Pitchfork thinks that the new Thermals record is their best yet. I'll admit, it's growing on me a bit as I become more familiar with the songs, but I still can't imagine ever enjoying it as much as I've enjoyed More Parts Per Million, which most definitely sits on my top 10 favorite records of all time list*.

Whilist fishing around for an official link about the newish Futureheads album, I found this link, giving us a 9/26 release date for the new Lemonheads album. 2006 has been a far better year musically than 2005 was, in my opinion. It kicked off with the Lawrence Arms Oh Calcutta! and has pretty much been great release after great release from some of my favorite bands ever since. With new Lemonheads, Ergs, and Les Savy Fav all in the pipeline, I'd say the year will continue accordingly.

But back to the Futureheads. I heard the single Skip to the End from News & Tributes for the first time in a hotel room in Venice, of all places. Marissa and I had to wake up at about 4am to catch our flight home... and Venice all but shuts down around midnight, so we took to plopping our exahusted bodies in front of the TV during the interim. We found an MTV owned channel that played all indie rock and experimental videos in between short films and animation clips that reminded me of the irrevrant type stuff MTV used to do in the early 90s. Much of it was in Italian, of course, so I wasn't exactly sure what was going on.. but I couldn't help but think that maybe I'd actually watch TV if we had something like it in the states. It was all commercial free, which certainly helped, and it was actually playing good videos by (mostly) good bands! I was transported back to being 14 and watching Nine Inch Nails' video for Wish on 120 minutes. The Skip to the End video was pretty neat, and I really dug the song a lot. I just finally got myself a copy of the album last night and I think I'm going to end up enjoying it a lot more than the first one, which started to annoy me after only a few listens. The sound is bigger.. the songs are sparser.. and it makes for an overall better listening experience, in my opinion.

Paul likes to rag on me for my incessant music links and generally over-enthusiastic recommendations, which I'm sure is mostly warranted. So instead of ranting further about the new pAper chAse album, I'll ask him what he thinks about it, if anything. --

* This list contains approximately 40 records.

Ok, maybe linking this video makes me some magical queer boy, but there's some cool shit if you got 8+ minutes. The flips and stuff are kinda giy, but when he goes into the buildings, he does some crazy shit. Big Dumb Me sitting here barely able to move my neck, color me impressed. Read a little more about Parkour. Shit, I wanted to post something else but Weeds is on. Go watch Weeds.

Today we celebrate the two week anniversary of my cold. Congratulations flu-like symptoms, you've shown that you've got some staying power. Now, please get the fuck out of my body.

I set out to make today a coffee-less day, but I was lagging hard. Couldn't get my head out of the fog. Sadly, the lunch time iced coffee got me going and I feel a little bit better. I guess there are worse things to be addicted to than caffeine, right?

This weekend was great. Although it went by, way, way too fast. There was Snakes on Planesing, Mets game watching, boozing, cooking, relaxing. More on that later, though.. as I've got a busy day of watching Yanks/Sox on MLB Gamecast today. --

.

http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/7024/p8182921jo8.jpg

This is bad, the worst Price Is Right contestant, ever. God I wanna drop-kick this fucking dolt. Fuck you Joy.

I busted my @ss at work today. Month end, a lot of work to do. I was on four hours of sleep, but I kept my head down and powered through. I made my boss happy, even heard a co-worker comment on how good I’ve been doing. This make me proud? Not in the least. At 4:46 PM, while sitting on the plop-plop machine here at work, I beat Nanostray. I shall walk a little taller today my friends.

there was something i so wanted to talk about. have you heard about this snakes on a plane phenomena. i heard it was good. i heard sammy jackson delivers some choice lines. he called my cell phone the other day from jimmy's phone and delivered some choice lines. i remember reading somewhere that this type of thing could be bad. some sort of reader response movie becoming more common. whoever wrote the article about such things was under the impression this is the only time it would work, if it even is working.

but there is a concept for you. working. working hard at eating everything in sight. thats my new job. somedays my appetite is a force even i dont believe. a while back i went to lewey lake in ny state. a beautiful little alcove in hamilton county with some nice wilderness sites to camp out at. on the way back i got a ticket. woe. so i went to fight it and now i guess i have to go back again. they sent me a little letter, with all sorts of impossible requests. sorta like when i applied for my passport and sent them my original birth certificate. then they sent back that they needed some elementary school pictures, and my high school yearbook, hospital records, oh.. and my original birth certificate. that i thought was some mean joke. had to be?

well clouds. i posted a picture last nite of a cloud i saw then fucked with in gimp. i think there is more there than clouds. for example, freshly manifest deities from my subconscious. the paint hasnt even dried yet and youre already praying to them, ease up. these will be my allies in the upcoming war on something i choose to war against. fighting to find something right now and .. nothing.

so what, its a slump. i got stood up for a date i never made. that was depressing. self destruct mode. could usually grind out something positive, what with the music and endless possibilities for self entertainment, but when its not there a flashlight is useless. im walking around with three sections of the sunday times. front page, which has some stories ive been meaning to get to. week in review, has the op ed section where loons like to sign off. and travel, musing about ayurvedic healing spas in india. woe.

so i saw bill pascrell speak in little falls and as i was getting there someguy ambushed him for a picture to hang in his restaurant. room for 15 people held about 50 and i stayed for like 20 mins. dirge-like atmosphere. camera girl with a horribly scarred face taking pics from all over the place. and he talked about nonsense. to me at least. the audience was old and some lady in front of me must have thought him and her were kindred spirits, cause shed respond outloud to things he said, in a speech, one way, mono, monologue. when someones cellphone went off and the congressman got upset she was also vocally upset, people actually looked at her like, not only have we collectively harmed big william pascrell, but his confidant. his lackey. then we all chuckled and that girl took some more pictures and he said lets talk about the environment, people clapped, he said im no tree hugger, and someone said why not.

You can vote for MLB Comeback Player(s) of the Year here, as long as you give out all of your personal information to a company that specializes in thinking about your dick. My votes went to Nomar Garciaparra and Frank Thomas. Thomas had a .245 AVG and hit just 30 home runs combined in the 2004 and 2005 seasons. While this year he's at .305 with 25 homers with about 40 games left to play. Not too shabby for a 38 year old. I picked Nomar because I've always kind of liked the guy, despite his Red Sox roots. I'm glad he's healthy and I hope he finds himself that way for awhile... because when he is he's pretty nasty. I'll never forget seeing him at The Living Room in Boston, a few weeks before he was traded to The Cubs. It was the night of a Yankees / Sox game, and the majority of the patrons were crowded around the big screen. I made a wrong turn on my way to the bathroom and found a back room that was empty except for Mr. Garciaparra, sitting at a table by himself sipping whiskey. I certainly wasn't as surprised as most other people when I heard of his being traded a few weeks later. ***

I've got a date with the Apple store on 5th Avenue at lunchtime today, hopefully to get my iPod fixed.. again... for the fifth time. ***

The woman at the desk next to me at work, Linda, is eating the most disgusting smelling thing ever. It's chicken.. but it comes out of a can, tuna fish style. I had a discussion about this with her once about a year ago... and from that was able to figure out that she's able to buy two cans of this stuff for about the same retail cost of one Chicken McNugget. If any correlation between cost and meat quality exists... well, this shit is probably the most vile food on the planet. Plus it's all over her face right now. Goddamnit, Linda.. get a napkin! Ugh. I'm going to fucking puke. --

carry the light, i suppose...

silly willy mason, singing oxygen in glastonbury (2005)

In the years 2005 and 2006 I've been sick more than the rest of my life combined. I feel like at least once every two months I've got some kind of sore throat, stuffy nose, chest cold, head cold, or some other nonsense going on. I found this list of things to boost your immune system somewhere, which makes it seeems pretty obvious why I'm constantly on the mend:

* Washing your hands thoroughly and often with soap and warm water, particularly before eating and after using the bathroom. This reduces the number of organisms that can enter your body. -- At least I've got this one down. I wash my hands obsessively, but hopefully not so obsessively that I've screwed around with my immunity to bacteria.

