National League Playoff Preview

Y'all know the drill. Let's get to it......NL East: Philadelphia Phillies

Cold War Kids - We Used to Vacation

Seriously, its been since 1990-something since the Phillies last made the playoffs (hey, you want research and detailed analysis, then go to ESPN.com, here you're getting 1990-something). The Phillies are used to vacationing during the month of October. But, honestly, if this afternoon was any indication then they're simply starting their vacation a week later than usual. They've got the offense to keep up with any other team in the NL, but they're currently being steamrolled by fate. The Rockies are hot, and its going to take what no team has had the past three weeks to beat the Rockies. Good luck, it should be a good series.

NL Central - Chicago Cubs

Sufjan Stevens - John Wayne Gacy, Jr.

Yes. I'm comparing the Cubbies to a mass murderer from Illinois (no offense, Bunny). I don't like the Cubs, just like I don't like mass murderers. I hope they get swept. My one comment on the Cubs is why the hell is everyone talking like their the best team in the NL all of a sudden. First off, they have the worst record and are from the worst division in the NL. Why is everyone talking like they've got a great chance to win it? From what I can tell, they've got 12.5% chance of winning it. I hate the Cubs.


NL West - Arizona Diamondbacks

Counting Crows - Children in Bloom

They're all babies!! The rightfielder isn't even old enough to drink. Only like one guy on the entire team has even played in the playoffs, EVER! But, somehow they made it here. As cliche as it is, they're a team that does just enough to win. Maybe the inexperience will come to haunt them as they make their way through the playoffs, or maybe they don't know any better to be nervous. They could win every game 10-0 or lose every game and nothing would surprise me with these guys.


NL Wild Card - Colorado Rockies

Pedro the Lion - Keep Swinging

Hands down the hottest team in baseball, and its not even close. Counting their 4-2 win over the Phillies this afternoon, they've won 15 of their last 16. That's amazing. They've got great talent, both old and young, and their pitching is coming together at just the right time. They're a fun team to root for. They've been hitting everything in sight it seems and they're my pick to make it out of the National League to represent in the World Series.

So, with that said, here are my first round predictions:

Red Sox over Angels in 3
Indians over Yankees in 5
Rockies over Phillies in 4
Diamondbacks over Cubs in 4

Hopefully I get at least one right.

RR

Back from Vacation

Hello again, RadioKGB. This is my first post in a couple of weeks and I'd like to apologize for my inactivity. But I just got back from an extremely relaxing vacation to the Atlantic coast, so I'm not too terribly sorry about my absence. That said, however, I would like to talk for a bit about a band I spent most of my time on the beach listening to. That band is a little pop group called Bishop Allen. You can check out their website here. To date, Bishop Allen has released one LP, Charm School, and 12 different EPs (one for each month of 2006). All of these can be purchased either digitally or in some physical sense (i.e. CD) on their website, and the January and February EPs are available from eMusic.


So far what I enjoy the most about Bishop Allen is very simple to understand, they write extremely good pop songs. So, I suppose in Gerdon's mind this makes them equal to The Beatles....HEY-O! I'm just kidding, my friend. In all seriousness though, these are some damn good songs. They've got a new album coming out July 24 called The Broken String, and based on everything I've heard so far, you can bet I'll be picking it up. So, I'm going to post a few songs that I've collected, the first three of which are available free on their website. Nothing complicated here, just some damn good songs.

Bishop Allen - Click Click Click Click (from the upcoming The Broken String)
Bishop Allen - Rain (ditto)
Bishop Allen - Things are What You Make of Them (from Charm School)
Bishop Allen - Butterfly Nets (from their Daytrotter session)

And while I'm at it there's a lot of good stuff available now over at the Daytrotter website, which I previously mentioned in this post. Here's a few examples of what I'm talking about...

The Long Winters - Scared Straight (from their Daytrotter session)
David Bazan (of Pedro the Lion fame) - Harmless Sparks/God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (from his Daytrotter session)

Keep an eye on the site, they've always got new stuff coming in.

RR

Cinco de Buyo?!?!?

HA!! See what I did there.....I changed Mayo to Buyo!! And soon after hilarity ensued.

But Ryan, why did you change Mayo (pronounced Mye-Oh, for the Spanish impaired) to Buyo??

Well, this weekend I was fortunate to experience a sale of epic proportions....ok, epic might be overstating the fact, but it was a pretty damn good sale if you ask me.

Ever heard of Grimey's?? Its Nashville's premier indie record store, that Bryan even managed to both visit and write about after a recent visit to Nashvegas. (Read Bryan's Grimey's post here.)

Well, this past Saturday (May 5 for the calendar impaired) Grimey's had an "everything in the store is on sale" sale. All new CD's were 20% off, used CD's were 15%, or something like that, off, and they had a awe-inspiring number of CD's at the all-time fantastic price of $2. And when you consider how cheap everything is there on a normal day, all of those are pretty good deals.

Being on the Grimey's mailing list, I caught wind of this debauchery and decided to give the sale the ol' look-see, and boy am I glad I did. I came up outta that bitch with 4 CDs!! Reminded me of the BMG days where they'd send me like 8 CD's and I'd have no idea which to listen to first. Here was my catch:

Ola Podrida's self-titled debut (just came out last Tuesday)
the new Bright Eyes CD Cassadega
an old Pedro the Lion CD Achilles Heel
and The National's album Alligator for $2!!!

So, I haven't given these CD's thorough listens yet, due to my weekend spent ripping up our carpet and installing hardwood floors (hence the lack of post this weekend). But all four of these were basically playing on repeat from Saturday afternoon on whilst working. So, whereas I feel I'm in no position to offer up final opinions on any of these tasty morsals, i do feel up to handing out some first impressions. Here's what I think.

Ola Podrida - Ola Podrida: I played their song Cindy in my last webcast and have been excited about getting this CD since I first heard it. I've listened to this one more than the other four, and it certainly hasn't disappointed. You can actually hear the streaming of four of the songs (including Cindy) on their myspace page.

Bright Eyes - Cassadega: Not sure about this one yet. My initial response for this is the same as it was for every other Bright Eyes CDs...."Hmm, that was weird. I think I'm going to have to give it another listen." I've gone on to like the other Bright Eyes albums, so I'm sure I'll come around to this one too.

Pedro the Lion - Achilles Heel: I actually first heard about this band (which is really only one dude, David Bazan) a couple years ago when they opened for Death Cab, but I didn't pay too much attention to them, and therefore never thought to buy one of their albums. Now, I'm going to see a solo Ben Gibbard this Sunday and David Bazan is playing with him again, so I decided to adequately prepare myself, and give Pedro a listen. To be honest, his voice sounds a bit too monotonous for my personal tastes, but maybe after I see him this weekend I'll have more of an appreciation for his musical stylings.....we'll see.

The National - Alligator: They have a new CD coming out in a month or so from which I've heard one song, so I figured I'd give them a try....especially for only $2. I've listened to this the least so far, but methinks I like. I like the very "light" sounding guitars so far, but that's really all i remember from my first listen.

So, i'll give these a little more in depth attention this week. If you have these albums or any opinions on any of these bands, let me hear them.....i'm curious to know what you think.

RR