"I sit around and think about it all the time." - Flop.

This is likely my last post of the year, so in order to be just like everybody else, I'd like to share my favorite 10 releases of 2004 (as already submitted to Junkmedia, who have their own very attractive omnibus Best of 2004 list here, and Crazy Earley, who is also collecting lists for some reason). While my list is numbered, the numbers don't really mean anything. I subscribe to the same attitudes and opinions on comparing apples and oranges as John Darnielle does on this very good Last Plane To Jakarta post. Without further ado, my list:

1.. Arcade Fire – Funeral
2.. Lali Puna – Faking The Books
3.. Sonic Youth – Sonic Nurse
4.. The Unicorns – Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone
5.. Deadbeat – Something Borrowed, Something Blue
6.. Nels Cline Singers – The Giant Pin
7.. Dizzee Rascal – Boy in da Corner (domestic Matador release)
8.. Volcano I’m Still Excited!! – Volcano I’m Still Excited!!
9.. Wilco – A Ghost Is Born
10.. Modest Mouse – Good News for People Who Love Bad News

From the "It's an awesome record but event I think that price is too high" files: someone is hocking a CD version of the stellar Acetone "I Guess I Would" EP on Ebay for $30. I've got this on vinyl -- it was a promo from my WESU days. The B-side is a MONSTER jam on some Kris Kristofferson song which is somewhat akin to Mogwai reworking CCR's take on "I Heard It Through The Grapevine." Anyway, if you can find this for $9.99 or less, you will really enjoy the record. I am still holding out for a copy of "If You Only Knew" to replace my cassette dub of it. Found it for $1 last week, but then the dumbass wanted to charge me $3.50 in shipping. That's just gouging.

Another from the ridiculously priced CD file. Some jackass wants $80 for the posthumous Archers of Loaf live record. Duh.

To co-opt an anti-tobacco slogan, where is the outrage? The torture of prisoners at Gitmo detailed in this report by the NYT makes my stomach turn. Everything right is wrong again. Or something.

Finally, here is the playlist from my radio show this prior Tuesday. Another good night, two whole listeners, including the mysterious listener with the IP address that suggests they are from Malibu, CA. Rest assured I'll be back with more rock in 2005.

1. Ad Council - WESU PSA "Ridiculous."
2. Recorded Outside John Cage's Apartment - New York City.
3. Manta Ray - Prelude.
4. Creedence Clearwater Revival - I Heard It Through The Grape Vine.
5. Richard Buckner - Here (Live at Schuba's Tavern).
6. Jane's Addiction - Chip Away (Live).
7. The Lemonheads - Paint.
8. Flop - Anne.
9. Recorded Outside John Cage's Apartment - New York City.
10. Lefty's Deceiver - H to Hg.
11. The Walkmen - The Rat.
12. Wendyfix - Pillowhead (1993).
13. Iris - The New Jersey Song.
14. The Sea and Cake - Jacking the Ball.
15. The Stone Roses - Ten Storey Love Song.
16. Yo La Tengo - Today Is The Day (Rock Version).
17. Yo La Tengo - Let's Be Still.
18. Recorded Outside John Cage's Apartment - New York City.
19. Lou Reed and John Cale - Waiting for My Man (Live 1972).
20. Small Factory - Keep On Smiling.
21. R.E.M. - Find the River.
22. Yung Wu - Powderfinger.
23. Recorded Outside John Cage's Apartment - New York City.
24. Prefuse 73 - Trains on Top of the Game (Interlude).
25. Poole - There You Go.
26. Polvo - Missing Receipts.
27. Neu! - Liever Honig.
28. Sonic Youth - Radical Adults Lick Godhead Style.
29. Drive Like Jehu - Here Come The Rome Plows!
30. Shellac - Wingwalker.
31. The Dambuilders - Kill Haole Day.
32. The Clash - White Man in Hammersmith Palais.

That is all. Happy Ramadan, Hannukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and New Year.

"I am the pawn, I am the King." - J Church.

NYT has a nice happy profile of a Philadelphia band I knew nothing about until now. I just like the optimistic smily-ness of the profile.

Scenestars does a fair enough job summing up The Stones Roses, or at least where things went wrong for them. I've been thinking about re-assessing "Second Coming," and the two tracks posted here will give me the chance.

The coolest thing I've heard all week is Brendan Canty of Fugazi fame is doing a DVD series where he goes to a city and films the bands touring through the city or residing in that city playing music in front of a structure that is about to be destroyed. Crazy, but true. Billboard has the skinny.

Okay, here is the playlist from last night's webcast. A hot show in my opinion. At least, I enjoyed listening to it. There will be one more show this year, 12/21 at 9PM. Then I'll be back on the InterWeb the first Tuesday after New Year's, which I beleive is the 4th.

1. Ad Council - WESU PSA "Ridiculous."
2. Reverend J.M. Gates and Congregation - Death May Be Your Santa Claus.
3. Robert Fripp & David Byrne - Under Heavy Manners.
4. The Beastie Boys - EGGMAN.
5. M.I.A. - Uraqt (Diplo Remix).
6. Yoko Ono - Georgia Stone (Excerpt).
7. They Might Be Giants - Hey Mr. DJ, I Thought You Said We Had A Deal.
8. Sugar - Gift.
9. J Church - Band You Love To Hate.
10. J Church - Nostalgic For Nothing.
11. Superchunk - Hello Hawk.
12. Jim O'Rourke - Get a Room.
13. Royal City - Spacey Basement.
14. Bright Eyes - Hit the Switch.
15. Jane's Addiction - My Time (Live).
16. Yoko Ono - Georgia Stone (Excerpt).
17. C.O.C.O. - Move On.
18. KC Accidental - Them (Pop Song #3333).
19. Sam Prekop - A Cloud to the Back.
20. American Football - Never Meant.
21. Haywood - No Way Back to Now.
22. Belle & Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress.
23. Karl Hendricks Trio - The Scoffer's Reply.
24. MRC Trio - Act Three Scene Three.
25. Kronos Quartet - Rachell's Weepinge.
26. Keren Ann - Chelsea Burns.
27. Pavement - Dark Ages.
28. The Mendoza Line - Small Town Napoleons.
29. Neutral Milk Hotel - Holland 1945.
30. Lali Puna - Nincompoop (Two Lone Swordsmen Remix).
31. The Smiths - Death of a Disco Dancer.
32. The Mobius Band - Frozen Lake in Unison.
33. ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead - Another Morning Stoner.
34. The 6ths - Falling Out of Love (With You).
35. Pink Floyd - Dramatic Theme.

That is all.

"Give me my time, and let me be outside." - Jane's Addiction.

Tune in to Radio TeapotHill tomorrow night for my penultimate 2004 webcast. It will rock.

That is all.

Peter Torgo. Wesleyan University. March 1996. 

"Kind of hoped you wouldn't blame me, I can't wake up." - Lemonheads

Eagle-eyed (and admitted to practice in PA) reader MLE points us to a pretty great acoustic performance by Evan Dando (backed up ably and probably necessarily by Come/The New Year's/Consonant's Chris Brokaw) in Australia that you can stream here. The first six numbers are "Drug Buddy," "Paid to Smile," "All My Life," "The Turnpike Down," "$1000 Wedding" and "Great Big No." All in all Dando performs pretty well -- his voice exhibits signs of the hard living that Dando has gained notoriety for, certainly, but he is not as fat and grubby here as I have read he has been in the last couple years. Anyway, if you have a chunk of time to spend with it, it is time fairly well spent.

Chromewaves drops knowledge regarding the oft overlooked UK guitar band The House of Love, whose work that I've heard I've liked very much. Chromewaves makes the point that the band filled that gap in time between the end of the Smiths and the rise of the Stone Roses, though I remember them overlapping the Stone Roses or even coming a little bit after. Their career arc, at least in my mind, followed closely that of the also oft overlooked Sundays. Anyway, check it out (the posting also has a direct link to that Stars video I was raving about a couple weeks ago).

Parasol's favorite records of 2004. I don't shop there, but I've seen the Good Doctor blow a week's wages over the phone with them in about eight minutes.

That is all.

"After last night it's hard to shine." - Rodan.

Some odds, some sods.

The Big Ticket is building a list of its favorite tracks of the year, all of which to day I heartily approve of. Check it out -- song list/links at bottom of post.

