Gone Fishin'

Yeah, I'm gonna be in St. Croix for the next week. As much as I'd love to spit out a couple posts, I'm gonna be a little preoccupied. Y'all understand.

On an unrelated note, I interviewed Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers for Dudes Mag the other day. Maybe I should post some of that 'view here before we release the next ish. Their StL show friggin' ripped and you can read all about it and view some lovely pics right HERE.

The Oranges Band - ride the nuclear wave

When It's Time to Party We Will Party Hard

[Ed. For some reason, Blogger's gone B.A.N.A.N.A.S. - this post has been bouncing on and off all weekend.]
Dudes Magazine is hosting a release party for issue #11 - dubbed "ish' Snake Eyes" - at Lemmons tonight. The festivities start around 9'ish and the Hot Atomics, Celebrity Autoposy, and Devlin's Kids are playin'. That's one healthy dose of RAWK. Be there or be... undudely.

DUDES MAG THEME SONG

And We're Back on the Record...

Sorry for the lack of communication. Had some bidness to take care of right quick.

It feels good to be back. It feels even better to be able to spend some quality time at home with my wife, dog, cats, and RECORDS. I've been at the mercy of the cds in my car for the past few weeks. And while I keep an unreasonable number of cds in my rig (probably about 200), I was really missing the LPs that've been patiently waiting in my living room; just dyin' to be spun.

Below you will find some tunes I've gratefully been rockin' on long playing vinyl format:

Funkadelic - Maggot Brain
Not only is this my favorite Funkadelic album, but it's probably my favorite album cover ever. The album opens with this totally boss 10 minute guitar solo/freakout. Amazingly, it only gets better from there. "Can You Get to That" is one of those songs I feel like everyone in the world should love.

can you get to that

Drive-By Truckers - A Blessing and a Curse
This is considered DBT's most polarizing album. Some love it, some absolutely hate it. I align myself with the former. Sure, it ain't your typical hour+ opus telling the story of the Southern Thing. It is, however, an enlightening departure for the band, and they did it without traveling too far out of their element. The tune below is proof.

wednesday

The Cars - Shake It Up
One day I realized that I have all of the Cars relevant albums on vinyl. I didn't even try to do it. I guess I would just pick up any Cars joint I'd stumble upon. And when I say "relevant" albums, I'm referring to everything released from 1978-1987. Anything else doesn't count. Period.

since you're gone

American Football - American Football
Here's a blast from the past. While some of the albums I loved back in 1999 have long since been forgotten, American Football is definitely not one of them. Maybe it's the midwestern emo kid in me, but something about about the sincerety in the lyrics, the gleaning melodies, and sideways drumming just gets me every time.

honestly

The Hold Steady - Milkcrate Mosh [7"]
This is a super rare Hold Steady seven incher. I believe it was the first thing they ever put out. The b-side is a Zeppelin cover. How many bands can get away with covering Zeppelin on their first release? I only know of one and that'd be the Hold Steady. Sidenote: word on the streets is that these dudes just finished recording their 4th LP, tentatively titled, Stay Positive . Can't friggin' wait.

hey hey what can i do

Against Me - Reinventing Axl Rose
These dudes sure have come a long way since they released Reinventing.... The gritty production and sloppy, raucous spirit is what distinguishes this album from new Against Me.

pints of guiness make you strong

Well, I got the day off so now seems as good a time as any to have a beer. Expect a report on the Drive-By Truckers show I'm hittin' up tomorrow. "LET THE BE ROOOOCK."

I Feel It All

I stumbled upon this Feist vid for "I Feel it All" the other day. I know
"1 2 3 4" was most definitely her breakthrough hit and a fun-as-hell video, but I actually enjoy this one even more. I'd freakin' kill to play with all those pyros!



Back to the grind...

This'll Keep Ya Busy

Sorry, I've been a little hemmed up in bar study mode. It's awesome. Here're a few quick tidbits to hold you over in the mean time:

An idiot's guide to Tom Waits. About 30+ choice cuts from that serve as cliff notes for each of Tom Waits' wicked releases. If you're not educated in the world of Waits, your time has come. Couldn't have summarized them better myself, Popdose.

KBO has been a blogging machine over at ProgBlogStl. Head on over there and learn how to be a hippie while you're testing your "Saved By the Bell" knowledge.

rbally has posted roughly a 60 song set that Jeff Tweedy [Wilco] recorded in someone's living room. Apparently Tweedy played a three-part set in the Coleman's [?] living room for some benefit last March. He pretty much covers the whole Wilco catalog.

While I didn't watch the Grammy's, I did get to check out this awesome Kanye performance [ft. Daft Punk]. Gotta get me some of those shades!

She and Him

A little while back, I heard my boy M. Ward was collaborating with Zooey Deschanel for an upcoming project. Sure, I love me some M. Ward as much—probably, even more so—as the next cat. But Zooey D.? Truthfully, I didn’t expect much. I’ve had a serious change of heart.

Once I heard this tune [posted below], I realized she wasn’t just the girl from Almost Famous and Weeds (love both), but she was also Buddy’s love interest in Elf! Say what you want, but that movie is fun as hell and if you hate it, you’re a cold, lifeless jerk. Anyway, as you may’ve noticed in Elf, Z.D. can sing.

Here's some more info on the collab.: M.W. + Z.D. = She and Him. Merge Records will release this one on March 18, 2008. It’s titled Volume One, so apparently we can expect more from this duo. Premium pop goodness!

She and Him - why stay here

"I've had sex 5 times."

