Presenting the 2nd Annual "Noch Can't Go" Festival

The Detour Festival hits LA again this October:


Unfortunately, I will have to miss out on the fun again because I couldn't talk my cousin into moving her wedding date to a non-fun weekend.

Therefore, I must once again experience the music vicariously through one of you. Tickets go on sale this Saturday. Oh yeah, and make sure you check out Justice, for both our sakes.

It's Kinda Like the Pink Floyd/Wizard of Oz Thing...

...but not really. It's more like only having two copies of the Pink Floyd.

One of the admins on the Keep Music Alive forums posted this little ditty, stating that two separate copies of Radiohead's seminal Kid A "will sync up and compliment each other" if played 17 seconds apart. Interesting concept, right?

Even though I'm one of the masses who's guilty of Thom Yorke idolatry, I still kinda find this hard to believe. Granted, it is a really cool idea that I wouldn't put past a genius like Monsieur Yorke to use.

I'll admit I haven't really played with this in depth and thus haven't really tried to incorporate the nuances of the songs in my bitching, but here's the thing: any song should sync up with itself approximately 17 seconds in. It's called rhythm.

Seriously, though, if somebody can attest to the aforementioned nuances, by all means, blow me. Away. Blow me away.

Because it Sounds Nice...

As the saying goes, what's the point in having a hot girlfriend if you can't properly f&ck her?

Okay, fine. I just made that up. But after listening to my wonderful collection of mp3s and CDs off of crappy speakers for the past 8 years, I finally did it and invested in a brand new set up.

Meet my new means to getting laid...

Apparently, its purpose is to add surround sound to an existing Sony Bravia HDTV. Although I don't have such a TV, I did want to utilize the digital goodness for what we all know it was meant to do... play music.

Imagine this system in a room roughly 10x14 with two speakers on high shelves, one under the bed, one on the bedside table, two on my desk, and the subwoofer under.

You know what you get? That's right. Stephan Jenkins practically sits in my room as he sings to me. And that, my friend, was worth getting ripped off by Amazon.

Can You Rap??

Looks like the kids are bringin' their A games to this blog shit. While I have nothing significant to add xept that I will be going to Rock The Bells this weekend (show review andpics to come no doubt)... I leave you all with this tidbit...

Crazier Than a Fish with Titties!

It's back! Oh, happy day!


Beginning today with chapter 13, a new chapter will be released daily on IFC until the story hits 22:

R.Kelly - Trapped in the Closet.

Spiffy page, huh? Okay, so chapter 13 is a bit slapstick, but I'm sure the story will return to its normal, poignant self in no time.

All the Party People... Come On!

Q: How does a Seattle indie band gain some electronica cred?

A: Tell everybody they're from Europe, or specifically, Mannheim, Germany, as the case happens to be for the members of United State of Electronica.

So the story goes: these guys started up a fake electronica band at a Seattle nightclub, and the overwhelming response led them to take this thing more seriously. So seriously, in fact, they released a full-length album in 2004:


The opening track, "It Is On!", is quite bitchin', but the consensus is that the song doesn't really take off until after the vocoder shit ends, and the female vocals take center stage. So, if you're a busy music executive, fast forward to 1:17.

United State of Electronica - It Is On!

Album number 2 is expected to be out later this year or early next year. In the meantime, hit up their official website. There are other mp3s available plus some fun live videos.

T. Pop

Unable to leave a-pop alone, I've got another chunk for you to chew on. This time, we're snacking on Taiwan. New Yorker is a new pop band that just put out an album in 2007 called Make You Happy. The title track:



The lead singer, Mei, actually works at the music shop where I used to practice and take drum lessons. Pretty nice girl. Unfortunately, the album suffers a little from being too pop. I guess it's a so-so-ness in the songwriting. One thing that kind of sticks out is that the vocals tend to try to carry the music. It works on some tracks: "Let It Be" and "Make You Happy", but sort of falls flat for others: "Kiss Kiss" and "Oh! My God!"

But still, this is a decent album. Not really standard Taiwanese pop, but belonging more to a new kind of independent pop status. It's a little rough around the edges, but it's not bad. I'm looking forward to future albums.

New Yorker - Make You Happy
New Yorker - Let It Be

Recap of Chicago Festivities

Flight to Midwest America: $355
Hotel stay: $155
Concert ticket: $195
Corn on the cob: $3

Memories to last a lifetime: Priceless...

