Archive for 2003

We All Have Favorite Songs But We Don’t Know What Keys They’re In

The New Pornographers “Your Daddy Don’t Know” This is one of the three non-album New Pornographers tracks that have been released to date; it is taken from the Fubar soundtrack, and is a cover of the 80s Canadian powerpop band Toronto’s biggest hit. Neko Case sings lead, and it’s definitely one of her finest studio performances. I promise you that this song will be stuck in your head all day, so if you want to avoid that sort of thing, just don’t bother and move right along.

LCD Soundsystem “Daft Punk Is Playing At My House” (live) This is the excellent new LCD Soundsystem song that I mentioned in my post about their live show last week, as performed at the

Les Transmusicales de Rennes 2002 festival.

Fred Armisen as “Music Scholar Niles Covington” live at Maxwell’s, 12/3/2002. This is Saturday Night Live’s Fred Armisen performing a brief bit as a condescending music scholar, opening up for one of Yo La Tengo’s string of Hannukah shows. “Music defines our emotions – trip on that.”

Sharpen The Air That I Breathe

Lali Puna “Left Handed” – This isn’t a great depature from the formula of their previous recordings, but this time Valerie Trebeljahr’s breathy, heavily accented vocals are accompanied by very prominent guitars along with their typical downbeat electronica, making this sound something like electro shoegazer rock.

Sally Crewe and the Sudden Moves “Wake Up The Heroes” – Ah, perfect rock pop music! There’s almost nothing to say about this song other than that it’s short, it’s catchy, it has clever lyrics, and it probably sounds great on a car stereo. If you’re a fan of the two most recent Spoon albums, you really ought to check this out, not just because Crewe’s songwriting style is very similar to that of Britt Daniel’s, but Daniel and Jim Eno also recorded the album, lending the same raw/clean recording aesthetic of those albums to her songs. For more Sally Crewe mp3s, go here. I highly recommend “Forget It.”

Stark Reality “Junkman’s Song” – This is a selection from Stark Reality’s Discovers Hoagy Carmichael’s Music Shop, which has recently been rereleased after decades of obscurity. It was very difficult for me to select just one song from the record, so much of it is remarkable and fascinating. Stark Reality were essentially a psychedelic rock/funk/jazz fusion act, and part of what I find very interesting about them is how they were able to combine familiar elements of those three genres in fairly unpredictable ways, making them seem vaguely alien and peculiar in their new context. This particular song is one of the more psychedelic tracks from the album, and features some amazing distorted keyboard sounds.

Adam Green “Jessica” – This is Adam “Moldy Peaches” Green, who has suddenly become a much better singer on this Scott Walker-style ballad which imagines a pathetic, washed up older version of minor pop star Jessica Simpson. It’s more than a little mean spirited, but it’s somehow vaguely sympathetic, too.

But I Was There!

The Rapture/LCD Soundsystem show last night was fantastic. Here’s a quick summary:

The Rapture started off a little dull, playing five consecutive pre-Echoes songs, though “Out Of The Races And On To The Tracks” was played as the third song in the set, and I do like that one a lot. I’m not too crazy about the pre-Echoes Rapture material – it’s not bad, but it’s just nowhere near as exciting as their new material. “Olio” was played sixth in the set, and from there on it was almost all Echoes songs – “The Coming Of Spring,” “Heaven,” “Sister Savior,” “I Need Your Love,” and “House of Jealous Lovers.” After the brief encore break, they played another old song which I didn’t know the title of, and then closed with “Echoes.” They only played for about 50 minutes. “I Need Your Love” was played with a slightly different arrangement than the album version – the very house-y keyboard part was played with a different keyboard sound and was somewhat deemphasized, and the beat was a little slower too. It went over very well with the crowd, most of whom didn’t seem to know the Echoes songs other than “House Of Jealous Lovers” and the original guitar version of “Olio.” (“Olio” was played with the all-keyboard Echoes arrangement, by the way.)

The Rapture were very intense, but they weren’t nearly as impressive or as tight as LCD Soundsystem. Just going on the two singles that they’ve released so far, it seemed like they were just a very good novelty act/vanity project, but this is a real band, probably the best band out of all of the current Brooklyn/NYC groups. Seriously, once you all hear the new songs and/or see them live, you will be convinced, I promise. They played this one new song called “Daft Punk Is Playing At My House,” and I swear to God, I really wish that I could let you all hear the groove of this thing. In addition to that and two other new songs, they did “Beat Connection,” “Give It Up,” and “Losing My Edge.”

