"And all the things you gave up on and other things you might have done..." - The Mendoza Line.
Odds, sods:
ILM haunter (or perhaps overlord?) Ned Ragget's April 28th posts to this thread do a good job of selling the Cure reissues, noting little slabs of brilliance hither and thither amongst the various discs. Worth wading into, fer sure.
PopText offers thoughts on and a download of the Kathleen Edwards tune she blew us away with when she performed it on Letterman a couple months back. Check it out.
Commercial terrestrial radio, still blowing it. We are surprised Infinity jumped on podcasting so quickly, but we're also skeptical that The Man can pull of something like this.
That is all.
April 28, 2005
April 27, 2005
"If there's no sense of impending danger, then there's no sense in hanging around." - Get Up Kids.
Deep thoughts on Pavement's Slow Century DVD:
1. Slanted + Enchanted and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain are the (beautiful and amazing) sounds of the youth you can never recapture.
2. Stephen Malkmus has the kind of face that looks different every time you look at it. And we don't think it is a gained weight/lost weight thing. It might be a haircut thing. But it is completely fascinating. It made watching the DVD really interesting. Perhaps not so strangely then, the rail thin 1992-era Malkmus, particularly as seen in the amazing shoegazey and powerful video for "Here," looks a lot like Lilys' Kurt Heasley of the same time period. We saw Mudhoney Saturday with the Noizers and noted that Mark Arm also has a similar sort of look -- perhaps its the nose. Though not as similar as Malkmus and Heasley of 13 years or so ago.
3. This DVD is amazing. Must purchase own copy.
Finally, according to this web site there is an "easter egg" hidden in the DVD. Must remember to check this out.
----------------------------------------------------
Picked up the new Stereolab comp yesterday during the failed attempt to get the reissue of The Cure's Faith. After watching the accompanying DVD last night, we've come to the realization, probably about 10 years after everyone else, that Laetitia Sadler is a bit of a looker, isn't she?
Great stack of promos in from Junkmedia HQ: forthcoming Notwist comp, and Colleen and Starflyer 59 discs.
That is all.
Deep thoughts on Pavement's Slow Century DVD:
1. Slanted + Enchanted and Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain are the (beautiful and amazing) sounds of the youth you can never recapture.
2. Stephen Malkmus has the kind of face that looks different every time you look at it. And we don't think it is a gained weight/lost weight thing. It might be a haircut thing. But it is completely fascinating. It made watching the DVD really interesting. Perhaps not so strangely then, the rail thin 1992-era Malkmus, particularly as seen in the amazing shoegazey and powerful video for "Here," looks a lot like Lilys' Kurt Heasley of the same time period. We saw Mudhoney Saturday with the Noizers and noted that Mark Arm also has a similar sort of look -- perhaps its the nose. Though not as similar as Malkmus and Heasley of 13 years or so ago.
3. This DVD is amazing. Must purchase own copy.
Finally, according to this web site there is an "easter egg" hidden in the DVD. Must remember to check this out.
----------------------------------------------------
Picked up the new Stereolab comp yesterday during the failed attempt to get the reissue of The Cure's Faith. After watching the accompanying DVD last night, we've come to the realization, probably about 10 years after everyone else, that Laetitia Sadler is a bit of a looker, isn't she?
Great stack of promos in from Junkmedia HQ: forthcoming Notwist comp, and Colleen and Starflyer 59 discs.
That is all.
April 26, 2005
"If you open your mouth I can't be held responsible..." - The Cure.
According to this post at ILM, The Glove's Blue Sunshine will be reissued and expanded within the context of The Cure reissues that are currently in the offing. We sold our copy of Blue Sunshine a long time ago, but maybe, just maybe, we'll be compelled enough to purchase the re-issue. We don't know why. Besides "This Green City" and "Like An Animal" we can't really recall getting much out of the record. Guess we're just hopeless optimists. In related news, the reissue of Faith streeted today, as did the revamped 17 Seconds and Pornography. That's a quick way to blow through about $70, innit? Well, not exactly. We strolled over to the Newbury Comics at Government Center today at 2:15PM EST and they were sold out of all three releases that came out today. They were going to be restocked by this evening, so no harm done. But we were really surprised at the demand.
