"It's the press of unseen stress, and days that drift and days that stretch." - Silkworm

I've spent a fair amount of time in the past week using the audio search tool at AltaVista to track down random music files. Like great Rocketship songs at the Slumberland Records site. Or cool Bill Dogget 45s ripped to MP3. MLE even tracked down a mother lode of Elliot Smith B-sides. You just never know what you are going to find. I started out looking for this cool Oval record,94 Diskont, and it just snowballed from there.

Chromewaves yesterday made a point I know I have discussed in the past year with Mr. Liek and The Good Doctor and probably many more of you:

"So in a way, it's like my musical addiction is diminishing my overall enjoyment of music."

Like Mr. Waves, I too have just recently finished Kot's Wilco book. I am actually on a bit of hot streak. In the past week I have also finished the Pavement book Perfect Sound Forever and The Curious Incident of the Upside Down Dog in the Night Time.

We took in several films of a free film festival at Faneuil Hall earlier this evening. We definitely got what we paid for.

That is all.

"I didn't want to go to bed and I didn't want to stay awake." - Modest Mouse

News on the Fong comp front: TymMac has tracked down Ardmore Mike "Drums" Boran, who believes he may have the recordings we are looking for. Once I receive those, and re-rip five tracks that I did a sloppy job with the first go-round, this thing is in the can. I listened through both play lists of what the discs will be on my IPod yesterday afternoon. I think people are going to go nuts for this stuff. TymMac reported that upon hearing of his and my interest, Boran exclaimed "wow, Kam Fong is more popular than ever." Could be, I spose. Anyway. Select members of the public have seen what is likely the final cover art for disc one. Rest assured it looks real tough. Enough of that for now.

Turns out the guy who runs the Music for Robots MP3 blog used to live in my neighborhood, has moved, and needs some folks to go over and pack up his records for shipping to him. He solicited aid from his blog, and I may go over and re-meet the illustrious David Day of Forced Exposure fame and pack some boxes this weekend. It's good karma. Plus, I've gotten a lot of good cuts off that blog, including a more scarce Dntel track that is really good, among other things.

You'll note I am skipping the links today. Blogger just can't seem to carry the weight for me lately. I am looking into it.

Saw Plymouth Rock the other night, as my folks were staying the night down there for that express purpose on their way to Maine where their friend has a large place by the water. Anyway, it was sort of neat. We are direct descendents of William Bradford, who sort of spearheaded that whole Mayflower operation. Surprise, surprise, that doesn't really net you any points these days. You'd think chicks would dig it. Much like having the last name Breitling doesn't get you free Breitling watches. Something is wrong in the world. Just kidding.

Can't help but notice Pitchfork is really pushing feature interviews on their site lately. I'd like to think that they see that Junkmedia is doing it and are trying to follow suit. Though the truth of the matter is that it is an ancient idea, something I think SplendidEzine has always done particularly well.

Hopefully this rain will wear itself out ("uselessly and far from home"), as we hope to get a little croquet in tomorrow morning on the Boston Common.

Oh yeah, click over to the Monkey (link at right) for a track from the forthcoming Nels Cline Singers record, which is really superlative. He posted me a copy in the mail and I listened to it about five times yesterday. Monkey also had a scorching track from this fellow Jim Black prior to the NCS -- if you are lucky you got it while it was up.

That is all.

"He only broke the TV because she said 'I want something more.'" - Volcano, I'm Still Excited

I was minding my own business over the weekend and Mr. Obb pointed me to the Coolidge Corner Theater web site, where I spotted a notice that the Jandek documentary is coming there. I am very excited about this, as the documentary was the subject of a Junkmedia piece a year and a half or so ago, and it sounded really fascinating. I collected some links for those not down with the Jandek myth; I am not very familiar with the music at all, but the tale of the prolific recluse is fairly gripping. Anyway, here is Jandek 101.



[This is where there would be a series of three links, if Blogger wasn't totally sucking for me these days. Oh well, click this huge linked blob. This is enough to make me switch to another blog setup. Thanks Blogger.]

Also over the weekend I saw parts of two rock 'n' roll concerts on public TV, which were relatively moving in their own way. The first was Phil Collins live in France, which I guess is a DVD now or something. Anyway. My observation is goddamn that guy had a lot of top 40 hits in the '80s. I watched four cuts in a row and knew them all. And they didn't even come off half bad, in their glossy '80s pop way. I think the names were "Something Happened on the Way to Heaven," "Sussudio," oh, well, I just spaced the other two. Anyway, he performed in the round with a huge band. Which was important, because the guy was dwarfed by the stage and the lights and all that. And he has an odd stage presence, doing wierd physical comedy bits a la Buster Keaton, or literally just jogging around the circumference of the round stage. Just jogging. Wierd, huh?