* Cooking meat thoroughly to kill dangerous bacteria and other microorganisms. -- I just began ordering my meat medium but for 24 years it was always medium rare, which is still far more delicious and something I indulge in occasionally.

* Getting at least eight hours of sleep every day, deep sleep stimulates and energizes the immune system. -- I probably average less than six hours of sleep per night. Although for a small stretch (Feb of this year) I was averaging above seven and felt much, much better.

* Maintaining a healthy weght, obesity can lead to a weakened immune system. -- I weigh the same now as I did when I was 16... which was not very much even then, does that mean anything?

* Excercising at least 30 minutes most days of the week, physical activity stimulates the immune system and helps with weight maintenance or reduction. -- I haven't been regularly active since 7/05 and it can be argued that I was half-assing it then. The last time I was active every day was the fall of 2002, a time in which I weighed about 20 lbs more than I do now.

* Consuming alcohol moderately, while one drink does not appear to affect immune response, having three or more drinks in a short period starts to impair white blood cells' functioning. -- Fug to this one. I drink at least four nights a week and very rarely drink less than three drinks. I don't drink like I did in college and wouldn't really be upset if I had to cap myself at three drinks every outing.. but some things (baseball, rock-n-roll) just seem to go a little bit better with a six pack.

* Eating less sugar. 100 grams of sugar, the amount in one 12-ounce can of regular soda, can reduce the ability of white blood cells to kill germs by 40 percent for up to 5 hours! -- Have you ever seen me drink coffee? Eight sugar packets, minimum. I have given up soda, for the most part... and try to drink one glass of water with every meal, but even that's nowehere near the eight per day people say you should have.

* Not smoking. Smoking leads to lung and other cancers, and also weakens the immune system. -- I'm nowhere near the two pack a week smoker I was in college. But it's still rare that a week goes by in which I don't have at least one smoke. Always harder to hold off during the summer.

* Reducing and managing stress, such as effective time management — long periods of feeling stressed weakens the immune response. -- I work for a bank and although I have free time to blog and send emails to friends, every bit of work I do usually affects millions of dollars. Any screw ups are generally very, very big deals and getting things right can sometimes be incredibly stressful. Working on a trading floor means people are on top of me all of the time. Phones ring off the hook and there are over 100 other people in the same room as me who are very good at being distracting. Add to that the hour plus bus commute each way in NYC rush hour traffic, the fact that I rarely get to eat lunch anywhere but my desk, and the long hours... my mind is usually spinning by the time I get to my pillow, which is usually about two hours after I'd like to due to trying to cram things I enjoy into a few hours each night.

* Getting the vaccines recommended by your health care provider. -- Umm, what vaccines? ***

Of the ten suggestions, I score well on exactly one of them. I don't think I'll ever be able to nail down all of the other nine at once, but reading that definitely makes me feel like I need to take care of myself a little better. By the end of this month I'd like to try and sleep more every night, eat a little better which will hopefully put a little more weight on me, run or do some kind of activity at least once per day, hold off on grubbing that cigarette that always makes me feel terrible the next morning anyway, and get a job that stresses me out less (fingers crossed). With those, hopefully I'll be able to keep enjoying a lil' booze, my coffee nice and sweet, and mediumly cooked meat. But man, I've gotta do something now. This being sick and tired all the time is the pits. --

If anyone has that Anthony and the Johnsons cd, send it my way.

Ron and Fez are still the.best.thing.going. Today! As of now they are only on XM, but ronfez.net has tons of clips for downloading. Here are some to get you started. Burn em to a cd, play em in your car, whatever.

How many 9 year old can you beat up, in a ring?
Jessica Simpson's Christmas Album

"The way I see it, more people are wired with broadband from 9 to 5 during the day than watch TV at night. So therefore isn't the real prime time 9 to 5?" he wonders. "Playing games at your desk -- that's the new prime time, isn't it?".

It's not the best article in the world. But I've been more interested than usual in how the slightly older generation is responding to the way my generation consumes entertainment / media. ***

I'm pretty fried. Everything that was supposed to happen this weekend went down without a hitch. I wanted to choke my alarm clock this morning, but I'm not the least bit unhappy about the fatigue now that I'm out and about. The Barnyard was fun, if a bit tame. The Yankee game was fun, if a bit uneventful (we got there in the 2nd, it was 5-1 and ended 5-2). Recording was a hell of a lot of fun, even though I had to sort of play double duty because my mom had decided to invite family over for a BBQ, too. There was a lot of running up and down the stairs... flipping between being "helpful recording intern" and "elder son of family" for 30 minutes at a time. I think I sort of failed at both, to be honest. But the little bit of time I got to dedicate to each was well suited for a fun and perfectly weathered weekend. The Steinways sounded great. Their songs represent them perfectly. They're just a fun, easy going bunch that are tons of fun to hang out with. I was a little nervous about how they felt about recording in my basement... but I think they left more than impressed with what was accomplished with Jimmy's equipment / knob tweaking and the unique layout of my basement. I believe all told 10 songs were completed in just about 24 hours, of which 7 or so were spent sleeping. I can only hope that recording TTT and The Ergs goes as well... and I've got no reason to think it won't. Each of The Steinways, on multiple occasions, would say things along the "thanks so much for the hospitality" and "thank so much for letting us take over your place" varities.. but I honestly can't think of many other things that I'd rather be doing with my weekends/living space. Music, food, fun. Photos here. ---

Hola. My calendar reads August 11th, but the crisp weather that hit me this morning felt more like late September to me. No complaints there, fall-chilly mornings are my favorite. I'm going to take that as a good omen, as it's the weather I've always associated with new beginnings, which is exactly what I'm pulling for right now. For eighteen or so years it was a new school year. For five years after that it was a new apartment and new classes. It's been stagnant the last two years of my post graduate life, though. If my gut is right (it is very often wrong), things could be-a-changing soon - and for the better.

It is still summer, though... and the chilly mornings are quickly replaced with hot afternoons, which is a good thing as it allows for all kinds of outdoor activities. If all goes as planned, tonight will find a handful of Wayne-ites enjoying some beverages outside at The Barnyard and tomorrow will find Marissa, my brother, drummer Jeff, and me at Yankee Stadium, enjoying some afternoon baseball. I'm pretty sure we'll be seeing Jaret Wright pitch. He wouldn't be my first choice... but Wang and Moose just got knocked around quite a bit.. and Johnson got shellacked the last time we were at the stadium. Wright's actually been pretty solid his last few starts (4-0), so I'm hoping for the best. Psyched to see Abreu in uniform as well.

By the time I get home from the game, Marissa will be enjoying her weekend with her parents and Jimmy will be getting recording started with the Steinways at my house. We've sorta been keeping it mum through the usual channels... but The Steinways, Tattle Tales, and Ergs (well, maybe just Mikey last I heard), along with Hot Cops will each be spending some time at my house these next few weeks recording what we hope to be kick-ass four band 7" for Formula 7. Jimmy's been doing some great recording lately, Corey's commited to making it a great release, and I'm just excited to be a part of it. The people in those bands are excellent people that make some very excellent music, and I am so happy that we're finally breaking ground, so to speak, on getting this sucker done. **

I'm a little tired from last night's Birdsting-o-thon at Maxwell's, but more on that later. --

high risk behavior.

'mornin everay buddy.

so where did we leave off. my brother is in south america, chile. he is there for the second time in as many years. USSA stuff, skiing and what not. at the last minute he wanted to bring another pair of skis, which would mean he was bringing 3 pair. if i may butt in for a minute and let you know that i went through high school skiing competitively all four years and i had one pair of skis, that broke the first year. so now you know why i push him down stairs. but i like skiing and i miss it, and with those same skis ill still beat him down a mountain no matter what you put in front of me. super g, slalom, jumps. im a fucking lunatic.

oh sweet luna. you comfort me with your warmth and impress me with your maternal vigil. did anyone happen to see her sweetness rising on the horizon last nite? mmmm

so we received an email from his highness saying he fell hard the first day and broke his newest skis, super g fuckers, but that their chaperone had some magic ski glue and buttered em up. the next day they got dumped on, 3 foot of snow fell in the nite. that mother fucker.

the other day i let the imagery of eyes wide shut bathe my mind. i had to, you understand. i had an article forwarded to me by jenn, who received it from ryan, who stumbled across it in a fever dream. you can find that little gemerald here:

http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0096.html

oh we yearn, and our souls burn for something we cant understand. come with me for a moment, lets dance above the clouds, flirt in the thin air of atmosphere; a party! what does it matter, up there where life is so still, and grows stiller. or down in the mud, grinding away with the earthworms and maggots, teeming with life and decomposition, building another layer for life centuries away. nutrients, sustenance, the evidence of lifetimes past soaking into the very things which provide for you today. becoming you. urging you towards an understanding that is only present once you pass on, longing and crying for you to exist with care, coddle creation in your heart and dare to take such a miracle for granted. mmmmmm I HATE YOU

woo. so i was here:

http://www.coffeeteaemporium.com/

yesterday between the hours of 2 and 7pm. speaking with my friend charlie. of value, of life. alan watts. "load universe into cannon. aim at brain. fire." etc.. please visit him, i know you will take something from it, and he could use the business. but it isnt all about business.

so i took melatonin for three nites straight. reading from this youd think it was some sort of miracle enzyme:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melatonin

i cant say it promoted a healthy sleep. the three nites i took it i was restless as hell. i didnt necessarily feel unrested in the morning, i just know that in the course of the nite i was up more than usual. two people i know that have taken it have reported nitemares; vivid, dark, unsettling imagery. but others report no such thing. i didnt get that. fuck it.

if you havent done so already check out jimmy's "holmes" featurette on his flickr. i look to imitate him whenever i can in regards to such "holmes." i could see the question mark was emphasized.

Luckily, my cold subsided for a bit this morning, allowing me to enjoy the beautiful weather and also perform swimmingly in a job interview. It was a breath of fresh air to have it go as well as it did. In fact, I'd wager that it's one of the best I've ever had. I'm hopeful, but know better than to get my hopes up too high. I've been pretty choosy about the sort of jobs I seek out since deciding I needed to get my ass out of banking in order to save my life, and this is one that finally meets all of the criteria I'm looking for. On the perks side, let's just say this: it involves video games and music on a daily basis... Guitar Hero tournaments at work... and the company has internally developed an audio application on their network that allows people to import CDs, play them jukebox style for the whole office (first picked, first played), and then allow people to leave comments regarding certain tracks, etc. Bad Ass. I'm sure I'm up against some stiff competition, but with any luck I'm not the only one who felt that I was perfect for the job. I won't find out until next week, either way, which is a bit stressful. Until then I'll be keeping my fingers crossed. My cold came back not too long after I mosied on in to my current job (one hour and 15 minutes late, without giving my boss any notice)... leading me to think that my severe hatred for this place is messing with my body as well as my head. **

I finally picked up the sort of newish self-titled Broken Social Scene album in between my interview and work this morning. I initially Soulseeked it and cast it to my "eh" pile when I first heard it last winter. However, I gave it another spin surrounded by warm weather recently and it took on a whole new life. I've been listening to it non-stop since and decided it was definitely worthy of purchase. The artwork is swell. And the booklet even better. Check 'er out:
**

Who gets a cold in the summertime? Seriously. The girls in the coffee shop downstairs prescribed chamomile tea with honey and lemon. It tastes like an arts and crafts store, but I think it's actually soothing the throat a little bit. Boo-ya. **

Last night Jimmy, Ryan, Corey, and I entertained ourselves by drinking various lagers, playing multiple games of Virtua Tennis, and last but certainly not least.. gluing ourselves to Birdsting's You Tube videos. I warn you, though. Crappin Flaps is not for the faint of heart. Watching Birdsting in action is enough to make you never want to play music again. They're the real fuckin' deal and if they don't die, you can bet your ass that they're going somewhere. **

This morning's weather was perfect. Getting on the bus was horribly depressing. --

wandering star

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2006/08/03/jeff/

good morning everybody.

a life of ups and downs, if i do say so. right now my cats are in the "nono" room. i can easily get hunter out by opening the food drawer, but ive called sally for a while and she aint comin out. so where the door to the nono is usually closed now i have to leave it open allowing for passage. hopefully all i get are my cats back and not something bearing ill tidings. i guess those things are out there and i can say that lately im becoming more and more aware of the forces at play outside of my personal sphere (or that have the potential to impress on my sphere).

Everything in life is speaking, is audible, is communicating, in spite of its apparent silence.

i played catch up with my page a day calendar today because doing it a day at a time is entrapment. i came across the above passage and it struck me, because its a topic of recent focus for me. i suppose i have been taking many things for granted. im lucky to have the attention of various people at my disposal, at any moment. ive been thinking about intent, and just what im trying to convey, and how to convey it. something that was important to me has now graduated to a new level. im going to work on being more clear in my intentions, positive in my outlook, and certain that when i have someones audience i will not waste it with the byproduct of my daily living but something im attuned to and passionate about. and i will work to make this happen and make my thoughts clear. this is very important to me.

where i call myself lucky i dont mean this forum. this is something else, a digression.

anyways, its interesting to see the effects of the heat on living things, is it not. lets hold conference. oh, josh cut his finger off fixing a lawnmower. here is a pic:
http://static.flickr.com/61/205070344_0112f93d06_b.jpg

also. pbfcomics.com

My office has CNBC on 24/7. I just glanced over and saw a headline that read "Pump and Dump". I've worked too many hours this week to work out a punchline. **

My house tonight... Virtua Tennis, Ping-pong, new Monkey Ball (courtesy of Jim), and booze. 9 o'clock. Be there and be square. **

This
this
and this. --

NJ's own Lifetime, is a band that isn't really that good, and seem to be more popular now than they were a few years ago when they were actually relevant. Admittedly I was never a fan, but I did really like the 2nd Saves The Day CD, which, c'mon, is pretty much the fucking same thing. Anyway, Lifetime had a chick bass player for a while, now a stripper in Union, got arrested last week for having a severed hand in her posession. Classy.

Ean Hernandez, the peppier, sillier songwriter from Sicko, is packing up and moving to England with his wife. He's keeping a blog about it. You can also surf around and find out some more personal information about him if you'd like.

