Blog, meet Frank . . .

Since I've posted this on all of my personal blogs, I thought I'd share here too. The band I work for was featured today on the cover of Quick (of which I am an avid reader). Here is the story that accompanied. Finally, this Friday, is the CD release show we've been looking forward to for over a year. It's my second one in the last 3 years with the band, and this one promises to be even more fun.

By HUNTER HAUK / Staff Writer

Dustin Blocker paces the stage of the Lakewood Theater on a recent afternoon. His bandmates in Exit 380 listen to him rattle off ideas about how they could enter, where they'll stand and what they should wear.

JASON JANIK/SPECIAL CONTRIBUTOR Exit 380 is (from left) Aaron Borden, Jon Hutchison, Dustin Blocker and Bobby Tucker.

They're getting ready for the most challenging live show of their nine-year career, and the frontman just wants everything to go smoothly.

"What will work with the live show is dressing the part," Blocker says later. "Yeah, we could come out with rock shirts and spiked hair and do a normal show. But I want this to be more like a play. And if you miss it, you miss out."

Friday's show will debut Exit 380's concept album The Life and Death of Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Stone. The new songs -- about the ups and downs of a fictional 1930s couple -- allow Blocker and the guys to move beyond the '90s-influenced alt-rock they've done in the past.

"It's about opening up and expanding. I feel like that's what we're doing. This could blow people's minds or bore them to death, but at least they'll remember it."

Here's more from Blocker, 29, on the album and the concert.

Q: What brought on the need for change?

A: This time last year, we decided to just start from scratch. We didn't want to have rules anymore, because the last record was more on the heavy side, and fast-paced and all that. So we started working, and found that we really liked the weird things that we tried the best. We added keys, organs, maracas ... just whatever we wanted. We'd built our own studio and really had unlimited time to work.

Q: And how did the idea of a concept album come about?

A: All my lyrics are always about death and religion and those kinds of things. I didn't say, "Hey, let's do a concept album." I just went behind everybody's back and wrote songs with lyrics that kind of went with a story line I had in my head. So every time someone would bring in new music, I flowed it into what I had. And after we had 10 songs, I dropped the concept idea on them. They were into it.

Q: Does it scare you that you might be throwing your local fans off a bit?

A: We've always had pretty good things going on. Good crowds, been pretty successful. When I was in college, we would have huge college crowds, but if we went anywhere else we'd have to play the party places that like you to do covers. So after a while we decided to stop the cover thing, focus on rock and just hope that at least some of the party crowds we'd been playing to would stick with us. And they did. But then we ended up playing so much around here that we kind of beat our old material into oblivion. That's why we wanted to start fresh.

Q: What themes appeal to you most when you write lyrics?

A: The themes that occupy me ... well, there's a religious undertone to all the songs. I'm not necessarily religious, though. What I believe and what I don't believe, I don't really know. But I like thinking about it and exploring it. That's kind of why I set the story of the album in the '30s, because nowadays people don't seem to slow down long enough to talk about those kinds of things.

Q: Do you come from a musical family?

A: My brother and sister always sang. My dad was a music minister, and my mom was a music teacher. And we'd do all these concerts as a family. But once they said I didn't have to do it anymore, I gave it up. I didn't do it again until college. And now, what's funny is that I'm the only one in the family who does music for a living.

Q: Were there concept albums that you loved growing up?

A: I'm a late bloomer with everything -- I got into the Beatles and Zeppelin when I was in college. As far as concept albums, The Who's Quadrophenia was one of the first ones I liked. More recently there's a really good one by Richard Buckner called The Hill. Every song is named after a different person in a little village. It's awesome.

Q: How will you bring your concept album to life onstage?

A: Well, we're definitely not planning to do this show every week. We have special guest musicians coming to help us, and we want to play around with the whole "wall of sound" idea. The weirdness of the record has to be reflected in the show.

Q: You probably haven't slept much lately, right?

A: No, not at all. Especially the last few weeks, because we've been getting everything ready. But that's the way I am about things. I obsess over them. If I don't do it, who else will?

Exit 380

* CD release show Friday at 9 p.m. at the Lakewood Theater, 1825 Abrams Parkway. With Energy Williams and Opium Symphony. $10. All ages. 214-821-7469.

* Exit 380 will also play Saturday at Lola's Saloon in Fort Worth, 2736 W. 6th St. $6. 817-877-0666.

* Hear some music at myspace.com/exit380.

Were my eyes deceiving me, or did I really see Todd Carruth this afternoon back on traffic?

Please tell me he's back to stay!!

Well I would love to say that I hope some of you were able to make it to this amazing show, but judging by the crowd of what appeared to be mostly minors I'm not sure that was the case. At any rate, this had to be one of the BEST concerts I have been to in a long time. By the time Brendan James finally took the stage, the largest part of the crowd had cleared so I was able to get pretty close to the front, surrounded by young screaming girls.

