Daddy's Leaving Because He Hates You

Dungen - "Festival"
Swedish! LSD!

Mercury Rev - "Secret for a Song"
Can you stomach another Rev album? I'm not sure I can!

Out Hud - "The L Train Is a Swell Train and I Don't Want to Hear You Indies Complain"
I took the L train today! It was indeed swell!

Low - "Death of a Salesman"
Tab this for me! Is the guitar tuned to G? I'm too lazy to figure it out!

The Monkees - "For Pete's Sake"
A theme song for everyone who thinks that there is little or no difference between "Al Qaeda" and the American Neocons, that they are both incompetent, greedy fundamentalists who have no problem murdering tens of thousands of innocent people in order to impress some imaginary asshole in the sky; for everyone who, in their most optimistic moments, believes that these two clans will eventually destroy each other because they are too stupid to realize that they are fighting the same enemies -- individualism, secularism, humanism, liberalism -- and the whole fake "war on terror" means that those values are winning, and have been winning for years! Wink!

Atal-genhedlaeth

Gruff Rhys discusses his solo album (out in March in America, on my computer anytime after December 22nd), here.

Note to Self

thanx, hotcakes! ;P

Bullshit in Brief

Morrissey - You Are the Quarry
His band is still dull as shit, but our generation could use a gay Frank Sinatra, and he’s probably the kind we deserve: an impotent solipsist who’s seen too many movies.

MP3: "The Never-Played Symphonies" ("Irish Blood" b-side)

The Streets - A Grand Don't Come for Free
The “Six Feet Under” of concept albums: a stupid, melodramatric soap opera elevated by terrific performances and attention to detail.

MP3: "Empty Cans"

Wilco - A Ghost Is Born
I hear a million songs
going in two directions.
I’m sat on the needle.
You say,
How much history did we lose today
and how much was gone
before we even got here?

MP3: “Kicking Television” (Iraqi bonus track)

Happy War, Dipshits

Talking Heads - "Listening Wind" [more Talking Heads -- deal with it!]

From Yahoo! News:

Spc. Thomas Wilson had asked the defense secretary, "Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?" Shouts of approval and applause arose from the estimated 2,300 soldiers who had assembled to see Rumsfeld.

"You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can (still) be blown up," Rumsfeld said.

Merry Christmas, Dipshits

Low - "Blue Christmas"

Flaming Lips - "A Change at Christmas (Say It Isn't So)"



Graphic stolen from 1115.org.

The Less We Say About It the Better

Talking Heads - "This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)" [live]

Let's wash out the awful taste of Arcade Fire's cover of this (posted below) with the version that appeared in the film Stop Making Sense, and was included on 1999's expanded, remastered version of the soundtrack.

Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Love Bad News

(Note: Here is where I begin offering some incoherent thoughts on some of the albums that moved me (in both good and bad ways) during 2004. I encourage others to share their thoughts in the comments as well.)

I don't know if an incredibly tuneful, acid bluesy album about personal growth and the ravaging effects of romantic ideals and alcohol could have come at a better time for me. Though he occasionally lapses into cringe worthy pundom, Isaac Brock is a brilliantly poetic lyricist and ugly/beautiful slop guitarist (my hero!).

Not everyone agrees with me, but Modest Mouse live was one of the more disappointing concert experiences of my adult life. I saw them twice, and in two great venues: Hammerstein Ballroom and Radio City Music Hall. They seemed to be phoning it in on both occasions; perhaps nerves were a factor. But I imagine they'd be best enjoyed in a small, smoky dive with cheap whisky hanging in the air and cheap women on the bar.

Horrible title aside, Good News... remains one of my two or three favorite albums of this year.

MP3: "I’ve Got It All (Most)" ("Float On" b-side)

Advancing a Theme

Radiohead - "Where Bluebirds Fly"

I went to a restaurant tonight and karaoked for the first time in ages. Asia Roma is located in a part of town where sanitation workers shout "asshole" every time they empty someone's garbage.

As far as karaoke sessions go, it was absolute murder -- and I mean that in the nicest possible way. My initial attitude toward singing a song was "No fucking way." Feminine persuasions softened that to an "I'll entertain the idea," and finally to a "Where's the songbook?" I always knew I would sing, I just needed to be romanced is all.

They had my very first choice, "It's a Wonderful World," with Sam Cooke listed as the performer. When they finally called my name, I walked tall to the dim stage -- only to hear the overmodulated strains of "It's a Wonderful World" by James Taylor or some shit. An idiot, I was expecting Louis Armstrong. Not the same song at all, I assure you.

And I wasn't going to sing what I thought was a James fucking Taylor song, that’s for goddamn sure. I swore and put down the microphone, dejected. I was profoundly offended.

While sneaking a quick cigarette, I decided to pick myself up off the ground, straighten my lapel, and find something else to sing. I eventually settled on "Over the Rainbow" by Judy Garland. (Hey, get off my back; it's a nice, slow song that I can capably sing.) I soon offered the room my soulful rendition -- somewhat desperately and with a couple of bum notes, I must admit, but I believe I acquitted myself quite admirably.

