Late to the party - The Avalanches

One great thing about recorded music, perhaps the greatest thing even, is that since it is recorded, it can be discovered and enjoyed by the listener at his or her convenience. No duh, right? Well, in a time when most albums are leaked months prior to their release dates to enterprising downloaders clamoring to put some tracks on their blog or brag to their friends, it's nice to know, for the rest of us, the music will be there when we get to it.

Case in point: The Avalanches fantastic album Since I Left You, which was released in 2001, and which I am just now getting around to enjoying.

As most of you probably know, this isn't some obscure record that went unnoticed and has just recently garnered some praise. It was pretty much unanimously heralded as a masterpiece and wound up toward the top of many a 2001 best albums list. Add to this I was very aware of the album, and at one point even had the album in mp3 form on a disc full of other mp3 albums. Needless to say, it never got burnt onto a disc in music form, nor did it find it's way onto my first generation iPod. And that is a shame. But it waited for me, just like whole bunch of other bands and albums did, and as many more will continue to do.

My Top 20 Albums of 2010

I would have to say that 2010 was a fine year for music. A lot of really good releases early on, some great stuff in the spring and summer, and then it finished strong, like Michael Phelps anchoring a relay (with a bong waiting for him at the finish). My year-end list is dominated by guitar rock (even more so than usual), but I'm not quite sure what that means other than a lot of great guitar-based albums came out and I managed to steer clear of a lot of the electronic stuff. Which is neither good nor bad. That stuff will still be there for me to listen to in 2011 or 2012, or whenever I get to it. On to the list!


20. Male Bonding - Nothing Hurts
Dips its toes in the lo-fi wading pool at times, but really, just a great straight forward rock album. Plenty of hooks and a few surprises, just when you think you got 'em pegged. Worthy debut from these Brits.

19. MGMT - Congratulations
Sure, there's no "Time to Pretend" or "Kids," or even "Electric Feel" for that matter. But if you listened to the rest of the band's disjointed first album, you could tell they weren't really just about those electro-pop moments. This is modern psychedelia at it's finest. Enjoy it for what it is, don't hate on it for what it's not.

18. Best Coast - Crazy For You
Love the West Coast 60s vibe of this album. Clean, simple pop songs, just like they did it back in the day. The perfect album to play in SoCal when you're grilling burgers on a warm summer afternoon. Or, to warm you up when you're outside grilling on a winter night and the temp is inching too close to the 40s for comfort.

17. Yeasayer - Odd Blood
Dancey electro-pop with a bit of an edge. Like you're at a party in a sketchy neighborhood and you're having fun, but you feel the need to keep looking over your shoulder, JUST IN CASE. An odd opening track and a second half that fizzles out a bit kept this from cracking my top 10.

16. Dum Dum Girls - I Will Be
Driving beats, subtle atmospherics and darker lyrical content make this the yang to Best Coast's California yin. If BC is the sound of the beach and backyard barbecues, Dum Dum Girls is a night out on the town in Echo Park. Also a bonus - all females.

15. Local Natives - Gorilla Manor
Los Angeles is in the hizz-ouse!! Counting the album just ahead of this one and the two behind it, that makes four L.A. bands in my top 20. Very nice 2010, L.A.! Standout track "Airplanes" sucked me in immediately and the rest of the album proved to be very solid - packed with interesting percussion and staccato rhythms, whatever THAT means.

14. No Age - Everything In Between
I'll be honest, I was a bit disappointed at first with this album. Not sure what I was expecting, but I had REALLY high hopes for this one. Maybe too high. It's a little more moody and subtle where I was expecting more bombast and hooks. But it IS a good album, expectations be damned.

13. The New Pornographers - Together
I think we've been spoiled by a few bands over the years, and this is definitely one of them. Consistency isn't as cool as whatever the new crop of up-and-comers are doing, but rest assured, most of us will be listening to this album a few years from now while most of those up-and-comers will have flamed out. Ho-hum, another New Pornographers album, another set of catchy indie pop done to perfection. Yawn.

12. Black Keys - Brothers
This album was released in May, but I just got around to listening to it over the past couple of months. Glad I did. More blooze rock mastery from Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney. Who needs the White Stripes when these guys keep putting out albums like this?

11. Surfer Blood - Astro Coast
These Floridians come off as the perfect mix of West Coast chill and East Coast cool on their debut. Weezer is the comparison that gets thrown around the most, and I see it, but only on a few songs. Only "time will tell" if they've got the "staying power," but this is great guitar rock to "live in the now" with. (Cliche-bot 2000 over here)(Also, BARF). Bonus points for using "Jabroni" in not one, but TWO song titles. Well done, guys!

10. The National - High Violet
The National released one of my favorite songs of 2009, "So Far Around the Bend," off the fantastic Dark Was the Night comp, so I was eager to hear a new batch of songs. High Violet isn't as instantly enjoyable as their previous two albums, but given a few listens, the songs do start to reveal themselves in greater depth. "Bloodbuzz Ohio" just missed cracking my Top 10 songs list.

9. Ted Leo & The Pharmacists - The Brutalist Bricks
Right from the start, Mr. Leo lets you know he's about business on this new one. "The Mighty Sparrow" kicks off the album with urgent vocals and a chugging guitar and it never looks backs. I wasn't a fan of his last release, but I'm back on board with this one. Full review here.

