The Year In Music

So, some blogging hiatus. Basically, our computer takes so long to upload pictures onto our blog that I rarely have the patience to do a full post. As a result, this will be a picture-less post. A friend and I were just exchanging lists of our favorite albums of the year, so I thought I would include mine here.

1. Neon Bible by Arcade Fire
2. In Rainbows by Radiohead
3. Boxer by the National
4. Anytown Graffiti by Pela
5. Because of the Times by Kings of Leon
6. The Stage Names by Okkervil River
7. Sound of Silver by LCD Soundsystem
8. Cease to Begin by Band of Horses
9. Live at Massey Hall by Neil Young
10. Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters by The Twilight Sad
11. Favourite Worst Nightmare by the Arctic Monkeys
12. The Reminder by Feist
13. Spiderman of the Rings by Dan Deacon
14. Wild Mountain Nation by Blitzen Trapper
15. The Good, The Bad & The Queen by The Good, The Bad & The Queen
16. Hissing Fauna Are You the Destroyer? by Of Montreal
17. Night of the Furies by The Rosebuds
18. Friend Opportunity by Deerhoof
19. Icky Thump by The White Stripes
20. Armchair Apocrypha by Andrew Bird

Also getting consideration: Let's Stay Friends by Les Savy Fav, Person Pitch by Panda Bear, Untrue by Burial, Happy Birthday! by Modeselektor, Walls by Apparat, Sky Blue Sky by Wilco, Andorra by Caribou, Some Loud Thunder by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Beyond by Dinosaur Jr., Dumb Luck by Dntel, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga by Spoon, Random Spirit Lover by Sunset Rubdown, Mirrored by Battles, Our Ill Wills by Shout Out Louds, Under the Blacklight by Rilo Kiley, Wincing the Night Away by The Shins.

*There were a lot of albums I wanted to hear this year and didn't.
**Some of the "consideration" albums include albums that I've only recently picked up (or have had for awhile but negelected to listen to) and therefore didn't get to spend enough time with -- they could have possibly ranked higher.

Tip-Off Eve

So does anyone else feel like it's Christmas Eve? That could just be me since the NBA season tips off tomorrow, but needless to say I probably won't sleep very well tonight. At about 7:30 Pacific time my favorite--and my wife's least favorite--time of year will officially get under way. The Jazz take on the Golden State Warriors in a repeat of last year's second round playoff matchup (which the Jazz handily won). I'm excited for this year's team and think they could at least replicate last year's regular season performance though I don't think they will go as far in the playoffs. A few predictions:

