EDIT: Tonight's show is SOLD OUT!

God it's going to be fun.

Labels: Awesomeness, Awesometown, The Hold Steady, The Hold Steady Almost Killed Me, The Slowdown, Work Tomorrow Is Gonna Suck

It was good to know you. Your witty commentary and delicious Dorothy Lynch concauctions will be missed.

Labels: Awesomeness, Dick Tricks, Dorothy Lynch, The Tunnel Walk

I just thought I would point out how awesome/frustrating the mid-season race for the american league central has been. I am pretty sure that the twins and sox have been duking it out within 2 games of each other since before the allstar break. Neither team has put together a terribly long string of wins or losses, and any consecutive outcomes have almost always been matched by the other team. There have been tons of extra-inning games, lots of one run wins and a nice spread of blow-outs mixed in as well. It might be easy to say that neither team "wants it" enough, but I honestly don't think that is the case with this one. Both teams are playing some damn scrappy baseball. I just wish the sox were playing better against contending teams.

Hey Pete, here's to scoreboard watching everyday. And may the scrappiest team win.

Labels: Awesomeness, Chicago White Sox, mid-season races, Minnesota Twins

I've read stuff on the internet about there being a prologue coming out in anticipation of The Dark Knight, and I think this might be it. Pretty badass. This movie is going to be incredible.

Happy 4th of July.

*WOW. Apparently I was the last person to watch that, because when I tried making sure the link was right on this post, it says the clip has been taken down at the request of Warner Bros. Crazy.

Well, you missed out, because it was sweet. Nothing like starting a movie with an awesome bank robbing scene.

Labels: Awesomeness, The Dark Knight

Quick discussion point: has there EVER been a more fun blowout to watch than the pounding the Celtics put on the Lakers last night? That game was an absolute blast to watch the entire way through. It felt like a college game! And the Gatorade bath for Doc Rivers???? Fantastic. Weird, but fantastic. The way that the Celtics bench/sideline was about to burst at the seams the last 3 minutes of the game or so?

That was an incredible way to end the NBA Finals. A team that completely let down their guard at the end and looked like a bunch of kids winning the State Title. A crowd that didn't sit down for, seemingly, the last two quarters. Genuine celebration. KG being crazy-ass KG.

Just awesome. Congrats, NBA. You just had the biggest feel-good ending to a season since....well, I don't even know.

And yes, I know that Boston fans are insufferable, and the last thing that town needed was another championship. However, that crowd had to have been one of the best professional championship crowds in the past 10-15 years--especially when you compare them to the ridiculous "crowd" in LA.

So, what did you think of the game last night?

(Note: When I say "has there ever been a more fun blowout than last night," I am talking about blowouts in games that feature teams that you don't care about. Obviously, Nebraska blowing out Florida or Tennessee in their National Championship games is more fun personally.)

Labels: Awesomeness, Blowouts, Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, NBA, NBA Finals

1. The Crescent Moon has Grain Belt Premium.

2. They also have the "Premie Bomb," which consists of a Premie, a shot of orange juice in said Premie, and you drop a shot of orange-flavored vodka in it. Chug. Repeat.

I--I don't even know what to say about this (other than it tasting like an Orange Julius, which is incredible in every sense imaginable). Discuss.

Labels: Awesomeness, Awesometown, Grain Belt Premium, Premie Bombs

This site. Just go there and look around. You'll be exceedingly happy you did.

Labels: Awesomeness, Awesometown

To celebrate the Huskers coming to Omaha and taking on the Oregon Ducks at the Qwest Center (it's about time a proper school hosted a game there. Anyways....), I thought I would post this picture. I saw it on a message board. It had me pining for typing class; pounding out sentences as fast as humanly possible so I could play Oregon Trail or Jeopardy.

Anyways, I'll never understand the internet's obsession with ninjas and nostalgia...and I don't want to. I'm just happy it's all there.

Labels: Awesomeness, Nebraska basketball, Oregon Trail

So I finally hooked up my XM radio (Thanks GA!). And turns out channel 54 (90's Alternative) might be the greatest radio station ever invented. The bands that have played in the last hour are Blues Traveler, Soundgarden, Portishead, Sonic Youth, Juliana Hatfield, Fuel, the Butthole Surfers, and Hum. I couldn't be happier spending my $122.95 a year on this shit. At any point you can turn this thing on an be transported to a time when mainstream music was decent and MTV still showed videos. Not to mention National Lampoon radio which has some of the best comics' standups on at any given point. Last night I listened to a Chris Rock standup that I had never heard before. Overall I give XM an enthusiastic three thumbs up, and once this merger with Sirius goes through and I can listen to any sport at any time, I might just give up on all other forms of media.