" The current plan is as follows:

July 28 - quit jobs
July 29 - BIG luau at Tasha's
August 1 to 30 chillllll
August 30 - vacate house, fly ONE WAY to the UK
September 4 - meet mom at Heathrow
September 15 - Reba comes out
September 19 - Reba goes to Greece with Leah, Austen, Marshall, and others
October 2 - EAN STARTS GRAD SCHOOL
October 8 - Reba comes back to Oxford Mom Trip"

Despite my lame geekery over most things electronis, I've never really been too hip on what's what with cell phones. I picked up my first a few years ago and took the bland set they gave me. Ever since then I've just gotten whichever one was free when I re-signed my contract. Once I even exchanged a camera phone for a black and white set because the colors were annoying. I must admit, though, I'm a bit intrigued by this. I have an iPod (well, sort of.. my 5th one just conked out on me last week) so the MP3 functionality is just an added bonus (heard it's only a 520mb flash drive... less than a feakin iPod shuffle).. but.. well, it just looks sexy. I like great design.. and even though this is so glaringly copped from Apple that it's sort of embarassing, I certainly wouldn't mind carrying it around in my pocket. If I wasn't in the market for a new phone I probably wouldn't have even noticed the posters for the Chocolate phone all around the city, but since my current handset's speaker decided to blow out on me, rendering it pretty much useless, I guess I'm susceptible to the pitch.

On an unrelated note, Volkswagen's making Rabbit's again. I can't imagine at that price that they're even made in Germany (I don't think non Wolfsberg Jetta's are anymore, either). I was bored at work so I built one... and found out that after you do you can play a video that puts your designed Rabbit in a weird video with an actual Rabbit. They eventually breed and you're allowed to re-create the video with the offspring. VW is down with incest, apparently. Crazy Germans.

Pulling a 13 hour day here at work. I hear it's hot outside. --

In other Thermals-related news, I ordered this the other day. I figured I didn't have much of a chance of actually getting one, since the blurb says there are only ten... but I just received my shipment confirmation. Bad ass.

You can pick up some pretty cool Modest Mouse tour posters here. They had some dates scheduled in August, but are busy finishing the new album, so the cancelled. New album.

May or May Not - Work By Nine















Ha.















I wonder how many celebrities are on flickr, I'd like to find some. Rosie is.

All of your myspace accounts are belong to us. Seriously, brah. That shit is hurtin lately. **

My weekend can pretty much be summed up by the following:







**

Jimmy brought to my attention that The Thermals have a new record coming out next month. How this went over my head I'm not sure. I was able to track it down on Soulseek and after 1/2 listen I'm not so sure how I feel about it. It sounds like The Thermals.. with a few overdubbed keyboards and guitar parts.. but.. I don't know. the lyrics are awful distracting. Jesus, locusts, sinning, praying... blah... yeah, I don't know. Maybe it's lame, but I prefer "1,2,3 Forward!" any day of the week. You can check out an MP3 of one of the better tracks here. **

This week is going to be brutal at work. 11pm tomorrow night. 8-ish the rest of the nights. Found out I might be going to Wildwood this weekend, though, which would be a nice way to forget about this seemingly shitty week. I went to Wildwood each year from the age of 1 - 20. It's been five summers since the last time I was there... and I've heard it's way different now. All the Motels are being torn down and replaced with condos. Even my beloved Sands Motel, which I can't even find an image of on Google. I'm glad I'm going to be able to check it out before it's all torn down, even if it's only for a weekend. --

Dig these

Tonight, immediately after work its straight to the highway and directly to Red Bank with Marissa to see Steve Forbert. I don't know him much but Marissa is a big fan and I don't see how I could ever say no to free music, nice weather, and wine with good company. After that we'll be hightailing it back to Wayne so I can make an early morning doctor's appointment and then it's into the city to watch the Yanks trounce on the Devil Rays. I hope to hell that A-Rod has a good night tonight... because I will become enraged if I have to sit through an entire game with people amped up on booing the hell out of him, which clearly has a negative effect on his game. Yes, I understand.. he makes a lot of money and you think it's funny to boo him when he doesn't do well... but seriously, enough already. If you're a Yankee fan and want the team to do good, why would you take part in booing him at every available opportunity? I'm not worried about him, though. I think he'll have a great second half. And speaking of second halves, I'm incredibly excited to be going to my first game since early in the season. Yankee Stadium after the All-Star break might very well be my favorite place in the world. There will be much drinking of beers and much fun if I have anything to do with it.

Sunday I'm going to take a shot at playing soccer again. The soreness from last Sunday's game has finally left me, so I think it's time to remind my head how out of shape my body is again. Plus, it's a hell of a lot of fun.

It'll be Monday before I know it. Bummer. But since it'll be the product of a weekend filled with awesomeness, I think I'm ok with it.

I Am We Todd Did
I Am We Todd Did
I Am Sofa King We Todd Did

I Am We Todd Did
I Am We Todd Did
I Am Sofa King We Todd Did

I Am We Todd Did
I Am We Todd Did
I Am Sofa King We Todd Did

Since Hot Cops are being sleepy right now I've been thinking a lot about what we were able to do in one year. Fifteen songs. Three covers we could probably pull off without messing them up too bad (ok, maybe two). Eleven shows in Eleven months ranging from bars / clubs, to legion halls, to living rooms, to Baltimore. Played in front of audiences ranging from four (Lucky Cat, Brooklyn) to about two-hundred (Sidebar, Baltimore). One record (which reminds me.. Drew, please message me your mailing address so I can send one to you).

I mean.. that's pretty good, right? Certainly more than I expected when Jimmy and I had our first practice with a drummer who decided to quit on us the night before the second practice. It's been a good, fun, and sort of productive year as far as I'm concerned.
--

Which sorta leads me to my next thing I've been thinking about. I've got a handful of new songs. Some are definitely hot cops songs. But some are most definitely NOT hot cops songs. Mostly acoustic.. sometimes noisy.. a little angular.. fast, but not very poppy and definitely not pop-punky. Yeah, I dunno. I think it might be time to spring Pink and Dirty* in to action.

* Pink and Dirty has been the name of an imaginary band Jimmy and I have been talking about since last summer. One very, very drunk evening on Toni's parent's deck (i believe it was the first time i'd ever 'hung out' with birdsting), former Mitsuko bassist Phil mumbled something to himself that to me sounded like "Pink and Dirty". He was actually saying something far less intriguing sounding, but I couldn't shake how much I liked it as a band name. I always sort of envisioned it being a My Bloody Valentine-like sounding band... but maybe it's suitable for my new tunes? ***

Apologies for the ramble. Work has become incredibly, incredibly dull.. even when I'm busy, so the mind has been wandering more and more.

Soccer:


Faux Hawk:

This weekend was a whacky combination of relaxation, near-misses, and complete exhaustion. Friday night found me at Marissa's roommates', almost boyfriend's, roommates' birthday party. Free-ish booze at some bar with a nice view of, umm Queens. The party there was eventually moved to a bar downtown in which the birthday boy had called in advance to reserve a VIP room. The joke was sorta on him, though. The place had no VIP room. But whomever answered the phone when he called had creatively sealed off the coat room area and gladly took his VIP room money. I felt sort of bad for him... but he took it in stride (or was just too drunk to care).

The vibe of the place was a bit off, though. Seemed tense. It was a pretty nice night out so I grubbed a cigarette from Marissa'a non-smoking but smoking that night friend and took to the outside. Before that cigarette was done a windowed door was flung open and whacked me square in the head. The patrons inside were brawling. Yelling, screaming, chairs flying. It didn't hurt or anything, but it was a bit of a surprise. I stepped away to watch two other fighting folks tumble outside of the club. A female employee of the bar stepped in between them and the guy closer to me held up his hands truce-style and said "no more, no more, I'm done." He feigned walking away for a half-step and then swung around the employee and cracked the other guy in the head, making the loudest punch sound I've ever heard. A few fist pumps later, the dude who threw the punch was in a cab and off. I was way too sober for 4am on a Friday night and we thankfullyu took to Jersey City to finally get some sleep, seeing as we'd both been awake for nearly 24 hours at that point.. with only 5 hours of sleep before that.

