Heavy Rhyme Experience

I started thinking about this album earlier today. Listening to hip-hop with a live band backing ti is pretty commonplace now, I guess. At least if you're the Roots. or want to use the Roots. But in 1992, the height of the sampling era and a good year before Organix (which nobody was listening to for another 2 years later anyway) this was pretty incredible. I remember my brother listening to it all that summer and it was the first time I came to acknowledge that I liked Rap music since PE and and Run DMC. It also introduced me to a lot of guys I've nev er heard before, especially the artists featured on the tracks here. It still remains to me a classic summer album, and lord knows I'll be playing it this weekend.

"Bonafied Funk" (feat. Main Source) - The Brand New Heavies

"Wake Me When I'm Dead" (feat. Masta Ace) - The Brand New Heavies

I'll try to put up some more songs tomorrow, but I already know it's gonna be a hectic one, and for that I apologize. If I don't thought I'll get something up on monday, scout's honor.

in other news, that Covenant movie I've seen 6200 commericals for looks fucking TERRIBLE. As does this celebrity duets show that's on right now. Guh.

All That Raquet

Just a thought: This morning, on my way into the office, I saw a tennis raquet lying in the parking lot next to my work. It was old and beaten up and I thought to myself "damn, I haven't seen a Tennis raquet in years!" TAnd then I thought about it some more and realized that I pretty much look at Tennis as a dead sport. Not because it's less popular now than it was when I was a kid (it's not), but because I haven't even seen a tennis raquet in 15 years, outside of the decaying ones in my parents' garage. Furthermore, I can't think of anyone that I know that's even played tennis in the past 10. Well, that's not true, I heard my aunt, uncle and cousin heading up to play a few weeks ago. But still, isn't that odd? How come I don't think Jai Alai is dead, or Cricket? God knows I don't see those much either. Maybe I should watch that crappy Woody Allen movie.

In other news, I'm feeling much better, and I'll try to upload some tunes later, but I have a lot of catching up to do at work, so for now I'm just gonna let you read about tennis. Oh, and Randy Quaid playing a Nazi. and Rutger Hauer is colorblind. This is what happens when I've forced to sit at home for a day in a half with nothing but imdb to keep me company. sigh.

Okay, I might as well put some music up, but don't expect anything thought out, because I still really haven't slept yet. My diet for the past 24 hours has consisted of 4 Vitamin waters, 1 bowl of cereal (berry cheerios), 2 bites of pasta, and a chocolate filled with whipped peanut butter. awesome. There's all sorts of news today, including the revelation that 1 in 8 (and almost 1 in 4 African-) Americans live in poverty. This is the first year since the Clinton administration that that rate hasn't risen. What the fuck? How depressing is that? Think of the tax cuts, and the coroporate giveaways we've seen in the last 6 years, then think of 1 IN FUCKING 8 CITIZENS LIVING IN POVERTY. sigh. I'm sure they're all drug addicts and lazy immigrants (as I'm sure some a-hole on Fox news wil claim), but seriously this is not right. At all.

Anyway, I was trying to think of good somes for sick people, and the first thing I thought of was the Jesus Lizard. Unfortunately, though, that gives me too much energy and it doesn't really seem fitting for right now, so I went with some sad, sad stuff. Usually when I'm sick I don't listen to anything, ("When Cotton was in Egypt land...") but that's no fun to post now, is it.

It's hard to mention Ralph Stanley without bringing up both his brother Carter and the movie O Brother, Where Art Though? The movie featured some of Stanley's songs (incluing a reworked version of "Man of Constant Sorrow) and really brought him back into the forefront of modern blugrass just as it was getting a huge push from said movie. about 40 years previous, The Stanley Brothers had become superstars with the Clinch Mountain Boys and were changing the face of country music when Carter fell sick and slowly succumbed in a hospital. It supposedly destroyed Ralph, who made the decision to go on without him, but not replace him. Which is sort of complicated, considering that the two were known for their harmonies. Hence the high, thinny tone of Ralph's voice. It always haunts me a little, and it makes me feel okay about lying in bed a little longer. From the sound of it this album was aiming for the sparsity of those Def American records Johnny Cash made, but might've fallen a bit short. I can only assume that the murder ballad "Henry Lee" is about Henry Lee Lucas, though I could be wrong entirely.

"Henry Lee" - Ralph Stanley

"The Girl from Greenbriar Shore" - Ralph Stanley

Buy Ralph Stanley here

I feel like this next song is about a hundred years old. In reality it's about 8, but let's not let that get in the way of my feelings. Anyway, Mia Doi Todd is classically trained singer, and you can hear it pretty easily. She's got a fantastic voice. I wish that more of her songs had this sort of melody, but to be honest the rest of the 2 albums this song appears on sort of bore me. The newer one I've really liked so far though. Go to her site for a free mp3 (click on the free mp3 link. duh.). Anyway, this song is moving and sad and makes me think of apple cinnamon tea. Whatever that means.

"Autumn" - Mia Doi Todd

Buy The Golden State here.

*not really, but there certainly is one that meets that standard.

It is 6:45 in the morning, and for the second time in a week I've watched the sun come up. I still feel like garbage, and I haven't slept but for a few hours around midnight. I've been rolling in place in my bed all night, listening to what must be hundreds of acorns falling from the trees outside on to the cars in the street and the sunlight over my kitchen. It's these sharp cracks and the occasional tradeoff of clogged nostrils that I've used to note the passing time. I want to be asleep right now. I want to be twitching and dreaming, shit, I want to go to work. But I won't do any of that. I've got a few hours' worth that I can do from the house, but I'm savin that for the mid-morning, when there's nothing on TV and the sun has kicked me out of bed. So now I'll just sit here listening to the last of the crickets and sniffling every few minutes. On a lighter note my dad's supposed to get out of the hospital today, a full three days earlier than expected. Of course, I won't let myself anywhere near him with whatever small plague I'm toting around right now, but it's nice to think about nonetheless. So I will sit here and try to sleep some more and work pretty hard to get this Cat Stevens song about breaking morning out of my head. I wish it was still raining.

sick

I woke up this morning feeling like complete shit. I figured it was my allergies, which tend to act up this time of year. But it wasn't, it was something else, something that started in my sinuses (sini? sinai?) and slowly worked its way through my chest and head until I was absolutely miserable. So I told myself I'd leave work at 3. Then at 1:oo I pushed that up some* and got started home. I got here after picking up vitamins, throat lozenges, soup, snacks, etc... only to get home and immidiately realized the one thing I left to purchase was toilet paper. So knowing I'd blow my nose with half of it, I had to take go back. Ugh. So now I'm home sitting in bed with a whiskey/honey mixture (for my throat), some vitamin water (for the whiskey), and a cartoons to fall asleep in front of. So yeah, unfortunately no tired criticism on the year anniversary of Katrina, no analysis of Deadwood and why it get's a bad break, not even any damned music. Yeah, well. I apologize. I had higher hopes for this thing too, but the fact that I'm sitting bed and typing this out might explain the lack of excitement.