8. Vampire Weekend - Contra
Vampire Weekend really make it look easy, don't they? Simple hooks and simple, pretty little melodies. Well, take it from a guy who has never written a song in his life - that shit ain't easy! The "afro" part of the afropop equation is pretty much gone, just leaving the "pop" on this, their second album. This album routinely cheers me up while driving in traffic.

7. Titus Andronicus - The Monitor
There's a lot to digest here. A loose Civil War theme, readings from Abraham Lincoln speeches, references to Billy Bragg and The Boss, and most of that happens on track one! This is really just a powerful, timeless punk record that helps remind me why I spent a good chunk of my early 20s consumed by punk rock. Thanks for the reminder, guys.

6. Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
I'm pretty sure I like this record more than most people. What that means to me is that "most people" are totally missing out. And that I am much cooler than most people. BSS may suffer from the same "consistency" plague I mentioned above about The New Pornographers. Damn, we are a spoiled lot.

5. Spoon - Transference
I'm either getting damn boring in my old age or the old guard indie heroes really came through this year. Probably both. All you cool kids can take your Crystal Castles and Salem and I'll gladly take another set of tightly wound guitar rock from Britt Daniel and co.

4. The Walkmen - Lisbon
Imma be straight witchu because if there's one thing I believe in, it's straight talk. Well, that and the fact that there will be a zombie apocalypse in 2012. So I guess I believe in two things. Sue me! We're all gonna get eaten by zombies anyway. Back to the straight talk. I may have this album ranked too high. There, I said it. Again, SUE ME! But it has my favorite song of the year and some other really good ones as well. Perhaps not as good as You & Me, but still very good.

3. LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening
There's talk that this may be the last LCD album for a while, or forever even. That would bum me out almost as much as a zombie apocalypse. I know James Murphy will still be making music in some regard, but LCD Soundsystem is a fantastic vehicle for his musical talent and wit. Say it ain't so, James!

2. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
This album is a little less dramatic in scope compared to Funeral and Neon Bible, at least from a musical standpoint. Win Butler's lyrical content is still grandiose, however, and at times, a bit overwrought. But we've come to expect that from him, now haven't we? I like the range of songs on this album, though, and they manage to pull it off without the album sounding too disjointed.

1. Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
Almost every band in my Top 10 from 2008 made an album this year. Four of them are on this list and the band with my favorite album of that year is the same as this year. Considering how different Deerhunter's 2008 release, Microcastle, is from their latest, it's pretty impressive (as impressive as getting the top spot twice on a blog no one reads can be, I suppose). Where Microcastle was a bit of a post-punk juggernaut, Halcyon Digest has many more pop moments and many of the songs have a more stripped down aesthetic. At this point, if Bradford Cox's next releases were an R&B album followed by a jazz-fusion number, and they were both great, I wouldn't even blink. Right now, he can do no wrong.


And that's that. Looking forward to revisiting this list in a few years to see how my picks held up. Much of what the new kids were doing this year just didn't grab me. We'll see if it hits me in 2011.

My Top 10 Songs of 2010

What was supposed to be a Top 5 has supersized itself into a Top 10. It's the American way, right?

10. "All to All" - Broken Social Scene
Easily the most beautiful song on a beautiful album. Vocals courtesy of not Feist, nor Emily Haines, but one Lisa Lobsinger, whose breathy delivery floats on a sea of bubbling synths.

9. "Infinity Guitars" - Sleigh Bells
I can't make it all the way through this album in one sitting, but damn, if this song didn't end up in a ton of my playlists in 2010. Shouty vocals, like some sort of punk rock cheer, hand claps and fuzzy distorted guitar. All turned up to 11, and then 13 for the final 40 seconds.

8. "Swim" - Surfer Blood
Not much cool music comes from Florida, but these young Sunshine Staters delivered a very solid album (Astro Coast) full of blistering reverb-heavy guitar rock. "Swim" treads in Blue Album Weezer territory without sounding like a rip-off.

7. "Crash Years" - New Pornographers
A gentle-yet-up-tempo pop song with strings and Neko Case's velvet pipes. What the hell else do you need? Nothing, that's what. Well, the coy little Smiths reference, "honey child you're not safe here" didn't hurt either.

6. "Answer to Yourself" - The Soft Pack
This straight-ahead garage jam is like a pep-talk in holey jeans and a threadbare t-shirt. It's sometimes tough to tell if the singer is talking to us or himself, but the sentiment is great and the rolling bass line and tight guitar licks almost will you to get off your ass and DO SOMETHING. San Diego, represent!

5. "Giving Up the Gun" - Vampire Weekend
VW's shimmering pop has gotten even shimmering-er on their second album, and no song illustrates this like "Giving Up the Gun." A bouncy beat buoyed by some well-placed synths tells the tale of an old war hero thinking about his past. The video, however, features famous people playing tennis. And it is fantastic.

4. "Airplanes" - Local Natives
Easily the most sentimental song in my list, a grandson lamenting not getting the chance to spend more time with his dead grandfather as he goes through some old photos and possessions. Sappy shit, to be sure. But the music sounds triumphant and frames the whole event as a celebration of life. I still can't help but picture many a young hipster playing the "I want you back" refrain into their phones after a fight with their girlfriend. Like I said, sappy shit.

3. "A More Perfect Union" - Titus Andronicus
Oh, Titus Andronicus, how you bring me back to my ramshackle (not really, but play along) punk rock past. This song makes me want to find the nearest circle pit (Chain Reaction, maybe?) and throw my skinny elbows around like it was 1999.

2. "Ambling Alp" - Yeasayer
No album made me dance around my house when the wife and kid weren't home this year more than Odd Blood. And the biggest reason was "Ambling Alp," a jam tailor made to make the indie kids test the elasticity of their skinny jeans. No sicko, because they're dancing. Get your mind out of the gutter. Want to keep the dance party going? Check out "ONE" as well.

1. "Angela Surf City" - The Walkmen
When The Walkmen recorded this song, they obviously had me in mind. And by "me" I guess I mean people who are suckers for the quiet-loud-quiet formula. Hot damn, when the drums speed up and signal the onslaught that is the song's perfect chorus, I pretty much lose my shit, metaphorically. I honestly never thought they could record a song I'd like more than "The Rat." Well, they did.


I was going to post YouTube clips of each, but decided against it to keep the post a reasonable length. Most can found in two previous posts here and here.

Tips to surviving a Zombie Apocalypse

It very well may just be a "guy thing*," but there are certain movies and TV series that, after watching, it is nearly impossible NOT to imagine yourself in similar circumstances. Cases in point: Red Dawn, Castaway, Alive. I rest my cases!

Let's take Red Dawn for instance. Any red-blooded American male who watched that movie and didn't imagine themselves fighting off Soviet and Cuban invaders guerrilla warfare-style should be put into a time machine and sent back to 1980s Russia, cuz youz a COMMUNIST!

On to the meat of this blog post. So, AMC has a series called The Walking Dead, which is about a zombie apocalypse, and also which is freaking fantastic. And which, YES NERDS**, is based on a comic book I never read because I'm not a "comic book kinda guy," whatever THAT is. I won't get into the particulars of the show, because you already watch it, RIGHT? Suffice it to say that zombies are fucking everywhere and they are hell bent on eating you, as zombies are wont to do.

A quick aside. I'm not really a horror movie, blood and guts and gore kinda guy. It's just not my thing. That said, I've had a soft spot for zombies ever since I saw The Return of the Living Dead and Night of the Comet as a tween.

OK, back to the matter at hand - surviving a zombie apocalypse. Watching The Walking Dead has given me some REAL insight when it comes to tips to staying alive while the world is crawling with flesh-eating zombies. Here are my suggestions:

Homeward bound

It's dark now as I make my way out of the building after work and head to my vehicle. I don't mind the cooler weather fall brings, but the early nightfall, I could do without. Another nondescript day of work like so many before it, gone by the wayside. Another day, another dollar, they say.

I hop into the driver's seat of my metal and plastic mode of transport after throwing my laptop case in the back seat. I have my iPod, but decide to see what the talking heads of drive-time AM sports talk have in store for me first. What else - NFL talk. The NFL dominates the sports landscape during its off season, so it's no surprise the topic of conversation 24-hours-a-day while games are actually being played.

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all

Why this clip? Just watch.

Arcade Fire "The Suburbs" Video

Spike Jonze-directed video for the title track from the newest Arcade Fire album. I don't post videos just for the sake of posting videos, but this is pretty good. And a bit unsettling.

It's not you, it's me (well, maybe it's you)

Our relationships with bands isn't too dissimilar to our relationships with people. Some are built to last. Some start out great and then fade over time. Some just weren't meant to be. Sometimes it's the band's fault. Other times, it's the listener who's to blame. And sometimes, it's no ones fault - listeners and bands simply grow apart.

This, of course, happens on a monthly basis when you're a teenager. One week it's hip-hop, the next it's classic rock, the next you meet a cute goth chick who works at Starbucks and you're all about Bauhaus and eyeliner. You get the point. Sure, everyone's musical palette refines at a different rate, but I'd guess for most, by the time you hit your mid-to-late twenties, you have a pretty good grasp of the music you will probably listen to till you either can't hear anymore or you die (just pictured myself listening to Fugazi as a 90-year-old).

So, with this in mind, here are a few bands I've more or less broken up with over the last few years, along with a brief history of the torrid affair. Scandalous!

The forgotten song

Look, people, I'm getting old. I forget things. My back gets sore for seemingly no reason. I change into sweat pants or pajama bottoms the minute I get home from work. It takes every ounce of restraint for me to not yell at the neighborhood kids when whatever "game" they're playing spills onto my lawn. Anyway, let's get back to me "forgetting things" before I forget the point of this post. I forgot about a song. Not just any song, mind you. A song I would consider in my top 15 or 20 songs of ALL TIME.

"How could that happen?," you might ask.

Well, I'll tell you as soon as I finish this Werther's Original.

Mmmm, tasty. OK, so my iPod crashed maybe two years ago. I had recently moved, so my CDs (see, old) were all boxed up and the computer that had since served to house all my mp3s (whatever those are) was no longer functioning. No biggy. My Bridge partner, Terry, had nearly everything that was on my iPod on an external hard drive. Problem solved! Now, let's go to Hometown Buffet, it's nearly 6:30.

Flash forward to last week. I'm sitting where I am now, at my desk at work, and I'm not quite sure how, but something triggers this forgotten song. It's a Pixies song. I know it's a song on Bossanova, but it's not the version that's on Bossanova. So I fire up the old Google machine and within seconds, my memory sufficiently jogged, I remember the song is the Pixies At The BBC version of "Is She Weird."