Thank you Dan-R.N. for throwing this vid my way. Here's proof that no matter how many stints of rehab they go through; no matter how many members of Hanoi Rocks they accidentally kill; no matter how many bullshit reality shows they take part in... Motley Crue will NEVER lose their edge. Be sure to watch this one all the way through. You won't be disappointed.

WEEKEND MIX

Have a pleasant weekend folks. It's damn cold here in the Lou. Maybe these tunes will warm y'all up.

The National - fake empire
Flight of the Conchords - business time
Drive-By Truckers - tornadoes
The Drams - des moines
Bomb the Music Industry - 493 Ruth
Modest Mouse - float on (*alternate version)
New Pornographers - myriad harbour
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - oregon girl
Sonic Youth - teenage riot
The Strokes - mercy mercy me (m. gaye cover - ft. ed vedder)

I was passing out when you were passing out your rules.

I'm pretty jazzed about the fact that Jawbreaker -- easily one of my favorite bands, ever -- are back in action [sort of]. Not so fast though. Based on their own reports, they recently jammed together, "for old time's sake." I guess the main reason behind the recent sesh': they're piecing together a documentary. Sign me up for that one, please. More info on that can be found [via punknews] here.

Classics anyone?

Jawbreaker - want
Jawbreaker - do you still hate me?
Jawbreaker - save your generation

Strictly Leakage

The always-electrifying Atmosphere has a dope new album available ... and it's FREE. You can swoop it up right here. It's way hot and I'd recommend it to anyone who's remotely interested in hip-hop.

As introduced by the dudes: "as a way to thank all of our supporters, ant and i have put together this party favor...it's called "strictly leakage." thirteen songs to chase away the winter doldrums." It's been chasin' mine away for the past few days...

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

"This is what it's like to drown out the psychos..."

Speaking of Rhymesayers Entertainment, here's a very awesome track by P.O.S., featuring none other than Craig Finn of the Hold Steady. Truly wicked stuff...

P.O.S. [ft. Craig Finn] - safety in numbers

Things that Suck -- Things that Rule

Quick rundown on things that've been revvin' my engine as of late. We'll start with the negatives.

The things that make me want to put my fist through a wall:

Friggin' Roger Clemens. I know, innocent til proven guilty. Blah blah. He's an asshole and I hope Congress totally puts homeboy on blast come Febuary. GET OVER YOURSELF BRO. You're a cheater [probably].

The primaries. For some reason I'm way more cynical this go-around. Maybe it's because my grandma --who's a Dem, mind you-- has already sent me the same email twice about how Obama is a terrorist who wipes his ass with with the flag and will only say the National Anthem in Arabic. What bothers me even more is a) the silent majority won't back Obama, and b) Hillary Clinton can't carry the vote because, well, people don't like her. That being said, if Edwards can't take South Carolina, his prez bid may be doomed.

Studying. Some day, I will be able to say I don't have to study anymore. Unfortunately, I have to pass the Missouri Bar Exam before I'm able to do so. Ugghhh.

And the things that distract me from the b.s. and make me happy and hopeful:

Drive-By Truckers - Brighter than Creation's Dark. The new Truckers album comes out in a couple weeks and I couldn't be more excited. Judging by the tunes I heard them road-test at their Austin Dirt Underneath Tour gig, this album's gonna rip. Dude, it's 19 tracks long and bassist Shonna Tucker steps up to the mic for the first time to debut 3 tunes she wrote for the album. Enough said.

Johnny Walker's Black Label. Man, I reeaally like scotch.

The Green Bay Packers. The mighty Pack will take on the Seattle Seahawks in the playoffs this Saturday. Could this be Favre's last game? I hope to hell it's not. Does anyone else remember when Hasslebeck [S'hawks QB] mistakenly predicted an OT win against the Pack back in 2004? That really blew up in his face, didn't it. Just to give you an idea as to how weak the S'hawks are: their kicker, Josh Brown, will apparently be wearing heated pants during Saturday's game in Green Bay. Soooo weak.

Bumper Pool. My neighbor gave me this wicked bumper pool table and we've been rocking the hell out of it. Not to mention, it really ties the basement together.

rbally. Dude over at rbally is constantly posting wicked live/rare bootlegs of all of your favorite artists. He went on a not-so-brief hiatus last year, but now he's finally back to regular, quality posting. Some highlights from the past few weeks: the Replacements @ CBGB's, 1984; Ryan Adams in Dublin, 2002; Radiohead in Berlin, 2000; Wilco in Oregon, 2007; Sonic Youth in Italy, 1992.

Happy New Year

I didn't intend on taking this much time off from bloggin'. I had a few different posts brewin' but I've been experiencing some technical difficulties that're preventing me from uploading songs. This will [hopefully] be resolved very soon.

Anyway, you know what's pretty funny/pathetic about me? I randomly choose to ignore really popular bands that drum up alot of buzz. Maybe it's the jaded punker in me, or maybe it's one of my classic--albeit reasonable--excuses: "I can't listen to every friggin' band, ya know."

Regardless, this mentality led me to ignore a really sweet album that was released this past year: The National's Boxer. A buddy back in TX gave me their two previous albums and, honestly, I don't even remember giving them much of a listen. After seeing this album pop up in virtually everyone's Top Ten of 2007, I caved and picked it up.

Holy friggin' hell, this album's good. While I could go on and on about their drummer's insanely precise chops, or rant about the lush piano and string arrangements, it's singer Matt Berninger's lyrics and delivery that demand your attention. I picked this album up a couple weeks back and I'm pretty sure I've listened to at least once everyday since.

Here's the video for "Apartment Story," one of my favs off of Boxer: