Well the new year is almost upon on and with that comes our annual Christmas show with some mirth. Really mostly rock but in Show #24 Some Holiday Cheer we got covered with new tunes by No Age, Trail of Dead, Young Widows. Plus local NJ music by an old band from Westfield called Animation. Buzzkill New Brunswick, New stuff by the Eastern Anchors and Transilvia. Add to that a bunch of Xmas stuff mixed in.
Hey so Eastern Anchors are about to drop anchors on our shores as they dock up at Trax East and begin the mastering process for the full length debut. The sirens are talking and it may include LP version. If you like trail of dead, sonic youth, hot snakes, hum or poster children chances are these mates are right up your alley. For a few ale swilling downloads grab some free tracks from last.fm. The album has been a long time coming.
Nothing better to raise the holiday spirits than getting a memo from the touch and go folks letting me know that The Jesus Lizard is going to get back together to make some lute on tour from us middle aged punx. As part of the conspiracy T&G is going to re-release Head, Goat, Liar, and Down. Four alternative rock classics from the 90's. To make the audio attack believable Albini and Weston will be involved in the mastering process. The original line-up of the Howling David Yow, the Denison metalic guitar sounds backed with their back-beat section driving the band with Wm. Sims on bass and McNeilly's mechanic like drums in this endeavor. If you've ever been to a show where it was one big fun swirling mess alla "boilermaker" or "7 vs 8", you are in for a swell treat. We might break skull or pull a muscle but it's gonna be fuckin' fun as all hell.
Get some sample music: The Jesus Lizard on hype non standard | T&G Band site |
Photo by: derek vonessen
The time has come to order the Flaming Lips Christmas on Mars DVD is now available. In true Wayne Wonka Coyne style there are 10 golden tickets inside the popcorn box that gets you into their new years eve party in Oklahoma City this year. Sorry no boobie lady comes with the popcorn made by all super heroes and animals in Flaming Lips factory but you do get a bumper sticker and T-shirt. I am excited and can't wait to enjoy this flick that is 7 years in the making. Scene stealer interview >>
Dear Bazillionaires, With all money to burn in this economy i think it would be prudent that you bought me a gift with your winnings at the AIG Las Vegas get-away. Neiman Marcus has an exclusive set of 7" forty-fives from Billboard Top 100® Rock and Pop charts from Jan. 1, 1955, through Dec. 31, 1990 for sale for this holiday season as part of their crazy holiday gifts ideas bag. Since I am paying for this anyway with my taxes, i figure i might as well get a little something something from you this year in the form of collectables. It will take us a while to listen to these so we might have to go on a sky trip or something where can throw a dance party by the fire listening to Jimi, Janis and Smokey Robinson. There are some 18,400 records total and some are even autographed by the Artists. I will supply the turn-tables! Thanks.
Sir Ben Kingsley STOMPS into the shoes of Minor Threat's Ian MacKaye from Mean Magazine on Vimeo. You know an actor has class when he has no problem trying to act like he is 16 all over again. Funny idea for a Mean Mag promo video. Get some Minor Threat music and mosh or whatever it is the kids are doing these days: Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White | I Don't want to hear it | Think Again | Filler
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New Jersey has been producing great music for some time. In fact we will grandstand here and say all the fools who move to newborklyn or la to "make it" or be entertained are retards. Stuyvesant is all parts equipped with punk veterans and can keep the attention of any special needs kids who needs to be spoon fed their music. Sometimes sounding like the west coast and other times packing that NJ edge makes Stuyvesant's latest tasty album release on Manual Phono unlike the acquired taste of a Fishmilk shake. I kid them because I think I've known a couple of them for more than 10 years (Yikes! we're fuckin old) so it is hard to be an ass and be constructive at the same time so I can only tell it like it is my brothers. So lets start with Linden Callings artwork shall we? I love it, nobody takes the time anymore to make stuff look cool, as if were handled with care, in particular if you are comic book fan the Boy Howdy tv illustration is killer(which you can get from their site stuyvesantrock.com i think). The lyrics here won't win a Pulitzer but if there were a rock lyrics award Ralph Malanga (formerly of Footstone) would be in the running for story telling and fitting large amounts of syllables in 3 minute pop-punk marvels that don't need to studio pro-tool polish most bands hide behind these days. Plus,there are only three chords required to rock and this records proves the point. Their music shows their fan dome for the likes of Social D, Ted Leo, Mats and the Decendents ,etc,etc, blah, blah. Hats off to some of the song names but these are the stand-out tracks: "Liars Poker", "Tape Hiss", "forgotten two" and "Salieri". Enjoy.
