Butch Walker's Upcoming Shows in Chicago

Every Christmas season, Bibi swears she will NOT succumb to those sentimental Christmas movies one more time and yep, here she is just crying while most of Bedford Falls fills up George  Bailey's house, adding their donations to the basket of money, start singing carols, miraculously his hero brother shows up and everyone toasts to the richest man in town.  Get it?--George is engulfed by so many friends, who love him--the richest man in town and everyone realizes how lucky they are to be alive, including the viewers who watch this every year.  Gets Bibi every time.  (tiny litle sniff here)

So, hmmm....where has Bibi been?  During the Thanksgivng break, LOTS of big blog about action to be taken on behalf of Butch, spreading the word about his shows in Chicago . . . and then?  Loss of nerve, loss of focus, just plain loss of words?  No, actually Bibi was a bit under the weather after a regrettable encounter with leftovers.  But, during her few coherent, waking moments, she spent a lot of time thinking about the Butch review requests to the NYTimes, the NYorker and Rolling Stone.  In fact, the NYTimes version is just about done.  It's concise, makes cogent points that any subscriber to the Times would make, it's affable, reasonable with a dash of fan fervor mixed in; looking good.

Guess we can credit The Butch Walker Ameriorative Effect for the recovery Bibi made over the week, although it would have worked faster if Bibi had been able to even make the effort to listen to music.  After what remained of the work week was finished, had to run the errands, get a few Christmas decorations to fit in with this year's color scheme, so cranked up The Spade.  MAN...WHAT A RECORD!!! 


Opens with a great, crunchy guitar riff, the drums jump in and PUNCH IT Chewy!, we're into Bodegas and Blood for real.  Damn, it's good...no, IT'S GREAT!!!  Just the beginning, too.  The whole album is an unbelievable, pounding powerhouse of songs.  One after the other:  Every Single Body Else, Summer of ‘89, Sweethearts, Day Drunk, Synthesizers, Dublin Crow, Closest Thing To You I’m Gonna Find, Bullet Belt, Suckerpunch--all terrific, knockout examples of what Butch does so well--write, collaborate, sing, play guitars and banjolin in a fucking fantastic way that draws you kicking and screaming (in a rocking live-show way) into a totally energizing, full out immersion listening experience.  I've tried to pick a fave cut.  Got it down to Bodegas, Summer of '89, Sweethearts, Synthesizers, Closest Thing, Suckerpunch--you see the problem.  How can so many be THE favorite?  I listen to this cd a lot and it continues to please.  No fast forward, no skipping songs, just straight through every time I get in the car.  Don't play it at work--the f and s words, you know.  Truly, truly a great album, world!

FYI:  Bibi is not an iPod person.  It's not just the ears; don't really get that whole shut out the ambient noise thing.  Tried, but really, don't I need to hear what's going on in my surroundings at all times?  Sure, I'm in boring places as much as the next cat, but Bibi has found that a very good rule to live by is:  alert is better than not.  Crossing the street, waiting at a ___'s appointment, driving long distances, seems like being able to hear is better than not.  Also, have never been able to crank up the volume on an iPod like I can in the car.  Note to anyone thinking about buying a Miata:  the speakers are very good and if you have to drive places, there is NOTHING so satisfying as the pleasure of the top down with the music blasting while you're speeding down the highway.  Yep, your hair is a fucking mess, but you can always put on a ski cap and maybe a vest, and just try kinda hard to make it not look like ya tried at all.

OK, soldiering on with the review requests--want to send them out this week.  Will let you know!

And just because, here's a pic of Butch during the filming of the video for Summer of '89 with character actor Seymour Cassel. 

Adorable!