sleep eternale...

A Band To Check Out:

Glimpses

The camera does not show much -- a low, grey wall that you can see the top of, but not what is behind it, a brown desktop, some kind of mounted phone or security system in a brown frame on the wall, a small desk lamp. There is usually sunshine streaming down from a high window off camera. David Lynch sits at the desk staring into the camera. Always dressed nicely and with his signature haircut, he looks into the camera, wishes us a good morning, and starts his script: "It's November 17^th 2006, and it's a Friday." (The date is updated Monday through Friday). He then looks high up, as if there are only high windows in this room, or maybe no ceiling, and describes what he sees: "Here in L.A.: blue skies, golden sunshine, a gentle breeze, 65 degrees Fahrenheit, 18 Celsius. Have a great weekend." I know it's not his fault that the weather is always the same in L.A., but I didn't realize how funny this was until I started chanting this speech along with him each time I watched a new post. It really doesn't change. Even the temperature -- it's always 65F. The only thing that changes is what is on his desk each day. Often it’s a coffee mug and papers. Sometimes I cannot tell what is sitting there -- the things just look weird. But I find it unendingly fascinating that he does this *every weekday morning*, and there must be thousands of people like me who watch it *every weekday*. Why? I don't even know. It's such an oddly personal look inside the life of someone I have admired for as long as I can remember. It's as if he wants to connect with us, and we seem to desperately want it. Yet he is telling us the weather. It's not even a general "how about that weather" conversation -- he simply reports it. That should seem extremely impersonal, but it doesn't. Then there is the creepiness factor. It gives me chills every time I watch it -- it's just so weird! (The weather report hasn't actually been that helpful. It might be 65F in the morning, but that doesn't tell me what it will be at 2 in the afternoon. Still, I like being able to say I get my weather from David Lynch, so I keep coming back)

Every once in a while the weather actually changes, and I start guessing how he will handle it. I was so surprised the first time it was overcast & he seemed so gloomy! It hadn't occurred to me that he would prefer sunshine! But wow -- you could really tell he was unhappy. The next day, when he stared up into the sunshine and reported the blue skies, he was his old self again. Unbelievable.

I like how familiar this has become. It just feels nice to expect to see someone somewhere & have that fulfilled. It's much like having the same bus driver every day, or always walking past a neighbour sitting on her porch -- maybe you usually wave hello or nod as you go by -- it doesn't seem all that important at the time, but if the person is not there one day, you miss it.

The seemingly unlimited access we have to other people and their lives really has made this world a different place. I never thought David Lynch would seem approachable. Now I want to walk up to him some day and shake his hand, tell him how much I have loved his work, and thank him for the website. Maybe someday I will.

Musical Adventures

Here's a review from one of the best South by Southwest shows I have seen, and the musician's comments on it: Wreckless Eric.
It was a great show -- Wreckless Eric, The Razillos, Shonen Knife, and lots more all in the one little club while about 40 other clubs were doing the same thing all within walking distance.. It's really something. Every music fan should experience SXSW at least once (and if you are going, let me know - I'd love to go again!)

L.A. Weather

Gotta get my David Lynch fix for the day:
"blue skies", "golden sunshine" " a gentle breeze"(usually) and a wonderful sounding temperature in two different scales. See it all here.

And Action

The L.A. Film Festival is going on right now in Westwood. It looks like an interesting year for movies. There's a film about Darby Crash and The Germs, a film about Joe Strummer of The Clash, and one about a singing group composed of elderly singers who perform punk songs. There are also live musical performances in the streets of Westwood in between screenings. I just saw The Germs. The performance was, well, less than impressive, but it was still really cool to see them. I expect the documentaries will be more entertaining.

Going, Going, ...

The House Of Records is now down to 40% off, with two weeks left to go. The pickings are definitely getting slimmer, but they are working fast to "price" all the CDs they still have piled up in boxes around the store in order to get them on the shelves and move them out again. So believe it or not there were many more finds. I will have to check back one last time before they close their doors.

Today's acquisitions:

Blur -- 13 ..... $6
(special "boxed" edition that includes a poster)

The Subways -- Young For Eternity ...... $4
(I bet you haven't heard about this band unless you've read about them here!)

The Warlocks -- Surgery ...... $1.20
(Not their best album, but for $1.20?)

The Wonder Stuff -- HUP ...... $3.60
(the album with the song "Don't Let Me Down, Gently")

But I won't get to listen to any of these for a while, because I picked up one more thing that trumps it all: in preparation for Morrissey's big tour, I bought a Best Of CD. Put out by Rhino Records, it runs the gamut from Viva Hate to Maladjusted and includes extensive liner notes. I might have all the Smiths albums & early Morrissey albums on record or cassette, but my later Morrissey collection is a bit lacking. So I will be listening to this non-stop for the next week so I can catch up on all the lyrics in time for the show! It was put out in 2001, so there will be a 2 album hole in my knowledge, but that's not so bad...

"Sing Your Life"
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A Modern-Day Ziggurat

In today's New York Times, author Nicolai Ouroussoff tells us about an architectural movement in the Netherlands by talking about the new Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision. It's a great article, with a wonderful slide show. Check it out here.

But How Good Are They With Maple Syrup?

My quick trip to Trader Joe's today turned into a sad yet fruitful trip to the record store next door. The House of Records, "L.A.'s oldest record store," on Pico is closing! Right now everything is 30% off (and the prices are cheap to start with). It's a great little store -- they have a huge vinyl collection, lots of CDs under $5, and a listening station that can accommodate as many people as are ever in the store at one time (hmm.. maybe that's not such a good thing?). But their best asset is (presumably) their access to promos. They are just a couple doors down from The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, and as one might expect, they have tons of "for promotional use only" CDs and LPs on their racks. It's always fun to look at the extra info the companies provide on those disks -- blurbs to read on the air about how great the band is, suggestions about which songs to play, details on release dates, etc.