While this has been a busy summer full of local festivals; it is sad to say that the spoils of summer have not been as plentiful as recent memory serves. Show #23 has been changed several times and then there was the Peecee blow out where the most recent playlists were lost to the ether. Now Fall is upon me like the doom of winter and I have to get it in gear. To abide by my self-imposed deadline here is a quick playlist with some mp3 links to said tunes (ethical or not). Enjoy:
1) The Young Knifes of Superabundance with "Turn Tail" - I stumbled on this and if said hey radiohead what would your music sound like if you were 20 years younger when you made the Bends. This is what it would sound like.
2) Idaho from the Forbidden EP "The Thick and the Thin" (mp3via sneakmove)- I am late comer to Jeff Martin's music, so it is all new to me. Very ethereal soundscape material no wonder he mostly does soundtracks for movies.
3) British Sea Power from Do You Like Rock Music? brought "Waving Flags" - Trance guitars and shoe gazers geeks who apparently speak their own language. Subscribe to their newsletter and you will see what I mean.
4) Bruce Springsteen's "Girls in their summer clothes" - Probably the best song from this past year. Really captures the essence of the title and reminds of the jersey shore hook line and sinker.
5) Cloud Cult "Everybody Here Is A Cloud" via their album Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes)
(from Fuel Friends) Has this new pornographer/arcade fire, shins vibe that I dig.
6) The Roadside Graves brought me the best title for a song called "Lot Lizards Ain't Lip Kissers" via Pop Headwound from a Sort of Dylanesque vocals; totally alt country with a hippie lemon-lime twist. Also check out the shit kicking drum dirge "Ruby". Good stuff fellers. You make Jersey proud.
Update: Summer 2009 playlist go here!
This years Music fest in Cranford NJ put on by the County Freeholders and sponsored by a myriad of corporate sponsors including the love hope and strength cancer foundation was a very ambitious undertaking. Complete with two nights and three stages. Day 2 suffered from lots of excess rain from the hurricanes. I could not got go to day 1 because I was working and totally tired on Friday night but did manage to catch the first half of Day 2 before the torrents of water. We made sure to get there right after nap time first to catch Dan Zanes & Friends along with every other cool parent in the area. Former Del Fuegos guitarist has morphed into this folk rock niche without being too corny that with his real target audience being me. He played a bunch of tracks from his new album Neuvo York with lots spanish versed songs. All good btw. If you have kids and they remotely like music this performer is for you. Their set time worked out perfectly at 11 AM and then the clouds started to hint of what was to come even though Zanes tried to make it go away with some voodoo. Next up on the 3rd stage was New Brunswick's Roadside Graves who performed after some BMX'ers. Yes, dudes doing these flips on their bikes over a large ramp. Quite impressive I must admit but sadly the crowd of kids dispersed before RG's set. Not sure if it was their crowd and it was kind of wierd having a rock stage tucked away by bathrooms. The bands best moment was at the end when they sounded more like the Stones and less like this washed out version of Jack Johnson if there could be such a thing. I've seen them play better at the court tavern but alas not easy to command a festival crowd.
