 2003.

Tickets are going fast, so make sure to head over to the Omaha Bar Camp page and pick one up for the almost nothing price of $5.  This includes a T-Shirt and Brain Toniq thanks to Ninth Divison.

The Gabe Kangas Association for Awesome is very excited to be a part of this year’s Bar Camp and can’t wait to see all of you there.

Talk to you soon,
Gabe Kangas
Chief Awesome, GKAFA.

The freedom of choice. The fear of making the wrong ones.

To anyone from work who may come upon this post: hi.

If you would have asked me what I wanted to do for a living even just a few years ago I would have described the job I have now.  Heck, even as a kid I envisioned (after wanting to be an astronaut) sitting in a big building somewhere with lots of people in front of a computer cranking out tasks.  That’s what I wanted to do with my life.

I hate being wrong.  But man was I wrong.

Particularly since I’ve moved to Omaha I’ve seen a wave of change come over me.  I see people enjoying what they do.  To be honest, I didn’t think it was possible.  I just assumed everyone hated what they did and it’s a part of life.  But I think that’s a genuine difference between Chicago and Omaha.  In Chicago everyone packs up their stuff, jumps on a train or bus, arrives at an office, performs a task and comes home.  In Omaha people wake up and say “What do I want to do with my life today?”  There is a feeling of choice that Chicago never had for me.

In all honesty, I bitch about my job a lot.  And people probably get sick of it.  I think it’s a sense of frustration on my part that 1) I’m good at my job, 2) I can’t complain about my compensation at my job, c) At last I have a job.  All checkmarks in the “Pro” column that many people, including my past self, would have loved.

But then the “Cons” column starts piling up.  The syntax friends ask me to do things is in the form of “hey, do you have to work x night?  Can you come out?”  It’s an unfortunate given that it’s more likely I can’t go out with them than I can.  Management doesn’t come up to me and say “hey, some things came up where we’ll need you to work the next four Friday nights, but go ahead and come in late Monday.”  Instead I just look at my queue and see things assigned to me:

What if I had plans?  Actually, I do have plans.  I have a life, I have friends.  I plan on doing things.  I find it slightly insulting that it’s assumed otherwise, or they don’t care.  And if I work until 3am, and come staggering work with next to no sleep a few minutes late I don’t get “thanks for your hard work last night”, I get emails like this:

“Our work day starts at 8 am.  If you are going to be more than 5 minutes late, you are to contact your supervisor or prearrange any schedule changes[...] Everyone on this email has a high school diploma so I can safely assume you have all reached the recognized age of adulthood.  Let’s act like it.   If it continues to be a problem, I will have to micromanage the situation.”

Ouch.  To be honest, I don’t think management even realizes people are up at all hours of the night working for them.  They’re nameless faces so far up the corporate ladder looking for the smallest things that are wrong instead of apologizing for ruining nights and weekends for the people who work so hard to keep this company moving.

But this post isn’t to complain.  This post is to say that I have a choice.  I can chose to be a worker bee, ashamed of who I work  for and the work I do, or chose to do something else.

Until now my mantra was “the evil I know is better than the evil I don’t know.”  There is no promise that making a rash decision to leave a position for another would leave me in a better place.  Any move you make can be for the worse, but you don’t know that until it’s too late.  So I figured as long as I can live my life and deal it would certainly be better than than going to an unknown place that I may hate just as much or more.

So I’m going to take a plunge and see what’s out there.  Talk to some people.  See where I may fit and be happy.  I have support of friends (some who I think are determined to get me a new role elsewhere with my involvement or not).  Regardless, it’s better than bitching on Twitter.