*what broke me: I was sitting at my desk trying to justify leaving early, weighing it against the stack of work on my desk and trying to get through a few last chapters. A fly was wandering around the office, and i was just getting irritated and congested and wanted to leave and I reached out to grab it, just thinking I'd swat it a little. I knew before I even looked down I kned that there was gonna be a crushed fly in my hand. but of course I looked. and of course I was wrong. It was a half-crushed fly. So I got up, washed my hands, and headed to straight out the door. And that's what drove me out of work today. Not a great story, but it's better than the slop I've been putting up here lately, so suck it up. Have a great night.

also, HOLY SHIT

Does Valor rhyme with Squalor?

Last night I decided to start re-reading Sarah Vowell’s first book, Radio On, which chronicles a yeah spent by the author listening to the radio and weighing it against her current location and moral clime, as well as current evens and the ascension of the Newt/Rush axis, which was going on at the time. It’s really an interesting book, and it makes me ashamed that I hardly listen to the radio anymore. Not only because when I do it tends to be the exact same as I left it in 1996, but also because when I do turn on the radio, I tend to gravitate to news and talk radio that seems to run on a steady loop. I loathe the idea of becoming that dad that nobody ever wanted to ride in the car with because of the vacant soul of AM radio. I see myself smoking a pipe at the wheel in two years, lecturing kids on the dangers of fiscal responsibility. This is the sort of thing that reminds me why I don’t want kids. Anyway, listening to the same story about a shooting in the city last night over and over is still better than listening to those asshole drive-time DJs. I know a lot of people like them, and will sometimes linger in the car after they’ve reached their destination to see what will happen, but I just cannot buy into it. It’s just a stale format and not even Stern can win it back for me.

I wish I could say that if there were more radio stations on a nearer page to mine, I’d tune in all the time. But I’m not even sure if that would work. For one, I appreciate enough variety on my day-to-day that I don’t think I’d really wanna hear the same Sebadoh song twice a week, or to some sardonic college shut-in complaining about some crappy thing or another. Even as I type this, there are 5 or 6 internet radio stations on my desktop that I almost never listen to. They generally play stuff that I like, but then guess what, so do I. But this is going to change. I’ve made a pledge to myself to try and listen to at least one hour a day to the radio. Be it in the car, at work, or lying in bed at night, I will make it a mission to get a better feel for the current landscape of the radio and if I’m lucky, glean some better ideas out of it than what I’ve been writing. Now, I’m not so assuming as to compare myself to Sarah Vowell (who is supremely talented in making me want to learn about things I couldn’t care less about), but to hear what she can gather out of hearing a Doobie Brothers song on the radio or whatever, I feel like I just might get something out of paying attention to the medium. We’ll see what I get.

In completely unrelated note, my debit card (and license, and a gift receipt I had) went through a laundry cycle over the weekend. Since then, I’ve been trying to offer an explanation to the various clerks and shopkeepers that I’ve encountered, when handing over a half-baked shrinky dink as payment for my shrimp quesadilla. Usually they get sort of a kick out of it. In my corner store last night, the 2 Pakistani guys were cheering it on when I told them I hadn’t used it yet. IT went through fine, and they high-fived me. The first high five I’ve returned in years that wasn’t coming from my nephew. So anyway, the card works fine, and I’m gonna see how long I can keep it before getting a new one. It should be pretty awesome.

Here’s some songs with the word “Radio” in them. I wanted to include both parts of the Secret Machines song, because they’re both great and for wildly different reasons, but it was just too damned big. The Spoon song is probably my favorite thing that band has ever done, and the Rush song? Listen, I fucking hate Rush. I really do, they’re a great example of why technical proficiency means absolute dick to me in terms of making great rock and roll. This song just makes me think of Aqua Teen Hunger Force when Meatwad shouts “Of Salesmen!” and it makes me laugh every time. I guess I laugh every time I hear Geddy Lee do it in this song I laugh a little too, so it’s all good.

“Marconi’s Radio (reprise)” – The Secret Machines

Buy September 000 here.

“The Spirit of Radio” – Rush

Buy some crappy Rush album here.

“Car Radio” – Spoon

Buy A Series of Sneaks here.

Listen to some interviews with Sarah Vowell here and here. Or check out her Salon articles from a few years ago.

Last night, the last hour-long episode of Deadwood was shown. I'll write more on it tomorrow, but I figured a picture was due. And thanks for the nice words, guys. It means a lot. I'm trying not to make these posts all maudlin and it's a big help to read those. Thanks again.

quick post today, because i've been running around like a monkey trying to shuttle between work, home, hospital, and later, maryland. It's mostly traffic and sweating and cursing. I always forget how common it is for people to be afraid of hospitals. Not that I blame them, it's just strange to me because I've spent enough time in them that I really don't think about it anymore. MY whole family has been weathered in this, and we know to bring something to read, to smile and offer encouragement not only to the person you're there to see, but everyone you encounter. It's such a hard place to stay positive, but it really does make a difference, even to the staff who do this every day. I don't know. I'm not really saying much here, just thinking aloud. I don't have any music because I spent way too long just driving that I've got to catch up on a lot of stuff. I'll try to post a picture or two this weekend.

"I can't believe it's a man!"

Ugh. So the first thing I did when I woke up this morning was download the Streisand/Diamond monstrosity that I mentioned yesterday. The sad thing is, I still have such a soft spot for Neil Diamond (don't ask) that finally listening to it didn't even erase it from my head, just cement it in there for posterity. So yeah, there's that. I'm not very happy about it, but what can you do?

