As you are all WELL AWARE, I got a pair of them freaky five-fingered deals a few months back. I really like them, but I also understand and respect the amount of damage you can do trying to transition too quickly from supple padding and support to what is essentially a thick coat of paint on the bottom of your foot. I love the Vibrams and I hope to someday run in them exclusively. As it stands, I still consider myself “in transition” to minimalist running. And I am okay with that.

I first read about the Merrell Barefoot Bare Access (MBBA) shoes at Birthday Shoes. I was looking for the next logical step in my minimalist evolution, something between the Nikes and the toe shoes, and the MBBAs seemed to fit the bill perfectly. Zero toe drop, but an 8mm thick sole. So, on Tuesday afternoon, I ordered them from Zappos.

Zappos being Zappos, the shoes were in my hands fewer than 24 hours later. I walked around in them Wednesday evening for a bit, and they felt great.

THURSDAY MORNING. I dropped Marty off at school (iOS corrects ‘Matty’ to ‘Marty’ so Marty it is) and hit the hills of Smyrna for a jaunty prance in the shiny new kicks. I ran 4 miles and … honestly … felt fucking awesome pretty much the entire time [/FORESHADOWING].

There are currently 4 customer reviews on the Zappos page for the MBBA. Two of the four reviews mention an issue where the sole separates from the upper after minimal use. I noted this when I was shopping for the shoes but wrote it off and attributed it to poor suckers receiving manufacturer’s defects. [/FORESHADOWING]

Oh, Jesus Christ, here are the pictures (after a single 4 mile run).

Right Shoe (instep):

Left Shoe (instep):

Additionally, and this is going to seem like I’m piling on Merrell here, look at the sole by the toes. Again, this is after one run.

Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize I was ordering racing tires for my Veyron that need to be replaced every 30 minutes.

This would be an open and shut case if the shoes didn’t fit or didn’t feel right whilst pounding le pavement. I would be like, “Remember that time I got that shitty pair of shoes from Merrell that felt terrible and fell apart after one run so I sent them back and never thought about them again? That was weird.” Alas, they felt GREAT on the one short run I enjoyed in them. My calves are burning today, likely a result of the zero toe drop, but it’s the good kind of burn that makes you want to get your ass back out there.

I called and emailed Zappos yesterday. Their Customer Service department was temporarily closed because they were “taking part in teambuilding and celebrating our culture.” It’s pretty awesome when a company can respond, “Can’t listen to you whine right now, getting drunk, kthxbai.” I’m being serious. Zappos is awesome.

Desired result: Merrell fixes their manufacturing process to eliminate these issues; sends me new shoes for free.
Likely result: New Balance Minimus

UPDATE: Zappos responded to my email letting me know that a replacement pair of MBBA are already in the mail, which is awesome, but I still give the “Likely Result” above about a 75% chance of becoming reality.

I stopped doing these new release posts because I realized, at no point in this brief project, did I actually enjoy it. Finding the music was a chore, writing the posts was a chore, and, most importantly, I really didn’t go back to any of the music for any regular listening.

So … different project …

IN CONCLUSION, we are finished. For now.

When I say we are finished, I mean we are finished “training” Mattias because now one of us puts him in his bed, kisses him on the forehead, tells him we love him, and walks out of the room. And Matty stays in his bed and goes to sleep. And he stays asleep for right around 11 hours (8PM – 7AM).

The whole process took just under two weeks from when we started. One night, while we had friends over for dinner, I put Matty through his bath, books, bed routine, fully expecting his usual door / floor aria upon my departure.

The thing is, by that point, I was beginning to think his reaction to bedtime had become a routine for him just like anything else would become routine. Parenting books tell you all kids love routines, and I agree with that insomuch as kids love routines because it gives them structure and helps them cope with all the chaos they encounter. Mattias, however, looooooooooooves routines, and I say that based solely on his reaction to changes in his routines, which can be summarized in three words: oh hell no. So, I had begin to suspect that he had fallen victim to the sultry tentacles of another basketful of predictable outcome. Put another way, it started to seem like he ran to the door and collapsed in a puddle of moaning because that was the routine, not because he was upset about putting himself to sleep and staying in his room all night. God, do I have to spell everything out for you?

Which is why it was with wonder and amazement that I got all the way downstairs that night (from two paragraphs ago) and didn’t hear Axl Rose being gently inserted into a wood chipper.

And that was that. Ever since that night, he has gone through his routine and then dutifully stayed in bed and slept all night long. Are we so naive as to think that we are finished dealing with night time issues forever? Well, yes, we are that naive. Why wouldn’t something that works so well go on indefinitely?

No, we know this is a phase just like everything is a phase, but because this phase is an awesome one, we chose to live in phase denial. So quit harshing our phase.

My affinity for the late, great Botch is no secret. I am on record that this is the funniest video in the world. Botch broke up in 2002. Singer Dave Verellen did an alt-country thing called Roy with his brother Ben (of Harkonen) for a while, which was great despite not being what anyone would have ever expected from either of the Verellen Brothers.

Narrows came together in 2008 with Dave Verellen and members of These Arms Are Snakes, Unbroken, and Some Girls. I heard their first record, New Distances, a little over a year ago and I remember thinking, “Yep, that sounds like the guy from Botch singing for a different band. Pass the beer nuts.” This time around, when I heard Narrows had a new album coming out, I clicked on the link to the streaming single and the experience was much different. When Verellen’s vocals came in, I experienced a comfortable familiarity I wasn’t expecting. I guess what I wasn’t expecting was to be comforted by something this abrasive, but here we are. This isn’t for everyone, but I like it. Here are the two songs from Painted widely available for free streaming:

I hadn’t heard of this next band until today. Atlanta photography celebrity, Blake Tyers, mentioned Stonerider to me with a link to their bandcamp page in an IM about I don’t remember what. Stonerider is also from here in Atlanta and their sound is something I haven’t heard from around here since Chris and Rich Robinson were all pretty little thing let me light your candle, whenever that was, 71 years ago. Stonerider’s album Fountains Left To Wake sounds decidedly Southern but with a little 1970s Rolling Stones mixed in. Note: Musical comparisons are dumb and I am bad at them. You are better off listening for yourself.

The first tune on the record, “When I Was Young,” was the catchiest to me after one listen, so here it is:

Another notable release this week is from the other band from Nebraska: Cursive. I mean, Cursive and 311 are the only bands that have ever come from Nebraska, right? I’m pretty sure I got that question right at trivia once. Oh wait, isn’t Connor Oberst from Nebraska? So, anyway, a third of the bands in Nebraska released a record this week, and that record is called I Am Gemini.

I haven’t listened to Cursive since The Ugly Organ. I’m streaming I Am Gemini for the first time at Rolling Stone as I type this and I am consistently vacillating between “Wow, that is really pretentious and dumb,” and “Actually, that is pretty solid.” This track, “Warmer Warmer”, falls under the latter:

And just for posterity, here is “Red Handed Slight of Hand”, in case you need a reminder of how good Cursive can be.

I remember the first time I heard Op Ivy. My high school marching band was traveling to Dallas to march in the 1991 Cotton Bowl parade. I asked my friend Bill to make me a tape for the trip. Really I just wanted a copy of the Pixies’ Doolitle, but that left a lot of extra space on my 90-minute, TDK cassette, so Bill filled it up with some extras, including Op Ivy’s Hectic EP.

I distinctly remember flipping the cassette over to side B and hearing “Junkies Runnin’ Dry” for the first time. It was one of those moments where the world got a lot bigger and a lot smaller at the same time. Follow that up with “Here We Go Again” and “Yellin’ In My Ear” and I was pretty much toast.

Junkies Runnin’ Dry:

Sound System:

There were a lot of things about Op Ivy’s sound that can easily be described as iconic, and, even though Michaels’ voice by itself didn’t really break any new ground, hearing his voice on new material is an INSTANT audio field trip back to 1991 and a bus ride from Atlanta to Dallas that took one hundred thousand hours.

Here’s the official video for “Castle in the Sky”:

You can stream the whole album here.

Dr. Dog – Be The Void
Dr. Dog has been around for about a decade. They’ve played Bonaroo and Coachella and Letterman, so I guess they’re huge. I’ve heard them several times, and every time I hear them, I’m like dammit man, you need to remember to listen to more Dr. Dog. Wikipedia bills them as “psychedelic rock” and I can see that. I don’t own any of their albums, and I couldn’t tell you jack shit about them aside from the fact that I’ve enjoyed them when I’ve heard them. They released a new record called Be The Void on 2/7. Here is the video for “That Old Black Hole”:

Sonic Avenues – “Television Youth” from Television Youth
I have a kneejerk suspicion about stuff that is intentionally lo-fi or “garagey” because it is almost always more about aesthetic aspirations than about making good music. That said, this has a certain undeniable Undertones innocence that is extremely appealing. I’ve heard this described as a less-snotty Buzzcocks. I could see that. I thought this song was very catchy.

Bleeding Through – “The Devil and Self Doubt” from The Great Fire
Never heard of these guys, but saw their album announced on multiple sites. The easiest way to describe it is Opeth-flavored, proggy black metal (complete with those carnival organs!) mixed with a little Slayer-esque hardcore. Whatever, I nodded along. Not really sure if those are human feet playing double bass at 0:42.

My Ticket Home – “A New Breed” from To Create A Cure
I really wanted to like this. Let me rephrase: At the beginning, I really liked this song. I mean … it is totally blistering. Also, the drummer is wearing a flannel shirt and hat and sitting behind a normal-people drumset while laying down some pretty boss chick-a-boom. And then, at the 0:55 mark, IT ALL GOES TO SHIT. Scroll down and watch the video. I’ll wait.