Saturday was supposed to be relaxation day / party night.. but the party night never materialized for us. Got my oil changed, ate eggs benedict, bought a new shirt for work. Later we went to see Clerks 2 (more on that later). After that we ended up falling asleep before meeting up with the partyers. I gather that it was a swell time from the people I've talked to, though. Happy bursday, Niraj.

Sunday, finally feeling rested after a sober / early to bed night.. I decided to play afternoon soccer. I haven't played any soccer in over two years.. or even really done anything active since then... but the early September-feeling weather made it an impossible offer to refuse. I enjoyed myself.. felt and played very out of practice.. but it was definitely something I plan on doing more of. I returned home and was barely mobile, making any chance of going to the Birdsting / Terrible Friends Drunk-a-thon block party impossible to honor. I heard that was a swell time, as well.

While not very eventful, it was a good weekend that I think Marissa and I both enjoyed a bunch. ***

I've spent most of my workday reading through Kevin Smith's multi-part story on Jason Mewes' drug problem. It was one of the more entertaining things I've read on the internet in a long time. The first part of the story is here. You can continue with the rest by using the calendar thing on the top right hand corner of the web page. It pretty much goes in order by date. Seems like a lot of the feelings Smith has for Mewes made it into the Randall / Dante Clerks 2 story arc, which (for me) made any cheesiness associated with those scenes vanish. The funny stuff was very funny and everything else was endearing at its worst. I liked the movie a lot more than I thought I was going to. --

Jon Auer does covers. Pretty poorly, I might add.

Pinback is a band.

I have yet to hear Thom Yorkes' album, but I imagine it's pretty on point. I also have yet to see Henry Rollins' show on IFC, but imagine it's also pretty on point. The two pointers merged recently.

Song(Cymbal Rush)
Song(The Clock)
Interview
Pt 2
Pt 3
Pt 4

Sir Henry also had Daniel Johnston on recently, doing The Mask and Careless. Neat. A few more tons of Henry.

Lil' Benny Kweller is 25, a new daddy and played every instrument on his new album. Here's a bad song from it.

The Weakerthans are still amazing. YOU TUBE !

So it appears as if I'm without my pretty little home here in Ruggedfjord come September 15th. If anyone has a home for a tall dude who will drink alcohol, one kitty who will shed, one who is half bad, and two other humans, hit me up via the comments section.

Stencil Revolution is a site I've been peeping for a few years now. Some really amazing shit. Honest. Browse for a bit, then ask me to go do our own somewhere.

My Old Kentucky Blog has Lebowski Fest, and some My Morning Jacket(!) covers. I suggest we get Imri on this thing and have him track down the top ten reasons why MMJ is keen.

They fucking delayed Monkey Ball until August, I've been playing Mega Man Collections again, pick it up if you ever liked Mega Man and have a GameCube, only $11 used. Played through MM1 a bit, then went onto 2, fuck it's hard. I nominate this game as having the best music from a video game. Ever. Can I find this soundtrack online, does that exist? If so, what is the competition? Only one I can think of competing is Lemmings, but really, that was a bunch of standards. I heard PlayStation(2, PSP?) has a new Lemmings game out. Fuck, if you have one of those systems, get that, Lemmings was the shit.

i hope to god youre still carrying the light. so have you seen the preview teaser for the fountain? damn im so excited for that.

so that picture is from huey, some dude that travelled america and took pics. ive got a bunch but i picked that one, for you.

forsooth, i am vanquished.

ps, jimmy?

Marissa pointed out that our life saving concierge from the Hotel Rialto is depicted on their website's photo gallery, so I figured I'd post his picture all up in this bitch:



***

I added a few links over to the right. Two far superior blogs and a huge source of time wasting. Get thurr.

I kept a travel journal while I was in Italy. Most of it was sloppily written at times of near exhaustion, but if I can ever find a few minutes I'd like to type it up and post it. I never really wrote about the trip on the blog because I thought I was going to get to the travel journal thing sooner. But since I've floundered, here goes:

In sum, it was great. Everything about it surpassed my expectations tenfold. Marissa's planning was flawless and we got to nearly every single destination that we wanted to see: The Sistine Chapel, Roman Forum, Colosseum, Uffizi, Accademia among dozens of others. The weather was perfect, about 86 - 88 and sunny ever day. The food was ridiculous. I will never, ever be able to think about Italian food the same way again.. I don't know if it's an attention to detail that we don't have here in America... or if it's something as simple as the soil the food comes from... but it was hands down the best food I've ever eaten. Our air and train travel went flawlessly and our ability to navigate through cities / communicate with locals was way easier than I thought it would be.

The only hiccup came on our second to last night. We arrived at our hotel in Venice at about 9:55pm to find the front door locked. Eeventually we found a sign on the door that essentially read (in both Italian and English): We have waited until the previously discussed check-in time. Our lobby is closed for the night. See you tomorrow!

The only problem was that there was no previously discussed check-in time. We talked to an employee at the restaurant adjacent to the hotel but he didn't speak much english and didn't indicate that he knew how to get in touch with the owners. We brought two police men over to the sign.. but their English was even worse. Their most understandable response was an excited "you can come back..... tomorrow!". Yeah, great, thanks. But what about fucking tonight!? Of course, the little bit of italian that I knew failed me and I couldn't remember how to ask about "esta notte?". We were initially worried because Venice is quite small and it was a very, very crowded week at all of the cities we had visited. Luckily, Marissa had spotted this beautiful joint on our walk from the waterbus. The gentleman at the desk spoke great english, sympathized with our plight, and gave us a discount on one of the two rooms he had left when he had every chance in the world to gouge us for far more than he did. It was expensive, but we'd been very good about our spending money while there and not having to sleep on the watery Venetian streets made it worth every penny. We actually have a good shot at getting our money back from the travel agency for their miscommunication about the "previously discussed check-in time", too.. which would ensure that there was not a single bad thing about our entire trip.

I've been half-heartidly saying that I wanted to visit Europe for a very long time. I'm very glad that I was finally in the right position to do it and that I went with the right person. Now that I have I know that's it's not only very do-able, but worth every penny and minute of effort and I definitely plan on returning. ***

Posted some pictures up from the Dear Electric recording session at my house this past weekend here.

Back to work after 15 days out. Bored.

this is a great webcomic

http://www.marriedtothesea.com/

and one of my faves

dont forget about pbf - this guy is one of my favorite artists.

I rearranged my furniture last night. So, instead of my former blogging surroundings featuring views of nothing but walls and an ironing board, I can now look to my right and check out the back yard and woods beyond... or cock my head about 100 degrees to the left and see what's on the TV. The PC desk is now right near a couch so guests can be comfortable rather than sitting in metal folding chairs while I'm doing PC related activities. I think it works better this way. It's kinda messing with me a little bit... as I haven't moved anything around down here in nearly two years (ugh, depressing), but I'm sure I'll get used to it. ***

Today's the last day of my two week vacation. Since the weather calls for clouds / rain I'm going to spend it watching the end of Final Fantasy 7: Advent Children, playing a little Kingdom Hearts 2, cleaning the dust off my record collecton, and mixing in the 80 CDs or so that I've accumulated over the past two years alphabetically onto my CD shelves. Joy.