I've got very mixed feelings about Devendra Banhart, ranging from "the fucking guy's a genius" to "that dumb, dirty hippie". No, but some of his songs just baffle me in their pointlessness. and some are so beautiful that it's hard to grasp. This is neither, but a live recording with Jana Hunter where they play a combination of one of his songs and...yes, an R. Kelly song, straight from Chocolate Factory. I love that he refers to Kelly as a "visionary prophet" in this. The only other person that would ever call R. Kelly that is...R. Kelly. I don't know, every time I hear this it makes me smile, and with the situation with my dad going the way it is, I need that right now. All this R. Kelly talk really makes me want to revisit Trapped in the Closet, which if you haven't seen, is absolutely the greatest 12 part R&B opera EVER MADE. Also Aziz Ansari apparently deos a complete reading of the story, complete with cast members from the movie, which just about sounds like the most hilarious thing ever. Anyways, I like this song.

"Little Monkey/Step in the Name of Love" (live) - Devendra Banhart & Jana Hunter
Buy some Devendra Banhart albums here.

on the complete other hand, I fucking hate this song. I adored it for about 4 months and then it just became the summer anthem of all time. It has been run and rerun ad nauseum, and no less than 5 people have covered it. I should take this moment to point out that this is exactly why pirating music is wrong, because by the time that everyone was dancing their ass off to this, I was the curmudgeonly asshole sitting in the corner grumbling about how old this song was. It's much better to remain in step with everyone else than ahead of the curve, as this scenario proved to me. All of the cover's I've had to endure, none of them did a damned thing for me except reinforce my dislike of the song. Except this one, which sorta surprised me. I didn't hate the Raconteurs album, but it didn't really do much to stand out for me, either. Muchlike the last 2 White Stripes albums. I just prefer to see Jack rockin' and wailing, and not trying to sing in tune or make a pretty melody. And somehow, he totally pulled this off at Lollapalooza, making me wonder if the Raconteurs would be a much better live show than I'd anticipated. Anyway, I found myself nodding along to this at my desk and was momentarily horrified. By the end of the song I was full on into it. So kudos to them for the rescue attempt. The other versions still piss me off though.

"Crazy" (Gnarls Barkley cover, live) - The Raconteurs

You don't sing me love songs

"Man, I fuckin' hate musicals"
I had to think about this statement for a second. I'm not a huge proponent of them, but there's plenty that have their qualities. I said as much.
"Really all of them? I'm not a huge proponent of them, but there's plenty that have their qualities"
"like what, Cats?"
"I've never seen Cats. But I enjoyed Sweeney Todd. Jesus Christ Superstar rocked me sufficiently".
"Yeah, Jesus Christ Superstar was pretty good. It's just that I hate all that sing-dancing they do. It's just so damned clumsy".
"What about Tommy? That has to be pretty good, right? and I'm sure they're making one of Quadrophenia if they haven't already".
"yeah, but I'd rather watch the crappy, drugged out disco movie than see some jerks on a stage".
"Fair enough. Ann-Margeret is great in that". I'm a sucker for Ann-Margeret. Always have been.
"yeah-huh".
"Okay, what about Les Miserables? My dad still gets choked up listening to it"
"it's okay, I guess. They're still just sing-dancing, though".
"So you don't like any musicals at all?"
"I'd rather see a play".
"I'd rather read a play than see it. What about The Music Man? that's a great story!" It's true! The Music Man is underrated outside of musical theater.
"I hate those hats, though."
"what hats?"
"you know, those hats they wear. The same kind they wore in old timey elections"
"yeah, what are those hats called" I still have no idea.
"I dunno. Election hats?"
"If you don't like The Music Man, you shouldn't follow showbusiness. It's a classic story! It's got everything!"
"meh"
"What about Spamalot?" I hum a little of the "Knights of the Round Table" song. We both simultaneously air drum that little solo that the guy does off the Knight's helmets.
"We should go see that! Do you wanna go see Spamalot?"
"hell no!"
"But you just said you like musicals! Why not?"
"Because they're terrible"
"you're hopeless"
"probably".

I still have no set stance on the musical theater, but I will say that I can appreciate a good story and a good tune. I just can't usually sit through both. Incidentally, this discussion started because I had "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" by Neil Diamond and Barbara Streisand stuck in my head. I think it's from a musical, but I have no idea. It's the only one of her songs I know, and it will now be in my head for weeks.

I consider this track to be musical theater for some reason, though I'm pretty sure Satchmo never put on a little show of murdering people.

"Mack the Knife" - Louis Armstrong
Buy Mack the Knife here.

And an old classis that I've been using to try and drown out the damned Streisand from my head. it's not working. Still, one of my all-time favorites.

Bob Wilson Anchorman - Half Man Half Biscuit
Buy one of their albums here.

Last night we watched the first half of that Spike Lee documentary on HBO about Katrina and the Levees. I knew it was something I wasn't gonna want to see. I had things to do that I could have clouded with more emotion than is already filling my head lately. I had to get some writing done, maybe go for a jog and call my friend in Portland back. I knew it was gonna tear me up, and just start that whole cycle of shaky doubt and moral desparation that it's so easy to slide into when I see this stuff. But sometimes you end up watching something like that not out of desire, just because you know that when it's over and the lights come back you're going to be filled with this spirit, this feeling that for every vile and wrongheaded act there's still the indominable burn of compassion floating around that can never be repressed. Call it Karmic obligation. It's the sort of thing you just walk into knowing that you'll leave a little worse for the wear, but with a glimmer of hope in your eye.
And this started out the same way as usual, harrowing stories and film, stuff that I've already heard about since the day after it happened. Which hits a lot harder when you can hear the people screaming, crying for help. Wondering why nobody is coming to help their children and their parents. It's a lot harder to think about how far away New Orleans is during a montage of of bodies strewn across the streets for days, left in makeshift graves under garbage bags and moldy blankets. Of course it was only the first half they showed last night, and that the second is to be aired tonight. It didn't matter though. It didn't matter a fucking lick, because by the time I realized that it was only half of it airing, I knew that I wasn't going to have that realization I was hoping for. There's not gonna be any warm milk after the nightmare tonight, because New Orleans is still massively fucked up. There's still neighborhoods to this day that have no running water, there's people that are still getting kicked out of their FEMA sponsored trailers and i'm willing to bet the levees are yet to rebuilt to the condition they should've been in in the first place. That's just about e damned nough to break my fuckin' heart right now. I still got shit I should be doing, but I know I won't get to it tonight. Still a damned shame.

oh, and the very thought that they're going to reopen the Superdome is just disgusting in every conceivable way. Really. The companies that have effectively devastated the coastal wetlands there should have to pay for the reconstruction of a new stadium by themselves.

girls gone wild: the musical?