While searching for info about the BOLD reunion we came across this news item that states that the Judge and Bold discographies will see re-release in late June. So perhaps we'll just wait for the realio dealios to hit the racks again and buy retail. More about it here.
In case you live under a rock and don't read Stereogum, here is a link to an animated video for Arcade Fire's "Neighborhood #3." It is pretty intense, although you will wish that it was a little bigger.
Bradley's Almanac tips us off that in a month Ryko will release a James Kochalka Superstar DVD. Kochalka is an old WESU favorite, the man behind the ridiculous song "Magic Finger."
Vinyl Journey/Vinyl Mine (which is it, anyway?) revisits the first Squirrel Bait record and has some good things to say about it, nerddom and revenge. There are really good links accompanying the piece, too.
Chromewaves points us to the trailer for the forthcoming Flaming Lips documentary Fearless Freaks.
Indie Kids is back and operational. Resume reading it.
Indie Workshop reports that Slint is auctioning off the gear they used during the recent reunion tour. To us this seems somewhat akin to cutting up the tree that fell on your father, but we don't know why it strikes us that way.
In case Scenestars' NIN album stream goes down, you can catch it here at the NIN MySpace hizzy. Since we're already basically reprinting The Gum's material, anyway. H-Dawg from Accounts Receivable sent us a link to information about Reznor's offering up the component parts of some of the songs from the record for fans to remix using Apple's Garageband app. Check it out.
Coming Up: Thoughts on Pavement's Slow Century; Small 23; June of 44.
That is all.
According to this post at ILM, The Glove's Blue Sunshine will be reissued and expanded within the context of The Cure reissues that are currently in the offing. We sold our copy of Blue Sunshine a long time ago, but maybe, just maybe, we'll be compelled enough to purchase the re-issue. We don't know why. Besides "This Green City" and "Like An Animal" we can't really recall getting much out of the record. Guess we're just hopeless optimists. In related news, the reissue of Faith streeted today, as did the revamped 17 Seconds and Pornography. That's a quick way to blow through about $70, innit? Well, not exactly. We strolled over to the Newbury Comics at Government Center today at 2:15PM EST and they were sold out of all three releases that came out today. They were going to be restocked by this evening, so no harm done. But we were really surprised at the demand.
While searching for info about the BOLD reunion we came across this news item that states that the Judge and Bold discographies will see re-release in late June. So perhaps we'll just wait for the realio dealios to hit the racks again and buy retail. More about it here.
In case you live under a rock and don't read Stereogum, here is a link to an animated video for Arcade Fire's "Neighborhood #3." It is pretty intense, although you will wish that it was a little bigger.
Bradley's Almanac tips us off that in a month Ryko will release a James Kochalka Superstar DVD. Kochalka is an old WESU favorite, the man behind the ridiculous song "Magic Finger."
Vinyl Journey/Vinyl Mine (which is it, anyway?) revisits the first Squirrel Bait record and has some good things to say about it, nerddom and revenge. There are really good links accompanying the piece, too.
Chromewaves points us to the trailer for the forthcoming Flaming Lips documentary Fearless Freaks.
Indie Kids is back and operational. Resume reading it.
Indie Workshop reports that Slint is auctioning off the gear they used during the recent reunion tour. To us this seems somewhat akin to cutting up the tree that fell on your father, but we don't know why it strikes us that way.
In case Scenestars' NIN album stream goes down, you can catch it here at the NIN MySpace hizzy. Since we're already basically reprinting The Gum's material, anyway. H-Dawg from Accounts Receivable sent us a link to information about Reznor's offering up the component parts of some of the songs from the record for fans to remix using Apple's Garageband app. Check it out.
Coming Up: Thoughts on Pavement's Slow Century; Small 23; June of 44.
That is all.
April 25, 2005
"Hurry up, hurry up, hurry." - Fudge.