Once I saw the huge "closing" sign I knew I had to go in. So today's playlist is a collection of new acquisitions. I didn't notice until I sat down to write this, but I really do seem to stick to themes when I select music, whether I am aware of it or not. Today's theme is Britian (esp. britpop):

The Soft Boys -- Nextdoorland (promo CD -- 2002)
The Charlatans -- Tellin' Stories (1996)
Blur -- The Great Escape (promo CD -- 1995)
Oasis -- Interview Disc & 120 page book (1996)
New Order -- Waiting For The Sirens' Call (2005)(yes, I finally got it)

and the one "local" album:
Marky Ramone and The Intruders -- The Answer To Your Problems (1999)
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Joey's Birthday

Today is Joey Ramone's birthday. See a tribute video here. Visit his website here and a tribute myspace page here. We miss you, Joey.

Ooooou-Eeeee-Ooooou

The BBC had a little department called the Radiophonic Workshop (1958 - ~1995) that created a lot of amazing and innovative music first using tape decks (truly experimental music) and later using the first Moog synthesizers. Here is a BBC 4 documentary about it. Have a listen, even if only for a few minutes -- it's great.

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I Love Vikings (Apparently)

My favorite Swedish band at the moment, however, is Mono Stereo. They sound like a cross between early Jesus & Mary Chain and Ride. (This needs to be updated. This was an accurate description of the few songs they had up when I first found them, but wow, are they different now.. One of these days I will write a proper review. They're still one of my favorite bands to promote, so check them out!)

Here is their myspace page.

I don't know too much about them yet -- they don't have a website or anything other than the above page. They don't even have an album out yet! But they promised they would tell me once they put one out, so I'll keep you posted.

Please let me know what you think of these bands -- use the comment feature, okay?

...It's 4 A.M., do you know where your director is?

"Question: When did you first encounter punk rock?

Alex Cox: It was either Devo at the Starwood, which was their first Los Angeles performance, or it was an aborted gig at the Elk's Lodge Hall in Los Angeles, which I think The Go-Go's played at. And it was supposed to be the Plugz and X and all these other L.A. bands, but the cops came and shut it down. The man wouldn't let the kids play their music. It was like a police riot: The police were smashing people's heads on the ground and that sort of thing. That was my introduction to the punk-rock scene. Either that or Devo, because both those shows were around the same time. "

Today, on the UCLA campus, there will be a screening of REPO MAN (1984) followed by a Q&A session with the writer/director Alex Cox. Go see it if you can.

The above quote comes from a 2000 interview posted on the A.V. Club website. Read the whole thing here.

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Swedish Polarbears

It's a band. Yes, they are from Sweden. They sound like Teenage Fanclub. If we all beg them enough, maybe they will visit us stateside. Wouldn't that be cool?

Here is their webpage.

Here is their myspace page.

Gee, I wish I had known about myspace when I visited Scandinavia. The bands let you listen to several full songs so you know what you are getting yourself into, they post all their gigs on their page, and they link to the other bands they will be playing with (usually). What a resource! Just think of all the great concert stories I could have come home with if I had known about all these bands! No, instead I saw bands from the U.S. while I was up there, and now I'm hoping to see all these Scandinavian bands when they visit the U.S. Life is funny that way.
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Yes, The Internet Can Get Even Wierder

If you thought the daily video of David Lynch giving a weather report was absurd, check out CheddarVision TV. Yes, it's a little video camera aimed 24 hours a day at a ripening cheddar wheel. Really.

Here's a nod to the New York Times for drawing our attention to it, with a great little quote:

“The cruel randomness of celebrity became clear to Tom Calver in February, when the cheese got a romantic Valentine in the mail and he did not. 'What has he done?' Mr. Calver asked of the cheese in question, a 44-pound round of cheddar currently maturing on his farm in this Somerset hamlet. (Mr. Calver’s farm, not the cheese’s.) "

You can read the full article here.

And thanks should also go out to the latest addition to the theory community who alerted me to the above article. We are all searching for absurdity together, it would seem.

And The World Is A Little Darker

"i suppose it was the interview with clint boon that started it all off hed asked me for a few words on perry farrells satellite party single dogstar [which he thought was great] so i went on and lo and behold mentioned the N>O> split so i suppose because it was me sayin it it was out at last. im relieved really hated carryin on as normal with an awful secret so lets move on shall we? played the openin of rios in leeds on friday great crowd and considerin theyd been through 5 local bands already had an amazin resilience/ some kid came up and gave me a hug and said "sorry to hear about new order hooky" i was really touched its like your budgie dyin!"

Peter Hook confirms that New Order broke up on his Myspace blog. You can listen to the radio interview that he mentions here (The interview is pretty funny. My favorite part is when he says the project came together when two different Welsh musicians "bumped into each other surfing in Santa Monica, as you do."). You can listen to the song Peter Hook plays on here (it's the first track: Wish Upon A Dog Star).

Thanks to the website NewOrderOnline for letting us all know about the post and the interview.

Today's playlist, then, will be a tribute (dirge?) for one of my favorite bands:

on CD:
Power, Corruption & Lies
Technique
Brotherhood
Republic
(the best of) New Order

on tape:
Low-Life
Substance 1987
(and more -- I just can't find them right now)
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Touching From A Distance

"Ian Curtis Biopic Control to Premiere at Cannes

If you only see one depressing-ass musician biopic this season, make it this one."

A new rocumentary about the life (and presumably the death) of the lead singer of Joy Division is coming out this year. Pitchfork Online has the latest scoop. They also included a link to the band performing Transmission. It's always a little scary watching Ian Curtis perform, and this clip is no exception. I just keep waiting for the meltdown. I'm not sure how he held it all in.

