"Why don't you get a piece and pass it down."- Les Savy Fav

Hey ya'll, much action in the blogosphere, it is hard to know where to begin. So we will begin here: The Monkey is in the MP3 blogging game now, and his first item is a smoking Elvin Jones track offered as a tribute to the one-time Coltrane drummer who died recently. Even if you don't favor the jazz music, hear this track, 'cause it oozes cool.

I'd also like to direct any Cure fans to this page, which has a super high quality concert from November 84 that basically runs through most of the Standing On A Beach singles comp before ending with the unreleased cut "Forever." Definitely worth hearing this stuff. Thanks to LHB for the tip.

Hey,Tony B is back. He is currently excited about the Sonic Youth and Streets records. I got the Streets thang off ITunes last night and listened to it once this morning. I didn't really feel that magic that so many others (particularly at ILM) are gushing about, but I was only half listening. Perhaps over the long weekend I will get a chance.

Speaking of weekends, last weekend was a blast in Maine and this weekend it is the beach. It is that time of year when we jetset. Bus of...

This fellow directed a video for the Notwist's "One With the Freaks." If you've got Quicktime, you can watch it. Don't be afraid.

This is incredibly sophomoric, but every once in a while this sort of thing really makes me laugh. Defamer and Gawker are my two new vices this week. To offset the mindrot they are inducing, I have also found a couple cool design blogs: MoCoLoco and Sensory Impact.

And finally, a new MP3. Actually, it is an M4A, which is to say it is encoded in AAC. Deal with it. Anyway, this is Hayood's "Crosswords." Recorded to four-track in the attic above an antique store, this song was one of four the band quaintly initially released on a four-song cassette called Great Cats Give Chase. The big-ass guitars on the chorus, and of course the woeful tale of love gone down the crapper, well, they get me every single time. This and the three other Great Cats cuts were released as part of Model for a Monument, so you should try to track that down. But anyway, this song reminds me a a golden era when the diverse bands that all came out of my high school (Haywood, Mantaray and Kam Fong) comprised a tiny scene. One evening the latter two bands played a rare and ridiculous date at the Wayne Tavern, and Mike Kennedy (now drummer for Lefty's Deceiver) quietly noodled out the opening lick to Crosswords before Mantaray started their set and traded knowing looks with those in the know. This song was in the current zeitgeist then, I guess you could say. But anyway, with the resurgence of guitar-heavy indie rock on the horizon, I offer this song as something for the kids to aspire to.

Watched the DVD that came with the Les Savy Fav comp last night. Really amusing stuff, and great live footage. I still don't totally get the art-punk sound, but I am at least starting to get this band.

That is all.

"She serves him mashed potatoes, and she serves him peppered steak, with corn."- Camper Van Beethoven

Someone somewhere today online was hyping the video for the Dresden Dolls' "Girl Anachronism." And you know what? It is really great. I read it is making the rounds of MTV2. It's great that the kids are blowing up. Amanda may be the most successful Wesleyan rocker of my vintage. Anyway, check out the video.

I was born in Media, PA. I never lived there, but that is where it all went down. It's the county seat, and maybe there weren't quite as many hospitals around 30 years ago as there are now. Anyway, the Inquirer has a nice piece about how the town has successfully maintained an even keel throughout the years. It actually seems like a real neat place to live. The Towne House, mentioned in the article and former employer of my dad when he was a teen, is a favorite restaurant of mine with the kind of bar where you throw the peanut shells on the floor and many days some guy comes in and plays a small organ installed under two inches of dust off in a corner. Here's more about Media.

There's a Joy Division biopic in the works, according to the Guardian, which is great news. The only reason I watched 24 Hour Party People was to see the bits about that band seemed to me well done and compelling. This movie will hopefully top that without making me watch the stuff about the Madchester scene that I didn't really care about… Here's more.

There are a lot of great books out there I need to pick up. Observe:
Morrissey and Marr: The Severed Alliance
Touching from a Distance: Ian Curtis and Joy Division
Perfect Sound Forever: The Story of Pavement
Rock and the Pop Narcotic Testament for the Electric Church

That is all.

"A graphic lump rises in my throat, there's alligators swimming in that moat." - Eggs

More greatness at Dynatrite, which is currently running a tribute to my man Woods. I tell a lot of stories about Jeff, but Grellan has a whole hidden cache of treasures I wasn't aware of. The best part of this is the part where Woods cranks up The Who. Enjoy.

This goes pretty far afield from my usual banter, but I guess I always harbored a fascination with conspiracy theories. Here are 15 reasons somebody out there thinks that the business regarding the American beheaded recently in Iraq is fishy. Go nuts.