I really liked how just in the stage set-up, LCD Soundsystem makes their emphasis very obvious – the drummer is in the front on the right hand side of the stage, where most bands would put a guitarist, and on the left hand side they’ve got a huge bank of keyboards and samplers, plus more percussion. The bass player stayed in the back, and on the one song with guitar in it, the guitarist stayed in the back. The whole LCD Soundsystem arrangement makes so much sense to me, it’s hard to understand why it’s not more common. Why aren’t there more guitar-free bands playing rhythm-heavy rock with lots of keyboard noise?

I spoke to LCD Soundsystem’s leader/singer James Murphy (who looks like a cross between Pete & Pete’s Endless Mike and Six Feet Under’s Nate Fisher) when they were packing up, and he told me that they were planning on releasing two more singles in 2003, and that their album would be out in 2004. I’m very excited to hear more.

Love Is All My Crippled Soul Will Ever Need

Relaxed Muscle “Rod Of Iron” – This is a song from Jarvis Cocker’s new dark electropop project. It’s pretty good on its own, though it’s certainly not on the same level of quality as the last four Pulp albums. When you listen to the song, just picture Jarvis wearing a ridiculous Donnie Darko-style skeleton Halloween costume as he sings the lyrics.

The Rapture “Love Is All” – This is taken from The Rapture’s excellent (and as yet, not commercially released) new album Echoes. I’m very excited to be seeing the band play tonight, I really love every song on Echoes, and I’m hoping they play most, if not all of that record tonight. LCD Soundsystem is the support band, and I’m pretty excited to be seeing them too. I’ve been seeing the same headlining bands over and over for the past two years, it’ll be nice to see something new and unpredictable for a change of pace.

No Sleep Til Br0klyn

Thanks to Jacob from Barbelith, I’ve become obsessed with the music of the Br0klyn Beats label for the past three days. It’s all amazingly good, and it seems to be scratching an itch I didn’t even realize that I had. One of the things that I really love about most of the Br0klyn Beats artists is how they achieve a very elegant balance of dissonant rhythmic noise and actual pop/disco grooves. There’s a sense of compositional complexity, particularly in the work of Donna Summer, that I don’t find in a lot of other cut-up electronic music – the Br0klyn Beats folks seem genuinely interested in making songs rather than just soundscapes or experiments in harsh audio texture.

Nettle “The End Of Public Space” (from Brutal Police Menace)

Criterion “Honky Tonk Hits” (from the [sic] series)

DJ/Rupture “Rumbo Babylon” (from the [sic] series)

The Light Burns Bright In My Skull

Donna Summer “What You Truly Need” – This song is from Summer’s brilliantly titled new album This Needs To Be Your Style. It should be noted that this isn’t the disco diva Donna Summer, but the experimental electronic artist who does the Advanced D&D program on WFMU.

The Mad Daddy – This is taken from WFMU’s Aircheck program from last summer. The Mad Daddy was an incredibly odd and unique DJ from Cleveland in the late 50s and early 60s who spoke only in manic, spontaneous rhyme. He was prone to outbursts of crazed cackling with severe reverb on his voice, and played the strangest rock and r&b that he could find. Apparently a new cd compiling several of his airchecks has been released recently, but I can’t seem to find any information about how to order a copy. If you know anything, please let me know.

An Evening With Stephen Malkmus

Oh, wow! Malkmus is the Onion AV Club interview this week! It’s exactly as good as I would expect it to be, too. He comes off as especially down to earth and humble in this interview, even more so than usual. Here’s a highlight:

O: Are you tired of hearing Trey Anastasio’s name come up in connection with yours?

SM: Not really, because it hasn’t come up lately. And I still haven’t crossed over into a jam-band thing. I don’t know what’s holding us back, because, like, Ween… Somehow, they have a jam-band following. We don’t really stretch it out that much yet. We still have a post-punk stick up our ass that makes it not a feel-good environment, entirely. I can’t help it. I mean, those bands are essentially feel-good, “Everything’s all right,” and “It’s easy being white and middle-class,” or something. And I don’t think it’s easy. [Laughs.] No matter what stratosphere you’re on. Like, Jack Johnson and Ben Harper and those guys, you know? My friend promoted their tour in Australia, and they just go down like gangbusters in Australia, those bands. It’s like a laid-back surfer clientele there, you know? The weather’s nice, so the music fits in perfect. I can see how it works, but… There’s stormy weather at our shows.

