Last night’s Best Show on WFMU was a classic – Tom Scharpling turned his show into a testosterone-fueled locker room jock-rock talk show, like something off of an AM sports station. Bring it!

I must say that I’m a bit afraid to see next week’s Gilmore Girls, what with the story including Rory and Jess getting into a car accident which is going to hurt Rory and cause Lorelai and Luke to get in a huge fight that will last the rest of the season. It’s depressing. I’ve come to love those characters so much, that I don’t want to see them get hurt or upset – sigh. And I read the spoilers for the upcoming episodes – it’s only going to get worse from here on out…

If you didn’t already love Sophie, you probably will after reading her response to this ignorant hateful man.

I’m listening to the new GBV LP Universal Truths and Cycles right now. I haven’t really formulated an opinion about the whole LP just yet – this one seems like a grower, but really, what GBV release isn’t? There’s some obvious keepers on the record – “Back To The Lake” and “Cheyenne” seem like Pollard was deliberately trying to write classics for permanent live staple status;”Eureka Signs”, “Everywhere With Helicopter” and “Christian Animation Torch Carriers” are all passable anthems. It seems like a good enough record, not nearly as strong as Isolation Drills, but way better than Do The Collapse or the last Airport 5 record. I suppose it most resembles Under The Bushes, Under The Stars in style, structure, and content… but I think it’s missing a bit of that record’s “ooomph”.

Damn, “Cheyenne” sounds so much like Lifes Rich Pageant-era R.E.M. that Stipe et al should get a share of the publishing royalties…

I can’t help feeling a bit creepy reading this blog every day; it’s such a pure voyeuristic thrill to follow the faux-trashy glamor of this cute girl from LA’s life. Especially when she’s so a) early Sonic Youth-poetic about it and b) so cryptic. And she changes the background template every day almost…

In other news, via Pitchfork:

Blur is in the process of recording a new album with an eye toward an early 2003 release, according to the Britpop quartet’s Damon Albarn. The still-untitled project was once to be produced by Fatboy Slim, though the Blur mainman is happy with the direction of the band’s own recordings, which sound “like Can meets Led Zeppelin,” Albarn recently told Rolling Stone. Nonetheless, Blur hope to have the recording finished this spring, with a possibility of a teaser single release in late summer. New song “Don’t Bomb When You Are The Bomb” has been mentioned as a possibility. The band reportedly have fourteen cuts completed and have booked studio time in May to finish up.

“Can meets Led Zep”? Nice. Sounds like 13, Part II…

Last night on Saturday Night Live, Andrew WK was the musical guest. I’d heard a lot of bad things about him, and I’d only heard a snippet of one of his songs before last night – he’s this huge macho musclebound jock-man, doing fast pop-metal songs about partying, but he barks hardcore-style instead of singing. It’s awful. It’s like the musical equivalent of a frat-jock date rape kegger.

I just finished up DJing a party – it wasn’t quite what I thought it was going to be, it was mostly FIT students chatting and steadfastly refusing to dance. Oh, and coming up and asking me for metal every ten minutes. This is what I played:

Jake Slazenger “Supafunk”/ Cornershop “Heavy Soup”/ Missy Vs. O Jays Vs. Happy Mondays “Step On Man”/ Deee-Lite “Groove is in the Heart”/ Michael Jackson Vs. Q-Tip “Breathe Don’t Stop”/ DJ Q-Bert “Demolition Pumpkin Squeeze Muzik”/ Mike Viner’s Incredible Bongo Band “Apache”/ Stevie Wonder “Sir Duke”/ The Rolling Stones “Let’s Spend The Night Together”/ David Bowie “Rebel Rebel”/ The Human Beinz “Nobody But Me”/ Sleater-Kinney “You’re No Rock N Roll Fun”/ Elvis Costello “Pump It Up”/ Gravy Train “Sippin 40z”/ Bitch and Animal “Best Cock on the Block”/ Strokes Vs. Christina “Stroke of Genius”/ James Brown “There Was A Time”/ Chuck Edwards “Downtown Soulville”/ Eddie Bo “Check Your Bucket”/ Jimmy Mamou “Funky Love”/ Iggy Vs. Beasties “Lust For Sureshot”/ The Strokes “Last Nite”/ The Beatles “I Saw Her Standing There”/ Missy Vs. Elastica “Connection Shots”/ Vanilla Ice Vs. Basement Jaxx “Where’s Yr Ice At?”/ The Hives “Hate To Say I Told You So”/ Joan Jett “Cherry Bomb”/ James Chance “Contort Yourself”/ Mos Def “Ms Fat Booty”/ Destiny’s Child Vs. Outkast “Jumpin Jackson”/ The Beatles Vs. DMX, Meth, Busta, etc/ Bjork “Big Time Sensuality”/ Cylob “Sex Machine”/ Sexual Harrassment “I Need A Freak”/ George Michael “I Want Yr Sex”/ Playgroup “Number One”/ Gonzales “Take Me To Broadway”/ Depeche Mode Vs. D12 “Just Can’t Get Enough Pills”/ The Clash “Rock The Casbah (remix)”/ ESG “Dance”/ No Doubt “Making Out”/ Grandmaster Flash Vs. Blackstreet/ Madonna “Material Girl”/ The B-52s “Love Shack”/ Peaches “Set It Off (remix)”/ Crossover “Extensive Care”/ Michael Jackson “The Way You Make Me Feel”/ Beastie Boys “Hey Ladies”/ Busta Vs. Missy Vs. ODB/ Daft Punk Vs. Kraftwerk “Daftwerk”/ Jay-Z “I Just Want To Love You (MTV Unplugged version)”/ Ol Dirty Bastard “Got Your Money” Vs. Will Smith “Miami”/ Otis Redding “Mr. Pitiful”/ Big Ella “Too Hot To Hold”/ Billy Hambric “She Said Goodbye”/ Gloria Jones “Tainted Love”/ Sugar Pie Desanto “Go Go Power”/ The Supremes “Can’t Hurry Love”/ Ike and Tina Turner “Bold Soul Sister”/ Wilbur Bascomb “Just A Groove In G”/ Loose Joints “Tell You (Today)”/ Tom Tom Club “Genius of Love”/ The Ramones “Blitzkrieg Bop”/ Dub Narcotic Sound System “Fuck Shit Up”/ The Make-Up “Pow! To The People”/ Taylor Savvy “Share The Dream”/ Peaches “Fuck The Pain Away”/ Peaches “Lovertits”/ Prince “Kiss”/ Le Tigre “Deceptacon (remix)”/ Britney Spears “I’m A Slave 4 U”/ Latryx “Lady Don’t Tek No”/ The Notorious BIG “Big Poppa”

This one didn’t really get going til most of the people finally started leaving, and people started to dance unselfconciously. But this matters not – we’re putting on a mega dance party in two weeks, and we’re pulling out all the stops. It’s going to be great. Oh, just you wait…

It happens EVERY time. Every time GBV play two shows in a row, and I only see one, the show that I don’t see, they play my favorite GBV song, “Choking Tara”. Adding insult to injury, the setlist also contained some other songs that I was dying to see: Whiskey Ships, Girl Named Captain, Skills Like This, Drinker’s Peace, Psychic Pilot Clocks Out, and Postal Blowfish. Fuck. This isn’t fair! Last night’s setlist was sooooo much better!

Gah.

Quick reviews of shows which I’ve seen in the past few days:

Guided By Voices at the Warsaw – great show, nearly three hours. They played almost all of the new songs plus the following in a non-specific order:

I Drove A Tank, Instrument Beetle, Edison’s Memos, Fair Touching, The Brides Have Hit Glass, Glad Girls, The Enemy, Twilight Campfighter, Teenage FBI, In Stitches, Things I Will Keep, Pop Zeus, Tight Globes, Soul Train College Police Man, Alone Stinking and Unafraid, Submarine Teams, Get Under It, Waved Out, Cut-Out Witch, Don’t Stop Now, Motor Away, A Salty Salute, Game of Pricks, Watch Me Jumpstart, My Valuable Hunting Knife, I Am A Scientist, Tractor Rape Chain, Hot Freaks, Echos Myron, Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory, Smothered In Hugs, Peephole, Liar’s Tale, Shocker In Gloomtown, and Baba O’Riley as the closer.

All of the Bee Thousand songs were played together as the first encore, or as Bob called it “The Bee Thousand Encore!” It’s really cool to have them all played together in a concentrated dose like that. I was especially happy to hear “Echos Myron” “Hot Freaks” and “Smothered In Hugs”, I haven’t seen them do those in quite a while now. I was also quite glad to hear “Edison’s Memos” and “Submarine Teams” again. The crowd was very intense, more so than usual even. I love the way hardcore GBV fans all bond in the crowd through high-fiving and pumping their fists in the air…when I see GBV, I feel like this is what rock shows and rock fans should be.

The Walkmen show at the Knitting Factory certainly exceeded my expectations. I knew that they would be good; but never thought that they’d be as tight as they were, or that the singer would be as handsome and charismatic as he is. I left that show liking the band even more, and wanting to see them again as soon as possible.

