For those of you who have never read the Disgrasian blog, do it now. It's okay, I'll wait.
So now that you have a taste of greatness, you'll probably feel almost as proud as I do for having our very own Bobby "The Biz'Ness"* Lin get a "Rock of Asian" music submission printed. On top of the usual "Thanks, [your name here]!" the boy got additional big ups in the story itself. Double proud!
And for the record, he did consider posting the David Choi thing for this site but felt it was a bit old and out of character, so it's okay.
On Wednesday, December 3, 2008, two things of note happened. The first, which is probably not so interesting to any of you, is that for the first time, I forgot to pay my credit card bill for the month. Shit.
The second, is that Ted Leo & the Pharmacists played a gig in Brooklyn called Indie Rock Karaoke, hosted by Andrew W.K.
THAT was a fucking trip. Featuring three hours of covers, sung by the audience and backed by Ted & the Pharmacists. Songs by the Stooges, the Ramones, the Misfits, AC/DC, the Cure, the Clash, Joy Division, David Bowie, Blondie, Minor Threat, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Steely Dan, and others. They even let tons of people switch songs and do their songs: a Colleen from the audience perform their song Colleen and a dude successfully requested to sing Where Have all the Rudeboys Gone even though it was already played earlier in the night.
Coolest songs? Aretha Franklin's Respect (voted best performance of the night by Andrew W.K.) and the Outfield's Your Love:
Last night, as an early birthday gift, Connie took me to see the modern incarnation of the Smashing Pumpkins at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City. Before the show, I looked into several things:
1. Which venue sold out to Gibson, and subsequently read about the amphitheater's amazing acoustics.
3. What the traffic would be like to Connie's office, because it's always good to be prepared.
On to the show itself. First off, here's the setlist from the Pumpkins' site: They also played "Eye," their marvelous inclusion on the Lost Highway soundtrack, pretty early into the set, maybe right before "Mayonaise." Combining this with the aforementioned sound quality of the venue, and I'd say about 90% of the show kicked ass. The hits were amazing, and songs like "Stand Inside Your Love" and "Tonight, Tonight" played live completely blow the album versions out the water. "Once Upon a Time," "The Crux," and "The Rose March" were played semi-acoustic, which was also great.
Personal highlight for Connie and me: Before going into "Once Upon a Time," Corgan intro'd it as a song on "Ado-ree" that was written for his mom. Two rows in front of us, some long-haired kid started jumping up and down gleefully, and called his friend to let him hear the song on the phone but hung up about 10 seconds into the song. Personally, I think he assumed it was gonna be "For Martha" and hung up when it turned out otherwise. Connie's highlight: the jumping. My highlight: the disappointment.
The other 10%: Twenty minute renditions of "United States" and "Heavy Metal Machine." Pretty much everybody around us zoned out, and at one point I turned to Connie to ask, "What the fuck is going on?" The linked Pumpkins setlist site probably had the best synopsis, which, in a nutshell, stated that Corgan has no sense of rapport with the audience, instead going into long, improvisational jam sessions that only serve to feed his ego. Miles Davis he thinks he is, but Miles Davis he ain't.
Still, overall, great show. Much obliged, Connie.
This is what Corgan wore. The bottom half is a dress. No lie.
I accidentally discovered this sweet little ditty through a live version I heard a few days ago, and I am now hooked.
A little background info on the band: The Magic Numbers are two brother-sister pairs who all met at a London Catholic School. The two pairs met there, I mean. I'm sure the siblings knew each other somewhat longer. Then they became a band.
Anyhoo, two personal points I'd like to make: 1. "Forever Lost" was from their 2005 debut album. I know I'm way late on this, but it's just so good I gotta share it. 2. I really think I need to get over whatever preconceptions I have of bands based on their grimey looks, crappy album covers, or... mainly their grimey looks. I almost missed out on My Morning Jacket, and the Magic Numbers have a very poppy, Carpenters-esque sound. Moral: don't judge a band by its B.O.
1. Is Q-tip done being pretentious? I'm not entirely sure, but Getting Up sounds miiiiighty nostalgic.
2. Anyone remember Common on Armand Van Helden's Full Moon joint? Well, the Universal Mind Control's electro groove is probably as close as dude will get to doing another house track (click through as embedding's been disabled).
3. Back when Black on Both Sides dropped, I remember listening to New World Water and thinking, shit, did Mos take ISF16 too? As supplementary material to my Cal course on technology and globalization, the track was totally on point. Mathematics is the new New World Water.
