Oh, For The Love Of Music
By The Misfit | February 14, 2009
Before my love affair with books and boots, music came first on my list. When I was in my late teens and early twenties and making a mere $25 / day, I’d spend my last dollar on music or music-related items. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned to like the huge stadium shows less due in part to the expensiveness of such large shows and the fact that they’re so damn impersonal. I’ve also learned to love small club gigs – I love the intimacy of them and I adore seeing the look of utter joy on the musicians’ faces. There’s something inherently sexy about the connection between a musician and their instrument of choice.
But I digress. As usual.
Anyway, last night was the end of “refresher’s week” on campus (side note: “fresher’s week” happens at the beginning of the school year – getting what we Americans call “freshmen” acclimated to school and mingling. Since it’s the beginning of the 2nd semester of the school year, they named it “refresher’s week”. Get it?) and one of my coursemates, W.B., invited me out to the final bash of the week – his flatmate was one of the musicians playing the gig, and since I love live music, out I ventured. And I’m glad I did.
Matt Johnston, the aforementioned coursemate’s flatmate, was the first to play. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen someone rock out on an acoustic guitar, but Matt was awesome! He has a full website going complete with a free downloadable EP (Soundtrack to a Perfect Year) and three CDs for sale (Shimmer, A Long List of Excuses, and Artificial Light). He has prices listed in American dollars as well as British pounds, so I’m guessing he’ll ship to the states, as well as in the UK. So, go dig around on his website and enjoy!
The second band that played was a Scottish band by the name of Little Eskimos. And aside from the fact that I was horribly distracted by the lead singer’s pants and placing bets in my head as to when he’d lose them mid-song and what he’d do if he did (He didn’t. How sad is it that I lost a bet against myself? And what is it with guys these days who wear their pants big enough to hang down half their asses and not bother with a belt? Digressing. Again.) they were amazing! Loved watching them love their instruments and lose themselves in the moment. Which is kind of pervy, I guess. Eh…Welcome to my world. 
They played a combination of up-beat, toe-tapping songs and slower melodies. The only site I could find for them was a myspace page, but they do have 4 tracks available to listen to. They’re apparently still updating the page, and there’s a section for merchandise, so I suspect that’ll be along shortly.
Sadly missing from last night’s line up was an artist out of Los Angeles, Dave Whiston. (Yeah, that was a crappy segue…so sue me…I’m going with the new music POV.) I haven’t seen him play live in some years, but he’s well worth checking out. His online presence is relatively new, but his myspace page has music for purchase. The entire album is awesome, but my top five tracks are: Vampire, Some Day, Wishing Well, Cold Freeze, and his cover of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. I do love me a guitar-based, kinda spooky cover of a christmas song. Go figure. So go. Now. Check it out. And tell him the misfit sent you.
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