The highlight was Mike Peters from the Alarm playing with the NJ symphony Orchestra. Every classic Alarm song was smooth and reached a couple moving points when Mike referenced his own fight with cancer and 20 years of marriage to his wife. His voiced sounded as good as it ever has and it was great to see him perform in front of tons of dedicated old school fans in the spirit of 76'. Can't wait till next year and hope there is no rain to spoil the show.
The strict state of rock is always trying to re-invent the storyline where the county lines have been defined for quite some time. To get your six string on and give it something new is as hard as making new octave chords out of the three that exist. The first three tracks on this record totally sound like the timber of Springsteen and music of some Southern Californian band holed up in the same apartment for a few years. The advantage for new bands is there are so many recent tenets who have come before in literature or Music who are the hometown mayors and pioneers as Bruce is to Asbury, as alliteration is to Tom Robbins and well punk is to the power chord. The good news is there are plenty of people to borrow from and bads news it just hard to be truly original. When you boil it down; the references are easy to hear if your record collection goes deep down to the marrow. Making the twists and turns your own from the scene around you is the trick and this is what they seem to do. The 59 Sound by The Gaslight Anthem is transparent and derivative for somebody like me but brand new for the next generation of music lovers. For execution style and in the singing at audience dept they deliver on just about the same plain as classic rock of The Hold Steady and best that Jersey has to offer these days. Real stuff exists in these lyrics and only gets into trouble from my pov when they try to be too accessible and take the first exit off the turnpike. They don't break too many rock rules too much; borrowing from pop-culture but hey who am I to complain. I keep playing the record and listening so they are doing their job right. I am not bored and enjoy catching the bits and pieces of other songs I like so all is good here fellers. Fallon's band rocks. 3+ thumbs up. Check them out on Emusic | Download The Backseat | The '59 Sound
Other great New Jersey Bands you should be aware of:
Aviso'Hara - Sonic youth and flaming lips inspired - Last.fm | Emusic
Boss Jim Gettys - Big rock alla Nirvana and Green Day but snazzier - Zoommoozik
Eastern Anchors - Trail of dead with Hum peppered inside - Last.fm
The Slow Wire - Pixies mixed with some GBV goes along way - Last.Fm
There are a lot more.
Pretty good interview with Craig Finn from The Hold Steady interview from mog.com talks candidly about the first records he bought, seeing the replacements and growing up. Their new album Stay Postive is out now and pretty good. See them on tour now.
The mighty Ff from Brooklyn, Stuyvesant, No Pasaran! and the Eastern Anchors are going to grace Maxwells with their presence on Sat Aug 30th for FREE!
We are a couple weeks away from the anual Union County Music Fest in NJ. This year's show has a couple local bands actually from Jersey who are not interantional super stars including Val Emmich and The Roadside Graves. The big headliners are Everclear and cracker on Fri 9/5 and The B52's and Gin Blossoms On Sat 9/6. For the kids Saturday at 11Am is Dan Zanes! Very cool. Last years show was pretty good with Fountains of Wayne and the addition of a beer garden. Bring your own food and cooler with mixed drinks to save a few bucks. The kids area was really fun last year and I can't wait to let my daughter run around.
Man Radiohead managed to redeem the line to get into the line to get into the line at All Points West. They put on an intense performance and sounded amazing. Thank g*d for the close up monitors. They were the only band besides the wall of sound by the astonishing the Black Angels we were able to enjoy. We skipped the Roots to get something to eat, piss and drink. If they had a justifiable mix it would have been really awesome.
Firstly, there was a 5 beer limit per visitor and I am not sure how I humanly could have drank more when you considered the time needed to stand in line. The show was attended by 70,000+ music fans who apparently are all eco-friendly (see dumpter plastic pic below) and love cramming in public transit together, love to stand in lines to take a pee and miss half of the music. Sure us late to get going should have gotten there 3 hours earlier but why or how would we know that we would spend half the day waiting in line from 4pm on? Seriously by the end of the radiohead show i thought my bladder was going to explode and was thankful for having figured out where the shortest lines were. Sort of an expert strategist when given a proper map. Starting to see a trend here.? I hope next year they make some improvements with the ticket line to get in and give the damn beer garden drinkers a monitor to enjoy the rock music.