Getting Freaky With The Hot Tub Jets

You can dance to all of today’s mp3 selections.

The Knife “Is It Medicine” – Another wonderful song from The Knife, this one being considerably more aggressive than the lovely ballad “Heartbeats” which I featured a few weeks ago. The Knife’s album isn’t very consistent, but the five or six excellent songs on the record definitely make it a worthwhile acquisition.

Scissor Sisters “Backwoods” – Oh, what a perfect song! It starts out as the kind of wink-wink naughty funk pop that Beck used to do before he decided to become a full-time boring folk singer, and then it turns into (to my ears, anyway) a homage to Level 42’s “Something About You.” When is this record ever going to be commercially released? There are six songs on the record which would be massive pop radio hits if the world were a just place.

The Rogers Sisters “I Don’t Want To Have To Live And Die Like A Dog” – Environmentalist dance punk, how quaint! “It feels so 80s/or early 90s/to be political,” indeed. This is perhaps the closest anyone can come to sounding like Le Tigre without actually being Le Tigre. I don’t mean to sound negative – I really love this song, and I think that you should too.

Carol Douglas “Doctor’s Orders” – Extremely cute disco classic. This may actually be better suited to roller skating than dancing.

“Fish Is Always A Kickass Opening Subject For Any Show”

The Jicks “The Fisherman” (live in Chapel Hill, 2003) – Here it is, finally, courtesy of Hunter. It’s such a shame that this isn’t a Malkmus original, it makes me melt and swoon every time I hear it. The Jicks really ought to put together a proper covers album/ep.

For those of you visiting this site who are not Stephen Malkmus obsessives, you can check out this bizarre answering machine tape taken from an episode of the Audio Kitchen. I’m not sure what to say about it, other than that it is a particularly odd and disjointed answering machine tape unlike any other that I’ve heard. It sort of crosses the line from found audio into unintentional sound art.

Also: Nate is absolutely right – “Shannon Stone” by Go Home Productions is a must-hear. Their “Christmas On The Block,” “Dirrty Magic,” and “Daft Britney” boots are also fabulous.

In other “bootlegs never went away” news, the Beyonce Knowles Vs. James Brown mash-up on page 3 of DJ Crook Air’s Sounds page is well worth checking out, as is Dsico’s Britney Vs. Chic “Goodtime Girl.”

I Know I Said I’d Be Good, But They Dig It When I’m Bad

Prince and the Revolution “How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore / Let’s Pretend We’re Married / International Lover” (live in Syracuse, 3/30/1985 – The whole concert that this is taken from is fantastic, but I’m posting this medley for its interesting dynamic of Prince playing to the audience and holding back. Being a tease is a big part of his particular brand of showmanship, and that’s definitely on display here.

Alice Cooper “Clones (We’re All)” – As heard on last night’s Best Show On WFMU with Tom Scharpling, the first new episode in five weeks. This comes from one of Cooper’s lesser known albums, Flush The Fashion, but some of you might know the excellent cover version by The Smashing Pumpkins from the Aeroplane Flies High box set. I had never actually heard the original until last night; I had always assumed that Billy Corgan made his version synth-y and new wave-y because that was what he was into at the time, but as it turns out, the original was pretty damn synth-y itself. This song comes highly recommended if you’re a fan of The Cars.

True Human Victory

Oh, I nearly forgot to mention the Andrew WK quote from last week’s Entertainment Weekly! It is probably the greatest quote of an artist hyperbolically describing one’s own creation in all of recorded history, rivalled only by 60s era Stan Lee:

He describes his upcoming CD as “pure unadulterated triumph, unmitigated glory, absolute complete euphoria, melodic ecstacy, and true human victory.”

I’m sure he’s right!

Could This Be A Generation Gap?

Coyle & Sharpe “Mutant Zebra-Eel In Paint Store” – Coyle & Sharpe were a duo of man-on-the-street pranksters from the Bay Area in the 1960s who improvised deadpan put-ons with unsuspecting strangers and recorded the exchanges with hidden microphones. This selection is taken from their first album, The Absurd Imposters. It was sort of difficult to figure out which bit from the record to post here, but I ended up choosing this one because it is just so over the top in its ridiculousness. If you like this bit, I suggest that you buy a copy of the record, which is only available as a limited-edition cd-r rerelease on the Coyle & Sharpe website, which is run by the Sharpe family.