Former Pitchforker and current PSFer Chris Ott does a serviceable job in his turn manning the Stypod.


My latest obsession. Another obsession is finding a cheap but relatively pristine copy of the Arthur Prysock record "Soul Soliloquoy" (King), which has this zany song on it called "Where the Soul Trees Grow." There is a sample of the song here.

And then they were gone...

Okeydoke, here is my playlist from last night. I had a short breakdown early on in the set, but since I think we officially clocked zero listeners last night, not really a big deal.

1. Ad Council - WESU PSA "Ridiculous."
2. Kronos Quartet - 12/12 (2000).
3. Nuno Canavarro - ?
4. Oval - Kardio V.
5. Rusuden - Day Breaks.
6. Midwest Product - Dead Cat.
7. Flaming Lips - Hit Me Like You Did The First Time.
8. King Tubby - Dubbin' of the Ten Thousand.
9. Andre Afram Asmar - Scientism.
10. M.I.A. - Fade The Pages.
11. Robert Palmer - Johnny and Mary.
12. Nick Forte - Thistle Rue.
13. Brian Eno and David Byrne - Mea Culpa.
14. Moonbabies - Sun AM.
15. Spiritualized - Home of the Brave.
16. Come - Poison.
17. Placeholder - Death Tax.
18. Dinosaur Jr. - Get Me.
19. Small Factory - Hi Howard I'm Back.
20. Moist Vagina - You Unplug My Clock.
21. Flaming Lips - Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon.
22. Efterklang - Step Aside.
23. Archers of Loaf - Chumming the Ocean.
24. The Replacements - Androgynous.
25. Pink Floyd - Wots.. Uh the Deal.
26. Radiohead - Paranoid Android.
27. The Modern Lovers - Modern World (Alternative Version).
28. Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine.
29. Mum - Now There's That Fear Again.

That is all.

"Never learned to swim, can't grow a beard or even fight." - Lemonheads

Tune in to Radio Teapothill tomorrow for my weekly webcast program at 9PM EDT. And now, the news:

Congratulations to The Mobius Band, a longtime Clicky Clicky fav, who have apparently signed to Ghostly International, home to excellent electronic acts including Lawrence, Matthew Dear and Solvent. An EP is in the chutes for this winter, and the band is writing for a full-length to follow. Kudos.

There is a really bad video for the Lemonheads' "Mallo Cup" here, among others. I was trying to find their video for "Luka," sort of to illustrate that every professional advance the band ever made was on the strength of a great cover song. Which sounds like a slag, but I actually really, really like the band a lot. Oh well. Angelina Jolie appears in the video for "It's About Time." Juliana Hatfield does not. The video mix for "The Outdoor Type" is jazzed up with harmonies and solos that don't appear on the album cut.

This is interesting -- posted by Vinyl Journey.

An interesting NYT bit (with obligatory Mike Dreese quote) about different editions of albums hitting the marketplace at the same time.

That is all.

"Did you forget me, too, with all the people that I knew?" - Ted Pauly.

Some brief tidbits:

The very uneven Indie Workshop web site reports that the fellow from Christie Front Drive and Antarctica has signed his latest project, the 101 (a nod to the pre-Clash act, I wonder?) to a Philly label and will release a record in February. I tired of Antarctica after a while, but CFD's split with Boys Life is still one of the top 10" records ever released. Incidentally, with the rehabilitation of my Webcor Musicale record player, I revisited Small 23's "Free T-Shirts for Spain" 10" recording Sunday night. That is a hot goddamned record. Certainly the best thing Small 23 did. Anyway, here is the link to the info about The 101 [see the news section, upper right].

Readers will be familiar with my fascination with and disdain for Wal-Mart. There was a recent program on the public television about the retail giant putting the squeeze on U.S. suppliers (in this instance, TV makers) to outsource to China to meet Wal-Mart's demands for cheaper product to make bigger margins. Anyway, here is evidence the retailer role has really become dominant in the supply chain: This article notes how Kraft, the largest food products company in the world, is forced to tighten its operations in order to satisfy the big box stores. The most troubling aspect of this to me is the portion of the story that notes that product diversity is being purposely stifled. But enough of that.

This is a really cool article about someone finding the lost first recording session of the Velvet Underground. Check it out.

Bob Mould buys a new car. This is not interesting, but for some reason it interested me anyway.


Okeydokey, here is the playlist from Tuesday night. Sorry about the breakdown midway through the set -- server logs show I lost a couple listeners there, but picked up others in the 10 o' clock hour. Anyway, thanks for tuning in.

1. Ad council - WESU PSA "Ridiculous."
2. Orlando Cachaito Lopez - Siempre Con Swing (Intro)
3. Brad Mehldau - When It Rains.
4. The Conet Project - Three Note Oddity.
5. Brian Wilson - Old Master Painter/You Are My Sunshine.
6. The New York Dolls - Personality Crisis.
7. Public Image Ltd. - Public Image.
8. Lilys - Jenny, Andrew and Me.
9. Broken Social Scene - Passport Radio.
10. Desaparecidos - Man, Wife, The Latter.
11. Haywood - Devon Lanes.
12. Dinosaur Jr. - Over Your Shoulder.
13. Flop - Asthenia.
14. Castor - Pontiac.
15. The Smiths - You've Got Everything Now.
16. Built to Spill - You Were Right.
17. Pete Rock and CL Smooth - They Reminisce Over You (T.R.O.Y.)
18. Pavement - Trigger Cut/Wounded Kite at :17.
19. The Feelies - Away.
20. Jon Brion - I Beleive She Is Lying.
21. The Conet Project - English Lady 00000.
22. Belle and Sebastian - The Stars of Track and Field.
23. Swearing at Motorists - Being In Love.
24. Manta Ray - Prelude (Betty Popperetta).
25. Manta Ray - Betty, Please (Betty Popperetta).
26. Drop Nineteens - Delaware (Live).
27. The Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels).
28. Jane's Addiction - Classic Girl.
29. Adrian Crowley - Trilogy.
30. Efterklang - Monopolist.
31. The Cure - The Walk (Live).

That is all.

"I catch the breeze, the smell of eucalyptus trees." - J Church.

Tune in tomorrow night for my slot on Radio TeapotHill at 9PM. Two hours of the American Good Rock.

The Thanksgiving holiday was quite pleasant and relaxing. A lot of it was spent in the car listening to great CDs the Webnoize chaps had brought my way, including Iggy and the Stooges' "Raw Power", the New York Dolls' self-titled effort and The Feelies' "Only Life". The list goes on and on. A lot of records, I am saying.

Apparently Morrissey is covering an awesome PIL song on the flipside of his next single. Unfortunately, there is no way this can be good. "The Public Image" is an awesome song, but there is just nothing Morrissey could do it but destroy it with is frumpery. On a related note, I saw him on Letterman recently and was utterly uninspired. The guy is just plain dull live. Was he ever interesting to watch when with The Smiths? Is there Smiths live concert footage out there somewhere. Anyway, here is ILM's discussion of the PIL cover.

NY Observer describes the Pitchfork effect, and includes some interesting information worth reading about how the site conducts its business and its history.

Oops. Apparently C-Span ran a segment on how racy some of the video games out there have gotten. And apparently, they accidentally showed some boobs on the television.

Big Ticket has links to numerous trailers for The Life Aquatic with Stephen Zissou, which I am looking forward to seeing very much.

Chromewaves reports that the Merge Dinosaur Jr. reissues coming next March 22 appear to be disappointingly augmented. That bites.

EmptyFree has a fairly interesting bit about Japanese surf rock of the early to mid '60s.

Clicky-Clicky UPDATE:

A chap named John at Insound.com finally got back to me regarding the Lilys reissues I was hyped about a few weeks ago. According to John, "that item has not been re-released yet, the release date has been changed and is TBA." All of which I take to mean the whole thing was just a minor mistake of some sort, and the reissues are just vaporware resulting from some intern entering the information incorrectly or something. Hopefully I am wrong, but John's response did not inspire confidence.

Regarding the Nirvana MP3 that was in the last post, and the Nirvana box set. The New York Times reviews the set. Another article I read about music retail indicates that Target is the best place to buy it, as it is selling it $10 below retailer list price.

That is all.

"OK, throw me in the river, OK, OK." - Wendyfix.