Like many Asian males who never played intramural sports, the boy Fat Kids are avid video game fans. Jerome's Wii is his baby. Bobby's obsession with anything involving a controller stems partly from a console-less childhood. I'll pretty much go wide-eyed for any game that involves stealing cars or firing off rocket launchers. On several occasions, we've talked about doing a gaming blog, but the biggest obstacle is that I can't get games for free on Mininova.
However, we'll always have video game music to tide us over. Enter: Chiptune band, YMCK.
Good entrance.
I mentioned YMCK a few months ago, mistaking them for a Taiwanese band simply because the latest news item on their official website at the time was them playing a Taiwanese festival. Oops.
Anyway, a few days ago I finally got their 2008 release, Family Genesis, and it's Chip-tastic. To pay my respects to this album, I finally signed up for another file-hosting site and uploaded a couple select tracks: YMCK - Sabita Tobira No Dai 8 Tengoku
I read somewhere a long time ago that one of the greatest musical honors is to be asked to write a James Bond film theme. Alumni have included Nancy Sinatra, Shirley Bassey, Paul McCartney, and perennial favorite, Quiet Riot. Kidding.
Anyway, prepare the marble busts for the newest additions, Alicia Keys and Jack White, with "Another Way to Die" for Quantum of Solace:
And while we're at it, here are couple of my favorites:
Acoustic, acoustic... I never appreciated acoustic music the way it should be, with the realness blatantly imprinted on the wax.
A few months ago, I found a clip of the Ting Tings on Indie's website. They were performing acoustic, but what I liked the most about it was how un-acoustic it sounded. They were mishmashing two of their most popular songs (Great DJ and That's Not My Name). It was brilliant. I was hooked.
A few weeks later, I was shocked to find that their show had sold out before I had a chance to buy tickets. Were they already that popular? I didn't even hear them on the radio yet.
A few days ago, Enoch sent me some Ting Ting acoustic songs. Like a mentally disabled dog incapable of learning new things even after deep-rooted self-proclaimed transcendental analysis, I ignored his email and instead, went straight to listening to the full album.
I think I fall in love too easily. The one great thing I love about the Ting Tings is that every song is different. They don't pigeonhole themselves into one tiny niche where you think - Ah, yes, this. Instead, they make you like each and every song for very different reasons.
Let me preface this by saying finding decent quality Pinkerton-tracked live videos from Weezer is damn near impossible. It might be a combination of Rivers Cuomo's reluctance to play songs from that album and the general lack of Weezer recordings available, but I attribute it mainly to the horde of godawful covers inundating the Youtube search results. In a rare act of late-night genius, I was able to circumvent the webcam shots that should be reserved for amateur porn and found some gems like these:
By the way, Youtube is a subsidiary of Google, Inc. and thus the search bar functions similarly in that including a minus sign ("-") immediately in front of a term will prevent that term from being part of the search.
More importantly, though, the link provided in the descriptions of those two videos lead to the motherload of Weezer bootlegs. Registration is free, so go nuts.
Also, this reminded me that I forgot to share a similar source for a multitude of Ash bootlegs which I found a few months ago. Again, registration is free. Happy day, right?
Apparently, the Wonder Girls are a pretty big deal in Korea. Here are three interesting things I learned from researching this video:
1. They debuted in 2007, and this video is their "comeback." Rough year.
2. The dude stuck on the shitter is Park Jin-Young, their real-life Lou Pearlman.
3. Two of the girls are 16. So watch it, fellas.
This video was brought to my attention via Disgrasian, written by two of the most badass Asian girls ever. The other three occasionally write for this blog.
I must admit I was a bit late in getting on the My Morning Jacket bandwagon mostly because I pigeonholed them as a Phish-type band, which I am wont to do upon hearing the phrase "Kentucky jam band."
That all changed when I heard their cover of Erykah Badu's "Tyrone." If I ever pick up another online fire storage account, I'll get the studio version out. It's very tits.
In the meantime, check out these recent live versions. The first one is from the band's four-hour set at Bonnaroo, and the second includes Ms. Badu herself joining the fellas onstage. There are a few more complete versions available on Youtube, but these had the best sound quality:
Useless and retarded trivia: The lead singer of My Morning Jacket is named Jim James, so when he sings about how you're always bringing those guys around, "Jim James" is probably one name.