So, I just ran out for a minute to the grocery store to pick up a candy bar because the fruit I'd packed for myself this morning was AWFUL and I had to apologize to my sweet tooth. So anyway as I was waiting in line and trying not to think when I noticed that the radio was playing a country music tribute to girls gone wild. Are you fucking kidding me? It's bad enough that these jackasses have totally hijacked what was otherwise a totally viable and entertaining genre of music, now they have to further advertise for THAT??? Oh hell no. Anyone who has ever half dealth with insomnia knows that their infomercials ruin the otherwise mildly spellbinding terrain of late night infomercials and programs about god. I'm not gonna go into this too much, because I think it's a pretty common opinion that this has more to do with esteem issues than the exploitation of women, and frankly i'm not really in the mood to complete more than a few sentences today.
This album was released over a year ago, right around when I was swearing myself off of the Canadian collective groups like Broken Social Scene and the New Pornographers. I probably should've tried to keep up a little, because the songs I've heard from this are incredible, and almost all feature people from these bands and sounds a lot better to my ears. No, I'm not hung over right now, but it's a good a time as any to be.

"Hangover Days" - Jason Collett
Buy Idols of Exile here.

As far as The Pogues, there isn't much I can tell you that you shouldn't already know. I could launch here into any number of diatribes about Shane MacGowan's teeth, or his appearance pogoing beneath the opening credits of The Punk Rock Movie, or the incredible documentary about the man's life (Oddly, I just deleted 3 more movie references to the Pogues here. I have never even started to consider them a band I associate with the cinema), but instead I just wanna post this song, which shows both the live capabilities of this band and the way the audience reacts to them. No wonder these guys are drunks. Maybe I'll post my favorite songs on here someday.

"The Sick Bed of Cúchulaínn" (live) - The Pogues
But the Ultimate Collection here.

I have no fucking clue what this picture is of, other than a man in a funny hat on television. Oh well.

Also, I AM NEVER DRINKING CHAMPAGNE AGAIN. the stiff is a vile liquid.

Buena Sera - Louis Prima

So, after a conversation with a friend last night, I got to thinking about depression. I’ve had plenty of experiences with depression, but firsthand and through others, and they rarely leave one feeling anything but helpless. For a long time I was pretty wreckless and indifferent to everything in my life and the people that matter most to me because of it, and a lot of times it got much worse. I like to think things have gotten better since then, and for the most part the have. But it doesn’t take much to slip into a black mood. There was a lot of talk about me going on medication for awhile, and in retrospect it was probably a really good idea. It probably still is. But I’ve always refused. Not because I hate pharmaceutical drugs or anything. I’m not fond of them, but you have to be a complete ass (or scientologist –same thing) to think they never do good. Study schizophrenia for 5 seconds and you’ll realize that, not to mention the countless other applications. That said, though, I never really felt that medication was the right step for me. My bouts with depression have always been bipolar in nature, and they would certainly regulate my moods and behavior. (though I’m not about to start self-diagnosing) and to be honest, I prefer to keep my moods. It’s a terrible feeling when things aren’t going well. I’ve been crippled with self loathing and unable to leave bed because of the way I feel about things. It can be downright terrible. It would be nice to not have to put up with that, of course. But at the same time, to give those up would be to give up the sort of general feeling that I get to have today, such a giddy tone of happiness that I practically hum with excitement. I know that it won’t last forever, shit it probably won’t last me the rest of the week, but for what I have right here and now, I wouldn’t trade it for all the drugs and self-satisfaction in the world. So I wish to everyone reading this a spectacular day. I hope you get a chance to enjoy it. and J if you read this I'm glad you're feeling better.

So, a minor blunder has resulted in my deleting ALL of the music that was up on this site. So none of those links are gonna work anymore. I didn’t mean to do that, but I don’t mean to do a lot of the things I do, so in the end you’re just gonna have to bear with me. I was gona go back and set up a bunch of the links, but it’s not worth it if nobody’s gonna download them. So if there’s any tracks someone wants, just email me or post a comment asking me to put it back up and I’ll take care of it. Scouts honor.

So I’m a little short on commentary today, which I’m sure is gonna break your heart. I did wanna bitch for a moment (see, there I go…) about cell phones, because sometimes I just see people doing the dumbest shit while yakking away on a phone and it just makes me want to punch them in the sternum. First of all, there’s nothing wrong with driving and talking on a phone, but if you’re gonna do that, don’t drive like an ass. And seriously, if you’re getting directions to where you’re going, PULL THE FUCK OVER. There is nothing worse than getting stuck behing someone going 19mph on a 3 lane highway because they’re trying to read the signs as they’re driving past them. And if you’re walking around a store somewhere and talking on the phone, it’s pretty cool when you don’t broadcast your conversation about whoever cares to anyone that happens to be indoors at the time. It’s rude. Even more rude are the people what go through a checkout line without hanging up the phone. That drives me nuts. Have the dignity to address someone when you’re buying something from them. Pulling that “hold on” gesture when someone asks if they can help you should be punishable by public stoning. Seriously how inconsiderate is that? Unless you’re getting the results of a paternity/blood test or talking to a long lost twin, you can ask them to hold the fuck on while you pay for your crap. It’s common courtesy.

Okay, rant over. You might be able to tell I’ve had some shitty run-ins with people on cell phones today. So I’ve got a treat for everyone after deleting all the music hre, and that’s 2 songs off the Thermals album that comes out next Tuesday. The Thermals are made up of people who are in other bands (Hutch and Harris, All-Girl Summer Fun Band, etc…), and this will be their third album. From what I’ve heard, their old drummer left the band and has since been replaced, but this is the work of just 2 people. Which is fucking awesome. As of right now, this is probably my favorite album of the year along with the TV on the Radio album and the Man Man record. Sorry Ghostface. These guys might be the only band I can think of that I can honestly say that I would’ve enjoyed 10 years ago as much as I do right now. They’re quircky and energetic and fun, and they’ve managed to improve with each album they’ve released. It has a heavy theme of religion and how dangerous it can become when mixed with state and official mindset. Or something, I didn’t write it. Anyway, please go out any buy6 this album so I don’t feel like a huge turd for posting these songs before they were released officially.

