Caroline and Farah came over to the house yesterday and Scott cooked two pizzas for dinner. One was spinach, artichoke hearts, garlic, mozzarella, tomatoes, garlic and goat cheese. I’d say it ties for the best he’s made so far. He also cooked a shrimp, garlic, tomato and cheese pizza. It was pretty good too. Over the weekend Caroline came over while Jeff, Liz and Mark were over and cooked us dinner. The table was packed with food and people, and it was a lot of fun. We joked about being adults and it reminded me of the dinner party things my parents would take us to at our family friends’ house. I seem to remember those always being fun. Probably except for the time I fell headfirst onto the corner of a marble table, but that’s a story for another time.

Lately I’ve been questioning the judgments I make about music. Over the summer Jeff, Chris, Jake and I played a show around Marietta as the Jerks. For many, many reasons it was a terrible show. But we played with a band we’d barely heard about called the Leftovers. Most of the show we were pretty annoyed because we had to deal with this shithead dude that hangs out around Atlanta and thinks he’s Joe Queer’s long lost twin, and the fact that although he said he had promoted the show a lot and there would be hundreds of people there, the crowd was made up of a few friends for each band. But you wouldn’t think that would affect how you listen to music. Anyhow, the Leftovers played, and I really didn’t like them. The one thing I enjoyed was their drummer. The guy just looks like he’s having the time of his life playing drums. he seriously looks like a 5 year old that’s just been given the keys to the biggest candy store in town. So after they played Jeff and I talked to him for a little bit, and he turned out to be a great guy. But I had already written them off as yet another band I didn’t like. Not too long ago I heard one of their songs on their myspace page, and it turns out they’re some of the catchiest most fun songs I’ve heard in a while. I loved them. So I got their cd “On The Move” and I have to say it’s amazing. It’s like the Beatles turned pop punk and just wanted to have fun. Man. It is great. So I decided I was way off with my opinion of them.

Now this in itself wouldn’t make me worry too much, but later on in the summer I went to the Insubordination Fest with Jeff and Liz, and we saw (barely) the Steinways. While looking for stuff to buy at the merch table, I decided their song names were funny, and the artwork on their cd (Missed the Boat) was great (I think that was the first time I bought a cd mainly because of how it looked), so I picked it up. After listening to it a bunch of times, I decided I really didn’t like it. I can’t say why now, I can’t really remember my reason, but a week or two ago I figured I’d find out why everyone else seems to love it and listened to it again. It’s great. It’s funny, it has catchy songs, funny songs, and I can listen to it again and again. So, I really have no idea what I was thinking.

So now I know I was wrong about two bands I had seen, and I was wondering what was going on in my head. A few people on the PPMB said that it took them a while to get into the Steinways as well, so I was hoping that maybe sometimes I just need to grow into music. But then the other day I heard a song by the Copyrights. Again, I saw them at the Fest and didn’t like them. I think someone had said they were similar to the Methadones, and when I heard them, I wrote them off as not nearly as good and I didn’t think they sounded all that great aside from any comparison. The song I heard the other day is called “Talkbomb” and it made me seriously question my judgment again. It’s catchy, the bass line great, and the vocals are really strong (and yeah, he sorta sounds like Dan Vapid). It’s a great song. So I decided to get a couple of their albums, “We Didn’t Come Here to Die” and “Make Sound,” and I’ve listened to “We Didn’t Come Here to Die” and it’s great. I’ve listened to it a few times over and I like it a whole lot. I’ll let you know what I think of Make Sound, but from what I read everywhere, people love it.

So I’m 0 for 3 and I’m wondering what made me decided I didn’t like these bands when I first heard them. I’m completely second guessing myself now. And I suppose I should add that I bought the new Ben Weasel solo cd “These Ones Are Bitter” and loved it at first, but now I think it’s a bunch of boring overproduced songs. I don’t know what to think about my ear for music lately.

After work today I’m leaving for Atlanta and then tomorrow morning I’ll be getting up early and driving toward Wyoming with my parents. I’m excited about seeing Wyoming again, seeing my sister and Evan, and getting away from my daily routine.