Holy crap, New York Hardcore behemoths Bold reformed and just played two reunion shows. A little blurb and some MP3s, including the excellent "Nailed to the X," are here at the R5 Productions site [scroll down to April 23rd]. As Catbirdseat points out, the R5 page is excellent in that it has a lot of MP3s, so make sure to snoop around. That said, guess it's time to dig out C. Jones' hand-screened BOLD T. [UPDATE: I can't believe it, the Bold post has already rotated off the R5 page and we hadn't grabbed the MP3s. Damn. Well, back to searching EBay.]
You can stream the new NIN record over at Scenestars. We did. It is pretty good. We kind of gave up on the band after The Downward Spiral because Reznor's lyrics were always in the same meter and it got to the point where you could pretty much predict what would come out of his mouth next because of the obvious and strict adherence to rhyme scheme. So, besides a cursory listen to The Fragile, this is the first time we've paid attention to NIN in about a decade. And we're glad we've come around again. Reznor's seems to have shed his predilection for sounding mercilessly heavy, and that makes this record incredibly listenable.
Tiny Mix Tapes has the shizzy on the Stereolab box set that drops this week. We've been snooping around for a copy of The Noise of Carpet EP, perhaps we'll just bite the bullet and buy this comp instead, as it includes TNOC and so much more. Or maybe we'll just continue to be cheap bastards and keep searching for the EP.
Here's a really funny show flyer for a Joey Sweeney show. We don't know whether it is Sweeney making fun of himself (which would be brilliant) or others making fun of Sweeney. But the quotes from various publications are GOLD. My favorite is Crewcial.org's typically brutal promise: "We're going to stab him in the face."
So how about a song then? Deep in the dark recesses of all things Lilys are some obscure notations of wondrous things one cannot get one's hands on. Like tracking the Ark of the Covenant or the Holy Grail, there are only mysterious texts to guide us or to suggest the existence of certain items we would be very, very excited to lay hands on. Such as the several videos noted at the bottom of this Lilys discography. Or recordings referred to as The Station Tapes or Lilys in 1992. One thing that seems like it may be easier to turn up one day is the Simple Machines Records Neapolitan Metropolitan triple 7" box set (on colored vinyl, natch). We hope to acquire this set one day, but in the meantime we often enjoy listening to a rip of a cassette dub of one of the songs, Fudge's "Montpelier Train." According to the FAQ at the Lilys fan site, there is some linkage way back between the Lilys and Fudge, and the site's information points to a double 7" on Brilliant Records as one of the earliest Kurt Heasley compositions. Yet another thing to search out. Anyhoo, enjoy "Montpelier Train."
Speaking of old relatively D.C.-oriented rock, here are some pictures of Eggs practicing for the Teenbeat reunion show they played. Wish we'd been there. More about Eggs here. This page pointed us to Rob Christiansen's band's page, which pointed us the these Wimp Factor 14 MP3s! We'd be substantially happier to find MP3s from the Vehicle Flips' "In Action," but this does a good job of filling that hole.
That is all.
Holy crap, New York Hardcore behemoths Bold reformed and just played two reunion shows. A little blurb and some MP3s, including the excellent "Nailed to the X," are here at the R5 Productions site [scroll down to April 23rd]. As Catbirdseat points out, the R5 page is excellent in that it has a lot of MP3s, so make sure to snoop around. That said, guess it's time to dig out C. Jones' hand-screened BOLD T. [UPDATE: I can't believe it, the Bold post has already rotated off the R5 page and we hadn't grabbed the MP3s. Damn. Well, back to searching EBay.]
You can stream the new NIN record over at Scenestars. We did. It is pretty good. We kind of gave up on the band after The Downward Spiral because Reznor's lyrics were always in the same meter and it got to the point where you could pretty much predict what would come out of his mouth next because of the obvious and strict adherence to rhyme scheme. So, besides a cursory listen to The Fragile, this is the first time we've paid attention to NIN in about a decade. And we're glad we've come around again. Reznor's seems to have shed his predilection for sounding mercilessly heavy, and that makes this record incredibly listenable.