Marissa found this book:


on the "free to take" section at her office and thought I'd be interested in reading it. She was damn right as I'd actually just recently added it to the mental list of books I wanted to try to plow through on my week off from work. I'm almost done. For the most part it's been very satisfying, pretty much everything I expected... but the most informative part for me so far is its inclusion of the best description I've ever read of the "legal" way that radio stations and record labels work around the payola laws, included here:

What's illegal is payola, when a record company pays a station to play a particular song, and the station plaus the song without disclosing the record company's payment to the listeners. There is, however, a way around this prohibition - independent radio promoters. Imagine an alternative rock station called WXYZ. Now imagine independent radio promoter named Bob Tapeworm. Tapeworm goes to WXYZ and says, "Give me an exclusive peek at your playlist before you announce it each week over the next twelve months, and I'll pay you a hundred thousand dollars." Now Tapeworm has exclusive access to WXYZ and WXYZ has additional income - which is "legal", as we will see. Tapeworm calls up the record label and says, "If you want your songs played on WXYZ, you have to hire me." MCA, like the other labels says "Okay, Mr. Tapeworm, here's a thousand dollars. Help us get [song title] added to WXYZ's playlist." The record company's accounting records will show "consulting fee" payments to Tapeworm, the radio stations records will show revenue from Tapeworm's "consultant contract," and since there's no identifiable link between payments from the record companies to Tapeworm and payments from Tapeworm to the station none of it is "illegal." -- (buy from amazon)

Between that bullshit and the price fixing lawsuit that was settled a few years back, it's pretty great to know that technology has knocked these greedy fuckers down a notch or two. It's rare that the little guy gets back at the big guy, but when it does it certainly is sweet. I say that fully aware that there is another party, musicians, that might be getting the shaft in this deal, but that's a whole different discusscion for a whole different time.

***
In that regard, I'd like to freely distribute two MP3s from the new Jon Auer (Posies) record called Songs From The Year of Our Demise. Of the 15 tracks, about 11 of them are bonafide fucking winners and the remaining four aren't half-bad either. Listen to these, love them, and then get to fucking buying. I will be as soon as I get my next paycheck.

* Jon Auer - Bottom Of The Bottle
* Jon Auer - The Likes Of You

***
You can view the pictures from Marissa and I's excellent week in Italy here. I'll add captions sometime today.

well that sure is interesting. carry the light, i suppose. now more than ever its time to run everything through your head. time to think.

i went and saw phil lesh on sunday evening in bethel new york. quite the experience. if one is not careful it's fairly easy to see and promote a growing cancerous hatred. for what? for each other, silly goose. soon as petey and i arrived we were witness to a "near-brawl" because some hippies had 7 tix extra and two tour rats were arguing over who got em. i guess you can tolerate hatred and intolerance if you dont know where your next meal is coming from. both looked fairly healthy, for tour rats, however.

i hate to meditate on the darkness, the growing oil based, five fingered hate puddle we all wade in everyday. but thats where my mind is at. i put out my antennae. channel, dont harbor, let it flow through you. ive been having some fun with this. the other day i was talking with someone caught in the white side of the ying yang. its all, humans are infinitely capable, bent towards good, carry the light. all, universal harmony, the shadowed side of the pitch on a 95 and humid day. its fucked. im swimming in shit im not showering tomorrow.

alls im trying to say is, why not fuck around in the black side for a bit. id argue the luxuries over here are just as comforting as what they got over there. i guess here were responsible for a little more pain, but we're in your face with it. plus you cant live without us. see that dot? where am i going.

oh, six feet under. just put down two episodes with a side of applesauce. pork. gross. ive watched this show very slowly, to take it all in. but now i see that method has me a little lost. im starting to not really understand when something dramatic happens. im missing little references. the most recent episode i watched was fairly good. carlos castaneda theme, reality in my mind and that is that.

but phil lesh. played some shit that was apparently played back in the day, same setlist whatnot. i brought a soccer ball and played with myself in petes backseat. two pluses. so many little children, staying through the whole show. in one way thats admirable, taking your little kid on tour, or just to a show. but in another way, having a kid is completely fucking insane. at least they get to have some music and unity before maturity.

well im sick as fuck and musing on trivialities. fire a fucking beam in your head now you see, right?

zinedaine zidane

i heard materazzi called him a harki

(4 years of guido pride? maybe 2 solid ones...)

To reinforce what Paul said:



(taken just after the Italian win over Germany, last week in Florence)

Some celebrities turned singers. I had no idea Patrick Swayze sang that song.

The Jantzen wedding was fun. Check out some wedding go-ers Flickr pages if you want some of that, here are some dancing highlights.

Lemonheads are doing a new album.

"THE LEMONHEADS SELF-TITLED DISC DUE OUT SEPTEMBER 26, 2006

Reformed group's first new album in 10 years

Features guest musicians Garth Hudson, J. Mascis

(July 6, 2006) THE LEMONHEADS just announced a September 26th,
2006 release date for the group's first new album in almost 10
years. The self-titled disc will be released on Vagrant Records and
was co-produced by Evan Dando and drummer Bill Stevenson
(Descendents, Black Flag) and was recorded at Stevenson's Blasting
Room studios in Ft. Collins, CO earlier this year. Joining the two
was bass player Karl Alvarez (Descendents) along with special guests
Garth Hudson and J Mascis on select tracks.

The Lemonheads are planning a U.S. tour for the fall, but fans in
the U.K. will get to see the band this month at the Lattitude
Festival in Suffolk on July 14th and on July 16th at Somerset House
in London. The current touring band includes Dando with Josh
Lattanzi (bass) and John Kent (drums)."

If I get internet time in Italy I might post something here. But if not, I'll be back next Friday. Ciao.

Thought I'd surf over to see what my boys in Built To Spill were up to, or at least their old message board, and I find this. Ok. Did lead me to this 36 minute Modest Mouse documentary, though. It's from '97 during the recording of "Lonesome...". Nice little gem. Looks like Issac is still using the same amp. Ah and what the hell...

Making noise in 1998, Positive/Negative in 2000 and an acoustic in-store set in 2001

One more no-one will care about before I shove off for the long weekend. I kinda dig the Libertines, here's Who the Fuck is Pete Doherty? I didn't watch this yet, but I imagine it'll be pretty entertaining. 42 minnys. Someone find me an mp3 of the song Moby Dick.

when there's nothing left to burn you must light yourself on fire

Some pictures from a video game inspired art show. This is a little old, but what the fuck, new to me.

This guy had a new album come out in April, Brain Deck produced. Pretty chill, but nice. You can stream the whole album on his site. Also, unrelated, but the Siren Festival in Brooklyn is coming up again, I guess I'm out of touch, I only recognize a few names this year.

Corey sent me this link from the lispy Sean Carswell a while ago, but I just got around to listening to it today. Drinking, Baseball, and girls named Jen. If you feel like taking the time to listen to it, it's pretty good. Pick up Drinks For The Little Guy for $3.50 used, it's also good.

What do people use to get music these days? Slsk seems to be empty. Looking for old radio broadcasts, random speeches, nature sounds, stuff like that. Anyone?

Another old link, but Cable and Tweed has an acoustic Modest Mouse show from a parking lot in Georgia, 2001.

Pitchfork is telling us that Jeff Mangum is back!

OK, we all know Stevie is the man, but thanks to YouTube, today it's been pretty much etched in gold.

Here he is with some awful dancers preforming "For Once In My Life" and then with the boys slaying (Note The Man being completely encased in Orange amps) "Superstition" on Seasame Street. Then the fucker whips out the vocoder for a Seasame Street song!

Ok, ok, some of you are a little behind and I might have just left you feeling a little un-hip. School yourself here.

But hey what do I know right? If uplifting, Weird Al-ish fronted speed-metal is more your thing, I give you, Dragon Force.

Not that they are really relevant anymore, but here's a brief history of the Elephant 6 Collective. NeutralMilkHotel.org has some live mp3s and you can order a NMH DVD.

