So yesterday was a head-trip for many reasons. Not the least of which was driving my ass all over town for various reasons. I went down to Lake Fever to observe a photo session for All the Rage. After leaving the studio, I was driving down Belmont Blvd when I saw some familiar looking plastic structures in a yard. I looked over and saw a couple of dudes leisurely playing Horseballs.

I nearly wrecked the car.

It was one of those moments when you’re not really sure if you’re awake and actually seeing what your brain tells you you’re seeing.

Anyway, Jason gave me a CD with several Lake Fever-recorded tracks on it: two from Harper, the three final mixes from Girls and Boys and some Feable Weiner demos. Everything sounds fantastic. You’d never know the FW songs were quickly-recorded demos.

The Harper songs are two of my favorites: “Ascent” and “Good Example” (I think those are the names). “Ascent” is probably my favorite song of theirs period. I really like “That’s What She Gets” too. They’ve recorded that one too, but I didn’t get it on my CD.

Anyway, I went down to the Harper show last night with the songs freshly in my head. They played great, but the sound was, as the sound is at The End, dumpy. I mean, that’s just what a band sounds like in a concrete box. The architecture is just bad for getting a clean mix. I stepped forward two feet and the volume and mix changed dramatically. Sometimes, with a large crowd of bodies and a rock band at the right volume, it’s a great place to see a band (like Sahara Hotnights last year).

But the crowd was pretty sparse for Harper. And they’re a pop band. When the vocals are muffled and the bass is too loud, you lose those pop melodies. Eh. That’s rock ‘n’ roll.

Speaking of rock ‘n’ roll and head trips, I’m listening to Matisyahu–Hasidic Reggae. It’s, um, really good. And apparently, not a joke. Though when a bio contains the line, “combining the sounds of Bob Marley and Shlomo Carlebach,” there’s really no telling.