Here are two upcoming shows in the LA area if anybody would be interested in carpooling:
1. The LA Weekly Detour Music Festival After three years of advertising for these guys, it'd be nice if I were to finally go to one. However, given the fact that it's college football season, that's a BIG "if."
2. Kings of Leon w/ We Are Scientists & The Stills I think I called Kings of Leon's Because of the Times something along the lines of "epic" last year. Their new album, Only By the Night? I've only heard a song so far, but I'm assuming the rest of the album is pretty awesome too.
Both supporting acts We Are Scientists and The Stills are sharing their new tunes as well. The Stills' Oceans Will Rise, which I haven't heard either (I've been out of touch with new music since July due to lack of hard drive space), is supposed to be quite excellent too; at the very least, I've heard it to be... let me see here... "rejuvenated." I don't know about you, but I'm pumped.
We Are Scientists' second album, Brain Thrust Mastery, which I actually have heard, isn't as good as their debut, With Love and Squalor, but the guys put on a pretty entertaining live show. Although they stopped bookending their shows with Phil Collins' "Against All Odds" and Boyz II Men's "End of the Road," the banter is still top notch. Just think of them as a more cerebral Blink-182.
If you've been watching the basketball coverage of the games, you've probably seen that Nike commercial with Marvin Gaye singing the national anthem interspersed with clips of the Redeem Team trying to live up to the hype. Having never seen the original performance, I thought, "sick beat and dramatic. Good job, Nike."
Then, I came across this:
The drum machine. The screams in the audience. All Marvin.
It's a huge hype, the idea of the local band. Usually, I only find out about local bands after they get huge and I hear them say, "I grew up in the dirty projects of Los Angeles," on MTV. Even if someone says they're from LA, they're usually from some shithole part of LA - like Upland or something. I Wiki-ed the Great Northern but found minimal information about their exact birth place. I digress.
So the Great Northern. The guy on Indie 103.1 told me I'd hear them on commercials more. As soon as he said that, I liked them a little less. They do sound like they'd be on a fucking toothpaste or Dentine Ice commercial.
I'll choose to like them for the next day or so. I might change my mind tomorrow, but as of today, I'll forget about that whole commercial comment and go back to my initial opinion that they sound like Death Cab with a little bit of Savage Garden with a chick. Like I said, I'll like them for the next day or so.
On a side note, why are the Olympics so goddamn addicting? I never cared so much about synchronized diving.
Yo. Enoch claims I spend too much time wasting time on Youtube. But come on. You gotta love it when it keeps on keeping you mesmerized with the same shit, better and awesomer.
Every summer, there are a number of concert series throughout the city of New York. River-to-River is a good one that features all free shows (I think). I remember seeing Rahzel & The New Deal perform together at one of their shows a few years back. Last Thursday, I hopped on the train and headed down to Battery Park to catch Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, described in The New Yorker as "heroes of the underground." I should have known, though, that the underground splits into numerous subterranean caves. While some of the inhabitants seem familliar, much of what's out there does seem foreign and uninviting.
Thursday, I found myself knee-deep in just such an underground body of water. A veritable sea of twenty and thirty somethings, reeking of for-the-sake-of-irony irony and malicious, self-serving condescention. Please don't stop reading, though, before you understand that I'm not trying to rag on the awesome Ted Leo & the Pharmacists. They were brilliant.
And the show was great. They played a terrific set, mixing old standards with all-new material. According to whitestrpsrock (since I'm horrible with Ted Leo+Rx song titles):
Heart Problems / New Song / Me and Mia / Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone? / New Song / Hearts of Oak / The One Who Got Us Out / Counting Down the Hours / Little Dawn / New - "There Goes My Brain" / New - "Gimme the Rock" / Annunciation Day/Born on Christmas Day / Bomb. Repeat. Bomb. / New Song / Bottle of Buckie / The Unwanted Things / Who Do You Love? / The World is in the Turlet / New - "Last Days" // Timorous Me / Hybrid Moments (Misfits cover) / Fisherman's Blues (The Waterboys cover)
While the stage was a little low, killing the view for anyone farther back than the third row, I did get a couple shots (of tiny Ted).
But back to the subject at hand, what pissed me off were the folks. I've never been more creeped out by a sub-section of society. Not by the punks, not by the goths, not by the preps.... Here's an exchange I overheard at the show:
Guy: Someone left a message on my myspace saying I should come to California and bring the whole band along. I checked her profile and our band is listed as her NUMBER ONE FRIEND!
Girl1: OMG.
Girl2: What a loooser!
Guy: I know!