Neil Hamburger, Live In San Francisco 9/18/2000 – As opposed to his albums, this comedy set was recorded live with a real non-canned audience. It is sort of interesting to hear how Neil Hamburger goes down with an audience who seem to be mostly in on the joke, with at least one layer of irony removed, but with witless drunken shouting added. It’s not as funny, but it’s certainly worth listening to if you’re a fan. In this show, Neil is mixing in old classic routines from his albums with some material that would end up on his most recent album, Laugh Out Lord, including the worst Julia Roberts joke of all time.

The MSR Singers “I’m Just The Other Woman” (version 2) – This is the title track from one of MSR’s compilations of song-poems. If you’ve never heard of song-poems and don’t feel like following that link, I’ll explain: A few companies, one of them being MSR, used to advertise a deal in which a person could send in an original piece of poetry that session musicians would turn into a pop song. The results of these recordings are often ridiculous, but I think that this particular song is absolutely beautiful and poignant.

If You’re Out On The Road, Feeling Lonely And So Cold…

Check it out – an mp3 archive of every single song ever featured (or in some cases, prominently mentioned) on all three seasons of the Gilmore Girls. It is quite a nice selection of music, far better than anything else in prime time. If you’ve never seen the show and are wondering why Grant Lee Phillips/Grant Lee Buffalo comes up over and over again, you should know that Grant Lee Phillips is a frequent guest on the show as the town troubadour. If you’ve never heard Grant’s music, you really ought to check out the Grant Lee Buffalo songs available there, especially “Mockingbirds” and “It’s The Life.”

(Thanks to Alexfw!)

I’m Taking Dedications, I’ll See You At The Station

Kazmi with Rickies “Jesus Christ Super Star” – Wow. I looooove this song. I first heard this song a few days ago on Ken Freedman’s show on WFMU, and I’ve been listening to it over and over ever since. This song has nothing to do with the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, but everything to do with shambolic, catchy Wowee Zowee style pop.

The Sounds “Seven Days A Week” – I heard this song for the first time on David Letterman’s show earlier in the week – it’s fun powerpop, not too far off from the best New Pornographers songs, but performed by Swedish fashion victims.

The Exploding Hearts “Throwaway Style” – This is sort of like a low budget sequel to the Strokes’ “Last Nite” with the original cast replaced with total unknowns. It’s a lot of fun, all the same.

Matrix Reloaded

Whoa. What a shitty movie.

There are just so many things wrong with this movie, I barely know where to begin.

I knew going in that it wouldn’t be a very intelligent or thoughtful film, I knew from the first one that The Matrix that the film would only offer a shallow pretense of philosophy. So there’s no point in discussing that stuff, right? I will say this, though – if you’re a person who went to see Matrix Reloaded and was exposed to philosophies and ideas that you had never been exposed to/thought of yourself by the age of 15, then I do believe that you are shallow and lacking in intellectual curiosity, and frankly, you deserve movies like this.

All I wanted from the Matrix Reloaded was some nice action fluff, and some pretty visuals. My expectations were low. 90% of why I bought my ticket was to see Neo fight a million Agent Smiths. And they fucked that up!

Pretty much every fight scene was a miserable failure, and there is a reason why. The ‘heroes’ in the story never appear to be in the slightest bit of danger – obstacles are placed in their path, but Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity have these godlike powers that make every fight they get into rigged in their favor from the start. In the first film, when Neo is resurrected and gets his godlike powers, it’s a big exciting rush because he can finally fight back effectively after having gone through quite a bit of danger throughout the film. In this movie, he’s just swatting guys around. It doesn’t seem like violence, it seems like Michael Jackson video dancing. No one ever appears to be in pain, it all feels extremely disconnected from the reality of the ultraviolence they are simulating. What’s the point of watching these scenes? Is it really just ballet for video game fans? Was the Neo Vs. Agent Smith fight little more than a Busby Berkeley routine for kids on ritalin?

Also, what is the point of having a fight on top of a moving tractor trailer on a freeway if you’re going to ignore the basic laws of physics that would make such a scene exciting and dangerous under normal circumstances? The way they were on top of that truck, they may as well have been having the same fight on a stationary bed. I’m sorry, I don’t play video games. This shit bores me – if it’s going to be violent, that’s cool with me, but I want it to feel scary and physical, and I want it to feel like it has some meaning. Ugh – I think of that one terrible line “you never truly know someone until you fight them” – bullshit. Such macho crap, and in the context of the film, so meaningless. We learn nothing from watching these people fight, other than that it’s a boring and necessary ritual for them.