Lopez and I will be jaunting around various small towns and state capitols (okay, just Harrisburg) for the Thanksgiving holidays. In my absence I leave you with a couple MP3s to tide you over until we get back.

Wendy Fix, the story goes, was an Illinois state high school women's tennis champion sometime in the early '90s. Wendyfix the indie rock trio was christened thusly by My Pal God Records' Jon Solomon, who presumably read about Ms. Fix in a local newspaper while schooling at Northwestern with Haywood's Ted Pauly when Ted started his "college band." Solomon played in an early iteration of the band, and also named Haywood; I guess he's the guy to go to if you need a band name. Anyhoo, Wendyfix the band went on to issue a single seven inch as the debut release of Spade Kitty Records, also based in Chicago. For more on the history of all that, check out this . Happily, Wendyfix recorded quite a few songs during its existence. Sadly, only a few of them saw release. Besides Spade Kitty 001, which featured Pauly's "Slow" on the A side and Brian McGrath's "Silence" on the B side, Wendyfix also had a cut on the solid WPRB radio comp "Dog So Large I Cannot See Past It" called "Knife's Throw" (not their best work). It appears clips of that song and many others are available as .wav files here. Anyhoo, "Slow" is one of my favorites, so check it out. You can also see a video for their song "Pillowhead" here.

I am excited for the forthcoming Nirvana box set. One of the cuts that it includes, "Even In His Youth," was originally released on the flip side of the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" single and subsequently on the Hormoaning Australian tour support EP. I taped it off Villanova University's WXVU while I was in high school and just discovering the wonders of college radio. Through the magic of the internet you can hear it yourself before the box set drops on Tuesday by checking this out. Lampshade used to cover this number back in the day.

That is all.

Fong. Original Line-up. Wayne Tavern. Fall 1997. 

"It's just a small part of a bigger waste of time." - New Radiant Storm King.

Stars now have a video on their website for their song "Ageless Beauty." The song is awesome. The video is a bit WB, but the shots of the band playing and rocking out with all the quick cuts is pretty exciting to watch. And the singer, Emily Haines, performs with a black X over her heart, which is pretty cool (and reminds me of a certain Torgo t-shirt design). Anyway, it worth looking at. These guys are going to be huge. I suspect they will be making an appearance in The OC in the next 12 months. Stars' label's web site is in flash, so I can't direct link to the video, but go here, click on "navigation," go to "album," and click the little icon next to the song title. While you are at the Arts + Crafts site, check out the great video for Broken Social Scene's "Cause = Time."

Infinity Broadcasting plans to cut ties with independent radio promoters. I don't suspect this was an altruistic move to improve the pathetic state of commercial radio currently. Hopefully someone goes to jail for turning radio into a bucket of sputum. Apparently Clear Channel and Cox had already done this. Gotta love that Elliot Spitzer for putting the fear of God, well, poverty, into people.

Wilco played a set on KCRW yesterday, and it is archived here. Check it out. The Wagster says it sounds pretty great.

In other good news, believe it or not The Good Doctor is back in the MP3 blogging game. Check out the cool Yo La Tengo he has up right now.

Finally, the guy who put on the Vermonstress Sub Pop Festival in 1992 also, apparently, put on a series of festivals called Burlingtonitus. There is a bunch of information about it here, as well as MP3s from the different years. Notable acts include Huffy, fronted by one Tim Lauben, who went on to front erstwhile post-Haywood rockers The Red and The Black.

That is all.

R.L. Mathews with The Small Hours. Plymouth State College. 2000. 

"I've been here days, won't be here for a long time." - Treepeople.

So I just finished Azzerad's Nirvana bio "Come As You Are," which I enjoyed a fair amount. I will say that the thing is woefully edited. There are regular instances throughout the book where Azzerad uses the exact same sentence on the same page, with the same images and metaphors and whatnot. Having written for a living I know that this is bad editing. As a writer you get jazzed with your own work and try to move stuff around on the page to build a strand of logic. Sometimes, you end up repeating yourself. In a perfect world your publisher pays someone to read your copy and to ensure you don't do dumb shit like this (OK, in a perfect world you don't write crap). Apparently Azzerad's editor/s were mentally out to lunch some of the time.

I was tooling around EMusic yesterday when I caught sight of C/Z Records, a label I had completely forgotten about. Anyway, C/Z put out a lot of great records, including Silkworm's In The West. But more importantly, C/Z put out records by Treepeople, the indie rock act Doug Martsch was in before Built To Spill. Treepeople rock. Imagine Built To Spill but crossed with the most agressive Archers of Loaf stuff. Incidentally, there is an awesome double split seven inch of Treepeople and Archers covering eachother's songs. But that is besides the point. The point is, if you like Built to Spill, you should dig up Treepeople records like this one.. The end.

Hey, check this out. H-Dawg from Accounts Receiveable and his cohort D-Money created a website for a photographer, Sven Martson.The site is really modern and clean, and the pictures are pretty good too. Poke around for the shot of the junior high field hockey goalie. If there is a better representation of pre-teen pathos on the web, I challenge you to find it.

Okay, here's the playlist from last night:

1. Ad Council - WESU PSA "Ridiculous."
2. Ride - "Eight Miles High."
3. XTC - "Radios In Motion (White Music Version)."
4. Broken Social Scene - "Alive in '85."
5. The Low Numbers - "Entertain Good Taste."
6. Treepeople - "Liquid Boy."
7. Flop - "I Told A Lie."
8. Roland Kirk - "Why Don't They Know?"
9. Barry Black - "Boo Barry Blip."
10. Brad Mehldau - "Wave/Every Mother's Son."
11. Soltero - "The Moment You Said Yes."
12. The Halo Bit - "W. Sarah."
13. Bright Eyes - "I Woke Up With This Song In My Head."
14. Death Cab For Cutie - "Lowell, MA."
15. Interpol - "Song Seven."
16. Pink Floyd - "Point Me At The Sky."
17. Royal City - "My Brother Is The Meatman."
18. The Conet Project - "The Lincolnshire Slasher."
19. Jbreitling - "Fink (Outro)."
20. Nine Inch Nails - "Sin."
21. Deadbeat vs. Stephen Beaupre - "Ample Slacks."
22. Scott Johnson - "John Somebody, pt. 1."
23. Palace Brothers - "Brute Choir."
24. Pedro The Lion - "The Longest Winter."
25. Sunny Day Real Estate - "How It Feels To Be Something On."
26. Ted Pauly - "Your Bag."
27. Wilco - "Jesus, Etc (Live)."
28. The Beatles - "Strawberry Fields Forever (Take 1)."
29. Modest Mouse - "The World At Large."
30. Dizzy Gillespie - "Kush."

That is all.

"Everything rests upon me, as pearls are strung on a thread." - Kam Fong.

Indeed, it appears I'll be able to do my webcast tomorrow evening, Tuesday the 16th. Log on to http://radio.teapothill.org at 9PM for two hours of this and that. You'll likely hear some Conet Project stuff, as well as this awesome Byrds cover by Ride, among the other rock and or roll we typically aim to provide.

That is all.

"Don't tell me you've gone astray, I walk in circles." - Sunny Day Real Estate

Here's something mildly interesting: The Good Doctor, a notoriously slack MP3 blogger himself, wrote a bit for Ice Magazine about MP3 blogs and quoted me. It is online here -- scroll down.

My Tuesday night webcast on Radio TeapotHill will not occur the week of Thanksgiving, and may not happen this coming week either because of a business trip. I will know my status this week by the end of the day Monday and will post an update here to let you know if I will be on. Check back.

Someone is asking $100 for a copy of The Cure's The Top on Half.com. C'mon. The record may be out of print, and it may be on my list of things I am looking for used. But it ain't worth $100.

Finally, a couple things that KoomDogg referenced on his blozznog that you all should know about. Khaaaaan. Brian's Radio Blog.

That is all.

Lanky Jim Wells. Middletown, CT. March 2000. 

"Ray of light, a petal in my room..." - Royal City.

Big Ticket reposts [scroll down] some of Ted Leo's blog describing his reaction to being psychically kicked in the balls by death and election. Now Ted is pissed. He comes to town 12/9, perhaps I will finally see him.

As a now openly gay performer, Bob Mould understandably has bad feelings about the outcome of the elections this month. Check it out.

Chromewaves notes that expanded versions of R.E.M.'s Warner-era recordings are hitting the racks on January 25th. While a strong point is made that this is just plain silly, Chromewaves fails to hit the heart of the matter, which is, why doesn't IRS do expanded reissues of its R.E.M. catalog, the arguably better portion of the band's work? I like Automatic for the People as much as the next guy, but there has to be some good old rarities out there besides what was on Dead Letter Office and Eponymous. Who among us wouldn't be a better person by owning an expanded and annotated version of the amazing Chronic Town EP?

Yesterday I was obsessed with Sunny Day Real Estate's How It Feels To Be Something On. I played this record to death right when it came out, but was disappointed that the guitars weren't bigger and brassier, that the production wasn't more aggressive on the whole. So at some point in 1999 I just put this record down, hoping that the band would come back around to the edge it had for it's spectacular Diary release. There was even a difference in their live performance: I saw SDRE open for Velocity Girl at the Troc in 93 or 94 and they were spastic and powerful, impressive considering Enigk was around 18 at the time, having written what was basically his masterpiece at 17. Anyway, years later with the release of the record in question I took Lopez to the Troc to see the band headline a show. They were pretty great, but a tad subdued. Fast-forward four or five years and here I am thinking, damn, this is good. So there.

Okeydokey, here's last night's Radio TeapotHill playlist:

1. Ad Council - WESU PSA "Ridiculous."
2. Kam Fong - 16 and 21 (Mono)
3. Lefty's Deceiver - Cheats
4. Nirvana - Swap Meet
5. Latimer - Start With Me
6. Blonde Redhead - I Still Get Rocks Off
7. Swirlies - San Cristobal De Las Casas
8. The Clash - Career Opportunities
9. Royal City - Is This It?
10. Whorl - Maybe It's Better
11. Lilys - The Hermit Crab
12. Mazarin - I Should Be Sleeping
13. Say Hi To Your Mom - Let's Talk About Spaceships
14. New Order - Leave Me Alone
15. B. Fleischmann and Ms. John Soda - Here She Comes
16. Charlene - Ripoff
17. Yo La Tengo - Shadows
18. The Cure - The Walk (Live 1984)
19. Radiohead - Where I End and You Begin
20. Lali Puna - Faking The Books
21. Petula Clark - Downtown
22. John Brion - Knock Yourself Out
23. Stars - Ageless Beauty
24. Dinosaur Jr. - They Always Come
25. Superchunk - On The Mouth
26. The Lemonheads - Circle Of One
27. Garden Party - Windows
28. Home - Sundays
29. Zeke Fiddler - Half-Baked
30. The Sea and Cake - Jacking The Ball
31. Destroyer - Self Portrait With Thing
32. The Grifters - Just Passing Out
33. Mount Eerie - Wooly Mammoth's Absence

That is all.

"All these cheats have defeated me." -Lefty's Deceiver

I transferred to Wesleyan in 1994 because I realized I had sort of flubbed the whole college-picking process, thinking that going to college was good enough and that once I got there there would be plenty of people and a lot of them would have the same interests and values as me. Two years at Bucknell, where few were interested in liberal causes or indie rock, proved me wrong. Frankly, I probably got in to Wes because my then-girlfriend had a good friend in the admissions office. Not that I had bad marks at Bucknell; in fact, I made Dean's List in my final semester. I just think that my SAT scores and high school GPA probably skewed lower than the average at Wes.

Anyway, the point of all this is that when I got to Wes I was able to do the things I liked with people who were cool, and the place where almost all of this transpired was at the radio station WESU. To me, WESU was what college was, the good parts anyway. When I think of the parts of college that I like, I think of WESU. Anyhow, I was alerted this morning to the fact that the president of Wes is considering whoring out 50% of the University's broadcast time for a piddling $50K from NPR, who would use the airwaves to run redundant broadcasts of their flagship programming. Here are three vantage points on the issue. First. Second. Third.

Anyway, I am very pissed. And am working up a scathing letter to the Administration. Enough about that.

Of Note: Trosko has a memo for pizza companies regarding the cheese issue. TimesNewRoman has a caution regarding W's tax liability for his new political capital. One-time Small Hours showmates Turing Machine return with what sounds like a brutal ass-kicking of a record.

That is all. Tonight's playlist up tomorrow.

Everett, Washington. Mid-'90s. 

"He keeps her nose warm with his hand." the Lilys.

I haven't had anything really jump out and grab me to write about since the election. But I was just minding my own business right now working on a review of a forthcoming ~Scape compilation "But Then Again." My research tool me to Insound, where I hardly ever go anymore, and I noticed something HUGE. Apparently this coming week the Lilys' Eccsame The Photon Band and A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns are being re-released [Click here and look at the left sidebar]. I can't find any information about this at all. I don't know if this is an expanded re-issue, a straight re-issue, or a vinyl re-issue or what. All I know is that these are two of my all time favorite records. Brief History of Amazing Letdowns is probably my favorite record EVER. Insound has no other information, Manifesto, the Lilys label of record for Precollections has no information, Spin-Art who originally issued the records has no information. Amazon, bubkus. Is this a cruel hoax? Does anybody out there know anything? I just shot an email to Spin-Art, hopefully that will yield some answers.

The Lilys, primarily because of their first three releases, are probably the band I hype most, if you don't count bands that I know personally. More details as events warrant.

UPDATE: Lilys fan site Returns Every Morning has some pretty great video of the band doing a song called 365 (from the record Precollection) at Swarthmore College last spring. Precollection is a step back toward the Lilys material I truly love, and this live performance makes me think the studio versions don't really do the songs justice. This live version of 365, despite somewhat inferior sound quality, shows the band is gravitating back toward the shoegazer indie rock style. Lilys fans will already be aware the band changes styles frequently across their catalog, which makes being a fan a bit of a challenge. There's a servicable Lilys bio here, though it misidentifies Lancaster, PA as Lancaster, VA, and fails to identify Harold Evans as the brain behind the excellent Spin-Art band Poole, whose first full-length Alaska Days is gorgeous and sugary pop (Lilys' Heasley lends his hand on one song on the album). The real gold in the Poole catalog is the "Mary Shakes Her Hair" 7" -- the songs from the 7" are also on the first full-length, but the earlier mixes from the 7" rock a bit more and are rougher around the edges.

That is all.

Bob and Barbara's. 1509 South Street. Philadelphia, PA. 

"From my head to my toes to the tip of my nose you get these words wrong… every time" - New Order

Well, this whole election thing sucks. Almost every blog I read was bummed or ranting, so there is no point to linking to any specifically, though I thought Catbirdseat's blackout was kind of classy and Music For Robots' punk sampler seemed an appropriate response, too.

Anyhoo, while W's henchmen and their religious right militia were putting their steel-toes to our gonads, I spun a couple hours' worth of tunes. Here is the playlist:

1. Ad Council - WESU PSA "Ridiculous."
2. Deadbeat - Fixed Elections
3. Blonde Redhead - I Am There While You Choke On Me
4. Nirvana - Here She Comes Now
5. Archers of Loaf - Audiowhore
6. The Clash - Janie Jones (Recorded Live at the Bonds International Casino, Times Square, 4.7.1981
7. Bedhead - The Dark Ages
8. Haywood - You Talk Twice
9. The Mendoza Line - The Beechwood Standard
10. Pavement - Pueblo (Beach Boys)
11. Godrays - Carkeys, Ponytail, and Gum
12. Poole - Meredyth on a Monday
13. Kitchens of Distinction - What Happens Now?
14. Elliot Smith - Ostriches and Chirping
15. The Wedding Present - She's My Best Friend
16. The Trouble With Sweeney - At Noon
17. They Might Be Giants - Untitled ("They sound like all kinds of people...")
18. Isotope 217 - >>
19. B. Fleischmann - Take A Day Off
20. Tele:Funken - Factotum
21. Haywood - Come On Tell The Truth Now
22. Fugazi - Last Chance For A Slow Dance
23. Samiam - Slumbering
24. Karl Hendricks Trio - Get Out Your Hankies for This One
25. Lefty's Deceiver - Masse Is Never Luck
26. The Unicorns - I Was Born (A Unicorn)
27. Terry Bickers/Bradleigh Smith - I'm Set Free
28. The Lilys - You're Getting Closer
29. Mock Orange - Double Down
30. Pavement - Camera
31. The Nels Cline Singers - Watch Over Us

That is all.