The audience clapped their hands. Tears were shed, and enemies crushed. One of the employees told me that he would never again poison the air with his own singing voice. I already knew that there would be no encore. You have to leave the people wanting more.

Sharing is caring. Happy birthdays. The end.

Not a Machine

Blur - "Don't Be"

For as long as I've lived in my apartment, there's a been a crappy, hole-in-the-wall PC store on the corner. About a year ago, they gutted it out and installed an internet cafe, a shipping center, those espresso bars the kids love so goddamn much, etc. It was orange and neon and sort of beautiful, but then... nothing. It never really opened. Over the course of the last few weeks, they've taken to tearing it apart again, before even a single NYU student could write a shitty laptop poem inside of her.

Or, as Jarvis Cocker once sang, much more eloquently than I can, "You can dye your hair, but it's the one thing you can change. Can't run away from yourself."

It's all true, but I suppose that doesn't mean I can't hold contradictory thoughts in my head.

"Don't Be" is a "Crazy Beat" b-side. I have no idea what it's going on about, but it's jazz violent and jazz sad.

Radio Session Special

I must be brief today (suddenly there is so much ointment, and so little time), but I want to keep this active, so I have 2 full radio sessions from 2 of the great gay space rock acts of our time.

The Arcade Fire - In Session CBC Radio 3 (11.03.04) (zip file; 33 MB)

Tracklist:
1. No Cars Go
2. Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)
3. This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody) [Talking Heads cover]
4. Haiti
5. In the Backseat

Grandaddy - Black Session, Paris, France (6.23.03) (zip file; 73 MB)

Tracklist:
1. Hewlett's Daughter
2. I'm On Standby
3. The Group Who Couldn't Say
4. The Crystal Lake
5. "Yeah" Is What We Had
6. Aisle Seat 37-D
7. The "Go" in the "Go-for-It"
8. Laughing Stock
9. AM 180
10. Saddest Vacant Lot in All the World
11. Now It's On
12. Lost on Yer Merry Way

Listening to a Song Inside My Head

...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead - "Summer '91"

Maybe I'm just getting old, but I really don't mind watching my favorite bands mature. My tastes tend to evolve with, or be formed by, my favorite bands. With the exception of Think Tank, I like each Blur album better than the last. I was ecstatic to hear Modest Mouse sharpen their sound and arrangements on Good News for People Who Love Bad News. Same with the new Low (discussed below). And now, the same goes for ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead.

Well, to be honest, AYWKUBTTOD have never been one of my favorite bands. I saw a great, deranged, shambolic concert by them at the Knitting Factory somewhere around 2000, but wasn't too turned on by their debut, Madonna. The follow-up, Source Tags and Codes, was much more to my liking, the title track remaining one of my favorite songs by anyone. Guns n' Roses for pretentious, pseudo-intellectual pricks like me. Anyway, I like them enough to have hunted down their new album, Worlds Apart (out 1/25/05), and while I still get distracted about 3/4 of the way through, I remain floored by this song and a few others on it. I guess it appeals to both the Coldplay and the Jane's Addiction fan in me. Plus, because of the title and piano line, it reminds me of one of my favorite Pink Floyd tunes (written by keyboardist Richard Wright), "Summer '68". Very different subject matter, though.

Plus, you can't fuck with any band that records a cover of the Monkees' "Porpoise Song". Even if they are from Texas.

To recap:
AYWKUBTTOD - "Summer '91"
AYWKUBTTOD - "Porpoise Song"
Pink Floyd - "Summer '68"

Everything's Slower Today

bravecaptain - “Good Life"

In early 1997, C’mon Kids by the Boo Radleys was my favorite album, and drinking heavily was my favorite pastime (and remained so for nearly 7 more years). I was going to college in St. Paul at the time, and First Avenue (which recently closed, but has now re-opened) was where my favorite Britpop bands played, usually for 5 dollars. I saw Pulp, Radiohead, and countless others there, including the aforementioned Boos. After that show, my friends and I stumbled out of the venue only to find guitarist/songwriter Martin Carr outside having a smoke. I slurred my love for the album to him and offered to buy him a drink. He accepted, so my friends and I bought the rock star Long Island Iced Teas and shot the shit for an hour or so until someone told him he had to “get on the bus.” Just as I was wondering why the college students were paying for the rock star’s drinks (makes much more sense now), he handed me the rest of his drink comps. They were scribbled on the back of Pavement tickets. The bartender gave me dirty looks. And I nearly killed everyone on the way home. So, I can't remember all the details.

That’s my partying with the rock star story. You can ask Smokestack, he was there. Anyway, the Boo Radleys broke up in 1999 and Martin Carr has since released three good albums under the moniker bravecaptain, including this year’s All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace. “Good Life” (from that album) is a reunion of sorts, with former Boo singer Sice taking the lead vocal.