Following Jimmy's lead, I made an Mp3 mix and put it up on you send it. You can download it here.

The tracklist:

01 - Beezewax - God Knows Where You Are
02 - Starmarket - Fool
03 - Dando, Lee, Peterson, Schwartzman - Dead Or Anything
04 - Sunday's Best - Saccharine
05 - The Posies - Second Time Around
06 - Big In Japan - Tin Toy
07 - Reubens Accomplice - Hidden Track
08 - Sugar - Tilted
09 - The City On Film - For Holly
10 - Hum - If You Are to Bloom
11 - Dear Electric - I'm Always Sleeping
12 - My Bloody Valentine - What You Want
13 - Beezewax - I'm Not Where I'm Supposed to Be

I think the file will be up for 7 days. Enjoy.

I've got to be up for work lamely early tomorrow, so it's early bed for me. But it's also my last day of work until July 14th.. so I won't complain.

My Mp3 of the day: Sugar's Tilted off of the Beaster EP. Because it kicks your fucking ass.

Broken Social Scene & J Mascis did a one-off show together in Toronto, here's two old Dino Jr. songs they did, Feel The Pain and Get Me.

The Kooks are effeminate and British, and if you can track down their cover of Gnarls Barkleys Crazy, it's pretty good. Speaking of Crazy, this could totally be you, don't lie. Fake? Maybe, but goddamn that dance he whips out at the end is fucking classic.

Kids are fucked up, yes, though not as bad as the gays.

Rivers Cuomo finally graduated college a few weeks ago, here's a paper of his. Poor, poor super-star. Hmm, yea, Weezer really isn't that good. Radiohead, on the other hand, is good. Some pics from Jonny.

Ok, there's always some room for some James Blunt parodies. First Weird Al and Not James Blunt

i saw this in the sky on saturday

vibrate higher

I heard a clip of that Chamllionaire song in an online ad and I've got to admit, it's pretty fucking catchy. I'm downloading it as we speak. If it's done by the time I'm done posting, I'll upload it so you all can hear it.

I want Al Leiter to be a good announcer, but I can only hear him talk about how bad he was so much before it gets irritating. Dude, you're a lifetime 3.80 pitcher who played for 19 seasons. You're probably going to the hall of fame. Enough! Ugh, the National League ruins every(one)thing. I'm now and forever anti interleague play.

Good thing my internet connection is running fast today. I don't have much more to say, and that Chamillionaire song is done being uploaded. You can download it here (link removed). Act fast, because I'll probably take it down in a few days.

Time to play a little bit o' this:

My jams of the summer thus far: Maritime, We The Vehicles and The Steinways... Missed The Boat. I also can't stop singing that "Everybody Clap Your Hands" song from the baseball game the other day but I'm pretty sure that song is from last summer.

Recently, I've found myself constatly proclaiming "Jam of the summer!" Ok, only twice, but this is the newest canidate;

Watch the Video

Chamillionare feat. Krayzie Bone (feat Zeus (which is turn feat.s Macho Man, the Sensational Sherry & Hulk Hogan and No Holds Barred)

Me and Corey dig it because it rings so true to us and our everyday lives. Our music is always "so loud", we ALWAYS "swanging", also there is always a "full clip in our pistolas, ready to send a jacka into a coma. I can't speak for Corey on this one, but I know I got "warrants in every city except Houston."

There is one line I can't quite connect to. Right around the 2:02 mark:

" We living like we ain't givin a fuck (ok)
I got blunt up in my right hand, 40 oz in my left (understood)
Freezin my ballz (?)"

Also, the get away plan is a little sketchy, if you pay attention around the 1:15 mark. Turn into stand up white people? I...Oh shit! Honest to goodies as I typed that last question mark it fucking hit me. He's a Cha(mealeon)are. Fucking Brilliant! Jam of the summer!

Looks like there is another Super Monkey Ball game coming out. Super Monkey Ball Adventure, out on PS2, Gamecube and PSP in July. Kinda hard to find alot of info about it on-line, but it looks like they changed up the style to make it more of a platform based game, rather than strictly rolly Marble Madness style. I think they incorporated the Monkey Target style into the regular game as well. Also 20 new characters. They kept the party games and added three new ones; Monkey Bounce, Monkey Tag(!!!) and Castle. I think I'm sold.

There is also one coming out for the Wii. That one is Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz Which seems like it would be the perfect game for the Wii. I think I may have to get an early Christmas present for myself.

Other maybes on my gaming list, Electroplankton for the DS looks like it may be cool, but I dunno, could be a stinker, but I'm gunna need a new DS game soon. And the Lego Star Wars games look like so much bad ass fun, might pick up the first one used on GameCube and get the new one on DS.

The post that follows is (mostly) a response to Jimmy's lengthy comment that was a response to my rant yesterday. I'll try to keep this a bit more brief (looking back, i failed), though, because I think we were both actually saying a lot of the same things.

I'll start off by saying that 70% of what I wrote yesterday was just stream of conscious rambling. Jim mentioned pitchfork, I was still buzzing from last weekend's Buzz Pop festival, and my work neighbors were out for the day giving me more than the usual two minute windows of opportunity to communicate with the world at large. The remaining 30% was split between my mixed feelings of the way the music culture has changed since '99 or so, about my own personal taste in music, and an excuse to invent the phrase "fuck-fuck".

Essentially, my stance on music in my life and the world right now is that everything is a double edged sword:
* I love that technology makes obscure things easier to find, while at the same time yearn for the golden days of having to work a little bit harder to find out about good music.
* I like that a good band can get national or even international exposure in a short time, but miss feeling the tightness that regional scenes used to promote.
* I love that with digital recording a band can put together a professional sounding record without spending a thousand dollars... but I also hate that it promotes a lot of young kids spending more time learning software trickery than good songwriting.
* I love that if I'm in a shitty mood on the bus ride home from work, I've got the perfect soundtrack of my own design in a little white box that's smaller than my wallet, but I hate that the iPod has become the cultural norm for music listening. It'd be sad if a whole generation of music fanatics never get to know and love the smell of a new record, proudly displaying a new recording in their collection, or the awesomeness of finding a used gem in a record store somewhere.

Etc. etc.

As far as my own tastes/methods go. I've had less and less time to dedicate to finding new bands since I started working like a grown up two years ago. I used to spend my free time at work/school cruising all sorts of music zines, blogs, label sites etc. to find out new things. I'd get home and download tons of MP3s and find a lot of good things and share them with anyone willing to listen. But my newfound lack of free time has forced me to rely on a small staple of go-to sources that I've certainly grown to disagree with. I know there's probably just as much stuff out there now than there ever has been and that the only thing keeping me from finding it is me. I will not be working 10 hour days with 1.5 hour commutes each way forever and I most certainly will never give up on my life-long love for listening to things that sound awesome. So once the former gives, I'm sure I'll be much more pleased with the musical landscape that probably alrady exists unbeknownst to me (this more than anything else was probably the largest take away of my last rant, which Jimmy properly called me out on in his).