“An Ear for Baby”- The Thermals

“A Pillar of Salt” - The Thermals

Preorder The Body, the Blood, the Machine here.

And out of love, here’s Sonic Youth covering the Kinks.

hey everyone just a heads up, box/net is down right now, but as soon as it's up i'm gonna delete all the music on ther up until aug. 1, so if there's anything you want from there get it now.

Karen Czarnecki: You are a fraud and should be run out of town on a rail.

It's funny, I'm putting together a list of things to do in Philly for someone, and just cimpiling this list is reminding me of all this shit I really should be doing more often. I know that it's terribly cliche to say something like "You know, I live here, but I never really [insert touristy function here]!", but I mean I don't even live there. I really do enjoy the city to my fullest every time I'm there, so why don't I do this stuff? I guess because I think I know what bars I like, where I don't wanna be on a friday night after 11, where the bad crowds go, where to good ones go... I''ve fallen into a rut. And, much like the rest of life, that's dangerous. The longer you spend on what you feel like is comfortable ground, the more helpess and guarded you become when trying something new.
and I really hate that shit. I just snapped at someone the other day for making fun of karaoke, saying it was just people making asses of themselves. OF COURSE IT IS. Even those wacky Japanese busniessmen who turned it into the phenomenon that it is today know that. The point is, it's fun. I don't really know what I'm going after here, it's just a half-baked theory i'm piecing together. So go out and do something new. Go laser bowling or hiking or buy an issue of Cat Fancy. try not to become a curmudgeon just yet. The more you abstain from trying new things, the more you grow to dislike people for no fucking reason whatsoever and in turn come across as a snotty tool. And nobody likes those. In the meantime, I'll try to follow my own advice.

Also, I just wanted to point out that when you're done doing fun, new things, there's a new show that's gonna be on the Sci-Fi network (which I've avoided like a network of hornests as long as I can remember -exception: Twilight Zone episodes) that's coming out soon called The Amazing Screw-On Head. It's from the creator of Hellboy and I think it looks to be incredible. Incidentally, there's talk of at least 2 Hellboy animated movies for TV being developed, both featuring voicework from the actors in the movies (including the frighteningly underrated Ron Perlman - blame that terrible Alien movie with Winona Ryder). so yeah, that's pretty cool.

If you're wondering about the caustic message and photo above, there's an explanation here. To have government officials posing as unbiased commentators is tactily deceptive and just plain wrong. There's plenty of people out there that will mimic the administration's bidding, at least try to delve deep enough to find someone not directly employed by it.

No music today, I'll try to post some real snappy wizbangs for you tomorrow, though.

oh, hippies.

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Tony Snow is a fat-headed sack of shit.

To quote Jim Anchower, it’s been awhile since I rapped at ya. Well, half of that you can blame on the crippling hangover that was handed to me courtesy of the Hold Steady (seriously, it was a long, long night), and the other half you can hold Blogger squarely responsible for. I know I do. Anyway, It’s been a rough couple of days here at work, and the weekend approaching looks like it might be more stressful than the last 3 combined. We’ll see, and I’ll be sure to post whether or not I’ve made it out alive.

I was gonna make this long tireade here about this new terror threat, and how I still don’t think everything adds up. There are too many might haves and allegedlys in this story for me to put all of my faith into things. The timing just seems way too ripe for all of this, and there still hasn’t been any facts presented in this case. I’m sure something was happening, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was some sort of terrorist plot, but guess what, that’s happening all over the world right now. You know what’s gonna make it worse? Killing more people. I’m glad that Tony Blair’s approval rating is back up, and that Tony Snow’s dickhole comments and Dick Cheney’s eerily prophetic conference call and all, but doesn’t all of this seem like it’s such an easy distraction from continued violence in Iraq, not to mention the shitstorm that is Lebanon right now?
It doesn’t matter what I say, because of the 9 people that read this, I’m reasonably sure that none is a head of state. Or an oil baron. For all I know, this page will be found by aliens sifting through the ashes of our once fertile culture, after they’ve started emulating old Gene Vincene and Elvis records. It’s just disgusting to me that I or anyone should actually try to plead with people in this modern age not to fucking murder people. It should be so easy to assume that we as a species have grown beyond that. Well, we haven’t. and I know it’s not our fault most of the time, and that sometimes other people attack you first. That’s the breaks. Fucking move on with your life. We shouldn’t be worrying so much on how to prevent another attack (here it comes………………..they’ll find another way), but maybe WHY they want to attack us. Maybe pursuing the domino theory that got is into Vietnam wasn’t the best idea. Maybe giving weapons to half the planet instead of food to the whole planet would’ve been a pretty keen idea. Shit, at least we’d save a lot of money. Maybe then most of my friends could afford to go to the doctor. The way that things are on this planet, it’s enough to kill a man. Or several hundred million.

But I didn’t wanna talk about that today. As one of my coworkers said earlier when we were talking about the BP scandal, “but you know what? It is a beautiful day.” And it is. I went and bought 2 new pairs of shoes last night, which I’ve actually never done before. It was strange, though, because as I was waiting in line to be rung up and realized that I was getting ready to buy 2 pairs of brown sneakers. Furthermore, I already have 2 pairs of brown sneakers at home. What the hell is wrong with me? I used to wear the most obnoxious clothing known to man (just ask my parents. One year, as I was opening up a christmas gift, they beamed from behinf the torn up wrapping paper and my mom said “it was the ugliest sweater we coulf find, so we figured you’d love it”. And I did). Now, I’m all browns and greens. I don’t blare music from my workspace anymore, I don’t even have any bumber stickers on my car anymore –exception: “Vulcans do it logically”. Thanks for that, Sean. So what can account for this? To what can I attribute my disappearing personality? Communization? That’s what I was initially afraid of, at first. But then I realized I’m just as much a loudmouth jerk as I always was. If anything I’ve gotten worse. And then I realized that it’s because I came to understand that personality, who you are, isn’t something so superficial as what bands you’re listening to, or how hopelessly mismatched your outfit is. It’s something far more subtle, that runs much, much deeper than whatever shit we all used to try on to convince ourselves of who we are. If someone can’t discern who and what you are, if someone can’t see past your hair or shoes to see what makes you an interesting person, a person as unique as any other asshole, then fuck them. They’re not worth it. Thos most ostentatious are always the most bland and worthless in a conversation. You don’t need that, trust me. Okay, my soapbox has a few holes in it, I should step down. It’s just something I was pondering as I was listening to the crickets in bed last night. You should really try it sometime.

