First things first: Happy New Year!

Kerbey Lane, a small chain of hip cafes in Austin, put up a nifty offer on the sign of its South Lamar location a couple months ago. I’m only now getting around to scanning the picture. Yes, it does say, “10% OFF WITH A MULLET.” Ahh, gotta love Austin.

My New Years Eve was very chill. Instead of going downtown and wrestling with the crowds and shelling out lots of cash, I took it easy with some friends at one of their parents' ranch north of Austin that has a neat little house with plenty of guest beds, so Amanda (and her parents) were nice enough to invite some friends out to par-tay. We stayed up till three chatting, drinking, and snacking. One of the girls' younger brothers did a fantastic Raptor imitation and bravely took an injury for his act. I even got to drive the Official Ranch 1970-Something Jeep for a minute even though my standard transmission skills are rough. If the Jeep didn’t have a roof, I do believe we would have gone flying onto the road at every shift. I did do a good job parking it though, so perhaps that will serve as a redeeming factor (hah).

In music news, Amanda gave me a copy of a mix CD that includes a song by a UT student (I’ll leave out his name for privacy purposes). The song was a piano number and it was amazing. The vocals and melody totally struck me. I even liked the sound of the piano – it had a certain ‘aged’ quality. And I think Tarflet said it best when she described his voice as haunting. It reminded me of Jeff Buckley. I sent him an email asking if he plays shows. I hope he does.

Ross introduced me to a cool band called Minus The Bear. Guitars are clean, melodies are catchy, and bass lines groove. “Making Plans for Nigel” by XTC popped into my head. Steve Fisk, a well known Seattle producer (Nirvana, Soundgarden, Soul Coughing, Beat Happening), turned the dials for their debut full-length and I just ordered it and their EP from Suicide Squeeze records. I’m very excited to hear all of their stuff. Stay tuned for a review…