"I don't care if I f*ck up, I'm going on a date, with a rich white lady..." - Elliot Smith.

I've been trying for the better part of a year to glean the meaning of Rockist and Rockism from dense and brutally nerdy threads on ILM. Finally, the New York Times comes to my aid. And I've gotta say, I am pretty proud to be a Rockist, or a self-aware Rockist, Which might not make me a Rockist at all. Whatever. To me, sucky music still sucks, no matter whose rules we're playing by.

Take the edge off your fear of four more years of Jorge Bush during the vote count tomorrow night and tune in to my Radio TeapotHill webcast at 9PM. Plenty of time for you last minute voters to mark your ballot and grab a burrito and a sixer on your way home before I start cranking out the tunes. Requests and abuse taken via AIM, jbreitling02. Oh yeah, and if you get booted off the stream, try getting back on -- I've found that I am still getting bumped off the server myself about twice during the show, which problem in turn bounces everybody else. Hey, it ain't perfect, but it delivers the free rock to the people.

I picked up the new Elliot Smith, the Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain re-issue, and the Arcade Fire record last week, and I have been totally grooving on them. I played the Pavement joint for about three days straight. Now I am heavy into the Elliot Smith.

What the hell, here is an MP3. If this election is making you paranoid, take heart that you likely can't be more paranoid than the dude behind Bingo Gazingo. His maniacal tune "You're Out of the Computer" is really superlative, busting nerd rhymes with an odd stammering rapping style that is really compelling. Right click and save as.

That is all.

"I know you're out there, I know you're gone."- Dinosaur Jr.

Briefly then:

Clap-Clap's ode to home recording makes me want to unearth the four-track. Maybe next week.

Chromewaves hunts for answers regarding the forthcoming Dinosaur Jr. reissues on Merge, for which I will set babies afire and push old ladies down stairs to get my hands on when they come out.

"Bremer claims that the fact that we never caught anyone stealing them means that no one could have stolen them." I love Wonkette.

Tonevendor does a fair job reviewing the Mendoza Line's odds and sods compilation curated by The Good Doctor. In addition to being a great record, the record is also important because I am thanked in the liner notes. I taped the band doing an interview and some songs at WMBR a couple years ago, and the stuff I recorded was used on the record. So kudos to me.

That is all.

"Descending from a crowd, and all the city streets are loud." - Pavement.

Sox are up by one in the top of the third. Even the infant and toddler Breitlings below the Mason-Dixon lione are excited for this one. Or at least their parents tell them to be excited about it when they are leaving me cute voicemails.

Chromewaves expresses sentiments similar to mine regarding the passing of John Peel, and has a great roundup of related tributes and the like. I guess relative to many I had an understanding of who John Peel was from a relatively youthful age, because when I was 13 and was frantically buying up Cure and Smiths records, I was constantly confronted with these CDs in black and grey covers that Peel Sessions were packaged in at the time, and perhaps are still packaged in today. Good idea: ITunes or Emusic should license all the Peel Recordings exlusively and offer them.

[Varitek at the plate with two men on.]

The Big Ticket is rightfully jubilant regarding the release of the expanded Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain reissue. I picked up my copy this afternoon and am currently plowing through the non-original tracks right now. God this stuff is good. A lot of it was put in my hands on cassette tape when I had the good fortune to live with Forrest R. Perry, who sent me a hysterical, Joey Sweeney album art-esque photo of himself holding a home-made Kerry sign on a corner in Memphis today.

Jen Kelly of SplendidEZine.com does a better job reviewing the new Thalia Zedek record than I think I did.

[Mueller at the plate with men on the corners; draws a walk.]

My webcasting gig as part of the Radio TeapotHill operation resumed last night with an expanded 150-minute set, and I put together a pretty smashing program, if I do say so myself. I guess having an extra two weeks to peruse the depths of collection really paid off this time. Hopefully I can turn in an equally good slate next week when I am back on my regular slot, Tuesday at 9PM. Here is an approximation of last night's play list (I forgot to do a final save in WinAmp, so, alas, some of the magic has slipped through our fingers):

1. Ad Council - WESU PSA "Ridiculous."
2. The Ocean Blue - Breezing Up
3. Manitoba - Every Time She Turns Around It's Her Birthday
4. !!! - Me and Giuliani Down By The School Yard
5. Cargo Cult - Pimp Posse
6. Drive Like Jehu - Super Unison
7. The Flaming Lips - Frogs
8. The Dambuilders - Slo-Mo Kikaida
9. Broken Social Scene - Cause=Time
10. Interpol - Public Pervert
11. Pavement - AT&T
12. Radiohead - Motion Picture Soundtrack
13. Torgo - Sister (Spacey Demo)
14. Flying Saucer Attack - Soaring High
15. Ambulance LTD - Stay Where You Are
16. The Sundays - Goodbye
17. Ken Nordine - Flesh
18. Kronos Quartet - Cuatro Milpas
19. Sunny Day Real Estate - Pillars
20. Elvis Costello - Spooky Girlfriend
21. Augustus Pablo - King Tubby Meets the Rockers Uptown
22. Sonic Youth - Trilogy
23. Godrays - Songs for T.V. Stars
24. Brian Wilson - In Blue Hawaii
25. Ms. John Soda - By Twos
26. Kid 606 - Tempation
27. Lali Puna - Left-handed
28. The Mobius Band - Taxi Cab
29. The Lilys - Elizabeth Colour Wheel

That is all.

"I got the AM radio on." - The Modern Lovers.

Friday odds and sods>>>

David Day gets a turn in StyPod.

This is insane.

EmptyFree drops knowledge on the best places to buy music in Paris.

Let the rejoicing begin, The Rub is back.

The New York Times has a great Arcade Fire profile.

As overt and overdone as this Ted Leo review is, I can't help but identify with a lot of the feelings the reviewer expresses here about new music and compulsive trendspotting.

Believe it or not, two of the best songs I've heard lately are from the forthcoming Spongebob Squarepants movie soundtrack. Stereogum has cuts from the Flaming Lips and The Shins.

Tony B eulogizes the late lamented Tune Inn in New Haven. The only time I went to the Tune Inn was with the Fong when they played there in 1995 or 1996, back when the Postman was still in the band, before the final rise and fall of The Original Lineup.

That is all.

"I'd rather listen to Thin Lizzy, oh." - Belle and Sebastian

some interesting stuff:

Belle and Sebastian are promoting their single "I'm A Cuckoo" with a flash-based game. I am not much of a gamer, so perhaps many of you will think this is really lame, but check out the game and the song at one and the same time. My favorite song from Dear Catastrophe Waitress, by the way.

ILM has all the info on the surprise, nay, shocking live appearance by outsider music posterboy and unfathomable music enigma Jandek at a Glaswegian music festival. I don't think I have ever heard more than one song by the guy, but I got totally sucked in by the myth via a Junkmedia feature that detailed the making of the Jandek on Corwood documentary that came out this past summer. I missed the screening of the documentary, so I may have to drop the $20 and buy the forthcoming DVD, which apparently is now available for pre-order.

Of admittedly less importance is my discovery over the weekend that The Ocean Blue, a noted PA-based college rock band that aped elements of the Smiths and Ride and landed on Sire Records in the late 80s, has continued to make music perhaps up to the present day. I've alway been a big fan of their record Cerulean, but only just over the weekend did I get it ripped to my ITunes. Anyway, according to Allmusic, the band left Sire in 1994 and then had a brief stint at Mercury before ending up releasing their own music. Along the way they apparently booted an original member who claims he was showed the door for being gay. I have heard their first record, too, but I would be interested to hear what they sounded like in subsequent years.

Schilling just threw a ball at A-Rod's head in the bottom of the first. That's good stuff.

That is all.

"You're so bored with Tv. Radio. Video. Audio." - Unwound

As faithful readers will know, one of my ongoing missions is to replace the literally hundreds of audio cassettes filled with indie rock from the 90s with digital and/or CD copies of the same music. I now officially endorse EMusic as the best way to go about doing this. Last night I scored long-time favorite records by Blonde Redhead, La Mia Vita Violenta, and by Flying Saucer Attack, Distance, two items that have been languishing on cassette in Yeungling boxes in the basement storage space. And the per-song cost is something like $.25 per song via the cheapest Emusic plan. I also scored some Unwound, including the record Leaves Turn Inside You, which I have been meaning to get for a few years. An excellent record.