All: condescending hipster laughter
Fuck a pack of ungrateful hipster musicians. Long live Ted Leo & the Pharmacists.
This could easily turn out to be one of the greatest movies I'll ever watch.
Los Angeles is scattered with the hopefuls who bus their ways in from Kansas, Ohio, Kentucky... where California is a dream. People like me were born privileged. The Hollywood Hills, the beaches, the city, everything... I never had to struggle to reach out and grab it. And like the asshole we all are, I can easily say that I took it all for granted.
But say you came here and had nothing, no place to live, nothing to eat, no one to know... how severe would your survival tactics be? Los Angeles is a misnomer in a lot of ways. This city is full of dirty motherfuckers who are just waiting for the right moment to exploit the shit out of you. But everyone knows that before they get here. Hard to believe I love this city, but maybe it's just the Stockholm Sydrome where LA is my abductor and I am her sex slave.
A Garden Party Evening Found Gallery 1903 Hyperion Avenue Tonight, 7-10pm
The gallery is going to be buzzing with cast members, critics, fans, and weird random people like me. With art and photography by Tim Youd, the producer of the film, and Irene Kai, a reknowned Asian-American author, it's really hard to say no to crashing a party deep in West Hollywood.
Tram and I are hitting the scene. Our hopes are to get onto the News.
I felt like a douche for typing in $0.00 when it asked me how much I'd like to pay to download the new album off of Myspace. But that feeling was immediately nullified after my brain started tripping out after spinning the fresh MP3s. The thing I like about Girl Talk is that he uses songs that aren't normally mixed in with HipHop beats.
I just wanted to share the link and the excitement about the album. It's better than Night Ripper. Download it and make your own opinion.
The interesting thing about Weezer is that while they sometimes just get so damn boring, they sometimes also get so damn awesome. Over the years, my love for Weezer has waxed and waned with more irregularity than other perennial up-and-downers (i.e. Busta Rhymes). Currently, however, Weezer is enjoying an extended stay in my good graces. While the last album, the Rick Rubin-produced "Make Believe", received low scores from the critics, I loved (most of) it.
Consider that your disclaimer. Oh, here's another one: Pitchfork hated the red album. You've been warned. Are you willing to continue with me into the depths of Weezer/Youtube nerdom?
The fact that I love this video will come as no surprise to those that know me and know how much time I waste on YouTube (ok, well, maybe only Enoch and my girlfriend know that about me). But srysly. This mishmash of all the best(/worst?) that YouTube has to offer is just so badass. In fact, I think it deserves an annotated guide, cut by cut (w/a couple updated edits):
Enoch and I ventured down Wilshire to El Rey and saw Lykke Li perform along with Anna Ternheim and El Perro del Mar. Anna had this eerie resemblance to our Testmaster instructor, but that just made us like her more because we loved Amelia.
Lykke Li is one weirdass foxy chick, though. She busted out a kazoo at one point and the crowd went wild. Megaphones, cow bells, kazoos. You can't go wrong. She also kept talking shit about being in love, which was funny to me but probably not so funny to all the goddamn couples that were PDAing right in front fo me. Get a room, Mr. Face Licker!
El Perro del Mar was... blah. But I think I already didn't want to like her because she's this tall, lanky, pretty girl. No one wants to like girls like that, especially if they think playing a guitar and wearing flannel all of a sudden makes them look homely and acceptable. It doesn't.
Time to get my weave and doo rag out. I'm going to Shoreline for a night of rumjungling with Phife and Q-Tip. August 16. That's the day Hip Hop reaches a new echelon of brain waves for yours truly. TRIBE. TRIBE. Worth it alone for Tribe. And the Pharcyde? Yes.Spank Rock. I don't know if anyone else likes them, but using words like 'Game Boy' in a rap song tickles me as much as proper grammar in rap songs tickles NPR commentators.
I also heard that the concert in Devore, CA (aka San Bernardildo) would lead to my inevitable death. Apparently, a bunch of black people jumping around could never have small Asian female survivors. I believe it.
Let the video load, and turn the volume up at around 2:48 because that's the jam to which my spiel pertains. This song was from the undersea base level in Double Dragon II (stage 4, after the helicopter ride).
Mario's & Zelda's themes were more well-known, but in my honest opinion, this track was the best song that came outta the original Nintendo era. The melody had a killer hook, and the accompanying bass added depth and texture that helped this song transcend the limitations of the time.