The other concert I saw was last night. It was Phish, from a forthcoming DVD I think called it. I always appreciated Phish, as they were phoisted upon my by all my friends at Bucknell my freshman year. And I dug their inventiveness, musicianship, and even some of the hooks. I just couldn't stand their whole scene. I couldn't stand that their name was basically half of Fishbone. But anyway, what I saw on the video last night was actually outstanding. Outstanding. Now that they have officially broken up maybe I will look into their post 1993 efforts a little. And I definitely want to see the rest of that DVD.


Wow, Phil Collins and Phish in the same blog entry. Things are getting wierd around here.

It was only a matter of time before the major labels started to try to pervert MP3 blogs. The New York times has the coverage [right here should be a link to a story about major labels trying to trick mp3 bloggers].

[Right here should be a bit about Bob Mould's blog. Blogger, you suck.]

his blog. This is the holy grail for me. Not the Bob Mould part, but the part where a musician who I respect starts posting the recordings that shaped his musical life. Check it out. I wish all my fave musicians did this.


Cover art is close to complete for the Fong comp. Still tracking down the final two songs. In doing so I have gotten in touch with a lot of folks from back in the day. Including Rob Meltzer, who told me about his new movie project, which sounds hysterical. It is called "I Am Stamos." He is sending me a copy. I am sure it will rock.


Not a lot else to report. The Murph came and went. Now we just pretend he is here, but hiding. He is sneaky.


Scored Wilco tickets for October 1st, and just finished reading Greg Kot's Wilco book "Learning How To Die." Good book, though it gives short shrift to the events of the last 6 months, and perhaps would have benefitted as a whole from ignoring them. But anyway, it was a good read. Much better, so far, than the Pavement book "Perfect Sound Forever" I just started last night. That fella writes sorta boring, or at least he does in the first chapter. And I think I am having a hard time valuing his opinion, because he admits up front to not getting into Pavement until right before Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, by which time most of us were already completely devoted to the awesomeness that was "Slanted + Enchanted." Oh well.


That is all.

"Sunshine in her eyes, but moonshine made her blind every time." - Pink Floyd

Some brief notes:

Last Plane to Jakarta is particularly great this week -- check it out.

Blogger keeps eating my posts, so that is all you get.

That is all.

"Better something else like Nashua, Montpelier..." - Ted Pauly

Fantastic -- just one word to describe the stellar wedding confab staged in celebration of the newly conjoined Housh-Thomases. After the disposition of Crazy Early at the airport, I was struck with the very depressing thought that tomorrow was a work day, like about 10,000 work days before it, and the wonderful and entertaining odyssey in and around the greater Ipswich area of the last few days had finally come to an end. So BOOO! to real life. Life in the parking lot of the Whittier, and here, here, and here, is way better. There was croquet, camaraderie, pomp, circumstance, and even The Bus Stop. Anyway, congrats to H-Dawg, T-Dawg and Murphy. Really good times. I should also note getting really, really tanked at the Whittier's tiny bar with uber barkeep Chris and her man Pete, with whom Lopez and I had a dynamite time. Although the contents of those conversations are lost in the mists of a million Budweisers.

Speaking of BOOOO! I have to say I understand why Nomar had to go, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

So what else? As the lyric above might suggest, I came into the possession of Ted's demos for the forthcoming Haywood album. The new Haywood stuff is purely a studio effort, mon ami Rob V reiterated when he was in the Republic of Cambridge with us last weekend. The demos are fairly rough, but the great songs and great lyrics are still there. And Ted can still turn a phrase that is so wistful it is like the slowest kick in the groin you've ever felt. It will probably be pretty far into 2005 before a record is released, but keep your eyes open. I'll, of course, post tracks once they roll my way.

While the V-ness was here we went to a bitching 30th bday party for I. Karim Abdul-Matin, one of the chillinest doods around. Great party, right in the neighborhood. Good times.

Besides the new Ted Pauly demos, I've still been spinning the Unicorns and the new Fiery Furnaces a lot. And a lot of Joe Jackson's "Look Sharp." Just cause it is great. Oh, and a great Floyd bootleg that Large-Hearted Boy pointed me to.

The Democratic National Convention was a breeze for us, as far as the commuting to the office and all that goes. And I watched the coverage with great interest for the first three evenings. I was especially entertained by speeches by Obama Barack, Al Sharpton, and of course, Bubba Clinton, who all spoke very well. No Jano Cabrera sightings, but what are you gonna do. The 6-hour workdays made everything else worth it. Except trying to figure out how to bill overtime, so I didn't bother working any.

We have the sad task of shipping off the Mathews-Watsons next weekend, but it will be nice to see a new place and to drive out Route 2, an attractive piece of road.

Well, for now, that is all.