Cheeseburger, I know, but I've always wanted to write something like that.

After making the horrible decision to not attend Coachella (I blame momentary retardation), I was determined to make up for it by traveling the distance to attend the next big thing. I was also excited to visit Barack Obama's hometown. Barack the Casbah.

I'll list my favorite three performances.

Blonde Redhead.

She sat on a giant fake horse on stage. Yes, it was black felt.

Silverchair.

Oh, grunge. How I missed you. And man, did Daniel Johns age or what?

Daft Punk.

The energy, oh, the energy. I felt like I was staring at a giant Brite Lite setup on speed.

Despite the heat... then the rain (wtf!?!)... then the heat again, the journey was well rewarded. Although I've been anti-big-venue and anti-outdoor in the past, and although this adventure put a big a$$ dent in my wallet, it was well worth every penny and every minute of every delayed flight. I'm going again next year... and you're coming with me.

A. Pop

I may have found myself back in the west, but my head is still in the east. I've got a couple bands on repeat right now. One is a three woman outfit out of Japan called Chatmonchy. Don't ask me what their name's supposed to mean. The only Japanese I learned in my three years as their neighbor was gleaned from fansubbed Naruto cartoons.

But back to Chatmonchy, we're talking about kickassness on so multiple levels. For one thing, they are a band. Drummer, bassist, and vocal/guitar. With melodies and hooks reminiscent of the J Pop superstar, Ai Otsuka, this group befits from a rock sensibility maybe borrowed from heavyweight veterans Puffy Amiyumi. Quite frankly, I wish I was in this band. This song is off their 2006 full length release, Minimari, and one of my favorites:

Chatmonchy - Koi no Kemuri

You can also find their music vids (called PVs in Japan) in their grainy, incomprehensible glory on youtube. Here's one of their most popular tracks to date:

Chatmonchy - Shangrila

Another Edition of Irrelevance

Europe got Rilo Kiley, Canada may have gotten Bjork, but the USA got Sting and his bulging (insert perverted imagination here).

Virgin Music festival in Baltimore...here are some highlights...

Saturday
-It's 90+ degrees in Baltimore. Compared to Coachella that may be tolerated, except it's humid. That means swamp ass, but all over your body, including your face when you apply sunscreen.
- After feeling sick and recovering, I make it back on time to catch Peter Bjorn and John (props to my friend/coworker Sam who got to play bongos with them in two songs) who were awesome.
-LCD Soundsystem had the entire crowd dancing like fools.
-TV on the Radio were amazing as usual with the lead singer of Celebration to join them for a few of their songs (might I add here I got to see them in the barricade.
-Modest Mouse was coaxed on stage by chanting of their name, which soon ended with "WHAT THE FUCK, WHAT THE FUCK".

Sunday.
-A lot cooler. Which turned to cloudy, which turned to rainy.
-Caught Matisyahu; during the second song, the cutest little boy with huge headphones (to protect his ears from the sound) was let loose on stage. The photographers went nuts. The kid, rather confused walked in toddler fashion very slowly as if his head would fall off.
-Bad brains lead singer flings a round loaf of bread on stage in which i mistake as a rock and duck like an idiot.
-Karen O as usual has both the boys and girls (including me) wishing we could be/do her. The bowl cut never looked so hot.
-Wu-Tang Clan; this is what Baltimore was waiting for. I was in charge of escorting a Washington Post photographer into the pit to catch crowd surfers. As we were mangled with heavy equipment on us, I was reminded again how old I am getting. By the end, we both looked like we got out of the shower with our clothes on. I forgive him (the crowd shot used on the front cover ended up being a picture that was NOT escorted by me) and will remain his BFF.
-MIA rockin a new short hair cut, rocked her fans with tons of new material. She came on stage with my friend's poncho covered in hot pink gaffing tape spelling her name in which she proceeded to rip off after the third song.

Overall
After long days in the sun and rain, being yelled at by photographers, yelling at photographers, stopping a fight, nonstop dirty jokes (virgin jokes, poon jokes, poop/porta-potti jokes, thats-what-she-said jokes, and oh yeah, did I mentioned we're going to bring the word "cooter" back?), and swamping sweat, it was definitely worth working. It was the one time where coworkers from the past and present from 930 Club were all in one place, and that was enough for me.

The end.