I spent much of yesterday excruciatingly hung over, and for a while at work yesterday morning the only way I could deal with myself is by listening to Ambulance LTD's "Stay Where You Are" on repeat. Great song. For some reason I also started to think about hardcore music. I got four exceptional Swiz tracks off of EMusic last night, too, including "Ghost," which totally blew my mind when I heard it in 1991. All their stuff was compiled on the posthumous release No Punches Pulled.

Apparently Ryan Pitchfork left all of Pitchforkmedia.com's business files on a public server, which some kids found and detailed in this Hipinions forum thread. Pretty interesting stuff. Apparently the Fork pulls in about $20K a month in ad sales. Epitaph has been their largest advertiser of late. Also, unfortunately, all of Schreiber's personal emails and credit card info and other stuff were publicly available. It was sort of a dick move for these guys to post all this stuff, but it makes for intersting reading.

Stereogum had a funny bit with David Cross and Eugene Mirman this week that talked about indie rock and stuff. Check it out.

Finally, Radio TeapotHill is still transitioning to its new location, and as a result I don't believe I will be webcasting this coming Tuesday. I've got a lot of great stuff lined up for the following week, however, so keep the faith.

That is all.

UPDATE: Just back from Miss Lalstar's wedding and watching the Sox struggle, down 11-6 in the 5th. What the Sox need is some rock. Here is that Swiz song, Ghost. Also, here is a great Blonde Redhead song, Violent Life. Enjoy. And if you like 'em, go buy more stuff at EMusic.com.

"She blows wide o rings through his mouth." - the lilys

Just a quick note to say it looks like I won't be rocking my webcast on Radio TeapotHill tonight. I think RTH home base is currently taking up new residence, so the transmitter is figuratively down. I will be back next week, same time, same channel. In the meantime, here are some quick hits:

StyPod gives big ups to the Lilys and has their amazing song "Ginger," from the tragically out of print "A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns," posted for a limited time. Check it out. [Scroll down].

I don't even really know what this guy is talking about, but he is fired up about hating Good Charlotte. Shit is funny.

Oh yeah, go check out Grouper.com. My homey Lee and I are trying out the app, which lets you stream and perhaps snatch music from group members' hard drives. Cool stuff.

Finally, this site takes the cake. You
Forgot Poland.

That is all.

"I could take you places, do you need a new man?" - Interpol

Monday Monday MONDAY! It was quite a pleasant long weekend. Stayed in and packed Friday for our quick jump down to Philly for Amy's cousin's wedding Saturday. Which was really very nice. The reception was at the Kimmel Center up in its roof garden, which was pretty stellar. Sunday Amy shopped while I walked around behind her, taking time to pick up Ms. John Soda's No P. Or D. at Tower. The weather was great. We whiled away the afternoon with Tito and his lady friend in Rittenhouse Square and at the Irish Pub. The wife and I dined at Mama Palma's and had after dinner drinks at this seemingly new retro-Cuban place called Alma De Cuba. Then we headed back to our room at the Westin, where we caught an episode of The Wire, which was really very, very good. So that's the wrap for the weekend. Tho I should mention being able to drink La Colombe coffee all weekend was totally the bomb.

If the Titans beat the Pack tonight, I get $92. I spose I should go check on the score. Big Yankees-Sox series. The stuff is quite exciting. Almost as exciting as the final presidential debate, which is Wednesday. Big month coming up people. Even 7th Heaven, which the wife likes to watch, was beating the voting horse tonight.

I scored a lot of great records recently. Spurred by a post by the newly revitalized Beester, I went out Thursday and scored the new Interpol record, Antics. I also got Brian Wilson's SMiLE and New Order's Power, Corruption and Lies"> (because it was on sale for $9). I don't know what people were expecting from Interpol, but people seem a little underwhelmed with the new record. I think it is great. The guitars are more reverby and shiny and Paul Banks' voice is significantly more forceful and, as a result, less textured. But the songs are great, and I recommend the record. I am a touch disappointed with SMiLE. As I think CRM said, Wilson's voice has aged and he tackles some songs in a lower register than he had on the original bootlegs. And I think some of the segments have been re-written with shinier, major chordal arrangements that gives the new version of "Child Is The Father Of The Man," for example, a joyous feel, whereas the version I have on my Salty Records release is a touch more ominous sounding. The soft quality of the bootlegs also gives the older version a different tone overall than the bootleg. Anyway, it is enjoyable, but different.

Tune in to Radio TeapotHill tomorrow night, when I will play some of all of the above. That is all.

"Don't turn away from me, I need you to hold on to."- NIN

Last night was the big VP debate for campaign 2004. It was also my weekly radio show. I've posted my playlist below. And here is some stuff about the debates.

Somewhat opposing viewpoints: Wonkette. Trosko. More on that FactCheck.com gaffe.

Anyhoo, on to the playlist. I was thinking of playing a lot of live stuff, but I ended up going heavy on the electronic stuff, since technical difficulties and the debate meant fewer listeners anyway. Still, I think the set hangs together particularly well. Check it out.

1. Ad Council - WESU PSA "Ridiculous."
2. Nine Inch Nails - Terrible Lie
3. Shellac - Wingwalker
4. Superconductor - Strip Oracle
5. The Kinks - Destroyer
6. Jawbox - I Got You Under My Skin
7. Hypo - Nice Day
8. The Unicorns - Ghost Mountain
9. The Clash - Version Pardner
10. Oval - Do While (Symbol)
11. Styrofoam - Think (Let Tomorrow Bee)
12. Keith Fullerton Whitman - Weiter
13. Me + Dave - C' Krant The Sound of the Blackberry Light
14. Morrissey - November Spawned A Monster (Live)
15. Haywood - Empty Car
16. Pink Floyd - Paint Box
17. Camper Van Beethoven - I Am Talking To This Flower
18. Devo - Head Like A Hole
19. People Under the Stairs - Acid Raindrops
20. The Low Numbers - Entertain Good Taste
21. Yo La Tengo - Decora
22. Deadbeat - Head Over Heels
23. New Order - Regret
24. Hot Hot Heat - Get In Or Get Out
25. The Feelies - Time For A Witness
26. Ted Minsky - Proportional
27. Pole - Back Home
28. Yo La Tengo - Tiny Birds
29. Andy Summers and Robert Fripp - Lakeland/Aquarelle
30. The Conet Project - tcp dl 4 phonetic alphabet nato irdial

The Sox have the bases loaded in the top of the first in game two. That is all.

"It's just a dream he keeps having, and it doesn't seem to mean anything."- Wilco

Here is one for the record books. It takes a bit of set-up, believe me, but the pay-off is worth it. So here goes: There is a music message board that is pretty nerdy but also fairly interesting called I Love Music, ILM for short. I usually check in to see what is being chatted about every workday. Anyway, they have some great posts and discussions, like this one about the best records of the '90s, and often I will be reminded of great music I once had that I should get again, etc. A couple months ago I even posted on one forum that I was looking for a specific Jawbox track, their version of "I Got You Under My Skin" that was on the "Cooling Card" CD single, from what I recall. I encountered the song while doing a summer college DJ stint at Villanova's WXVU, and I taped one of my WXVU shows (which included said song) and used it as my audition tape once I got to Wesleyan as a junior transfer. Stan Lam, the chap running Wes's WESU at the time, LOST MY AUDITION TAPE. I was very disappointed by this, as it was probably my greatest radio show ever.

We're getting close to the end I promise. Anyway, observant readers may recall my discussion of Rob Meltzer, his role in creating the Kam Fong video posted a couple months ago, and his new film I Am Stamos. This becomes important to this story. Flash forward to yesterday morning... After posting on ILM two months ago or so that I was searching for the Jawbox song, I received an email yesterday morning from a nice chap who saw my request and emailed the MP3 to me. As my man Cube says, goddamn, today was a good day. Anyway, I emailed the chap back and thanked him and asked him if I return the favor. He said no, he's cool. And that was that. Until the end of the work day yesterday when I began to suspect that this guy's name was familiar to me. So I Google him. The first hit that comes up is an IMDB listing, and the first credit on the IMDB listing is for I Am Stamos.