Speaking of movies, if you haven't seen 24 Hour Party People, I highly recommend it. It might not be the best-made film ever, but it's fun, and the music is great, and the nostalgia factor is almost painful (in a good way, of course).

I still want a 12-string Rickenbacker

So we've all heard the stories about big musicians who go into producing once they retire from "the road," but have you ever wondered what happens to the musicians who never quite make it big but still have to move on to something (read: a real job)? It seems they often find their way behind the scenes too. Take Danny Benair. He was in one of my favorite bands growing up: The Three O'Clock. They were an incredible L.A. band in the Paisley Underground movement back in the 80s, of which I was a big fan. I believe I was the first person to tell almost all of you (my wonderful, dedicated readers) about this band, which tells you something about the level of commercial success they achieved. Well, I found Mr. Benair again -- he's working in the industry, marketing music for placement in tv, movies, commercials, etc. He also has a website that just so happens to have a large collection of complete songs publicly available. Have a look. Once the main page loads, click on "music vault" and then select a song.. Oddly (and unfortunately), he doesn't have any of his own songs up.. I just might email him and ask if he would remedy that..

And just in case you feel like listening to some good paisley tunes:

The Three O'Clock fan site on Myspace

Michael Quercio on Myspace
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Ichigeki on the Back Beat

You don't have to be a fan of breakdancing to marvel at this clip nor to appreciate the amazing moves these guys pull off. I think this is the team that won last year's world championship. Check it out.

Going Retro (or should I say vintage?)

I walked off to work today with headphones on. They were plugged into my old portable tape player. I actually worried a little what my students would think if they saw me -- I don't want to appear too out of touch! The most appalling moment, though, came when I noticed that my listening selection was from further in the past than I had realized. This is 2007.. New Order's Substance 1987 came out 20 years ago. Ugh. I'm old. Or, at least, I feel that way while I'm teaching all these 20 year olds...

Today's Playlist:

New Order -- Substance 1987
The Ted Top 23 of 2000
The Smiths -- Strangeways, Here We Come (this came out in 1987 also! I hadn't realized that at the time...)

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So Why Not "The West Side?"

For those of you still waiting to see David Lynch's new movie Inland Empire, Lynch put up a site with trailers, stills, etc., and a map that lets you know when it passed through your town without you realizing it. If you are one of the lucky ones, there will be a yellow dot on your section of the map, meaning you will have another chance to catch it. Good luck!

http://www.inlandempirecinema.com/

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"...but i watched it way too long..."

"Surely it’s not a coincidence that the 1990s were the heyday of Nine Inch Nails, the decade when Mr. Reznor went from cult hero to mainstream rock star. And perhaps he misses his days as an underground favorite. (Now that just about any kind of music is, literally, accessible, it’s no longer clear what 'underground' means.) Even the electronic noises on 'Year Zero' sound a bit old-fashioned: a throwback to the days when computer-generated music was full of static and blips. If 'Year Zero' feels warm and, for better and worse, familiar, this is why. It’s not really a cautionary tale: it’s a reminiscence. "

The New York Times (yes, that's right) reviews the new Nine Inch Nails album and all the associated hidden websites.

And if you go to the main site, you can listen to the whole album for free (but you have to join the mailing list). Listen here.

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Aloha, Don Ho

Say a fairwell to Don Ho, and watch a clip of him (actually, a cartoon version of him performing in Hawaii in the style of many music cartoons of the late 60s - early 70s) doing a cover of Peter Gabriel's "Shock The Monkey" (is that weird enough, or should I try harder?)

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The Birthdate Of Punk?

Iggy Pop, the Godfather of punk, is turning 60. There is a "birthday card" website up just for fans to leave birthday wishes. Leave your message here.

"..and I ride, and I ride"

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Eye Candy

Here are a couple of videos put out by a Parisian artist group called Pleix.

Birds

Bleip

Enjoy!

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More Than Just Sprawl

If you happen to be interested in Los Angeles architecture, check out this site.

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Am I Dreaming?

Anyone want to see Paul Weller performing "Town Called Malice" with The Charlatans?

Here it is. And while we are at it, here's The Jam doing it.

The Charlatans are on tour. Maybe they'll come to the states. If they do, I'll let you know how the show was.

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More bands to check out:

Some of these are fairly well known, so you might be familiar with them.
Some of these are pretty obscure, so if you already knew about them, then why haven't you told me about them yet?!

The Subways

Arctic Monkeys

Highwired

Silversun Pickups

(so today's playlist is poking around myspace band pages..)

Staring At The Sea? No, That's Wednesday

Somber Sunday's playlist:

Blur -- eponymous
The Cure -- Staring At The Sea - The Singles
REM -- Murmur
Siouxsie & The Banshees -- Twice Upon A Time - The Singles

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Music To Grade By, Part II

Today's playlist:
(I hadn't intended to focus on a time period -- these were simply the albums I wanted to hear)

Blur -- Leisure (1991)
(this album is amazing -- one great song after another)
Ride -- Nowhere (1990)
The Charlatans -- Between 10th And 11th (1992)

More promising bands from SXSW

Here's an assortment of offerings that I liked. The links are all myspace links, so you can listen to the bands before deciding whether to invest time & energy into reading actual websites (which most of the bands list on their myspace pages).


1st) The Black Angels

You can tell from listening to this band that they grew up with Velvet Underground records. They could be a good band to see live, on a rainy night. (I will probably profile this band later when I have some time)


2nd) The Fratellis

Hmmm… you'll recognize the first song.. they are only now at SXSW and they have already sold out? I'm not sure what to think of that, but I remember liking the song from the commercials… I'm so torn! So post a comment and tell me what you think of this band.