I KNOW, RIGHT? Did the chipmunk-cheeked guitarist with shark fin hair really just stare down the camera and sing “This is the death of my love”? I’m … I’m actually embarrassed for him. They manage to pull it back together nicely after that chorus, and there’s even a little Sepultura “Roots”-action in the breakdown there, but we aaaaaaaall know what’s coming. At 2:09, it happens again. I’m pretty sure you can see the singer roll his eyes. It’s rare to have a song go from promising to unlistenable so quickly, but there you go.

This week (last week) features (featured) one highly anticipated release, one not-highly-anticipated-but-still-hopeful release, and one total surprise that I found looking around online.

The two releases I knew were coming are both from frontmen of other bands I like or have liked: John K. Samson of The Weakerthans (and formerly Propaghandi), and Matt Pryor of The Get Up Kids (and later The New Amsterdams).

My Weakerthans fandom is nothing I have ever tried to keep secret. I find Samson’s voice extremely soothing, and his lyrics are pure poetry. I have often found myself wondering how one man could squeeze so much meaning out of a single word. What a jerk! I would easily put The Weakerthans’ Reconstruction Site in my top ten albums of all time, maybe even top five. Anyway, here he is with his first solo full-length (that I’m aware of). I was hoping for a nice, easily-embeddable, online version of Heart of the Continent, but this version of Letter In Icelandic From The Ninette San will do just fine.

I liked The Get Up Kids through Something to Write Home About. Their subsequent releases had their bright spots, but … you know. The Red Letter Day EP is my favorite, so much so that I sometimes find myself searching for covers of Anne Arbour on youtube. ANYWAY, frontman Matt Pryor went on to head up The New Amsterdams in the early 2000s, and then release a solo record. Now he’s around with a second solo record. I haven’t spent much time with this record, and there isn’t a ‘single.’ I like the song below, and at 1:18, Pryor does that thing where he is hollering backing vocals over one of the guitar tracks (or something), which is neat. I like it.

This week’s wild card comes from England’s awesomely-named Pulled Apart By Horses. They should help spice things up a bit after all the folky folk above. The song below, V.E.N.O.M, appears to be some sort of single off their new album, Tough Love. The song itself is fine, it’s the video I like. Specifically, the guy with the double middle finger candles walking around all half-non-chalant, half-I’m-going-to-kill-the-shit-out-of-you is hilarious.

I mentioned recently that I’ve been doing a little bit of running over the past few months. Like hundreds of thousands of others, I’ve been bitten by the barefoot / forefoot / midfoot / oh-god-if-you-tell-me-one-more-time-how-people-ran-for-2-million-years-without-the-help-of-running-shoes-I-will-forefoot-strike-you-in-the-armpit bug. I’ve run about 150 miles in a pair of Nike Free Run+, and they are great. They are far less supportive than typical heel-strike shoes, but they’re still pretty squishy. Despite being quite a departure from traditional shoes, the Nikes are more like wearing a running shoe than running barefoot.

So, I picked up a pair of Vibram FiveFingers:

To be clear, I’m not obsessed with the idea of running barefoot. Frankly, it sounds like it hurts. Also, I like shoes. Shoes are great. I will probably wear shoes every day for the rest of my life. Also, I realize I can simply remove my clothes and shoes, walk out my front door, and run barefoot. But this is a time of great innovation! They make shoes that are designed to feel like you’re not wearing any shoes! And if someone has gone to the trouble of producing a product to help with something, is it not my duty to acquire said product?

Enough blah blah. The VFFs showed up yesterday. I immediately put them on. Gia immediately vomited on me. Mattias peed and started crying. These things are glorious.

I took them out for a short maiden voyage this morning. I have heard many stories of people going too hard, too fast, too soon, and ending up more injured than if they had continued a life of heel-strike in marshmallow shoes. As such, my goal was to run 2 miles at a VERY comfortable pace with laser focus on technique and paying close attention to messages from my body.

Things went eerily well. I was expecting all kinds of strange new aches and zaps, but aside from a couple strongly-worded emails from my achilles tendons very early on, I felt as good as I can remember. I ended up running just over 2.5 miles mostly because I ran too far from home, so, by the time I made it back, I was over my goal. And, honestly, despite trying to set a limit and ease into the new kicks, the main thing that brought me back home was the fact that Gia had to play tennis. My calves were a little spicier than normal, but I felt like I could have kept going for miles.

I like to think of myself as a function-over-form person, and few things that I can think of epitomize that more than the ol’ Vibram Opposable Toes. I mean, ninjas would laugh at you (if ninjas laughed). All I can say is, after one run, I am a fan. Time will tell. And you all will probably spin your wheels telling me how ugly they are.