Lost your way on the road of life? Get out and stretch your legs on the weekly rest stop known as Sound Advice.

I Am The Avalanche bring up a good point. Has volume become a substitute for quality? So often in life it seems the squeaky wheel gets the grease or the person who can yell the loudest in an argument becomes the winner through intimidation, regardless of whether they make sense. Hearing sounds is one of the blessings of the sensory experience of being a human, but when we place all our faith in what we hear do we lose our common sense?

When you watch a great movie you can tell exactly what is happening even if you turn off the volume, and the same is true in life. How often has someone told you one thing and done the opposite? Someone says they love you but they cheat on you. Someone says they are sorry but they go and repeat the same action. Someone says they’ll be there but they don’t show up. We want to believe what people tell us so badly we can convince ourselves to ignore the truth.

We were given five senses for a reason. Turn down the volume on your life and pay attention to your other senses for a while. Actions speak louder than bad rap metaphors.

Feeling lost on the murky road of life?  Well, get out and stretch your legs at the weekly rest stop known as Sound Advice.

There’s a great Mitch Hedberg joke:  “I was walking down the street with my friend and he said ‘I hear music,’ as though there’s any other way to take it in.  ’You’re not special. That’s how I receive it too…I tried to taste it, but it did not work.”

You know when you’re trying to explain something to someone and they reply with, “I see what you’re saying”? You think, “No, you don’t see what I’m saying, you hear it.”

Well, maybe we can all be right.

The interesting thing is that maybe you can’t taste music Mitch, but some people, like Ida Maria, can actually see music.  She actually can see what you’re saying.  She has a neurological phenomenon called “synesthesia,” one form of which allows the synesthete to see sounds as colors and shapes.  I’m sure it makes communication difficult when she attempts to tell someone to play a song in the key of turquoise.

This is the thing about humans–we have many common experiences but all of our stories are different and wrought with individual burdens and obstacles that aren’t always obvious. Here, Ida Maria asks for a little compassion on behalf of M.I.A.

Let’s just all try to have a little more compassion for our fellow man or woman.  The next time you’re about to get angry at someone maybe you can just lick them first and see if they taste like they’ve been having a bad day.

Lost your way on the tour of life and searching for your next gig without MapQuest? Uncensored Interview brings you Sound Advice–Your weekly dashboard mounted GPS navigation system for living, with an indie twist.

ThePerryTrain is on the move from blustery Chicago to beautiful Los Angeles. As a veteran of long distance moves from Toronto to New York, New York to Los Angeles and Los Angeles to Chicago, one acquires an intimate knowledge of the logistical issues involved. My eagerness to return to the west coast found The P-train hastily retaining an apartment “sight unseen” after just looking at some pictures. This turned out to be a mistake. Apparently they don’t call patience a virtue for nothing.

Who knew that great songwriting, great relationships and moving across country had so many things in common?

I suppose I could have listened to The Young Knives before I made this decision…

(MORE SOUND ADVICE)

Lost your way on the tour of life and searching for your next gig without MapQuest? Uncensored Interview brings you Sound Advice–-Your weekly dashboard mounted GPS navigation system for living, with an indie twist.

ThePerryTrain has been riding the rails to Canada to visit family and to get all pruney in my mom’s new hot tub. Last night my mom and I ordered Chinese food. Satiated and sleepy we opened our fortune cookies before bed. I was fortunate to have a cookie replete with three fortunes, all the same: “Good fortune is on the way, especially in your business ventures.”

This was good news, I could feel it. The cookie had blessed my business prospects in triplicate. Then my mother let out a sad sound like a noisy toy whose batteries just ran out. In an unfortunate turn of events it appeared her cookie was empty.

As happy as I was with my plethora of good fortunes I couldn’t feel happy anymore because there is nothing sadder than an empty fortune cookie. I decided since I had a fortune of fortunes I would give to the less fortunate. “Here, have one of mine. Now we both have good fortune on the way.”

I just gave away a third of my fortune and for just a moment, I knew how Angelina Jolie must feel. I guess it’s true when Mark Twain said “To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with.” But to be honest, there are some kinds of joy you might want to keep to yourself. Just ask Brandon from The Architects.

Lost your way on the tour of life and searching for your next gig without MapQuest? Uncensored Interview brings you Sound Advice–Your weekly dashboard mounted GPS navigation system for living, with an indie twist.

The hardest decisions are the ones you have to make. Truthfully, if you wait long enough most choices are made for you, like Tina Dico getting dropped from Sony, and you can’t do anything about it. Every now and then there comes a time when you hit a fork in the road and you have to choose one path. Choices paralyze people because we get caught up in the details, we’re afraid of commitment and we don’t want to make a mistake.

Remember, sitting there doing nothing is still making a choice. Don’t let the fear monster stop you from choosing to do something. When you think something has to look a certain way, like having to have an office before you start your own record label, try to think outside the box and see that obstacle for what it is: an illusion.

The can of Pabst Blue Ribbon IS half FULL! You attract more slutty groupies with PBR than with vinegar! If at first you don’t succeed, have another Pabst! If it simultaneously fits on a fridge magnet AND makes your life better then bring it on! Nuggets of wisdom passed from person to person have helped the human race move from sloppy amoebas to the guitar-slinging heathens we are today.

Welcome to the new weekly Uncensored Interview feature! In 2009 “Sound Advice” will exhume hope from the hovels of indie culture. Self promotion, positivity and optimism don’t exactly epitomize the indie rock attitude, but great ideas can not be suppressed. Even getting high, being ironic and growing a finely manicured mustache can be a beacon of light in the murky fog of life. To illustrate, let’s kick this whole thing off with a look back at some of the best nuggets of 2008.

5. Hello Tokyo reminded us to have compassion for those we don’t understand, and part of that compassion is by offering a bong hit.

4. The Architects exemplify the all important idea of “Know Thyself.”

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