New Thom Yorke Song

So I just today found out that Thom played a solo set, somewhat unannounced, at this festival in England somewhere the other day. I love the Thom solo shows; watching him glide from piano to guitar to organ, backed only by his samples, loops, and angelic voice, is a sight to behold. I swear if I ever have a chance to see him play in the states, I'll be all over that shit like a fat guy on pie.

He played a new tune that is thought to be called "The Present Tense." It follows along his other somewhat Neil Youngy pieces, strolling along pleasantly enough, but picking up steam after the 3-minute mark. A nice song, to be sure, but still in its infancy. After following this guy and his band for so long I can recognize it as still more of an idea, which will undoubtedly appear in a completely different form on a Radiohead album in say, 3 or 4 years from now.

Give it a listen if you wish:



Which reminds me, last summer, when Radiohead was touring, we were treated to great new song called "Supercollider" which pretty much rocks the mustache right off my face. Check it out below if you wish:


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Anyway, that's what I'm up to today. About to head into work, where we are finally wrapping up an epic 10 day blur of production. Normally we brew four days a week, typically 10 brews. For several reasons, we have been playing catch-up lately, brewing 8 out of the last 9 days, the only exception being Saturday. 24 brews in 10 days. And I won't even get into the filtrations we've done each day as well. I'm being rewarded with Friday off from work (though I still have to show up Saturday to give tours, so I am essentially stuck inside of Philly with the New Jersey blues again).

Enjoy your humpday, all

Love
'Wrence

Beer. Bacon. Have I got your attention now?

Right now I am listening to a killer recording of the opening song from the last Radiohead show in Boston (there is a video of it on Bros11 here). My Bro from back in the day just emailed it to me. Nicely.

It is still early March and the weather has turned downright freakishly spring-like. But it's supposed to snow again in a couple days. Fucking typical New England shit. God, I hope I end up on the west coast, the manic pattern here is definitely not helping my fragile psyche right now. But at least it will be light out until 6:30 tonight, which is tight. I feel that Smokey Joe is about to make his 2009 debut in the driveway soon.
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A few days ago I went up to my home-planet of Vermont to brew with a guy whom I have long admired (well, his beers, anyway) at his brewpub in Waterbury. He turned out to be a real solid guy as well and I had a great time hanging with him while he brewed up an American Brown Ale. It was a long day though, which started for me at 5:30 am and ended at 10pm, with a pant-load of beer having throughout. It was well worth it though as I learned a ton in just that one day, not only about brewing but also about how he started up his business from scratch and is now wildly successful, without ever having paid a second's thought to marketing or distribution; they don't send any of their beer out the front door, EVER. Complete control. It's good to know that passion, talent, and knowledge CAN equate to a successful business.

Yesterday saw temps in the 60's and the 3rd annual Bacon Eating Contest at AwesomeWood's tavern. This year, V actually competed! And she did quite well up there on that stage surrounded by a bunch of puffy, loud-mouthed, chowder-headed dudes. And she definitely won the crowd over, I think.
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That's the weekend wrap-up. It's Sunday, sunny, warm - and I am about to go out for a quick run. Next week might see a trip to Philadelphia for a brewery visit/job interview and possibly some partying (depending on if I can get anyone to come with me) seeing as how it's Philly Beer week. I'll keep you updated...

Peace,

-Wrence

RADIOHEAD, Mansfield MA, 13 August 2008

Great show....I was quite close to the stage, as you can see from the above pic, although way off to one side. But it still felt like I was standing on the stage watching the show, interesting. Not the closest I've ever been, but definitely different than staring up at the boys from the pit. RyToy was about 5 or 6 rows right behind me, so we were treated to the fruits of my 3+ hours of excruciating mouse-clicks and head-bashing-into-monitor which is the Radiohead W.A.S.T.E. ticketing process. But so worth it for the kick-awesome seatage.

RyToy & I arrived together, around 7:30. Met up with Diesel & Liz, then the Bones and his girl, as well as a few highschool friends whom I hadn't seen in years. A few brews were consumed parking lot style before the show. Like almost all Radiohead concerts I have attended, I unfortunatley missed another chance to see a great opening band just coming into its own: Grizzly Bear

Here is a list of other bands that I have "seen" open for Radiohead over the years, and what I was doing while they played their set:

The Beta Band - watched their set from the pit
Kid Koala - watched the set from the pit
Four Tet (3 shows!) - was getting drunk in a nearby bar (3 shows!)
Steve Malkmus & The Jicks (2 shows) - was drinking in a parking lot for one, caught the other from the pit
Asian Dub Foundation - getting my ass completely slammed by thousands of angry French fans in the pit (the most intense concert experience of my life, to date)
Willy Mason (2 shows) - I don't even remember hearing this chap's name mentioned at the shows (sorry, Willy!)

Anway, last night I shot a few pics with my phone (see above) and a few crappy videos as well. I was going to post one, but this video from youtube is freakin sweet. This is Reckoner, the opening song....I can almost see myself standing there off to Ed's right.

-Wrence

Quote of the Day

RyToy: "I don't need other people to be partying in order to party."

and with that we are off to Radiohead at the Tweeter Comcast Woods Center/Centre

-Wrence

Radiohead All Points West Festival, Timelapse Video

Time Lapse video of their entire set from night 2 - pretty cool



Fuckin Alien Spaceship is right

-Wrence

NYC, Exhuastion, Great bus deals

Just got back from a day/night in NYC; I forgot how exhausting that town can be.

I arrived at 2pm via the Lucky Star bus, which runs more or less on the hour all day from South Station Boston to Chinatown NY, and runs express (no stops in between) so it only takes about 4 hours. Also: it's stupidly cheap at only $15 one way. Now, ladies and gentelmen of the jury, I may not know much-

But what I DO know, is that this is an amazing deal.

I met up with a somewhat random group of people and managed to party the entire length of Manhattan Island, starting in the upper east side, moving all way up to the tip top of Fort Tryon Park (this place was really dope) which hardly seemed like being in the city at all, then to Soho & the Village for dinner/drinks, and ending up way way downtown to see some band at an Irish pub called Ulyssees, which had only a moderate cheese factor to it. After a night of several personal "firsts," which MAY have included urinating off of a subway platform onto the tracks, I crashed at Diesel's sister's place in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

I am now back at work, after a whole week off (one of the best weeks I've had in a long time, actually) and the only thing keeping me from flinging myself off the roof is the fact that I have Thursday and Friday off -and oh yea, I'M SEEING RADIOHEAD wednesday night. Some of my friends caught their set at the All Points West Festival Saturday night in Liberty Park; I was afterwards treated to possibly the best description of a Radiohead show that I have ever heard.

Damien: "Basically it was like an alien spaceship had landed on the stage."

-'Wrence

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