Tiny Mix Tapes has the shizzy on the Stereolab box set that drops this week. We've been snooping around for a copy of The Noise of Carpet EP, perhaps we'll just bite the bullet and buy this comp instead, as it includes TNOC and so much more. Or maybe we'll just continue to be cheap bastards and keep searching for the EP.
Here's a really funny show flyer for a Joey Sweeney show. We don't know whether it is Sweeney making fun of himself (which would be brilliant) or others making fun of Sweeney. But the quotes from various publications are GOLD. My favorite is Crewcial.org's typically brutal promise: "We're going to stab him in the face."
So how about a song then? Deep in the dark recesses of all things Lilys are some obscure notations of wondrous things one cannot get one's hands on. Like tracking the Ark of the Covenant or the Holy Grail, there are only mysterious texts to guide us or to suggest the existence of certain items we would be very, very excited to lay hands on. Such as the several videos noted at the bottom of this Lilys discography. Or recordings referred to as The Station Tapes or Lilys in 1992. One thing that seems like it may be easier to turn up one day is the Simple Machines Records Neapolitan Metropolitan triple 7" box set (on colored vinyl, natch). We hope to acquire this set one day, but in the meantime we often enjoy listening to a rip of a cassette dub of one of the songs, Fudge's "Montpelier Train." According to the FAQ at the Lilys fan site, there is some linkage way back between the Lilys and Fudge, and the site's information points to a double 7" on Brilliant Records as one of the earliest Kurt Heasley compositions. Yet another thing to search out. Anyhoo, enjoy "Montpelier Train."
Speaking of old relatively D.C.-oriented rock, here are some pictures of Eggs practicing for the Teenbeat reunion show they played. Wish we'd been there. More about Eggs here. This page pointed us to Rob Christiansen's band's page, which pointed us the these Wimp Factor 14 MP3s! We'd be substantially happier to find MP3s from the Vehicle Flips' "In Action," but this does a good job of filling that hole.
That is all.
April 23, 2005
"Nothing is forever, and our efforts can go to waste." - Embrace.
Rain falls on Cambridge.
A discussion of the method: As we've alluded to here often, an ongoing project we are working on is obtaining CD or digital versions of "important" songs or records that we currently only have on cassette. The definition of important, of course, is subjective. But one good barometer of importance is garnering a coveted spot on a mixtape. We've got scores of old mixes sitting around in boxes, and their track listings are fertile ground for ideas of things we'd like to rescue from obscurity. Now that we live in such a glorious digital age, acquiring some of the material is fairly easy, as we noted previously in our post about how EMusic now has some seven-inches available for digital download now. So Hurl's My Pal God singles: easy. Embrace's "Last Song," which appeared on quite a few mixes: easy, now that ITunes has it. We downloaded it this morning and are rocking out to it now.
But poring over mixtapes has presented us with some formidable challenges, too. Where to get a copy of Bethlehem, PA's The Original Sins' "Rise," let along the entire Self Destruct record it came from? And what of material we hardly knew anything about in the first place, more than a decade ago? Of course, Google has proved invaluable in this effort. Case in point: Who the hell were the Primitive Painters? What was the name of the record that servicable, if not a little wimpy, songs like "Okay," "Something Snaps" and "Different" came from? Where did the band come from? Where did they go? Well, here are all the answers. Thanks, Internets!
The band, apparently one of the 129 greatest O.C. bands ever [this list at first glance does not include Uniform Choice, who should appear at #1, and therefore this list blows], was from Orange County, California. They released their debut full-length "Dirtclods" in 1992 on an English indie, tooled around for a couple more years, and then broke up. The band has recently reformed and written and released a new EP. I think AllMusic's non-interest in the band probably is a reasonable estimation of the band's overall place in the world of music. But still, in the supposed digital age, the excuses for material being unavailable for weirdos like us to track down and purchase are getting fewer and fewer.
--------------------------------------------------------
The WFMU blog points us to this amazing animated cartoon at the Hitachi web site that re-interprets an old School House Rock! episode to explain a 10-fold increase in memory capacity it has developed for its hard drives. Unexpectedly wildly amusing.