- Deron will continue to emerge as one of the best PG's in the game
- Booz will continue to be an offensive beast and an empty shirt on D
- AK will be better than last year (how could he not?)
- Brewer will be a massive upgrade at the 2 (poor jumpshot and all)
- Memo will add some post-up game so teams can no longer defend him with wings
- Memo and Yeliz will again post the largest ugly/hot differential of any couple in the league (unless Sam Cassell is married to anything resembling a human in which case he would win by default)
- Harp will blow more uncontested layups than any other player in the NBA and end the season in a wheelchair
- Harp will be my official scapegoat for all the Jazz woes; even when he's not playing, I'll blame all the Jazz misfortune on his ridiculous contract
- Jarron will lead the league in flops per minute
- This will be the first year Jarron attempts to jump and never actually leaves the ground
- Gira will get called for the Euro travel at least once per game
- Hart will at times remind us of Milt Palacio
- Price will have some explosive dunks but show that he has little to no PG skills and is basically just a midget 2
- CJ will play defense like he took classes on lateral movement from Jarron Collins and Oliver Miller
- Almond will play less minutes than he should and will probably lose time to a midget 2 (Price)
- Fess will play most of the year in Orem (though he's probably already better than Collins) and lead the league in entertaining quotes
- Deron and Booz will make the AS game
- My wife will lose her mind at least once during the season
- I will say the F bomb more times than I do at any other point in the year (including BYU football season)
- My wife will say the F bomb at me at least once
- Gardner will call me courtside from at least two arenas
- Ster will at some point get us both divorced by buying League Pass
- Rett will send me numerous text messages with language too colorful for children
- Rett will again tell me that Jerry Sloan is his favorite player on the Jazz
- Sloan will play at least one rotation that will make you wonder if he's ever coached a basketball game
- I will break at least one remote control during the course of the year
- My wife will break more things than that
- I will be thankful every night I go to sleep knowing that Derek Fisher is no longer on the team
- Derek Fisher will be my favorite player to watch run the fastbreak in the entire league now that he doesn't play for the Jazz (Fisher on a break with numbers has to rank a solid 10 on the unintentional comedy scale)
- ABells will ask me if I have stat for everything at least once
- Dad will watch one call go against the Jazz and tell me the NBA is worst than professional wrestling and that he's never watching another game
- Trav Dogg will continue to insist that JJ Redick is the best shooter on the planet
- Keem will officially get engaged to Lebron James
- Grandma Henderson will watch all televised games (a real fan that woman is)
- My cousin Brett will inevitably mention that he's no longer a Jazz fan because they didn't sign Britton Johnsen
- I will get at least five post-game phone calls after a big win (typical culprits will include Keem, Dad, Jason, Rett, Ster, Steve and Travis)
- Stacy will threaten to cancel my cell phone
- Stacy and I'll will attend all games the Jazz play in Seattle and she'll ask me why we have to go an hour and a half early at least ten times
- As long as Stacy has some sort of delectable food item in her hands during the game she will be content
- As soon as said food item is gone Stacy will repeatedly ask "Is the game almost over yet?"
- The Jazz will win 52-55 games this year
- The Jazz will lose in the 2nd round

The Great Pumpkin

On Saturday we made a trip up to Snohomish to visit a pumpkin patch which was located on a family's farm. Apparently this farm has become pretty well know in the area for its Halloween festivities and gets quite a few visitors during the fall season. There was a large pumpkin field, a corn maze, hay rides, a small petting zoo, and fishing, among other activities. They also had some homemade produce and we enjoyed some delicious corn as we searched for the right pumpkin.

All of us

Stacy and Lily

The guys

The girls

The Trifecta is Complete

I've been meaning to make this post for a while now but haven't gotten around to it as we've had some issues uploading pictures onto our blog. Fortunately I finally got the pictures to work. Unfortunately they suck.

Anyway, ABells and I went to see The National a couple of weeks ago and they put on a good show. The "trifecta" is in reference to their album being one of my three favorites of the year, along with Neon Bible by Arcade Fire and Antown Graffiti by Pela (though one of these is looking to get replaced by the brilliant new Radiohead album). I had seen Arcade and Pela in recent months, so I was excited to finally see The National live. Bells was in class all night and missed the opening act--St. Vincent of Broken Social Scene fame--but was able to make the show before The National went on. He promised he wouldn't cry when they played Green Gloves, but I had my suspicions. They ended up playing that track as part of their encore and brought St. Vincent and the guitarist from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah on the stage to perform it with them. I think he got teary-eyed.

The National



The lovely St. Vincent

Birthday Celebration

Last night we had a little get together with friends at The Garage to celebrate Stacy's birthday. The Garage is a hangout in our neighborhood that has food, bowling, pool, shuffleboard, and plenty of alcohol -- which created something of an interesting dynamic for the night's festivities. Half the group hit the point of being fairly intoxicated, while the other half (which consisted of all our friends from church) was worried about getting up in the morning for General Conference. By far the most entertaining person of the evening was Suzi. Now, she's generally very funny and manages to crack us up with her hilariously animated hand and facial gestures, but last night she was in epic form. Apparently two shots of Jagermeister is all it takes for her to go from relatively reserved yet hilarious law student to full on party animal and wild woman.

We ate, we played pool, we hung out, and we had a good time. We'll see what's in store for Stacy's birthday next year.

Stacy with the cupcake that Suzi gave her (which is actually soap)

Stacy and our good friend Brian

ABells and Sterls

Suzi and Scott playing pool

Amanda, Mel and Stacy

Suzi and Scott

Brandi and Stacy

The Birthday Girl!