Labels: Awesomeness, Birch Needs To Move Back, Good Music, High School was awesome wasn't it, Sirius, XM

The excitement continues, Husker fan! Speculation is running rampant: who will be the assistants?

OK, maybe it's not that exciting, but it is certainly crucial with not only a new head coach at Nebraska, but a new head coach that has never been a (full-time) head coach.

According to the Lincoln Journal-Star, here are some likely names we'll see:

-Ron Brown will be on the staff again
-Marvin Sanders will be on the staff again
-Carl Pelini--Bo's brother--will be on the staff. And if there's not a finer Midwestern name than "Carl Pelini," let me know. The only way it could be better would be if his name was "Carl Pavelka."
-Barney Cotton is a "leading candidate."
-Shawn Watson will "likely" be retained.

It would be assumed that there is a guy or two brought along from LSU, and there are also rumors about Scott Frost being brought on board.

Also, in this story, Trev Alberts says "We’re going to have one of the best coaching staffs in the country." I like the confidence, Trev. Hope you're right.

What does everybody else think? Too much of a "blast from the past?" Or exactly what we need?

I think this staff sounds pretty good. I really hope Shawn Watson stays on, for several reasons. He is apparently a very good recruiter, a nationally-respected coordinator, and is the one assistant that most of the current players say they hope to see back. Not to mention the transition on offense, well, it wouldn't be a transition. It would basically be like having our offense from the last 4 games coupled with a defense with Bo Pelini running the show.

I could not be more excited about this.

Labels: Awesomeness, Barney Cotton, Kickin' Ass, Marvin Sanders, Nebraska Football, Nebraska Head Coach Bo Pelini, Shwan Watson, Trev Alberts

Just as a quick note to all of the people coming over from different message boards. If you just want to skip down to the good stuff, scroll down to the two posts directly below this one.

First of all, Heavy Soul is a blog written by a bunch of native Nebraskans, living in and out of state, discussing sports, music, pop culture, politics, etc. It's usually all for entertainment.

However, in the case of the coaching search, we do indeed have legit sources, and have been posted about it. We're excited to see so many people check out Heavy Soul--feel free to check out the archives and see just how many man hours that have been wasted by the several contributers to this site for (usually) each other's entertainment (and sometimes the readers of Deadspin and other sports sites, as well). We've been doing it since January 2005, so you've got some reading to do.

Thanks again for stopping by, and keep checking back--we'll update the second we get anything new to pass along.

--Heavy Soul

Labels: Awesomeness, Bo Pelini, Nebraska Football, Nebraska Football Coaching Search, Tom Osborne

This is completely insane, friends: we are apparently considered the 59th most influential sports blog on the internet. I kid you not. This is according to Juiced Sports Blog.

Here's the criteria from the page:

"Juiced Sports has decided to profile and rank the big names in sports blogging. Who gets the most hits? Who gets the most attention? Whose opinion matters most? We rank the top 100."

Number 1 is Deadspin. Number 59 is Heavy Soul. We are awesome.

Labels: Awesomeness, Influence, Money, Power, Sports Blogs

The Italian Runza is back for a limited time! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Labels: Awesomeness, Nebraska, Runza

Taken from a recent update on The Hold Steady's website:

"Don't know the air date yet. Look for Mr. [lead singer Craig] Finn as the guest on Kent Hrbek's fishing show."

That's right. The lead singer of The Hold Steady is a guest on an upcoming episode of Kent Hrbek Outdoors, which Kent takes him out fishing.

How are these guys indie critical darlings based out of Brooklyn, again?

I love this band.

A couple of other notes:

1. Download the free podcast from KEXP (in NYC), which is 20 minutes long and features some live THS tunes. Good stuff.

2. Some disappointing news: despite the pleading of the Omaha music community--mainly, GA Hill e-mailing the generic THS e-mail address--they are not going to come to town again this tour. HOWEVER, they are playing in Lawrence November 13th. Of course, this is a school night, but it might be worth it. Let it be known in the comments if you are interested.

