Falls of Rauros live in Seattle
As I guess most people know, I live in the Seattle area. It’s a great place to live in almost all ways, except as a place from which to conduct the operations of this putrid little blog — a downside about which I was vividly reminded over the last 12 hours.
It’s a time zone problem. When the normal work day begins out here in the Pacific time zone, it’s already lunchtime on the East Coast, mid-afternoon in South America, the end of the work day in the UK, evening in Western Europe, and the dead of night in India — just to mention a few of the places inhabited by bands and labels whose releases we tend to write about most often. And don’t get me started on Australia and New Zealand (which are further west, but on the other side of the completely bamboozling international date line).
This creates all sorts of complications, especially when we have agreed to post premieres for bands or labels who are on the other side of the world.
Wayfarer live in Seattle
Even without this blog to worry about, I would be an early riser, but maybe not quite as much of an early bird as NCS has led me to become. I try to get our first post up on the site by 5:30 a.m. here on the Left Coast and then continue posting things until about mid-day. You can do the math — I’m 3 hours behind the U.S. East Coast, 4-5 hours behind much of South America, 8 hours behind the UK, and 9 hours behind much of the European continent, and since less than half of our site’s visitors live in the U.S., those differences matter.
As often as I can, I try to get the day’s first post done the night before and schedule it to appear automatically around 5:30 a.m. Pacific time. Because even though I’m usually awake by then, I’m not exactly firing on all cylinders yet.
This doesn’t always work out very well, and when I have to get the first post of the day finished after I wake up (either editing what another writer has sent me or writing something myself), we get a slow start. It also doesn’t work out very well when I go to a show the night before, like I did last night.
A God or an Other live in Seattle
The show was fantastic. I saw Seattle’s A God or an Other, Denver’s Wayfarer, and Maine’s Falls of Rauros. They all absolutely killed it. Only problem was that the show was at a venue (the wonderful Highline Bar) that starts late and goes really late, and that put me on a 1:35 a.m. ferry home (yes, I actually do live on an island), which in turn meant that I didn’t get to sleep until nearly 3 a.m. — in part because I was still finishing up a premiere for today that I had agreed to post at 1:00 p.m. in France today — which was 4:00 a.m. here.
Anyway, long story short, after about 4 hours of sleep, I was up again, but my ass has really been dragging and I’ve had to deal with my paying job, too. And that’s one reason why you’re reading this piece of whiny filler instead of what I actually intended to do — which was to make a round-up of new music. I do have all the selections made, but now it’s already noon out here on the Left Coast, and I’m calling it a day.
Hope you have a great Friday night — which many of you are already experiencing and almost all of you will experience before I do. Assuming I’m still able to keep my eyes open. I’ll get that round-up ready for posting tomorrow. It will be a good one.
https://fallsofrauros.bandcamp.com
22 Responses to “BLOGGING FROM THE LEFT COAST”
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I suppose this as good a time as any to thank you for your hard work. I didn’t become a regular visitor until late last year, but I now look forward to new NCS posts every day. Your efforts are much appreciated!!
Thank you very much for your thanks. The encouragement actually does matter.
Ive been here forever, so, unlike the previous poster, Im just going to continue to take you for granted 🙂
HA! I would expect no less from the guy whose nuclear middle finger has been gracing our pages for… forever….
Damn your commitment is something. Who knew NCS was run like a military operation?
And have a good Friday night? It’s already Saturday morning here, I beat you all to it 😉 But seriously, these time zones can do your head in. Music-wise a big downside of being down under is that I have to remember to add an extra day for when a release is due out – “it’s the 8th, why hasn’t it dropped yet? Oh yeah, because fucking time zones”
This is the kind of military operation that reminded me of this piece of 2012 comedy gold from John Cleese (and yeah, I still get confused about the effect of the international dateline — is it 2017 Down Under yet?)
The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent events in Syria and have therefore raised their security level from “Miffed” to “Peeved.” Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to “Irritated” or even “A Bit Cross.” The English have not been “A Bit Cross” since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from “Tiresome” to “A Bloody Nuisance.” The last time the British issued a “Bloody Nuisance” warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.
The Scots have raised their threat level from “Pissed Off” to “Let’s get the Bastards.” They don’t have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.
The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from “Run” to “Hide.” The only two higher levels in France are “Collaborate” and “Surrender.” The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France ‘s white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country’s military capability.
Italy has increased the alert level from “Shout Loudly and Excitedly” to “Elaborate Military Posturing.” Two more levels remain: “Ineffective Combat Operations” and “Change Sides.”
The Germans have increased their alert state from “Disdainful Arrogance” to “Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs.” They also have two higher levels: “Invade a Neighbour” and “Lose.”
Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual; the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels .
The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.
Australia, meanwhile, has raised its security level from “No worries” to “She’ll be alright, Mate.” Two more escalation levels remain: “Crikey! I think we’ll need to cancel the barbie this weekend!” and “The barbie is cancelled.” So far no situation has ever warranted use of the last final escalation level.
A final thought – ” Greece is collapsing, the Iranians are getting aggressive, and Rome is in disarray. Welcome back to 430 BC”.
Ha haa.. I remember that skit! It’s also fitting that NZ gets left out of that joke – our airforce capabilities consist of two hercules aircraft, well usually one while the others being fixed, and the funniest thing is I’m not even joking. At best, we could squash a few of the enemy with food drops. Our threat levels are “bluff” and “bluff harder” 😉
I appreciate the effort mate,cheers.
\m/
I’ve said it before, but I consistently keep finding new music that fuels me through my life thanks to you and the others that post it up here. THANK YOU!
And if for some reason I can’t find anything new, I can always go back through old posts, and I have definitely found old shit that scratches my metal itch.
Keep it up fellas.
Also fuck yeah the highline rules!
Thank you!
I could be wrong, but I read this as just one long humblebrag that you got to see Falls of Rauros and Wayfarer 😉
You’re a hard man to fool.
Speaking of humblebrag: I had never really noticed or fully comprehended the magnitude of the time difference until I got here to Oslo. I’ve just adjusted to start looking for stuff in the afternoon and night, and look for the last of yesterday’s stuff the next morning.
Man, didn’t know you were heading to Oslo. Hope it’s a great trip.
Thank you for your hard work. Cheers!
Many thanks.
It’s been awesome so far, and I’m sure the next month here will be just as good. Though I gotta say, stuff is bloody expensive here.
Whoops, meant to respond further up. Oh well.
I’m in awe of your dedication–it shows in the consistent quality of the work you & the other contributors produce on this site. The music you turn me onto makes my life better. Cheers. Get some sleep.
I wasn’t fishing for compliments and encouragement but I’ll take them — thank you very much!