Oh, and just so you know I put one of the pairs back and got a pair of black and bright green ones. You know, for when I wanna feel like a jerk.

So for today’s music are some songs from one of my favorite albums of the last decade. The Exploding Hearts put this out in 2001 or 2, but it’s tied directly into the punk/new wave sounds of the early 80s. They sing pop songs about falling in love and being a dumb kid. When I first heard them I was shocked at how much of a throwback sound they had while still maintaining everything that was fun and fresh and exciting about a band like the Rezillos or the Buzzcocks 25-30 years ago. Unfortunately, all but one of them were killed in a van crash a little over 3 years ago, right as they were poised to start touring the country for the first time. It was a damned shame. Anyways, Terry six has a new band, The Nice Boys, who can be heard here. Thanks for that, Shiv.

“Modern Kicks” – The Exploding Hearts

“Rumours in Town”– The Exploding Hearts.

Buy Guitar Romantic here.

I know next to nothing about Andrw Vincent and the Pirates, other than they’re from Ottowa, and their album is just as fun as the one listed above. It’s good for riding in a boat, for what it’s worth.

“One, Two, Three” – Andrew Vincent & The Pirates

“I Love the…” – Andrew Vincent & the Pirates

Buy I Love the Modern Way here.

Well, that’s it, gang. NO WAIT. I totally forgot. Go listen to a fan-fucking-tastic conversation between Jeff Garlin from Curb Your Enthusiasm and the freakishly brilliant and always hilarious Patton Oswalt. It’s about an hour and a half, but I promise you’ll laugh hard at least 8 times throughout. You know what, fuck it, I’ll even say 9. Thanks to the Hammer Museum for hosting it. Download it here.

Now, though, I’m outta here. I gotta run home, take back a shitload of cable to best buy, and then hop on I-95 for some good-time old fashioned summer weekend traffic. Everybody have a good one. With any luck I’ll tell my Lamborghini story when I get back.

I'm having trouble logging in for more than a few minutes at a time, for some reason. I'll come back later and try to post something longer. Cheers!
-Cotton

reflective tape on our sweatpants, gaping holes in our shoes.

googling "death metal band" is funny.

So, I stayed up late watching Overnight last night, which had been recommended to me ages ago but I finally now just got around watching. It's basically the unmaking of Troy Duffy, who was more or less plucked from obscurity by Harvey "the Butcher" Weinstein and given a big fat deal to make a movie from his script only to have it turn to shit when he alienated everyone (including the Harv, his family, and bandmates - oh yes he had a band) with his brash, pompous behavior. It's a pretty good movie, though I think I learned more about The Weinstein's stranglehold on hollywood than anything else. Anyway, one of the shots in the movie that really tears a guy up is in the very end the band (who had been offered a huge contract as well, and sincerely saw themselves as being the Next Great Thing) is shown what they're doing after the demise of the band, and they're just miserable. The one guy is a carpenter, the drummer is bagging groceries... it's just a shame. I guess in the end the moral is don't be a loud, obnoxious dick (or hang out with them). Or at least stay on the bigwig's good side. At first it reminded me of the old Langston Hughes poem, and then I realized "fuck that, their dream came true, they just then ran the plane into the side of the mountain". so yeah, I'm not shedding many tears I guess.
Anyway, I woke up with The Mountain Goats in my head. A band that is really hit-or-miss with me, but have easily written some of the most powerful songs of the last 10 years. John Darnielle has a gift that isn't easy to overlook. He's got a great sense of timing and melody, and he's one of the few people capable of really making me believe in his characters. One of the only other bands I can think of that can currently do that to me is the Hold Steady, who I get to see tonight. This is not an original comparison, as proven by the great New Yorker article from over a year ago, but it's an apt ones. Anyway, I had 2 songs that I used to get me out of bed this morning and clear the misguided conceit of that Duffy movie. The first one might be my favorite Mountain Goats song, and while the original recording from We Shall Be Healed is probably better (John Vanderslice makes that guitar sound so...wide. It's like the strumming can knock you from your seat), I love this live version because it features Mr. Vernderslice on keyboards and other various doohickeys. Is that even a word? Apparently it is. Also, Darnielle changes the words around a pretty good deal, probably out of boredpom with the originals. I once heard him say he doesn't like playing this song very much-which didn't stop me from begging him to play it. he did.
The second song is from the same show, approx. 2 songs later. It's about 2 teenagers who form a death metal band and set out to destroy the world. Darnielle sings about them with a passion that you almost never hear. They are the young and hungry Troy Duffys, and you never know if they might actually win in the end. Plus, any song that has an entire venue of people chanting "Hail Satan" along with an accoustic guitar has to be pretty much worth listening to, right? right?

Palmcorder Yajna (live) - The Mountain Goats (direct link)

The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton (live) - The Mountain Goats (direct link)

Buy We Shall Be Healed and All Hail West Texas here and here, respectively. Or download the rest of the show here. Or travel back in time and see the show here, I don't care.

Anyway, I don't know if I'm gonna get a chance to post tomorrow since I won't get home tonight until very late, but we'll see. If you wanna see a million pictures of the Hold Steady live, check 'em out here.

Not Peja

I really just wanted a regular picture of Peja Stojakovic in uniform, but after finding this one at Yaysports, I had to post it. It's still making me laugh.

