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Every month I'm going to try to highlight music I've discovered and added into my listening collection, and blog about them here.

Toh Kay - Streelight Lullabies (album, 2011)
Under Tomas Kalnoky's psuedonym, "Streetlight Lullabies" is a collection of choice Streetlight Manifesto songs done in slower acoustic guitar style. Kalnoky's improved guitar skills since the choppy Catch-22 days really shines through, along with deeper and more somber vocals. The lyrics I feel are more powerful this time through as without the tight hornlines and electric guitar riffs, the emotional voice stands out even more.

Sick of it All
A New York Hardcore staple, I finally gave this band a listen as I saw them live for the first time at the Revelation Records 25th Anniversary show. I was blown away by their live show, especially by their musical and performance tightness. They've been playing and touring for over 25 years, which is also another impressive feat. Lou Keller also looks very young and energetic on stage, as a 40-something he rocks out like he's still in his 20s. Amazing. Definitely proves that you can still keep up screaming in anger after all these years.

Weed Hounds - Beach Bummed (song, 2010)
My friend Matt played this song while we were lying on Venice beach, soaking up the sun on a lazy Sunday. Very chill, shoegaze style indie rock that really puts you in a mode to relax and chill out. Dreamy and flowy.

Exemption - PUBLIC CEMETARY PARTY (album, 2011)
A three piece prog rock/metal band from Long Island, New York. Soaring guitar riffs, solid musicianship, changing time signatures, and a Mars Volta like ambiance at times. I love to rock out to this when I'm productively working.

The Vaccines - Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra) (song, 2011)
I have to admit, I heard of this song as the ending credits of an episode of Girls. It caught me a loose rockin catchy jingle. Described as a modern Ramones influenced outfit, I was eagerly waiting to dig into the rest of the Vaccines material as "Wreckin' Bar" was described as their anthem, but was ultimately disappointed. It doesn't make this single song any less cool, though. 

I spent almost a full week in Austin Texas for the Texas JavaScript 2012 conference, and it was a great time. I landed a day early of the JavaScript training day (hosted by Bocoup) to soak in the heat and humidity. Ironically once I landed and walked around the city, clouds rolled in and it started to rain. Gotta love the south. But the rest of the week was really sunny, which I don't mind at all. Most of my friends call me crazy for enjoying humidity.

The Bocoup JavaScript training went very well. I was a bit worried since there was no experience level listed, but it ended up being a good breadth of JS run through and I learned a lot of things I didn't know, and went over design patterns and trickier concepts like hoisting and closures. After the training I was able to have beer, bourbon, and bbq with some former coworkers and it was an awesome time. One of my most memorable meals was at Lambert's, which I highly recommend if you ever find yourself in the area. Pork ribs were to die for, and I was quite fond of the grits, lamb tamale, and quail.

The actual TXJS conference was also really cool. I met a few cool folks, and learned a few things from the talks. Despite it being only a one day conference, there is a ton of value gained. It's small enough so that you don't feel lost, with the breadth of high quality speakers to take away something from. Highlights: I especially enjoyed Marcin Wichary's talk on how he uses CSS/JS and progressive technolgies to craft the famous Google homepage doodles. While I knew a fair amount about responsive web design, Dave Rupert's entertaining and hilarious (and somewhat comicaly self-deprecating) talk gave me more perspective on the technique. While I admittedly was a bit bored, Brendan Eich's talk on the current state of JavaScript was interesting, especially as the language is being developed to be able to handle crazy 3D processing and gaming now, even at demo stages.

One of the coolest experiences was also visiting Austin when SXSW was not happening. It gives the city a whole new feel and I love it even more now. The locals are nice people, the food is amazing, and I like the area in general. I anticipate my next visit and hopefully to attend another TXJS to learn me some more JavaScripty goodness!