I'd also like to add the fact that my copy of the original Double Dragon was most likely stolen from me by my neighbor before we carpooled on the way to school at a time when NES games ran for about $50 a pop and the best I could hope for was a dollar a week from my grandma for good behavior.
As such, I've been moderately obsessed with the original Double Dragon series for some time now (subsequent SNES installments just blew), and to this day, the holy grail from which I've yet to drink has been a decent version of the undersea base melody to blast in my car.
While it's a little more respectable than the first version, it is a little too airy and mellow that it just ends up trivializing the mad ceiling spikes, conveyor belts, and various other life-threatening obstacles that lurk around every corner.
In conclusion, as I continue to search for a better version, I'd just like to say the following: My neighbor was a little asshole.
New techniques include the whirlwind kick and the gang rape.
Due to the engrossing world of GTA IV, Jerome beat me to the punch on a second edition of cool songs and albums. However, that won't stop me from piggybacking off the idea. Oh, and I second the Roots plug. That album is tits, so go get it.
Pretty much every recent Weezer album is bookended with disbandment rumors, and their forthcoming, yet again eponymous but will be referred de facto as "the red album," album already got the ball rolling. Add Rivers Cuomo's mental fragility when it comes to subpar album reception (see: Pinkerton). Just for the hell of it, let's also mention their base of rabid fans, some of whom I'm sure we've run into on the streets of Berkeley.
As such, every new Weezer album is a big deal, and the new one isn't gonna be an exception. I'm actually jumping on the bandwagon with this one mainly because I'm excited to hear other members take lead vocals. Somebody besides Rivers sang lead on "Why Bother" from a December 2005 Japanese bootleg, and whoever it was did an amazing job. Secondly, while "Pork and Beans" isn't exactly my cup of tea, "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" is pretty fuckin' epic. Weezer - The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)
Melpo Mene is an up and coming artist from Stockholm. After hearing "I Adore You" on a Volvo ad, I got the old album, Holes, and it was comparable in poppy goodness. His innocuous brand of music kinda reminds me of Belle & Sebastian, and whereas Barry from High Fidelity would call it "sad bastard music," I'd just call it nice and mellow. Bring the Lions Out, on which "I Adore You" can be found, is currently in production and will probably be out in a few months.
The Ting Tings have been buzzing on the blogosphere and the live circuit for a few months now, and so it was kind of a shock to find out they still haven't released a full-length album yet. That'll change come May 19th, when We Started Nothing will hit the shelves.
So, the Ting Tings are a chick and a guy (like the Fiery Furnaces), and the music is, depending on what song it is, either '60s pop throwback (like the Pipettes) or funk with a thick British accent on the mic (like the Go! Team). In addition to the touring, they've gained some additional exposure through an iPod commercial (like Feist). Hopefully, when the album comes out, it'll be out on torrent sites too (like everybody else).
Santogold Santogold’s a lot like M.I.A: she does weird things with her voice, she effortlessly mixes genres of music, she’s got a pretty wicked pop/fashion sense and I friggin' LOVE her. Her new self-titled album is a twelve track study in eclecticism that is easily this year's most impressive debut. It’s like New Wave fuzz meets Punk Rock ethos meets blip hop beats and any other gimmicky sounding genre I can't think of right now cause I'm so blown away by the album. Yea, just get it already.
The Roots - Rising Down Black Thought, ?uestlove and those other guys are back and I'm not sure what happened but dudes are pissed and frustrated. That being said, Rising Down might be the best Roots album I've listened to in a while. Dudes simply do not compromise. The music sounds so raw and the crew throws down so hard on every cut that you can’t help but think they will be the last band standing when this music industry thing crumbles. Rising Down is out now.
T.I. - No Matter What I’d like to think T.I. spends most of his time under house arrest walking around his mansion in his Hugh Hefner-esque pajamas and swimming in a sea of moneys like Scrooge McDuck. And if dude wants to put up the occasional YouTube video blog to update his fans on what he’s been up to then that’s cool too. But somewhere I forgot that T.I. is still the King of the South so he went and slapped me over the head with a pretty great new cut No Matter What. Dude cannot be broken, peep the realness: “I lost my partner and my daughter in the same year somehow I rise above my problems and remain here.” Then you bring in the church organ beat and then it’s official: sorry Kanye, No Matter What just replaced Can’t Tell Me Nothing as the underdog-f-the-haters anthem. Point blank, period.