Good afternoon, fine people. Hope everyone had a nice weekend and managed to stay out of trouble. I'm pretty sure I did, though the shit parade keeps on comin'* with the possiblity that I might have pinkeye. Or that one of my eyes is irritated from the pollution in the Chesapeake. So yeah, isn't that just ducky. Got to catch up on a lot of music over the weekend, something I haven't had much time to do lately. I also figured out how to see how many people downloaded these songs I'm linking to, which made me promptly scratch my head and ask myself "why the hell am I doing this?" No, but it's strange to see that, almost without exception, my favorite songs that I've posted have 0 downloads. boo. Actually, "Boo" has 1. I figured it was probably because most of the stuff I post on here is at least a few years old, but that doesn't seem to be the trend either. Strangely, the most downloaded song (overwhelmingly so) on this site has been "Deformative", which I can only attribute to Lorna's glowing review.
So yeah, I've decided in lieu of this that I'm gonna start posting fewer songs, because that takes the most time and it seems like it's not horribly in demand.
Pela is one of those bands that's been predicted to "make it big" this year (along with Tapes n' Tapes and Birdmonster and Tokyo Police Club). I normally steer clear of bands like this, because invariably you hear them and wonder who the hell thinks that this band is worth the adulation. To be honest, I was unimpressed the first time I listened to these songs, but after hearing them a few times this weekend (and once in the crucial "Hellaware Gully" stretch of the drive to MD) these songs have both really grown on me. They're really not the sort of band that I would normally enjoy, but then neither are a lot of bands that I like, so what can a guy do?

"Tenement Teeth" - Pela

"Present" - Pela

Buy All In Time here.

tonight I promised I'd read the screenplay written by our monkey, which is sure to disappoint. But he spent all weekend writing it and even picked up a crayon sharpener, so I feel like I owe it to him.

*I stared at that for twenty minutes trying to figure out if that was from a song or if I read that somewhere before I remembered that it's from Steven Wright's KBILLY radio DJ from the Reservoir Dogs sountrack.

VOTE TRAINED CHIMP!

It’s finally cooled off, like a gift from some benevolent ice god…to 90º F. Whatever, I can finally eat again without fear of passing out from heat exhaustion. Which is nice. I’ve had this cell phone for a week now, and I honestly just can’t figure the fucking thing out. It’s probably the nicest one I’ve ever owned, but it doesn’t have an apostrophe for text messaging. How strange is that? Or, you might be asking, who cares? Well, I’ve got issues with grammar (moreso with typos, judging my this site), so me for one. It really pisses me off when I have to send “Ill be there in 5” to someone. And yeah, I know I could just not use contractions, but the long way is for suckers, and because if I’m gonna actually write the whole thing out I might as well just call. Right? RIGHT!!???

Moving on, there was a curious little story yesterday that out of the $66,000 that was raised by the Luzerne County Green Party, all but $30 of the contributions came from GOP insiders and heavy Rick Santorum supporters. Santorum is running scared right now, and might well be the most endangered GOP senator in the upcoming elections (except for Joe Leiberman ha ha. And Conrad Burns). So he figured that, by giving the Green Party candidate enough support, he’d be able to siphon enough votes away from Bob Casey Jr’s campaign to keep his spot in the senate. And you know what, I’m not sure he’s wrong. Santorum is a clown. Everyone knows this. He says some of the most outrageous and asinine things to the worst possible people, and he panders to his insane base constituency, but he’s no fool. See, the problem is that Casey is hardly the liberal opposition’s voice. He opposes stem cell research, gun control and abortion, and supports capital punishment. That he supports same-sex benefits and not a complete asswipe in regard to the environment I think are the only reasons he’s managed to garner as much support as he has. Oh, and because Santorum just sounds dirty. But still, you could probably run a trained chimp against Santorum right now, and as long as he doesn’t fling any feces at children, he’s gonna have pretty good odds. It's not about taking out the bad guy, it's about putting in a good guy. so many peole start quivering with excitement at the thought of Santorum getting kicked out in the street (or making $750,000 a month on the lecture circuit, same thing), but that's nothing if you just vote some other putz in his place.

So why are the dems running this guy, who has runs these horrible negative campaigns and who’ll sell out the rights of millions? I am registered Green and while the thought of Santorum money funding the candidate I support sends shivers down my spine, I'll take the damned money. I'll thank 'em for it, too. Because I'd rather have that dick win and get closer to having a viable third party option in this state than send some other dick in who has as many stances as Santorum that I can support. Besides, they raised 30 DOLLARS. My nephew's car washes rake in more than that. In addition to that, Will bunch found out some interesting stuff about the company that gathered their signatures.

The Go! Team is one of the most entertaining live bands of all time. Now they've picked up some grit and are covering Sonic Youth.

"Bull in the Heather" - The Go! Team

Buy Thunder Lighning Strike here. Seriously, if you haven't, you should.

Herman Düne cracks me up and his stuff stays in my head for days.

"Seven Cities" - Herman Düne
Buy Not On Top here.

Well, I'm off to enjoy a few days of swimming, boating, and a parade that features a guy in a crab costume. Everyone have a great weekend.

Somebody is wailing...

another sweltering day, and i'm too tired to even hope for a thunderstorm tonight to cool things off. I tried listening to the news today for the first time in awhile, but i got as far as hearing that we bombed soccer fields in Baghdad today before I had to shut it off. I know I missed a whole bunch of other stuff that'd break you heart, like this and this, but seriously who needs more? I read a bunch last night about these religious right assholes pushing for war with Iran in order to facilitate the apocalypse. This guy wants to bring on the apocalypse? How fucking backwards is that? You know what that'll bring about, I mean other than Jesus? NUCLEAR WAR. Honestly, are they so keen to show the rest of us the golden chariots that are waiting for them that they're rilling to risk global war? How insane is that? Shit, I'd rather stay on the earth that becomes hell than be one of the shitheels trying to provoke millions of deaths. I don'tunderstand how any person of the cloth can actually be such a warmonger. Why don't people see this? How the hell does someone read the bible for more than 15 minutes and get the idea that war is acceptable? or any religion, for that matter. And don't give me that "eye for an eye", shit. THE BIBLE IS RIFE WITH CONTRADICTORY STATEMENTS. You can use the bible to say anything you want, that's what it's so easy to fight over. I'm pretty sure i could find something in there that could be construed as supporting incest necrophilia if i looked hard enough.
The wrong people are losing eyes, and the wrong ones are making shitloads of money and power here. Lots of it. As usuall, Noam Chomsky knows what he's talking about and as usual, it terrifies me.
oh, and hey Vegas, you're all class. Thanks for being a bunch of assholes.