We can't wait until this technology is available to consumers.
That is all.
Rain falls on Cambridge.
A discussion of the method: As we've alluded to here often, an ongoing project we are working on is obtaining CD or digital versions of "important" songs or records that we currently only have on cassette. The definition of important, of course, is subjective. But one good barometer of importance is garnering a coveted spot on a mixtape. We've got scores of old mixes sitting around in boxes, and their track listings are fertile ground for ideas of things we'd like to rescue from obscurity. Now that we live in such a glorious digital age, acquiring some of the material is fairly easy, as we noted previously in our post about how EMusic now has some seven-inches available for digital download now. So Hurl's My Pal God singles: easy. Embrace's "Last Song," which appeared on quite a few mixes: easy, now that ITunes has it. We downloaded it this morning and are rocking out to it now.
But poring over mixtapes has presented us with some formidable challenges, too. Where to get a copy of Bethlehem, PA's The Original Sins' "Rise," let along the entire Self Destruct record it came from? And what of material we hardly knew anything about in the first place, more than a decade ago? Of course, Google has proved invaluable in this effort. Case in point: Who the hell were the Primitive Painters? What was the name of the record that servicable, if not a little wimpy, songs like "Okay," "Something Snaps" and "Different" came from? Where did the band come from? Where did they go? Well, here are all the answers. Thanks, Internets!
The band, apparently one of the 129 greatest O.C. bands ever [this list at first glance does not include Uniform Choice, who should appear at #1, and therefore this list blows], was from Orange County, California. They released their debut full-length "Dirtclods" in 1992 on an English indie, tooled around for a couple more years, and then broke up. The band has recently reformed and written and released a new EP. I think AllMusic's non-interest in the band probably is a reasonable estimation of the band's overall place in the world of music. But still, in the supposed digital age, the excuses for material being unavailable for weirdos like us to track down and purchase are getting fewer and fewer.
--------------------------------------------------------
The WFMU blog points us to this amazing animated cartoon at the Hitachi web site that re-interprets an old School House Rock! episode to explain a 10-fold increase in memory capacity it has developed for its hard drives. Unexpectedly wildly amusing.
We can't wait until this technology is available to consumers.
That is all.
April 20, 2005
"One day I am gonna grow wings, a chemical reaction." - Radiohead.
Briefly then:
Stereogum has Radiohead's September 11, 2001 show posted, but the transfer is painfully slow.
Frank Chromewaves loved M83's live show. CRM did not love M83's live show.
Wolk works on defining the very slippery phenomenon known as Rockism.
That is all.
Briefly then:
Stereogum has Radiohead's September 11, 2001 show posted, but the transfer is painfully slow.
Frank Chromewaves loved M83's live show. CRM did not love M83's live show.
Wolk works on defining the very slippery phenomenon known as Rockism.
That is all.
April 19, 2005
"Love everybody, it's alright." - MantaRay.
So we promised some discussion of MantaRay, the longtime Philadelphia power-pop combo comprised of a core trio of Radnasty alumni, and now apparently featuring erstwhile Kam Fong drummer Mike Boran on guitar as well. The act is fronted by Erik Evol, and the rhythm section (last we checked) was comprised of able rockers Chris Hate and Mitch Joy. There are two proper MantaRay releases, MantaRay Gives The World Away [scroll down] and The Betty Poperetta, and apparently there are hundreds of unreleased songs, as well. You know how Clicky Clicky goes nuts for the unreleased stuff. Anyhoo, the MantaRay web site went dead some time back, but we've catalogued some related links in an earlier post that we can't find now. A short trip to Google will provide you with pretty much all there is to know available in the public sphere.
MantaRay's live act was really strong, and the band had a lot of fun running all their songs together into various "chunks" which were interspersed with Hendricks-esque (at least in theory, if not in execution, not to take anything away from the band) electric seques that were pretty remarkable to experience. From 400 miles away it is pretty hard to figure out what is up with the band, but we are pleased to hear they are still gigging. Anyone who might have any unreleased recordings of the band feel free to get in touch.