I should say that in most any superhero-style fiction, one does expect the protagonists to win, but The Matrix Reloaded takes this to an extreme – the heroes have no limits, and have almost no challenges beyond petty annoyances offered up by the Agents, the Twins, and assorted thugs. It’s video game wish fulfillment, but it has nothing to do with drama or interesting storytelling.

The prospect of a swarm of Agent Smiths was a wonderful idea both visually and conceptually, but what’s the point of throwing them all at Neo if they really pose no threat to him at all? The only time in that fight scene where they even seem to have anything on Neo is when they have him pinned down, but that lasts all of 30 seconds. This is the point in the film when I decided that I was rooting for the bad guys (Smith, The Architect, The Merovingian, Persephone, the Twins), not just because they were such underdogs, but because they were invariably more human and charismatic than the protagonists. Not only that, but I despise the heroes in this story. Neo and Trinity lack personality entirely, and Morpheus is a pompous moron. I absolutely hate Morpheus, actually. I can’t think of a less likeable protagonist in a film like this, even the petulant Anakin Skywalker from the two most recent Star Wars movies.

I don’t believe that I’ve ever seen an on-screen couple with less chemistry than Neo and Trinity. Seriously, Scott Summers and Jean Grey in X2 seem so passionate by contrast! It’s not entirely Carrie Anne Moss and Keanu Reeves’s fault; their ‘romantic’ scenes are so poorly written that by comparison the relationship between Anakin and Amidala in Attack Of The Clones seems touching and poignant. Have the Wachowski brothers ever met a woman? Have they ever been in a romantic relationship? This also applies to the scene early on in the film with the rave cut with shots of Neo and Trinity having sex – how could they possibly have made sex and dancing look any more joyless and boring than that? God help their sex partners, and please do not invite me to their discotheque.

Needless to say, all of the quasi-military jargon in Zion was tedious and obnoxious. I felt as though I was watching a lousy Star Trek spin-off for the first 40 minutes or so. What the hell were they thinking – of all the things one can borrow from Star Trek, they’re going to take the dull Starfleet beaurocracy shit? By the same token, why did this world need a film with a homage to the scene in Return Of The Jedi when they’re planning the attack on the Death Star?

And what the hell was with that kid who was pestering Neo? That made no sense, and was just annoying. It had nothing to do with anything, and wasn’t developed, just dropped into the script without explanation or purpose. It just made things more confusing, as if we’ve missed several episodes of continuity coming into this film. The same goes for the pointless “love triangle” crap with Morpheus and Niobe. The plot did not need the clutter, and any attempts at adding some humanity to a character like Morpheus was probably doomed to fail no matter what.

I should mention that the second half of the film was so poorly edited and choreographed that it barely made narrative sense, but by that point, the film was too far gone for it to matter too much.

There were some bits that I liked – I love watching Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith; some of the visual/action parts were enjoyable to look at; I certainly don’t mind watching Monica Bellucci in a rubber dress; and the scene with Neo and The Architect wasn’t bad.

But fuck, what a mess.

You Give Yourself To Him

Pavement “The Killing Moon/Green Grow The Rushes” (live in Liverpool, 1999) – This has been one of my personal favorite Pavement live recordings for some time now, but I just found a nice clean digital non-tape copy and I couldn’t help but want to share it here. This is worth downloading if just the segue into R.E.M.’s “Green Grow The Rushes;” it’s Pavement at their most beautiful.

Buddy Starcher “History Repeats Itself” – This is yet another selection from the wonderful Happy Listener’s Guide To Mind Control tape. Basically, this is a numerology/conspiracy nut solemnly listing off the trivial coincidences linking the Lincoln and Kennedy administrations, with “God Bless America” playing in the background. According to the liner notes, this single actually hit #39 on the American pop charts in 1966, which may officially make this the most bizarre Top 40 single of all time.

I promised something exceptionally creepy yesterday, and I’m going to follow through. I wasn’t entirely sure if I really wanted to post this, but what the hell. A few weird Google search results leading to this site aren’t going to hurt me.