3rd) The Tokyo Police Club

More Indie Pop sounds


4th) The Wombats

And yet more of the same (but all the bands are worth checking out)

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SXSW Gems

This is the one week of the year that I really miss living in Austin -- the week of the South by Southwest Music Festival. It's when the recording industry and lots of hopefuls descend on the little city to spend a week playing and listening to all kinds of indie music, watching dreams being made or stifled, and hanging out with musicians and music lovers in a surreal environment. Wandering the streets of downtown while this event is on feels a little like Vegas -- time has no meaning, except for keeping track of when your favorite band is going on stage, people roam around in a sort of daze, and everyone is there to have fun. It's a wonderful feeling to walk up and down the streets listening to all kinds of sounds wafting from each door. It's a great time.

This year NPR is acting as a clearing house, posting all kinds of info on the various bands playing, and is hosting an extensive list of links to live broadcasts from the various stages. I'm out of time tonight for posting info, but as these live broadcasts will be archived and available for quite a while, I will update this post with all the best links later in the week. So check back for a complete SXSW resource here. Until then, check out these links:

The Early Years (live)
Robyn Hitchcock (live)
The main NPR SXSW page
The Stooges (live)
Alexi Murdoch (live)
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Couldn't Pass This Up

"The Good, The Bad & The Queen isn't a band. It's more of a project, featuring Blur frontman Damon Albarn, The Clash bassist Paul Simonon, Afrobeat pioneer and drummer Tony Allen and former Verve guitarist Simon Tong. Together the quartet is making some of the smartest and catchiest — if moodiest — Britpop and rock to reach the U.S. in years."

--The above quote is from the NPR website, which is where all the links below lead to..

Take one of my all-time favorite bassists to play along with and put him in anything, and I would probably be excited (he hasn't been in a band since the Clash). Put him together with these guys, though, and the imagination runs wild. So why not see if they are as good as they should be? Listen to a concert performance here, songs from their album here, and a radio interview here.

Oh, and don't forget -- they are also being produced by Danger Mouse.

Find Something New Every Day, Part I

It's nice to have things to check in on every day: news, family, plants, email, etc. So why not add to it? This is the start of a series of sites that might be worth checking every day or so. These sites are all experiments, so I'll have to post updates about these as I discover whether they pay off or not in the long run.. but this first site seems promising: NPR's Song Of The Day. Each work day they profile a song and the artist behind it. The text is very short, and the clip lasts for the length of just one song, so this is hardly a huge time commitment, but the potential payoff is pretty high: discovering a new favorite band, or at least more great music to enjoy and tell your friends about. So here it is -- check it out:

NPR -- Song of the Day

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A Great Musical Resource Masquerading As A Clothing Store

So I finally got around to reading the Bratmail email from last month. They have a bunch of band recommendations in the email (promoting upcoming shows). Of course, all the shows have long since passed, but most of the bands have myspace pages, and some of these guys are cool! So here are a couple of bands that I might just go see sometime:

The Shakes -- 60's garage punk sound

The Tiki Tones -- I don't know how to categorize this one, but I'm hooked!

One of these days I need to make it over to see the store: Brat

Bessie 2.0

You won't believe this amazing site:

http://www.radmonkeycowbells.com/

Electronic cowbells. Yes, that's right -- not only can it digitally amplify the sound, but it can reproduce "12 of the world's most sought after cowbells." How cool is that? Don't forget to visit their test page, which includes detailed descriptions of each of the 12 sounds and lets you test them out with the click of a mouse. You must try it (and post a message letting me know your favorite one!).


Oh, and if you like this product, you should really check out their Dead Quietenator, which digitally reproduces "various pure silences" that you cannot get anywhere else (you can even listen to 3 of those silences on their test page). Of course, I prefer the Virtual Studio Visitor that lets you digitally create the annoying presence of unwanted drop-in visitors to your studio (just in case you like how the uninvited guests affect your creative process but you don't have enough friends to drop in on you and produce the effect in the old fashioned way).

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On The Roq

This is Rodney's Day!! Today he gets a star on Hollywood Blvd, and a concert in his honor (at the Henry Fonda Theatre -- don't miss it!)

So take a look at his myspace page, comb through his playlists from the last year to see a great mix of old favorites and new ideas, and then listen to him here on Sunday nights, 12am to 3am (yeah, technically Monday morning..)

We love you Rodney! Congratulations!

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Green Eggs and Dylan

It's the perfect combination -- Bob Dylan and classic Dr. Seuss stories. It'll make you laugh on multiple levels, and then will make you want to pull out both your old Dylan records and your childhood books. What can be better than that?

Listen to someone pretending to be Dylan recite Dr. Seuss stories set to Dylan-esque music here (you might need to open it with a Netscape or Firefox browser, as IE cannot always play it -- all you will hear is a track that emulates the wonderful crackling sound of an old vinyl record playing "silence") (Track #2 -- Green Eggs & Ham is my favorite)

(and thanks to Ghost in the Machine for the link)
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Sunday's Sounds

Today's playlist: streaming radio from Indie 103:

Your radio reception may be bad, but never fear! You don't have to miss a minute of your favorite radio programs. Many radio stations have web pages that can connect you to their programming. Once such example is Indie 103.1, a Los Angeles station that has a show hosted by Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols (called Jonesy's Jukebox). Listen to it and all the Indie shows live right here.

Other great radio programs will be posted throughout the month, so check back often for more great tunes.

7021 Hollywood Boulevard (Between La Brea & Highland)

Rodney was my hero. First, he was a huge supporter/friend of my favorite childhood band, The Monkees (he even appeared on their show, albeit as a stand in for Davy). Then, as I got older, he brought all the best bands into my bedroom every Sunday night whether I was old enough to go see them in the clubs or not. He had the best radio show ever - on KROQ in LA. He was the first to play The Ramones, The Cure, The Go-Go's, The Smiths, X, Adam Ant, The Jesus And Mary Chain, Teenage Fanclub, Echo & The Bunnymen, and almost every other band I ever cared about growing up. When I was about to move away from LA, I called Rodney on the phone just to tell him how great he was and how much I was going to miss his show. It's a good thing he didn't put me on the air because I actually cried on the phone. He was so sweet -- he offered to send me a T-shirt, and recommended that I ask my friends to tape record his show for me and send me the tapes. That was cool, and I still have the shirt.

