Mockingbird Airbag

Tuesday Question

First of all, happy birthday (yesterday) to my good friend, Cat!

Question: If each of you had a band, what would you name it?

posted by Airbag1 @ 12:57 PM 3 comments

I do basketball too

OU is back on track after beating the texas longhorns on Saturday night. By the way, did ANYONE know Ms. America (Ms. Oklahoma) was an OU student? I heard Lloyd Noble was just intense. I miss bball games.

posted by Airbag1 @ 12:28 PM 0 comments

Independent George

Here at Mockingbird Airbag, it's sometimes fun to pick out some really strange local news. For a perfect example in awkwardness, take last Friday's article from Texas Gigs....

Josh Lewin, the Texas Rangers' play-by-play announcer is in an 80's rock cover band called Independent George. This wouldn't be that odd...if you've never seen Josh Lewin. As fantastic an announcer as he is, watching him talk is kind of like watching a squirrel with ADD on speed.

Lewin on the band:
"We’re balding suburbanites. We’ve kind of discovered our niche market and found out that we're very Southlake soccer mommy."

Regarding promoting:
"Now, if it's after a (Dallas) Stars game or post game with the Rangers, that kind of stuff I can muscle."

Ok that's it. I've got to go see these guys. Who's with me?

posted by Airbag1 @ 10:28 AM 0 comments

Check it out

posted by Airbag1 @ 10:04 AM 0 comments

In other news...

What an incredible week of hockey.....the Stars have been on MORE than a roll - winning their last 4 games, with the last 3 going to shootouts. My boys are knockin 'em off like Phil Spector and B-movie actresses....

First it was the Blues (a game which I attended - see pics), then the Avs - both where the tying goal was scored by the Stars in the last 2 minutes of regulation to force overtime - then the "mighty" red wings. Or maybe they're "ferocious." Another good nickname would be "offensively challenged." 3 teams. 3 shootout wins. 2 by Jokinen and 1 by Modano.

Look for the Stars to challenge for the Western Conference title. Don't say I didn't tell you. I didn't have the greatest seats for the Stars/Blues game, but I caught a few cool shots:

Going to overtime, then the shootout...

posted by Airbag1 @ 7:44 PM 0 comments

Online radio and much more

Listening to KERA 90.1 right now - Sam Machkovech is a guest on Paul Slaven's show and is talking up the local music scene. It's always refreshing to hear the local media doing their thing and spreading the good word. Sam is the Dallas Observer's music editor. He recently wrote a scathing discourse on Dallas' Deep Ellum scene's fall from ....uh....grace (?). He is quite opinionated and can come off short sometimes, but does write good reviews and does a ton of work to promote the local music scene. I actually ran into him last night at Hailey's in Denton.

We had just played our show as part of Spune's "Back to School Festival" - featuring 12 or so Dallas/Denton/Austin bands, including the a..m..a..z..i..n..g Black Angels and Experimental Aircraft (more on that later). I was meandering towards the bar for my 2nd(cough..cough..5th..cough..cough) Pyramid Apricot and I ran into our manager, Chance who introduced me to Sam. Chance and Eric know him pretty well and Sam has always been good to us....we are more than itching to get him some new material to listen to.

A few highlights of the festival (i forgot my camera so no pics....sorry):

-Hanging out with the Black Angels and Experimental Aircraft...not only yesterday, but the night before as well, when the 3 of us played the Cavern (pics below). There may not be nicer band folks than these guys/girls combined. I have both of their EPs now and they are both great. The Black Angels have this unbelievable aura of "we don't really know how good we are"...either that, or they know but are some of the most humble musicians. RIYL Drone n' Roll, Velvet U, BJ Massacre, Warlocks, BRMC, etc etc

- My parents and brother showed up to hear us contribute to their hearing loss.

- Running into a couple of old friends (what's up MB!)

- The Numbers Twist.....um...wow. Mix ...and You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead with the Mars Volta....add a drummer...and you have NT. These guys had amazing energy and the drummers were dead on together.

- Denton. I love Denton. I always seem to have a lot of fun whenever I visit. Oh ya...and these.


Friday show Pics:

Mission to the Sea - very mellow and tender songs

Lauren, me and Neal

The Black Angels - picture can't do them justice, even with the "improvements" but it's the best one I got...(even missing another guitarist/keyboardist on the far right)

Blurry lil me

I don't know how I didn't get any Exp. Air. pics...but I'm very upset about that....crap!

