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For better or worse, I've had a lot of free time on my hands lately. The week after easter saw my return to the dirty south and to a rainy climate which apparently had no need for the mediocre services I provide in exchange for a generally undeserved gratuity. After spending the last month and a half mostly horizontal save for the 3 minutes a day i stood to "cook" a package of ramen, I figured I should find something to do with myself to keep my brain from melting. For awhile, and really, I still do, I thought this whole thing is kind of corny, but unfortunately I've completely run out of ways to occupy my time. So here we are. I guess the way this is going to work is, I'll recount tales of the both distant and recent past to provide a backdrop (see: facade of legitimacy) for illegally shared and more often than not illegally obtained music. I don't anticipate most rambling off as much as this first one, but as previously mentioned, I've got nothing better to do.
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I had some long-winded diatribe about my introduction to the Movielife and pop-punk in general down on paper, but left to go grab some North Carolina pizza from the New York Pizza Pub and enjoy a few red stripes. Upon my return I realized it was utterly pointless, so I'm gonna give this another go.

With the unfortunate passing of the Movielife in the fall of 2003 came the forming of I Am the Avalanche. A few demo tracks surfaced on the internet, and I was immediately sold. The songs seemed a pretty good representation of what the next Movielife record would have been had they not broken up. I first got to see them live at Maxwell's in Hoboken, in March of 05. My boy RJ and I sat outside paper bagging 24's of Coors Light bought for us by a responsible adult. That June, after a 3 week tour of Europe, I Am the Avalanche returned to their native NYC for a headlining gig at the Continental, an east village bar that has since stopped showcasing live music, but still has really cheap drinks. A few friends, fresh off their sophomore year of college, and myself thought it a good opportunity to see some other friends that lived in the city, and go see the band we'd all become fans of. Arriving a few hours early for the show, we killed time by going to Corner Bistro in the village, sellers of my favorite burger, a delicious 8 oz monster. $3 McSorley's pints are also a big selling point for me. After eating to the point of regurgitation and throwing a couple back, we started the 5-block walk down 13th st towards the club. Along the way I suppose we deemed it necessary to pick up a pint of Johnny Walker Red, and kill it as we walked, again cloaked by a brown paper bag. Something about this band makes we want to drink like a homeless man. I don't think my comrades were as eager to down the low-grade scotch, but at the time it was my drink of choice, so I was more than happy to do work. The bottle was finished just in time to walk in the door without a problem from the bouncer, and alcohol coursed through my veins and into my brain, confused by the din of a crowded bar full of noisy teenagers. Though I know there were other people with us, the only two that came inside were Lorenzo and Mark, and I'm not quite sure why. We arrived just as the band stepped on stage to a smattering of applause from the slowly dwindling crowd, apparently there to see whomever had played prior. With the booze doing its job I resigned myself to a dark corner near the side of the stage so I could drunkly sway in anonymity. The band played well, and I eventually left the shadows to join my boys in a sing-along. I don't really remember much after that, but I think I can say I left feeling good that night.

Here are three tracks from an acoustic recording they did for Purevolume. The first two are tracks from their upcoming album ("Brooklyn Dodgers" is great; "Mrs. Green" is a song they've been playing out for awhile) and the last, "Green Eyes", is off their self-titled, a song that lends itself well to an acoustic interpretation. Enjoy

I Am the Avalanche - Purevolume Acoustic Sessions (.rar of audio track rip)

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