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...

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"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:

Year In Review

Things that made 2007 totally bitch:

-Entertaining Bauer and Ward when they came to visit Texas.
-Hanging out in Austin with Ben for a SXSW.
-Seeing the Drive-By Truckers play an acoustic show in Austin.
-Getting my juris doctorate (law) degree.
-Moving back to St. Louie, MO.
-Buying a house.
-Road trip to Milwaukee and Chicago to follow the Cardinals around.
-Hangin' with Team Awesome and crashing a party on Tour de Moose day.
-Our trip to Chicago to hang with pals and check out Jason Isbell.
-An awesome season (thus far) for the Green Bay Packers.
-New albums by the Weakerthans, Kanye, Jens Lekman, and the Black Lips [see earlier post].

New Music: The Foxboro Hot Tubs

There's a sweet new group out called Foxboro Hot Tubs. The band may or may not be a side project of the members of Green Day. Actually, it most definitely is, however, they're not saying. They pulled this same stunt with the electro-punk, robot-rockin' the Network.

Whoever the heck they are, Foxboro Hot Tubs have an EP available that you can download for FREE. Check it out right HERE.

The 6 song EP has a '60's garage, British Invasion vibe to it. I like it. It's really not too much of a stretch from some of Green Day's previous work. At at least, in my opinion, the influences have always beeen there. All-in-all: lighter on the snotty punk rawk, heavier on the garage-soul.

Top 10 Albums of 2007!

Dude, 2007 is, like, over. That being said, here are my favorites of the year. Feel free to chime in [via comments] and offer your favorite joints of '07. I'll probably post my favorite songs of '07 later, which you'll be able to download.

10.WILCO - Sky Blue Sky

9. SPOON - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

8. OAKLEY HALL - I'll Follow You

7. THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE QUEEN - The Good, The Bad & the Queen

6. MODEST MOUSE - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

5. JASON ISBELL - Sirens of the Ditch

4. JENS LEKMAN - Night Falls Over Kortedala

3. THE WEAKERTHANS - Reunion Tour

2. BLACK LIPS - Good Bad Not Evil

1. KANYE WEST - Graduation

Cover Me: Holland, 1945

I've always loved this Neutral Milk Hotel classic. Whenever I hear it, I feel like I'm swerving around on a roller coaster, drunk as hell, smiling my ass off. Why I get that feeling, I have no idea. It's just one of those captivating tunes that kinda does funny things to ya.

I really didn't know what to think when I picked up Jason Isbell's version this one. If memory serves me correctly, he performed this back in his Truckers days. Probably to start off one of their encores, or maybe during a solo show. Regardless, I still think this is an interesting tune for this particular artist to cover. As odd as [I think] it may be, it friggin' works.

Neutral Milk Hotel - holland, 1945
Jason Isbell - holland, 1945

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I'm watching the Patriots steal one from the Ravens on Monday Night Football right now. Talk about a freaking heartbreaker. Brian Billick's a jerk!

Coming off a super-fun weekend which included fun times with THE Michael Bauer [which included sparklers at 3:00 a.m.] and drunken Karaoke with the usual suspects [kudos on "Purple Rain" KBO]. NIZE!

The Monads ++ Hot Stove Banter ++ B.B.Jr.

I hope everyone had a nice holiday. Mine was the same as it always is: too much binge drinking/eating. While nothing particularly crazy went off, I did happen catch a pretty cool St. Louis band I'd never heard of, The Monads. They play sweaty bluegrass punk music. You can smell the whiskey seeping from their pores as they abuse their banjo, violin, guitar, harmonicas and upright bass. Head on over to their site and see for yourself.

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Also, the baseball season may be over but this is one of my favorite times of the year. The hot stove chitter chatter always interests me [and distracts me when I should be hard at work]. For those interested in every ounce of trade gossip ever whispered, head on over to MLBTraderumors. Odds are the Cardinals won't even make a big move, but it's still fun to hear who's movin' and shakin'. Plus, the winter meetings are right around the corner so there's surely gonna be some juicy gossip.

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And I almost forgot, Bloodshot recently sent me the newest Bobby Bare Jr. It's sweet. Snatch the opening track off this rockin' honky-tonk banger below. It rips.

Bobby Bare Jr. - the heart bionic

"You Can't Kill the Rooster"

[++UPDATE++ Appropriate tune'age has been added below.]
So I picked up Captain Casey from the airport on Saturday morning. We had a pretty low key day. Lunch, relaxing, playing catch-up -- nothing crazy. We were going to save "party mode" until later when we planned on checking out Asbury Park, this Springsteen tribute band. I should mention that he came bearing gifts. Being the nice [and insane] guy he is, he brought me some sort of military-issued *switchblade. Pretty bitch, if ya ask me. I was messing with it all day, only to have Captain Casey bark in my ear every 10 minutes, "dude, be fucking careful with that thing - it's really sharp."

Anyway, we're gearing up for the night; about ready to walk out the door. I throw the Captain this memory card I just bought for my camera and tell him to pry the sucker open. The stooges at Target forgot to pop the lock on the plastic case when they sent me home with it. Thank god I have a new switchblade, right? BAD MOVE. Captain Casey puts the blade through the case... and through his friggin' hand. SERVED! I guess I got served too cos the fountain of blood coming from his paw was now all over my walls and bathroom.

Of course Casey's playing it off like it happens all the time [which may very well be the case considering his past]. "It's cool man, give me a rag. We're fuckin' going to see this Springsteen band." Dan RN was there and confirmed the probably obvious: "That definitely needs stitches man."

We gather our supplies before we head out to the ER. Casey makes a cranberry and vodka, I grab a twelver of The King and we're on our way. He checks in, they process him, do a preliminary wrap on his hand, then he walks right back out. Why wait all night in an ER when you can tailgate in the parking lot?

All said and done, the Captain got 10 stitches, got to catch about an hour of Asbury Park's set, was prescribed pain pills [which made him happy], and a BOSS time was had by all... (except for me when he urinated on my leg in a parking lot at 3 a.m.)

HAVE SOME BLOODY TUNES...
Alkaline Trio - BLOODIED UP
Dillinger Four - NOBLE STABBINGS
Minus the Bear - MONKEY!!!KNIFE!!!FIGHT!!!
Rolling Stones - LET IT BLEED

* Not exact model, but pretty close