Now Rodney is getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And not just any star in any location -- he'll be between La Brea & Highland: a highly trafficked area, with good parking and lots of good reasons to be there aside from visiting the star. So there will be no excuse for not checking it out. I only wish I didn't have to teach on the day they will present him with it -- I would really love to be there!

Congratulations, Rodney Bingenheimer. Now you will forever be amongst the stars!

Go see the ceremony if you can:
Friday, March 9th, 2007, 11:30am,
7021 Hollywood Boulevard (Between La Brea & Highland)

Loopy

Today's playlist spawns from procrastination:

The New Order website -- They play four songs from the new album, and it will loop endlessly if you keep the page open. Sometime soon I need to go record shopping and pick up this album..

New Order -- Waiting For The Siren's Call

I realize that these blogs are not being updated all that often. This will likely be the state of things until the summer -- work is keeping me very busy, and it will only get worse over the coming months. After that, however, I will have such a backlog to post that these blogs should become quite entertaining for a while. Hang in there.
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Music To Grade By

Blur, for some reason, makes a great soundtrack for grading exams. Here is today's playlist:

Blur -- leisure.
Blur -- eponymous
Blur -- the best of

(I guess that means I have a lot of exams to grade..)
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Sometimes The Beat Just Grabs You

Time To Pull Out My Bass:
The English Beat -- I Just Can't Stop It
Pixies -- Doolittle
Nuggets -- Vol. 6 - Punk, part 2

Rock-A-Bye Baby

We've seen all kinds of innovative housing ideas during the 20th century: geodesic domes, prefabricated housing, mobile homes, etc. But this one, I think, captures the imagination like no other: "Free Spirit Spheres." Just open the link and look at the picture, and you'll understand. I don't see this concept replacing standard family homes, but they would make for an amazing alternative to traditional vacation cabins. I can see a whole campsite full of these -- you hike for 2-3 days up a mountain and down into a valley, and finally, as you wind your way along a steep slope, you look up and see it: a spherical village in the sky. I would go. Check it out here.

Anything Can Happen In Hollywood

" 'You could see in his eyes he was exploding beneath the mask,' Sapir said Friday. 'He yelled at me, 'Nobody tells this wookiee what to do!' ' "

The Los Angeles Times reports on Chewbacca attacking a tour guide outside of Grauman's Chinese Theatre. My favorite part of this news article is the slide show of completely unrelated pictures of various people in Chewbacca costumes. You might expect this from a tabloid or some other cheap broadside paper, but the L.A. Times? It was just too funny not to post.

"All I wanted was a Pepsi"

Today's playlist is all about bands from around here (liberally speaking):

Dead Kennedys -- Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
Black Flag -- The First Four Years
Suicidal Tendencies (their early years, of course) -- Suicidal Tendencies
Circle Jerks -- Group Sex

The Dead Kennedys stayed an amazing band right up until some former members sued Jello Biafra for *not* selling out in his old age (circa 1998). Oh, please! I think his best quip explaining why he did not try to get their videos played on MTV was to point out that they wrote a song called "MTV - Get Off The Air," but the judge wasn't swayed by that remark. That's too bad. I think Biafra lost the rights to all the songs in that lawsuit. Well, at least we still have him and his label. Check out what he is up to here.

The next two bands, well, they were good in the beginning, but they both turned towards metal. Why do we lose so many good hardcore punk bands to metal? Is it the money? Is it MTV? "Doesn't matter. I'll probably get hit by a car anyway."

And then there was the Circle Jerks. I still love that I could fit their entire first album at the end of my cassette tape after the entire Black Flag album (all on one side). It was like putting a hidden track on a record - you would never know it was there unless you just let the tape play..

"(Bring On The) Dancing Horses"

Echo & The Bunnymen are still around, and they just put a concert video up on their website. If you missed them on their last tour, here's your chance to see everything you missed. And when I say everything, I mean it -- the video must be close to two hours long. Well, you can't really _see_ much because the lighting was, shall we say unfavorable for video, but it's great for playing in the background while you work on your blog...
Check it out here.

Digging Further Back

So I pulled out Joe Jackson's Look Sharp! album today (I can't remember the last time I played it, but I can still sing along with the hits -- Sunday Papers, Is She Really Going Out With Him? & Look Sharp!). Did he really write Got The Time?! That song is unbelievable! It has so much energy that I'm amazed the vinyl can contain it all. It should just break into pieces. He should have done the whole album like that. If he had, though, they would have labeled the record differently, and I would have grouped him with the Circle Jerks or the Buzzcocks instead of with Elvis Costello on today's playlist:

Joe Jackson -- Look Sharp! & I'm The Man

Elvis Costello -- My Aim Is True & This Year's Model

new band

I stumbled across this band on the Jesus & Mary Chain website:

The Meek

Here's a blurb from their myspace page (every band has one of those these days!):

"Whatever else you can say about the late-80s shoegaze contingent, they made good music to take drugs to. Bands like Jesus and Mary Chain and Spacemen 3 drowned their listeners in feedback with songs built of giant, unredeemable, slow-moving noise; washes of barely inflected sound with subdued drums and hollow voices. In the process, the shoegazers, like almost no one else before them, were able to marry the unadulterated blare of White Light/White Heat with the simple pop melodies of Brian Wilson and Phil Spector, navigating the space between the shyness of their manner and the clamor of their music.