I remember being smart, and being able to conjure thoughts almost as good as K-Punk's take on where Morrissey is and has been. How did I get so dumb? In college I could really put some thoughts together. Since then, I am not sure where all that brainpower went. It's a mystery.

All sorts of Burma action. Music. BrigDawg's awesome interview with Burma's Clint Conley at Junkmedia.

As a younger man, as many of you know, I really idolized the indie acts of the day. One of the most impressive pop records made, in my opinion, is Eggs' Teenbeat Exploder. About 10 years ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Eggs mainman Andrew Beaujon at the Loud Music Festival in Northampton. A nice fellow. We talked about the recent overdose of Bob Stinson. Anyway, Beaujon, now a contributing editor for Spin, maintains a blog (Thanks for Mystical Beast to turning me on to it). Check it out. Also, a very interesting item in his old blog about hating the latest Liars record, and the danger of projecting intentions on an artist's work. Too bad Spin won't print great stuff like that. Not that I read Spin yet this decade. For all I know it is awesome now. Doubt it tho.

This is the funniest thread ever on ILM. Enjoy.

Last night I got the first Bad Brains record off ITunes. I probably hadn't heard it since, oh man, I don't know. My man Jones used to have that shizzing on tape. Anyway, the album totally kills. Just wall-to-wall awesome. I have to agree with Amazon reviewers' assertions that the record is one of the best hardcore albums ever.

And finally, a peek at what is happening with the Real World Philly.

That is all.

"Shake your figurine, shake your figurine." - Ditchcroaker

I was going to put this off, since it is an unsavory hour of the morning, but since I can never sleep in after a night of plentiful drinking (I am cursed) you are treated today to my wit at an unholy hour. Anyway, I was minding my own business reading SplendidEZine yesterday and noted that Karl Hendricks Trio's A Gesture of Kindness has been reissued and is reviewed there. Being a huge fan of the record, I was pretty disappointed to see the reviewer pan it based in Hendricks' limited vocal range. The first true indie rock show I ever saw was at Princeton in 1993, and Hendricks was atop the bill in support of his recently released Buick Electra -- I've had a soft spot for them ever since. So anyway, the reviewer takes issue with a lack of melody, or a lot of unexploited chances at melody. I take issue with this (I know, why am I telling you instead of the author, none of this is your fault, etc) because "The Scoffer's Reply," track three on the record in question, is probably the most melodic thing Hendricks ever wrote. Damn that is a good song. I'd also like to just extend props to the album opener "Foolish Words of a Woman in Love," which is probably the first song I think of when I consider what the angriest break-up song might be. Anyway, maybe I should write my congressman, but I thought you should know. And one other thing: is a re-issue of Misery and Women in the offing? Man, I would like that.

Now that I see it is a regular feature, I have to throw esoterically hand-signalled props to Dynatrite's self-deprecating "Better Left Unsaid" feature. Not only is it entertaining (Grellan can write like Old Scratch himself), but it is just so... well, I can't think of the word. I think it is just neat that basically the guy, in a succinct sort of newsbyte format, basically casts a spotlignt on an embarrassing circumstance from his past for all to see. [HOLY COW! I just checked in to Dynatrite again and found this chicanery. Pure genius.]

Infinite Cat. 'Nuff said.

Here are some interesting ideas about Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind at K-Punk. As this analyzes the film from the viewpoint that it is akin to the work of Samuel Beckett, who I used to be obsessed with, I found this particularly enjoyable.

My second review at 75orLess.com has gone up. This time I give a few back-pats to the Loretta Lynn record.

Here's a review from the Guardian of a show by Joy Zipper, who are being hyped as solid comers in the field of neo-shoegaze. I have downloaded one of their numbers and it was pretty good, very listenable. Anyway, I learned stuff by reading the piece.

That is all.

"This is something you should know, there's no escaping getting old."- The New Year

So as you can see I am working on a new format here for the old Clicky-Clicky. Please do as other kind souls have done and let me know if something isn't showing up correctly for you. The Blogger template isn't as intuitive as it thinks it is, so all my changes to the template are being done by trial and error. As you can see, there is still plenty of error. Enough on that.

So my latest hunt for an out-of-print 90s indie pop record has led us to the Vehicle Flips' "In Action." A cursory visit to Half.com and EBay has left me with no leads. I stumbled upon this very informative site, which told me something I didn't know, which is that the two Tim's from some iteration of the Karl Hendricks Trio played in the band at one time, I think when they recorded "In Action." So anyway, if anybody out there is rooting through the used bins, keep an eye out for this. Summer makes me want to listen to the nerd rock I guess.

