I took these photos...probably last summer, at El Rio - home of the
awesome shuffleboard table. In case
you've never seen them or heard their demo, The Makes Nice are super
fantastically great. They are a Bay
Area "super group" if you wanted to call them that - featuring Jack (of
Harold Ray: Live in Concert) on drums,
Aaron (of The Mothballs) on bass, and Josh (formerly of The Fuckin'
Champs) on guitar and vocals. As you
might imagine, the sum of those parts adds up to some pretty badass
music.
Go to their myspace site
and listen for yourselves if you don't believe me.
David Bowie - Panic
In Detroit. My favorite David Bowie song? Maybe.
Probably. Certainly in the top 5.
Plus it reminds me of the classic 101 skateboard video "Falling Down"
as it was used in the intro there.
Snowden - Anti-Anti.
You know, the kind of music this band plays generally irritates
me when other groups
do it, but for some reason I like it when Snowden does it. I
can't explain why. It's catchy as shit, that's for sure.
The Changes - When
I Wake. The demo/EP I have for this band is all over the
place, but this is by far the
best track off of that release. I even heard it being played on
one of those Sirius channels the other day, so
maybe these lads are on their way up the ladder?
The Futureheads - Cope.
I absolutely loved the Futureheads self-titled debut album and
still listen to it all
the time. Their follow up "News and Tributes", which this track
was taken from, was still decent but never
really had a chance to live up to the greatness of its predecessor.
The Sonics - Night
Time Is The Right Time. I find it imposible to hear this
song and not think of the epi-
sode of the Cosby Show where the family lip-syncs to the Ray Charles
version of this track. But this version
is plenty rad too.
The Traditional Fools - Layback.
Local lo-fi garage-y surf rock, check'em out live if you can.
Also worth
noting - one of these kids is now a member of doginasweater faves The
Mothballs, as Ryan (the organist)
moved to Hawaii to go back to school.
***February Eighth Two Thousand and Seven***
Mono Lake
I posted some black & white photos taken of the ghost town of Bodie
a few months back. Well I finally got the
other roll of film from that trip developed, and I present to you the
tufa of Mono Lake. Mono Lake is a terminal
lake, extremely salty and bouyant, and it forms these "tufa" underwater
and as the lake level has dropped the
tufa have made themselves visable to the gawking tourists. It's a
pretty amazing sight in person.
Also: See the photo
journal section for photos from a recent trip to Cabo San Lucas,
Mexico...
Caesura - Trap
Door. I can't say I've been balls-wild for all of this
San Francisco band's output, but the
album this track was taken from
"More Specific, Less Pacific" is pretty great from start to finish.
Jeru The Damaja - Ya
Playin' Yaself. Still one of my all-time favorite hip-hop
artists, and his material
stands up today as well as it
did when it was first released.
Nick Lowe - So
It Goes. One of the many great pop songs this legend has
released throughout his career.
Nikki & The Corvettes - Young
And Crazy. Classic power pop. It never gets old.
Stereolab - The
Noise Of Carpet. Another track from their box set "Oscillons from the
Anti-Sun", and one
of my most favoritest Stereolab
songs of all time.
The Most Serene Republic - Jazz
Ordinaire. Those goddamn Canadians are out of control
with the prod-
ucing of the good music and all
that business. It's as if every resident of that country is
signed to Arts &
Crafts and producing great tunes
constantly.
The Six Parts Seven - A
Few Lights Slipping. Post-rock! I don't listen to
the bands commonly filed under
this goofily-named genre as much
as I did in college, but every once in a while a track sticks in your
craw
and well, this one is a killer.