Betty Poperetta was recorded primarily at Kam Fong's Anti-Studio in Norristown, PA, and we are fortunate to have a few cuts on hand that didn't make it onto the record, including the band's popular, or at least once quite popular, "Saturday (Norristown)." The version offered here is different than the couple arrangements the band used live in the dozens of times we saw them. This version in particular shines the spotlight on former Fugitive of Funk multi-instrumentalist Ernie Whyte's sax playing. Enjoy.
--------------------------------------------------------
Bob Mould links to an article about the death of dynamic range, something the Noizers and we discussed earlier this month at Brighaaaam's. A really illuminating piece. "Thus, when aggressive peak clipping is used, the record company is DESTROYING part of the music."
We've heard the Bloc Party record, and we like it. We hate when the hype is even just partly justified. Same thing happened to us with The Futureheads. Elsewhere: the new White Stripes single sounds like The Darkness. The new Okkervil River tune posted recently at Fluxblog or thereabouts is really good.
We've been remiss in noting that the Farmhands' web site has launched. It is still sort of in beta, but it gives a sense of what the band is about. The site has three MP3s, have a listen why don't you?
Brighaaaam has added a blog, errr, non-blog, to the place where Dave Brigham meets Dot Com. A good place to go for ruminations from a fan of Slidemyfavoritelocalbandslide, Phantom Tollbooth, M.D.C. and the like.
That is all.
So we promised some discussion of MantaRay, the longtime Philadelphia power-pop combo comprised of a core trio of Radnasty alumni, and now apparently featuring erstwhile Kam Fong drummer Mike Boran on guitar as well. The act is fronted by Erik Evol, and the rhythm section (last we checked) was comprised of able rockers Chris Hate and Mitch Joy. There are two proper MantaRay releases, MantaRay Gives The World Away [scroll down] and The Betty Poperetta, and apparently there are hundreds of unreleased songs, as well. You know how Clicky Clicky goes nuts for the unreleased stuff. Anyhoo, the MantaRay web site went dead some time back, but we've catalogued some related links in an earlier post that we can't find now. A short trip to Google will provide you with pretty much all there is to know available in the public sphere.
MantaRay's live act was really strong, and the band had a lot of fun running all their songs together into various "chunks" which were interspersed with Hendricks-esque (at least in theory, if not in execution, not to take anything away from the band) electric seques that were pretty remarkable to experience. From 400 miles away it is pretty hard to figure out what is up with the band, but we are pleased to hear they are still gigging. Anyone who might have any unreleased recordings of the band feel free to get in touch.
Betty Poperetta was recorded primarily at Kam Fong's Anti-Studio in Norristown, PA, and we are fortunate to have a few cuts on hand that didn't make it onto the record, including the band's popular, or at least once quite popular, "Saturday (Norristown)." The version offered here is different than the couple arrangements the band used live in the dozens of times we saw them. This version in particular shines the spotlight on former Fugitive of Funk multi-instrumentalist Ernie Whyte's sax playing. Enjoy.
--------------------------------------------------------
Bob Mould links to an article about the death of dynamic range, something the Noizers and we discussed earlier this month at Brighaaaam's. A really illuminating piece. "Thus, when aggressive peak clipping is used, the record company is DESTROYING part of the music."
We've heard the Bloc Party record, and we like it. We hate when the hype is even just partly justified. Same thing happened to us with The Futureheads. Elsewhere: the new White Stripes single sounds like The Darkness. The new Okkervil River tune posted recently at Fluxblog or thereabouts is really good.
We've been remiss in noting that the Farmhands' web site has launched. It is still sort of in beta, but it gives a sense of what the band is about. The site has three MP3s, have a listen why don't you?
Brighaaaam has added a blog, errr, non-blog, to the place where Dave Brigham meets Dot Com. A good place to go for ruminations from a fan of Slidemyfavoritelocalbandslide, Phantom Tollbooth, M.D.C. and the like.
That is all.
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