So I was minding my own business changing my address online with the various publications I subscribe to when I noticed that Harper's now posts content on its Internet home page. Fine. But what they currently have online is the hysterical exchange between the Freaks and Geeks guy and the That 70s Show guy where they totally bitch eachother out. Enjoy.

ILM turned me on to some pretty great Lilys bootlegs. I have checked out most of these. Now you can too.

I've updated the page that has all my -- well most, anyway -- CD reviews. Check it out if you're bored.

OK, maybe some more later. Gotta make pasta. That is all.

"I forgot a long time ago how you feel." - The Lilys

So I heard DVD-Audio over at the Good Doctor's pad the other week and it was really awesome (we listened to parts of this). I am pondering getting myself a set-up. I couldn't really understand it until I heard, not really having much experiene with surround sound. But anyway, the mental effect is sort of like looking at what you presume to be the color white on a paint sample, and then being shown a much brighter white sample and realizing that you hadn't been looking at white at all. Anyway, I am not sure how Lopez will like the speaker set up of a surround sound system, so I am just pondering still, looking for really good deals on Ebay.

Speaking of the InterWeb, we finally got our act together and watched some of our NetFlix stuff. Last night was the triple feature of The Kid Stays in the Picture (which name-drops my homepiece Gorni's father-in-law, since he gave Robert Evans his job back after assuming the reigns of Paramount), the Terry Gilliam flick Brazil (I love me some TG) and a portion of Matthew Barney's Cremaster series entitled The Order. The Order was really nice too look at, what with the combination of surreal sets and characters, the fact that many of the characters were topless women, and the fact that, for a reason unbeknownst to me, the half-hour segment features Agnostic Front and Murphy's law. Needless to say, it is all very strange. Apparently, Cremaster is virtually impossible to interpret without reading up on it, but the section we saw seemed to represent an artists journey through the canon of Western Art. But what the hell do I know.

I have submitted some samples to the honcho of the web site 75orless.com, which, as its name promises, includes album reviews of 75 words or less (words of two or fewer letters don't count, sucka!). The fellow behind Slatch.com runs the site, and many of the reviewers operate MP3 blogs I admire, so I thought it would be a way to be able to have some interaction with them. We'll see how it goes. I sort of enjoyed the 75-word challenge, and used it as a warm-up for reviewing my latest promos just in from Junkmedia.org. I feel fortunate to be able to review the latest The New Year record, but I haven't given it more than a passing listen so far.

There is a good review of a Juana Molina show here -- I have downloaded one track by her and it is great; I need to get her record. Also from the NYT is a piece about using the lightbox to save wax cylinders and ancient LPs -- worth reading. Oh yeah, and the Guardian has an interview with Pedro Almodovar, whose films I have always liked. Well, for the last 10 or 12 years anyway.

That is all.

"I can't stand the way I was that day."- Bedhead

Looky, looky, Jay Samit still has a job. As usual, Sony is re-re-reinventing the wheel. Though this will probably fare better than, say, Unsurface.com.

Interesting story about Spitzer strongarming the major labels into distributing held royalties. The very last sentence of this story is the most amusing part tho. Actually, what is really amusing is that Lopez owns the tape.

There's a fair amount of buzz about the new Mission of Burma. Junkmedia. Pitchfork. ILM. I think I heard parts of it on the hi-fi at the Newbury Comics last week. It sounded muy muy rockalicious. Stream some songs here [Thanks to Slatch.com for the link].

NPR ran a feature on MP3 blogs over the weekend, and you can listen to it here. And this ILM thread reconstructs the history of the MP3 blog. Interestingly enough, former Junkmedia scribe Martin Pavlinic is credited with being an early influence. I imagine they are referring to his old site Papercities.org.

Speaking of MP3 blogs, here is a new song. The number in question is The Strip Oracle, the A side to a Superconductor 7 inch that came out in late 1995, as far as I can remember. Superconductor was a Canadian act that featured a six- or seven-guitar attack. This awesome display of power may or may not have been the inspiration for the Wesleyan act Holzvarth (Holzvarth is at the center of one of the best Kam Fong stories ever, but we'll just skip to the punchline: "Not since the nomadic hordes ruled Pangaea..."), which touted luminaries including one John Charles O'Neill, who was a huge fan of this song. I didn't get into this number right away, but once I gave it a shot I became as hooked as the rest of the WESU folks. It is apparently part of a rock opera that is based on the story of Scheherezade. Or at least I think I read that somewhere. Like here. I seem to recall linking to this before. Oh well.

For now, that is all.