When I was in college I met a dude named Jake. I wasn’t a freshman, but he was.

The first time I met him I remember there being a lot of noise. Hollering. There was also a rainbow clown wig and a Fender Stratocastor; it was light blue, I believe. Maybe green.

I quickly realized I recognized Jake, he was the drummer for a band, called Shine, later (*see comments) Reflector, and I had heard them a month before and really liked them. Jake played drums.

Jake’s last name is Cardwell, and his dad is Bill Cardwell. They are the Cardwells’ of the famed C&C Drum Company.

The Pitch recently published an article on Bill and C&C, and it brought back memories of me, Steve (who had played in a previous band with Jake) and Jake breaking into the store late at night to pass time and make music.

We would typically buy a couple 12-packs of Corona or Boulevard, then drive to the store where we would each pick out the instrument of our choice and then play until we got bored of the instrument; then we would pick out another. Of course, we would have to put everything back in order just the way we found it and close everything back up before anyone got there to open up.

It does me good to see that C&C is still doing great, and growing leaps and bounds. The Cardwell&s deserve their success. Those guys really do build some of the finest drums you will ever hear.

amazon.com announced their new music download site today, and it is pretty dang good. in fact, it’s good enough to win out over iTunes for me.

‘almost internet famous’ blogger, scott mcnulty, posted a pretty well balanced review of amazonmp3 as well as a contrast/comparison of both services on TUAW. scott’s conclusion puts it perfectly, so skip ahead if you want the nutshell.

either way, iTunes finally has a legit competitor.plus, amazonmp3 carries the last Telecas record (which iTunes don’t… and, i loves me some Telecast).

don’t call it a comeback. i’ve received a few email as of late (like within the last month) from people asking where they could get my triple concrete selling records.

truth is, i stopped touring because it was such a drag. when i stopped touring, people stopped buying records. for a while i kept the records on the site for sale, but they were purchased so infrequently that when i got an order, i’d forget or think it was a joke. that just made people mad, and made me look like a jerk.

i’ve been kicking around the idea of putting at least one of my records up on iTunes and the aforementioned email were just the ticket. starting today you can purchase goodbye, welcome, thankyou, the last record i recorded, on iTunes.

you might see the button in the top right hand corner of the sidebar. just click that link and it will take you straight to my record on iTunes. what’s more, if you buy it, i get a little extra taste cause you clicked through from my site ; )

if’n you don’t want to drag your mouse that far you can click here.

if nothing else, check it out. the record could use a review or two thousand. jen and i just bought a house, so i need the cash!

actually, i’m hoping this goes well enough to warrant putting ben franklin must be proud, my other full length, and the footprint ep on iTunes. we shall see.

finally, don’t hold me to it, but i’ve been writing again. not a lot, but enough. and i’m getting the bug to record. if i do, you’ll be able to get those recordings on my iTunes page.

enjoy.

Wow, it’s amazing what a Thursday evening without The Office will do to your head! Whilst watching television tonight three things occurred to me. They are as follows.

1) What up America? Seriously, you leave that kid Sanjaya on American Idol… really? This kid is a dweeb. He needs to give Julia Roberts her mouth back.
As if keeping the pubestach on wasn’t bad enough, America, you kept Antonella “NSFW” Barba. I’ve seen your pictures Antonella (who hasn’t, they were even on USA Today’s site I believe) and they are about as hard to look at as your singing is hard to listen to.

2) Hello Black Donnellys. Good bye Sopranos! Please please please do not run away from us like the goodfellas on HBO.

3) Finally, how big are these rolls of toilet paper going to get? Charmin is actually offering rolls of tp that are equal to four normal sized rolls. That must be the size of an orange Gatorade cooler! Save a tree why don’t ya.

Steve Wilson is one of my dearest friends in the world. We came up through college together.

After college Steve married Sarah and they moved to Nashvegas so that he could pursue his dream of being a record producer. To make ends meet he cleaned water coolers, picked up trash and various other manual labor type jobs before finally getting hooked up with some of the right folks.

He now produces records full time and I’m very proud of him. Today, though, I couldn’t be more proud of him as I learned that he’s been nominated for a Dove Award!

Dove Awards are given out to those in the Christian music industry who have demonstrated a level of excellence that is well above average in the past year. He was nominated for his part in writing the song “Sound of Melodies” (iTunes link) as performed by the group Leeland in the category of Rock/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year (run on sentence?). He says it’s a little thing, but in truth it is a great honor and he should hold his head high (but stay a little humble, bro!).

Congrats man! You deserve this more than anyone I know. I’m more proud of you than you’ll ever know.

Tonight Jen and I attended our nephews elementary choir and band Holiday concert. I left thinking two things.

First, I apologize to my Dad and Mom for putting them through that in sixth grade. This band was small. My sixth grade band, with me on the alto sax-a-ma-phone, was double the size of this one. Which means double the awful!

Which brings me to my next thought: we gotta beef up the NEA! I think the band played Jingle Bells. However, it could have been the horn part at the end of Radioheads “National Anthem.” The string quartet played with string tracks. That’s not fair to the studio musicians!

The choir, however, was great! The choreography… not so much. Remember in school chorus and Melissa Gilbert and Natalie Jenson choreographed hand gestures to “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” It was all in vain, you can’t successfully perform hand gestures when your shoulder to shoulder.

Besides my nephews speaking part, the highlight of the night was the “pee kid” who wasn’t allowed on the risers. He had to stand on his knees and hardly be seen just to the right of the stage. The “pee kid” deserves a speaking part, too!

So, I’m turning 30 in exactly three weeks. I know, I know: big deal. I was always afraid of 30, though. Blame it on unreal expectations.

I remember being 13 and thinking, “Man, 18 is so grown up!” Then I turned 18 and I thought, “Yeah, by the time i’m 23, maybe 24, I’ll be married, maybe have a kid or two.” I just figured that was what happened.

23 and 24 came and went; no wife, no kids, NO PROBLEM! It was nice. I couldn’t imagine having kids or a wife at that age – even though people do it all the time.

Now I think I’m ready. I am embracing 30 with open arms… well, more like with my dukes up! Ready to kick its a$$!

Speaking of a$$: thank you to Yo La Tengo for possibly the greatest album title – I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your A$$.