Anyway, it's been a near perfect weekend and I'm in a great mood. Much love...

posted by Airbag1 @ 6:00 PM 4 comments

jamison...

what was that? were you talking?

2-1.

Booyah.

posted by Airbag1 @ 4:34 PM 0 comments

New look...

Posting soon...messing with templates and links blee blah bleee

posted by Airbag1 @ 10:56 AM 0 comments

Pulling thru....

*Again, I'm late with the post....meant for yesterday*

Sick. Ugh.. I have a sore throat. I hobbled over to the doctor and got some drugs yesterday. I'm such an idiot. I haven't treated my allergies all season and it's come back to bite me twice now. So now I have allergy spray, allergy tablets, and anti-biotics. HOPPED UP!

I will be 100% soon....hopefully by this weekend. big shows coming up.....

I'm working at Starbucks on Greenville right now. Rumor has it I mixed in a game of solitaire while working. Unconfirmed though. My computer crapped out at work today....and my cubicle furniture is getting upgraded. Man I can't wait to blend in with the bland greys and blues amongst the cube farm surrounding me. My cube used to be like Waldo in those Where's Waldo kids books, but now it's more like Nickelback on the radio waves.

I'm seeing the Stars/Blues tonight - we have owned the Blues of late and they are terrible this season, so hopefully it'll be a springboard for the next 2 games (at Colorado and vs Detroit...tough).....post pics later!

posted by Airbag1 @ 7:51 AM 0 comments

austin pics

the view from our hotel room in austin. you can't tell but stubb's and red eyed fly are just beyond the building on the left.

the view from the window of our hotel room. you can't tell but jeff and neal are making out just beyond the nightstand on the left.

we ate some nice bbq at stubb's right above the inside stage.

....descending to the cavern with red monroe friday night. damn right.

some creature inside the Red Eyed Fly....perhaps THE red eyed fly? where fly=hellion.

some keyed-up friends from houston!

walking back to the hotel in the rain...why is it freezing in austin, but warm in dallas?

posted by Airbag1 @ 1:19 PM 0 comments

Heading home

*This post is from yesterday but I couldn't upload it until today*

Jeff is Mysting, Neal is staring at Bob Sagat, and Andrew is learning how to drive.

On the way back from Austin - we're getting a feel for how the Toronto trip will be. Cramped quarters, multiple stops for beef jerky, discussions on the next president, etc etc. we are so pumped for the trip. Plans are in the making for shows in Norman, Chicago, and Nashville on the way and the way back. I am trying to make contact with a few music bloggers in hopes of building some buzz. Rumor has it that attendants at the Canada Music Week prefer to see the out of state/out of country bands because they see the Canadian bands all the time. Seeing as how we are one of the only bands from not-Canada, I think we can have a good crowd. In fact, we are the only band from Texas and one of only 4-5 bands from the US. I am also in contact with a band from Canada, some of which who play with Broken Social Scene, so hopefully they come out. It would be awesome to actually meet up.

A few sports notes....the Stars are in a funk. 3-game losing streak is the longest of the season. As my friend Brian once put it, "Turco must have gone to seminary, because homey is HOLEY!" He has been very inconsistent this year, to say the least. But I'll stick with him; he's still one of my fantasy hockey goalies and cumulatively puts up great numbers every year. They seriously need to get back on track, especially by this weekend. My buddy Justin is coming up from Houston and we're going to see the Stars/Wings game Saturday afternoon. He's from the Detroit area, so he's a huge Red Wings fan. We're gonna show him how we play hockey in Dallas.

NFL conference championships are today - I'm pretty much rooting for the Steelers to win it all. Roethlisberger (sp?) is a stud and I love how they play smashmouth football. Their game should be on as I'm typing this....time to check ESPN Radio.....

A little more about Austin:
Funniest/oddest moment - walking down Red River St after loading in at REF, we strolled by Emo's and noticed Pleasant Grove was playing with Centromatic. While noting this very loudly, "hey pleasant grove! cool," take a few steps past the van out front and see pleasant grove the band and note very loudly, "Hey, Pleasant Grove! Cool!" They are super nice guys and we LOVE to see them play. Unfortunately, they were playing at the same time as us, so we didn't get to hook up later that night, but it was still cool to see them.

Satisfying moment - hearing "Man, these guys sound like the Clash" recorded on andrew's video camera by some random guy in the background while between songs.

Austin-is-weird moment - getting invited by a random girl to sit in her car in the REF parking lot and smoke out. How considerate....

posted by Airbag1 @ 1:01 PM 2 comments

smells like booze

That's what Eric says as he's deflating the air mattress he blew up last night.