The Danielson Famile show at the Knitting Factory was a very interesting experience – they played on a bill with three other bizarre avant Christian groups, each more entertaining than the last. I was particularly impressed by Soul-Junk, who play this manic game of switching around from indie rock to improv jazz to hip hop to drum & bass etc and still manage to be quite good at all of them. They pulled it off nicely. I bought one of their records, and while it’s not as good as the live show, there’s some nice tunes on there.

The Danielson Famile were cute beyond all belief – I wasn’t expecting them to be as tight or professional as they were, but I was glad that they were. Daniel looks a lot like Luke Skywalker in person, and the girls in the band are so cute when they sing along and do little interpretive dances. They were so good-natured and fun, and at the same time, weird weird weird. They played a good setlist, but didn’t play my favorite “Fathom The Nine Fruits Pie”. I was in the front row, and asked the girls if they were going to play it towards the end of their set and one of them said “oh no, not tonight! that song is really hard to play, it’s like torture!”. I thought about it for a moment, and realized that they were right. That song must be kind of hard to pull off live. Too bad.

Hm. I just got back in from the Clinic gig at the Bowery Ballroom. They did it again – another good show marred by their refusal to play any longer than 45 minutes. There were some technical difficulties throughout the set, but nothing too distracting. I was glad to hear them do “Come Into Our Room”, but it’s really too bad that they don’t even bother with “For The Wars”, “Harmony” or “The Equaliser” live. “Mr. Moonlight” was unquestionably the highlight of the night for me, and the new tune “The Magician” was solid, even if it sounded like the horns from “The Equaliser” mixed with the rhythm section of “Welcome”…

The audience was a bit obnoxious – a few too many trendy people in my vicinity talking about how Clinic were “the biggest thing at SXSW” and the kind of “hype” they are getting – ugh! I just wanted to smack them and pull my elitist super-fan shtick, say to them “Hey motherfucker, I’ve been in love with this band since before Internal Wrangler came out – go away and take yr fucking digi-camera with you!”. Honestly, I get the impression that a lot of these people don’t even like music.

The first opening act, Denali, were incredibly tedious and awful – they more or less just strung together every obnoxious major label pseudo-alternative musical cliche imaginable with their array of expensive gear. The girl singer looked like she belonged on some show on The WB or something. Just you wait. These guys are going to be huge, I bet…

[anal retentive] Clinic’s setlist: Come Into Our Room | Pet Eunoch | The Second Line | Internal Wrangler | Mr. Moonlight | The Magician | Porno | Walking With Thee | The Return of Evil Bill | Welcome | 2/4 encore: Monkey On Your Back | Cement Mixer [/anal retentive]

I went to see Commedia dell’High School last night at the UCB Theatre. I highly recommend it. For those unwilling to follow links, it is an 80s teen comedy improvised live on stage; it’s incredibly funny, I could go on forever recounting all of the funniest bits, but you really just had to have been there. I really have got to go to that theatre more often…

Oh my… this is just awful. It’s a website showcasing hideous, cartoonish, gaudy paintings inspired by U2 lyrics. Say what you will about U2, but I think we can all agree that they don’t deserve having this sort of thing done to their songs….right?

I am heartbroken.

The two Wilco shows at the Bowery Ballroom have sold out, and I don’t have a ticket for either.

I am very upset about this.

Anyway, I’m fairly certain my blog posting frequency will be very low the next week or so, since Flyboy will be in NYC, and I will be playing host. I might be able to get a few updates up here and there, but in the meantime you should probably keep your eye on Jim Treacher, Videodrome, Wolk and Suds for high quality bloggage – not to mention the other links I have off to the side.

I’ve been listening to The Best of Both Worlds all day… I am really happy with this record, it’s far better than I would have ever expected, especially considering my bias against R. Kelly. After all, I wasn’t too eager to listen to the guy who is responsible for “I Believe I Can Fly”, which has got to be one of the worst hit songs in pop history. I wasn’t at all skeptical about Jay-Z…the man has been on fire lately, and that fire continues to blaze on with this record.

The record isn’t perfect – there’s a few songs which veer off too far into obnoxious standard R. Kelly territory, but even those are pretty tolerable. The songs that work, REALLY WORK. I’m talking about some sleek, state-of-the-art sexy funk with R. Kelly crooning solid hooks and Jay-Z rhyming just as great if not better than on The Blueprint. The stand-out songs on this record aren’t far off from “I Just Want 2 Love U” from Roc-La-Familia… “Honey” sounds like it was seperated at birth from that song in the best possible way, and “Take You Home With Me aka Body” even shares a verse with that song, though it’s sung by R. Kelly instead of rapped by Jay-Z. The track with Lil Kim is another keeper (“Shake Your Body”), as is the closer “Pussy”, which is far more clever than that Amazon.com review I linked to gives it credit for.