Happy Birthday to My Beautiful Wife

Today Stacy turns 25. She thinks she's getting old and is certain that new wrinkles are appearing all over her face, but to me she looks just as beautiful as the first time I met her. We haven't done many birthday activities today, but we are planning on having a little celebration with friends at The Garage this weekend. These pictures are actually old (we took them last year at G and Erica's wedding), but I figured I should include some pictures with this post and this was the best I could come up with.

Happy b-day, sweetie.

Best. Show. Ever.

In case you haven't been paying attention (but I know you have), Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem have put out two of the best, most critically acclaimed albums of the year. So, it was with great anticipation that Stacy and I awaited their show together this Monday at Hec Edmundson Pavilion. The unfortunate part was the cost, which at $40 bucks a ticket is the most expensive show I have seen in a loooooong time. But since AF is the hottest band on the planet right now, and celebrity sightings at their recent shows include the likes of Drew Barrymore, Jake Gyllenhaal and Mandy Moore, I'm pretty sure the next time they come around the tickets will be twice as expensive. The other unfortunate part was the location; basketball gyms were just not constructed for concerts and the sound in this place was horrific.

LCD started the night, and quite truthfully, they were a tad boring. They sound much better on the record than they did live, and part of it had to do with the sound issues that they were trying to work out since this venue doesn't host a lot of concerts. The other part of it had to do with the fact that they were just boring to watch -- the singer just basically stood there with little to no movement. But, they were able to whip the crowd into a fist-pumpint frenzy playing their hit "North American Scum" and their closer (New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down) was also fantastic.

While I enjoyed LCD (Stacy not so much), they were only a passing pleasure in the musical monstrosity that is Arcade Fire. AF took the stage to a raucous and screaming crowd and proceeded to put on an unbelievable show. If you haven't seen them before, they are a huge band. They count 7 regular members, but tour with an additional 3 bringing their size to a staggering 10. And among those 10 members, they play what seems like a 1,000 instruments (I kind you not, I have never seen so many instruments on one stage). The most incredible thing is that all 10 members play with the same kind of intense ferocity giving their shows a seemingly theatrical-like quality. The show was pretty Neon Bible heavy, but they played a number of songs from Funeral as well as a song from their EP. Highlights of the show included: the crowd going bonkers when they came on stage, seeing the girls kill it on their violins live, hearing my wife shriek when husband and wife Win and Regine jumped off the stage and bolted a few rows into the crowd, hearing Win yell "with the lights out" during the song Power Out and having the lights go out in the entire building, watching Regine play an impressive vareity of instruments (by my count she played piano, keyboard, organ, guitar, violin, accordion, drums and two instruments we couldn't even identify), watching Regine play the accordion solo in No Cars Go, me trying not to cry as they played No Cars Go, all ten members of the band lifting their voices in unison during No Cars Go, all ten members of the band singing in unison on about every song, the crowd belting it out to Tunnels (in hindsight, I think it was just me singing belting it out, but it sounded like the whole crowd was), and the entire crowd singing Wake Up to end the show.

But there is one moment that trumps them all. Will Butler (brother of lead singer Win) is known for his crazy and spontaneous antics during their shows. And boy, he did not disappoint. He plays every instrument like he's trying to break it, and is constantly flying all over the stage--both of which are incredibly entertaining to watch. During the last song of their set before the encore, the band played a blistering version of Rebellion. Will was playing a snare drum that was wrapped around his neck and whipping the thing all around the stage. In the middle of the song, he jumps out onto the scaffolding that was supporting the stage, and starts frantically beating both his snare drum and the scaffolding. Then, he decides he's going up. He gets a good 25-30 feet up above the crowd, locks his arm into the scaffolding, and alternates between beating the leaving daylights out of his drum and pounding the scaffolding. The place was going bananas. I thought he was going to die. It was amazing.


This is Will on the scaffolding. Unfortunately the picture sucks and doesn't do the moment justice, but the reflection you see is the back of his shirt. The band in down on the right and the crowd on the left.