SO I email this guy and tell him hey are you the guy who worked on Stamos, 'cause I am down with Rob Meltzer and have been since like '90. It turns out Mr. Boyer attended film school with Rob and roomed with him, and as a result knows about all the peeps I grew up with back in RadNasty. He even remembers I gave Rob a mixtape of indie rock stuff back in like 1993, which had some cool stuff like Evan Dando's "My Divan" and another awesome Jawbox song "Paint Out The Lights" on it.

Small f'n world, right? That's just crazy. Anyway, in celebration of re-acquiring the song, here it is. I know now that you can buy it on this record. And while I am in a giving mood, here is a Torgo number for KoomDogg, called "Dull."

Speaking of the Koominator, we saw Wilco last night and they were superlative. They played cuts from the last three records and two Woody Guthrie numbers over the span of two hours. Highlights definitely include a pretty solo Nels Cline took during "Ashes of American Flags." The songs were all great, and I only regret not being seated closer to the stage. Also, I was a bit disappointed that Nels Cline's and Jim O'Rourke's efforts were not more prominent. Cline in particular was doing some amazing stuff, but it was mixed low so that Tweedy's soloing was the most prominent. As I explained to Housher, Wilco is like the Superfriends, except that musically I would say Tweedy is more on par with an Aquaman type, whereas Cline and O'Rourke are more Superman/Batman types, and as such should be given more spotlight during the shows. This is not to belittle Tweedy's songwriting, which I think is splendid. It is just that when there is the capability to go totally "nucular" on listeners' asses with your playing, it is a shame to let your biggest guns get close to the action but not fire. Anyway, enough of that. Though I would point out these tickets were the most I ever spent on a single performer, and it was well, well worth it.

The pre-show meal was fun, and we all got a chance to slag on Bush's debate performance for the prior evening. Speaking of slagging on our top executive of the land, this Onion article from this week is hysterically ironic. As the Noizers like to say, it's funny 'cause it's true.

I remembered the other day the AOL's Eric Bachmann had been in Small/Small 23. I'd just forgetten, is all. Evidence.

One other good bit of writing this week. Brian Wilson's SMiLE was released this week, and Pitchfork's review was particularly refreshing, as it was markedly free of their typical snark. Check it out.

That is all.

"I can't explain the sheepish grin in the mirror..." - Small 23

Here is the playlist from my first two-hour webcast last night:

1. Ad Council - WESU PSA "Ridiculous."
2. The Inside of the Outside/The Outside of the Inside - Echo
3. They Might Be Giants - Hey Mr. DJ I Thought You Said We Had A Deal
4. Volcano, I'm Still Exited!! - In Green
5. Xiu Xiu - Ceremony
6. The Lemonheads - Anyway
7. The Halo Bit - Stay Away For Awhile
8. Archers of Loaf - Scenic Pastures
9. Bigger Lovers - Half Richards
10. The Fall-Outs - Zombie
11. Karl Hendricks Trio - Foolish Words of a Woman in Love
12. Torgo - Hands to Ribbons (Live)
13. T.W. Walsh - Top of the Food Chain
14. Garden Variety - Clean Sheets
15. The Small Hours - Something About Coffee
16. Schneider TM - Frogstears
17. The Trouble With Sweeney - That's What I Was Wearing That Day
18. Modest Mouse - Baby Blue Sedan
19. Kam Fong - Get Behind Me (Satan)
20. Wendyfix - Ridge
21. The New Year - 18
22. Eggs - Rebuilding Europe [Request]
23. Interpol - Untitled
24. Psychedelic Furs - Until She Comes
25. Belle & Sebastian - The Model
26. Shannon Worrell - The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
27. Me + Dave - Adam's Living Room
28. Manta Ray - Speaking to Me Through My Self
29. Lambert, Hendricks and Ross - Twisted
30. Silkworm - Garden City Blues
31. Texas Is The Reason - If It's Here When We Get Back, It's Ours
32. Dinosaur Jr. - Whatever's cool With Me
33. Kptmichigan - Fon

Tune in next week for more of the same, with perhaps an extended section of live cuts.

That is all.

"Feel blind, sunshine..." - Monsterland

I'd like to heartily endorse the products and/or services of one Eli "Paperboy" Reed, a 20-year old roots-rock wunderkind who has hit the new scene at the CanTab Underground, the new incarnation of that which is below the Cantab Lounge. Reed plays the guitar like crazy, and specializes in pre-white people rock, rhythm and blues. Apparently the guy collects vintage 45s and listens to them obsessively until he learns the tracks. Then he teaches them to his band. They really are great. Dance music for cool people, similar to the programming on WMBR's superb "Backwoods" radio program -- though not the C+W stuff. Anyway, I would encourage everyone to get out and see this act.

EMusic relaunched and is offering 50 free MP3s to folks who sign up for their trial. So I spent part of my Friday night downloading records by T.W. Walsh, the Aislers Set, the Lemonheads, and various tracks from other bands. When EMusic first hit the streets in 1999 or so, their MP3s sucked, quality-wise. The EMusic MP3 of today is 192 Kbps VBR, and sounds great, so far as I can tell from the 50 free ones I got from them. Anyway, go check the new EMusic out.

Before seeing the Paperboy last night we met up with the Zozman and caught a raucous set from The Mobius Band. I have seen these guys probably a dozen times, and the last couple times I saw them they were slightly lackluster. Last night was the first time I have probably seen them in 6 months. They were excellent. Many old songs have new arrangements. Particularly benefitting from this is the song "Compass" that bass player Peter Sax sings. The cut used to lack dynamics, but has really truly blossomed into one of their stronger numbers. Drummer Noam Schatz unleashes some powerful beats, and electronic sections break up the number into more distinct sections. Also reworked is their song "Taxicab," which used to be a spacey, postrock meditation with a jarringly rhythmic conclusion that rocked like crazy. The new version, which I saw for the second time last night, inverts the descending guitar phrase and has a softer touch. The version they are playing now, which they closed their set with last night, is re-imagined as a feedback-laden, shoegazery guitar epic, similar to something like Yo La Tengo's "Blue Line Swinger." It's really quite spectacular. Make a point to see them.

Went with Jonny Surmacz Thursday night to see Zippy Milstead's Carbon Leaf. They were really on, and also are boasting new arrangements and jam sections and segues in their set. Particularly affecting was the reworked "Desperation Song." These guys are touring hard until Thanksgiving to support their new record on Vanguard. Make a point to check them out too. They have mid-October dates in Missouri and I am hoping to be able to catch them out there in the likely event we will be out there the week they are. We'll see.

Many readers will already be familiar with the transcript of Jon Stewart's appearance on Bill O' Reilly's show. For those of you who haven't read it, this is really a must-read.

Do check out this excellent web page devoted to Monsterland, the pre-Lilys/Pernice Brothers project of Thom Monahan who released a string of great records and single in the early and mid-'90s. This site has numerous MP3s, though it doesn't include my favorite Monsterland song, "At One With Time." Still, there is a lot of good stuff here, include some of the other cuts from the "At One With Time" EP. This site is an example of what is right with the Internet, in that it preserves something that otherwise might be lost into the mists of time. Or something. Anyway, check out some of the songs, particularly "Jane Wiedlin Was a Go-Go As Far As We Know."

Be sure to tune in to my next webcast, Tuesday at 9PM, at http://radio.teapothill.org -- and prepare for good things from newest RTH spinner H-Dawg from Accounts Receivable, who has not set spinning time as of yet.

That is all.

"Moonlight on your neck." - Haywood

Kool Things:

1. Troy's zombie movie Flesh Crawl. Check out the pics of the zombies on the site, the makeup is really amazing.

2. The Top 100 Philly Records of All Time.

3. HIPSTER JENGA!

4. Radio TeapotHill. Listen In. I spin music Tuesday nights. My next show will be next Tuesday, the 28th, at 9PM. My first two-hour set for RTH.

As promised, here is the playlist for my first show:

1. Ad Council PSA (WESU) - Ridiculous
2. Pavement - Starlings In the Slipstream - Brighten the Corners
3. The Coctails - Starlings - Peel
4. The Mendoza Line -Either Way You Lose - Sent Down to AA
5. The Nels Cline Singers - He Still Carries A Torch For Her - The Giant Pin
6. Polvo - Street Knowledge - Exploded Drawing
7. Destroyer - Modern Painters - This Night
8. Rob V - Shut the Fuck Up - La Affection Affection
9. The Replacements - Lookin For Ya - Unreleased
10. The Dambuilders - Colin's Heros - Encendedor!
11. Sheryl's Magnetic Aura - Making New Friends - S/T EP
12. Haywood - Ten Gallon - Unreleased
13. Small Factory - Hi Howard, I'm Back - For If You Cannot Fly
14. Spinanes - Sunday - Manos
15. American Football - Never Meant - S/T
16. The Shins - Kissing The Lipless - Chutes Too Narrow
17. Belle and Sebastian - The Boy With the Arab Strap - The Boy With the Arab Strap
18. The Wannadies - Hit - The Wannadies

That is all.

"And if I learned her language she could tell me all her dreams." - The Dambuilders

Another absolutely gorgeous Sunday. Just back from Portsmouth, NH where we spent our weekend at the biannual Firm shindig. Which involved a lot of drinking and standing around and taking taxis from the hotel where all the paralegals were stationed to the hotel where the main base of operations was located. It was nice on the whole, I met and fraternized with folks who I pass in halls everyday but never knew. It rained like hell Saturday, but that did not deter Lopez and I from getting out onto the main drag in Portsmouth and taking lunch at the Friendly Toast (this link curiously name-drops Carman's Country Kitchen in South Philly, which was close by my old pad on Ellsworth and, perhaps more notably, claimed to put the "cunt" back in "country." But I digress...). Afterwards I shuffled across Congress Street to while away the hours in what I have decided is my current favorite record store, Bullmoose Music. I bought about a half dozen records from their ample used stacks, all of which are great. Particularly The Dambuilder's Encendedor, which I had a tape of back in college but never the CD. The tape is long gone, and I am very pleased to have the disc because it is even stronger than I had remembered (It looks like some third-party at Amazon will sell it to you for $.13 -- this is likely the best deal you'll get this year on hot rock, so I suggest you take it). The band synthesized Jawbox and the Pixies and other sounds into an indie rock delight that boasted a lot of violin, which sounds zany, but it works. I saw the Dambuilders a few times around the time this record came out, once in Bethlehem, PA and once in NYC at CMJ, and they were really hot then. They got snapped up by Atlantic/TAG or something like that and released another full-length or two that I don't remember anything about. I'll have to look into it.

Also got a bunch of other good records. Hooray for me. On a related note, I plan to launch Tuesday a webcasting venture through a partnership woth Logie's Teapothill.org. Go to http://radio.teapothill.org on Tuesday nights at 10PM, where you will be able to access a Shoutcast stream of music I will be spinning for one hour. We tried the experiment out Thursday night and it works pretty well. My show complements other extant Radio Teapot Hill programming, including jazz from Topher and punk and indie from Rob. Check in now and again to see what is spinning.

Need to settle back in here. I feel like we have been away for months. Fortunately this week's trip to St. Louis appears to have been postponed, which means I can go see Carbon Leaf on Thursday and Mobius Band on Saturday. The big Wilco show is coming up too. Rockity rock rock.

That is all.

"There's no way to collapse the lung, breathing down on everyone." - Dinosaur Jr.

Getting settled back in on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. KCMO ended up being a really good time, insofar as we had to spend the workday in a conference room looking at some pretty dull stuff. We had a pretty grand Wednesday evening, starting off with free drinks in the VIP loung at the Fairmont before heading off for an expensive but just average meal. From there we bumbled over to The Beaumont Club, which books national acts but that night featured a Texas-style blues quartet, Walter Trout and The Radicals, that went real heavy on the guitar and drum solos. No joke. Full on drum solos. It was sort of nuts. As we were unable to ride the mechanical bull therein, we hoofed it over to the Grand Emporium, where we were just in time for BR-549. Who DESTROYED. They were awesome. The whole room was bouncing off the walls. As I said to the Good Doctor the other day, I always thought they were kind of a shiny tie-telecaster C+W outfit. Boy was I wrong. These guys deliver high octane rockabilly like it is going out of style, which of course it did, 21 years ago almost to the day.

Lucky us, we apparently have about five more trips to Missouri this fall to look forward to. Between that and trips to New Hampshire this weekend and PA Columbus Day weekend, things is busy.

I've rediscovered the charm of chocolate milk.

The Good Doctor supplied me with the final version of the Mendoza Line's Sent Down to AA odds and sods compilation. Just as good as the early set I have, though some of the songs are different. This is a record you can currently only get when you see them live, but lucky for you they just started a month-long tour of the states. Their new joint "Fortune" debuted at 365 on the CMJ 200, for those of you that still keep track of that sort of thing.

The other day I read about Mozilla's Firefox browser for the ten millionth time, so I have downloaded it and am using it. It works great, renders the comics on my My Yahoo! page crisply (something IE wouldn't or couldn't do), and has thwarted the burgeoning pop-up problem that has manifested itself somewhere on my computer, such that traditional pop-up software wasn't stopping the pop-ups. I am glad to stick it to The Man by using Firefox, and I recommend you all get with the program pronto.

Have spent a fair amount of time listening to Bjork's new joint "Medulla" this week, in addition to all the electronic stuff I got to review for Junkmedia last week. The Monkey has an on-point review of Medulla at JM.

Stayed in last night to re-group and finally got down to the business of ripping some 7 inches to my computer, including The Halo Bit's "Stay Away for Awhile" +2, Finger's "Ship Full of Holes" +1, Fitz of Depression's classic reading of "Jenny / 867-5309" +1 (which apparently was expanded to become
"Pigs Are People Too"), and the Parade of Homes Comp from Two Peters Records, featuring cuts from Haywood, Kim Bashing, Barnabys and my first "real" "band, Lampshade. Anyway, the Halo Bit jam is pretty great -- check it out.

The MP3 bloggers have been hyping The Arcade Fire, and I have downloaded about six cuts from their forthcoming record. Everything sounds pretty great. Go take a look around for some of that rock and roll music.

That is all.

"The shape we meant to make is gone." - Iron & Wine

Back in Cambridge for the night before jetting off to KCMO tomorrow afternoon. Had a grand time in PA, particularly at Toshio's moving-to-New-Orleans party, where in addition to chilling with T+T and Karim, I was also treated the company of Bring-The-Keg-In Geoghegan and Graziano, who both had infants in tow. Reminiscing and beer drinking ensued. Etc.

Anyhoo. I was shocked to learn through an email exchange with the Good Doctor last week that the early Lilys records are out of print and can fetch as much as $50 from Half.com. I will come out and boldly say that each of the first three Lilys records are worth this sum, but I think everyone who knows me knows that I am totally biased as the Lilys are one of my favorite bands. Anyway, this whole conversation was part of a strong sell of these records to the Doctor. I was even bold enough to just come right out and say that "Claire Hates Me" from the Slumberland release "In The Presence of Nothing" is my favorite song, hands down. And I stand behind that. So if that sort of thing interests you, download the song. And play it really, really loud.

FYI Buddyhead is still really funny. A classic comic excerpt about that nu metal producer recording the recent Cure record: "You can tell the drummer is thinking, “Dude, when you thought Korn was the next Nirvana, I had already been doing this for YEARS B*TCH! GET THE F*CK AWAY FROM ME SO I CAN RECORD MY DRUMS!”"

I may have reported this a year or two ago, as I can't imagine it slipped me when I reviewed the Scheider TM ep "6Peace", but Schneider TM was in the band Hip Young Things, which released an amazing indie rock record in the 90s called "Shrug" and were part of the so-called trash scene that also produced The Notwist. Interesting, huh?

Speaking of Schneider TM, I've just received the forthcoming Kptmichigan record. Kptmichigan plays in the live Schneider TM unit, and put out an AWESOME electronic record last year called "Player, Player." Anyway, the new record is self-titled, and frankly, it is phenomenal. This guy has shown up with a record that has grown beyond the electronic stuff he was doing to include noise, psychedelia, feedback, and more prominent vocals. The sound is definitely kind of singular, though I have read some stuff about Animal Collective and even the Liars that make it seem like it isn't a unique viewpoint right now. Anyway, I'll be reviewing that soon, as well as a new Tim Hecker and a new Keith Fullerton Whitman, both also faves of mine among the practitioners of contemporary electronic music.

That is all.

"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.