It has been a long time since I have had this cassette kicking around, and I am sure Jhon Thumb has a better version somewhere of these tunes but the other day I took the time to post 7 tunes by the New Brunswick, NJ band Mr. Thumb on last.fm. The band played with Barkmarket, Nude Swirl, Mule, and whole bunch of other nameless national acts. The music can best be described as classic prog grunge. I would start with Flowers Are not Evil
and work my way back-up. Enjoy!
Former drummer Alum included: Ken Devoe, Gregor, Dave Rosenberg(aka D Crayola from Deadguy/Lifetime/Transiliva) and bunch of other dudes I can't remember their names- about 3 others. You know who you are.
Former singers: Bil Weis (trax east album) and Karl Munzel (This time it is gonna fuckin' hurt ep)
Bass: Yours truly D Buzz
Guitar/vox: Jhon Thumb
In other blogosphere news:
There are some eastern anchors trax posted on MS which were recently recorded at Moonlight Mile in Hoboken. The anchors are also slated to play a free show at Maxwells Sat Aug 30th w/ Brooklyn's Ff, Stuyvesant and No Pasaran! Rock.
The time has come where every small town garage band can get paid directly by advertising depending on songs played directly on last.fm by their Artist Royalty program! (Not download)I didn't believe it at first when announced this past January but only time will tell when the first reports come in this October. This is a huge leap for music fans supporting their favorite artists. Caveat is you don't belong to a online collection company that has the online rights and you must own world wide distribution. I'm no lawyer but I think US $10.00 @ .005 a play is 200,000 plays? That is a lot of ad revenue or page views! So start listening to stuff online as much you like.
Start playing and get some Free music by:
The smooth indie rock sounds of The Slow Wire
The almighty noise rock anthems by Aviso'Hara | Own it on Emusic
The old-skool classic jersey alt-punk-rock of Psychic Fair
Albini produced and tweaked indie rock of Bubblegum Thunder
Brought to you by your fine friends from Headphone Music Recordings.
Here is the payment terms fine print:
>for the free radio service, 10% of the Share of Last.fm’s Net Revenue from the free radio service.
for the personalised premium radio service, the greater of 10% of the Share of Last.fm’s Net Revenue from the personalised radio service or US $0.0005 for each complete transmission on the personalised radio service of a track which forms part of Your Content transmitted on the Last.fm service.
>for the free on-demand service, 30% of the Share of Last.fm’s Net Revenue from the free on-demand service.
>for the premium on-demand service, the greater of 30% of the Share of Last.fm’s Net Revenue from the premium on-demand service or US $0.005 for each complete transmission on the prepaid or subscription on-demand service of a track which forms part of Your Content transmitted on the Last.fm service.
The main batch of tickets for the show are "sold out" but River will be distributing unclaimed tickets 9AM the morning of the concert in Battery Park this July 4th. As part of WFMU's 50th Anniversay celebration freebie concert series. Both bands are legendary in their own rights. If you stop by the tent the FMU djs will give you the poster. Just give em' a donation. Bootleggers, shut-ins and out of towners be ready; Sonic Youth's set will be broadcast live on wfmu.org around 4:45 EST.