"Its therefore good news for those of us who like music to accompany our drug usage that the Meek have taken up the shoegaze torch. Fronted by husband-and-wife team Jeff and Amy Lee, the Meek build swirling towers of distortion and feedback atop sturdy, well-worn drumbeats. Their noise-drubbed songs would come off as derivative if not for the consummate skill with which theyre written. The songs themselves are ominous and dark, captivatingly primitive in their minor-key melodies and steady drone; harking back to an older kind of rock and roll built on simple chord progressions and at the same time moving shudderingly into the future of pure, angry, mechanical sound. Wisely, the Meek never let the layers of fuzz entirely obscure Jeffs voice; bathed in reverb, it drifts from clarity to incomprehensibility as the song ebbs and flows. The band features two guitars, but neither can really be called lead, rather, they twist in and out, overlapping each other, slowing mapping each songs territory."

(my comment -- the music is good even without the drugs)

Here's the link -- they have four songs posted. Check it out.

My Hunt For Blogs Worth Returning To, Part III

If you're in the mood for some musical exploration and some nostalgia, this is a good blog for it:

Post Punk Junk

It has commentary, reminiscing, and lots of files and links (As a rule, I avoid zip files, so I cannot vouch for the safety of those, but I haven't had any trouble with the podcast links)

UPDATE: This page does not seem to exist anymore, but they have a YouTube account. See their regular "broadcasts" here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/postpunkjunk

Look deeper... deeper!

Optical illusions reminiscent of the LSD-fueled art of the 1960s (or, for that matter, of the X-inspired art of the 1990s) are a bit passe, but this optical illusion video does a trick I hadn't seen before that is pretty cool, so I wanted to share. Plus, putting this up allows me to post something other than music -- variety is good, right?
It takes a while for the effect to work, so it might get boring, but if you make it to the end you just might find it was worth it. The mind and the eyes are fascinating pieces of biology, aren't they?

Here's the link.

"I wanna be your dog"

VH1 is airing a history-of-rock-music documentary in 10 parts. Right now they are running the punk episode. Admittedly, they haven't said anything I didn't know 20 years ago, but they have a lot of footage that I have never seen before, and some of it is great -- really raw and in good condition. The VH1 website sucks, but it at least tells you their schedule, so here's the link. Maybe it'll run again sometime:

http://www.vh1.com/channels/vh1_classic/channel.jhtml

Look for:

History of Rock 'n Roll, The: Punk

My Hunt For Blogs Worth Returning To, Part II

Is It Nepotism If It's My Own Alter Ego?

It loses points for not being updated as often as it should be (I have a rather large backload of articles waiting to be read, commented on, and posted), but "the auther" promises to catch up sometime soon. Stay tuned for that.

Blog number 2 has to be Ember's Light. It's my rational & happier side, so it's full of articles on sociology, psychology, & gender issues; environmentalism & civil liberties; news and politics; science and discoveries; theory & philosophy; and a little playful pop culture. Or, at least, that's what it is supposed to be filled with. It's still a work in progress (or a dream I don't really have time for). But give it a chance -- there might be a few gems hidden in it every once in a while.

Ember's Light

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And I Thought Shonen Knife Was Cool

"Japan's bands are by turns bracingly experimental and jubilantly retro, a land where our own greatest music returns with an alienated majesty. How else can one describe the King Brothers' "100%," a song that could make the Black Crowes eat Humble Pie? Or Syrup16g's Elvis Costello-esque "I Hate Music"? Or "Johnny Depp" by Triceratops, an amp-crunching reanimation of Physical Graffiti-era Zep? And you'd swear that the Pillows' "Degeneration" was a hidden track on Matthew Sweet's Altered Beast."

Explore the world of Japanese pop that you can't find in the states in Paul Collin's latest article in Slate Magazine.

My Hunt For Blogs Worth Returning To, Part I

This is the start of a new series exploring the blogging world, looking for the ones worth checking on again and again. My first entry is no big surprise -- there's a permanent link to it on the left. It's the blog maintained by the Late Adopter. His blog covers a range of topics: history & historiography, music & pop culture, politics & current events, and anything else the author wishes to post. It's mostly a collection of great links to interesting articles from all kinds of online publications, with little biased commentary getting in the way. That makes it a good resource of interesting topics that have been popping up amongst the online intellectual community.

You might cry foul over my top choice because I happen to be related to the author of this blog, but frankly, I find myself drawn back to this blog on a regular basis independently of that -- I happen to actually want to read most of the articles he posts. That's pretty cool. This shared interest might be the product of a biological or common experience link, but that cannot be helped. It's still a great blog. Check it out:

The Late Adopter

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"We're a garage band! We come from garageland!"

A mixture of media make up today's playlist (an old record, an old tape, and a new CD):

The Seeds -- A Web of Sound
The Clash -- Clash On Broadway, Vol. 1
Various Artists -- Nuggets Box Set, Vol. 1


And have you heard about Goodstock? It's a 3 day festival of old garage bands taking place this summer. It might be too far away for me to get to it, but I can dream. Read about it here.

Only For People With A High Speed Connection, Unfortunately

If you want to see some great footage of music fans and their favorite bands from the '80s, check this out:

Garage Bands On YouTube

"...and out come the records"

today's vinyl playlist:

Dukes of Stratosphear -- psonic Psunspot
Adam and the Ants -- Kings of the Wild Frontier, Prince Charming
Adam Ant -- Friend or Foe
(It's middle school all over again. Adam Ant is still hilarious & fun, and the Dukes are still as enchanting as ever)

Food For Hoping

"When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice."

-- Martin Luther King
(Thanks for the quote, Ghost In The Machine)

Read more about Martin Luther King here.

Louder Than Retirement

Anyone want to hear Johnny Marr playing a new song? Last year he agreed to record with the Seattle-based band Modest Mouse. Their first release is coming out. Listen to it here on the All Music Considered website.