This week is almost over, and I can only hope the insanity that has accompanied it will die down as well. Im' sorry to all the calls i've missed and people I've been curt with. It's a bunch of long, long stories.

Here's a Man Man set from NPR that's very much worth listening to.


I really miss Joe Strummer.

One of the great things about doing this little thing are the google searches I invariably end up scrambling to find once I’ve completed the post. I try to incorporate 2 very random words from the song titles to see what comes up, but today I thought “gorilla fries”, and behold the beauty that sprang from it. Also, because today's subject matter doesn't sound like it would bring anything tolerable up.

Anyway, yesterday was probably the most harrowing day I can remember ever happen, which is kinda strange because for all rights it will be one that I’ll remember for the rest of my life. Let’s just hope I remember it for the right reasons. Anyway, last night I was sitting in bed at 4:30 trying to fall asleep in the unbearable heat (I thought about getting into an ice-filled bathtub, but figured I’d probably wake up freaking out thinking my organs had been stolen or something) and just wallowing in my own misery when I heard the radio news report about rabies in China. Have you heard about this? Because of 3 recent deaths due to canine rabies. The chinese government has exterminated over 50,000 dogs. FIFTY THOUSAND DOGS. I mean, you gotta figure at least ¾ of those were pets, right? The government was offering families just over 60 cents per each dog that was killed. Man, do you know how hard it is to think about money problems or some other petty crap (and in the end, that’s what 95% of my problems are – petty crap, unavoidable, or my own damn fault) when there’s, I dunno, a few hundred thousand kids who just watched their pets get shot. “Sorry about Fluffy, Xian, but why don’t you go buy a pack of gum”. It seems that China's had a rought time with rabies, with a couple thousand people getting infected every year, including 2,651 reported deaths from the disease in 2004. The US had a record six. Seriously, it never ceases to amaze me how often the Chinese government drops the ball on public health. China, you’ve got over a billion and a half people, and there are more people working to block the internet to your residents than there are trying to keep them from dying of rabies? What the fuck? They probably spent more time covering up SARS than they did vaccinating rabies. Anyway, I've been thinking about that a little this morning.

I've been thinking a lot lately to sliding back the amount of songs on here, to either 1 song per post every day or 2-3 songs every few days, with me just putting in text posts on the non-music days. Let me know what sounds better. It doesn't matter, in the end I'm just gonna start posting Chuck Mangione songs every day until I nobody reads this anymore. sigh.

oh, and Mel Gibson, thanks for providing some evidence that you're the crazy asshole we all knew you were. Now I'm gonna have to burn my copy of The Road Warrior.

"Mountain of Love" - Bruce Springsteen & the E. Street Band
This song is incredible. and short. In fact, I originally intended on posting a different song from this set (recorded at the original Main Point in Bryn Mawr, PA in May, 1975) , but the files are huge so this is the one you get, lucky. It's a Beach Boys song, and to be honest I've always loathed the Beach Boys (2 most given reasons: the harmonies are too perfect and the only one that actually could surf drowned). But somehow the best live band in the world pounds this into a rock song. a great rock song. Anyways, it's got handclaps, great harmonies, and the sort of sax that actually makes you actually bolt upright and shoult epiphanies extolling the virtues of the instrument. I'm not normally a sax guy, as you might be able to tell.

"I Can Hear You Calling" - Three Dog Night
Another great song by this band that they didn't write.
Buy Naturally here.

"GDMFSOB" (UNKLE remix feat. Roots Manuva) - DJ Shadow
This song is a drastic reworking of an otherwise bland song on the last DJ Shadow album, and might have the highest density burst of cuss words in recorded history. It sort of kills the track, but to not give Roots Manuva credit for his Brian Eno reference would be criminal. So here it is, you've been warned. Odd fact: This song almost exclusively comes up on my ipod in the supermarket.
Buy the Mashin' On the Motorway EP here.

damnit

okay, so on friday I set up a MASSIVE post to apologize for disappearing like that, and as I was finishing it up, the power went out. I haven't been back since then, and my computer at home doesn't work. Well, it does, but I can't log on to here for some reason. Anyway, i will make a normal post tomorrow, but today I just gotta throw this stuff up and move on because I've had what seriously might quality as the worst fucking morning ever, from the fish juice that has rendered my car into a veritable stinkhouse on wheels, to my new phone not being able to keep time sufficeently and making me late for work today to having to make a major decision on the fly this afternoon. I'm hungry and exhausted and I've got more work than I know what to do with in front of me right now. boo. So yeah, here's the music I had written great descriptions about last friday before everything went sour. I'm pretty close to a meltdown right now (literally. it's like 102 out right now), so I'm gonna get back to work. toodles.

This is a remix of a collaboration between 2 guys that had never met. It's sweet and easy to listen to.
"All That You Are"(remix) - Foreign Exchange
Buy Connected here

This comes from what might be the most overlooked San Francisco band of the late sixties. I got it after hearing the Cat Power version of "Naked If I Wanted To", which was my favorite song off that album of cover songs that she did. Strangely, it was one of my least favorite off the Moby Grape album once i got it.
"Indifference" - Moby Grape
Buy Moby Grape here.
Buy The Covers Record here.

Halo of Flies is the sort of band that I rarely break out, but when I do I'll listen to the whole record four times in a row. They sound like they're pissed off and probably don't care what you think. They're also the only AmRep band that I still listen to anymore.
"Tired & Cold" - Halo of Flies
By Music For Insect Minds here.

This last song is from Lifter Puller, which was the band Craig (and later Tad) from the Hold Steady were in before forming the new band. It seems like they had a huge following (even among rappers, it seems). A lot of people can't stand the sound of Craig's voice, and if that's the case, this one ain't gonna win you over, either. I really love the production in this song for some reason.
"The Flex & Fuff Result" - Lifter Puller
Buy Fiestas + Fisacos here.

I'll be back tomorrow with some cohesion, a whole lot of cuss words, and quite possibly my favorite Springsteen song ever played (but somehow not committed to record). PS I took that gorilla photo at the zoo like 2 weeks ago. I don't know why it finally sent it 9 days after the phone that took and sent it had been destroyed. apologies.