Random Skating Pics...
Random friends I've skated with over the years...Kevin Barza, Chris
Cole, two of Andrew Paynter, and then
in the bottom corner, two of Shawn Springer. All rippers,
all rad dudes.
Couple of new updates in the Photo Journal
section, one old and one new. Also! A new page, The
Mouse the Cat page, a landing strip for the millions of
photos we've taken of her over the years.
thong songs... 13th Floor Elevators - You're
Gonna Miss Me. Legendary Texas psyche-rock-whatevs band. Roky
Erick-
son is well regarded as a musical genius and
this is plenty of reason why. Listen to that organ! That's
some damn good organing. Dumbwaiters
- The
Blow Up. I'm going ot just keep talking about this band until
someone actually pays
attention to me, which will probably be never.
But anyways, this is from their second release "Musick",
which isn't as good as their first, but is still
pretty awesome. Modey Lemon -
Predator.
I bought this CD, then sold it, then bought it again out of the
bargain bin and all
of the sudden their agity-garage/punk thing sounded
awesome to me. I hear they are great live but have
yet to witness it personally. The Stairs
- Escape
Clause. I know little of this group, but I randomly got this
disc to review and was sur-
prised at how much I liked it. 9 times
out of 10, the stuff I get runs the gamut from boring to awful, but it's
that one diamond in the rough that makes it all
worthwhile. Of course, after looking at their website, it
was a bummer ot see that the band has recently
broken up.
***August Seventeenth Two Thousand and Five***
Thee Mothballs Shit, I love this band. How
many times have I seen them now? I have no idea, but it's always
a hoot. These
pics are from a gig they played at the Rickshaw stop a couple
of months back with Harold
Ray: Live in
Concert, another local favorite that never fails to please.
I also saw them this past weekend, and they did a
cover of Johnny Cash's "Guess Things Happen That Way" and it sound
like it should have been on the
Muppets. Too rad.
The Time Flys
Yet another of those ubiquitous offshoots from The Cuts' fold.
They are good times for sure...if you know The
Cuts, you have a general idea as to what you're getting into here.
Think New York Dolls with a garage rock
tint to it. Anyways, they just put out a record, hopefully
it's good...I haven't heard it yet to verify. But they sound
great live.
musics: Johnny Cash -
Guess
Things Happen That Way. The very mention of Thee Mothball's
cover of this instantly
gets it stuck in my head, so why not post it?
It's hard ot top the first few albums Cash put out, some of my
very favoritest stuff on the whole planet.
(Bonus track - Luther
Plays the Boogie) Head of Femur - Song
for Richard Manual. I'm kinda stupid when it comes to lyrics,
but I'm almost positive
this is about the Richard Manuel from The Band,
one of the greatest recording groups of all-time and one of
the best collection of singers that has ever
been assembled. Good song, even if they did misspell his name.
Actually this whole album is pretty great (Hysterical
Stars) and so is their first (Ringodom or Proctor).
(Bonus track - Percy) The Band - When
You Awake. See above - one of my favorites and welldeserving
of the praise they've re-
cieved over the years. Here's a couple
of my favorite tracks that Manuel helped pen from their self-titled
album (and my personal fave).
(Bonus track - Jawbone)
***August Ninth Two Thousand and Five***
Brian Weeks
What can I say about this guy? A great friend and a terrible
college student, a rocker and a sloppy drunk,
and always willing to gang up on me if anyone is there to help
him out. For a Duke fan, he's not too bad.
Everyone should go listen to his band Summer Set, and be sure
and come down to the Rec Center next
saturday where they will be trying to win the battle of the
bands! Rumor on the street is that the Jimm-e Hatz
unique blend of prog-rock and dancehall reggae are shoe-ins,
but my money is on tha Set to bring home
the trophy and 12 hours of recording time in the back of that
AM gospel radio station whose name escapes
me.
Also, he is apparently scared of geese, cause this is as close
as I could get him to this one over at the
Palace of Fine Arts. What a ninny. But he isn't
scared to jump off of a rocky outcropping, or wear a bad hat.
And here's a few randoms...
Some house near the Lobot gallery in West Oakland, Jolene
and Heather at one of the Cereal Factory
shows, my awesome cat Mouse, and some rejected cover art from
Sufjan's latest album.
ALSO - see the photo journal
for Yosemite pics, from a trip there back in 2003.
musics: David
Kilgour - Living
in Space. You know him as "that dude" from New Zealand's The
Clean, but his solo
output is pretty spot on too. This
song is all swirly in the best swirly way songs can be. The Sames - Bigger
Than a God. Fantastic NC indie-pop band who are doing their
best to bring some of
the musical glory back to the Triangle. Their
album "You Are the Sames" is a great listen from start to finish. Joe
Tex - I
Want To (Do Everything for You). Vastly, supremely, criminally
underrated soul singer from Texas.
Has that great "preacher man" style that
instantly energizes you everytime you hear him. This track is
almost
picked at random from his greatest hits disc,
as every single track is amazing. Harpswell Sound
- Funfair.
What can I say, I'm a straight sucker for the pedal steel, it
pretty much makes
anything better. Maybe even pancakes.
***August Third Two Thousand and Five***
Band Photos! Haha, I should learn how to stop taking
crappy photos. Whatever.
The Evens
Sure, The Evens
are not as awesome as Fugazi, and I don't find myself compelled to listen
to their album
all that often, but they put on one hell of a live show.
Dub-inspired drums run through an echo combined
with what you'd probably called "Fugazi unplugged" on a baritone
guitar, and both of them singing. As you
might imagine, it was all pretty political and all that,
but not irritatingly so.
Lower Forty-Eight L48
are some local hard rock badasses that I've dug for years. These
pics were from a gig at The Stork
Club in Oakland with Darediablo (pics to come later), and
it was their next-to-the-last show with their bass
player, Grady, who has since moved to Canada. From
what I understand they are going to continue on
(he's the second bass player as it is), but I dunno who or
when or whatever. Takes a pretty bad-ass bass
player to keep up with these guys.
Music:
I'm lacking in anything particularly exciting on a single
track tip, so here's a biggie - a zipped file of a DJ set
by some cat called DJ B, called Best
of the Wu Volume 3. Apparently it's some rare NYC mix tape,
came
out 97 or thereabouts. Lots of tracks from the first
Wu-Tang album plus a few solo tracks. Sound quality
isn't amazing, but it will do. The first Wu album -
greatest hip hop record of all time? It's certainly in the
running in my book. This is a huge-ass file and I'm
only going to leave it up for a few days, so grab it soon
if you want it.
