May Music and Such

FINALLY...Okay here were are mid-June, so what happened in May? It seems ages ago. I'll try to remember:

• The old house is under contract pending inspections. The only major issues are some electrical clean-up and of coarse to mitigate the randon that everyone has under their basement.
• We started collecting boxes from everyone and we are very grateful to those who contributed. With boxes in hand we started to dissassemble our house and pack everything away. I think the boys favorite part of this process was when we had their mattresses and our matress all lined up in our room to form a huge bed. It was great for gymnastics. This allowed me time to dissassemble their bunk beds after their bed time.
• We saw a show at the Uptown Theater - The Swell Season - Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova form this band and were in the movie and sountrack ONCE.
• We soon had a pod from PODS delivered to our house. There is going to be a 2 week gap between the time we have to be out of our house to the time we can move in to our new house. We started packing this container full of furniture and boxes. We also made multiple trips to my parents house to store more valuable stuff in their garage.
• We had to do inspections at our new house. In general there seemed to be a lot of paperwork and negotiating going on this month. Our realtor was great and continued to suprise us. During inspections, we met a lot of new neighbors and our boys made friends with the boys next door who are the same age. Within 5 minutes they are all out riding wheels in the cul-de-sac.
• The big day came to move entirely out of our house. We had to be out by 5pm. A long and busy Saturday followed a very late Friday night. We weren't quite out by 5pm. A little after 5pm we were taking the last load over to my sister-in-laws house in my dad's truck when the new owner shows up with her parents. We has so little time to move, that we left the place a mess. I felt bad and we still and to come back for a few small things, like trash and trash cans. We apologized for leaving marks on the wall and showed here were all the paint was. It wasn't really a big mess, but we had patched nail holes in the wall and hadn't yet painted them and we also didn't get to do that final vacuum and sweep.
• My sister-in-law just left to trave Asial for a couple of weeks, so we stayed at her house during that time. She has no phone, we have no phone, so we, for the first time actually used our mobile phones.
• Brian came in to visit and we met him at Homer's Thursday night. After church on Sunday, we met him and the kids and Deb at Chuck E Cheese so that the kids could play around. And for the main event on Monday, Brian and I hit it at Oklahoma Joe's BBQ and then to Starlight to see the Cure. Good show.
• Memorial day weekend we took the kids to Silver Dollar City in Branson for a couple of days and then visited my Grandparents in Arkansas. Silver Dollar City is so much fun, but with the little kids, we can only do about 6 hours a day and go at a slow pace. They love it and I love it.
• For a couple of weeks, we had a very large sum of money sitting in our bank. But we had to take the large check with us to close on the house. Signed a bunch of papers, pick and insurance company and a home warranty, blah blah blah.
• So on the last day of the month, we has some friend join us to load a few things in a truck that was over at my parents and then unload the POD. We topped off the moving day by treating everyone to Z-Man's and fries at Oklahoma Joe's BBQ.
• We were too pooped to unpack and set-up. We plopped mattresses down on the floor and threw some sheets on them and crashed.
• I am glad that is all over with now. I don't want to move again for a very long long time.

Here are some albums I picked up in May:

The Weepies - Hideaway
listen here.

The Weepies are a husband/wife folk/pop/rock band. They both share singing duties. We listened to this a lot on our way down to Silver Dollar City. It is a good album with strong songs and memorable melodies. Very catchy, even my 5 year old sings along to ANT -ARRR - TICAAA. For fans of The Innocence Mission, Over the Rhine, Leigh Nash, Simon and Garfunkle.

El Perro Del Mar - From the Valley to the Stars

listne here.

I love this album. It's like a dream - real hazzy. The songs kinda drift in and out. This Swede's 2nd full length (I believe) is not as sad sounding as her last album and even has a few '60's sounding girl pop songs. Those are placed so you won't be lulled asleep by the church organs. It seems like the music is minimal but the effect is very lush.

Joy Electric - My Grandfather, the Cubist
listen here.

I have been listening to this album non-stop the last few weeks. I could not wait to here this album. I am a fan and look forward to every release, but this one had controversy. When the release date came, I could not find the album in any stores, so I had to order it on-line and wait for delivery. In the meantime, I read on the internet of fans reation to this latest album. The music was minimal and the vocals were raw. A singular raw vocal to go with the minimal effect of the album. I was concerned about the vocals. I like ronnies vocal's with all the effects - the reverb, the multil layers, the harmonies - everything that makes his voice sound lush. People were saying they hated these dry and raw vocals and others were saying that this was a brilliant album. I couldn't wait to hear it and decide for myself. Finally it came. The music is his best- very melodic and easy on the ears. The songs are some of his best, very catchy and melodic and easy to sing or hum along. The vocals are not that bad. Yes, they sound a little different than his usually style, but he has shown hints of these vocals before- but not in a whole album. The vocals work because the songs are so strong and the music is so good. I will rate this album high in the joy electric canon and I feel that Cubist will have lasting power. I do hope, though, that he will return to his lush vocal style.