Posted by: Rites of Patches | January 6, 2011

10 Best Albums of 2010 (To Which I Listened)

Before I begin, let me tell you how messed up this list is going to be. It’s going to be wrong. I promise. I started these at the end of 2008. I know music and I thought that would be enough to dazzle the masses with my musical know-how. Unfortunately, I underestimated my objectivity and have allowed for some criminally good albums to slip out of the top ten. Last year, I had Between the Buried and Me’s The Great Misdirect at 13 or 14 when it clearly deserved 4 or 5. Basically, I’m telling you that I screwed this up again.

That said, I still know music, and thus, boldly and confidently, I butcher the 10 Best Albums of 2010 to which I listened.

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Posted by: Rites of Patches | August 17, 2010

Fuck Nebraska (My Trip to Colorado by the Numbers)

Seriously, fuck Nebraska.

I recently drove out to Colorado from Minnesota. It required driving through Southern Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, and the Southeast corner of Wyoming. I left with an appreciation for the rolling hills of Western Iowa. Wyoming was quaint. I’ve lived in the Twin Cities for the last three years, so there’s something amusing about seeing a billboard for a business in your state’s capital city ten miles out of town (Hey! We’re in Minneapolis! Look! There’s a sign for Pete’s Salvage Yard! It’s only five miles away in St. Paul!). Colorado is breathtaking. But fuck Nebraska, because Nebraska sucks.

Louis C.K. has a bit where he explains that until the age of six or seven, nothing a child says matters. It’s great that they are talking, but if you didn’t hear anything they said for the first six years of their life, absolutely nothing in your life would be different. In this sense, Nebraska is the four-year old of the United States. It’s great that it’s a state and all. It really helps balance out our flag. But if Nebraska got nuked tomorrow, nothing about the United States would be different. We would lose nothing but six-hundred miles of flat land, some cows, and some sort of Southern, sort of asshole people.

 

Sad Day...

 

The trip was well worth it, though. Time of my life, thank you for asking. Here’s my trip by the numbers:

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I’d like to tap your Rockies if you know what I mean. If you don’t, I meant that ass of yours.

You take my breath away. Wait… No, it’s just the altitude and not being in shape.

You can scale my mountain? Does that work? Not really? Okay, sorry.

I like to try your bang-quet beer. I agree. Stupidity is a turn-off. How does that apply to me?

I’d like to rock your Y Mountains?

Denver? I hardly knew her!

Posted by: Rites of Patches | July 19, 2010

Bad Puns Part 2


I am somewhat well-known for being a planner. Friends always say, “Hey, Patches, you should be more spontaneous.” I carefully consider their advice before deciding against it. I also spend the next week carefully planning putting my balls on my friends’ faces. Who the hell do they think they are pointing out my weaknesses anyways?

Ummm… Yeah, that’s exactly what I meant

After all that teabagging and mushroom stamping, I suppose it’s really not much of a surprise that I couldn’t find anyone to go with me to the Band of Horses concert at the State Theater. Thankfully, I ran into an old friend there, Mick G. Light.

My Ever Faithful Friend

Mick and I met in college. Good guy.

Mick and I went to find our seats in the balcony. We were very confused for a bit since neither of us could read or match the strange, mystical symbols on our tickets with the ones on our seats. Since we were so clueless, an usher who looked like the guy that sold me my car found my seat for me.

Renaldo will sell the muthafuckin’ shit outta that muthafuckin’ car!

The opening band was Bryan Cates. I have nothing against the guy, but I hate him. Yeah, ponder that statement for a moment. I had a hard time getting over a couple of things with their show. First, Bryan seemed like a pretty good dude, but he wore a tie that looked like a shadow. It was the perfect color so that whenever it moved, I tried to figure out what moved in front of him. Not cool. Also, their lead guitarist wore crocs. I fucking hate that guy. Green ones too.

Not acceptable

Finally, they had a guy that looked like Christopher Titus in a v-neck t-shirt with a maraca and tambourine.

