Music and shit.

Dave Woods just reminded me of this band: RACETRACK. A true Bellingham band. I had seen them so many times before they broke up, Autumn Poetry had played with them a lot (our second show in B'ham was with them), and I have tow of their records. I recommend both of them. Some of my friends weren't fans--I have snobby friends. But I loved their stuff. I went to see them play, not because they were my friends, but because I loved to watch them play. There have been a handful of bands who I loved because they were my friends (Shoes for Imelda--sorry Dave, Atari Champ, Spencer--sorry boys, and Last Great Liar), then there are my friends band whom I can't get enough of, though I have my criticisms, I will always listen them because they are good. Though, if I hated them, I'd still support them, but if they weren't good, you wouldn't find them on my iPod. Bands who are my friends how I love because they are good: Racetrack, Rooftops, In Praise of Folly, Keaton Collective (Los, Wash, Bill), Bryn Lumsden. There are more, but theses are the bands I still listen too. Sorry, Mon Frere you didn't make it. Why? Oh, I love your songs, but your singer is a douche who gets credit from a scene who loves her simply because she's a douche who is part of the scene. Hey you! Fuck off! I used to have people listen to Mon Frere and I'd point out the part in the record where I was doing the hand-claps with the band. "Hear those hand-claps," I'd say. "That's me."

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Back to Racetrack, but only for a second. When I was hanging with Dave on the 4th, I played him a song or two from the new Phoenix record and he played me a song or two from the Lemuria record. He said, "You'll dig this. It reminds me of Racetrack."

I agree, but I also hear That Dog. If you have not heard That Dog, please, Please, PLEASE, listen to their record: RETREAT FROM THE SUN. It's dripping with nostalgia and I listen the shit out of that record in my early twenties. I went back to it last year, while working at that soap company. I found that I still loved it. Though, during that time, a lot of the records I had pulled out of my collection, dusted off, and attempted to love again I found unlovable. I appreciated those records for they meant to me at the time, but now... Examples? The Blood Brothers (entire catalog), Thursday (entire catalog), Dashboard Confessional(Their big record is still OK, but the lyrics are atrocious, the others are unlistenable), Talking Back Sunday (Yeah...uh, were they ever listenable?).

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Anyway. here's the list: Check out Racetrack, Lemuria, and That Dog. If you don't I will be disappointed in you. Seriously.

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OK. I'm gonna watch Top Chef.

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Love,

Joshua