Good news for the Chi-City Heavy Soulers--THS is playing the Metro October 30th and 31st. You lucky bastards. npgage, you better not miss both of these shows. You'll love 'em.

Labels: Awesomeness, MP3's, The Hold Steady

Here is a challenge for you all: I DEFY you to find anything cooler on television than VH1 Classic running re-runs of 120 Minutes. This may be something that has been going on for a while, so I apologize if I need to go get me a late pass on this subject.

That said, how great is this? I mean, they're even playing it in the original time slot--Sundays 11:00-1:00! Classic, "alternative rock" videos! I used to set the ol' timer on the VHS machine so I could watch 120 Minutes, because my parents wouldn't let me stay up that late. I remember classic stuff like R.E.M. (before they blew up), The Jesus & Mary Chain, Dinosaur Jr, The Pixies, etc.

In fact--and this is kind of weird, considering how not-"alternative" they were, but the first place I heard "Mr. Jones" by the Counting Crows was on 120 Minutes. That said, in retrospect, it wasn't that weird: "Mr. Jones" was totally unlike all the grunge/angst pop of the "alternative" scene, or any other scene, for that matter. "Mr. Jones" was some folk-rock, Van Morrison-esque tribute to Bob Dylan, gray guitars, and yellow-haired girls...and somehow (basically) debuted on 120.

But that was the beauty of it: Did "Mr. Jones" blend in well after "Head Like A Hole" by Nine Inch Nails? Of course not! Did "Mr. Jones" blend in well after the newest Michael Jackson video? No. It really had no place for popular- nor counter-culture at the time. Which is why it made perfect sense that it ended up on 120 Minutes. 120 Minutes was--I think quite literally--the last show on TV (outside your Austin City Limits and Live From Abbey Roads) that would showcase great music, regardless of how "alternative" or not it was. The producers of that show knew a great tune when they heard it, and--for all its' cheesy qualities--recognized that "Mr. Jones" was a fantastic song, and knew that no one else on MTV was going to play it.

They took a chance on it, and the rest--as they say--is history.

(Also funny fact: if I recall correctly, the night I saw "Mr. Jones" I just happened to get away with staying up late on a school night. Napa also ran into the same situation, and we both came to school on Monday talking about some kick ass song we saw on 120 Minutes sung by some white dude with dreads. The lesson: great minds think alike.)

EDIT: The Jam's "In The City" is on right now. Just in case you somehow forgot how much this show kicked ass from the time you got done reading the above post.

EDIT II: So I searched for a 120 Minute logo to throw up on this post, but rather found this website. It has an archive of who hosted 120 Minutes going back to the beginning of the show. First of all, I had no damned idea it aired until 2003. This is shocking. But more importantly, look at this list of hosts from when I religously watched this program--I think it pretty much sums up how important this show was, and reminds me where I first started listening to some of my favorite bands, plus a fun stroll down memory lane:

-The Edge and Adam Clayton of U2
-Screaming Trees
-Hank Rollins
-Peter Gabriel (?)
-Sonic Youth
-The Sundays
-Depeche Mode
-Bob Mould
-Urge Overkill
-Juliana Hatfield
-Buffalo Tom
-Luscious Jackson
-George Clinton (?????)
-Pavement / Possum Dixon (Side story: Possum Dixon played at a bar in Sidney, Nebraska in 2000. A very small bar. I shit you not. Saw the sign myself. They had one classic AWESOME song back in the day, but I cannot remember it. You'll have to take my word for it.)
-BEASTIE BOYS
-Cracker
-MC 900 Ft. Jesus
-Billy Corgan
-Michael Stipe
-Matthew Sweet
-Jeff Buckley
-Spearhead
-Blind Melon
-Trent Reznor and David Bowie
-Oasis
-Radiohead
-The Refreshments
-Cracker
-311

This is just 1993-1996. Unbelievable. This show was awesome.

LAST EDIT: The Possum Dixon song was "Watch The Girl Destroy Me." I was a little nervous when I found the video on VH1.com, but was excited to hear it was exactly what I remembered it to be: perfect '90's college rock/power pop. Classic. This is my favorite post in months.

Labels: 120 Minutes, Awesomeness, Counting Crows, MTV, The Jam, VH1 Classic

I would like to think sometime after The Hold Steady played their (in these parts) legendary Omaha show at the Sokol Underground.