And don't forget -- Morrissey is on tour! If you cannot see him this time around, then go get your fix at his myspace page.

Food For Thought

"Out of damp and gloomy days, out of solitude, out of loveless words
directed at us, conclusions grow up in us like fungus: one morning
they are there, we know not how, and they gaze upon us, morose and
gray. Woe to the thinker who is not the gardener but only the soil of
the plants that grow in him."

--Nietzsche
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It's cold out...

...so let's wrap ourselves in distortion. Today's playlist:

BRMC -- 1st & 2nd albums
Jesus & Mary Chain -- Psychocandy
Sonic Youth -- Mixed Tape
The Morning After Girls -- Online Song

1, 2, 3, 4

Music to re-organize an office space to (it's a new quarter, after all):

Nuggets Box Set -- disk 1
Left Of The Dial Box Set -- disk 3
No Thanks! The '70s Punk Rebellion -- disk 2

"... And I Feel Fine"

Hat's off to my old fav R.E.M., who will be inducted into the Rock And
Roll Hall of Fame this March. Read about it here.

Musical Influences -- under construction

For everyone who wanted to know about my early musical influences that led me to playing bass and wanting to start a band, this is a good place to look. If you did not grow up listening to these bands, then me trying to describe them with words would be pretty useless. The sites below have soundclips.

As with most attempts at musical categorization, I do not agree with everything said on these sites and their discriptions do not always say very much, but they give it a good try and have lists of bands that look like sublists from my record collection, so they are worth checking out. Most of these links are to various sections of Allmusic.com:

1960s garage bands (and the Byrds and the Monkees)
proto-punk
punk, punk, and more punk
post-punk & 1980s college radio
goth
"neo-psychedelia"
1980s ska

The music that inspired me was arty, political, experimental, painful, DIY, minimal, moody, jangly, noisy, and fast.

This is not a definitive list of music I like -- it's a list of many of the sounds that made me want to start a band.

Tuesday's Muses

The Psychedelic Furs -- Greatest Hits
New Order -- Technique

My Laptop Is Lighter Than My Art History Books

If you ever wanted to compare the art being produced in different parts of the world during the same time period or you were curious about how different cultures approached a particular subject matter through art, then this is the site for you: The Met's Timeline of Art History. This is a good website, full of great pictures, informative text, and lots of cross-indexing.

KCET & Beyond

It has been fascinating to watch the evolution of the Public Broadcasting Corp. (both on TV and the radio) as they find ways to employ new media & integrate new technologies in their quest to stay vital & connect with the increasingly technology-dependent public. You can now watch Charlie Rose in living colour on the web (full episodes), download podcasts of The News Hour, and explore all kinds of background & extra information on the myriad topics that cross the PBS screen or grace the NPR airwaves throughout the day.
In one valiant attempt to reach out to the youth, they are recording concerts and posting the entire shows on their website for free. A good one that I stumbled upon recently is OK Go, a Chicago-based garage band probably best known for their music video that has been all over youtube lately, where the band performs a choreographed dance routine on a set of treadmills, accompanied by their song "Here It Goes Again." Listen to their live performance here.

"Remain Seated Please"

For everyone who has a soft spot for Disneyland, here's an audio trip down memory lane. See how many of the sounds you recognize: Disneyland's 50th Anniversary

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Music Industry & Associated Links

Good music resources to have links for:
(This is a post in progress -- comments about each resource will be added eventually)
NME
Rhino Records
Trouser Press Record Guide
Spin
Mojo
Subpop Records
Discogs
AllMusic.com
Auralgasms
SXSW_2006
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Getting My Mojo On

Listening To History (today's playlist in order):
Mojo Presents: Psych Out! (Compilation)
Mojo Presents: Trash! The Roots Of Punk! (Compilation)
Mojo Presents: I Love NY Punk! (Compilation)
Befour Three O'Clock -- Happen Happened

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BRMC Recommends:

Here's another band for the "watch list" -- gotta see them next time they are in town:

The Morning After Girls

Hunting & Collecting

If you ever need a resource for 1960's garage band albums, this is it: Midnight Records. I wish I had known about them last time I was in New York. A visit to their shop is definitely on my itinerary for next time.

Speaking of 1960's garage punk, an old garage punk style band from the 80's is back together and performing! See if you can catch a show:

The Morlocks (used to be the Gravedigger V)

website
myspace (note - the first song will not load, but the other 3 work just fine)

My Life This Week

See it here.

"I don't wanna go..."

I can just about guarantee you haven't heard this cover by a band called Airport of a somewhat obscure Ramones song (for those of you who are less familiar with the Ramones, it's the first track on Airport's myspace page: "Basement"). I love the way he replicates Joey's singing style from the original song... you will see what I mean. In fact, I recommend listening to the original first to remember how it goes, and then checking out the cover. Don't forget to sing along!

Sunday's Soundscapes

Let's hear it for distortion:
Jesus and Mary Chain -- Psychocandy
BRMC -- eponymous

Tracing Our Pop Culture Roots

"What if you could trace the French New Wave, Sam Peckinpah, cyberpunk, 'Pulp Fiction,' 'Mulholland Drive,' and 'Sin City' back to one business gamble taken by a third-tier publisher in 1949? In fact, you can, and without being guilty of too much overstatement. A little, sure, but not that much."

Michael Blowhard writes about Gold Metal Books on his blog, _2 Blowhards_.

"You Like Me. You Really Like Me"

So as it turns out, people are not bored with my all-music blog (or so they tell me). I still promise to add some non-music activities to my life and put up some new content, but for now, let the obsession continue:

Today's playlist - a subset of my youth:
Echo & The Bunnymen -- Crystal Days 1979 - 1999 (Boxed Set) -- disk 1
The Cure -- Staring At The Sea - The Singles
The Psychedelic Furs -- Greatest Hits


Also, here the Brian Jonestown Massacre recommends a list of bands worth checking out.

