Andrew Enders

Phoenix & Passion Pit are like distant relatives. They share enough in common that they can hangout together and get along quite nicely. Yet, you won’t get bored. I’ve already declared my love for Passion Pit, but I’ve failed to recognize just how great Phoenix’s “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix” has been since it came out. The thing is, Phoenix has been great for years; my sister first introduced me to them about 4 years ago with their song “Long Distance Call.” Since my sister loves all things French, it was fitting that she latched onto Phoenix. She steered me in the right direction.

So on September 26, I’m going to trek up to New York City’s Central Park Summer Stage to dance with Phoenix and Passion Pit. It’s going to be brilliant.

Give a listen. Watch for over-the-top-aggressive (but brilliant) drumming by Phoenix’s Thomas Hedlund. And then deal with the quasi-annoying audience video of “Sleepyhead.” Two things will happen:

1. You’ll get a great live rendition of the song. It’s pretty amazing to think about what has to happen to make that song work live. I personally want to add about 5 synthesizers to my band. Too bad my band only has 3 people in it. I’ll have to work on logistics.
2. The crowd gets into it. Then you’ll get into it. If you’re not bouncing in your seat by the end of the song, something is seriously wrong with you.

ENDERS AND DETROW BRING EXCITEMENT TO MIDTOWN

press contact: Uncle Sam 717.123.1776

(Harrisburg) — At a formal signing ceremony Thursday evening, Andy Enders and Scott Detrow will finalize an agreement destined to bring patriotism, zeal and charred meat to Harrisburg’s (redacted).  The two are inking a one-year lease, with a joint option-year clause.

“I’m absolutely thrilled,” said Enders, who’s vowing to drink from Uncle Sam goblets and hang red, white and blue bunting from the house’s windows.  “Midtown Harrisburg has been lacking true outdoor entertainment. Scott and I will fill that void with our grill, baseball paraphernalia and extensive collection of fine beers.”

“GRILL! MEAT!” said a genuinely humbled Detrow.  “What an amazing opportunity to join a truly classy organization.  When you’re a kid in the back yard, you’re dreaming about living at (redacted.)”

The excitement begins July 1st, with a formal housewarming bonanza set to take place in mid-August, when Enders has passed the Bar and Detrow has returned from Iraq with his testicles intact.

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It only takes them three houses and 3o minutes to buy a house on HGTV’s House Hunters.

Bogus.

Then again, it only took me about 13 houses and 2 months to find my house. I complained that the entire process of finding the house took too long. Now I’m just complaining that I can’t move in yet (under two weeks at this point). Patience, some might say, isn’t exactly my strongest personality trait. If it even exists at all. But in the grand scheme of things, I kept the process moving. Well that and my Realtor gently reminded me on more than one occasion that we would in fact find a house worth buying. Although I was skeptical of having a Realtor, thinking that it was wildly inefficient (thanks stupid Economics degree), it turned out that without her I would have been aimlessly trekking through the myriad of complications that arise when purchasing a house.

The concept of moving seemed like a relatively abstract notion even three months ago. It almost felt like having my own place would never happen. Then two events basically changed everything.

First, I looked into renting an apartment on Verbeke Street. Dangerously close, as in I called the Landlord and told him I would take the apartment only to have him shatter my dreams tell me he had already rented the place. After cursing this guy for a solid two or three hours, I moved on. Destined to find a place, I frantically spent time searching Craigslist for another apartment. Unfortunately, none of them met my high standards. I decided I was being overly picky. But dammit, I knew what I wanted, even if I couldn’t put it into words. I’d know it when I saw. Then something else dawned on me . Actually, in all reality other people pointed it out to me.

Second, after spending countless Saturdays this Spring working at the Widener Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, I realized I could take advantage of the First-Time Homebuyer Credit otherwise know as the miracle handed down to us mere plebeians from the gods of Capitol Hill in DC for purposes of “jump starting the on-life-support housing industry*.” After doing some homework, I discovered that the government would basically pay me $8000 via a tax credit on my 2009 Federal Income Tax Return. Say what you will about President Obama, Congress, and the IRS, but this is insanely generous. The only restriction on this credit is that I must own and maintain the property for a period of 36 months after purchase. With some assistance thinking through the idea with my Mom, Dad, and sister, for the first time I realized I could buy a house. Turns out, that was the easy part.