From WFMU's free mp3 archives here are some selects:
New Bomb Turks - So Long, Silver Lining [mp3]
Strapping Fieldhands - In the Pineys
Food For Animals w/ Faust - Planet Say
EXRA TREATS:: Backwards masking beatles/seltaeb songs. [ Evil Beatle Masking can steal your soul ]
1960 Highway safety public annoucements [ Pere Graves on Highway Driving | Jack Webb on alcohol & driving ]
Well I made it back from Asbury Park last night with all of my flippers in tack and survived the maniacal laughter. I saw and connected with some old faces like Pete from the Bouncing Souls, Dave Dreiwitz from Ween and lots of kids running around with their guitars waiting for their big moments. First up on the stage was Project Object's heavy metal & Zappa inspired rock super star Andre'cholmondeley side band Delicious. Sounds more like old school melvins so much praise from me. Next up were HUNCHBACK who are about to kick of a big loop of a tour to promote their new release Pray for Scars on DON GIOVANI. These kids are noisy like Flipper and less classic rock but as close to early BUTTHOLE's ripoff band as it gets. Minus the acid but + the blood with a keyboard that would not keep it together. Ah, visions of some lame black cape always twitter in front of my eyes and some f'd up dude dragging a leg around. They sure could take some more pointers from their masters and throw a melody or two into a song every once in awhile, which is the one main thing that keeps their music down live. If you like You Black emperor and carnival keywords ala man or astroman vibrato (when they are working). The burn will only sting for a little bit Tyler but you will get picture
Finally, what we all paid good money to see was revealed. Two drummers, pitch shifting vocals, and for about 1/2 of the set Paul Green's School of Rock All Stars who supported GIBBY and PAUL LEARY live and on stage together after 17 years for a whole tour! Crazy. Gibby made good fun of all the knuckle heads trying to make their little videos for youtube and watch the show through a little monitor. He re-iterated a good point that live music is something you should experience and participate in. Hence the buttholes in all their glory, hippiedome, with a imported dancing jezebel. The best part of the set-up was the noise outro. Where all the kids got on stage and just went to town. Gibby's smile was ear to ear with an audio assault pleasure factor at 11. In order to keep the purity of the orchestration Gib escorted an adult of the stage who was trying to part-take in the...SATAN SATAN SATANSATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATANSATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATANSATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATANSATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATANSATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN SATAN 
Mommy why is daddy insane? What is acid like? Who is Gibby and Timmy? Why are they playing in New Jersey at Asbury Lanes tonight? Can I go with Dadddy? What do the butthole surfers sounds like live circa 1988!? What's wrong with the brown acid? How come the other kids don't have tails like mine?
The 1970's through the lenses of Billy Filo's Hoboken and Brooklyn based Twilight Procession debut release on Moonlight Mile Recordings is out now and available through SnoCap. If you dig Costello, and simple rock jams that resemble Jesus of cool and some big hair rock duo solos you should go celebrate and drink beer out of keg with them tonight at the Studio's Record Release party. Lots of local rock stars and side burns sure to be present. Just do it. Later.
So the babe who is on the top of The List has put out a Tom Waits cover album? Scarlett Johansson has a tasty spoken voice as it is and it seem to translate to a sexy singing raspy voice in the music. A very strange and daring choice but not when you look at it from the perspective of a performer. She seems to interpret and pulls off some serious artistic integrity. She plugs myspace for musicians a little and seems full of sympathy for musicians who just want to create. Going to have to listen to this record. She is an actress who has the power to make things believable but singing is not something you can fake.
I am glad to report the basement scene is alive and well in the Hub City of New Brunswick, NJ APRIL 25, 26, & 27, 2008. When Jim Testa emailed a few weeks ago asking me to comment on basement life in the 90's and some memorable moments i wrote some down and forgot about it until he sent me link of his latest Jersey Beat podcast episode #54 that on listen really took me back. Features infamous bands like: Pleased Youth, P.E.D.,The Blisters and Deadguy among others. I then realized this was a part of something bigger and I got really excited to hear there were three days of weekend shows going on in alternative venues like a yoga studio! Man have times changed. Now, all the bands in his podcast are not playing but he really documented almost two decades worth of music. That is right New Brunswick has been a scene like any other that ebbs and flows in and out of clubs and basements and tail of the cast high-lights band who are playing The Screaming Females, Rapid Cities,full of fancy, and for science; all keeping the torch alive. The New Jersey suburban youth gets it and I can't wait to read the special edition of the Hub City Fanzine. I'm amazed somebody printed something and it is not a lazy web zine. Very cool. I may need somebody to hook me up with a copy or since it is Sunday I'll take baby girl on a little road trip this afternoon to curmudgeon records.Life goes on and remember to support your scene outside the scene.