Jason Moss was a precocious young man who developed a keen intellectual interest in serial killers as a teenager. Moss’s interest led him to correspond with some serial killers as an attempt to gain insight into their minds, which he achieved through psychological manipulation, deception, flirtation, and ego-stroking. Moss’s relationship with John Wayne Gacy was the most complex, and Moss later wrote a book titled The Last Victim about his experiences with Gacy.

The recording here is taken from Moss’s telephone conversations with Gacy, and I’m guessing that these excerpts all come from a point fairly early in their correspondence.

(Moss/Gacy audio courtesy of Grant)

So That Makes Me A Full-Time Lifeguard

“Samson” – This is a classic skit taken from the Best Show On WFMU. Andy Earles calls in as Samson, believing that he is leaving a message on an answering machine in response to a singles ad. You’ve met Samson. We’ve all met Samson, I’m sure of it. When I interviewed Andy Earles a few months ago, he had this to say about the Samson skit:

MP: Where did the Samson bit come from? That one is so great, this man’s whole depressing life compressed into six minutes on an answering machine.

AE: Yeah, you make fun, but…..you are the one that thinks too much, you are the unhappy one.

(Oh hey look – William “The Only Decent Writer At Pitchfork” Bowers has written a review of the two Scharpling/Wurster cds looooooooong after they’ve been released over on Pitchfork today. They are positive reviews, but I think that Bowers makes the skits seem unfunny in the way that he writes about them. It is definitely written with that odd tone of humorless defensiveness that permeates nearly everything written for Pitchfork, which is probably not the best approach to take when writing about comedy.)

“The ‘Sermant’ of God Vs. Bill Clinton” – This is another recording taken from the Audio Kitchen archives. According to the Professor, this was a homemade recording which was intended to be sent to the White House by a mentally ill young man who believed himself to be channelling the voice of God. He refers to himself as a “sermant,” which apparently is a combination of the words “servant” and “sermon” – he is delivering God’s sermon as His servant, get it? This is certainly one of the most disturbing recordings that I will post here, but trust me, it’s not even half as creepy and dark as what I’ve got planned for tomorrow.

In the meantime, enjoy this eternal disco classic, Loose Joints “Is It All Over My Face”. This is the MAW remix. I defy you not to smile or feel compelled to at least awkwardly move your body around while listening to this song. This song has one of my all-time favorite bass lines, too. It’s just wonderful all the way around.

Endorsement:

I know that I’ve got a million and one links over to the left of this page, and it may be a chore to check them all out, but if you aren’t regularly reading Sharpeworld, Clap Clap, Dilettantism, and Big Sunny D, you are totally missing out.

The Trumpet Summons Us Again!

“The Trumpet” This comes from a weird old record called Sing Along With JFK, which was made up of Kennedy’s speeches played over music, with a very cheerful-sounding chorus singing his words after he speaks them. It almost sounds as though they are childishly mocking him, it’s just so bizarre. I can’t imagine why anyone would have thought that this would be a good idea. This is taken from the Happy Listener’s Guide To Mind Control tape.

Beyonce Knowles and Jay-Z “Crazy In Love” – It’s just so great to hear them both performing up to their potential, isn’t it? Excellent stuff. I heart Beyonce.

Martina Topley-Bird “Need One” – Here’s another one living up to her potential, though to be fair, she’s never been anything less than spectacular. The band she’s playing with is Queens Of The Stone Age, if that means anything to you. In a better world, this song would be a huge mainstream hit in America, but in this world, it’ll probably just be a minor hit in the UK. It’s too bad that the American market is so segregated that a pop/r+b/rock hybrid like this would have a hard time finding airplay. It almost doesn’t matter that Michael Jackson hasn’t put out any decent music in the past several years, it wouldn’t get played anywhere for the same reasons.

In Case You Were Wondering…

The runners-up in the Malk trivia contest got:

Pig Lib poster

Pig Lib stickers

Pavement Terror Twilight sticker

Matador Intended Play Spring 03 sampler, featuring The Jicks, Cat Power, Yo La Tengo, Dead Meadow, Aereogramme, Interpol, and the New Pornographers. I knew all of the songs, but it is a very listenable disc of great selections, and I’ll probably listen to it on the discman fairly often.

Very cool! Thank you, Matador!

