Pancakes: Whole Wheat Pumpkin Pancakes

I don't cook. I only make pancakes and ice cream, which I guess is cooking in some form or other. Anyway, a couple weeks ago I made whole wheat pumpkin pancakes from a recipe my wife found online (http://pinchmysalt.com/2007/10/14/my-recipe-for-whole-wheat-pumpkin-pancakes/). They were awesome. I had some difficulty with them though because they were so thick. I had to add more buttermilk to the recipe at the end, which ended up almost doubling the amount of buttermilk involved. But, the thickness made them fluffier and because they were whole wheat they were more filling.

Pizza Fridays 9/19/08 & 9/26/08

Two weeks behind...Here goes:

9/19/08:

The pizza was a Greek pizza. It had chicken, artichoke hearts, roasted garlic, olive oil, feta cheese, mozzarella, black olives, and spinach. My wife started making her own dough too. The beer was Buffalo Bill's Pumpkin Ale--highly, highly recommended.
The movie was The Darjleeing Limited, a Wes Anderson film. We both liked it.

































9/26/08:

This time it was the same dough, but the pizza was heirloom tomato, fresh mozzarella, and basil. It was crunchy and juicy at the same time. It was awesome! The beer was Budweiser's American Ale, which was surprisingly really good. The movie was Sex and the City, which was great! Better than expected.

Video of the Week: Natalie Imbruglia - "Glorious"

From her singles collection aptly titled Glorious: The Singles 1997-2007

RIP Richard Wright 1943 - 2008

Keyboardist and founding member of Pink Floyd died Monday from an undisclosed form of cancer. He will be missed.

Video of the Week: Pearl Jam - "Porch (Unplugged)"

Cruisin' around YouTube and I found this gem. Who could forget this! From MTV Unplugged 1992

Music Review: Less Than Jake's GNV FLA

Less Than Jake is one of my all time favorite bands. In fact, they are #2 on my list of favorite bands, a fact that makes some people squint their eyes and tilt their head in amazement at me when I say that. After all, they are a punk/ska band who still plays and makes music long after the early 90’s when that music enjoyed some popularity. They haven’t changed much over the years, and neither has their music. What has changed (besides the line up a few times) is what is in the content of the lyrics. As they have gotten older, their songs have grown into anthems of growing up and dealing with life’s ups and downs. It used to be that the songs were much sillier. They released their 11th studio album GVN FLA on June 24th of this year, and it’s everything long time fans of LTJ have come to love (GVN FLA is a shout out to Gainesville, Florida where the band is from).

A quick history of LTJ: although the band counts literally hundreds of recordings on everything from vinyl to cassette tapes to CD’s, they only have 11 official studio albums. The first 4 were released on small punk rock labels, and then Capital Records picked them up for two albums that are considered to be their most popular, including the omnipresent Losing Streak. But when they, and ska music in general, failed to garner the public attention that Capital thought they would they were dropped. Classic punk rock label Fat Wreck Chords produced their 5th studio album (and my favorite LTJ album) Boarders and Boundaries in 2000 before Warner Bros. Music picked them up to release 3 more albums before they were dropped from a major label yet again. The latest album was released on their own label, Sleep It Off Records, which they started this year.

LTJ has always been known for their love of PEZ, (which I also share—just ask my wife about my PEZ dispenser collection!), their crazy live shows which often have themes, and the impromptu banter they engage in on stage. They are known for having a lot of fun with their music and their live shows. They never actually released the last names of the band members—they were eventually released by the media. The band was started by the drummer Vinnie, guitarist Chris, and bassist Roger while they attended the University of Florida. In 1993 they started adding horn players to the band, and have since gone through a whole host of people and instruments in the horn section. The name come from Vinnie’s family’s dog, named Jake. Story goes that he was treated better than the rest of the family, so everyone was “less than Jake.”