Rilo Kiley

Ok, so after a blogging hiatus of a couple weeks, I'm going for consecutive posts here. It's coming up on 1:00 in the morning, I'm tired, but Radiohead's in epic form on my iTunes right now so I figure I'll try and get one more post in while I finish out the album.

A week or so ago we attended the Rilo Kiley concert. They happen to be one of Stacy's favorite bands, and fortunate enough for me, they're one of the few female-fronted acts I can actually tolerate (ok, I'll just go ahead and admit it, I like them). Rilo Kiley is fronted by child star Jenny Lewis and while most the world thought she peaked as Hannah Neffler in the semi-hit Troop Beverly Hills, she's actually been honing her music skills and turned into quite the successful recording artist. And by consequence, she's also become the sexy pinup girl for the indie rock world. Which is strange, really, since she basically looks like a walking corpse. But, she does turn out some fantastic music. In fact, the recent issue of Spin magazine called Rilo Kiley "the next Fleetwood Mac." I'm not sure if that's a compliment or a diss, but at any rate, they really seem to be breaking out.

Friends Come to Visit

Wow, it's been a while since we've made an entry. A couple weeks back our good friends Jason, Erica, Rett and Jill were all able to make the trip up to Seattle to visit. Johnny and Ash were also supposed to come but had to cancel their plans when they got news of a friend's wedding; hopefully they make it next time. We had a great time hanging out, eating, and catching up with our good friends. This was Rett and Jill's second consecutive summer visit, and we're sure they'll be back next year. For Jason and Erica, this was their inaugural trip and we hope they enjoyed it. In fact, we're pretty sure they did as Erica already anointed Sea-town her new favorite city. We'll see you all again in Seattle next year! In the meantime, we look forward to seeing you in Utah and possibly New York, respectively.

Is it embarrassing that you can see my g's?

The girls

The guys
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Dining at Salty's -- a Rett favorite

Trav Dogg and Tawni

My two youngest siblings visited Sea-town last weekend and we all had a fantastic time. Trav has been a here a couple of times, but Tawni has only been here once and it was in passing on our way to Victoria, B.C. So this was really her first time seeing the Seattle sights and she had a fun trip. We all bought city passes which included visits to the Seattle Aquarium, Woodland Park Zoo, Pacific Science Center, Boeing Air and Space Museum, and a one hour harbor cruise. Between visits to all these attractions and making sure we hit some of our favorite places to eat, the days were pretty busy.

This is an area of the aquarium where you can touch sea dollars and other sea life

Trav riding a bicycle that was suspened above the ground

Stacy and I coming off Air Force I -- she thought it would be funny to pretend like we were the Prez and First Lady

Out to dinner at this Thai place we like in Lower Queen Anne

While we were on the harbor tour, some seals were out on a buoy catching some rays

Me and Tawni on the harbor tour

Tawni's first trip to the market

There was a sand castle competition going on downtown

A bear at the zoo

Tawni and Trav at the elephant exhibit

Stacy and Trav at the zoo

KEXP BBQ

Aaron and I attended the annual KEXP bbq this weekend to take in an afternoon of music. Included in the lineup were Blue Scholars, The Blakes, The Cave Singers, Cloud Cult, and the band we were most excited to see, Pela. Pela is from Brooklyn and their debut album, Anytown Graffiti, has been one of my three favorite releases so far this year (along with new albums from Arcade Fire and The National, respectively). I had been anticipating this show for some time now and this anticipation was only compounded by some very favorable buzz I read about their live shows on a couple of music blogs. I could go on an on about how amazing they were, but in short, I'll just say that they absolutely killed it. Aaron and I were stunned by how tight and fluid their sound was and they were quite possibly 10x better than any other band that played at the show.

I landed a drumstick their drummer Tom fired into the crowd (thanks to Aaron)

Me and Billy, lead singer of Pela

Aaron with Andrea Zollo of the legendary (but now defunct) Pretty Girls Make Graves

Pela rocks the stage

Billy belts out another song

The Cave Singers with Andrea accompanying for one song

Cloud Cult

The Blue Scholars