I didn't really know anything about rap or hip hop growing up in New York City. It wasn't until I moved to the edge of Queens and started attending school in Long Island that I was confronted with Kriss Kross talent show performances and MC Hammer imitations by everyone and anyone who had the good fortune to need to tell someone to stop (hammertime) doing anything.
But one of the first music videos I ever watched on TV as a kid was Woo-Haa!! It showed up on that really fuzzy channel called The Box about once every hour. It was mesmerizing. But being the pre-napster age, once the video stopped getting airtime and (later) The Box vanished from the television set, I went back to listening to Ace of Base bootleg tapes.
It wasn't until I joined up with high school Track that the era of music sharing dawned in my life. Most people carried a short list of items in their bags to meets: running spikes/flats, sports drink of choice, a book they won't read, & CDs. Favorite pump-up album that I owned: The Offspring's self-titled album. Favorite pump-up album that I regularly borrowed: Busta Rhymes' Extinction Level Event.
Today I heard a track that took me back to those pre-apocalyptic days of The Coming, When Disaster Strikes, and E.L.E. It's called "Don't Touch Me" and it's sick.
Ok, it's time for me to sprinkle this blog with some MAGIC that's been clogged up and tangled up due to some personal life drama. No more! Let the shit fest begin. Here's a quick preview and shout out to new music that's popping up on my radar:
Rich Boy - Bigger Than The Mayor mixtape Rich Boy looked awfully awkward in his own video for Good Things standing next to a roided and oiled up Polow Da Don and Keri Hilson at the beach. Like, dude, aren’t you dying of heat in those jeans? At least wear some shorts man! But then maybe this is the sort of self imposed torture that Rich Boy puts himself through to keep spitting in that dead serious marble-mouthed growl we love so much. Urgency's the name of the game and Rich Boy delivers again with new mixtape Bigger Than The Mayor. Polow is noticeably absent from production duties but there are heaters a plenty. Check out thumpers Chevy a Monsta, PO’d Up, Wrist Out The Window. This is a pretty great follow up to dude’s debut from last year and it’s just a mixtape! It’s official: I'm penciling in Rich Boy’s next album as the most anticipated Hip Hop album to drop in 2008.
Fam Lay - The Dirtyway Mixtape I was pretty iffy about hipster buzz bands (see Vampire Weekend) taking their sonic cues from African pop music. Frankly, I was secretly waiting for dude’s from the Hip Hop gutter to do the same. Enter Neptunes affiliate Fam Lay. The Norfolk rapper’s upcoming Dirtyway mixtape is an out-of-the-leftfield stab at Afrobeat-rap. So far, only cuts like Dirtyway(Intro) and War Music have surfaced but I'm totally up on these snippets and so should you!
Flight of the Conchords Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros was one of those youtube clips that I sent around the office and subsequently heard random bursts of laughter bubble up from distant cubicles. Now that the Flight of the Conchords dropped an album featuring songs like the aforementioned track from their HBO show, I'm pretty relieved that I no longer need to send out a mass email with like 15 youtube links and can now just have the email read “Get this album!”. Thanks, dudes.
Introduction: Enoch gave me a CD with 62 albums. To encourage the listening of each album fully and critically, I gave myself an assignment. I will post an entry about each artist I like in a set format:
1. A YouTube of my favorite song off the album (if available). 2. What I feel is the best activity while listening to this album. 3. Something else random.
First Entry!
The Annuals - Be He Me
Painting the inside of my walk-in closet including the ceiling while eating kettle corn.
And now a haiku:
North Carolina Bore this band of indie-pop Listen to them sing.
Zully just keeps on lucking out with this fucking lineup. Check out Sunday:
Or, if you don't want to go blind and want to check out the other dates while you're at it, go here.
The set times show "Sean Penn" performing two very short sets, one of which is right before My Morning Jacket on the main stage. It is quite possible "Sean Penn" is just a "Penn-name" for Eddie Vedder, who did a whole set with My Morning Jacket at Lollapalooza last year and actually played with Sean Penn, the actor, earlier this year in LA. You see what I did there with that play on words? I know, it's not funny if I have to explain it.
Sidenote: 2.5 hours for Roger Waters??? Luckily, judging from past setlists, he's gonna play a best-of set before and after the album. So, if your anything like me, you can stick around for 80% of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" and "Wish You Were Here" and still have enough time for the last couple of sets in the Sahara Tent or, the heavens permitting, in your car and out the desert by 10.
Since Enoch dropped the fucking ball on Lolla... or maybe he was waiting for me to write something about it...
Regardless, here it is.