You know this place as the beach town on TV One Tree Hill which is really Wilmington, North Carolina. What these two towns have in common is a love for music. One is made up and one is very real. One of the great cultural events is the W.E. Festival (short for Wilmington Exchange) which has been taking place since 1996! The do it yourself event was founded and enabled by Kenyata Sullivan who has imposed a couple new rules this time around and has alumni curating some of the bills. In the past decade there was a gauntlet review process for bands wanting to play, no sponsors and no major labels bands like at SXSW, CMJ, NEMO, etc. This year local or musician centric and relevant sponsors are being brought in because the playing field has changed in for the music industry significantly and secondly to help pay the bands who are traveling a great distance to perform (gas ain't cheap). Years past the pay was free beer and you'd find a place to stay on somebody's floor. Which is probably true this time around but I recommend one of the affordable hotels or even renting a beach-house for us older folks. Public admission is $1.00 American or 1/3 of a Euro. Which is dirt cheap for three floors of great Indie music from Thursday May 24th to the 28th over Memorial Day weekend. So if you dig music and want to take a rock n'roll vacation. There is no party like this anywhere so pack your vitamins because it is sort of like a sleep deprivation experiment where your ears will be tested. Years past bands like DPlan, Ex Models, Money Susuki and tons other bands from all over the US have played this fun filled fest so check out the schedule. Chances are you never heard of any of them unless they are from your hometown scene. Personally I've played (Aviso'Hara, The Slow Wire) and attended a half dozen times and made some incredible friendships, seen some amazing performances, drank a lot of beer to the point of sobriety and have obviously nothing bad to say other than don't be fool. Plan a road trip today to WeFest 2008.
Ah, the glory of well executed guitar distortion. I can smell the fumes from the hot tubes burning through the tweed of the amps. Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo's Lust Lust Lust pull the sheath off of pop music and juxtapose it against obvious surf rock formula pop songs. The Raveonettes craft alternative soundscapes for the blind and are able to give you that feeling you got when watching lost in translation. The electronic beats are Mo Tucker inspired; as we know all good things reference what is 4/4. I disagree with the pitchdorks review about the volume. If your stereo is shitty you may need to crank this music but on normal headphone volume this music this works. Obvious JMC haircut comparisons aside. This one blips and has that bubble mad scientist reverb sound at times and literally scratches the underside of a chrome jet blasting overhead (paraphrasing my dear old dead friend Ethan Stein's review of pyshocandy here). Listen to "You want the candy". For fast numbers "Dead Sound" and "Blitzed" should satisfy first listeners who have no idea who the Reid brothers are. Get free tracks from the mp3 bloggers of The Raveonettes via the Hype Machine. Get extra tracks for Lust Lust Lust on emusic.
Get your Radiohead stems and create your own remix of the tune, vote and create a widget of the single. Be the cool kid on the block. The Brits still do this single thing but you too can take part in the radio remix shenanigans. This is high fidelity in motion +
The Eastern Anchors have been planning this day for awhile, countless hours of drinking beer at practice, breaking strings, smoking breaks. Walter Verde even joined the Glass Trees for a week so he could go to SXSW; but like the good indie rock celebrity he is he took the time do an interview to promote the first show of the year for the Asbury Park press. Read the Eastern Anchors interview Making Some Noise. The article almost 100% accurate. Album is in the works but probably won't be out for at least a couple months and is as of yet untitled.
