Kauai Vacation 2009

In case you didn't notice I was gone, back in January, Brigitta and I took a little vacation to celebrate our three year anniversary. Here are some pics from the trip. We did everything we could over 9 days, including hiking to beaches and waterfalls, snorkeling, kayaking, and eating lots of shaved ice, tropical fruit, and macadamia nuts.

I highly recommend Kauai over Maui if you want to get out and do more than lounge at the hotel. We also really liked our condo there, so hit me up for recommendations if you are planning a trip. I can't wait to go back...

Best Albums of 2008

Yeah, I realize 2008 is a ways back, but it took me a while to purchase some of these, and I've been busy with school. So, following up on last year's best-of list, here are my favorite albums of 2008, sorted in descending order of heaviness of course...

Torche - Meanderthal :: Torche's second full length. Just think if Sabbath and Helmet had a lovechild. Heavy, yet amazingly melodic anthems.

Clouds - We Are Above You :: Psychadelic metal, with a strong harcore punk influence. Former members of Cave-in playing music that sounds like it would have been from their first garage band. 

Suicide Note - Empty Rooms :: They continues to evolve, yet retain their hardcore roots and incorporate a spectrum of influences. They amazingly find originality in a genre where it should no longer exist. Hard to explain, you'll just have to listen.

Young Widows - Old Wounds :: Sounds like a mix of everything Steve Albini has ever had his hands on. Oh, except the the song 'Delay Your Pressure' which sounds suspiciously a lot like Escape Grace's 'The Siren City'. Don't get me wrong, the album is a refreshing direction.

The Night Marchers - See You In Magic :: Half of Hot Snakes. Sounds like Rocket From the Crypt without the horns, which I actually prefer.

The Hold Steady - Stay Positive :: If Bruce Springsteen was in a punk rock band (emphasis on the rock), this would be them. I wasn't a fan of the two recent albums, but this one makes up for it.

CSS - Donkey :: Wild Brazilians. I'm not sure I can describe this in words, but I'll try: Zany, aggressive, guitar and synth heavy pop songs sung in broken English. Trust me, it works.

Sebastien Grainger and the Mountains - S/T :: From the talented half of Death From Above 1979. Smooth, catchy rock songs.

Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer :: I got out to see them live this year. WP are probably my favorite active 'indie rock' band right now. This album took a little getting used to, but if you listen through the quirky melodies once, you'll be hooked.

Nada Surf - Lucky :: Not their best album, but still solid rock record, as usual.

Vampire Weekend - S/T :: Catchiest album of the year. This is an ESPN instant classic. 

Conor Oberst - S/T :: Folksy acoustic songs, more country than most Bright Eyes albums. The more stripped down the music the more obvious it is how talented a songwriter Oberst is. 

Honorable Mention (good, but haven't listened enough to form an opinion):

The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride

Ninja Gun- Restless Rubes

Best EP's:

Obits - One Cross Apiece :: The other half of Hot Snakes. If only Rick Froberg sang for the Night Marchers.

Cutman - Big Deal :: Punk songs about bulldozers and vans.

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PS - I'm on Lala and Last.fm

My Amazon Wish List

To anyone who has ever asked me what I want for a gift,

You will now find the following button on the right hand side of my blog. It is a link to an Amazon wish list, where I will try to keep an updated list of all the thing I ever want in this world. Let's just go ahead and assume that if Amazon doesn't have it, it isn't worth having.



I got it started with things that are on top of mind, like records and new shoes, but I will add to it frequently, and even more so if I find a sweet Android app that lets me scan barcodes and 'add to wishlist'.

The Real Matt Dougherty

I was re-registering a domain I own the other day, and somehow got into a vanity search tangent for available domains that are variations on my name and main domain mattdougherty.com. Maybe it was the marketing classes that prompted me to protect my brand, or maybe it was that Google treats  'Doherty' as an acronym for 'Dougherty'. I am not Matt Doherty and he is not me!

Matt Doherty, among other people, is a former University of North Carolina and University of Kansas basketball coach (Yes, similar to Roy Williams), and he is an actor who starred in classics such as The Mighty Ducks and So I Married An Axe Murderer.

Since both of these people show up for searches for my name, I went ahead and purchased mattdoherty.com because it was available, and while I was at it, GoDaddy convinced me to buy mattdougherty.info and matthewdougherty.info each for 99 cents. None of them will host any content, and currently 301 redirect to my main site. If one of the real Matt Doherty's ever reaches out to me and wants their domain, I will probably give it to him (in exchange for movie or basketball tickets).