The Pixies are one of my favorite bands. EVER. Top five as of right now and that ain't changing anytime soon (I'm set in my ways, just like any self respecting old person). So why the fuck wasn't this song on my iPod? Well, my Bridge partner and I share many musical interests. The Pixies aren't one of them. So when I restocked my iPod with all his digital goodies, the Pixies were left out in the cold. And as of me typing this, I still only have Surfer Rosa on the iPod because I'm lazy and don't want to find the box that has all my Pixies CDs.

Total sob story, huh? I need another Werther's.

"Island 5" Albums

This is a well-worn subject. The old "you're stranded on a desert island and you can only have five movies/albums/etc..." We've all played it, numerous times, for sure. So why not again?

The impetus for this post was reading this on the NPR Music blog. The writer, Robin Hilton, made some interesting points while revisiting his own "Island 5" from a few years ago. Namely, it would be easy to just list your five favorite records, but what if a few of them are really similar in tone, mood, tempo, etc.? As much as you may love them, having virtually the same sounding album may not be the best choice when you're "stuck" with just five. One must choose wisely and account for differing moods and states of mind. I'm not sure if I did that or not. Essentially, I picked an album from each of my five favorite bands, and I did cheat and pick a compilation (gasp!) for one of them.

Here are my "Island 5" albums:
The Clash - London Calling
The Smiths - The Smiths
Fugazi - The Argument
Radiohead - Kid A
Pixies - Death to the Pixies

Before cheating with my Pixies compilation, I had The Thermals album The Body, The Blood, The Machine on the list. I needed an up-tempo rocker as my picks were decidedly mid-tempo. I tried to settle on just one Pixies album, and I couldn't. So I copped out and picked a compilation. Sue me, I'm stuck on a freaking desert island for chrissakes!

But wait! I do have an original caveat to add to this VERY ripped off post. From your five albums, pick the song you want playing when you're being rescued. Picture this: You board the rescue boat, weak from a diet of coconut and shellfish. You're handed a bottle of water and you immediately begin guzzling, so fast you nearly choke. You're lips are dry and chapped, you're face is weathered and sun burnt. The boat takes off and you're in the back, looking at the island you called home for a few months slowly disappear from sight. You're saved. What song from your list of five albums is playing?

Mine: "How to Disappear Completely" from Kid A. It's actually an insanely prefect song for the occasion. The mood, the lyrics, the title - EVERYTHING. Oh, my rescue would be magnificent with this song playing in the background.


So, go ahead and list your five albums in the comments along with your rescue track.

You should read this

Not this. This post on the Aquarium Drunkard blog. Read it if you're looking for something good to read. Or even if you're not.

Conan to the rescue?

After nine months away from the medium that made him famous, Conan is back. Back doing an opening monologue, back interviewing celebrities with something to promote, back introducing musical guests that hopefully fall more in line with those on his old Late Night show and not from his short stint on the Tonight Show. Yes, Conan is back. Doing the normal things late night talk show hosts do. Were you expecting more?

I wasn't, but I'd bet there were more than a few Conanites who were expecting a glorious return to television whereby he would use his new platform on basic cable to revolutionize the stale genre, or at the very least, spruce it up a bit. Two shows in, and it's pretty much business as usual. And that's just fine by me. The genre of late night TV may be old and stale, but as of now, it still sorta works. People want to hear jokes about the news of the day, and watch celebrities get interviewed, and watch bands play their newest singles. Like any show, it's not always gonna be good. Monologue jokes will miss, celebrities will phone in their interviews and Kings of Leon will occasionally be booked. It happens. But having Conan back to laugh it all off while laughing at himself, and in turn, giving us something to laugh at, is a good thing.

Monday's show was a bit predictable. Cold open. Jokes about NBC. More jokes about NBC. Jack White. It was good, familiar. Last night was better. Conan's visit to the TBS Standards and Practices guy was hilarious and I don't remember a single joke about NBC or Jay Leno. Which is good. He's really beaten that horse to death already, no? He had an entire comedy tour with jokes and songs based solely on that, and he joined Twitter (thankfully) and he's done some bits for the web. It should be out of his system. And he doesn't need it. He's too smart and too funny to keep going to that well (which, let's be honest, dried up before the summer). Now I'm sure guests will bring it up now and then and a stray monologue shot may be fired, but as I said above, hopefully those are few and far between.

So, welcome back Conan! It's good to have you back, goofing around on TV. Just don't book Kings of Leon all that often, huh?

Here's last night's bit with the TBS censor. Classic Conan.

More song of the year finalists

Here are a few more songs in consideration for what will ultimately be a Top 5 list of my favorite songs of 2010. More to follow, most likely.

Gateway music (in a good way)

I made a lot of questionable music choices in the mid-to-late 90s. Southern California was awash in 2nd generation punk, or melodic punk as I've heard it called, and I was all about it. ALL. ABOUT. IT. I bought the CDs, wore the t-shirts, attended the shows (multiple Warped Tours!). Punk was definitely not dead as far as this skinny little white boy was concerned, and I cruised around greater Orange County in my Mazda pickup, windows down, detachable face Pioneer stereo cranked up to offensive decibel levels to prove it.

But questionable music choices or not, I regret nothing. For while my foray into the punk scene may have introduced me to the less-than-stellar Unwritten Law, Strung Out and Guttermouth (among many, many, others), it also introduced me to The Clash, The Buzzcocks, Stiff Little Fingers, Descendents, The Stooges, Black Flag, Minor Threat, Bad Brains and The Jam. Just to name a few. All seminal bands in their own right that transcend any genre or "scene" - bands that have stuck with me and still grace my iPod today.

As for all the shitty bands along the way - I'd like to think I helped put some of their kids through college, because I bought an obscene amount of CDs back then. I'll probably get rid of them someday, but for now, they're still a reminder of a fun period of my life. And a little NOFX every now and then never hurt anyone.

Musical regrets

My friend Vicki, whose blog you should peruse if you're the video game-playing type, mentioned in a tweet and on said blog that she laments not seeing At The Drive-In live before the band famously imploded.

I, on the other hand, did.

But really, that's beside the point. This isn't to rub it in (more than I already have) that I saw one of the best live acts of the early aughts and she didn't*. Hell, she was just a teenager and I was in my concert-attending prime. The point is, reading her mentions of ATDI got me listening to some of their stuff again and searching for some live clips of the band. The below clip, which I remember taping to VHS, shows ATDI not long before the aforementioned implosion, but still in face-melting form.

So watch as At The Drive-In blows the roof off the Ed Sullivan Theater and the toupee off Letterman's dome. This one's for you, Vicki.





*My big musical regret: Not seeing Elliott Smith before it was too late. Especially a show he did at Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa.

Some song of the year finalists

I've done a year end list of my favorite albums released in that calendar year ever since I started this blog in 2006. In fact, I think it's the sole reason I started it, other than to pick up chicks ("that's right, I'm a blogger baby"). It's kind of a big deal (to me). I think this year I may just start a new tradition and also put a little list together of my favorite songs from that year as well. Thinking just a Top 5. Over the next few weeks I'll post some YouTube clips of those tracks, and I welcome some suggestions in the comments. Here's a few to start:














I'll be posting more as they come to me. Suggestions, please!

Pixies on Dennis Miller Live

I posted links to these amazing clips to my tens of Twitter followers. This is probably a better venue as it seems 40 or so people stumble across here on some days, and these clips need to be shared.

Yes, after Dennis Miller was on SNL but BEFORE he bombed in the Monday Night Football box and then became a shill for the Republican Party, he had a horrible talk show. But, he had the Pixies on, not once, but twice! In consecutive days. Credit where credit is due, I guess. Enjoy these Trompe le Monde era performances.

Storytellers

I think VH1 has (had?) a Storytellers series where musicians who tell stories in their songs do an "unplugged" kinda thing. Either that, or they just get famous musicians to talk about their famous songs and then play them? I don't know, never seen the show. POINT IS, I wanted write a blog post about some of my favorite current songwriters who are adroit (total crossword word) at crafting narratives in their songs that take the listener places and introduce them to characters all the while telling a story. Now writing a decent song is tough enough, but telling an actual story during a song? SKILLZ, right?

Here are a few of my faves (in alpha, cuz that's how I (sc)roll):

Belle & Sebastian
Stuart Murdoch's songs don't usually have a beginning, a middle and an end, it's not really his thing. His thing is introducing characters and bringing those characters to vivid life. These snapshots into the lives of loners, losers and lovers often involve seemingly mundane details that just add to the context. Tell me you don't have a visual in your brain of what the Major, Judy, Sukie and Lord Anthony look like. Of course you do (unless you're a cyborg. Are you a cyborg?).




Blitzen Trapper
I'm not gonna profess to be some kind of Blitzen Trapper super fan, but I do like the band and I especially like their 2008 album Furr and even more especially, that album's title track. It's not a stretch at this point to call it one of my favorite songs of all time. Black River Killer is a really good song that tells a (dark) story as well.




The Decemberists
Colin Meloy and co. have put together back-to-back albums with a cohesive, solid narrative running though them, but that's not why they make this list. Nope, they make it on the strength of their first three albums (and EPs and such) that had individual songs that read like Dickens novels. Tough to pick just one song here, but I'll go with this one:




Flaming Lips
The weirdos from Oklahoma make it based on one outstanding concept album - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. I don't know what they were on when they thought of the concept or wrote the music, but I bet it was fantastic.




The Hold Steady
Craig Finn paints vivid pictures of Midwestern youthful exuberance and isolation. His characters come to life in the span of four-minute rock songs as his sing-speak style tells their stories, often revolving around, what else - sex, drugs and rock 'n roll.




Jens Lekman
Jens' tales come off so damn charming, it's sickening. He uses really plain language, nothing too flowery or descriptive, and then mixes in tiny specifics to bring his characters and stories to life. Here's one of my faves.



So there's a few my favorite bands/songwriters who can spin a yarn within the confines of a song/album. There are numerous rap/hip-hop artists that are really good at this as well, but I'll let Terry school us all on those in the comments.

Meet me at the cemetery gates

The following is a (very) rough timeline of my trip to L.A. with Terry to see Belle and Sebastian at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery on October 5, 2010.

9:30 am: Leave my house and head to Terry's to pick him up. Was almost certain I didn't forget anything important. Like the tickets. I didn't.