A sort of related story about technology driven friendships: Last week at the Baltimore Fest I overheard Corey talking to someone about our hometown of Wayne, NJ. I perked my ears up and heard this stranger say, "Oh Popkid? I love Beezewax more than anything in the world, in fact we put on a ton of shows for Kenneth Ishaak last time he was in the US"... so I walked over to him and said, "Hi I'm Chris and South of Boredom is most definitely my favorite record of all time." Forty-five minutes later we'd talked about Beezewax up and down the map, the new Ken Stringfellow solo album, Big Star, and just about fucking everything that had to do with that genre of Beezewax/Posies sounding music that I don't even really know how to categorize (aside from "fucking awesome"). It was time for us to file in for a set (the Copyrights, I think) and we both kinda gave the "let's talk more about this stuff in the future" look. He prompted me with "what band did you say you were in again?".. "Hot Cops", I responded. "No shit? I know who you are dude. You and I have already talked on myspace about doing a split together (he's in the excellent DC area band Greasegun)! You should hit me up there when you get home since we're already friends." I had to take a step back. We were already friends. I thought I'd just made a new real friend and found out that we were already 1 and 0 friends from the internet. This shouldn't be that shocking here in the year two-thousand-and-motherfunking-six, but it serves as a good reminder that in the end technology isn't going anywhere.. and as it becomes less new and more a way of people's everyday lives, it will end up not really changing who people are and what they like anyway. --

The U.S. just got booted from The World Cup.

It sucks to abandon your kids and it makes them feel really bad about themselves for their whole lives and they tend to have relationship problems, but as far as aesthetics goes, it's kind of a good look. It's way more FTW than punk or metal, because it's like, "You guys can give all the fingers you want. I AM fucking the world."

A Vice Magazine Do

If you have 18 minutes and 8 seconds, peep this video(ok, just listen). It's about the life of a 6 second drum sample from 1969, that is more popular than any other 6 second drum sample. Pretty neat.


Upon doing some research on some of the 33 1/3 books (a series of pocket sized books each dedicated to specific albums) I found their (who, Jim, who?) blog, here. Which may kill some time for you (Chris) work goers today, but really it also may kill your eyes (ouch).

Here's an excerpt from the book on My Bloody Valentine's, Loveless, which is due out in September.


***

The most radical changes in pop music occur with shifts that might appear really minor from the outside but actually represent huge leaps. Often, it’s as simple as one tool being used for something it was never intended for, as with the turntable becoming a musical instrument via the scratch, or the 808 bass sampling keyboard getting tweaked to make crazy squelches. One of the things that flipped other musicians and producers out about Loveless is that the sampler is used as more than a phrase machine, largely because the band were sampling themselves. OK, maybe this isn’t such a "radical change in pop music," but the results do sound really cool.

"We chose non-organic sounds," says Shields; "that’s why people didn’t immediately go 'That’s a keyboard,' even though it is. There are multi-layered parts to some songs, like the opening of 'Only Shallow,' with me playing the same thing three or four times. It was the usual rock and roll bending the strings type of thing, but I had two amps facing each other, with two different tremolos on them. And I sampled it and put it an octave higher on the sampler. On Glider’s one guitar track, 'I Only Said,' that’s one guitar track and a couple of overdubs. A lot of the hooks were sampled vocals or feedback we didn’t want to use. You can hear it has the movement of natural sound. The 'synth' solo two thirds of the way through 'Sometimes' is Bilinda’s voice, and a little oboe sample in there from the keyboard itself."

"For us, where the sampler had a great value, was that instead of having the option to play things on a keyboard based on some sounds you could find anywhere, we’d sample our own guitar feedback, which instead of just being one tone, it could be a tone having bends and quirks in it," Shields explains. "And then, by using the human voice as well for the top end, you’ve got these organic things happening, even though sometimes you’re using keyboards to play them. You are letting the organic part be part of the rhythm of the sample. We’d edit them as such. God, so much of time we spent making the record was doing that kind of stuff. I mean, we did that massive experimentation thing in the summer of 1990, but before in 1989, one of the most sampled songs we created was ‘Glider.’ It’s just a guitar riff, and then something that sounds like gates creaking — and that’s all guitar feedback, loads and loads of guitar feedback that we just sampled and played in. But in those days we didn’t have a keyboard so we played it all by pressing the button on the sampler. So there wasn’t even a keyboard involved. It was just touching the sampler itself, you know?"

"Most of the songs have got samples on them," Kevin says. "On 'Soon,' there’s a bit that goes 'ah ah ah' where it sounds like Belinda’s voice — that’s just me hitting a key on the sampler — well it was actually a Bell delay unit, but we made a sample out of it. And the first thing in 'Only Shallow' — those kind of high sounds — that’s just a sample." At the time, they were fumbling in the dark to use these methods, but Shields notes that "everything we did is now just stock, normal, standard techniques for making music. We were just using the technology to achieve our aims." Everyone else using samplers at the time, like Pop Will Eat Itself or Age of Chance, "used their technology to make it sound like technology [stutters intentionally] — that 'N-N-N-N-Nineteen' type thing. What we did — and which then became the prominent way of using samplers — was to try and make it sound like you’re not using a sampler."

***

I don't have any of these books yet, but I plan on picking some up when my ridiculous spending spree slows down and my reading pile gets a little smaller. Cool series.

As for me I'm taking the day off today, oil change, get some camping shit done, take Lovey out to lunch. Hopefully be drinking before 2:00 PM. Jackals game at 6, meet in the upper lot.

Comments are back. I tried messing around with the page size thing before but my html skills are poor these days. Hint, hint paul. :0)

I still read Pitchfork everyday. Well, sort of. I still load it up every day and usually end up looking at the reviews and news headlines, scratching my head and saying say "what in the who the fuck-fuck are these bands and who listens to them?" Every once in awhile I'll click on a review of a band that I do know, only to hear them trash something that I enjoy / that they were praising a few months earlier. There's just too much music out there. Too much shitty music. Maybe I'm getting older. Maybe digital recording makes it too easy for people (ahem, hot cops, ahem) but I'll take the SST and early Sub Pop/Merge days of "indie rock" over the current Arcade Fire + "put wolf or the name of some other animal in your band name for instant noteriety" days for sure. There was hope for a little while. I love the first Q and Not U record. Les Savy Fav's Go Forth is great. Milemarker and Frodus knew how to be both artistic and kick fucking ass without taking themselves too seriously. To me, that stuff is still "new".. although if I look at my records the release dates are all 1999 - 2001. That was a long time ago. But really, there's been no progression. Or certainly no improvements. Every new band that someone tells me to check out sounds like a rich kid version of what Modest Mouse was doing in 1998. I guess that's why I've recently sort of regressed back to my teenage tastes and began digging up my old pop punk records, as well as finding new records by bands influenced by those bands. That's when music was exciting for me. That's the scene in which I felt like there were a lot of people listening to it because they loved it and not just to say something about themselves to everyone else or prove to that hot scenester chick on myspace that they're into that obscure screamo band that wears black mascara and really, really wants to die. I was probably just naive then. I'm probably still naive. But to me, 99% of new music has gotten to be unbearably awful while I can still dig up a two minute pop ditty, bop my head, and have it make my day better than it was before I listened.

There's really no point to this rambling. But Linda is out today, as well as my neighbor to the left so I figured I'd take the opportunity to rant and run with it. In sum, pitchfork sucks but Youtube is pretty cool. I just wish I had sound at my office.

We should be able to start uploading MP3s, etc. to this site in the near future. We're gonna transcend media and shit, brahs.

Thankfully, I stopped reading Pitchfork a long time ago, but here's 100 Awesome Videos.

The They Might Be Giants: "Ana Ng" video is great and reminds me, that their movie is definitely the best band "documentary" I've ever seen. Even if you're a casual fan, this is probably amazing, their videos and songs are fucking great. Ok fuck it, here are some.

Birdhouse In Your Soul
Don't Let's Start

My photos from the Baltimore Fest are here.

And here's a shot of the Hot Cops artwork, the record at which you can now order at www.formula7records.com:


I've got lots I'd like to say but Linda (whom I introduced you to last week) is babbling to me about her husband's mother.. or her kids graduation.. or just some other crap that I can barely understand and certainly don't care about. God help me get out of here.

Hehe, rejected "Love Is..." comics