I updated pretty much everything there is to update up^^^ there...the
calendar now reflects noteworthy shows here in
North Carolina, there are plenty of new cute photos of my cat, I
finally posted my backlog of music reviews...yadda
yadda yadda.
In other news...there is no other news. Trying to find a job, get
settled into the new apartment, contemplating getting
a dog...the usual shit.
"Right, I
forgot, here in the States, you call it a *sausage* in the mouth."
Barzin
- Leaving
Time.
One of my very favorite bands of the last few years, just really
beautiful shit. This band should
be infinitely more popular. Bonus: Let's Go Driving.
Little Jimmy & The Sparrows - Snoring.
All of these songs are classic "novelty" songs, but they are still
pretty rad.
Obviously everyone knows the last track, mostly from "The Blues
Brothers". The Cameos - Wait
Up. The Cellos - Rang
Tang Ding Dong (I'm The Japanese Sandman). The Chips - Rubber
Biscuit.
***March Thirty
First Two
Thousand and Eight***
Sorry for the hiatus...spending a couple of weeks driving across the
country, and then trying to weed through all of the
photos will take it's toll. But the end result is there are a ton
of new photo journal entries from the cross-country trip if
you are interested.
In other news...
My good man Todd sent this along a while back and it made me
laugh...it's him as a small child being frightened by
his older brother in a costume. But let's be honest, that outfit
would scare me today if I saw someone in it.
Another reader submission, this time from family friend
Spiderman...maybe it's time to have a website spinoff,
www.doginakayak.com?
Morrissey - The
Never-Played Symphonies. Another B-side from the Moz,
and like I often say, his B-sides are light
years better than the "hits" from most other performers.
Pinebender - Get.
Grasp. Have. This is just dripping with Chicago
mid-nineties post-rock-ishness. Not that there is
anything wrong with that.
The Kingsbury Manx - Harness
And Wheel. Easily one of the best and most underrated
mellow rock bands of the
last few years.
Bonus:What
A Shame.
The Ponys - Everyday
Weapon. Everyone knows about The Ponys at this point,
at least as much as I do. Good band,
catchy songs, and apparently a nice live show though I can't verify
that.
Bonus: I'm With You.
Bonus: Small Talk.
***February Twenty
Second
Two
Thousand and Eight***
Uploaded a few crappy scans of photos taken with my "real" cameras
while in cambodia...I've got some cross-processed color
snaps I need to scan and put here as well, but god knows when that will
actually happen.
A few other photos that were on one of those rolls - these were all
taken at a show that happened inside of a bus parked down
at Jack London Square. The headliner was Thrones, and he was
awesome, but of course all my photos of him were terrible.
Instead here are a couple of photos of The Grey Daturas (first two
photos) and Bobby Bruno (second two photos).
"One
morning, over at Elizabeth's beach house, she asked me if I'd
rather go water-skiing or lay out. And I realized that
not only did I
not want to answer THAT question, but I never wanted to answer another
water-sports question, or see
any of these people again for the rest of
my life."
I'm going with a double helping of music this time. We'll call it
a late valentine's day present or some such shit.
Great Lake Swimmers - Song
For The Angels. This group of troubadours is vastly
underrated. All three of their
records are fantastic if you like what my friend Greg calls "sad
bastard music".
Bonus: When It Flows.
Hot Snakes - Hatchet
Job. Probably as opposite of "sad bastard music" as
you can get.
Bonus: Plenty For All.
Ladyhawk - My
Old Jacknife. Yet more greatness from the "Black
Mountain" collective. What is it with Canadians
and them grouping together and forming multiple bands together? I
blame socialized healthcare. And moose.
Bonus: The Dugout.
The Arcade Fire - Keep
The Car Running. Coincidence that the only two really
good songs off of their second
album are both about cars? I think not!
Bonus: No Cars Go.
The Twilight Sad - Cold
Days From The Birdhouse. I've always been a sucker for
Scottish bands where the
singer's accent is so strong that you can even hear it when they sing
(see also Arab Strap).
Bonus: I'm Taking The Train Home.
Beirut - Prenzlauerberg.
The squeezebox never sounded so good.
Maximo Park - Our
Velocity. As far as NME-hyped bands go, these guys
aren't half bad.
Morrissey - Good
Looking Man About Town. These tracks are more b-sides
from singles; this man releases
more awesome songs as b-sides than most folks would dream of putting
out as their proper singles.
Bonus: Human Being.
Reigning Sound - Drowning.
It took me a while to get won over by the album these tracks are from,
"Too Much
Guitar" - the album wasn't instantly as catchy as their other releases,
but once it grew on me I might actually consider
this their best outing.
Bonus: If You Can't Give Me Everything.
Bonus: I'll Cry.
The Sea & Cake - Coconut.
They're never going to release a record as good as "The Biz" again,
I've come to
terms with it. But they still pop out a great song every now and
then.
We took a nice trip to Cambodia, a delayed honeymoon if you will.
See the "Photo Journal" link above for a boatload
of pictures. I also took a bunch of snaps with my "real" cameras,
those photos will follow later.
Also: It looks like our resident grappler has returned from the
dead! Read below for a new installment of Turnbuckle
Talk. It seems our boy nearly got himself mauled by a bear...I'm
sure those years of boy scout training came in handy.
