Just a short round up today. Sort of a slow one.

1. I went to measure a poster frame today because I couldn’t remember what size poster frame to get for my new Animal Collective poster. The ruler I used? It had all of the Presidents on it… up to Clinton. Tee hee. He’s two presidents away now. Wild!

2. Just got a hold of former musician Ryan Adams’s unreleased record, The Suicide Handbook. It’s actually pretty great. Lots of ‘old’ Ryan Adams voice, which I sort of classify as sounding somewhat more…vulnerable? Either way, it’s good stuff.

3. Rachel Maddow makes me laugh. Her show tackles serious stuff, but she’s funny about it. Yay liberal media!

4. I’m sort of shellshocked that W is gone. Here’s a new classic clip where he declares the very alive Nelson Mandela dead. Those were the days. And by ‘the days’ I mean ‘last week’.

5. I implore you to check out Oklahoma-based Moon Mission Death Squad. Two brothers who put out an album every other year.. and it’s all free to download on their site. Check out Fuck What You Heard. Great stuff. Thanks to Mike Ross for the introduction to these guys.

I know I’ve reached that age where I’m not really impressed that easily. Especially with music. I’m sure there’s bands out there I would have gobbled up four or five years ago, like MGMT, that kind of power pop that I kind of give a half a shit about now.

This is not about MGMT, instead, it’s about seeing one of my current favorite bands, Animal Collective, live, and how let down I am after seeing them.

In the past two and a half years, live music has changed for me from a spectator sport, to a breathing, visceral, transformative experience. There’s a whole raft of them that do that for me.

Animal Collective didn’t do that for me tonight. They were staid, stale, and relatively uninspired. That’s so odd to me. Their records brim with inspiration and contain this almost tangible quality. It invades your ears, nose, mouth and your imagination.

Tonight just felt like three dudes with samplers and delay pedals, playing for themselves.

There was a rather large heaping of their material off of the just-released “Merriweather Post Pavilion”, but it wasn’t proportionally placed throughout the setlist. Case in point: Excellent tracks “Summertime Clothes” followed by the classic “My Girls”. I feel had they been seperated, they would have resonated with the audience a bit more.

Okay, they’re not completely guilty: Avey Tare had moments of genuine enthusiasm and attempted to connect to the audience, may it have been a small hop or dramatic cymbal crash. That excited me. The new songs were enjoyable, but didn’t do enough for me to enhance my concert experience.

There was no material off of 2007′s superior “Strawberry Jam”, and a one song encore – Panda Bear’s “Comfy In Nautica”. It was Avey-less – apparetly he blew out his voice during the set. Or maybe he just wasn’t up to it.

The show wasn’t terrible. It just wasn’t what I was expecting from one of the most exciting bands making music today.

Perhaps it was an off night. I’ll give them another chance. Let’s hope it’s different then.

1. I saw The Wrestler tonight. Fantastic movie. Still wasn’t my top flick of 2008, That distinction goes to a little known Christopher Nolan flick. Still, excellent acting, Mickey Rourke deserves an Oscar nod. Ernest “The Cat” Miller even shows up! Dude’s packin’ a few pounds now, but still good to see quality former WCW jobber.

2. It’s 2009, which means the 90′s were over ten years ago. That also means we get farther and farther away from the unfortunate date of this picture.

3. I’ve rediscovered the Matador Pavement reissues. Obtaining them has been a Brendan Christmas tradition every even numbered year since 2002. So much stuff to sort through. Admittedly, Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and Wowee Zowee didn’t get too many spins from me. Now’s the time to change this. Did they ever have a bad album? They’re four for four (woo, that was fun!) so far. I can wait the two years for Terror Twilight to see if they go for the quintfecta. (That can’t possibly be a word, but I like it. I’m not looking it up, so deal with it.)

4. I got a ticket to see Animal Collective for Christmas. I was completely surprised. My mom rocks. I thought it was totally sold out (it is). It’s going to be a lot of fun.

5. Speaking of which, Merriweather Post Pavilion had it’s vinyl release on Domino today. I came very late to the Animal Collective game, like, Strawberry Jam late. That record went for the jugular. This one’s good, a bit too Panda Bear-y for my tastes, however. THAT ALBUM COVER IS COMPLETELY SCREWING WITH MY HEAD.

6. I’ve been on an epic sushi bender lately. There’s this sorta-chain place in the burbs I’ve been hitting called Sushi Station that has a conveyor belt and a large selection of rolls. Not terrible. My special someone and I also hit up Coast Sushi too, but it wasn’t too hot. If you’ve been following our Twitter feed, you’ll see that we were seated next to a minor celebrity. Yeah, I geeked out a bit.

7. The next time I’m in Madison, I want to check out Tex Tubb’s Taco Palace. The food looks pretty incredible, as well as the decor. Look at that menu and try to tell me it doesn’t look delicious.

8. The greatest rock and roll band in the world is playing the House of Blues in eight short days – headlining the Len and Bob Bash for the Cubs this year. Tom Morello is opening. I love this blurb from the Cubs website:

CHICAGO — Chicago Cubs broadcasters Len Kasper and Bob Brenly will team up outside the broadcast booth to host the third annual Len & Bob Bash on Thursday, Jan. 15, 2009, at the House of Blues in downtown Chicago.
This year’s Len & Bob Bash will feature the internationally known artist The Hold Steady. Created in 2004, Brooklyn-based The Hold Steady are known for their mixture of classic rock, folk and hip-hop, and have rapidly gained international acclaim.

Hip-hop?! Really? Nice work, PR person.

9. I am addicted to 30 Rock. Such a good show. NBC has good comedies, and still, their network is constantly being shit on. Why? I suppose, I don’t really watch any TV when it airs though, so I don’t really know.

10. Anyone have any good Inauguration Day plans?