10:30 am: Leave Terry's house in Costa Mesa. Head toward L.A. We usually take his Scion X-box when we head into L.A., but I drive this time. I don't mind - the X-box isn't the most comfortable ride.

11:20 am: Arrive at the cemetery and after doing a quick drive through the grounds, decide to look for a place to eat on the cheap. No one is lined up outside. Skies are gray, but no rain.

12:00 pm: Decide on Carl's Jr even though Terry had his heart set on a Taco Bell 5-buck box. More like a 5-trips-to-the-toilet box, right?

12:30 pm: Almost hit a homeless dude who appeared to be at least mostly blind. It would have been mostly his fault.

12:45 pm: Arrive back at the cemetery. Score a primo parking place right across the street. Surprising, given it's only 6 hours till the event starts, right? Decide to kill time by walking around the cemetery. No one is lined up outside.

1:00 pm: Take a half dozen or so pics of Johnny Ramone's grave/monument thingy. Pay tribute. Take a leak in a port-a-jon set up for the event. It's pristine. See above line on the parking spot for reason.

1:15 pm: Randomly find Jayne Mansfield's grave stone. Terry takes a pic.

1:25 pm: Walk up to this huge mausoleum that is in the middle of a pond, accessible only by a single bridge. Debate which came first - the pond, or the mausoleum.

1:32 pm: See a smaller mausoleum marked Swayze. It is not Patrick's.

1:40 pm: See a group of people walking from the general area of where the stage is set up. Terry thinks it's the band, I do not. It wasn't.

1:50 pm: After wandering around the cemetery a little more looking for (and not finding) the graves of more famous people, we decide it's probably time to take our (rightful)spot at the front of the line.

2:00 pm: Head out front only to find a guy and girl on a blanket waiting. Resign ourselves to being second in line. Terry jokes with them that that's not where the line starts. They're mildly amused.

2:05 pm: After retrieving our chairs, blankets and other supplies from the car, get in line behind the aforementioned guy and girl. They seem nice enough.

2:10 pm: Text Vicki telling her to bring beer.

2:45 pm: Cemetery grounds crew puts up a makeshift snaking line using wood stakes and police tape.

2:55 pm: Text Vicki reminding her to bring beer.

3:20 pm: A pair of foreign dudes (French, maybe) get in line behind us. One appears to have a bag filled with records, I assume are B&S records he wants to get signed by the band.

3:25 pm: Terry gets up to go take a leak. I text Vicki about her ETA and remind her again to bring beer.

3:35 pm: The first of what will be roughly 20 people get in line with the guy and girl in front of us.

3:45 pm: I make a run to Subway to get Terry and I sandwiches. Terry goes for the black forest ham, I opt for the cold cut combo after being informed the spicy Italian isn't a $5 foot long.

3:55 pm: Pop into a little Hispanic market on the walk back from Subway to see if they have beer. They don't. I text Vicki reminding her to bring beer.

4:00 pm: Arrive back at the cemetery to find a few more guys with thick rimmed glasses and girls with stylish overcoats in line. The group in front of us now numbers 5.

4:45 pm: Ryan arrives carrying a bag of supplies and what turns out to be a portable table. He had to take the bus and the Trader Joe's bag he's been carrying has dyed his arm a wonderful shade of blue.

5:00 pm: I text Vicki to find out her (and my beer's) whereabouts. It starts sprinkling. The group in front of us has swelled to 8. The line of people behind us has just snaked back to where we are. More guys with thick rimmed glasses and girls with stylish overcoats.

5:15 pm: Sprinkles turn to rain drops. Hood of my waterproof shell in full effect. Ryan has no jacket, but does have an umbrella. We cover our stuff the best we can.

5:20 pm: Spot Stuart from the band entering the venue in a black Audi. Someone in front of us says "hi Stuart!" He politely says "hi" back.

5:30 pm: Rain stops completely. Not a drop the rest of the night. Text Vicki reminding her to bring beer. Group in front of us now in double figures. Almost feels like there's more people in front of us than behind.

6:04 pm: Gates open. To mine and Terry's surprise, no one says a word about the chairs we carry in.

6:20 pm: Find a nice spot 25 feet or so from the stage and set up camp. Blankets are unfurled, chairs set up, Ryan's fancy table erected. Ryan has wine. And a candle for the table. I still have no beer.

6:30 pm: I head to the merch table to check out the t-shirts. I settle on a navy blue number, size medium. The girl working the table had a cute Scottish accent and she said "cheers" after I bought the shirt. I think to myself all merch table workers should have Scottish accents. Seems reasonable.

6:45 pm: We are now surrounded by a sea of guys in thick rimmed glasses and girls in stylish overcoats and their blankets and tarps. Many have bread, cheese and wine. I still have no beer.

7:20 pm: Movie (Trainspotting) starts.

7:40 pm: Ryan goes to get some of his friends.

8:15 pm: Vicki arrives. So does my beer.

9:00 pm: Movie ends. Forgot how good it was. Everyone begins condensing their "camps" in preparation for the band. I stash our chairs, blankets and my leftover food behind a tree.

9:40 pm: Belle and Sebastian take the stage and open (appropriately) with Sukie in the Graveyard.

9:55 pm: Nadia arrives, bummed she missed "Sukie."

11:00 pm: Band's set comes to an end after a single encore. Great show. My lower back is sore from standing for 2 hours.

