It has been a while since my last update, and unlike times past the lack of updates is not a reflection of lack of activity or things to write about. For better or worse, I’ve been extremely busy lately with my hands in a bunch of projects and simply have not had the time to put an update here as quickly as I’ve wanted to.

First things first, Torey and I have been working hard on rightClique, moving it beyond being simply just a music blog and planning a number of music events at The Bench, and other places around town. Our Halloween party was pretty awesome with a larger turnout than I think we expected, between that and our new support from Mellow Mushroom Music we have the drive we need to keep pushing forward. It’s fun to have everybody involved and excited in this project. We are planning a dubstep event for the 29th of this month, and a pre-party while STS9 is in town for New Years. If you are in town for either of these hopefully we will see you out. Captain Crunk and I had the opportunity to play together for what I think was the first time ever last Friday at DigitalHigh’s Project: Bass party, it was pretty quiet but it was a good experience to get some practice doing a 2-man DJ set, especially since I have signed myself up to do it again on the 29th at BRS2

So on the topic of STS9, Alex and I made an attempt to go to the Tennessee Theatre show in Knoxville this past weekend. Due to some slack planning on our part we were unable to secure tickets and unfortunately after almost 10 years of seeing STS9, I finally got locked-out of a show. At the risk of sounding like an ingrate I should point out quite a number of friends banded together to try and pull some strings and get us in but unfortunately it was a little late in the evening to make it happen. Thanks everybody for trying however. All was not lost, gas is pretty cheap now so driving up there wasn’t too expensive. The iPhone came in handy once again, as we relied on Yelp! to give us a place to eat that would offer a better choice than what is advertised on the blue side-of-the-interstate signs. We ended up eating BBQ at a small place off the beaten path. It was pretty good, not the best I’ve had but definitely different as the BBQ sauce had a unique smokey flavor to it different than anything I am accustomed to. It’s always good to get at least one meal outside of the norm in when travelling. Moreover, the leaves are all changing now, driving through Chattanooga and through Tennessee en route to Knoxville from Atlanta was a much-needed roadtrip for me.  Additionally, after not getting in, we had quite an interesting time standing outside the front of the show acting ridiculous in our search for tickets, and laughing at irresponsible kids in front of the venue.

I did get a chance to see live music last night however; M83 played a show at The EARL. I have been seeing quite a bit of noise-rock / shoegaze style music lately, as only a month ago a friend and I went to see Spiritualized play at the Variety. M83 was a bit better than I expected, and fortunately me and my similarly sized friend were able to sneak up to the very front and be able to hear and see everything clearly, which is a rarity for me at most shows. Despite my constant SWPL references to friends during the show, I had an excellent time. M83 is interesting to hear live; they fall into a category of what I often refer to as “studio-bands.” That’s not to say that they shouldn’t be playing live, but the style and sound they are going for, to me at least, seems more conducive to a studio environment, where music that lush and dense can be impeccably mixed. Sometimes hearing music like that in a club you lose the ability to discern details in certain parts, I would not go so far as to say I was disappointed by the performance, it was definitely one of the better shows I have seen this year. Most importantly however, it was nice to get out and spend some time with good friends at a show, for some reason seeing live music has always been one of my favorite ways to spend time with people.