I found this interview actually looking for some live sets from Bonnaroo from this weekend--the "superjam" they have every year consisted of ?uestlove, Ben Harper, and John Paul Jones, which is as cool as it fucking gets for me--and found this Hold Steady interview. Read the questions and answers, and then ask yourself...is he talking about us? Or, more specifically, MIB?

H. A BRIEF INTERLUDE ABOUT THE CROWDS AT HOLD STEADY SHOWS

CRAIG: Dudes will be misbehaving and their girlfriends won’t even be there. That’s the Hold Steady crowd—tons of drunk dudes and then the girls that are there are totally pissed. I think it’s getting better. Like more chicks.

HAPPIER CHICKS?

CRAIG: Yeah. The smaller shows, there’s always some dude totally into it. He’s pumping his fists, and he’s pretty drunk and then his chick is just like pissed that they’re there. I think they come to the show kinda drunk and then they get drunker. A lot of dudes are doing shots with their buddies.

WHAT’S THE HARD LIQUOR OF CHOICE?

CRAIG: In the dressing room, it’s Jim Beam, but I think dudes are into tequila. A Hold Steady show is a show where you take the next day off of work. No one’s even fooling themselves. Which is a good feeling. Clubs have always told us that our liquor sales are really good for the amount of people that are there.

WHY?

CRAIG: I think the music supports partying in a positive way. Most people can feel good and forget their problems. There’s definitely a culture. I think the band drinks a lot. There’s a lot of drinking on stage. I drink Bud or Coronas. The big thing I have learned is the way it works best is to not drink until about ten minutes before we go on, and then to drink as much as possible while we’re on stage. I have to sing a lot, so there is physically not much time to drink. But I can drink a six-pack onstage. A lot of it spills. A lot of it is for show.

Labels: Awesomeness, Interviews, Sokol Underground, The Hold Steady

Remind anyone of elementary school photos? Anyways, nothing to really say here. The picture says it all.

Labels: Awesomeness, Funny, Will Ferrell

Ok, we tried to do it last year on the morning after GA's bachelor party: STUPID. This year it needs its own weekend. We need to get this off the ground as there aren't any bouncers or casinos to stop us this time. I want imput from everybody as to what events should be included, when it should be, and where it should be. One suggestion I have is that we do this Western Nebraska style: play mini-golf in Grand Island, regular golf in Gothenburg, regular golf in McCook, and finish with mini-golf at Cody Go Carts. Or we could still bring in the videogame versions or even add ladder golf. So let's hear some ideas because this was too good of an idea to just let it fade away.

Labels: Alcohol Problems, Awesomeness, Golf, Heavy Soul Open

So, just got the June Esquire in the mail, which included their annual "Best Bars In America" feature. There are some good bars that I (and I am sure that many contributors and readers of the blog) have been to, but here's the highlight:

The Homy Inn, Omaha

YOU'RE HAVING: The Asti. The vintage tap handles, the I LIKE IKE! buttons, and the rare baseball cards that adorn the intimate Homy Inn are just quaint foreplay for this fifty-year-old bar's main attraction: bubbly on tap. Available by the flute or the pitcher. (1510 North Saddle Creek Road; 402-554-5815)

This is pretty awesome. And, because I am a huge nerd, I would like to think I had something to do with it. Last year's feature did not include a single bar from Nebraska, which is completely ridiculous. So there was a section on their website for nominations for next year, and I nominated all the great Heavy Soul bars including this one: Barrett's, The Holiday, Goofy Foot, etc. But it is probably appropriate that The Homy is the one that was selected, as it is easily the most unique.

So in tribute to this notoriety, I think we should celebrate. By going there. Like, right now. Call me. Please?

EDIT: In this picture I found, I swear to God that is my car on the far left. Probably is.

Labels: Awesomeness, Barrett's Barelycorn, Bars, Esquire, Omaha, The Holiday, The Homy Inn

How does everyone feel about some Cubs vs. Cardinals action at Barretts tonight? The game is at 7 pm. Cub losing, drinking, and general hilarity to ensue.

How was the Bright Eyes show Pete, Hales, and MIB? Sucky, I am sure.

Labels: Alcohol Problems, Awesomeness, Barrett's Barelycorn, Bright Eyes, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals