Ah yes!!!

Well I'm back and plenty has happened since I left. First off, i hope this finds you all well. I know it most likely seems like I fell off the face of the Earth, but I assure you that I haven't, for I am here now. My school work was the first thin that has kept me away from you my audience of sorts. unfortunately I started this during the summer when I had nothing to do but work and update this thing. I know, you all got used to that frequency, but you're going to have to deal with the infrequency. Between my crappy job, schoolwork, and wanting a little downtime, you all are just going to have to be patient with me.

Another bit of news is that I have actually switched being a Mac user. As of right now I am loving it. I'm not yet to the level of hating PC's more than Hitler though, and I doubt I ever will be. We are all using technology, and that's pretty cool. The only problem though, and I swear I will get this under control at some point, is that I have not yet figured out how to archive files yet. Thusly, no music posts for a little bit, at least until I get that figured out (or until one of you kind souls helps a new mac using brutha out!). I will be posting other people's findings though, because I suck like that. However, I do have a neat experiment I would like to attempt with you, my limited audience, which I will outline later in the post, so READ ON!!!!

The other big event is that i got plowed by a semi. Don't get me wrong, I'm suprisingly a-ok. My baby box of a car, is more of a shredded, post-christmas box now, though. I was in stand-still traffic and a truck hit me ata bout 40mph from behind but luckily popped my car to the side of the road before the driver area of the car could be smashed. Phewf, to that! So now I've got plenty of time to do this for you. Check the Scion xB safety rating above, that shit a'int lying. Buy those boxed rides, they'll save your life!

So before I put up one new artist I'd like to outline a brand new plan. Recently I've taken a step back in technology. My ipod's battery died, I switched to a new computer, and my car did die. I found myself looking through a copy of the book "Mix Tape" compiled by Thurston Moore. As I thumbed through the stylistically compiled lists of idie-celebs mix-tapes, I remembered how much I really enjoyed doing this back in the day. Mp3 blogs have taken so much of the personality out of sharing music with one another. I can slap up some bad I want you to know about but that's where we end. I want to take a step back and bring things back together. I know I have a fairly limited readership so I want to offer something unprecedented in this age of easy information distribution. If you e-mail or put your email somewhere where I can see (like in comments) and I will get back to you. If you give me an address, and if you trust my musical judgement, I will make you up as unpretentious 90 minute chunk of magnetic tape as I can. Customized art, customized tape, it would be all yours from me. I mix them on the ones and twos as well, so they get a pretty sweet flow goin on. So get at me, if this gets big, maybe we can create some large gam plan, but for now this is you the reader and me the maker. So don't be shy, I love doing this. Hope to hear from you guys, my e-mail is elbowroom@gmail.com -- don't abuse it ya bastards.

As for that whole posting music facelessly, check out AgentSimple, a Swedish (I think) fellow with some of the most irresistible songs I've heard in a while. No album yet but he does have a couple downloads on his site and few more to listen to on his myspace page. Go listen. This one in particular:

AgentSimple - Make a Right At Jordfallsmotet

Ah, whatever, I'll just link the other one from his site too:

AgentSimple - Brother

Love,
John

P.S. Start the mix-tape love, shoot me an email! Fish out a tape player, they aren't obsolete anymore. If you don't have one, I think you can spare 5 bucks at the local Salvation Army bunker.

Patience is a virtue

Gimme a day or so, I'll be back. I've been a bit busy due to the fellow in the painting above.

Just checking in, you all look marvelous.

Love,
John

P.S. When you see another new post the Wolf Parade problem will have been fixed as well, so that'll be good.

Re: Hype...Sometimes its worth it

I must admit, I'm a bit sheepish about putting this album after my little sort-of-not-really rant about buzz-bands a few posts ago. But I'll tell you what, this album is really really good and deserves the attention it is and will be getting for, what I'm sure will be, many many months. In every review I've run into so far it has mentioned something from the following list of things: Arcade Fire, Montreal, Modest Mouse, Canada in general, Issac Brock's production, and the fact that there are so many damn bands with "wolf" in their band name lately. While all of those things are valid ways to approach a review, I want to make a new comparison, one that hasn't been made yet. Folks are quick to lump them in with their neighbors, but I want to lump them in with the two tracks that opened up "The Decline of British Sea Power." Sure this seems odd, but in my quest to come up with a way for you to connect their music to something, this is the most valid thing I've come up with. Sure, most of British Sea Power's catalog is filled with slower ballad-type songs regarding things like nature and literature, but the first two tracks of that album were grand, big-time spaz-rock. This is how I Wolf Parade's Apologies to the Queen Mary. While BSP followed their mold created by the second half of their debut album, Wolf Parade falls into something closer the first act of that album.

Being able to create something equal parts beauty and hard is not the easiest job in the world. It takes skill to be able to lift melodies and harmony out of the murk of your fuzzed out instruments. The jaunty pianos and big beat drums open up the album on "You Are a Runner and I Am My Father's Son" and then leads into the technophobic "Modern World." I think something that really stands out on this album is the drums. They are incredibly simple and still pushed pretty far up in the mix. I'm a fan of big, uncomplicated drums. I love the tribalness of it, the way it drives a song forward like its a march. Almost every song is just a basic bass drum beat, some well placed crash, a hi-hat, and some rolls to fill things out. It just sounds fantastic. Things really begin to kick in round about the third track, "Grounds For Divorce." This song really brings in the wonderful, synth interplay that these guys do (not overdone like some 80's rehash bands lately). From here on out the album is consistently well done whether new songs or cleaned up versions of already released (albeit limited) tracks. Be it a faster song or one of the two longer funeral dirge speed songs, everything sounds great, is catchy as hell, and just makes for an overall great album. While I really love the Arcade Fire's album, I find that this album is far more accessible, and overall stylistically different (with the exception for a tiny bit of "Shine A Light"). This is a thinking, working, and normal rocking man's album. Both fun and complex, accessible and artsy, this is what great music should be. I'm sure if you look back, I've said it before, but I'll say it again: Good music is for the people, not just for some little elitist faction. Wolf Parade is for the people. Up the Wolf Parade.

So here I go, I gonna say it, in the world of easy Canada comparisons, this is a better album than Funeral. So shoot me.

Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary

(I'm trying a new file sharing site because rapidshare was being a dick, so let me know if it doesn't work. If it is faulty then I will try again tomorrow. But, I must reiterate, LET ME KNOW IF IT DOESN'T WORK)

Love,
John

Quick Little Bit For You

Found this on the internet today and I thought I would share it with you. Here we have one British export, The Streets, doing a remix of another Brit export's song, that being Bloc Party's "Banquet." He manipulates the original to create this one-off track about how he stole the microphone he used to record his album. It's not the best quality, I'm not sure where this got ripped from, but it sounds a little hollow. On the other hand, I wouldn't put it past this just being a total bedroom recording like most of Original Pirate Material. So yeah, here it is for you, The Streets definately hasn't lost his touch, it's a pretty great track.

The Streets vs. Bloc Party - Banquet (remix)

(via Between Though and Expression)

Love,
John

Beats As Big As The Empire State Building

Thought I'd just remind you folks of my presence. I've had a rather nasty habit of doing this and leaving it for a little while lately. I hope you all watched Extras last night, because it was fantastic. Cerebral Palsy, Nazi, and Catholic jokes galore all in one TV show! You can't ask for much more than that! I thought Curb Your Enthusiasm was markedly weaker than its newborn time-slot follower. I'm not sure what was off in the episode but it was just sorta boring instead of uncomfortably funny. Ah well. I still have to watch last nights Rome, I wasn't able to watch it. I must know what the next step in that bloody, sex obsessed rampage of a show is. So, yeah, I don't think I even touch TV the rest of the week (notable exceptions being Arrested Development and LOST) but Sunday is totally a destructive night of television.