To put into words how awesome this show was would be impossible. I've always been a fan of the music, but hearing the energy of a live show, a live acoustic show at that, left me speechless. Even my mother, who I took with me, thoroughly enjoyed herself.

So take some time and check this guy out. Believe me, it'll be worth your while. In the meantime, here are some pictures from the show. (No flash allowed so they're a lil dark!)

I first heard of Brendan James last fall when a song of his called The Sun Will Rise was featured on the ABC hit Private Practice. Having no clue who he was, I immediately Googled the music list for the show and found his MySpace page.

Since then, I have been a huge fan. There is something about his music that just soothes my soul. If you've never had the opportunity to hear him, I'd highly suggest you check him out on iTunes, especially if you can't make it out to the HOB tonight.

As for me, I plan on being front and center, rockin' along to that magical piano.

Brendan James on MyFoxDFW

So this really doesn't bother me, but if more people were awake before 6am I could see the outrage now!

As Good Day was winding down the 5 o'clock hour this morning, Tim cut to commercial with the standard, "Good Day will be back in 2 minutes!" As he did, the Green Day song Boulevard of Broken Dreams began playing. I thought it was playing a little long, but I was busy checking email so wasn't paying too much attention. Then this verse played:

Read between the lines
What's BLEEP*d up and everything's alright
Check my vital signs
To know I'm still alive and I walk alone

I caught the slip, but then again I know that song pretty well. It plays so fast that if you weren't paying attention (and really, who pays that much attention to the music?) you probably didn't catch it.

Hopefully this won't become a big deal. Besides, it's summertime, and the kiddos should be asleep at 6am and would never know the difference.

So when I first heard this story this morning, I was busy getting ready for work. I couldn't believe that I heard someone say that using the phrase "Black Hole" was racially charged. Seriously? Sure enough, I rewound the TiVo and that was the exchange. I have only thought for this:

WTF?!

If John Wiley Price and Judge Thomas Jones seriously thought that the comment made by Kenneth Mayfield was racially insensitive, then I'm sorry, but you need to haul your ass back to an elementary science class and learn what the "Black Hole" really is.

And if this is the case, does that mean that I can no longer use the word "black" as an adjective? I can't say "black crayon" or "Black Dahlia" or "I love the Zeppelin song Black Dog" because that's racially insenstive?

No, Mayfield wasn't being insenstive; he was simply using a well-known science phenom to make a point. A comment that was not directed at any one person, at that.

And here I sit, laughing, because seriously? These are the people we have running our county??

“Fishing is much more than fish. It is the great occasion when we may return to the fine simplicity of our forefathers.” – Herbert Hoover

Cliché as it may be, I felt instantly calmer the moment I was on the road towards the lake. It’s as if my entire psyche could sense the fact that I was headed towards four days of peace and serenity – my annual trip to Lake Texoma to visit with my grandparents, “Mom” and “Paw Paw”. Well, except that this year it was just me and my Paw Paw. Mom had a convention to attend down in south Texas and therein was the primary reason for my visit – someone had to keep Paw Paw company. I will say that it is not by choice that I only go up once a year, in the summer; being grown-up and all, having a full-time job, does not lend itself to much time off to spend fishing with your Paw Paw, no matter how much you wish you could be there more.

Driving to the lake brought a wave of nostalgia, as it usually does. I was ever so glad to finally arrive Wednesday night and get settled in. As is customary, we stayed up to watch the 10 o’clock news to see how the weather would be the following morning. Like clockwork, my grandmother woke us up at 4am and cooked us breakfast, packed our cooler for the boat, and saw us on our merry way. Paw Paw gets worn out a lot easier nowadays, so I was left to drive the truck and the boat. I think we equally enjoy this, because it gives Paw Paw the opportunity to teach me new things, and I love to learn anything he’ll teach me. He is, after all, the smartest man I know, especially when it comes to fishing.

As I pulled out of the Highport on Thursday morning, I couldn’t help but get a little choked up at how much this lake and these trips affected me. There comes a point in your adult life when you realize that the people you love won’t always be around. Even though I continually tell myself that my great-grandmother lived to be 107 and my Paw Paw is only 85, I am also aware that he is not in perfect health. I cherish these little moments because they are the special ones that only he and I share.

We spent that morning, as well as the next three mornings, cruising the lake and catching a few fish along the way. Leaving on Sunday was harder than usual, almost as if we both realize that these trips are going to become impossible before too long. I made a promise to myself to try and return before the end of summer, because I want to spend as much time there as possible.

This time, I learned how to tie a lure, make a perfect jig, how to properly fuel and maneuver the boat on a lake suffering from 30mph wind gusts, and also how to make the most awesome banana split. When Paw Paw said, “I’m teaching you this because someday you may want to teach your grandkids,” it broke my heart. So I watched and listened intently because I will pass this on to my grandkids, because they won’t be as fortunate as I have been to spend this time with my Paw Paw, and I am going to spend as much time as possible from this point on. You never know what may happen tomorrow.