I stand for another day

First things first: the US is still in it! They looked like a completely different team today. They tied Italy 1-1, and could VERY easily have won the game. Until the final 10-15 minutes, they spent most of the game in control of the ball, created a number of scoring opportunities, and looked good. It was a penalty-filled game, with 3 separate red cards issued (resulting in a 10-on-9 game for pretty much the whole second half). It was also just about the most excitement for futbol I’ve ever seen in the US. I watched the game in John Harvard’s in Harvard Square and it was pretty packed with fans, to the point where they even switched off the Red Sox game so that every single screen in the place could show the match. When the US appeared to score the go-ahead goal to make it 2-1 the whole place went nuts, and it did so again 15 seconds later when it was called back. Good times.

I was both happy and sad to see the Czech Republic get upset by Ghana. It helps the US’s chances (they qualify for the chance to get beaten up by Brazil now if they can beat Ghana and Italy beats the Czechs), but it hurts the Czech’s (my #2 team) chances.

I’m 19-for-26 in predicting the results, leaving me tied for first in the MP3 Blogger League. It’s pretty impressive, I know. Of course, now that I’ve mentioned it, I’m sure I will quickly plummet. Anyways, enough on the World Cup, how about music?

Big Buildings is a band out of Chicago (on the Stars/No Stars label) who makes some of the best sloppy-drunk-bar-rock out there. I could list off a bunch of great bands to compare them to (The Replacements, Wilco, the Stones, etc.), but one thing I really enjoy about them is that they feel so much more authentically personal than any band I’d be able to reference that you’ve actually heard of. By which I mean: they really sound like the local band that plays at the bar on weekends. But much better. They’re like the Platonic ideal of that band.

I talked about the truly fantastic sonng “Other Days” about two months ago, and have finally gotten a chance to hear the whole album Water Everywhere. I will say that “Other Days” is pretty clearly the standout track from the album. Still, the rest of the album has a lot going for it. I need to spend a little bit more time with it to see how it grows on me. But at the very least this is a rousing good time. At most, it could be one of the better albums of 2006.

Here’s a couple of my favorite songs…

The aforementioned Other Days
Saskatchewan (which gets bonus points for being named after a Canadian province)
Do You Lack Imagination?

A few MP3s are also available at their myspace page. Listen to them, then buy the album.

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