We played the Red Eyed Fly last night with Titan Moon, Dynah, and Sounds Under Radio. All the bands sounded good - although onstage it was difficult to hear well.

By the way, Eric just discovered the large plug-hole. All the air just came out. We sat and watched him trying to deflate it through the tiny plug, which would have probably taken 30 minutes.

Anyway, I will post some Austin pics later, we are about to hit the road back to the big D.....

posted by Airbag1 @ 8:30 AM 0 comments

By the way

Happy Birthday to one of my best friends!

An honor roll:

posted by Airbag1 @ 2:37 PM 0 comments

beautiful friday

So my friend (let's just call him ROGER) has decided to construct a new blog, in which he claims it to be the most worthless blog in america. I can hardly disagree with that statement. Although mine's not worth much yet, I feel good about where it's heading after some of this "competition."

...and so I present:

http://blogblogbloggyimablog.blogspot.com/

Please leave him comments (tips).

So what else is going on today....Stars vs Lightning tonight at the AAC. Playing the defending champs can't be easy, but they need to get back on track here.

Word on the street is that Roger Clemens is considering pitching as a Texas Ranger. Not only would this move make the Rangers a playoff contender, but a dangerous one at that. How sweet that would be.....it's refreshing to see the Rangers actually making moves to be more competitive.

The band is off to Austin tomorrow to play a show at the Red Eyed Fly with Titan Moon, Dynah, and Sounds Under the Radio. Should be a fun time. Recent practices have yielded a new song, tentatively titled, Fingertips. Jeff gets to pull a Tony Royster, Jr.

posted by Airbag1 @ 1:57 PM 0 comments

Putting on a beatdown....

Well, I'm sitting at home tonight, lounging around. It was supposed to be a great night of catching the Stars playing the Thrashers and the Mavs taking on the Rockets, and both getting wins right? Only one team actually pulled through for me (see above....I only post winners....are you listening Dave Tippett?....j/k Tip...much love.....but grow your damn mustache out again...you're a damn hockey coach.....damn.). The Stars lost to Atlanta for the first time ever. But Atlanta's got a great lil hockey team. I like them a lot; they've got spunk and skill. An Atlanta/Dallas Stanley Cup final would rock my world. While we're on hockey, let me do some mid-season predictions....

East: The East is a beast this year. There might be a couple of good teams that don't make it in. Watch for Tampa Bay to make a run at the Southeast Division, while Montreal, Toronto, and New Jersey scramble for playoff spots.

Ottawa will take out Philadelphia in 6 and Buffalo (this year's 2004 Calgary, 2003 Anaheim, etc) will knock out a heartbroken Carolina in 7.

Eastern Conference Championship: Ottawa vs Buffalo

West: Detroit wont run away with the Central, but still win it solidly in front of Nashville, who will make their 2nd playoff appearance behind the incredible netminding of Vokoun. The Northwest division is similar to the Northeast division - good teams all the way through - anything can happen. It depends on who makes the better move/trade...Colorado or Vancouver (look for big changes soon), despite the fact that 4 teams in that division could make the playoffs. The Stars will have to fight off the pesky Kings to win the Pacific, but they have 2 games in hand already and face the Kings like 27 more times (don't get me started on the new NHL schedule). I see the Sharks fighting for a playoff spot also.

Preds reach the 2nd round, but get ambushed by Detroit in 5 while LA pushes Dallas to 7 before the Stars put the Kings to rest.

Western Conference Championship: Dallas vs Detroit

This is one of the best chances for me to see my dream matchup - Dallas vs Ottawa in the finals. Of course I'm a bit biased here, but I think whoever wins the Dallas/Detroit regular season series wins the West and I think Ottawa's speed and skill can probably beat either Dallas or Detroit, but ......hey......I have to do this.....

2006 Stanley Cup Champs - Dallas Stars!!!

NBA predictions soon. But I sure like what Chris over at Gorilla vs Bear predicts (scroll down to Friday Jan 13 entry until I can figure out a hyperlink to the spot).

Earlier today I heard the new Midlake song, Roscoe (which you can also pick up at GVB). Pretty amazing stuff these guys put out. I absolutely can't wait for Van Occupanther.

posted by Airbag1 @ 8:54 PM 1 comments

For my first trick....

holla. will be posting soon. just set up. recently acquired. rearing to go. vrmmm.....

posted by Airbag1 @ 10:43 AM 0 comments