I'm sure everyone in Austin knows that Foxboro Hot Tubs is playing at Emo's tonight. Also, I'm sure everyone knows that Foxboro Hot Tubs is Green Day. Since I have an inside source at Emo's, I put in a request to get on the guest list for tonight. It was a long shot, since tickets were only sold at the door, and 101X has been getting everyone in the know AND giving out spots on the guest list.

Turns out, Green Day is playing the inside venue which only handles about 300 people. Apparently, they refused to play outside where there's room for 1,200. People started lining up last night, and the tickets go on sale at noon today which means the line is probably full already. Scalpers have been calling the owner of Emo's and offering $300 a ticket but, were unsuccessful. Emo's will probably make no money off this and neither will Green Day. I wonder what their motivation is for doing such a small show when they could easily sell out an huge music venue. Perhaps they're trying to re-capture their garage band days.

Good luck Green Day fans.

Last night, I met Jen at Flying Saucer for a few beers. We walked over to Flipnotics and met up with Connie to see Matt the Electrician and Southpaw Jones. Instead of doing two sets, they backed each other up on alternating songs and took a break in the middle of the set. It was a really great show. I highly recommend seeing these Austin locals. Matt the Electrician is going to be playing at the Parish tonight at 10 with Super Sonic Uke. Turns out, Holly's friend Jana is in Super Sonic Uke. So, go support local music and see this show.

Oh yeah, Amy and Breck are coming to live with me today!

Cory and I met Jen (a different Jen) out at Woodrows around 8. Jen had finished a half-marathon over the weekend and had recovered enough to join us for a drink. We cycled through a few beers then went down 6th to get to the Parish Room to see The Mercers play. The first band was already playing when we got there. They sounded a bit like Unrest which was good.

While they were tearing down their equipment, Jen asked when the The Mercers were going to play. I wasn't sure, so I looked around the room for Ray, Erik or Peter (sorry Ethan, I still don't know what you look like behind all that drum equipment) and didn't see any of them. I said as much as Peter walked up and greeted Cory and I. We figured out they were going on after the next act, who were setting up as we talked. Peter excused himself to grab a beer before the show and we moved a little closer to the stage. Jen

The next band was decent but, I was really waiting for The Mercers to hit the stage. We inched a few feet closer to the stage as the second band tore downs and were replaced. The experience was short (only 5 or 6 songs) and only one song was off the current album (Unamericana) but, all of it was awesome. Peter still has blindingly fast strumming and clear loud lyrics, and Ray still holds down some killer baselines. Erik now has two keyboards, and switches to second guitar seamlessly and Ethan keeps every song together with expert drumming.

The last new song was really good. I can't wait until the new album comes out.

A friend from work (Jeff) turned me on to Pandora, a website that streams music through "stations" based on an artist or song that you define. The definition is the seed that Pandora uses to match other songs through the Music Genome Project and plays them for you. By providing feedback, (in the form of thumbs up or thumbs down), Pandora changes the suggestions for your station. It will even tell you the parameters it put into suggesting the music. For instance, I started a Sting station, and it suggested Death Cab for Cutie because "it features mellow rock instrumentation and a subtle use of vocal harmony." It turns out, I really do like Adult Contemporary.

Since the music that it plays is new to you yet, strangely familiar it's quite good a being a front end for purchasing music (which you can do right from the image of the album cover).