Recorded Live

First, Blogger being down has been a real bummer. And my post from yesterday seems to be gone forever. Not that it was anything earth shattering. Luckily it was just a simple post about taking a day off of work. Still, I’m annoyed that it’s gone.

I had a show at The Palace Stage at Wild Tymes in downtown St. Paul Wednesday night. It’s always an interesting place to play. The sound there is really good – at least I think so. But it’s also a sports bar, so there are TVs everywhere playing sports. I get kind of distracted by them when I play. What is it about a turned on television that just forces your eyes onto it? I noticed that again, last night, at the Town Hall Brewery which had Basketball on and I don’t even like Basketball but my eyes kept inadvertently looking up at it.

Okay….what was I talking about again? Oh, yes!

I played music on stage again. So fun. Shawn played drums/electric guitar. People were there. And my lovely sister took some video of a couple of new songs!

“Here”


“Adore”


Setlist for The Palace Stage at Wild Tymes 5/11/11
-Cohabitate
-The Paul Simon Song
-Good to Know
-The Party
-Can’t Even Tell
-Back at the Start – It’s You
-Thursday (brand new uke made it’s stage debut! It sounded so pretty!)
-Good
-Here
-Adore

UPDATE: Yesterday's post is back! Now you can read the riveting details of my day off!

Vacation Day

O my goodness, I needed a day at home. Alone. With nothing to do. I'm currently experiencing that. It's very very nice.

I think mental health days are so very important to people. Vacations are great, but they can be stressful. Sick days suck because you are either too sick to enjoy them or you feel bad for calling in. Holidays off are always so busy and everyone has them off and it's difficult to do anything. Mental health days = perfect.

I am sitting here at the computer singing along to Fiona Apple's "Never Is A Promise" at the top of my lungs. I haven't listened to this song in ages. It's really fun to sing to. You should try it.

Murray is sleeping in the other room. I wonder what he thinks of my belting out.

30 Days of Music. Day 6: A Song That Reminds You Of Somewhere

One of my favorite moments while visiting London was sitting at the Roundhouse Pub in Covent Garden. We had just spent the day walking from our hotel in Trafalagar Square to Abbey Road and back. We decided to go get a pint somewhere to relax before getting ready to head out for the night.

The whole day was perfect. The weather was phenomenal. I saw so much that day. I loved every single second of it. By far, one of the Top 5 days of my LIFE. No joke.

Me in total happiness at the Roundhouse Pub.

But my favorite moment of the entire awesome day, happened at this pub. We just wandered in, ordered two pints and just sort of soaked in all that we had experienced that day. Then, to add to the perfection, through the speakers starts the opening chords of “Don’t Look Back in Anger” by Oasis. I love Oasis. I’ve mentioned this before. And I love this song. I’ve even posted this song before. But now this song will always remind me of this moment and I love that.

I just sat there, staring out the window at the streets of London, so incredibly happy to finally be there, sitting in a pub, and listening to Oasis.

30 Days of Music. Day 5: A Song That Reminds You Of Someone

This one was pretty easy.

It was my husband’s 24^th birthday. We were at the Terminal Bar in Minneapolis to see some of our friends’ bands. One band - Expandable Hole Filler, who we did not know but had seen previously, did this great cover of Nick Cave’s “The Ship Song”. So Matt requested that they play it that night, being that it was his birthday. So, they did. And we danced to it. At the Terminal Bar. Picture proof here:

Since then, it has sort of become Our Song. Because of this, I can’t hear it without thinking of Matt.

Hey! Look Over There! ----->

I've uploaded some of my songs to this site. Now you can listen while you read, if you so desire.

Kind of wondering what I need my actual website for at this point.

www.nikibecker.com

30 Days of Music. Day 4: A Song That Makes You Sad

This was a hard one. I have, literally, thousands of songs in my music collection that make me sad. Why I choose to surround myself with such depression inducing material, I’ll never understand.

But on the beautiful Saturday that I had (and was the topic of the post before this one) I was hanging out in my living room and “Evaporated” by Ben Folds Five came on. I was having a really good day and was in such a fantastic mood and as soon as this song started, I felt my whole being shift and suddenly my shoulders slumped and I found myself staring wistfully at the floor and I thought: This is a song that makes me sad.

It’s a beautiful song, even though it puts me into a state of depression.



All I could find on YouTube was this live version with a full orchestra.

Simple Super Saturday

Yesterday was a good day. One of those days that just sort of happen and are and you have a chance to really just soak it all in and love it.

I did nothing yesterday. Well, I did things, but there was nothing I had to do. It has been a very long time since I had a day like that. I didn't even have to shower yesterday, so I didn't. Maybe that's gross to you, but every day for the past 6 weeks, I've had to get up in the morning, get in the shower and go somewhere and it made every day feel like work. Yesterday, I just got up. I got coffee. I had some good internet time while sipping coffee. I had nowhere to be. It was wonderful. It's good to have days like that every now and then.But, like I said, I did do somethings. Like:

1. I bought a new ukulele!

It's electric and it sounds so pretty and I can't wait to take it to the stage. Maybe I'll let it make it's debut at my show on Wednesday.

2. I sat outside for a really long time.

I never spend much time outside, even though I'm incredibly lucky to have a beautiful backyard. I always get annoyed by the neighborhood kids. But, yesterday, the neighborhood was mostly silent and I got to just sit and soak it all in. It was awesome.

Matt and Murray also kicked around the soccer ball. It's so awesome to see Murray still chasing that thing.

We bought these outdoor lights last October for my CD release party. Immediately after the party, the weather just changed and we never got to enjoy them...

...until last night. It just pulls the whole patio together.

We sat and drank beer, listened to music, and watched the bats fly over head. It was so very very nice.