Staying In The Know

Here's a new band to watch: Tearwave. They are from upstate New York, and they blame their brooding yet dreamy sound on the brutal weather. They haven't released anything yet, but they put a few songs online. Let me know what you think.

Music To Scream To

Today's playlist:
The Buzzcocks -- Singles Going Steady
The Clash -- Clash On Broadway Vol. 1
Rodney Bingenheimer -- The Best Of Rodney On The ROQ (Various Artists)
Generation X -- Valley Of The Dolls

Look! Finally something other than music! Oh, wait...

Yeah, I've been a bit obesessed lately. Searching out a page for every band became very addictive. I'm going to take a break from it soon and post non-music content (no really, I mean it), but not yet.

Here is a video on YouTube from 1981 of The Church doing my favorite song of theirs, transferred I am guessing from someone's old Beta tapes.

The Internet Is So Convenient

Really cool Teenage Fanclub songs are up on their website. I particularly like their song "heavy metal".

An Early Start

Great Morning Music:
Cast -- All Change
Mull Historical Society -- Us <--j/k
Oasis -- (What's The Story) Morning Glory?

Dreaming of Madchester

The Smiths -- Singles
New Order -- Brotherhood
.....Not their best album, but what's a collector to do?

Tuesday's Muses

Albums that sound like two different bands recorded on the same CD:
Super Furry Animals -- Rings Around The World
The La's -- Eponymous

Monday Already?

Time for a new playlist -- California sounds:
Brian Wilson -- Smile
(an incredible album worth waiting all these years for)
Weezer -- Eponymous

More Than Just Mel Brooks

Another great link pilfered from The Late Adopter:
The Movie Timeline -- The history of the universe according to the silver screen (year by year).

Friday Was A Holiday; This Is America; Therefore I Must Have Been Shopping

Alas, Tower Records will soon be no more, but their going-out-of-business sale isn't half bad ($7 for a new CD is hard to argue with). So today I'm listening to recent acquisitions:
My Bloody Valentine -- Isn't Anything
Devo -- Greatest Hits
New Order -- Republic

The Teenage Years

I'm in a flashback mood:
Elvis Costello & The Attractions -- This Years Model
Billy Bragg -- Back to Basics
The Ted Top 23 Of The 1990s
Left of the Dial: Dispatches from the '80s Underground disk #1

Simple Sincerity

Today's list:
Beat Happening -- Eponymous
Jonathan Richman And The Modern Lovers -- The Best Of …
--Note: Jonathan Richman will be playing on the UCLA campus next month.. don't miss it.

I Could Lose Days On This Site

"http://www.punk77.co.uk/index.htm - A history of UK Punk Rock from 1976-79: Featuring an A-Z of punk bands from Adam and The Ants to The Sex Pistols to X Ray Spex, fanzines, punk girls, rare record sleeves, audio clips, fashion, punk rock lyrics, interviews and loads of pictures."

1997 Was A Very Good Year To Have A Radio

It must have been -- I often find myself turning back to a particular cassette tape:
The Ted Top 22 of 1997. Paul Weller, Belle & Sebastian, Teenage Fanclub, Pavement, Cast, Blur, Echo & The Bunnymen.. the list goes on and on. Who couldn't have fun with this collection?
(So that's my "playlist" for the day -- that and more paisley underground).

All Jangles

I apparently needed a 12-string fix today:
Teenage Fanclub -- Songs From Northern Britain
The Three O'Clock -- Sixteen Tambourines
The Kinks -- The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society
Teenage Fanclub -- Grand Prix

I Didn't Grow Up In The Twenties, Did I?

A great art exhibit on early modernism is touring the country this year. There must have been a lot of early modern art around during my childhood -- as I walked around the exhibit, everything on display felt comfortable and familiar. This collection is great, and it may be coming to a museum near you, so check it out:
The Societe Anonyme
(just imagine the accents in the proper places -- I haven't learned how to change fonts yet)

A Different Day, A Different Mood

It's a Monday:
The Ramones -- All The Stuff (And More) -- Vol. 1
The Dead Kennedys -- Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
Black Flag -- The First Four Years
The Pixies -- Doolittle
Repo Man Soundtrack

sunday the 5th's music

Yeah, I'm in that kind of a mood:
New Order -- (the best of) New Order
Sonic Youth -- Goo
Joy Division -- Permanent

"That's a human ear all right."

Cheap, accessible, high speed internet has made it possible for
anything to show up on the web, including the creepy, fascinating, and
bizarre. Here, David Lynch indulges his apparent fantasy of being a
weatherman (updated almost daily).

Today's Music

These are great albums to study by -- they keep my energy level up without distracting me from my work too much:
Ride -- Tarantula
The Stone Roses -- Eponymous
The Candy Skins -- Fun?
The Charlatans -- Between 10th & 11th

This Day's Music

Today I am listening to:
The Soft Boys -- Underwater Moonlight
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club -- Eponymous
No Thanks! The '70s Punk Rebellion disk #2

Drip Your Own Pollock

Here. <-- Title and link stolen from The Late Adopter.

Bunny New Wave?

Nothing tops dark & strange movies like silly yet sincere parodies. Here are two recent examples:

bunny reservoir dogs
bunny rocky horror picture show

Living In A Box

My favorite living space in Montreal: it's right on the river and was built for the 1967 World's Fair. Check out their website here.

We Didn't Want To Be A Capella

Simple and brilliant: The Incredible Mouth Band's video.

The Soundtrack of Our Lives

A great site for less-well-known bands: Auralgasms

A New Blog

This is just a place holder for now, but actual content is forthcoming.