ROCK SHOW<br>
Eastern Anchors
w/ Bald Guy Black Suit (featuring morgan and brian) 10pm
Sat 3/29
Brighton Bar
long branch, nj the home of Jacko one of the oldest bearded punks with pirate breath. Also on the bill are The Thieves of Leviticus and Dose.
http://www.myspace.com/easternanchors
http://www.myspace.com/baldguyblacksuit
The SXSW Music festival conference is coming to Austin, Texas March 12-16 this year. If you want to go back in the way back machine to 2005 to now you can go and download GBs of music from heygills sxsw music torrent. Here is the schedule and I would be remis if i didn't point you the Hoboken label Maggadee records showcase Mar 13th featuring Glass Tress and others from the roster. i also have lots of friends going to the interactive part of SXSW. So there will be lots of music nerds and tech geeks in Texas.
To keep up with the youngin's i am now the proud owner of two tickets to the All Point West show with Radiohead headlining at Liberty State Park, NJ Sat Aug 10. The rules say Ages 2 & Under Free. Tickets went on sale today for general admission at 89 bucks plus the service charge. Jack Johnson is headlining the third night.
Damn the Admirals, Britsh Sea Power was my bewildered discovery on emusic this month. The secret service folks on the other side of the pond have known for years. This band has got all the qualities I enjoy from the past bands like Echo and The Bunnymen, The Wedding Present and yikes Blur. Their new Album asks the question Do You Like Rock Music? Which really is your basic marketing ploy, no frills promise from my pov, and they deliver without blinking. No illusions there. They are the real deal. They are dynamic like Echo, fast like Gedger, and are able to put their rock on like Blur could. Stand out tracks are "Atom" and "No Lucifer" which complete what seems to be their third full length album after a whole slew of 7"s and cd eps. I am thankful there is no Cheeky hit perse but I will probably take that comment back. I'll have to dig for that but in the meantime what makes this record awesome is their walls of sound that are like acid based dreams. The kind of music drug that has no hang-over and fuzzy like the flaming lips. I dig it gentlemen. No contest. Welcome to the club and don't forget to let me know when your visa clears. We will spin on the show soon.
Thanks, -djs
The art of the album where a band actually sits around in room for months on end and spends time refining a record from riff to mix, to mastering, passes most bullshit bands these days. 'Oh we can fix it in protools' problem can not cure the ability and paing that goes into composing a good song. The mature layers that make up all the leaves in the field of dreams are not lost on The Meadows. These guys got song virtuisity down to a science like a drunk is good at getting his budweiser on. They weave and wave to all sorts of icons along the way including: Oasis, the best bubblegum fanclubs, and more obscure bands like the Railway Children. The sing-song alternative harmony parts one loves from bands like Tom Petty, Peter Yorn and tried and tue brit pop like coldplay are here too. So here is this second release called First Nervous Breakdown from Mr. Kevin Houlihan and Todd Herfindal that if I had any grammy power this would be nominated. This is a Willbury-esque songwriting duo that is up there like all the best mentioned above. If they tour a little great --somebody put me on the guest list. If you are in LA and see them playing tell Kevin I said hello. Dig it man. Thanks.
The general consensus around the mp3 blogosphere is that the new Nada Surf record Lucky, is mellower but worth the get. It's got great lyrics and guitar layers as expected. "Whose Authority" and "see these bones" are the straight away hits. Like glass the harmonies remind me of the beach, like smooth sand and feel good like the foam on a decent beer. Warm reminders that good simple song writing and tasteful guitars make the band, not the haircuts or lack there of. If you are cheap like me you will go around and grab mp3s from Hard to find friend | Quarter life party | hearya | filessessourires | faronheit and then go purchase / download the record so you can enjoy the songs in order and support the band.
Don't forget to get the whole new free DJSPORK and REVIEW STALKER Podcast.