Lolla is back on August 1 - 3, 2008, in the great Windy City. Needless to say, the weakass anal throbbing lineup for Coachella left my panties dry. Hence, I decided to wait it out and see if maybe... JUST maybe... Lolla would open a door of hope for me. It did. Headliners: Rage Against the Machines Raconteurs Kanye West Wilco Nine Inch Nails and... Radiohead
Last year, I learned a few tricks to stay sane through the 3-day overhaul of music lovage. One, it's okay to take a nap under some random tree in the park. Two, corn on the cob is ALWAYS a good idea. Three, dress in layers because sometimes it rains... and sometimes it's fucking hot.
Another thing to look forward to in Chi-town, a Midwest chain called Connie's Pizza. I was unable to score a t-shirt from them last time, but I will not fail again.
Net bill around $600. Worth every drug money penny.
About two-thirds of the way through Weeds season three, this delightful little tune came on while *SPOILER* Mary-Louise Parker and Romany Malco were making babies. *END SPOILER*
Said tune would be Page France's "Chariot," the first track from their sophomore album, Hello, Dear Wind. A little background on the boys: They're from Maryland, and in spite of the insistence of others, band leader Michael Nau denies the intentional usage of Christian symbolism in some songs, claiming that "it just rolled out that way."
With the American festival season having already begun, the general one-two punch has been the following: 1. See Jack Johnson on the lineup as a headliner, and subsequently, 2. Bitch about seeing Jack Johnson headline.
Most people are thinking, "what the fuck," right? Rather than go into a ten-point defense against people's anti-Jack diatribes, let me just say this: You can't deny the guy's drawing power, and the great thing about festivals is that one has many choices other than the headliner. In fact, if you think about it, Jack Johnson playing such a prime set makes it that much easier for one to choose seeing another big name at the same time. You'd probably miss out on the contact high, but that's the price one pays, right?
A more personal reason why it's all love with Jack Johnson: My last day in New York, Fat Kid alumnus Joyce and I went to Empenada Mama in Midtown, and the restaurant was playing In Between Dreams. "Never Know" came on, and to this day it still evokes memories of sitting somewhere warm in the dead cold of winter and having some bomb-ass Cuban food. That's just good stuff all around.
Back in '98, when I rocked Mecca, rolled one pant leg up and rocked Timbs to my suburban private academy, I damn near collapsed when I heard rap super powers Wu Tang and Outkast were collabing on a cut (Skew It On The Bar-B, new jacks). So you can imagine the frenzy our early morning blog scouring threw me into when I came across Big Boi's new single Royal Flush featuring Andre Three Stacks and Wu resident chef Raekwon. This is vintage Dungeon Fam gumbo funk that made Speakerboxxx my go to album for cruisin-with-the-windows-down purposes. Big gets all circa southernplayalistic flow on us, Rae drops gibberish gems, and 3000 continues his streak of immaculate cameos, dropping a verse chock filled with talking rodents and metaphysical musings. Incredible.
I just heard the new Spiritualized single, "Soul on Fire," and it just blew me away. Although it has been a part of the setlist for the duration of this last tour, oh, yay, to finally hear a studio version in all its lush grandeur. Oddly enough, in spite of the prominent orchestral presence (and the fact that the version I got was a radio rip), it's got more of a sing-along feel than any of the stripped-down live versions I've heard. Kinda like "Hey Jude."
A new album, Songs in A&E, is expected around late May, and it will be the first since 2003's Amazing Grace. Bold prediction: this will be the first album I purchase this year.
For a nice mix of blogosphere-approved artists, check out the feed to Spinner.com's Interface. Each artist link usually includes a full set in both audio and video download formats.
Tear it up, and let me know if any particular artist stands out.
While you're at it, take a look at the massive list of SXSW shows available online. Largehearted Boy, who is a king among music bloggers, will continue to update the list as the festival goes on, so feel free to check back every day or so.
First of all, one of the biggest mistakes a band can make is releasing an album in Europe three months before doing so in America. The longer the leak, the less likely people like me will buy the album when it is commercially available. I'm just sayin'.
Anyhoo, the particular album I'm referring to in this case is the Raveonettes' Lust Lust Lust, their third full-length album.
Fact: Lust Lust Lust couldn't chart in the UK because each album is packaged with 3D glasses, and that would be considered cheating.
Unlike their previous effort, Pretty in Black, this one sounded familiar right away in that it takes the formulas from both the previous full length albums and their first EP, Whip It On. Here's how it plays out:
Whip It On: Everything's in B-flat minor. Chain Gang of Love: Everything's in B-flat major and sounds like a cleaned up version of the Jesus & Mary Chain's Psychocandy. Pretty in Black: They have a hard-on for Phil & Ronnie Spector.
Give a listen to Lust Lust Lust, and you can pretty much tell which of the previous albums each song is cookie-cut from.
However, I'm not saying this album is bad. Quite the contrary, since I really enjoyed all their previous works, the formulaic sound made this album easy listening, and not copying one particular album's sound prevented this one from being boring. So kudos to the Danes for this one. The Raveonettes - Aly, Walk with Me The Raveonettes - Dead Sound
While I'm letting the good and the bad settle in, the only thing I can think of now is if Roger Waters is playing Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety, I'm expecting the same sea of black that appeared in 2004 when The Cure headlined. I know they have completely different audiences, but a freak by any other name... right?
Ever wondered what a Ratatat song sounded like with vocals over them? Granted, you could get one of the Ratatat mixtapes, but if you're going for the authentic sound with really creepy lyrics, then I'd recommend the way of the Unicorns.
The Unicorns were only around from 2000-2004, and it was probably due to extensive touring and fighting with audience members that led to the band's demise. However, several members continued to collaborate afterwards as the band Islands, which, if you can find it, is good stuff too.
Anyway, here's one of their gems, "Inoculate the Innocuous," which is where I got the asshole in the eye lyric. I still kinda don't get it myself. If it relaxes when you cry, does that mean tears are like poo?
Okay, since we're already about several dozen hours into 2008, let's get right down to business:
Top 20 Albums: 20. Fields - Everything Last Winter 19. Against Me! - New Wave 18. Shellac - Excellent Italian Greyhound 17. Elliott Smith - New Moon 16. The National - Boxer 15. Eisley - Combinations 14. Field Music - Tones of Town 13. The Coral - Roots and Echoes 12. Radiohead - In Rainbows 11. PJ Harvey - White Chalk 10. Ash - Twilight of the Innocents 9. Electrelane - No Shouts No Calls 8. Albert Hammond, Jr. - Yours to Keep 7. Blonde Redhead - 23 6. Peter Bjorn and John - Writer's Block
5. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
I always thought Wilco was one of those good bands simply because everybody said they were good, albeit a bit boring. However, their 2007 effort just blew me away. It's so good I decided to follow them on tour this year... via live bootlegs on Dimeadozen.
4. Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - Living with the Living Once I had the time to actually sit down and decipher what he was singing, I've realized that Ted Leo is a brilliant lyricist. He's also gone way more punk on this album than his previous albums. That's just good stuff all around.
3. Pink Martini - Hey Eugene! Great and loungy, this is like the soundtrack to a long-lost Ingrid Bergman film. I don't understand half the lyrics, but what I do get is pretty damn good.
2. Kings of Leon - Because of the Times There was this one song on their debut album called "Trani" that I really liked because it was like an epic Velvet Underground song. They expanded on that sound with this album, and kinda got rid of the hick thing they had going previously.
1. Interpol - Our Love to Admire Although slow to grow on me, every successive listen has revealed more and more about the album's nuanced sound. These guys have really gone above and beyond the Joy Division comparisons and now are on a track to selling out stadium greatness.
Top 20 Tracks: 20. Justice - D.A.N.C.E. 19. Mika - Grace Kelly 18. Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - Who Do You Love? 17. Pink Martini - Taya Tan 16. Klaxons - Gravity's Rainbow 15. Bjork - Declare Independence 14. Charlotte Hatherley - I Want You to Know 13. The Arcade Fire - Keep the Car Running 12. Kings of Leon - Knocked Up 11. Ingrid Michaelson - The Way I Am
10. Feist - 1234
9. Peter Bjorn and John - Young Folks
8. Wilco - You Are My Face
7. Travis - Selfish Jean
6. Ash - You Can't Have It All
5. Interpol - Mammoth
4. Kings of Leon - McFearless
3. Pink Martini - Dosvedanya Mio Bombino
2. Interpol - Who Do You Think (not an official video. I think it's actually David Lynch's "Blue Velvet")
1. Ash - I Started a Fire
Enoch's Hall of Fame (Year 2): Broken Social Scene - Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl Doves - Last Broadcast Ash - Evil Eye Pretty Girls Make Graves - This is Our Emergency Chemical Brothers - Starguitar
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