Picked
up
a Leinenkugel and thought that a keyboard would go well with it, so it
is time to give all you little mouth
breathers an update on what your
pal has been doing.
Communiqués have been sparse due to the
recent holiday
season and an obnoxious tour that had me by the eyelashes: Tealeaf
Terror 2007.What the hell you ask – my exact
words to my manager, Lieutenant Leroy St. Clair.
The good Lieutenant put it like this, "My boy, do
you
like king
cobras and four-armed, horny elephants…if so, we're going on
a trip that will milk your prostate."
Damn,
if he was not right; it was nothing short of 36 weeks of riding God's
index finger.However, there was one blip
on the radar that I have got to share with my friends.
We were finishing up our last night in Darjeeling
and
the
Lieutenant tells me that the company wants me to help put this new
guy over.To which I answered, "Of course, the
Eagle will trade fisticuffs with any creature…including cripples."
Well,
that was foolish.I get in the ring and there it is
– Bruce "The Daddy Bear" DeBeau.Not
only did he make me
feel like whiskey breath telling me to keep this
"our little secret," but his little crony frightened the pudding out of
me as
well.That bastard was wormy, pasty and decked out
in a pair of overalls that would have made Dexy's Midnight
Runners proud.
As I am processing all of this,
Bruce sashays over and locks me in an inverted-Russian bear hug, with a
French tickler.
Listen -
try having a John Oates mustache standing between you and the belt,
while getting squeezed through the
glory hole of
life.
I will stop just short of admitting it, but there was a brief moment
when thoughts of a problem danced
around my head.
However, like Momma said I could, I quickly sacked up,
dropped a Ronnie Garvin fist of stone on his
ass and followed it
with
the European gutter cutter…the kid holds serve.
"Pain or
damage don't end the world. Or despair or fucking beatings. The
world ends when you're dead. Until then, you
got more punishment in
store. Stand it like a man... and give some back."
Not feeling really chatty about the downloads available this go
around...just don't miss the Isis or Destroyer, all those
tracks are top tits. And all the songs are quite good, I wouldn't
ass around with uploading them otherwise.
HAPPY NEW YEARS TO ALL SEVEN OF MY READERS!!!
Somehow the month of December didn't happen on this here retarded
website. I have no explanation other than
someone might have slipped me a mickey. Also, I had to go to Los
Angeles over xmas, so the city of Los Angeles
is probably to blame too.
Top Records of
2007!
Honestly, I
wasn't too jazzed on most of the new releases I heard this year...the
first few releases on the list got a lot of
airplay, but for the most part I was either unmoved or downright
irritated with most of the new albums on the year.
1.
The
National – Boxer
2. Animal
Collective - Strawberry Jam
3. Kings
Of Leon - Because Of The Times 4. Les
Savy Fav - Let's Stay Friends 5. Dinosaur
Jr. - Beyond
6. The
Shout Out Louds - Our Ill Wills 7. Thee
More Shallows - Book of Bad Breaks
8. Why?
- The Hollows EP
9. The
Makes Nice - This Time Tomorrow
10. The
Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters
Call these the
"also rans"...
11. Boris
w/ Michio Kurihara - Rainbow 12.
Sunset
Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover
13. The Shins - Wincing the Night Away 14. Patton
Oswalt - Werewolves and Lollipops 15. Super Furry
Animals - Hey Venus!
16. Calla
- Strength in Numbers 17. El-P
- I'll Sleep When You're Dead 18. Queens of
the Stone Age - Era Vulgaris
19. The Dreadful
Yawns - Rest
20. Okkervil
River - The Stage Names 21. Aesop
Rock - None Shall Pass
22. Explosions In The Sky - All Of A Sudden I
Miss Everyone 23. Steven
Wright - I Still Have A Pony
24. Liars
- S/T
25. Great
Lake Swimmers - Ongiara
I know I
normally post MP3s when I write one of these lists, but I'm just too
damn lazy plus I've posted tracks by
most of these artists through the year already. Some of the links
might even still be active.
"You've
got one religious maniac, one malignant dwarf, two near-idiots... and
the rest I don't even wanna think about! "
Blonde
Redhead - Misery
(Wicked
Version). Their new
album was a pretty big disappointment, but this track is
pretty boss.
Death
Cab for Cutie - President
of What.
Not to sound like one of "those" people, but Death Cab's first record
really was their best. Consider this the smoking gun.
Bonus: The Face That Launched 1000
Ships.
Johnny Thunders - (She's
So)
Untouchable. I can't stop listening to this
song. I'm not one of those Johnny
Thunders fanatics, but this is one of the catchiest songs ever written.
Bonus: Great Big Kiss.
Son Volt - The
Picture. After a number of mediocre sad bastard
releases (both as Son Volt and solo), Jay Farrar
finally managed to recapture some of that magic from their first couple
of releases.
Bonus: The Search.
Voxtrot - Firecracker.
I have absolutely nothing interesting to say about this band that
hasn't already been said by
about a thousand music bloggers. Catchy songs, interesting band,
good times.
Bonus: Kid Gloves.
Turnbuckle Talk with
the American Starship Eagle