Pretty much this

Now… Call me a metal snob if you will, but it is never, NEVER, necessary to have a guy in your band just to shake two jingly things. (This would be the place where a less mature author would make a joke about sweet boobs.*) If your instruments can be played by an elementary-schooler, you are not needed in a band. There is no song ever written that needs a tambourine so badly that all the band members need to give up 5% of their check. That’s all that having a 5th guy in your band to play the tambourine is: a 20% pay cut. My future metal band, Love Drool (assuming I can get the proper permissions from the creator), will not have a tambourine player. Keyboardist? It’s possible. 2nd percussionist? It’s a stretch, but maybe. Tambourine player? Fuck no.

Band of Horses was awesome.

BONUS: 3 Things You Didn’t Know

1) Band of Horses is the world’s 3rd largest exporter of ironic facial hair.

2) Someone actually owns a #24 Mike Lamb Twins shirt. 80% of TWINS FANS will say “Who the fuck is that? Is that guy’s name Lamb?” The other 20% will say “Why the fuck does that guy have a Mike Lamb shirt? That guy fucking blew.”

3) Black people love Band of Horses. The two Black people I saw at the concert clapped after every song!

*

Really? You thought I was above this?

Posted by: Rites of Patches | July 10, 2010

LeBron James Has an Announcement

Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for tuning into tonight’s ESPN special, LeBron James’ LeBron James Special on LeBron James’ Decision for LeBron James, starring LeBron James.

These past few months have been difficult for me. Making this decision has been the most difficult in my life. I considered many different options and different choices. I consulted my mom and we agreed that the most important thing for me is to have fun. After several agonizing weeks, I have finally made a decision. Which is…

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Posted by: Rites of Patches | April 4, 2010

Happy Easter!

Sorry, everyone… Had to do it. Happy Zombie Jesus Day!

Posted by: Rites of Patches | January 3, 2010

10 Best Albums of 2009

2009 will be remembered for many things, most of them negative. For now at least, 2009 will be remembered as one of those blank years of an unpopular war, another year of economic troubles, and the year that a bunch of people we’ve never met from movies died and everyone cared for some inexplicable reason. Now to be fair, there are plenty of reasons, but I won’t continue to damage my faith in humanity by thinking about it any deeper.

However, I will remember 2009 as the year that rock and metal got back to kicking ass. If you read my review from last year, you know that I thought that 2008’s rock music was sorely lacking. In retrospect, I’m a genius because I was dead on. I messed up on a few albums to be sure – it was damn near criminal to leave Trivium’s Shogun off my list when In This Moment occupied the number two spot. However, 2008 was only a shadow of the twenty must-have albums of 2007.

In 2009, rock and metal got back on track. So, it with great pleasure and an overinflated sense of self that I present to you the 10 Best Rock and Metal Albums of 2009.

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Posted by: Rites of Patches | November 29, 2009

Scenes from the First Thanksgiving

Occasionally, and by occasionally I mean for my job, I think about what history gets wrong. Yes, the same guy who writes about cats with guns, peeing on sports announcers, and sweet, sweet boobs is also in charge of educating your children. Woooooo! America! Speaking of which, let’s reflect on a (sometimes) more accurate First Thanksgiving.

Settler: Wait, what is this?
Indian: It’s a gourd. We use them for decorative purposes.
Settler: Uhhh… Thanks, buddy….
u

Settler: This is how we say “Nice to meet you and we promise not to strip you of your rights and sacred lands, forcing those we do not kill onto reservations and a life of crippling economic disparity.”
Indian: Nice to meet you too.
u

Indian: You know those buckles on your hats look fucking retarded, right?
u

Indian: Here. I give you fish.
Settler: Yeah, guy. Those, um, blankets you wanted are on the way too. (winks at wife)
Indian: Why are you winking?
Settler: Oh, no reason. (WINK, WINK, WINK)
u

Pastor: We thank you, Lord, for our great fortune, finding a new land far away from the oppression of our Mother country. A place where we can finally be free to chose our own life and destiny. A place where we can live our lives without the encroachment of some outside party. And also for placing all these savages at that table over way over there.
u

Pocahontas: So, you know that I’m like twelve, right?

John Smith: HELLS YEAH!

Posted by: Rites of Patches | November 7, 2009

I’m a Hippopotamus and I’ve Got Noodles on My Back

I'm a Hippopotomus and...

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