Eric Bachmann

Crooked Fingers

Best Album(s) of 2008

In no particular order... "Exit" by Shugo Tokumaru; "Live in Japan," by Rodrigo y Gabriela; "Venus On Earth," by Dengue Fever; "Third," by Portishead; Buena Vista Social Club At Carnegie Hall...

Favorite Song(s) of 2008

Besides the ones on the albums listed above: "Mariana," by Seu Jorge; "Some Are Lakes," by Land of Talk; "Skinny Love," by Bon Iver; and not so much the song as the sound: "Oryantal Ciftetelli," by Sözlü Roman Oyun Havalari / Edirneli Yüksel & Kadir Ürün Project

Your Personal Favorite On-stage Moment/Show of 2008

Miranda Brown and I were driving to a Crooked Fingers rehearsal in Denver late summer 2008 and we saw some guy dressed up in Denver Broncos fan gear masterbating in the center of a little league baseball field at about 2 PM in the afternoon. Is centerfield "on-stage"?

Classic Album or Artist You Discovered This Year

I don't know... maybe that Broncos fan?

Best Film You Saw This Year

"Chop Shop," directed by Ramin Bahrani.

Favorite new gadget, technology, site or application you can't live without

I could live happily without technological gadgets, applications and/or websites... I don't abhor or discourage them. I'm not angry about progress or anything... I just don't care that much about the new iPhone, etc...

Artist You Are Most Excited About In 2009 (any medium)

At the moment, I very much want to see Benicio del Toro as "Che" when in comes out in January.

Your Latest Guilty Pleasure

Using tea tree oil as deodorant... though, I don't know why my peers make fun of me for this and therefore only feel guilty out of obligation.

What should President Obama change first in 2009?

I don't know. There's a lot that needs to be repaired. I think a lot of the changes will come out of his personality: like an improvement in US image overseas. But policy-wise the obvious economic issues here at home should take priority.

The most relevant change occurring right now--whether he's doing it intentionally or not--is that for the first time ever a large constituent of typically disoriented and disengaged citizens feel represented. If democracy is about participation from all classes of a society, then we've had a faux democracy in that sense. The opportunity for a transition from "faux" to "legit" is appealing. Obama may facilitate that transition because he seems to want to include everybody in all of our nation's economic, social and political systems... we'll see.

A Memorable/Humorous/Classic Moment on the tour bus/road in 2008

Well, there was this one time when me and about ~1,000,000 of my middle class to upper-middle class, North American, Australian and European friends started all these bands and travelled around in inefficient vehicles getting drunk, touring and cluttering the world with music (some good, some not-so-good) while all kinds of bad, violent shit was happening elsewhere on the globe... that was pretty classic...