This new album is more of a throw back to days of old than their last release In With the Out Crowd, but not as far back as Losing Streak. In fact, they haven’t made music that sounded quite like that in a long time. I understand though, music has to evolve like everything else. This record sounds more like Boarders and Boundaries—several classic fast moving songs with great horn lines and songs about coping with life as an adult who still feels young. Out Crowd was the most Pop-Punk sounding music they have ever recorded. I still liked it, but I am a hard core fan. I think most LTJ fans are much happier with this record. LTJ always uses simple power chords and almost never has any guitar solos. They seem to go out of their way to make the music sound fun, not angry. This record is no different. The first track off the album ”City of Gainesville” is almost deceiving—it sounds very much like a low key, laid back slow roll, which is not something they are known for. But then it gets started in a fantastically abrupt way with “The State of Florida” which they talk about the recent changes in the landscape of Florida with the real estate boom. Other songs on the record talk about their frustration of getting older, something we’ve come to expect from LTJ.

I have to say overall I am really happy with this album, and I give it 4 ½ out of 5 stars. I will say that I’m almost positive that a new comer to the LTJ sound would probably rate it lower than I will, however. Keeping with my tradition, here are my top 10 LTJ songs (Disclaimer: for those who are unfamiliar with LTJ music, another thing they are known for is having crazy names for their songs that don’t really have anything necessarily to do with the lyrics in the songs):

1) Malt Liquor Tastes Better When You’ve Got Problems
2) Gainesville Rock City
3) Sleep it Off
4) How’s My Driving?
5) Lockdown
6) Johnny Quest (Thinks We’re Sellouts)
7) Welcome to the New South
8) 1989
9) Jen Doesn’t Like Me Anymore
10) History of a Boring Town

Video of the Week: Crag Hand - "Direct Connect"

From his album A Long Way From Town

I saw this video for the first time this past weekend even though it came out in 2006. It cracked me up so much, I had to share it. Enjoy!

Pizza Fridays 9/05/08

My wife has started a new weekly tradition: making pizza. This past Friday she made a chicken sausage, cherry tomato and mozzarella pizza.



The movie was No Country for Old Men--I liked it, she didn't like it so much

Sugarland

As I mentioned below in my post about Alan Jackson, I love country music. So when my wife showed up a while back with tickets for Sugarland at the LA County Fair I was stoked! Last night we went and met up with some friends at the fair, at fair food, and saw the concert. First of all, let me just say that the LA County Fair is HUGE! I thought the Orange County fair was big, but damn. We showed up and just parked in the general lot, then had to walk for what seemed like miles to get to the entrance. After meeting up with our friends I had a hot pastrami sandwich, a chocolate covered strip of bacon (not kidding), and then we went into the show which was setup inside the horse race track.

I've been into Sugarland since I heard their first single "Baby Girl" on Yahoo! Music. I bought their first CD Twice the Speed of Life after I heard the second single "Something More". (Notice the pics--this time they were actually taken by me instead of lifting them from another website!) I have to say I was quite pleased with the Sugarland performance. The two of them have such stage presence that its hard to not be drawn into the show. They are promoting their latest album Love on the Inside and they played a lot of songs from it, including a couple that I don't really care for--or didn't really care for until I saw them do it live. I love when a band can make you hear a song through their ears, because then the tracks that you may not have gotten before you start to hear totally different. Last night for me, those songs were "Joey" and "Genevieve". They of course played all their big hits and some other loved tracks from the earlier albums, including my favorite "Want To". The biggest crowd reaction came after they play "Stay"--I guess a lot of people have been cheated on!

Sugarland does a really good job of getting the crowd into the show. They are full of energy, and let's face it Jennifer Nettles is very easy on the eyes! About half way through the show they actually autographed a guitar on stage then Kristian went out into the crowd and gave it to someone. Now that is something you don't see at every concert! And the encore--the encore! They came out and played one song for the encore, but their performance of Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me" totally rocked. Showed their age, and ours, but totally rocked. I also love how they embody the new era of country music. Notice in the pictures that they are both wearing skinny jeans, she is wearing sketchers (I think) and he is wearing a pair of Chuck Taylors. My only complaint about the show is that it was only an hour and a half long with no opening act--a typical fair show.

As is my tradition, here are my top ten Sugarland songs:

1) Want To
2) Something More
3) Baby Girl
4) Settlin'
5) Stay
6) Down in Mississippi (Up to No Good)
7) Just Might Make Me Believe
8) Stand Back Up
9) Wishing
10) All I Want to Do

Video of the Week: Death Cab for Cutie- "I Will Possess Your Heart"

From their latest album Narrow Stairs