Ah, besides Christmas, the end of January is the time where my silo listening skills sometimes aligns with the masses and sometimes i'm like wtf or how did i miss this... This time there is no surprises. I missed and apparently play drums to a different beat than most. Other music I must admit i just ignore. Me gusta que me gusta. Blessed are the results for Tris Mccall's Critics Poll XVI Best albums, Best Singles and the misc category which is my favorite. The choice is still there to ignore but i get to see what other people are listening to. If you didn't participate this year beg him to put you on the tickler list for next year. You have to put in a lot of time downloading and listening to keep up with these folks so be warned. I'll be the spoiler hands down and agree that Of Montreal Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer made the number one album of 07. it's a massive album. The verbosity on the results and detail music geek insight is what makes his analysis a fantastic read. The Singles list is a funny mixed bag of indie and pop mainstream which makes this poll feel real and nobody trying to be cool and measure you up to anything. It is a people's vote. The most main stream track i voted for was Bruce's Girls in their summer clothes but that was it. I don't think i could name a Chemical Romance, alicia keys or Rihanna single to save my life. Nevermind Amy Whinhouse she is drugged up slob like courtney love in my book and i voted for Britney for biggest trainwreck. They all are in the same club. I did extreme pleasure in having my other 9 choices in the other number one singles list. e.g. no show. [see dj spork's top 20 list show]. Also, good read in case you think you missed something read his pop music abstract for 2007. Get through it and have a larf, if you need dictionary i won't tell anybdoy.
Other misanthrope lists: Pitchdork's top 50 albums | metacritic | Stereogum | Spin | Best Christian Albums of 2007 | and if you haven't already go get you some djspork podcast which is playing to your right. Show #20 posted yesterday for your download and RSS subscription pleasure.
Before there was Ex models there was a band called Turbo Ass, that sounded more like Big Black before the reconstruction of said exmodels. Now there is a poorly recorded and produced knyfe Hyts (Party Store) debut cassette which i picked up at the cake shop the other night, Wait WTF? A C40 chrome tape? Come on guys your're killing me and you have cliches in this alter-ego side project? Why is it that all innovators turn to their inner metal? Why? lucky for you fools my damn vw has a cassette player. I'm sure a 8track was considered as the 70's exploitation device. All kidding aside Sha and Shaheen (AKA Gorilla Fuckingly, Bubo Virginianus, Brother Minakari -whomever is driving this one) you all owe me a beer or $4.00. I love motorhead and can tolerate a certain amount of loud noise polution but this is a bunch of loaded mush horse crap. An absurd level of distortion equivalent to that band from Dr. Who whom could only be enjoyed from a distant moon, which is sort of a compliment in some respects, just as much as comparing the tunefulness like the grinding together of two cinder blocks. The live show better be good and good luck on the coming fanboy bleeding ears tour. With much love and respect.
Yes, minor excitment for us laxy mp3 bloggers. rbally has resurfaced this winter with some awesome bootleg posts from Ryan Adams (which is as abundant as air but whatever), The Replacements at CBGB's from October 12, 1984; Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks at Crystal Ballroom, June 17, 2005; Radiohead - In Berlin from 2000, Sonic Youth - Teatro Tenda Strisce, Roma, Italia,and Wilco at Troutdale, Oregon, in the USA (August 22, 2007). Lets see if Matador leaves him alone. Start your mp3 downloading as rbally has enabled us once again.
The time of year is here again to put your ears where your mouth is and put in your 2 cents for the best of 2007. Damn where has the time gone? Did a whole years worth of crappy music really go by? Was it all crap? The new DJ Spork and Review Stalker 2007 Best of decisions are in currently playing in our podcast module to your right. So what is your playlist? Radiohead, Spoon, The Shins, The National and some other obvious choices made the review stalker best of 2007 list but you do have a oppportunuity with Tris McCall, he is taking numbers with his 2007 Music Critics poll; which is open to the people, so go ahead and give him your POV. The poll is long and he does allow you get your jibes in for stuff you think sucks so have a look. Happy New Year.