Lately, I’ve really fallen in love with the band Imperial Teen, but I find that it would be really hard for me to describe what I like about them without inadvertantly making them sound boring or ordinary. They are a pop rock band, nearly all of the songs have two or more members of the band singing… most of their songs just knock me over, they are so well-written and well-executed. I especially love when their lyrics take on a more sinister tone, or when they play up their queerness (all of the band members are gay or of ambiguous sexuality, and the band is two men, two women).

Their new record, On improves on their previous two records greatly…more subtlety, more harmonizing, more pianos and keyboards. The songs “Our Time”, “Sugar”, “Baby”, “Teacher’s Pet” and “Ivanka” are particularly wonderful, right up there with the best from their previous two records – “The Beginning”, “Yoo Hoo”, “Lipstick”, “Open Season”, “You’re One”, “Imperial Teen” and “Waterboy”.

I just want to listen to “Sugar” all day long and think of one particular person…

It is a cold, dark, rainy day here in New York – I’ve been listening to one of my custom-made Sonic Youth cds, which to me is the ideal soundtrack to days like this. It feels perfect… this is the tracklisting, for those who may be curious.

Teenage Riot/ Bull in the Heather/ 100%/ Eric’s Trip/ Dirty Boots/ Shadow of a Doubt/ Kotton Krown/ I Dreamed I Dream/ Brother James/ The Burning Spear/ Schizophrenia/ French Tickler/ Saucer-Like/ Candle/ Free City Rhymes/ White Kross/ Expressway To Yr Skull

In other news: The New Barbelith is here. Bask in the soft white glow…

“Cabbage Alley” by The Meters Soul funk euphoria. Happy good times. Happy glowy. Just a bunch of killer sunshine hooks, lyrics be damned (and fuck full sentences, too). One of the best piano riffs in the whole wide world. Grin from ear to ear.

“Number One” by Playgroup Sexy disco. “I’m the kind of cat who always gets his bird”. Super simple bassline, like the Pixies gone all funky. When you dance to this song, you put yr hands up over yr head.

“Young Scene” by Keith Mansfield You can only do the most silly dances to this song – like, you know that one where you pretend you are a submarine? That would be perfect for this. Instrumental orchestral funk. Just over a minute long. Yes!

“Problemmes D’amour” by Alexander Robotnick His name is Alexander fucking ROBOTNICK!. It’s electro disco, it has lots of shouted French lyrics, girls cooing along, and lots and lots of synth squiggles… and his name is Alexander ROBOTNICK!

“Let’s Go Swimming (version 3)” by Arthur Russell It was written to be a “futuristic summer record” back in the early 80s, and it really does feel like it’s from the future… It sounds like the song is simulating what swimming and being underwater is like, while remaining danceable. It’s maybe a bit like dancing on the ocean floor…

Rizla has an in-depth report about his All Tomorrow’s Parties LA adventure here on Barbelith. Lucky bastard. At least I can think “well, at least he missed The Jicks while he was there”…that’s slightly comforting.

Oh yes, I do love that feeling, the one that comes when I hear a song for the first time and know immediately that I love it deeply – that I can’t imagine how I ever went without it. I got this feeling listening to “Launderette” by Vivien Goldman today. I think it’s still to soon for me to try to explain why I love this so much – it’s not quite like anything else I’ve ever heard, but has echoes of many, many songs that I love…there’s certainly a lot of The Slits in this song… It’s got one of the best basslines that I’ve ever heard. No question about that… the lyrics, the vocal delivery, the guitars and light percussion – this song is ideal!

Anyone out there who would like to recommend similar songs, please do tell me about them in the guestbook…

In my travels today, I went to Other Music, and saw the new Disco Not Disco Volume 2 compilation from Strut… I just don’t have the cash at the moment to buy a copy. It’s painful. I want it so badly.

I wrote down the titles…I’m downloading a few tracks from it on Audiogalaxy but over half of it is unavailable, which is good, because I really do want to get a real copy. The original Disco Not Disco compilation is probably one of the finest compilation releases that I’ve ever heard. It changed my life. For real.

In today’s Pitchfork: Jicks hit the studio. Obviously, I’m really quite excited about this…. “Crimson Alligator” and “Memory Pulls” are already two of my favorite Malk songs ever at this point, just in the unfinished live-version form that I know them… The silly Pitchfork journalist didn’t consult his fact checking cuz, apparently…”The Oyster” and “Crimson Alligator” are the same song!