IF LOOKS COULD REALLY KILL, THEN MY PROFESSION WOULD BE STARING

I'm not quite sure what's up with me lately. I've found that I listen to about 3 albums when I'm home, or at work, or commuting. They're albums you'd often consider "emo," and I don't know why my gut reaction is to turn to these over turning to, say, the Killers or Interpol. I think i might have to blame my sobriety. I've held back from drinking for over a week (which might not seem like a long time to most, but mind you I went from drinking four drinks a night to four drinks a week to nothing).

So those four albums:
My Chemical Romance - Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge ... Sometimes I'll listen to this album and stop dead in my tracks and listen to parts of it over and over again. A friend of mine joked about the way Gerard extends his vowels when he sings, but in my opinion, they couldn't be extended further. I want more of everything on this album.
Good Charlotte - The Chronicles of Life and Death ... I never liked their old stuff, really, but love their new stuff. I don't think their old fans like their new stuff as much, so I guess it all makes perfect sense.

Brand New - Deja Entendu ... Jesse Lacey is a genius lyricist. I think I listen to this album the most out of anything in my collection these days. Lately, whenever someone calls me to see what I'm up to the answer is typically "cleaning my room and listening to Brand New and getting all emotastic." There's just a brilliant way he has with phrasing things. Piecing together emotions. I'm sure there are others out there that are more genius and more brilliant, but for now, he does it for me.

So it's back to no drinking for me. Responsibility is hitting me like a brick wall and I'm trying to embrace it with sober tenderness and clarity. I guess it's safe to say that I had a ton of years where I partied to eleven, but now it's time to grow up. Not that drinking irresponsibly is immature, not in the least, but for me, right now, waking up in the morning and questioning my actions the night before is no longer what I want to be doing. I found myself running my mouth off to people I wish i had more of a sober encounter with.

It's also been easier to be sober when I've had a non-drinking partner in crime along for the ride. My friend, the Vicar, doesn't drink, so when I'm out with him I manage to find comfort in being able to hold conversations with someone who isn't seeing me in double or professing their punchdrunk love for me. I can drink my seltzer and be surrounded by the inebriated and glance over and see someone that sees the same things I see, and I find ease in that. I've also found comfort in the fact that as a result I've dropped an ten pounds (or more?) in the past month. I don't find a lot of comfort in the fact that I don't fit into any of my jeans anymore and can't really afford new ones. But my mom is stoked that her formerly waifish daughter is returning to form after a five or six year hiatus.

Apart from cleaning my room I've been staying indoors and hibernating. I wish I could say that I've been going to a ton of shows, but I haven't.
There are three bands I've managed to check out when I haven't been holding myself hostage, fearing a slip up of alcohol and lack of sleep:

Army of Me - I first saw them about 4 years ago with exMikey at tiswas when they were called Cactus Patch. I remember vividly having a discussion with Mikey about how we were impressed by the fact that they were actually good (for a while tiswas had a run of the not-so-good bands performing), and I'm sure of this cause I actually signed their mailing list. Well, anyway, four years later and I got to see them again on a saturday night... this time at the Delancey. I'm not sure what happened in those four years, but suddenly they're like the emo darlings. They're like a very early, twangy radiohead, and yet, their audience was packed with kids I would've thought I'd see at like, a Movielife show. There's this one song that The Vicar sent me called "Come Down" that's about visiting DC and crashing a car in a suicide attempt... which I find grossly romantic in a Romeo & Juliet meets the Smiths kind of way. This song is definitely going in my "Songs to Play While Going to DC on a Chinatown Bus To Visit People You Don't Well Enough Yet But Will One Day Know Forever" list in my book (I've decided that all my lists need to have ridiculously long titles. I'm sure my editor will cut them all down, but one can dream). If you've got any songs to recommend for this list, please email me (slewitinn@spin.com)... ideally for this list I want only songs by bands from DC or about DC or the Government.

Kasabian - I got to the show a bit late cause I was probably watching the Apprentice or something. My mistake since the place was so full I couldn't see for shit. I really wasn't expecting the place to be so packed since for the past week I had been telling people I was excited to see Kasabian and nobody know who the fuck I was talking about. Since I'm a midget, i was sucked into the back of the Bowery Ballroom with my posse and therefore couldn't see anything. Instead, we spent the whole time making fun of how British people (who made up a majority of the audience) had foreskin by pulling the sleeves of our sweatshirts over our fists, turning our arms into giant reenactments of what the Vic likes to call a coin purse lint holders.

Saints + Lovers (Formerly, The Sons of Sound) - God fucking bless this band. In about one years time this will be your absolutely favorite band of all time. Equal parts of early U2, current Muse, and the Secret Machines. I spent the whole show either dancing around in a sober waltz or just watching in pure amazement. Mind you the band opened with "Atmosphere" by Joy Division. It was almost as if they were like "Hey Sarah! Did you wear your Depends Adult Under Garments tonight?" Nothing about this band was understated. Everything was over the top in total bombast and beauty and fine tuned greatness.

Alright, so expect more updates than I have been doing lately.

Oh, and I'm gonna be in LA the week of December 12. I'm going to be DJing at Cinespace on December 14 for the Oohlas show (and single release party!). Please come and buy a single and dance with me. Thank you.