SM + Jicks 5/15 NYC

SIN TAXI / JENNY AND THE ESS DOG / SHEETS / RAMP OF DEATH / WITCH MOUNTAIN BRIDGE / DARK WAVE / VAGUE SPACE / WATER AND A SEAT / ANIMAL MIDNIGHT / JO JO’S JACKET / VANESSA FROM QUEENS / IT KILLS / DYNAMIC CALORIES / DO NOT FEED THE OYSTER / US // GRAB IT AND GONE / unknown aborted song / THE FISHERMAN / 1% OF ONE

I’m disappointed that “Old Jerry” and “Craw Song” were not played either night, and that the setlist didn’t change too much, but that’s not so bad. I enjoyed this show quite a lot more than the previous night, which in some ways had a lot to do with being more physically comfortable. I do think that the band were more dynamic and engaging tonight, and it never hurts to have “Jo Jo’s Jacket” in the setlist instead of “Church On White.” Don’t get me wrong, “Church On White” is a beautiful, lovely song – it’s just a downer, and I’m a little bored with it by now. I’ll never get sick of hearing “Jo Jo,” I can’t hear the song without getting a nice rush of euphoria.

Concert notes: Joanna plays drums and John plays bass on “Grab It And Gone.” The audience really, really, really liked “Witch Mountain Bridge.” Big cheers for “Jenny” and “Jo Jo” too. I’ve never loved “Sheets” as much as I did tonight. “Oyster” had a different intro than the usual version, nothing too radical – just a variation on the melody. “Water And A Seat” was performed a lot better tonight, and I loved every bit of it. I think that I like “Animal Midnight” a lot more in concert, but not necessary as a live recording. I really badly want a nice clean recording of the band performing “The Fisherman.” It’s so stunning, I was thrilled to hear it again tonight. I wasn’t expecting it.

Oh, And Hello

Hello to the rather large number of visitors coming from the Sharpeworld site. Please do stick around, I’ll be hosting some very peculiar mp3s over the course of next week which I’ve just acquired today.

SM + Jicks 5/14 NYC

Setlist, with notes.

DYNAMIC CALORIES / DO NOT FEED THE OYSTER (fans obviously love this song as much as I do) / JENNY AND THE ESS DOG / SHEETS/ VANESSA FROM QUEENS (with a little mellow jam bit at the end) / WATER AND A SEAT (Mike Clark makes intense faces while singing the backup vocals)/ PHANTASIES / ANIMAL MIDNIGHT / THE FISHERMAN (Aslan cover, gorgeous slow song with high John harmony, I can’t wait to get a copy of this one, it isn’t in circulation yet but some guy was recording this show with pro equipment so it should be soon) / WITCH MOUNTAIN BRIDGE (best guitar solo of the night) / RAMP OF DEATH / CHURCH ON WHITE / DARK WAVE / US (starts off with only drum, vocal, and bass before returning to the regular arrangement once the organ comes in for the ‘treeeeees to climb’ part) /IT KILLS (song from the El Ray show, very immediately likeable) / TOMORROW NEVER KNOWS (improvised Beatles cover, vocal and keyboard) // NEED YOUR LOVE (Status Quo cover) / VAGUE SPACE /1% OF ONE (I had to leave through the beginning of the soloing to catch my train)

Please Jicks, play “Old Jerry” tonight!

You Can’t Have A Bar-B-Q When You’re Scuba Diving

“The Specious Moment” – This is taken from the Audio Kitchen archives. This is a homemade recording of a very mentally ill guy pretending to do his own radio station, which he sent to a local college radio station as a way of harassing them. The guy isn’t scary-crazy, but just far-out weird crazy. The drill bits ad is priceless, by the way. “Aww, fiddlesticks!”

“The Museum” – This is an excerpt from the LP version of Eric Weber’s How To Pick Up Girls book from the early 70s. In this selection, we learn how to pick up “long-legged stylish looking girls” at an art museum through deception, insincerity, and manipulation of common female insecurities. This is casual misogyny at its most insidious.

The Shimmer Kids Underpop Association “The Last Joke In Town” – This is my personal favorite song from the band’s forthcoming EP Book Of Mirrors. Join the most criminally overlooked band in America for a ska party in outer space, and check out their website for more MP3s from previous releases.

Tricky “The Love Cats” – This is from the forthcoming album Vulnerable, which is easily the best and most consistent Tricky record since Pre Millenial Tension. Yes, this is a cover of The Cure classic.

Also: Be sure to check out the very amusing X-Men 2 Vs. Cremaster Vs. A Mighty Wind chart that Emily and Todd made over on Dilettantism.