Today is a music post, I don't have all that much to rant about as of right now. Things are pretty fantastic and right where I want them to be. But that's all personal stuff, and that's not really what I'm herre to talk about. What I am here to talk about is the album I'm dropping on you today. As of late we have see a rise and fall and rise and fall and sort of rise again of dance-punk or neo-new-wave or whatever you want it to be. Fact of the matter is, in so few word's, the indie-scene is attempting to find its groove, learning once again that those hips can indeed shake. You've got increase usage of dance beats, synths, and bands having their songs heavily remixed so as to make things club friendly. Has anyone been doing this before the 2000's? Fuck yeah they have and they were waaaay funkier when they were doin it with less technology. I first came across this band when I bought the second DFA compilation. The song that those guys remixed on there just had a totally different sound, compltely full of lightning speed xylophones, incdecipherable vocals, and a heavy beat. An unreleased Rapture track? No sir. Some new find by these oh-so-hipper-than-you New Yorkers? Nope. Liquid Liquid have been twistin' heads back in the 80's with a sound that's being aped like nuts today. Eighteen tracks total, this compilation of, from what I know, most of their recorded material just busts out of the gates with "Optimo". You want percussion? These guys have got it. Most of the instruments are percussion. Each track is basically some yelped vocals over a bassline and a fucking wall of percussive instruments. Hell, by track two, "Caverns," you'll be even able to have the joy of figuring out where the dark-funk of Grandmaster Flash's "White Lines" came from. Some of the album isn't stellar, but most of it is completely enjoyable. "Bellhead" is bizarre but wholly too short for its own good. (Luckily those DFA boys decided to extend it to a five and half minute long xylophone and cowbell opus on their comp that I mentioned before.) Roots for electronica, drum and bass, hip-hop, dance-punk, and most and avant-garde music you can dance to can all be found in these 18 tracks. So please please enjoy. You won't be able to keep still for the first two track, this I promise you. It's funky, weird, and compltely accessible, the way good music should be. So without further ado, download and be merry:

Liquid Liquid - Liquid Liquid | TWO

Love,
John

P.S. It may be a while until my next post, I'm hitting a period in my schooling with a bunch of work. So this album may be the last from me for a little bit. I'll try to pump another post out before the week is through though. This is my sort-of, not really at all a promise to you.

What's Buzz Got To Do With It?

Tonight was a fabulous exercise in today's music scene. The world of entertainment and media is extremely different than any other era that has come before. We, as a society, are constantly craving the next big thing, barely ever sticking with bands for more than an album. The "buzz band" is the epitome of this. This band normally has one album and has really only had a following for a few months. Said band will be able to sell out in large New York venues just because people want to say they saw the "next big thing" while they still were "the next big thing" instead of just the "big thing." This is not to say that being a buzz band discredits you in any way, in fact some of the most recent ones really and truly have been fantastic bands (those second albums better live up ya jokers or else its back to nowheresville, ya seee?). What of the time tested band? They've paid their dues and certainly deserve to be shown respect right? Apparently not, because this was the case at Wednesday nights show with buzz band, and Pitchfork lauded, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, and the indie rock veterans (yes in this case 3 albums will classify as a veteran)The National.

Now, I've written on the National before, they're a favorite of mine, so I can just say that I was pretty excited to see them. On the other hand, though, I also enjoy CYHSY quite a bit as well. The crowd was fairly excited to see them and we're fairly vocal with their "yeahs" and very adept at clapping. The set was primarily from their debut album and it was played well. They are obviously still getting a feel for playing, and are fairly static onstage, but all in all they were aided by very strong songs. Kudos to their keyboard/guitar player though, he kept that party attitude that their music affects. Hopped around like a damn grinnin fool is what he did.

Now when does this buzz/older band divide come into play, you ask. Right now, good sir! After the opening band played people, I guess, decided that they had come to see what Pitchfork liked. The crowd preceded to thin out to about half at this point, which is pretty sad considering The National commenced in kicking the bejeezus out of CYHSY. I realy haven't seen a band with a true front man in a long time. Often now you've either got your guitar anchored front man, or the introverted shoe gazer front man. Both of these types are held back in some way, but not Matt Berringer, no sir. That boy is a fuckin wild-man. Listen to their albums and you may hear only a couple of rave ups, and frankly you'd be correct. On the quiet songs Berringer would be the soft sort of crazy boy, pawing at his head, twitching and ambling blindly around the stage. Come a total rocked out song though, whether Abel or Mr. November, Berringer transformed into a complete and utter psycho. I honestly have never seen a person disconnect a mic stand from its solid metal base but there it happened, in the flesh. Not to mention his set closing antics during Abel in which he scaled the venues stacks and jumped to the balcony. He is one of the few frontmen able to do the quiet baritone and switch completely into a throat shredding scream without making it seem jarring. Screaming, you say? Absolutely!!! Everything about all of their songs was absolutely pushed to 11 (sorry, but there really is not other way to get that across without using the traditional Spinal Tap refernce), every last part of the show was ear splittingly loud and it was fantastic. It truly was unfortunate that people left before the men who actually knew their way around a stage hit the scene. Ah, well, it's their loss. What they should know is that Pitchfork basically gave this same review of their NY show on their website...how bout that for fuckin up yourday trend-setters?

Since this is my second post with primarily words, I'll put a quick musical tidbit up. I'm not really postive if this is the best album to start you in on a band with, but I enjoy it thouroughly so you can just deal. It's a good album one way or another. The Wedding Present were contemporaries of the Smiths in their heyday, and frankly you could give me one of their albums over any of Moz's, solo or with that famous band. This album is not from that time, however. Released in '94 Watusi is sort of an all over the place hop-around tour of the power-pop/punk/spaz-out tunes of the Wedding Present's general catalog. The opener "So Long, Baby" has a great switch over from rollicking, bass-heavy trot to hopped up sing along at the drop of hat. "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" is a jangly pop nugget that makes you feel like doing 20 things at once. So yeah, I dont really feel like talking about this album all that much more. Interesting factoid: It may be the best album with the worst art ever! Use that at the next cocktail party!

The Wedding Present - Watusi

Love,
John

I found people who sold out...for real!!!

So, I've always had issues with the overusage of the term "sell-out." Usually this seems to refer to bands who have signed to a major label or perhaps had their song used in an ad. I never really ageed with this, I see no issue with playing the game a little bit, and when you are subsisting on Top-Raman and living in a crappy studio apartment you could the extra dough from Clairol using your song in an ad for mousse.

No, the two options above aren't selling out, I've now truly witnessed selling out and it was ugly. So, just who are these sell-outs, just who is sucking at the large breast of corporate Amercia? The Faint are, that's who, and it was an ugly scene Saturday night at Bogart's in Cincinnati as I attended their concert as part of the "Sin City" tour. What I thought was an unamusing tour title actually meant that this tour was a traveling cigarette ad aponsered by Camel. That's right, not only did the FAint, Omaha indie-synthrockers, join up with a company for their most recent tour, they joined up with Big fucking Tobacco. Way to set a good example. This wouldnt have been so bad in my eyes if there would have just been a couple camel ads, some flyers, a few packs handed out here and there; that sort of behavior happens everywhere. No, Camel took it upon themselves to make this into a mock-casino, complete with gambling where the only prize you could win was cigarettes, and scantily clad go-go dancers shakin their shit onstage and on strategically placed dancin platforms. It was an ugly smokey scene, and even i felt like i was doing something wrong paying for the ticket. If I would've realized it was sponsored in this sense I may not have attended. The Faint should be ashamed of themselves.

To add to what made it rediculous was that they were obviously using a backing track the whole concert. So basically instead of live music you were just watching them dance around spastically to a mix CD of their own music played really loud. Way to go, gents. Connor Oberst should kick your asses of his label for more or less breaking every and all "what not to do as an indie rocker" rules. Their preformance was wooden, unspontaneous (for obvious reasons) and moronic. And to think, I was actually sort of looking forward to seeing them. I have a feeling we can look forward to seeing the Faint on Mountain Dew's "Xtreme Snow Job 2006" tour. XTREME!!!

All is not lost though, since it's a lot easier to say mean things than nice, I have an extra paragraph about Sufjan Stevens. All you need to know about this is that it was amazing. The sound was great, the fake cheerleader schtick was amusing without being obnoxious, and everyone was in pretty good spirits. He mainly played stuff off the new album but that wasn't all that dissapointing considering they were dressed in costumes for doing so and also due to the fact that the album is amazing.

Final verdict, avoid the Faint, follow Sufjan everywhere he goes.

Love,
John

P.S. I'll put some actual music up eventually. I'm just busy lately.

My Week's worth of shows (part 1 of 6)

Last night I attended the Sigur Ros concert and it was amazing. I worried going into it that the novelty of seeing them live would wear off, and thankfully it didn't. This was, of course, aided by the space, the newly constructed Strathmor Music Hall in Bethesda, Maryland. The acoustics were amazing so everything from the littlest ping to the ear gnashing drums closing out the set were perfect.

It's always interesting to attend a concert at a music hall with people who are used to cramped smokey venues. Everyone is confused, bumping into each other, still believing the "first come, first serve" rule to be in effect. Thankfully we had seats and there was no spot-jockeying going on. I would have been able to deal with it, but my lovely parents who attended along side me, may have needed many replacement bones by the end of the night. First off, I would like to comment on the t-shirts. All of them are extremely cool and subtle designs. However, there are two groupings of t-shirts, the mass-produced ones for us normal fans, and apparently the wallet vacuuming section made by little icelandic elves in igloos. I don't know about you but spending the same amount of money on one t-shirt as i did on one ticket for the concert seems a little stupid. But, hey if 40 dollar concert t's and 50 dollar hoodies made of t-shirt material are you thing, more power to ya, they were pretty cool. (but not all that much cooler than the other merch, to be honest, with the exception of the "Sigur Fucking Ros" shirts) Besides the crazy pricing, the merch table was an amaing cluster-fuck of people queueing and buying like this is not only the last t-shirt they'll ever be allowed to buy but also the last concert that will ever be played by anyone.

As far as the show goes it was pretty amazing. Hearing them in a space truly built to have optimal sound was a pretty incredible thing. The drums sounded huge, the guitars were all crystal clears and when the sharp staccato strings came in midway through the closing number, "Untitled #8", I about cried. It felt like a shorter set than when I heard them play a couple years ago, but that may have had to do with the fact that they were being broadcasted and needed to keep it within an hour and half or so. I must say, although I haven't listened all that much to the Untitled #1/#9, but #9 sounded pretty amazing. I really must emphasive, though how awesome the drums sounded. It was thunderous but not ear-splittingly oppressive, which is always a tough balance to find. So, yeah show 1 was a keeper, Sigur Ros sounded extremely strong and the new material sounded fantastic. At this point, I'm finishing this and it's almost ot a week later and a few shows later so I've forgotten things and I've run out of htings to say, so take my word on all this, it was awesome.

Love,
John

P.S. Next up is the White Stripes' show back in Cincinnati when I finally get around ot actually writing about it.

I'm totally putting that in my blog brah....

Well, please let me apologize, this has taken me a rediculous amount of time to do, but here I am, so you can stop asking me if I'm ever going to update my blog. I was planning on it, but really just kept getting busy and distracted from this rather trivial aspect of my life by more important people. This is not to say that, you my readers aren't important, but we should all have more important things to do than read/update a blog. Yes, I know it's free music.

So, what have you guys been up to? Oh yeah? That's great, I'm really glad things are going well for you. I've started school back at Xavier and am going to be living in Cincinnati more or less full time. This, however, doesn't seem to stop me from flying home tomorrow to see Sigur Ros play at Strathmore Music Hall in Bethesda, MD. Yes I have lot of concert reviews for you coming up. After I return on Monday morning I will attend my classes and then go see the White Stripes in the evening at Cincinnati Music Hall. Two nights later I will be attending a Sufjan Steven's musical event at the Southgate House. So look forward to me gushing about a few concerts, it should be self indulgent and overly loving of the bands. Hurrah!!!

I planned on penning a little piece on Drew's eBay trials, which are funny, but we haven't really gotten around to him giving me the document that makes it funny. So, instead of ruining the funny, I'll leave you hanging on that one. All I can say is it involves a record player and a death threat.

As for music, I'm giving a fairly recent release out that I know some, if not most of you have, but I still felt like posting because I know (well not really, but I haven't ever suggested it to him so I'm probably right) that my brother doesn't have it. In light of that the rest of this post will be written in letter form:

Dear Paul,
I have a feeling that this album will be one that you don't love instantly. I can't say for certain, but, in all honesty I didn't totally dig it right away either. I would like you to give the New Pornographers most rencent album, Twin Cinema, the old college try though. It's a pop album, unarguably. There's no post-punk, barely any jarring guitar work. What there are, however, is hooks upon hooks perched high upon a mountain of harmonies!!! Billy goats and Satyrs alike dance upon this mountain. Every song on here is endlessly catchy and I didn't absolute love this album until this morning. I mean, I liked it, don't get me wrong, but this morning somehting about it clicked with me and now I'm addicted. Play it loud, and sing along, it only helps the album. The hard drive of "Jessica Numbers" is totally brought full circle by Neko Case's background cooing. Fuck, I don't even know what that means, but I do know that I LOVE that song. "Use It" totally kills, "The Bleeding Heart Show" makes you want to throw your arms in the air, and everything else is just awesome. It's such a big sounding rock album. They aren't afraid to make everything sound large and just say "fuck it" to anything resmbling a tradtional hushed indie rock feel. A.C. Newman is just a plain pop music genious. Download now, my dear brother, enjoy it. Don't give up if you don't adore it the first time, it's definately one of those" grow on you" albums.

Love,
John

P.S. The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema | TWO

P.P.S. - For all y'all that already have this album I'm going to do my best to not leave you empty handed. I've founf somehting else that I did not personaly put up, but still am excited about. So for some of you it's a doubly good day, for some a singularly good day. To each his own!

Andrew Bird - The Mysterious Production of Eggs | TWO | THREE

(A word of warning, I can't promise this second group of links work, I didn't put them up)

I A'INT DEAD YET!!!!

A quick disclaimer about the brand new posting today: there is very very minimal music provided today, BUT the one song I will be giving you a little furter down is a truly stellar and brrrraaaaaannnnnnd spanking new piece of glittering music goodness. Overall I'm really just checking in with the people who read this and know me so they can go on knowing that I'm not lying unconcious in a ditch off of Rt. 50 next to the Silk Stockings strip club.

No, I'm very much concious and taking advantage of the wonderful marriage of coffee and free internet. For the time being I have to get all inter-business done at coffee shops, that is until this weekend/early next week when I get my internet AND cable set up. I'm missing the Kevin Smith directed Degrassi episodes right so they better show up in the ONdemand section of my local cable provider. I'm slowly moving in to the new house, most of which has included unpacking CD's and records. I was pleased to find that the combination of broken (and now fixed, thank god) AC and extreme summer heat did not warp the records I had left at the house over the summer. Drew gets into town tomorrow and Dave looks like he's getting in Sunday, so by monday we'll all be residing in Cincinnati, which is good news for you, trust me. But as of right now, things are good in Cinci, I havent seen too many people yet, but there aren't many people here right now anyways.

As for that promised muscial piece we have a brand spanking new track from Broken Social Scene's new album that's coming out in October. I remeber I heard a rougher version of this song a while back, and to be frank, didn't like it all that much. So, needless to say, I was not all that pumped to see that this was the first song I was allowed to download off of their label's website. That said, the track is pretty fantastic, and has once again gotten me extremely excited for the beginning of October. It features the back and forth male/female vocal interplay of YFITP''s "Almost Crimes" but it doesn't seem like a re-hash. The band's sound is still driving and extrememly tight. So, yeah, since downloading it about an hour ago, I've probably listened to it 5 or 6 times. It's super fantastic. So without further ado I present

Broken Social Scene - "7/4 (Shoreline)"

Another quick piece of news, The Deadly Snakes are getting ready to release a new album which, by all accounts, looks like I'll have to buy twice in two different forms. Of course, I'm going to want it on CD, which is a 13 track album, so that will be purchased no question. But was that enough of my money for those scheming Canucks? Noooooooo, of course not, they are also releasing a 2o track, two LP version of the album. DAMN YOU CANADA!!!!!!

Love,
John

I'm not dead

I'm just not doing things for a little bit. I may do something tomorrow, but I'm a little busy getting ready to go back to Cincinnati. I'm digesting a whole load of good albums to later spew up on this blog. Perpetuating a cycle. I'm part of the reason Patrick Wolf is going to jail.

Love and warmest regards,
John
I'll be back in a fuller force very soon.

Welcome Back Me!

Well, race fans, you may be wondering where your fair captain rushed away too these past few days! Even if you haven't you get to find out. First off, I was in a cultural funk with that last one. I stand by the abstract opinions expressed. After that I had a day where I wrote nothing and then I had a full couple of days where I had no internet at all. The DC area was attacked viciously by a very wicked storm whose aftermath resembled the apocolypse. Well, not really, but man, there was a whole load of foliage blown asunder. Trees and powerlines litter the roads leaving children to pick them up and play. So, in closing to this nugget of info, I'm fine, and now back to all things music.

In the news category Ted Leo is announcing some more dates for the fall which seem to just be those cities thus far. The word "those" being in italics means the biggies. In essence this is your three in California, NY, and some of the biguns up north. It's ok though, the man really should rest, I don't know how he keeps up that schedule. Ted Leo is also reportedly going to be contributing to a indie rock tribute to Rubber Soul. Teddy will be doing his rendition "I'm Looking Through You" while the rest of the track list looks a little something like this:
01 Drive My Car - The Donnas
02 Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) - The Fiery Furnaces
03 You Won't See Me - Dar Williams
04 Nowhere Man - Low
05 Think for Yourself - Yonder Mountain String Band
06 The Word - Mindy Smith
07 Michelle - Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals
08 What Goes On - Sufjan Stevens
09 Girl - Rhett Miller
10 I'm Looking Through You - Ted Leo
11 In My Life - Ben Lee
12 Wait - Ben Kweller
13 If I Needed Someone - Nellie McKay
14 Run for Your Life - Cowboy Junkies

I can't say I'm totally pumped about this, BUT there are a few tracks which I am really excited to here. Those of you who know me can probably guess which 3 are at the top of that hit list. I have som enews on the Go! Team but i'm tired of typing newsier stuff, and will talk about that tomorrow. All I can tell you is that it most undoubtedly involve me and Drew taking a road trip to somewhere, most likely Chi-town USA.

Now, you may notice that today's music download is a repeat of something I posted a while ago. This is true and I won't deny it in the least. However, the last time I put it up it was a crappy version that was not my own. It took forever to download and had funky track titles. Well, now I have taken it upon myself to give you XTC's fantastic opus Black Sea in a very good form. Unfortunately one of XTC's main players, Andy Partridge, suffered from terrible stage fright leading them to become a studio band. While the music following his shunning of live performances was still brilliant music, the music prior had much more spark and vitriol. Their firt three albums where full-speed-ahead synthy pop-punk records filled ot the brim with piss and vinegar, 1979's Drums and Wires showcasing the best of this attitude. With Black Sea XTC wraps themselves into a much tighter and bigger sounding package. The drums sink deep within you while the guitars swap between slinking around ("Language in Our Lungs") to smacking you left and right alongside the drums. Equally sweet and salty on this album XTC really honed their classic sound, for me at least, on this album. The lyrics are much more politically minded on this album, as opposed to Drums and Wires more class oriented material and "Generals and Majors" displays this right out of the gate as the fantastic second track. I'm sure I was better at this the first time I wrote it, so go read that one. I love this album, give 'er a listen.

XTC - Black Sea | TWO

Love,
John

In Search of the New World

I'm not posting today, I'm instigating a culture war.
Anything new and good eventually becomes co-opted for mass consumption.
We need to figure out how to fight it and Shepard Fairey can't be the leader.
The medium can't be the message.
The message and the medium must be it's own, not part of theirs.
I'm still working on it.

Final Thoughts

Sure, I'm a little slow on finishing this as compared to others, but I really only have three words to describe the end of the new book : "Whoa" and "Holy Crap". I can't really say much more than that, I couldn't stand to reveal the ending to those yet unfinished. Read on, good souls, it's the best one yet.

Keeping Up My Promises

Well, here I am, and while this may not be the first thing I did upon this sunday, it is among the first. I'm almost done with Harry Potter and it is still fantastic. All the kids are makin' out!! Hogwarts is now a den of sin. But now on to the stuff you came here for, die musik. I'm letting loose a plethora of goods today for a few reasons. I know I started with doing an average of two things a day, but considering I don't plan well and would do them at night, my bed times ended up being much later than I wanted, so downed it to one a night. Now, however, on this Sunday afternoon, I have plenty of time. Also, I want to put on my good face for some newer folks, a "welcome to the club" if you will. So I'm offering up three things today, all of which more or less chosen at random, but don't let that say anything towards the quality of the 3 albums.

The first is Neutral Milk Hotel's 1998 album, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. As much as I enjoy the Decemberists, lets face it, they own quite a bit these boys. This is a somehow equally lush and low-fi album. Most of the track don't move beyond usual rock band instruments (save some horns and woodwinds thrown in) this album is just big. "Oh Comely" and "Holland 1945" being worth the free price of you downloading this alone, the latter's drums are massive, which may or may not be exciting for you, but it sure as hell is for me. "Oh Comely" clocks in at around 9 minutes making it, outside of most of Sigur Ros' catalog, one of the few very long songs that I can play over and over (yeah, I'm looking at you Mars Volta; lay off that bong for musics sake, please). So, yes, I may have singled out a few songs but damned if all 30-odd minutes of this album aren't fantastic. Unfortunately they are on an "extended hiatus" seemingly never to return, but luckily those Decemberists kids have decided to pick up the slack with a midas touch. As an aside, for those in my current area, the the DC area, drummer Jeremy Barnes very excellent folky side project A Hawk and a Hacksaw will be playing a show at The Warehouse Nextdoor on August 5, I'll be there.

Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

Next up, in a much more opposite vein, we have Ratatat's self-titled debut. A friend of mine suggested this to me when it was released about a year ago, saying it was a hip-hop album from one of Dashboard Confessional's guitarists. Without getting to much into the sore subject of DC on my part, I can say I had a hard time believing this meaning I wanted to hear it all the more. Mike Stroud, the guitarist, and Evan Mast have have created a fantastic album full of big beats, 300-thread-count sheets of guitar, and washy synths. Mind you, there is no rappin' from any white boys on the album (thankfully) just head noddin' beat mongering. "Seventeen Years" is gonna knock you on your ass which is exactly what should be expected out of a first track. Enjoy todays #2 special.

Ratatat - Ratatat | Two

And, for my final trick of the day, as sort of promised before, I'm posting more Les Savy Fav. I believe I've said enough about these guys for you to know that I really like them (read: a couple days ago). This is their most recent LP Go Forth. It's a little more restrained than The Cat And the Cobra but that's not really saying much. This wasn't recieved as warmly by hipster circles, and I'm not sure why, I think I listen to this one more than TCATC. It's a bit catchier and all the players have obviously become more comfortable in their craft. The guitars ring clearer, the drums thrash hartily, and the bass is dubbed out and funked out more than ever. And what of the lead singer? He's as coo-coo for coacoa puffs as ever. "Reprobate's Resume" and "Crawling Can Be Beautiful" is among the best song pai.rs ever and the flow together like magic. Speaking of which, back to that damn wizard kid. Hope you've enjoyed yourself.

Les Savy Fav- Go Forth | Two

Love,
John

P.S. It's going to be a good week fo you all, I don't have work. Hotcha!

P.P.S. I really enjoyed this article in the Post today and thought it was worth putting up : Learn About Us

Unexpected musings

Well, this may end up a shock to you folks, but this will be my second post in a row without really putting up any music. This is shocking I know, but stand assured first thing tomorrow I'm gonna do a big haul full of fun suprises for all y'all. I'm just really waiting for a file to download, a file which is a good thing for me. Resident recent favorite band of mine right now, the spastic, all-around crazy, dance-punks Thnderbirds are Now! played a show at the Southgate House with Enon last week or so. Unfortunately for me, I'm in DC not Cincinnati, making it tough for me to get to it. BUT there are two, count 'em TWO, fortunatelies in this situation! The first one is that You Ain't No Picasso has put up a video of it, and and Mp3 of a new song, which I would like to thank said blog for dearly! Secondly, they will be doing a headlining gig there again in September so I'm not tooooo bummed about missing it. So, these are all very happy things for me in relation to TAN!

In unrelated news, I'm fairly cobfident in this thing, now and am taking steps to increase my readership to more than just, well, one (you were the first, though, Paul, I shant forget). I'm trying to put myself out there a little more and see if more than just my friends can be interested. Wacky concept, I know. I put out all this effort for one loyal soul, just imagine how I'll be when I've got FIVE of you!!

Furthermore, I would like people to make suggestions for what to put up, I can't ever really decide. I mean, I have a rather sizeable musical collection with plenty of money having been sunk into little plastic discs os aural pleasure so my library is open. HIT ME!!!

Love,
John

A brief introduction:

Hey! We're the Pussycat Dolls, and we've got the worst summer song out rigt now. Verses are so hard to write, so we thought we'd just write a song with 90% chorus, and a chorus that sucks at that! But people love it, apparently so we'll keep singin it.

Raymond Raposa and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Tonight's upload is about as new to me as it will be to you when you download it. I went to the Warehouse Nextdoor tonight to see Castanets (which, for purposes of this story, I would like to point out is a plural name). The first three bands were whatever. I showed up for the tail end of Poritons Toll set which was pretty decent. They are obviously new but with a little work I think they'll hit the stellar mark a year down the line. The next to were, in essence, noise bands. Unlike the noise bands I've encountered in the past, however, these two almost had songs! Wooden Wand & the Vanishing Voice were a mainly acoustic and hushed noise, but noise all the same. They had some pretty sweet moments in their songs. I Heart Lung however were boggling, and not in a good way. The two musicians, a guitarist and drummer, seemed to always be playing two different songs. I just didn't get it, and never will.

But now onto the main event, and poor poor Raymond Raposa, the hairy man in the pictue above. As he began setting up his instruments I became confused. From what I had understood, and heard, Castanets were a 4 piece, not just one hairy man. Turns out I was rightm the main man behind the Castanets was just havin a bad day. He had broken his E string earlier AND lost 3 of his members the night before. I'm not really sure what that meant, but they definately weren't there. LUCKILY he was amazingly skilled at using a sample pedal. So, under the circumstances he played a fantastic, albeit understandably short, set.

So, in the end, today I'm putting up Castanet's Cathedral. I put this up in response to my own feeling that I've been specializing in fairly aggressive. Between afrobeat and shredding art-punk, I've been makin' things rock hard, during a season of realaxation. So today I present a good ol' back porch album. Quiet hushes folky country, it'll make you want to build that back porch if oyu don't have one already. So enjoy, I'm tire of writing and it's late.

Castanet's - Cathedral

Love,
John

Hilary love all music...except techno!!!

The man above is a mad-man. He is truly among the craziest people I have ever had the great pleasure of being in the prescence of. This man, this god of rock, is named Tim Harrington and he is the frontman for Les Savy Fav. Les Savy Fav is the subject of today's download. I had a tough time trying to decide which of their albums to put up today. Eventually I'll get around to putting other ones up, but as the first, shall we say, installment I present their debut epic The Cat and the Cobra. I guess one could draw comparisons to the Pixies or Fugazi because, yes, they are tight and poppish while still raw and, to use a cliche and uneffective descriptive term, punk-rock. Fact of the matter is, they sound like a lot of past bands, but goddam if it never feels like it. Every Les Savy Fav song is a breath of fresh-air via a wind-tunnel. They are weird, they are (sort-of) accessible, and this is a crowning moment. Tim Harrington is the Jackie Mason or Mitch Hedburg, he doles out his lyrics through lightning fast one-liners. Looking at the words as a whole entity is pointless, it's much more fulfilling and entertaining to go a line at a time. "We've Got Boxes" and "Who Rocks the Party?" are classic face melting LSF, while "The Orchard" and "Roadside Memorial" slow things down in a very classy fashion through two genuinely beautiful songs. "Dishonest Don Pt.2" weilds one of my all time LSF moments, and it isn't even from their song. Les Savy Fav have a wonderful habit of using other pop song's lyrics (i.e. "Papa Don't Preach" lyrics in "Knowing how the World Works") in their own songs, but in this case they just went ahead and sampled the original. Around 45 seconds into the song they use a line from a not so obscure song to great effect.

I've put a great amount of attention on the front man of this band, when the backing band presents itself as one of the most talented in rock. Constantly tight, even when they seem to be at their wildest, they are among the destructive guitar and rhythym section in American rock and roll. When I saw them live they present themselves as the straight-men to Tim Harrington's "just escaped from the local kookoo house" antics. While he's humping some girl on the floor of the club in a leotard, they're up on stage sounding absolutely amazing.

So here they are! They're loud, they're angry, they're raucous, they posess one of the greatest live shows, and the are unfortunately on a bit of a hiatus. They are LES SAVY FAV!

Les Savy Fav - The Cat and the Cobra | Two

When I have more time tomorrow, aka my day off, I'll upload Inches, LSF's exhaustively catchy 7" collection/art project. But this album should hold you until then. So get on your crazed rock face and enjoy.

So Tired

So, indeed, it has been a few days. My first excuse is this: I don't do weekends. My second excuse covers me for the Monday delay: I was still recovering from my Saturday night. You see, on SAturday night I attended Femi Kuti's concert at the 9:30 club....along with the entire student body of Howard. It was a hell of a time, jam-packed Afro beat madness. I believe his Nigerian fanclub (DC Chapter) was right next to me because they were kickin' it bat-shit crazy! So yeah, his TWO AND A HALF HOUR long set really took it out of me. In fact I'm still pretty damn tired.

In other amazing news, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince came out on Saturday. I'm about 200 pages in and it is yet again, for lack of more grown up language, totally awesome! There's a few suprises already. I dig the pretty dark tones that have been dominating the latest books, very Empire Strikes Back. But I can't really talk about it too much without giving a few things away, soooooo BUY IT!!! Totally kickin' ass!

In the "Things You Care About" category, we've got one download from me today. I've got to slow down, otherwise I'm gonna exhaust every album by the fall. Not really, though, I'm just lazy today. Anyhow, we're taking a look at The Dismemberment Plan's Emergency and I today. Based in beloved Washington DC, the now defunct Plan put out an album fairly ahead of its time. Drenched in electronic noises, oh so common in today's musical landscape, and sharp angular guitars, also common, Dismemberment Plan made this killer album 6 years ago. I don't really feel like talking about this album too much but I will tell you this, "The City" is one of my all time favorite songs, and that's saying something. I blew this album off for such a long time, when it came out in high school I was heavy into my Oi! days, wary of anything that wasn't sung by angry short haired boys. But I grew older and wiser, and I want you to join in on the party. So kick it DC indie-rock style, and enjoy this album which is oh so aware that it's listeners put more than just indie-rock albums on the deck.

The Dismemberment Pan - Emergency and I | TWO

Love,
John

P.S. We're back!! Again!!

Oh Wow

I wasn't planning on posting tonight, so please pardon me if this is brief. I just got home and was checking to see if my internet was working. You see, it's been on the fritz for the past 28 hours and apparently decided to work again. I'm just going to give a brief overview and post what i wanted to post last night. Here we have a very quick EP by Richmond, VA's Pink Razors. It's just pretty straight forward, gritty sounding pop-punk. They put on a good show at the Warehouse Next Door last night. So yeah, I'm tired, enjoy this brief interlude until I am more aware and have more to say. So here's Pink Razors' Scene Suicide

Pink Razors - Scene Suicide

Love,
John

P.S. I'm really glad my computer is working again, now I can get that digital camera I need instead of fixing this hunk-a-junk.

Special Graffiti News Bulletin

I have some bad news guys. While I am not as much a DC/MD resident as I once was, I was always pleased to come home and find that a new graffiti artist was ruling the DC streets, tunels, overhangs, signs, and other public places. This guy was having an output that was unlike anyone else and managed to be more original in his stuff than anyone else in the area right now. He attacked the most dangerous (read: public) spots to tag, and managed to get away with it each time. That is, until last night. Borf was arrested along with two accomplices last night and anyone with a sense of humor and a little artistic appreciation hangs their head today. Now DC just leaves the uncreative dopes to do all the work. Borf provided graffiti with a message, stuff that was aesthetically pleasing, and things you could show your Grandkids. So, in honor of the arrest, I present a link to the BORF gallery.

Borf gallery

And this is for the Washington Post article.

The Mark Of Borf

Sorry DC, but your city seems to have failed again.

Love,
John

P.S. Scroll down for the FREE MUSIC involved post.

P.P.S. Free Borf, Borf is Dead

Afrobeat Alligators

As promised we have a special array of delights, but first the news! Our jovial, glacial paced elfin friends Sigur Ros have dropped unintelligible information about a new album. What is concretely known (and in english) is that the album is titled "takk...", Icelandic for "thanks", will be 11 tracks long, and is slated to be release September 12. According to their website, the track listing, accents and goofy letters intact, goes a little something like this:
1. takk...
2. glósóli
3. hoppípolla
4. með blóðnasir
5. sé lest
6. sæglópur
7. mílanó
8. gong
9. andvari
10. svo hljótt
11. heysátan

So that's the Icelandic news, what of our glorious US of A? What musical happenings abound here? WELL, there are plenty of things. The newest breed of Pitchfork lapdog, scientific name Reviewus Influentius, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! will be touring this fall with The National, who we will become acquainted with later in this post. I'll drop those dates on you when I have a full list/include cities I know my limited readership cares about. Otherwise...I'm too lazy to research, so take what you can get, which is now some more FREE MUSIC!!!

Today we have my favorite Fela Kuti album, Expensive Shit. Comprised of two long tracks, there is honestly no fat on this entire album. Amazingly the two tracks, averaging around 12 minutes each, go buy extremely fast. The instrumental are up-tempo and flawless while the vocal parts are endlessly funky. It's amazing that his legacy isn't bigger than it is. His music can be equally respected in so many genres but tends to get bulldozed by his wild-man attitude and political standings. I don't know a whole lot about Afrobeat beyond Fela and his son Femi (playing at the 930 club on Saturday, by the way, for all of my DC readers) but I know that Fela had an output that was trancsendent of his genre. Takin' it to the streets and keepin' it funky, enjoy Expensive Shit.

Fela Ransome Kuti & Africa '70 - Expensive Shit

Next up is an album which I stumbled across recently but have actually owned for quite some time. At the rate at which I procure music it is very easy for things to fall by the wayside. I'll download or buy something and it may sit unlistened until I begin slowly stumbling across tracks on my iPod or just searching around my computer. Today's second album is one of those cases, and I'm pleased to bring you The National's Alligator. It's easy to compare this album to one band or another, there have been comparisons to everyone from Echo and the Bunnymen to The Jayhawks, but this album is pretty damn good standing all by it's lonesome. The first track "Secret Meeting" kicks off with glittering piano and guitar leading into the "Did he just say that?" lyrics and downbeat melodies of "Karen." Frankly, this album is pretty stellar all the way through. "Lit Up" and "Abel" are a couple of the biggest songs I've heard in a while, which is a pleasing idea. So please download this and enjoy it quicker than I did.

The National - Alligator | Two

So, that's it for today. I hope you enjoyed yourself, I'm really trying to get the hang of all this and am gonna try and get my name out a little more (hence putting my files up onto a more unlimited usage sharing site). Hopefully I can get some readership on this and get this shit really poppin' yo'.

Love,
John

Well, my friends, tonight this post launches the first installment of the new season of "I Am Here To See The Magic." I've learned a few things over the past day, like what i was doing wrong when attempting to post thing on file sharing networks, but get ready folks because this is the new dawn. No longer will these be all words and very little rewards, rewards which some of you more cunning folks found elsewhere. Nay! From now on this is unique as can be, I'm truly putting myself up for the government to take down.

So let's get things started. First off I have a download which is from my own collection. Sure, you can find this other places, but I did this one all by myself and all for you guys. So here we Viatlic's OK Cowboy. >I have had a a recent affinity for dance music. Vitalic comes across sounding like M83 on uppers. He has a virtue which many techno DJ's don't have: patience. While most techno artists attempt to just slap your ecstacy loving butt around the dance floor, Vitalic finds a balance between patient song craft and, that oh-so-greener side of the fence, dancefloor shaking electro beats. After just a few white-hot twelve inches, all of which are found here, he's managed to come out with a fully realized album. So enjoy this frenchy's dance floor destroyers while there's still time. You know, before Dubya blows up France.

Vitalic - Ok Cowboy | Two

Next for today, another original one being put up for you from yours truly, is a mammoth of a song, and performed by the man in today's header picture. This is Fela Kuti's 25 minute Afrobeat epic jam "Confusion." What starts as an quiet organ and drum free jazz dialogue soon lets loose into a funky monster of a track. Sure, it's a monster to get through but you'll be so glad you did by the end of it. Equal parts funk, soul, and Nigerian style prog-rock, it only takes about 5 minutes for you to realize why Fela Ransome-Kuti & The Africa 70 are a force to be reckoned with.

Fela Ransome-Kuti & The Africa 70 - Confusion

I'm on a Fela Kuti kick right now so look for some more of that fine man from Lagos in the days to come.

You know, I was going to write a little more about whatever was on my mind, but for some reason my arms are really tired and feel strained...so you are spared. Enjoy the tunes via my newfound understanding of YouSendIt, and remember, those links are only live for 7 days or 35 downloads, so get on it. As far as plans for tomorrow? Look back here for some more Fela Kuti (a definately), some Sufjan Stevens (a maybe), Death From Above 1979's first EP (a maybe tomorrow or maybe another time, but some time definately), and some other suprises which i really haven't thought up yet.

Love,
John

So, welcome back me! I have returned from a sun soaked vacation without the faintest bit of tan on me. Guess that's just the way things go for me. Overall, it was a good week though. The hurricane put barely any damper on the activities at all. Sure, we weren't able to go on the beach or anything but we certainly made due with what we had.
Tomorrow or so...or another time, marks the upgrade of this site. You may not notice at all but I'm going to attempt to teach myself a little more about doing this more on an informational level as well as more reliably. So, hopefully I can get a new digital camera tomorrow when i get paid an dstart layin down some phat shit on this website. I'm a little out of the music circle right now, I've been away from my computer now for a few days so there will be none of that today. For those of you who come just for that, which is understandable, you may leave. The rest of this I'm just gonna write a little bit.
So, ANYWAYS, I managed to do an extremely dorky thing today. I got back and was reading a little about the new Sufjan Steven's album Illinois, (which is pretty amazing, by the way) and I read that there was a cease and desist on the album's production due to the album's art which features a pictue of Superman on it. Apparently this was not appreciated by the folks at DC and they ordered for it to be removed. HOWEVER there are copies out there that feature the orignal artwork. So I felt it to be a collector's duty to get the one with the original untainted artwork. So I did, and it was on sale, so there. It is a truly fantastic album and his research and understanding of a state's identity is fantastic. Pick that stuff up, it's awesome. Maybe with my new freetime I can really figure out how to do that well for y'all. Peace out for now, I'm sleepy.

Hey....I don't know if any of you heard about this, but Sandra Day O'Connor retired. The news wasn't really giving it much coverage so I thought I would inject some real hard news into my schpeel for once. Pat on the back for me! Hoorah, I say!

Tonight (tonight meaning 3 in the morning) has been a rather indecisive night. In about an hour I will be leaving to go to Jamaica. I thought just simply staying up would be a good idea. One can of coke, one peeing out the window and 4 Arrested Development episodes later, I actually think that going to bed might have been a wiser choice. In the end though, I'm scheduled to awaken in 30 minutes, so I better make this final, and unscheduled (I bet you are just so happy!), post before I leave for vacation really count. So tonight, I'm going to tackle a hard issue, one that most people won't venture to touch because the media doesn't want you to bother with it. Frankly the only reason I feel like talking about this issue is because it's 3 in the morning and I have the balls to face it. What's this question you ask? Plain and simple, the question is this: Why should I care?

This is the true wonderment of today's media. It seems that everything must have a personal stories. No longer are athletes just athletes and rock stars simply rock stars. Nay, now they must be living, walking human interest pieces. I was reading an article about Interpol in an old Spin today and this whole deal dawned on me. Even for a group who's schtick is being cold, aloof party monsters, Spin still had to throw some sort of human interest angle in there. Now I know that one of the guys is from a poor background and is blah blah blah. This seems to be a change from the past. I know more about the artist of the past 10 years life than I would ever know about Marc Bolan, Mick Jagger, Joe Strummer, or Tim Finn's childhood. All I really know about those guys is their nationality. Why do we have an increasing fascination with the idols we have. Why do we strive to strip them of their demigod status. I don't need, or want to honestly, identify with Crispin Glover look-a-like contest winner, Carlos D. Let people play their music in anonymous fashion, letting out bits and pieces of their life if they want too. But if they only want me to know that they are spies with slow hands then let's leave it at that. I'm not looking for a rock and roll best friend, I just want rock idolitry, and that gets hard when I know what that fey pretty boy from the Killers had for his dinner last night.

Alright, big things are happening from here on out. Well, at least when I get back from vacation. And maybe not even then, but sometime something big will happen.

Ok, I truly am sorry about abandoning you for so long, guys. It's been a busy week and frankly this is again my last words for a while on account that I will be taking a much needed retreat to Jamaica starting Saturday. It's been a trial of a year which I am pleased to announce that this will be the marking point for the end of the old and the start of the new. What helps usher in such a change, you ask? All inclusive drinks and a sunny beach, that's what. So, when you think of me throughout out the span of next week just know that I'm happily half-drunk on the sandy beaches of Jamaica. But enough about me, let's say we get to some real hot writing action? I like my writing and I honestly hope it's decent entertainment for the 5...4...3...2....1 of you that actually make the effort to read this every so often. I plan on big things for this now that my days aren'tm quite as full. So........WATCH OUT!!!!

Firstly, I would like to address the issue of the so-called "Live 8" concert being held across the world in hopes that Africa's debt will be forgiven. I really only have one thing ot say about this: Bob Geldof is an attention whore. Obviously he gets no monetary gain out of this (I fuckin hope so, at least) so all he's really after is us remembering him and his damn Boomtown Rats. C'mon he readily admit to only giving a shit about africa EIGHT times!!! It's in the name of the concert!!! Plus, I heard Freddy Mercury got his AIDS during his little Live Aid stint....for which we should all hate Bob Geldof.

Next on my funny little agenda before I piss off for a week I have a memo to anyone who sits near me in a movie theater: Please be quiet and remain seated until the credits roll at least. In the past week I've seen two films, which I suppose I can speak on in the next paragraph, and at both showing people won't be quiet. I'm not talking the traditional whisper whisper bullshit, I'm talking about full on conversations, be it with a person with them or a person on their cell phone. Good lord, if you wanna talk go buy the shitty bootleg from that guy in front of the Farragut West metro station (I was watching his copy of Madagascar the other day and it was amazingly crisp on his little portable player) because oyu obviously don't care about actually seeing the film. This makes for three fights I managed to almost get into when I told people to shut up. Why everybody gotta be hatin'? To irritate me just that little bit more people leave super early now too. As Batman came to a close the movie has a few scenes to tie up ends. At the end of the first one of these, which still left a good 5-10 minutes left in the film, half the damn crowd got up and started leaving. WHAAAAA?!?!?

But before I really start sounding like a full-on Andy Rooney I must say Batman and Land of the Dead were both totally amazing. Ii was completely happy to spend some dough on both.

Now, some music for all y'all hip kids. First up is Stephen Malkmus' new album Face The Truth. I haven't totally digested this one yet, but I can say thus far that it is really good. It does have a little bit of the old flair that Pavement had but its definately got it's own shiney, hot-boys flair. Plus, if he realeased a Pavement-y album these days people would just yell at him for sounding like Weezer. Next is a classic which really needs no "blah-blah" which is The Misfits Static Age. It's just forever hot. And to finish up some truly odd Japanese psych-freak out courtest of Acid Mother Temple. And it's too late for me too talk about it so just listen and get frrrrrreaked.


Stephen Malkmus - Face The Truth
The Misfits - Static Age
Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. - In C | 2 | 3

good night and i love you all. I'll catch you in a week and be thouroughly relaxed. Most likely that shall mean no more Andy Rooney impressions.

So, I went to Ted Leo tonight and it was an interesting experience. I'm sure that some of the things I might say in the following paragraph could be interpreted as criticism but it's actually not, it was a pretty good show overall. However, this show ended up reminding me and in a way beginning to experience something I have oft thought about. Sometimes I wonder how it felt to see the Clash, or a better example in this case The Jam, in one setting and then the next time you see them have it be like an entirely different show and feel. The last time I saw Ted Leo and the Pharmacists was in Cleaveland and it, like all of my previous TL+Rx experiences was a tightly packed, dirty, sweaty rock and roll experience. But tonight, Ted Leo moved up, and good for him, if anybody deserves it, it's that guy. But now he had a bigger stage, a bigger crowd, and, most shocking, lighting that bordered on a Pink Floyd LaZer Dome show. We're talking lights that made shaped and spun on stage! WHAAAAAA?!?! It's cool though, Theodore hadn't changed, he still provided maximum face blasting rock and oh so delightfully witty stage banter. He's the only man i will never shout "LESS TALK MORE ROCK!!!!" too....not like I've ever actually done that anyways, though. The sound was great, but it definately felt more professional, and very very clean, which was no fault of Mr. Leo, he played his jiggin' heart out. In fact all of them did, Chris Wilson, as tradition dictates, destroyed his kit and Dave Lerner played bass superly and continued to not sing into the mic in front of him.

TED LEO 2K5 LAzAH LIGHT SHOW 4-EVA!!!!!!!!!!!

No music today...just me telling you I had odd fun. If this was a reeeeeal whiney emo blog I could delve into some annoying, albeit hilarious, issues. But I'll spare you, go listen to Tyranny Of Distance.

ya know, i was going to put up a new one last night....then the internet didnt work. Now, I'm too tired, considering it's three in the MOOOO-NIIIIIIN. So, I'll leave you with this, and go to bed. Hey, it's something.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah-- S/T 1 | 2 (Just as an aside, this person was lazy, so the band name differs with a "!" at the end so it will be in seperate folders and one track, "Heavy Metal" I believe, has all it's info in the Track Name section, so look out for that)

The full length is pretty good, so enjoy it. I'll write something cooler and funnier tomorrow.

I was at a loss as to what to write about today, honestly I was. I wasn't really feeling like anything. Michael Jackson is acquited and even the woo-hoo hubbub surrounding his acquital was over with. The media just stopped caring so quickly! Sure I could complain about politics, but even that's become cliche and most likely, to anyone who reads this at least, I would be just preaching to the choir. So I was prepared to return to my computer and sit with this empty text box saring me in the face, after all I was fairly determined to write something tonight. Leave it to my father, bless his heart, to say something that irked me and got me ready to bitch to the facless masses, with the exception of you Paul....you get a face.
Tonight, alongside my parents, I attended a screening of Sneakers, a film which traces the gym shoe from i's humble beginnings to its current status as a fashion staple. Much of the movie dealt with the ideas of image and how concious we are of it today. From so-called "cool-hunters" on Melrose to Japanese kids coming to a town square knowing they would most likely be photographed, the idea of image is a big part of the shoe culture. These cool-hunters by the way, are the most shallow fuckers on the planet. They are so immage-concious that they know nothing else to make a business out of it, looking for uniqueness and whoring it out to the masses thus basically destroying any idea of uniqueness. Or perhaps they are the fulcrum which keeps trendsetters on their toes, constantly pushing them to do more and more bizarre things. Either way, they are materialistic idiots. But back, to my real point, which is what my father said to my mother and I, I apologize for digressing.
In my post-film discussion with my parents, my father said that he was not image concious at any time in his life. My mom gets points because she admitted that in her youth she did care what she wore, but my father wouldn't budge, using his same bullshit song and dance, "We were too poor to care." First of all this argument is bullshit, especially after watching a film where black people who are waaaaaay worse off than he ever was talking about their being aware of how they project themselves to the world around them. I said this and he, of course, got grumpy. Then, thankfully, my mother brought up the '60's. I've seen him then, and he was definately aware of style. The man had a fu-manchu and a mane of hair. He readily admits to identifying with CSNY's song "Cut My Hair"!!! If that's not image-concious I'm not sure I know what it is, then. It also seemed that he didn't want to admit that hippie culture was a style concious one! Of course it was, it's just that they focused on looking as disheveled as possible. Just because those drugged-up, dirty fucks don't spend $900 on a pair of shoes doesn't make them any less aware of how they present themselves to the public. If that was the case you could have a high-and-tight and three-piece suit and still be a hippie, which we all know is bullshit and could never happen.
Image is impossible to escape, no matter how poor or rich you are. Only people with serious mental impairment don't give a shit about their appearence. Hell, and my own father, went from being long haired hippie dude to what I think was his most hilarious style choice ever. I only thought of this on my drive home and he was way to grumpy later for me to raise this issue. But anyways, I've seen photographs from the early '80's where he and my mom are totally prepped out. He got a pink seater around his neck, a polo shirt, khaki pants, and matching socks!!! THE SOCKS MATCH THE SWEATER!!!! AWESOME!!! My mom matched my father except her sweater/sock combo is yellow. I wish I could have had that picture in my back pocket to just pull out when he pulled his "I was never image concious" schtick to say "YOU LIE!!!"
No one ever seems to want to admit that they care about how they present themselves to the world. What is so wrong with that? I want to look good. As long as people judge by looks, I will care about how I walk out of the house. This doens't mean I'll go out and buy the newest limited edition low-dunks, but it does mean I'll put on some good lookin kicks and present myself in a way that I want the world to pervcieve me. Image isn't money based, it is simply a fact of the world around us which inescapable and should be embraced so you don't end up looking like an ass when someone calls you out on your denial. Because, frankly, if you deny your being aware of it and you aren't mentally retarded or psychotic, you are a damn dirty liar and, permit me to say, pants on fire don't look cool, they just fucking hurt.

As far as music goes, let us see what I dug up amongst the fields today. First I'll throw out TV on the Radio's Young Liar's EP. It's good and has a version of "Staring at the Sun" on it with a good vocal intro to it that makes the song spoooookier. Next up is Pretty Girls Make Graves first albumy type thing. Worth it just for the sheer kickassness that is the first track, "Speakers Push The Air." Thirdly, some good time punk rock and roll alongside Ireland's Stiff Little Figners, with another brutal killer of a track "Suspect Device."

TV on the Radio -- Young Liar's EP
Pretty Girl's Make Graves -- Good Health
Stiff Little Fingers -- Inflammable Material (password: alcoholdepository)


Enjoy, I think my rant was alright today, I think I 'm almost getting bloggin down. I write, you read, and you are forced to enjoy because there is free music at the end!!

I'm gonna give up being human for a while, thank you!

So, here we are, it's been a day or so...or a couple since Michael Jackson was acquited. Good for him, now he can really learn to enjoy what the world has to offer...like girls...who are adults. Oh and not having plastic surgery. Also making good music again might bring him and us some joy. Some people say Thriller is his best album but I would have to disagree, Off the Wall would kick it's ass all up and down the "Billie Jean" video's lighted sidewalks.

I went and saw Penelope Spheeris talk tonight at the AFI Silverdocs Conference. I can't really take part in the conference part, so to me it is more like the AFI Silverdocs Festival. This is the first year I have been in town during the festival and thus far it has been a good time. Tonight they just showed a bunch of music videos (Air's "All I Need," Aphex Twin's "Come To Daddy and other assorted kickassery). I think I was pretty pleased when The Rapture's "House of Jealous Lovers" video by the Shynola guys socked everybody's teeth out though. People thought that video was super mega badass...which it is! Penelope Spheeris is not made for public speaking, by the way, she seemed like she was on drugs, super spacey and jittery as all hell. Overall it was fun though. I'm looking forward to the documentary on the 930 club called "930 F Street" and another movie, which I believe is on Saturday called "Sneakers." That one's supposed to have a good progression from early sneakers through Run DMC ADIDAS days all the way up to those apeshit kids in Tokyo who go bonanza for shoes.

As for music, I'm still deciding to be lazy, but i can get more to you this way. We've got plenty of good stuff found floating about the internet! First up in a couple Kings of Convinience albums. Most importantly is the Versus album which is simply a collection of remixes of songs off their first album. The Four Tet remix alone is worht the download. Next up is Art Brut's Bang Bang Rock and Roll which is basically what it's title suggest. Good time punk rock and roll for young disaffected youth a la the Buzzcocks. After that I'm including a link to Frijid Pink's album which is a destructive piece of pop-psychedelia. The had a song on the Cherrystone Rock's album. I must warn you though that download is paaaaaaaainfully slow.

Kings of Convenience- Versus & Riot On An Empty Street
Art Brut- Bang Bang Rock And Roll
Frijid Pink- Frijid Pink (sorry sorry, the password is "sth")


Well, maybe I will have something more interesting to say tomorrow, and maybe a better selection of music. I'm feeling lazy today and I'm not feeling like a people person. Now, ironically that seems like I might totally enjoy immersing myself in the facelessness that is writing on the internet, but no, I don't really want to talk to you either.

I'm in the mood to find you guys some Kate Bush though, so be on the lookout for that though. I may or may not post tomorrow. This is not yet part of my daily routine.

Well, it seems the case that California cannot convict celebrities. No matter how many the real world put up for trial they are an unconvictable group. Hell, this one even admits to sleeping with children and we still can't make up our mind. I need to get on that boat!! At this rate in the year 2014 Lindsay Lohan will be the next Hitler but it will be cool because she made some totally Oscar worthy movies. Whatever, I'm rather apathetic to the whole situation now, thank you media saturation!!!!

On to cooler things, though. Here's the preview for Guy Ritchie's new flick. Glad to see he decided to make sure his kaballah loving fruitcake of a wife would have no role in this one and thankfully neither will any sort of beach/desert-island setting. Looks like its back to the blood/guns/thugs basics including Ray Liotta! Awesome!

Well my somewhat success with yousendit the other day proved, bullshit. So i'm gonna mooch off of someone elses hard work. Here's some good billy bragg, I'm frustrated now. Enjoy this though. The track list can be found here, i know it's irritating to do this yourself, but it's free you summabitches.
Billy Bragg-- Taxman/Back To Basics

As a side note, I have yet to find a place for a real download of this but everyone's favorite two-man party machine Death From Above 1979 have put up their cover of Bloc Party's Luno on their DFA1979 Myspace Profile. It's not a huge departure at all. Following the basic blueprint of the orginal they seem to somehow change the attitude of the song. Whereas Bloc Party sounds more like "I'm angry and leaving this room and slamming the door behind me for emphasis," the DFA's feels waaaaaay more confrontational about ol' Luno's cocaine habits or whatever the hell that song is about (bloody noses'? lying? i don't know, whatever.) Good fun all around, though. As soon as I have a decent version I'll put it up.

This here is a testing of my ability to use YouSendIt and your ability to recieve such nonsense. If I did this right you'll have plenty more music coming your way which is good news for you, bad news for my polic record. Caution to the wind, let the fun begin! For my friends who have not yet enjoyed the full on cheap pleasures of the mp3 blog, when I post bigger files they'll be zipped, if you need a good UNZIPPER!!!! then I shall direct you to the good and free Winace archiver. It's fairly self explanatory once you download it but lemme know if you have any issues.

Start off safe with The Mystery Jets, a band form the UK with very few recordings to their name, at least that are available to us yanks. They've been supporting those lads of Bloc Party a great deal over there but alas didn't get the gig to follow them around the US. Down low is the three songs I've found round the internet by them. "You Can't Fool Me Dennis" is a great punchy, clackityy pop-garage song that I've been finding to be well to my liking. The other two songs are quie good as well. "Alas Agnes" has the feeling of rolling through the english country side on a rare sunny day cursing the name of that evil, but you still kinda dig her anyway, ex-girlfriend, and "On My Feet" has those disco hi-hats that we've all come to be so appreciative of lately. So here you are, I hope it works, let me know if it doesn't and i'll figure something out.

The Mystery Jets- EP of 3

So, if this works, most of my testy stuff will be done and i can get into business as usual.