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You Have Been Rocked: Strength, Portland General Electro, the Snuggle Ups and the Thermals

Dear Diary,

How are you? I am fine. Tonight I went to Nocturnal and sawStrength, Portland General Electro, the Snuggle Ups and theThermals. It was so packed, my gosh. I saw L and K there togetherand it made me sad. Thankfully, the trio Strength cheered me upwith their dancey, O.M.D.-like synth-pop and their gangly,skinny-boy style. J and I danced like fools and soon my troubleswere fading. Diary, you would have loved Portland General Electro!One guy eats bagels and smokes cigars because he’s a big shotcorporate executive, while the other mixes the tunes and adds robotvocals over the music. They had a power point presentation thatlooped on the big screen behind them and they even had a secretaryplay the typewriter for a song. I totally want to get a job attheir office. After they finished, I drank some more alcohol andgot pumped for the Snuggle Ups. This was their CD release party andto celebrate they threw glow sticks at the audience before theyperformed. They are a singing duo who karaokes to their ownpre-programmed electronic music which, simply put, is pop-tastic.If Ben Gibbard added a best friend from high school or a potentialmake-out buddy to the Postal Service, you’d have an idea of whatthe Snuggle Ups sound like. Or maybe it’s more like if Figurine gotin a knife fight with Holland and then they had a baby, that babywould be the Snuggle Ups. I think I liked them, I think I likedthem a lot.

The Thermals are the cutest band I know of and that bass playeris downright dreamy. I love how she gets excited and jumps up anddown – it makes me happy. It’s been about a year since the lasttime I saw them, and the first time I’d heard the new stuff live. Istill wish they would find another guitar player, not because Hutchcan’t play, but because he can’t jump around as much now that he isplaying. He used to get so excited, like a five year old at thecarnival, and now he has to remember chords so he can’t dance asmuch or take off his clothes. I liked his hair when it was shorter.Diary, I have to go, my mom’s getting mad at me.

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