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First time in a while.

Saw Elvis Costello and the Impostors last night. Oh my fucking god it was a great show. 25 or so years I've waited to see the guy, and damned if it didn't live up to my expectations. Played for two hours, barely stopping to breathe. Old stuff, new stuff, hits, obscurities. Didn't even mind the surrounding chatterbox idiots who couldn't be bothered by anything that doesn't get played on classic rock radio. Tough shit. I'm glad he mixes it up, 'cause it's certainly clear that he's far from bored with what he's doing.

A big highlight was a reworking of one of the Bacharach/Costello songs ("In The Darkest Place") with thick distorted guitar subbing for the strings. I gotta say, watching EC play guitar these days is a blast -- it's coming from this Neil Young-meets-Link Wray place, and he's clearly loving every second of it.

Dug up an old Crash Basket song, "Nobody's Bleeding", off of our first casette (do we have to start explaining what those were yet? or is that a couple of years off?). I still don't have the DATs for that tape, but pulled this off of a compilation CD we were part of.

Anyway, I really like this one... certainly one of my favorite piss-and-vinegar lyrics, trying to be happy that a very-much-missed ex had moved on.

"When you said you were happy for me

Were you lying like I'm lying now?

Fresh in my hand there's seven stitches

Cardboard on the wall where the window used to be..."

Like all the good ones, this was just barely an exagerration at the time.

Good times, good times. I'm sure my then-current girlfriend was thrilled about this one. Certainly glad I'm not that self-absorbed and depressed now, but it sure made writing easier.

"The Simple Things" is up for download again, at the audio page.

This is a live version, from an old compilation CD ("Live At The Square Vol II") of performers from the late, lamented Washington Square on South Beach. Really fun digging that out again, amazing how much great music was going on there... Diane Ward, Arlan Feiles & Natural Causes, Cell 63, The Holy Terrors... I could go on, and often do.

In a similar (yet much more interesting) vein to my plea to club owners and their webmasters, Merlin Mann offers up Five Mistakes Band & Label Sites Make.

Dead on. Check it out if you're a musician looking to use your website to your best advantage.

Dave Winer, that is. Lady Madonna, that is. Nice to know I'm not the only one hooked on that song. Since age 5, in my case.

And I'd love the chock-full-o-Beatles hard disk too, although if I'm forking over $249, I'll take FLAC or another lossless format. Actually, how 'bout a lossless version + really-high-bitrate MP3? Or Ogg, but that's just me, since not everyone is going to listen on an iRiver.