So with the excitement and nervousness battling for attention in the confines of my brain, I turn to the concept of being a homeowner and truly living on my own. For the first time in my life. Let me repeat that, for the first time in my life. With this in mind, I hope to figure out what it means to be a homeowner very quickly. I’m going into this entire process operating under the notion of “what can go wrong probably will.” Not that I actually believe everything is going to go wrong, but rather as a defense mechanism for the first minor catastrophe that I face. Please though, let it be under my $500 deductible. I don’t want to have to file a claim on my first house.

I’m going to attempt to document the rest of this house buying process.  I actually wish I would have done a better job of it from the start. Two things I know for certain: 1) I’m going to have a grill; and 2) Everything Outside! Everything else is left very much to fate.

*I thought for sure this exact language would be in the legislation. Apparently it’s not.

Passion Pit’s Manners has been out for a few weeks now. I still like it. Really like it.

Buzz. It can make or break an indie band these days. Vampire Weekend, Ra Ra Riot, Grizzly Bear. They all garnered significant buzz across the internet. Each has survived relatively unscathed and continues to make relevant music. At least with today’s technology, those attuned to seek out new music (or at least let Pitchfork and Stereogum point them in a new direction) are giving bands a shot by listening to an entire album rather than a single track. The proverbial one-hit-wonder certainly still exists, but at least those with an indie sensibility, there is the tendancy to be thorough in our research prior to the bashing that can often follow. Passion Pit is merely the lasted band to deal with this cycle. That being said, I was a little late to the buzz party since I missed the whole Passion Pit Chunk of Change EP from last year. Oops.

Manners is a portrait of synths, samples, and buzzers painted in broad strokes.   The album jumps through speakers. [As a brief aside, if you don't own a good pair of headphones, go buy yourself some immediately. As there are a host of albums out there that just sound so much better when you can actually HEAR all of the intricacies. For the value, I adore Etymotic's E6i or hf5 earphones.] Manners benefits from enhanced sound quality. At the same time, this album screams summer. There is no question, I will enjoy forcing certain people to listen to this at one point or another whether they like it or not. I’m talking to you Dan. B.

No need for a track-by-track review of Manners. Go buy it, then dance.

Three full weeks into studying for the bar exam and I am still very much alive. Very much breathing. And surprisingly quite happy.

Immediately, two notions raced through my brain: either 1) I’m not studying nearly enough (oh shit) or 2) I have found a way to study and continue living a relatively normal life. For the moment I am going to continue operating under the assumption that #2 is far more accurate.

With that said, I have successfully navigated a refresher on Constitutional law, Evidence, Contracts/Sales, and Civil Procedure. Thrilling as those areas of legal education sound, I’ve also spent considerable time discussing politics. (I blame her for being the catalyst of this confusion, but really I brought it all on myself. Either way, that girl can argue and force me to really think through any number of issues.) So more on my (increasingly infrequent) series of posts on my political identity to come in the very near future.

Couple thoughts on baseball. I am quite pleased with the Pirates’ Nate McLouth trade. It is just the right long term move. Then again, I am no major league caliber GM. That’s just wishful thinking. As for baseball on the local level. Paying $5 for a Harrisburg Senators game is brilliant. Even better, being able to walk to the stadium (Metro Bank Ballpark is just a stupid name for a stadium because Metro Bank is such a stupid name for a bank). $6 for a beer at the stadium just ends up being kind of funny, since again, the ticket only cost $5. The inherent entertainment value in that discussion during a beautiful evening for a ballgame was marvelous.

Finally, in the most startling purchase of my entire life, I bought a house. Still not sure how it happened, but it did. Hopefully, between studying for the bar and moving into the house, it will provide much blogging fodder. Perhaps a new homeonwer blog? Nope, that’s not going to make me money either. No matter what the NY Times says about bloggers leaving their blogs to rot away out in the interwebs, I am committed to keeping this thing going. Even if I continue to be the one personally responsible for keeping my traffic statistics at a respectable level. Either way, I bought a house. This is going to be fun. More time in Midtown, Downtown, and heck even Uptown for this kid. I am beyond psyched.