11:30 pm: Drive Vicki and Nadia to Vicki's car a few blocks away. Nadia leaves her umbrella in my car.

12:20 am: Arrive at Terry's house. Drop him off. It's pouring rain.

12:45 am: Arrive home.

1:00 am: Fall asleep dreaming of horses. Even though they didn't play it. WTF?

The hole-in-one conundrum

I was playing golf the other day around dusk, as I do whenever the old ball-and-chain lets me out of the house on a weekday evening. That's not true - I don't always play golf (ZING! Just kidding, hon). Anyways, it's a perfect night. Nice and warm. No one behind me on the course. A few cold beers in the bag. And after a few skanky shots, I even started hitting the ball decent. So I get to Hole 7, a longish par-3 over water. Tough hole. As is very often the case when I get to this hole, the sun is now very low in the sky and Hole-7 faces due West.

After surveying the situation - blocking out the sun with my hand to see the hole location, picking out a spot between my ball and my target for alignment, and taking the final swig from beer number two, I make a passable swing with my 4-iron, sending the ball in the general direction of the green, 190-yards or so away. Or at least, that what it feels like. Once the ball leaves the club face, I do my best to battle the glare of the sun to try and track it. No dice. The orange fireball in the sky wins yet again and I look down and left to see if my ball will end up like so many before it - at the bottom of the lake. A few seconds pass and the lake remains ripple-free. My ball is on dry land, at least.

As I make the walk toward the green along the edge of the lake, scooping out balls others were too lazy to retrieve (we're in a recession, people!), I scan the area ahead for my ball. Nothing. I head for the bunker right of the green where I'd guess roughly 30% of the balls I've hit to this hole have ended up. Nothing. Quick searches of the long bunker that borders the left side of the green and the devilish little pot bunker in the back both fail to reveal my Titleist 2. Huh? I scan the rough around the green more closely, even walking up the slope to the cart path for a bit of a bird's eye view. Still no ball.

I walk back down to the green and the flag stick catches my eye. "No way," I think to myself. First off, I didn't strike the ball all that solidly - kind of toed it, and second, "there's no effing way that ball went in the hole." Still, I've looked all over and haven't found it. Maybe it was the recipient of a few fortuitous bounces and maybe, just maybe, it found it's way to the bottom of the cup.

This wasn't the first time this has happened to me, and I'm fairly certain it's happened to almost everyone who has played the game for any number of years. To that point, I'd never sauntered up to the hole and looked in, only to have my ball sitting there looking back at me. Well, it didn't happen this day either. Turns out my ball was fifteen yards or so back in a thick spot of rough. A hack out, a decent bunker shot and two putts later, and my would-be one was now a double-bogey five. Ouch.

After taking out my frustration over the double out on the next tee shot (not really, but I did stripe one down the middle), I got to thinking, what if that ball did find its way into the hole, for my first ever hole-in-one? My first thought was that it would kinda suck, really. Here I am, playing by myself with only some birds and rabbits to witness this great achievement. No one to high-five, no one to ooh and aah over the feat, no one to call me a lucky bastard and no one to buy beers for afterward. No one to relive the moment with a year or two, or ten down the road.

Also, I'd always imagined when I finally got my first ace, it would be a perfectly struck shot, just flushed. I would hold my finish and track the flight of the ball as it homed in on the stick like it was being sucked into a black hole. Then cue the aforementioned high-fiving, oohing and aahing, etc. This would have been the exact opposite of that. The shot was toed, a low duck hook that started right before eventually divebombing left. Just an ugly golf shot. Add that to the fact that the sun pretty much would have rendered me blind had I tried to track its flight, and it would have pretty much sucked all the way around.

I still would have busted out my cell phone then and there and called pretty much everyone in my contacts list. But deep down, I’d have been a little pissed if my first hole-in-one happened that way. Now, the second, or third, or fourth…

Driving Sucks

So I pull up to a red light the other day and both lanes are occupied by a single car. There's no one immediately behind me in either lane, so I get the option of pulling behind either car. This is, of course, a huge decision. Get behind a slow-ass driver and you kiss like 20-30 seconds of valuable time goodbye. In lane 1 we have a suped up Honda - spoiler, exhaust, all the douchey accessories. Lane 2 is a newer model minivan. I pull up behind the minivan banking on the fact that the soccer mom at the wheel will drive like the rest of SoCal's soccer mom population - like a bat out of fucking hell. The light finally turns green, and the minivan, as I'd hoped, takes off like it was in a drag race. As I pass the Honda, still sitting at the intersection, I see the teenage driver messing with his phone. This almost always works out for me.

When faced with a tougher choice, like between a small SUV and a luxury car or something, I always fuck up and get behind the asshole who accelerates like he has a non-covered cup of coffee in his cupholder. This asshat usually likes to keep it 5 MPH under the posted limit too.

God, I hate driving.

Underrated vs. Underappreciated

While driving home from work yesterday, my iPod all ashuffle, The Jam's "Away From The Numbers" popped up and graced my short drive with a little mod-rockin' goodness. As is usually the case when I hear a Jam song, I thought, "you really need to listen to more Jam" (since remedied). I also thought, "wow, these guys are underrated." A few miles further North on I-5 I reconsidered my "underrated" tag for The Jam and opted instead for "underappreciated."