In the meantime, get excited for new albums from Dirty Projectors and Pete Yorn.

Yes, this song has been everywhere, BUT…

Feist can sing. That chorus of singers can sing. Watch. Be delighted.

If the cover of Wilco’s new album doesn’t do it for you, I’m not quite sure what will.

The new album started streaming this morning upon the leak of Wilco (the album).

I still remember the first time I listened to Wilco: it was my freshman summer at Penn State. I had just picked up Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. To my horror, I had to laundry. To get me through the process, I popped YHF into my discman(!!!!) and waited with bated breath to make sure that I hadn’t changed all the colors and sizes of my clothing. That day, much to my surprise, two distinct things happened. I successfully completed my first loads of laundry AND I began a slow-burning love affair with Wilco.  A few Wilco shows and all of their albums later, I have developed a deep level of respect for Jeff Tweedy & Co.

Don’t be intimidated by anything you might have heard about Wilco. In fact, from what I have heard of Wilco (the album), it provides us with some of their most accessible songs ever. At the same time, the band has not lost their edge and Nels Cline has certainly not lost his ability to generate some of the most startling sounds to ever originate from a Fender Jazzmaster.

Give Wilco (the album) a listen. And yes, the band wants the album to be referred to as “Wilco (the album)” thank you very much.

My voter registration card tells me I am a Republican.

But I don’t feel like a Republican. I’m pretty sure that I never completely thought like a Republican. Sometime over the last year I lost my political identity. I am a clusterf#%& of political ideas. Fiscally conservative, but socially left-leaning; I abhor the word moderate, but I can deal with centrist.

No single issue defines my political identity. But the issues I consider most important confuse me. I feel a little lost.

So what inspired this identity crisis? A friend and I have engaged in some rather lively discussion recently on political theory,  political parties, and political identity. So far, I have been unable to come to any consensus or conclusions. [Some people get to do this for a living; they call it a thinktank and I hear they pay well. If you work for a thinktank and accidentally find my blog, feel free to contact me at your earliest convenience.]

Michael Grunwald describes the GOP in the May 7 Time cover story, “Republicans in Distress: Is the Party Over?,” as being a party of  extremes. “The are extremely conservative ideas tarred by association with the extremely unpopular George W. Bush, who helped downsize the party to its extremely conservative base.” Mr. Grunwald’s piece describes many of the very issues I have with the Republican party as it now stands.

Scared. Nervous. Later, ashamed. Three emotions that describe my initial emotions associated with Sigur Rós*.

Scared because I had no idea how I would understand Icelandic. Only later did I find out things got more confusing with Sigur Rós’ use of langauge. Yep, they made up a language: Vonlenska. In fact, they have an entire album crafted using only Vonlenska. Not only that, but the language is mostly just sounds, no syntax involved, and non-literal. Nervous because in my head, I really wanted to like Sigur Rós, but was afraid I wouldn’t like them.

I debated with myself for a long time whether it was worth it to explore Sigur Rós.

It was worth it. Ashamed that I played hard to get with Sigur Rós

Go ahead and watch that video. Preferably at night, in a dark room. If you’re not adventurous to watch the whole thing, get to the 19:51 mark. Sæglópur will kick in and knock you to the floor.

Try to figure out Sigur Rós. The beauty of the music overcomes the language barrier(s).  Pay close attention to the little details in their music. The transitions between movements. The extreme use of dynamics. The bells! Good grief, they rock bells.

I was unsure how well Sigur Rós’ music would translate into the Spring and its warmer weather.  So far it has worked out well, still evoking various emotions. However, the music is better left to the afternoon and evening.

*I had to google “Sigur Rós” just to get the little mark over the “o.” So for this post, I am eternally grateful to the copy/paste function on my computer. If I tried to do this on my iPhone, we’d have a whole other host of issues.

Completely obsessed with Grizzly Bear right now. Completely.