This may be nothing more than semantics, but I think it's easy for people to throw around the underrated tag when often it's just not the case. I'd bet most people familiar with The Jam's stuff consider them a fairly seminal late 70's - early 80's act. They were a band that achieved much more notoriety in the UK than here in the States, and they often get lumped in with the British punk bands of the time. While this isn't egregiously off the mark, it also sells the band short a bit. Their mod-rock revival sound bridged the gap between the punk acts and the new wave acts that were beginning to pick up steam. In a sense, The Jam were in no-man's land. Too musical and melodic to be punk, too subversive and angsty to be new wave. Classifications aside, though, they were a great band and today, perhaps a little underlistened to and underappreciated.

A few more underappreciated bands:
Television
The Damned
Fugazi

And some bands I feel are truly underrated:
Built to Spill
Buzzcocks
Descendents
The Replacements
Stiff Little Fingers

Apparently, I don't think 70's and 80's punk gets its due. What are your underrated and underappreciated acts?

Album Review: Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - The Brutalist Bricks

I root for Ted Leo. Perhaps more than any other artist today, I want his albums to be good. And I'm not sure I can really explain why. He seems like a pretty cool dude and all, but I think it has to do with the type of music he makes. Call it power pop, call it pop-punk, whatever. I like to think of it as power pop with a purpose, and there aren't many artists out there who do it any better.

Quick story. A buddy and I went to see him during the Hearts of Oak tour. We'll call the buddy Gary, since that's his name. There are two things I remember from that show: 1.) Gary and I were having some beers across the street from the venue, since the Glass House serves no booze, and these dudes who were there to see the show too came up and asked us if we were "in the band." Not sure which band they were referring to, since there were a few playing that night, but we got a kick out of that. And 2.) the show was relegated to this smaller side room on the other side of the venue's main room because so few tickets were sold. I'd say there were probably less than 50 of us there that night. But the way Ted Leo and his band played, you'd have guessed there were 5,000 kids packed into that smelly, sweaty, cramped back room. Also, there was a tambourine that was passed around for the audience to play during the set. I guess that's three things.

Now, on to the new album, The Brutalist Bricks. I'm going to go song-by-song and give my impression of each while listening to them. This should be fun-ish.

1.) The Mighty Sparrow
Strong, strong opener. Vocals right off the bat and a nice sense of urgency. I like the subtle tempo changes. The song cools off and then heats back up quickly. Watch out for the false stop - don't be that gut at the show that claps before the song is really over. I hate that guy. I've been that guy. Sadly.

2.) Mourning in America
A fuzz-rocker of a song with subtle electro flourishes. It settles into a pretty straight-forward rocker after that though, revisiting the fuzzy guitar every so often. A nice second track.

3.) Ativan Eyes
Power guitar opening, then becomes kind of an anthemic sing-along kinda track. New territory here for Mr. Leo, but doesn't sound out of place. Could see this as a single and also in a TV ad real soon.

4.) Even Heroes Have to Die
A typical Ted Leo folk-rocker. Oh-oh's galore. Nice acoustic feel to this song without departing too far from overall feel of the album.

5.) The Stick
Churning power chords...definite punk/hardcore feel. Short and sweet with a bit of a change up toward the middle. Shouty vocals. Very different from the last track. I like, though.

6.) Bottled in Cork
Right in with the vocals on this one as well. A bit of a cacophonous start and then mellows out into a bit of a strummer. Like two songs in one. Wow, this tune is ALL over the place. As wildly as it starts, it ends just as quietly. Strange song - not my fave.

7.) Woke Up Near Chelsea
Piano at the start and then drums and urgent vocals. Then, the RAWK. I've listened to this album a half a dozen times or so, and it hasn't really dawned on me how much it rocks. Consider this guy dawned on. "We are born of despair" indeed. Great song.

8.) One Polaroid a Day
A little mellow/chiller song after a few rockers in a row. Almost, dare I say, soulful. Kind of a funky yet muted riff and a nice bubbling baseline. Soothing backing vocals. A big detour as far as the album's flow is concerned.

9.) Where Was My Brain
A little Fugazi feedback to start. Straight punk tune here it seems. Classic guitar solo. This is like the punk version of the Pixies' "Where is My Mind." Mr. Leo really left the "pop" out of the pop-punk equation on many of these songs.

10.) Bartomelo and the Buzzing of Bees
Well, there is a bee on the album's cover. Starts with a rumbling baseline then the song proper kicks in. Here's the "pop" I said was missing. Sort of your classic Ted Leo tune here.

11.) Tuberculoids Arrive in Hop
Very strange song here people. Acoustic strumming with a little alt-country thing going on. Then, falsetto. Dark would be a good word to describe this song. Big time departure.

12.) Gimme The Wire
Back to some frenetic pop-punk. This song wouldn't sound out of place on any Ted Leo album, yet it almost does here, given the rest of it. Odd breakdown in the middle and then back to the main riff. Good song.

13.) Last Days
Fuzzy guitar licks to open...jangling percussion. Then turns into another classic Leo tune. Reminiscent of some of the stuff on Tyranny of Distance. If you weren't keeping track, you'd still kind of know this was the closer, which isn't a bad thing.

And that's that. Not a real cohesive collection of songs, but everything here is either good or real good. A few are just OK and there are some head-scratching moments, but nothing egregious. A return to form, I say!

My recommendation: Procure this album immediately.